The keel is set in place and it now looks like a boat is actually being built in the shop!We started by setting up a straight, level centerline on a series of boards that will run beneath the boat.
We'll use these boards to provide a reference surface as we build the boat. We'll use them to center the keel, to give us accurate fore and aft reference marks, and to give us an accurate means of establishing the heights of the backbone above the floor.
And then, it was time to set up the keel on the wedge-shaped platform we'd built earlier.
Boy, it looks easy, doesn't it? Just put the keel on the wedge, center it, and you're done. It ended up taking a lot longer than one would expect, but the stakes are high at this point. After all, this is the foundation of the entire project. We took extra time to make sure that the keel was exactly on the centerline, that the angle upwards was exactly the right angle, and that the station marks on the keel corresponded exactly with the marks directly below it on the centerline board. After quite a few hours of fussing, measuring and checking, we screwed the wedge to the floor and clamped the keel to the wedge. We'll fasten it to the wedge with screws soon, but for now we need to be able to take it off the wedge to install some floor bolts.
And then it was right back to work on the next phase.
We have a few tasks that all happen simultaneously. We're getting the floors attached to the keel, we're attaching the stern knee, and we're cutting sockets for the frame ends.
Let's start with the sockets. Here are the frame ends on Jill, another Olin Stephens 6 meter boat.
The frames have been cut (and some are broken) just above the floor timbers, but you can see how they follow the curve of the floors and are fastened to the floors with bolts. Each frame is socketed into the keel and attached directly to the keel with a screw.
These sockets are a little tricky to cut. You want a snug fit, but not so tight that a hot, flexible, steamed frame can't be pushed into it at framing time. The socket needs to be at the proper angle so that the frame follows the curve of the hull, but ends up directly above the socket at the top of the hull (i.e., at the sheer). Like so many things in this business, it looks easier than it actually is.
So, here come the sockets.
We use pieces of oak cut to the size of the frames to work out the angles and the fit of each pocket. Here's a test piece in action!
Stunning action shot there.
Bud McIntosh is an excellent writer, and his book "How to Build a Wooden Boat" is normally wonderful, but his description of how to lay out these sockets fried dozens of our brain cells. Luckily, we had some left over to work out a way of doing these that yields excellent results.
At the aft end of the keel, Karl has been working on the stern knee.
The stern knee ties the stern post to the keel. It's big, it's sturdy, and it has to be exactly right or else the stern post will not sit at the proper angle.
You can see that we've cut a hole in the floor to allow the stern post to go below floor level. You see, the wedge that supports the keel is the exact angle as the ballast, but it's not as tall as the ballast.
If you have a mind like a steel trap you may recall that in the original plans, the sternpost ended at base of the keel. Here's a picture to refresh your memory. The stern post is dark blue, just to the right of the rudder.
In the original plans, the ballast extended down below the stern post and the rudder hooked into it at the base, where it's shaded black. We decided that it was stronger for the stern post to extend down to the base of the rudder. That way, the stern post could attach to the ballast with a long bolt, a substantial connection. The rudder would attach to the wooden stern post instead of the lead keel. That's not a huge deal, but it means less shaping lead (never a fun task, and a potentially hazardous one).
So, back to the wedge. If we made a wedge that was exactly the same height as the ballast, the whole boat would be about a foot higher off the floor than it is now. This wouldn't be a problem in many boat shops, but the ceiling at the museum is low near the aft end of the boat. Dropping the whole boat into the floor a bit gives us some more headroom when we're working on the aft section, and on the deck in particular.
Abraham, one of our newest shipwrights, has been working on drilling the holes for the floors and setting them up along the keel. Here is one that is being set on the stern knee.
You can see all the holes he's been drilling for the other floors here.
The bolts for these floors come up through the bottom of the keel. These floors happen to be above the wedge, so you can see how we'd need to remove the keel to install these floors. Once they're all bolted down, we can put the keel back on the wedge with something more permanent and sturdy than some clamps. Naturally, we'll have made a ton of reference marks on the keel and wedge so that we can position the keel in exactly the same spot as before when we replace it.
And one last shot of the hubbub of activity around the keel these days.
Of course, installing all these floors means making a lot of bolts. You saw David making the heads of the fin neck bolts earlier. Here's Abraham threading them.
It's almost exactly as fun as it looks.
Who needs to go to the gym??