First progress

So this week, I ordered the plywood, the epoxy and the fiberglass. I choose to have the plywood precut, I do not have that much time and this will save a lot of it on this project and ensure a perfect shape for all the sheets.
Also I started with the keel fabrication. I used 18 beautiful knot free pieces of 3/4" x 1-1/2" x 72" (19 x 38 x 1,828 mm) red oak from Lowes. They were all cut to shape and glued together one by one. 14 of them are together now. However, following the last talks on global warming in Copenhaguen, the temperature dropped here in South East Texas and I am waiting for the temperature to go up again to finish this initial part. Hopefully, it will be much faster than waiting for the global warming.

Re-engineering

This lifting keel capability has been taking my mind for too long and I was not able to find a lifting solution that I liked very much. In fact I would like a centerbord version for easy launching and shallow water sailing, with the at sea performance of the keel version... The big issue with the keel version, is that I am afraid it becomes so complicated to launch and get started, that it will kill the rest of the sailing fun.

Then I came accross a post on the bateau forum http://forums.bateau2.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17984&hilit=centerboard+sb18, where a member was thinking about keeping the option of both centerboard or keel version on the same boat. This allows to use the centerboard or the keel. It does not lock from start, which design the boat version will be. It requires a simple modification of the centerboard trunk and the addition of a couple removable inserts in the centerboard trunk, when the lifting keel is used. The width of the keel and the centerboard is about the same and I will use the holes made for the axis of the centerboard manoeuvering sheaves to lock the inserts in position. The inserts will become the foward and aft guides of the lifting keel trunk. Here is a quick sketch of the option I am about to take.