Backbone

October 19, 2014 Hours spent building to date: 232

The next step was to connect the straight part of the keel, the curved part and the stem all together to create Tardis’ “backbone.” The first joint went great — planed down the angle on the curved part for the scarf joint, put it on the boat, joint was piece-of-paper tight.

Then I pushed my look on the keel-to-stem transition, thinking my 64th birthday would pull me through a heavy, curved, tapered cut on the bandsaw. No luck. I butchered it — the joint looked like a roller coaster. Two hours later, and probably 10 times on and off the boat for fitting, it was finally acceptable.

Then a lot of planeing and sanding to smooth out the transitions, and the backbone was done, awaiting many hours of fairing.

My wife thinks it looks a little wimpy compared to the 6-inch thick chunk of teak that formed Memsahib’s keel. But this one will be surrounded by stringers running the full length of the boat and some great big ones forward and aft. Then the whole thing will be encased in fiberglass. So in essence the whole bottom of the boat is the backbone.