Building ‘Sharpy’ Part 6

Keel Box

Mast Box

Preparing the Douglas fir for making the yard

What can we learn from the photo of the keel box? We can see the support frame for the keel box is at the aft end. At the forward end there’s an upright support between the keelson and the deck beam. There’s also a knee at the top that strengthens the area where the keel hoist will be fitted. We get a good view of the backing pieces for the butt joints on the side panel and on the floor of the boat. The keelson is strengthened at the base of the keel box with reinforcements either side of the box.


The photo of the area between number one bulkhead and number two bulkhead shows how the mast support box is made. This slightly differs from Derek’s building plan by having a circular recess for the foot of the mast instead of a 1.5 inch square slot.


Today I started building my ‘Sharpy’ when I began shaping her yard from Douglas fir. The bulk of the timber should be delivered on Monday.