Square Meter: End game

The last few projects I am involved in on the square meter involved finishing the non skid, another coat of varnish and a bit more rudder fairing.
My family and I have an opportunity to move to the sounds of North Carolina.  The owners have a rigger lined up to take over the project and will do some of the finish carpentry themselves.
Here are the last of my photos of this beautiful boat...

The new dynel non-skid got a light sanding and a coat of almond paint.
(it looks blue here next to our tarp at the end of the barn.)

The first coat of varnish will get a sanding an many additional coats.

Square Meter: Keel Ho !

After a good deal of prep-work, we have bolted and bonded the lead keel to the 1929 square meter class racing sloop.
The new 316 stainless bolts we installed in the lead casting lined up well with the receiving holes on the keel timber.  They just required a little coaxing as we lowered the hull onto the stationary lead.

The boat is suspended in the barn from 4 points.  We were using cable come-alongs which operate with a ratchet handle.  The boat's owner, Bruce, had a chain-fall hoist.  I had never used one.  They are fantastic!  They are small and are easy to use.  They also allow great control over the load.  This helped with the delicate operation of setting the hull onto the bolts.

Once I discovered how useful they were, I replaced all the come-alongs with chain-falls.
After we did a dry run of setting the hull down, we marked and ground out a few obstructions on the lead mating surface.

Once we were all set, 3M 5200 was liberally applied and the process began.  Here are photos...

The lead keel seen here weighs about 2000 pounds.

Chain-falls are awesome!

Off to scrap.

The mating surface is cleaned up and ready to go.

3M 5200 at the ready.

The holes in the keel timber had some wallow, so the hole was backfilled with 5200 and a 316 stainless  fender washer was added to tighten up the clearance to prevent any water intrusion.

Ready to lower.

Captain Bruce is happy about this step.  The wedge is to help with vertical alignment.

That is a load off!

Square Meter: Back at it.

After a brief hiatus, we are back on the square meter job.

We eat our wheaties for this project.  We needed to drag the lead keel across the barn, position it under the the suspended boat, spin it around and then hoist it off the ground.

While we used cable come-alongs, this was exhausting.  Now the lead is in the correct orientation and we are able to verify the alignment on the keel bolts.  We have begun drilling the bolt holes.  New 316 stainless bolts have been ordered from Marsh Fasteners.

Once these arrive, we will install them and begin the final lift to the mating surface of the keel timber.

The starboard side planking is not installed yet.  This will facilitate the keel installation.

Here are some photos...

      

A chain attached to the the barn's superstructure allows us
to lift the keel lead close to position through the opening in the hull framing.

Rebuilding the Square Meter: fitting the keel timber

We took the keel home to our shop to do a little work on it.
We laminated on an additional 1 x.  This will strengthen it and enlarge the rabbet.  This will help when it comes time to plank.

After the epoxy set up, it was back to the barn to fit it.  The framing tails were built a little long so we snapped a line and cut them.

Once the keel was set in position, it allowed us to fit in blocking for the keel bolts.  These blocks raise the bolt head up a bit in the bilge. They also are cut with a bevel to provide a flat level surface for the bolt nut.  Additionally they provide a little more beef to hang the lead keel on.

Here are photos with descriptions.

Here is the keel with the additional lamination of oak.
It is 5.5 inches wide at it widest point and about 3.75 inches thick.

This is the stern end.  The rabbet is now about 1.5 inches wide.  The funny looking ends will be whittled in place.

We used thickened epoxy with hardwood pegs for all the laminations.

The is the underside.  It will receive the lead keel.

The frames are beveled to fit the keel.  Blocks are added for support for the keel bolts.
The keel will be through bolted to the frames and the lead ballast will be through bolted
to these blocks.

When the keel bolts are installed, this will suck up nice and tight.

The bottom end is taking shape.

Rebuilding the Square Meter: fitting in the new frames

Today we did the fine sanding to get the new oak frames to fit well into their spots.  By fine sanding I mean 36 grit on a angle grinder.  It takes off the wood quickly and provides a nice abraded surface for bonding.

Once the frames fit well, we roughed up the mating surface of the hull, mixed up epoxy and thickened it with colloidal silica.  At a later date we will add bronze fasteners through the planking.

The frames are bonded in and on the next visit, we will refit the keel timber.  Once we like the fit, we will use a ship auger to drill out the frames and timber for stainless steel through bolts.

Rebuilding the Square Meter: Hull framing

We are fitting in new oak frames to replace the rotted out bottom of this 1929 Swedish Skarrie.
Using some drawing paper sheets, we are making templates for each location.  Since the bottom of the hull is open, we are able to press in sheets of paper and trace in the hull curvature for each frame.
These lines are transferred to the 8 quarter oak and cut on the big band saw.
Any additional fitting is done with a angle grinder with a 36 grit disk.

We have finished three frames and today we are forming 4 additional ones.  The tails are slightly long.
These will be marked where they intersect with the keel timber and cut accordingly.  Once everything is fitted, long stainless through bolts will be installed the hold it together.

Marking the intersection with the rudder for a cut.

This barn is awesome.  It is framed in massive walnut!  It is wood peg post and beam construction.
Really well built.
We will use its framing to hoist the hull off it's trailer in the coming weeks.

This main beam is a full 12 inch square of walnut.
You can see the adz marks.
Here is the mast hanging off it.

Rebuilding the Square Meter: paint stripping

After 4 passes and 6 gallons of paint stripper, we have started to see the strengths and weaknesses of the hull.  This is a race boat and is built accordingly (light).  This is good for us.  The ribs will be easy to duplicate.  They are thin laminations of steam bent oak.  The lower braces are heavy oak but are not very large.  These will be recut out of 8 quarter oak and either directly replace the originals or be sistered in alongside the originals.
Here are photos of the work to date:

The stripped cockpit.  We used stripper to both remove paint layers in the bilge as well as to remove the canvas deck adhesive.

The most recent paint layer was battleship grey.  The early layers were way nicer.  A pale blue layer covered the original orangy red.  Now that's a factory color!

It looks nasty now.  Just wait.

Here is the cut out keel timber,  The top has a rabbet for the planking, the bottom is flat to receive the lead keel casting.
We are duplicating this piece out of oak.  Here is a piece of 8 quarter (2 inch thick) oak.  Additional oak will be pegged and epoxied on to build up the shape.

Here is the big oak passing through the Silver Band Saw.   Finally a piece  of wood
that is the right scale for the saw.  The saw ate through the wood like nobody's business.

Here are two pieces of new oak that we saw cut to shape.  Tomorrow we will bond them together
and continue forming the part.

Rebuilding the 1929 Square Meter, Kippis: We got the job!

The owner liked the bid well enough to give us the go ahead.  Brave Man!
There are some unknowns we will discover but he is a fearless sailor.

The first items on the to do list were to take measurements of everything that might be removed.
The biggest thing on this list is the keel timber.  It has rot but nothing is missing, so it will provide us a useful pattern.

After the measurements were recorded in a new log book, we began the process of chemically stripping the bilge planking and ribs.

The worrisome hole in the bottom of the boat.