The good news is the keels still on! The first half of the year was quite windy, and we punished the boat a bit racing it. It's a bit funny being out there in the middle of a pretty intense race, wondering how the keels doing. The fiberglass sheathing of the seam worked out great, which is good because I never want to do that particular job again. In the above photo you can see the top of the keel joint looks pretty good (although it still has 36 grit scratches all over it, ugh.) You can also see the front of the keel looks a bit funky. At some point this year we hit something that must have been floating just under water. I tried to wet sand it when diving to smooth it out, which is why the leading edge looks weird. Honestly this looks a lot better out of the water and will take minimal effort to fix.
The second pic is a close up of the keel seam (or lack of) and the rudder fairing strips which also held just fine. You can see the weird blisters on the rudder. No idea what thats all about.
Unfortunately, the _other_ keel seam, where the lead meets the deadwood is still a piece of crap, which is why the joint shows and also leaks. Going to have to fix this one before it gets too cold for epoxy. Yay!Have some more fun projects on the horizon: the Shields class has legalized a couple things I want to have on 88. Tacktick digital compi are now ok, so we're going to get a Micro compass and throw that on. Also a 8:1 mainsheet fine tune is ok, which is excellent news as the Shields main can be a bit of a bear for most people in breeze. We're considering a couple options for this, such as a super slick system with purchase below deck and led to the sides, but will probably go for the simpler (and lower friction) in boom system. The way I figure it, people can add a really great fine tune to their boats for less than $200. Honestly I've been selling boat stuff for so long that it's unclear whether thats a good value or not.
2 comments:
Kristian,
The keel looks quite good. It looks like all your hard work really paid off there. We were only in the water for three weeks but I can already tell that I will have all the "normal" Shields keel ailments (weeping at the deadwood and keel interface and paint pealing an chipping at the rudder fairing). I will have to wait 'til next fall to really see what is goiong on.
I selfishly hope that you keep up you blog and detail your keel prep and you rigging updates. More and more of you ideas are ending up on Bolero.
Also, I hope you will keep us posted on your preperations for next years nationals (and maybe even find a way to live blog the event).
I don't ask for much do I?
Thanks for you work on your blog. Great read.
Cheers, Bill
Bill,
This winter I'm going to repair the lead/dead seam, and after that will wet sand the entire keel to 320 in preparation for new bottom paint. Looking forward to a fast bottom as this years was only ok.
Right before Nationals we're going to pull the boat, dry it out (dehumidifier and drill out deadwood drain) and then wet sand the bottom to 600 or so (overkill!) before dropping it back in.
I'm hoping to do lots of write-ups for Nationals next year. My friend Kevin is in charge of the regatta so it's going to be a good one!
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