Building ‘Sharpy’ Part 23

Transom in place

Keel Box Frame

Fitting the transom, straightening the hull, and measuring the dimensions for the keel box support frame, took up most of the morning. I wasn’t able to work again on the boat until late afternoon. By that time it was dark, but fluorescent lighting in the garage was adequate for me to see what I was doing. I drew the shapes required for the keel box support frame onto 3 millimetre plywood and cut out two identical pieces. Later in the evening I epoxied them together. I did this by brushing two coats of epoxy on both of the surfaces to be joined and tacked them together with small panel pins that I shall extract when the epoxy has hardened. To make the job of extracting the panel pins easy, I left their heads proud of the surface. It’ll be a simple matter of removing them with pliers.


I shall need to attach cleats to the forward side of the outer edges of the frame where it comes into contact with the hull. Then it will be a matter of trimming the lower and upper corners so that they lock into the chine log and the sheer strake. Finally, I shall have to fit the frame between the side panels and fix it in place with four screws, as I did with the other frames.