A description of the 3 keel options for this Benford dory, along with this week's progress both in the boat shed and in the boatyard!! This is the story of t...

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we see it all

in black and white and painted

all so recently i sit and

wonder what we seem to know

how we sure

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i said

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is

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we're building a cruising sailboat yeah

uh

it's dark time of year it's getting

quite chilly these evenings particularly

but we're getting on got quite a bit

done and uh

first thing we did this week was was

work on the the drains for the cockpit

i had a couple of stainless drones

with uh with sort of grating on them and

uh

put those in and plumbed them through we

put a couple of through hulls

in the hull got the drain fittings

themselves in

boxes sealed in and they're in place

so look at them shall we

all right

that's interesting

go through there oh yeah lovely

perfect

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ah

absolutely perfectly bonded

oh

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yeah perfect

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so

have a look

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ah

yeah that's good

so

that's the language

these are those true design fittings

with hose barbs

they're very nice quality i like them

recommend them

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yes

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foreign

yes

yes

very nice just missing two clips gotta

buy two more clips

other than that happy with that

yeah so this is the underside of the

copper drains and uh you see they're

plumbed in there but um

i had a bit of an issue actually they're

stainless fittings and they come with a

stainless nut

uh bsp parallel thread

and uh one went on okay this thing is

not but

not but the other one just jammed up on

the thread

no matter what i did i tried i've tried

various

methods to get it on there various

lubrications and teff

gel and whatever it wouldn't go on there

so in the end i ended up

luckily it's the same thread as these um

this true design fit in so i bought a

true design

through hull and took the nut off it

very expensive nut but

um anyhow that fitted beautifully and

managed to as you see that one's

understanding this

and that one is up with a with a true

design composite plastic nut

but then yeah up there now sealed in

position

fittings on and out through the through

holes

in the hole size it's all very good

the older work this week's been here at

least well the vast majority

another thing that's been done is is now

got

doors on our lockers in here

no catches as yet the doors are in place

been in here painting

out the bilge paint needs uh it's mainly

done needs a little

a second coat on the on the underside of

the deck

and a couple other little places but

mainly done with bilge paint

uh yeah i'm working in here as you can

see a couple of clues about

battery box thinking about the exhaust

muffler

which won't be going there it's just

stood there at the moment but

yeah that's it that's there working on

that and

various bits that we're thinking about

in here to get some progress

yeah that's good

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so

also went up last weekend friday drove

up to hazel's boat

helena wally and she was hauling out

so went up to give her a hand she's had

a couple of issues she remembered that

she went

went sailing for a couple of weeks spit

over a couple weeks in the summer

and since she got that she's had a

couple of problems and

once she wanted to go out and broke down

and

have to get back and it turned out there

was water in the diesel and i've had

been up there a couple of times and

looked at it and uh

you know looked around and came to the

conclusion that the diesel tank must be

leaking

and so went up there on friday we got

the engine

running which is tricky with water in

the diesel tank

um i actually put in a separate jerry

can to get it running

and then did the lift out the hall out

coffee hazel yeah yeah all right

and what's happening today um the boat

is

craning out cranking out we're hauling

out are we

yeah okay we've been craned out yes

so it's 8 o'clock in the morning and

we're on the list we're in boat number

nine on the list

because everybody hauls out today at the

same on the same day

everything's happening around here we're

number nine on the list

yeah and uh we're up and waiting for

some action aren't we

yes about have some coffee yeah hehe

that looks good

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so

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is

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another

and then we wanted to have a look at

that diesel tank so

uh the problem with that

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is that it's built in under a fixed

floor

there's no way to get the diesel tank

out without cutting the hole in the

floor so

let's go up there an attacker port cabin

sole with it with a jigsaw

uh cut a downgrade hole in it and we

leave it the diesel tank out

obviously pumped it dry first and then

uh

true enough there were two holes in it

you know the boat's 40 years old

stainless diesel tank

and my understanding is 40 years is

about the lifetime of a stainless diesel

tank

two holes in it so no doubt about it

that's how the water was getting in we

tested various other things as well but

anyway

no doubt i was getting in there so threw

that out

and uh well she's got plans to do a few

other sort of refits so we'll do it all

in one one big move

um she wants to put a composting toilet

in

which means we can take the holding tank

out and possibly

that could be a place for a new diesel

tank where the holding tank is now we'll

see

anyhow that's where we are there

let's see what we've achieved

stand back

lovely

four-year-old bilge very nice

i had a couple of questions i've had

questions over the last basically the

last three years but

last week again a couple of people got

good people

um asked about the keel and i said i'd

say a few words about the cure this week

and i'll try and give you a bit more

detail

than i've given you before so um

thoughts on

on the keel or the the key options that

you have for these

boats so i said to say a few words about

the uh

about the keel and uh so i've drawn this

utterly beautiful depiction of a

benfidori side view

um i should say it's not the scale and i

think the rake on the forward

mast is a bit rakish but but other than

that it's a side view of a bed for dory

with a rudder mounted rather with a bit

of balance and with a sail drive mounted

um and obviously we've got to put some

kind of keel onto this thing

so the plans come with

two options if you read the

descriptions in various publications

like in voyaging on a small income for

example but there are other publications

you think there are potential for three

different killers and possibly

there are so your first keel option is

the fin keel

um would look rather like that this fin

um can be constructed of basically

ferrous cement filled with

a mix of concrete and uh steel punchings

so you'd make an armature of rebar you'd

cover that in several layers of mesh

and then you'd i say fill it up with a

mixture of concrete with steel punchings

in it

to get the density you need from the

concrete

um dan johnson did precisely that on

hester

you see his blog see how he did it um

gives you a draft on the 31 for eight

the draft of

four foot three inches which is about

is it 1.3 metres i think isn't it

something like that

and has one obvious problem or a couple

of obvious problems in that the sail

drive

and the rudder are very exposed so

what people generally do is they fit a

skeg

here not a cell drive a regular prop

shaft engine

the angle may be a bit out put a skeg to

support the bottom end of the rod

rudder than any ropes or anything

fishing line or whatever you get tangled

up slides off and out

and the props protected

so here's the other keel option a sort

of long heel

gives you a design draft of

three feet six inches which is only

fractionally over a meter

under 1.1 meters design draft of course

um long heel this section is built up

from wood

um supports the back end of the rod or

the bottom end of the rudder

and a ballast weight here

which needs like the thing kill the the

ballast weight is the same for both the

fin and the long kill

1280 kilos um

and in order to get 1280 kilos from that

volume it's got to be lead

has a density of around 1100 kilos

a cubic meter whereas concrete

but just raw concrete with nothing in it

is a

2.8 i think 2 800

kilos per cubic meter so in the region

of a quarter of the density of lead

so you couldn't do that out of pure

concrete

however and here's the big however

in voyaging on the small income and some

of the other writings

you will see it said that the long kill

ballast weight can be either lead

or concrete and scrap iron

now i didn't get plans for a concrete

and concrete and scrap iron ballast

keel um and i sort of for a long time

thought

it was impossible but it was pointed out

to me by another guy who's building

another 31 for eight peter pointed out

to me that

in voyaging on the small income you can

see a drawing of the concrete and scrap

scrap iron ballast keel and basically

all that happens is that this ballast

area

is higher to give you the volume that

you need

to make this ballast weight out of

concrete and scrap iron

and this is from the designer so it

should work

obviously the center of gravity of a

lead

keel down the bottom there would be

somewhere in the middle of it

and the center of buoyancy let's guess

it's about here somewhere

center of gravity about here somewhere

so we've got

that mass times that distance for the

torque that that

keel is applying as a writing moment

and if we make that out of scrap iron

and and

concrete that center of gravity is going

to raise to

i don't know there somewhere let's say

ballpark figure

and we've got less writing moment

but the designer has designed it that

way

and so it ought to work

um perhaps the wise person would just up

the ballast a little bit in that

concrete and scrap iron

so that's where i am considering these

options

i have located a source of lead

to make the lead kill which i think is

better because

as i say we've got this writing moment

that's that's um

seems to me to be the the higher writing

moment

i've located the source of lead i hope

to be picking it up soon i'll show you

when i do

so next question you've got is how you

how do you do it are you going to

one and a quarter tons of lead and pour

them into a mold i know

acorns arabella did that um

dargon seeker well he didn't do that he

melted loads of lead and poured it into

his

inside his steel boat but you could melt

vast quantities of lead and pour

into a mold it doesn't fill me with glee

that option i have to say

working with a ton and a quarter of

water thin lead

and very very hot and fumes and all of

that

another option you could do is you could

build and this is the one that i'm

preferring at the moment to build a

steel box

this shape and

then cast ingots of lead

which can be done quite simply over a

period of time

stack them into the steel box and just

melt a small quantities of lead and pull

them around the ingots just to hold it

all together

also this steel box could then

encompass this section of the keel as

well could

come back here perhaps with a lighter

filling

perhaps and then you've got a steel

support to the bottom of the rudder

which is pretty much what jerry limba

did well pretty much is almost exactly

what jerry limba did

he also built a 34 foot

benford dory then all of this part would

be wood

above that line there wood above there

doug fur

below would be the steel box support in

the back end of the rudder

filled with lead i think that's a very

effective

system bolted up obviously next question

is bolts

and in the designs we've got bolts

coming up through the floors

if i draw the floors in here

they're very approximate they're

probably not in the right place but

bolted up through the floors

there so last question is

bolts um bronze

available not difficult to do really

obviously fairly expensive bronze

stainless

i don't like the idea of with with

crevice corrosion and whatever

some people use galvanized bolts

there's a possibility others simply use

um mild steel bolts just go a bit

oversized

mild steel bolts which as long as the

sea water never gets to them wouldn't be

an issue it needs to be properly sealed

but those are the options there in terms

of bolts

at the moment i prefer bronze those are

the options

keel bolts materials

all of that one other thing that has to

be considered is that this leading edge

here

has a as a profile

something like that so you've got to get

that

curve in there that's actually pretty

accurate that curve so you've got to get

that curve on that leading edge

which means you've got to shape it if

i'm building for example a steel box

somewhere i've got to get that shape

on the front of the steel box so it's

not just a flat square box but

i'm sure that's doable yeah

keel it'll be coming i suspect next

summer i suspect

or late next summer but we will get

there and it'll be

interesting

all right that's it for this week guys

thanks for watching

don't forget t-shirts and uh challenge

coins in the shop

www.com

give us all that youtubey stuff you know

and uh

that one and all that stuff and uh see

you next time

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has begun

she was stopped by no one

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she was kissed by her son

no one can stop her now