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I'm building a Weekender in half of my smallish 2 car garage in Stow, Ohio. I have very limited woodworking experience and this is my first project of this type. Because of tight working conditions I had to cut out all the major pieces of the boat before asembly. There just was not enough room to cut and assemble the keel then cut and mount the hull bottom and still have room to loft and cut anything else. I started with the keel and did not listen to the advice given about blade selection. I used the standard blade that came with the saw. This combined with the fact that I have only used a skill saw once or twice before caused me to have 3 very unequal keel layers. I glued them together (I had to use Gorrila Glue as it was too cold for other glues) and took a belt sander to them to flatten out the top of the keel to give me a nice smooth surface to attache the hull bottom. Surprisingly after this was done my keel length came out perfect right down to the 1/8th. The angle on the stern was exact as well. The problem that I do have is that my deadwood is about 1/2 inch too low. It's glued on and would be extremly difficult to replace.
I had thought about taking off 1/2 inch on the bow to give me the proper measurement from the bottom of the keel to the top of the bow. Can anyone think of any issues with doing this? Is there any other consideration I should be taking into acccount? I would appreciate any input.
As a side note I got the proper blade for doing the rest of the cuts and they are much more consistent.
Best Regards
Mike Speare

Mike,

Welcome to the madness - why don't you just add another layer to the deadwood to make it the correct height.

This is a great idea, unfortunatly I didn't think of it! I have already cut the knotch for the hull bottom in the hull. I really appreciate the response. Next time I'll measure twice and then measure again before I glue stuff down.

sounds like you are the right track - with the new blade and plans to measure twice and again and again....it will work out i am sure - all of our boats are a little different. It just happens that we all miss a measurement here or there. don't forget to post pictures!


a.

I've been part of many builds (I've long since lost count) and not one has been symmetrical, if measured carefully, nor built exactly to plan. I thought I was the bomb when I got the hull of a 40 yacht within a 1/4", with a tape measure from keel to rail on each side. That is machine like tolerance in a boat that size.

You wanted to put a keel shoe on your boat anyway, right? You've showed fore thought an planning by allowing for the keel shoe at this stage of the build. In the back of your mind you'd conceived of a 1/2" hardwood shoe or metal strip, to protect that keel in beachings and grounding, which managed to wiggle into the work at hand when necessary. Lets hope, all your future efforts have an equal amount of this subliminal engineering in play, Mike.

A hardwood shoe, that's the ticket. I knew I'd planned something like that... :oops:

Welcome Mike, and don't let a little thing like half an inch hold you back. Most of us have made all the "original" mistakes already, so don't hesitate to ask about how we fixed 'em.

As long as the hull bottom will still fit on the keel, I say go for it. My keel is 1/4" too long, and I never checked the deadwood....but the hull bottom fit like a glove. From there, nothing fit exactly right, but it's starting to look like a Weekender now, in spite of me.

I'm building my weekender in a smallish two-car garage. Had to move it diagonally to get it to fit. Will have to put the bowsprit on last, once I can move the boat outside.

Mike engineering is usually +/- 20% anyway. Measure with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut with a chainsaw, pound her to fit and pain it shut! A man on a fast dolphin will never see and inch! Press on my friend, yer doing fine.