Saturday 26 September 2015

Fitting a keel to a wood/epoxy Dix 43

These things take time, so its best to start the program early and work on the keel shoe long before its required, that is what I did anyway.

I was fortunate that a very talented guy named Eroll was sharing the premises I was in, Eroll was the master steelworker, he set things up, then his son Jeremy did the main part of the welding under Erolls supervison.

Jeremy is on the left, he was assisted by Mike and Alfred.


Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The keel shoe on its own weighed one ton, I then had to add five tons of lead to bring it up tothe required weight, as I said,starting early gave me time, it was two years in the end.

The keel bolts  number fouteen (14) then there are four (4) diesel fuel access pipes as well, totals eighteen (18) holes in the boat which have to match the keel exactly.


The day of the lift Ian was there to give me a hand.


The moment of truth, yes they all fit in their related holes!


My mother Doreen, she is now some ninety years old, it was my late father Robert Henry,  who took all the pictures.

Out of sight but always there was John Holmes, who helped with the line handling and took charge when the propping  of the boat was required.

The next day Ian and myself poured epoxy into the keel bolt stud holes to make sure they would never leak, then with the cap plates and nuts tightend up the boat was left overnight for the epoxy to set.


We launched the boat the next day, that's John standing on the aft deck!

Note, this keel has never leaked a single drop of water.

The boat is now for sale, contact me for detailed Word document and inventory.

Roy



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