Keel foil top plate

There have been issues w/ other boats losing the top plate of the keel foil. This plate keeps the keel from dropping out through the bottom of the boat.....in other words, a fairly important piece! One HUGE advantage to being a part of the second generation of boats is learning AHEAD of time what to avoid.

This is my plan:

Drill 3 x 1/4" holes down through the top of the foil

Cross drill 3 over sized holes where the first holes terminate

Flatten the top of the holes for plates and washers, bolt it all together and fill w/ epoxy and pray!

Here is the bulb atached (temporarily) to the bottom of the foil

So far so good!!!

keel bulb

A very exciting and different part of the build: melting 150 lbs of lead and pouring it into the female molds.

The set-up, big burner, dutch oven, and molds VERY close by.

Safety gear....lead is really toxic, so respirator, safety glasses, and cold water at the ready.

Lead melted and ready for the big slide.

Sliding the oven off the burner and pouring. (Bend at the KNEES!!!)

Snap crackle and pop.

A little persuasion to help the foil section stay buried in the molten lead.

Lead in the molds.

Waste/shlag weighing in as planned.

Finished product.

Molly took video of the pour.

I was only able to get that posted on the i550 facebook site, and I can't get that link to load here. A quick search should pull it up for you though.

I have 150 lbs of lead between the two halves. I also have a little extra to fill in between the 2 halves when I bolt them together and 20 lbs in the keel foil. I won't be over the max, but pretty close to it!

Besides getting the keel assembled, I really only need to cut down the sails and I am ready to sail!!

YAHOOOOO!!!!!

Getting close

So I took a few weeks off. Work is busy, I was a bit burned out after putting in alot of time over the summer, and there is a real hesitation to FINISH as I dread finding out what is going to break first. But I'm over all that now and making the final push.

Rudder w/ tiller handle, extension and pintels/gudgeons all in place

Boom, gooseneck, mainsheet blocks and bridle done

Piles of halyards ready to be fished through the mast which has spreaders finished and halyard sheaves all cut in

The punch list:

run halyards and measure sails to be cut down

pour lead keel bulb and attach to keel

get keel into boat and beef up keel box

GO SAILING......hopefully only a few weeks away at this point!!!