Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Let The Keel Begin!



Well, today I got to do a bit of work on the boat.  I put a couple more coats of gray primer on the hull.  This means I now have 4 coats.  I think I'll add one more tomorrow.

I also started my journey toward having a keel.  The keel for this boat will be a high aspect ratio wood cored carbon fiber fin  with a 600 lb lead bulb at the end of it.  The foil shape will be the NACA 0012 which from what I've read is a good all around foil for this kind of application.  The chord will be about 18 inches with nearly 5 feet of foil between the bottom of the boat and the bulb.  When finished, the fin should only be about 2.25 inches thick.

For a core, I'm using laminated clear red pine planking.  The core will not be providing much structural strength.  It will serve mainly as a rigid spacer between the outside shell of carbon fiber which will bear the bulk of the loadpath.

Tonight I laminated 3 sheets of pine to make a core blank that is 2 inches thick.  I've weighted it down on the shop floor while it cures.  Hopefully the floor is nice a flat so that the core blank ends up true!

No comments: