It takes some guts........

....to cut a hole this big on the hull bottom ! But I guess the i550 really needs a keel ......

So I grabbed my Bosh Multimaster and went for it. The hole is obviously oversized to give me enough space to move the keel sleeve around until I find its exact location. It is tight in between frames because I already placed some reinforcements on the frames themselves, plus I followed the plans and left what was called for. I am glad I was carefull with the keel and the sleeve measurements... Had I not been care carefull, I think the keel would not have fit.

The keel needs to be straight afterall and I have no space whateosever in my garage to raise the boat and let the keel hang down. I will do what many did and work from above aligning the keel to the best of my ability. The idea is to stick the sleeve into the hole, then the keel into the sleeve, make sure everything is as straight as possible, epoxi the sleeve in place, remove the keel and finish off the keel box.

I started playing with that today and basically used 2 plumb bobs and a laser level that I got.

I placed one plumb on the side of the keel to check side to side balance. Than another one along the trailing edge to check for aft-fwd balance. That takes care of two important axes.

The last axis deals with where the leading edge (or trailing edge) are pointing and it is more difficult and delicate to get right. [imagine a vertical axis going down from top of keel to bottom of keel. The keels pivots around that axis and it is this alignment one must get right]

So to kind of help me out, I wrapped a string aroung the keel and pulled both ends toward the bow. It kind of make like a big arrow and what you need to look for is the symetry on both sides. It is most important to look if those strings are symetrical around the keel. If you see more space on one side than on the other than you know your keel is not pointing where it should, considering of course that your keel was properly build with two symetrical sides.

Here is a picture for you guys to understand what I am saying.

Ok, I now, not space engineering but it worked for me. And do not forget to use the best tool ever. Your eyes ! Actually as many eyes as possible for this matter. I called wife and daughter to the rescue and I only settled once we all agreed.

I did not epoxi anything today. Will wait for daylight tomorrow morning, check everything once more and go for it !