Restoration of 25ft Motor Cutter - 5

 Work to repair the keel involved cutting a new scarf on the forward end of the keel which had been lopped off by the original repairers. We had previously driven out and removed the four 5/8" copper rivets that held the forward lifting eye plate but there remained a 3/8" copper keelbolt through the section in which we were to cut the scarf.  There is a bolt like this every 6-7" throughout the length of the keel.

Keel bolt being driven out. Line of scarf marked on keel timber.

The scarf line was marked on the keel and using a power reciprocating saw (which was a Godsend as the timber is very, very hard) the scarf was cut to near the line.

Sawing along the line of the scarf

We attempted to rasp, chisel or plane the scarf but lying on one's back under the boat coupled with the hardness of the wood made this a very difficult task. We opted for the router solution and carefully made and clamped a guide ramp to the keel and ran the router fitted with an end mill over it.

Router guide clamped to keel

Cleaning up the face of the scarf didn't take long

The scarf was given a final clean up with the chisel.

Completed scarf. The holes are the lifting eye-plate bolts

The shape of the keel repair piece was marked onto our new length of timber and it was sawn and planed on the bench till a good close fit was obtained. This took time.

Cutting and fitting the new timber section

Checking the new section for closeness of fit.

The forward scarf had an existing stopwater tight in the joint between forefoot and hog underside and the new timber's scarf was cut to match this. The sides were carefully planed to give a seam for caulking and it was made to fit snugly up to the underside of the hog.

Next job will be to drill new keelbolt holes and bed this in and fasten. I've got some bronze rod, nuts and washers on order - eye-wateringly expensive!