keel sleeve locked in

I closed the keel box and it looks allright but I cannot avoid to be worried about how straight the keel will be.... I will only know for sure once the boat is finished.....

I used solid oak at the bottom and 1" ply (4x 1/4") at the top to lock on the side panels. No real reason for those choices but I felt like making that keel box as solid as possible.

The whole structure feels really solid and bomb proof. Probably overdone. I should be more carefull about weight but since this is my first boat, I would rather make sure it does float and does not fall apart ! So I am focusing on strength for now.

So once this was done I finally finished the forward bunks. A little trimming and a lot of colloidal silica and the trick was done.

And since I ran out of silica, I tried laminating with Nutella. A friend of mine told me it works great so I gave it a shoot. Not too bad I should say, except for the terrible color. Nevermind cause all cabin interior will be painted in white anyhow.

Ps: the Nutella stuff is a joke :) Its West fileting blend and I cannot see anything good about it ! But that is the only stuff they had at the shop. I will wait until they receive more silica.