Point Comfort 23

[MarkR]

Time to glue and bolt the outer stem.  The outer stem was prepared on the bench and the carriage bolt holes and recesses were treated with epoxy for moisture resistance prior to mounting.  The longest bolt is 12" - think this portion of the hull is going to be strong!



A batch of GelMagic was mixed and the outer stem was coated as was the inner stem area on the hull.  I went for plenty of squeeze out as no voids were wanted.  The 3/8" bronze carriage bolts were driven with a rubber hammer.



Once the bolts were driven, I climbed under the boat and cinched them up.  After extracting myself, the glue was squeegeed into the joints and made smooth.  



Fit was good and I'm pleased.  

[MarkR]

I got another couple of partial days to work on the boat.  The keel was next.  Everything was final fitted dry, but I agonized over a minor waggle in the keel up forward.  Nothing huge, maybe 1/4", but it bothered me.  After going back and forth a dozen times in my mind, I finally decided that it was safest to glue it onto the boat and straighten it out on the boat.  I really didn't want to fair it on the bench, then figure out that it still wasn't quite right.  

So, with the air temp in the 40-45 degrees F range, there was lots of open time on the epoxy.  Didn't need to recruit a large crew.  I prepped the mating surfaces, wiped them down, then applied GelMagic to the keel (lightly coated) and the keel land on the hull (heavily coated).   Bill was in the shop so he donned gloves and helped me move the keel into position.  Temporary fasteners were used to attach the keel at the stem, then I was able to go under the boat to fasten the keel along the keelson line.  The result was a keel that was glued and screwed into position, ready to clean up on the outside.



Only two permanent fasteners were in the boat at this point:  one 3/8" X 3 1/2" lag screw at the bow and another 3/8" X 3" near the end of the keel.  In between, the keel was tied mechanically to the hull with 2 1/2" X 9 temporary screws.  Three oil filled radiant heaters were positioned under the boat to get the epoxy up to temperature for curing.



Everything looked good on the outside.  The keel will be shaped to blend into the stem once the epoxy has cured.  A couple of days later, the temporary screws were removed and #14 X 3 1/2" bronze screws driven in the mid section, with 3/8" bronze lag screws driven into the keel forward and aft.



The keel of this boat is over 20' long.  At this point, the shaping needs to be done forward and aft, then the joint between keel and hull will get a finished fillet to ease the transition for fiberglass cloth which will be applied over the keel and onto the hull for bonding.  We will do that next after some filleting and filling of screw holes.  Many thanks to Bill for his help!