Nose Block

The next step is the construction of the keel, and the first step in that is to make the nose block i.e. the leading edge of the keel.

I glued two pieces of Fir together to make the blank for the nose block.

Then I cut the rebates where it is joined to the front of the keel.

The manual says to use a table saw to cut these rebates. I don't have room for one so the trusty old Elu router was used instead, with a two flute cutter. It worked fine.

As you can see, I traced the profile for the leading edge of the keel onto the nose block from the pattern in the drawings.

Again the manual says to use a band saw to rough shape the leading edge, but I don't have room for one of those either. So my beloved Record jack plane and some imaginative clamping did the job with no problems.

Next I fastened the blank temporarily to one side of the front keel half, and marked the bottom of the nose block in line with the bottom of the keel.

I used a steel rule clamped to the keel. It's a straight line so it was easy.

Then I fixed a strip of flexible scrap to the top of the keel and sprung it in line with the curve of the top of the keel to continue the curve onto the top of the nose block, and marked it in.

A temporary drywall screw holds the strip in the right place.

Next I fastened the nose block to a piece of scrap board so it could be held in the vice.

I cut the waste from the bottom and planed it flat and smooth.

Lastly I clamped the board to the bench so I could cut the curved top of the block.

No band saw, so a careful cut by hand with a sharp panel saw did the trick. Here we are half way through the cut.

Here is the finished article, cleaned up and sanded smooth.

And finally here is the nose block glued and clamped in place on the front half of the port keel side, ready for the assembly of the whole keel and centre board case.

This was a time consuming but very satisfying exercise!