It has been a busy week. On Monday we collected the mast and sails. Today, with more than a little help from my friends, we fitted the keel into place.
The photograph below shows the plank “runway” ready for the keel to be rolled along.
Rather than many hands make light work, with 750Kg of lead, it is forklift and hydraulic jacks (and a lot of being careful) make the work doable.
First we had to get the keel on to a couple of skate dollies and on a plank.
Then lift the plank, dollies and keel into place
Rolling the keel on to the runway
Nearly there, but needed a bit of levering to line up the bolt holes with the bolts that I had dropped down.
Then jack up the keel and apply Sikaflex before lifting the keel into final position.
In the photograph below, there is still a small gap and the keel bolts are being tightened up.
And below, keel in position.
I left the keel chocked up. It seemed a good idea to take the weight off the hull while it doesn’t have the deck structure built.
The next job is to make the false keel (Iroko) and fit it fore and aft of the keel.