Some advertising must work, because I remember seeing the TESCO slogan, ‘Every little helps’, and as I worked on the boat during the afternoon, I kept repeating the slogan. Sad, isn’t it? But I cheered myself up thinking about it while I struggled to figure out how to build the keel box and where it would fit on the hog. I reasoned that even a little progress helps me along the way.
When building a boat it is necessary to think ahead so that sequencing can be set in order. I need to know the dimensions of the keel box and where it will fit, in order to fix structural ‘cheeks’ either side of the hog. These small pieces of wood must be the same thickness as the hog, and preferably made of identical wood - in my case Utile, which is a substitute for mahogany. Fortunately I have a short piece left over from when I made the hog. This will need to be accurately cut down the middle, lengthwise, so that the separate pieces can be epoxied either side of the hog to form ‘cheeks’. These ‘cheeks’ will have a dual function, i.e., to provide a platform for the keel box and to strengthen the hog where a slot is cut from its centre, through which the keel will pass.
I spent most of the afternoon finishing the stringers and the hog, including the backing pieces for the butt joints. This evening I epoxied them together in the corridor of my home. When I took a photo of what I had done, I noticed from it that the hog was not lined up at the joint, whereupon I adjusted the pieces and took another photo to check if it they were in line.
Well, I hope the epoxy sets, and that by tomorrow morning I shall be able to test fit the hog and stringers into the boat. The weather is getting increasingly colder, just as was forecast, and I am wondering if I’ll be able to heat the garage to a temperature that will be sufficiently warm for further epoxying of the hog and stringers so that they will become permanent parts of the supportive structure of the boat.
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