Keel installation

Today the keel started to go on.   I squared up the keel notches in the frames, and cut, planed and spliced the 17 foot long keel board.   Since Oak is such a hard wood, I roughed up the contact surfaces so they would hold the epoxy better.   The frames got roughed up with a rasp and the keel got roughed up with 60 grit sandpaper.   After that I painted on a thin layer of unthickened epoxy so it would soak into the pores a bit and take hold of the wood.   Following that I mixed a batch of thickened epoxy to actually do the gluing.   After the first layer of the keel was clamped into place I sank 2" #12  305 stainless steel wood screws, (super beastly and thick), cleaned up the squeezed out epoxy and then painted on another thin layer of non-thickened epoxy just to mix everything together nicely.   Tons of overkill here, but I won't have to worry about the keel coming off! The next step will be creating the stem.   This will be 3 layers of 3/4" marine plywood cut to shape and glued together.