Frame planning

I looked at the mechanical properties of the phenolic sheets. Phenolic is a fiber-reinforced resin laminate, available in sheets, tubes and rods. It is a thermosetting plastic, with good electrical properties. According to one manufacturer, linen phenolic type LE has a tensile strength of 13000 psi “lengthwise” and 9,000 psi “crosswise”. This compares to a tensile strength along the grain of 11,300 to 16,300 for “oak” in Mechanical Properties of Wood, by David W. Green, Jerrold E. Winandy, and David E. Kretschmann. The paper phenolic (XX type) has about half the fracture toughness of the LE plastic. Note that the tensile strength at yield for King Starboard™, a marine polymer sheet, is 4000 psi. The principal reason for using Starboard would be its low moisture absorption, about 1percent of the phenolic.

New water heater

When I received the water heater, I saw in the manual that changing the heater element requires space in front of the heater. Because I want to make sure that it can be done without removing the engine, I shall take care in planning the space under the galley sink.
A similar space limitation constrains the position of the potable water pressure pump

Keel installation

The keel has been installed. Its floating dovetail spline was easily inserted from starboard to port, and a bolt was bored through it (in accordance with the construction plan).
All keel bolts are driven in from the top, far enough through the keel so their threads are seen. Their shaft is the full diameter of the bored hole; a 1¼-inch bung hole is counter-bored into the keel. A nut and washer are installed on the bottom end; a dollop of tar and a length of cotton wicking are wrapped around the shaft. Then the bolt is driven back up until the upper threads are visible, and the upper nut and washer are installed. The bung hole is filled with a half-and-half mixture of paint and tar, and the bung is inserted.
Status summary:

• The bronze mast step has been attached to the keel. These carriage bolts were driven in from the bottom, but they were otherwise installed the same way.
• The original white-oak wedges which supported the mast step and its attached bronze frames between the keel and the intermediate stem were deteriorated from inadequate drainage. We replace them with machined phenolic ones.
• The centerboard trunk is nearly finished. It has been simplified even more; its sides are parallel, not tapered at all from top to bottom. I cut and threaded six two-foot seven-sixteenth-inch-diameter bolts to pass through its walls, and ten half-inch bolts pass through the floors on both sides of the trunk. All its lateral bolt holes have been cut, and the vertical holes through the centerboard trunk have been successfully bored. The holes through the floors are quite exacting in their required alignment, because they have to pass through a small rectangle where the floor meets the keel. Roger is boring them on the bench; he will then use the frame holes to guide the holes through the keel. The corresponding holes in the previous keel were not so precisely located; some of the bolts went into the keel rabbet and others went into the limber holes.
• The stern post dutchman is nearly done. Luke’s brass tube is no longer available, so far as Dave can tell. We will replace it with a G-10 one, to protect the horn timber from water and worm damage, and build a separate brass sheet to shield the aft end of the stern post. The dutchman will be glued in after the G-10 tube has arrived and been machined to insert into the bored rudder hole
• After some debate, I am replacing the rudder stock. It is very difficult to remove from the boat, so it came in for careful scrutiny. Where it lay in the water, it had some loss of zinc, and I could not argue that we can still rely on it. The replacement rod, of naval brass, needs some machining, to cut its taper and its keyways, but it should arrive in the middle of the week.
• The cut-less bearing has arrived, and the stern tube is ready for installation; we decided to wait until the engine is in place to bore its upper hanger-bolt into place.
• The engine paint is complete.
• Bilge paint has been applied to the area aft of the centerboard trunk.
• The cabin ladder has been removed to facilitate trunk construction.
• Snediker pulled plank 3 on the port side to simplify the centerboard installation, and has replaced the splined-in bottom sections of three more floors under the engine, which were badly deteriorated.
• The keel bolts aft of frame 33, and in frames 33, 32, 31, 22, 20, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13 and 12 have been installed. On the after two bolts, oversize washers were fabricated out of ¼-inch bronze. Pending are those next to the centerboard trunk and those that hold the ballast.
• After being unable to locate grown crooks for the frame ends, we have decided to replace the mid-ship frame ends with ones cut from manufactured linen-reinforced phenolic plastic sheet, 1¾ inch thick. This is free of short-grain problems, certified void-free, reasonably water-resistant, and its cost will be less than laminating the ends ourselves. We can easily bevel the frames with band saws to meet the planks. Snediker’s measurements indicate we need one 4-foot x 4-foot sheet.
• The centerboard clamp will be reshaped slightly to accommodate keel bolts more widely spaced than they were originally. The new pattern will avoid having the keel bolts exposed in the bilge, because they will pass through the centers of the floors.

Now pending:

• Complete fitting of the port centerboard floors
• Fabricate the centerboard clamps
• Notch floors 30—24 for the centerboard clamps
• Install the wooden centerboard trunk.
• Install the metal centerboard trunk, with its sheave
• Attach the wooden centerboard trunk cap
• Bore holes for new head seacocks
• Build foundations for water heater and water pump
• Cut bronze crush shields for the ballast keel floors.
• Get plans for head floor pan.
• Change transmission oil, engine oil and oil filter.

Trunk and keel progress

The extender boards on the wooden centerboard trunk are ready to be installed. The trunk mortises in the keel for the trunk are nearly complete. A second threaded pad is being welded onto the trunk liner, port side, to pull its oil-canned sides tightly against the inside walls of the wooden trunk. It was too cold to paint the engine today.
I replaced the bottom half of frame 30, which was broken. Because there was no planking around it, I left it oversize, to be faired when the keel and garboards are installed.
Jeff pulled the stern tube and finished removing the rudder stock today. When Luke built the rudder, the lower end of the stock was surrounded by a piece of brass tubing (to line the wooden walls of the rudder tube), the bottom 7 inches of which were flattened and screwed into the stern post. It was this tube which bound against the rudder stock and prevented it from coming out. It will be replaced.
McMaster-Carr sells brass tubing, apparently of the correct size, which we will order tomorrow.
The stern post is badly checked. The checking is particularly bad between the exit of the rudder tube and the bung around the lower end of the first floor-to-stern-post bolt. Refusing to replace the stern post, I consented to fabricate and install a dutchman between the new stern post liner and the bolt.
Pending:

• Receipt of water heater
• Install stern post dutchman
• Order brass tubing
• Initiate lamination of frame ends

Centerboard trunk progress

The centerboard passed its pressure test; no overnight loss was seen. The bronze centerboard trunk has now been fitted into the plank keel, and a bronze slot liner has been mortised into the keel where the slot in the ballast keel would otherwise expose it to worm damage.
Today David and Roger worked on construction of the wooden centerboard trunk. We couldn’t find sufficiently wide quarter-sawn teak planks to replicate the previous engineering. I insisted that the additional timber not just be pasted on the top of the wooden trunk; I want it below the trunk clamp. So Snediker proposed several triple-wedge constructions, all of which were quite elaborate. Scott suggested that he just add small, one-bolt-width (about 1 ¾ inch) panels between the top panels and the bottom ones, and bolt the rest in a regular pattern.
The trunk panels are held to the plank keel by through bolts, and the floors are clamped to the keel by two trunk clamp timbers, one on each side, so the entire construction seems sufficiently robust.
It was also decided that the planks would be sided to just two thicknesses, the bottom plan to 2 inches, and the upper one to 1 5/8 inch, as Luke did, rather than being tapered as Nielsen specified. This makes the construction much less complicated.

Non-critical task porgress:

• I installed the new thermostat.
• I degreased, sanded and painted the primer coat on the engine, using engine primer from NAPA.
• Yesterday, it became clear that the bronze liner around the tiller (upper) segment of the rudder stock needs repair. It is fastened into the stern post by about a dozen screws, all of which are failed. The segment is too long to go up; it hits the aft wall of the cockpit. It would strike the propeller shaft if it were to slide down. Thus, we must pull the prop shaft, after removing the propeller. The screw was tightly corroded onto the shaft; it took a day and a half of stress applied by a wheel puller, percussion, and heat from a torch to break it free. It now has been removed, but the cut-less bearing case (or stern tube) needs to be removed as well.
• I received a variable-speed water pump from Kellogg Marine Supply, and I ordered the water heater tank from Defender.

Pending stuff:

• Finish trunk
• Paint engine
• Pull stern tube
• Paint engine bilge
• Fill under-engine bilge diverticuli with pitch
• Order PEX parts
• Order electric panel. It needs loads: Outlets, charger, water heater, spare.
• Order fail-safe galvanic isolator
• What about an inverter/charger combination?
• Decide the new galley configuration
• Design the new head configuration.
• I need to decide whether the battery charger is screwed or not.

Keel progress, and starting the centerboard trunk

The keel is nearly complete. Its floating dovetail spline, which holds it to the stern post, is complete and ready for insertion. About one fourth of the floor-to-plank-keel bolt holes have been bored.
Roger is building the wooden centerboard trunk; it will be made of teak, with three planks on each side, instead of Luke’s two. The boards are connected by pine splines, offset toward the inside of the trunk. The bottom of the trunk is formed into a long tenon, offset toward the outside of the trunk. The logs at the fore and aft of the trunk are of purpleheart. Today the bronze centerboard trunk liner arrived from Thavenet. They welded a broader flange on the base of the trunk so its screws into the keel could be staggered (as specified by Nielsen), rather than in a single row (as constructed). The liner was sealed with rope caulk and loaded with 3 psi of air pressure, to determine whether its pinhole leak was repaired. Tomorrow it will be measured to fit the mortise in the bottom of the keel.
Other status:

• The engine has been cleaned and returned. The engine bed timbers have been repaired and new bronze angles have been fitted to support the engine.
• The new water heater and pressure pump have been ordered.
• The emergency bilge pump has been fitted between floors 22 and 23.
• New keel bolts are fabricated, except for the ones for the ballast keel.
• The engine parts have been ordered and have arrived.
• I have replaced the oil pressure sender and switch, and zinc.
• Several frame ends are complete, but not yet installed.

Other pending jobs:

• Mortise a panel into the bottom of the keel to shield the top of the slot through the ballast keel.
• Install the new thermostat into the engine
• Prime the engine
• Paint the engine bed timbers

Add these new tasks:

• Install a new AC power panel, to control the water heater as well the other shore power loads
• Replace the galvanic isolator with one that fails safe