Plugging Away

Or should I say, unplugging away. Drilling holes in the hull I've worked so hard on to get watertight is a bit unnerving! ;-)

You caught a glimpse of the skeg in the last post. I've drilled holes in it, no small feat, to align the key components, the rudder shaft and the mounting holes through the bottom of the box keel.

Laser aligning along the long axis of the box keel

I used the laser to align the long axis of the box keel and out to the hole I cut for the rudder shaft. It is so well lined up the laser also lit up the plumb bob through the prop shaft hole! It was spot on.

Measuring for skeg alignment hole

The center of the rudder shaft to the first alignment hole is 65 1/2". I am able to locate this by running a plumb bob from the nearest plank (seen above) to the bottom of the keel. Again using the laser I was able to sink it dead center in the keel.

Oh no, it's never gonna float now! ;-)

I opened up the hole to allow a bolt to go through that I'll use to suspend the skeg from the box keel. I can then go on to work out the geometry for the skeg/rudder assembly.

Backing plate in place

I laid out a 3/16" x 3" 304 SS flatbar on top of the skeg and drilled matching holes into the skeg. It's tough going drilling through 7/16" of stainless. Took me the better part of an hour to drill 3 holes. All I have is woodworking tools so it's a bit of a chore. Titanium bits and lots of cooling fluid help a lot.

By the time I got that done it was hot in the shed and the bolts I have aren't long enough so I called it quits for the day. Back at it tomorrow.

Standby....