The Keel and Painting

The outer keel is made up of the fore and aft outer stems, the forward keel, two rub strips (that go on either side of the centerboard slot) and the aft keel or skeg. The plans show sawn stems and deadwood (filler pieces) carefully fit together. When I laminated the inner stems, I laminated outer stems as well. My plan was to make them long enough to eliminate the deadwood and simplify construction. Well, it worked! After fitting and gluing on the forward stem, I planned a long scarf and added the foreward keel right over it.

I followed the same scheme at the stern. I did have to add another layer of wood to bring the skeg to full thickness, but that worked just fine. A bit of shaping with the power planer and hand plane and the skeg actually resembled the plans! In these two photos the hull has been finish sanded to 220 grit in preparation for priming and painting. I still have a bit of sanding to do along the keel and the plank lands.

And here she is after being primed with CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer) followed by four coats of Benjamin Moore M22 (an exterior alkyd enamel with polyurethane added). I'm fairly satisfied with the finish - from 10 feet away it's great, from five feet it's acceptable. Goldberry will look great on the water. And I've added the keelband, although it's not very visible in this photo.

With all that done, she's ready to turn over. Click here to continue the story.