Sailing Scamp 284: Skegs glued

Saturday was a busy day; I cleaned up the skegs, coated them twice and did some filleting under the deck and cabin top while she was upside down. It all went well, but I don't have any pictures to share. Pretty boring stuff.

Sunday was a less productive, but at least the difference can be seen.

I started off by sanding and cleaning up the skegs that I had coated on Saturday. I set them on the boat and used the shinto to pare down high spots until I was comfortable with the few gaps.

Then I was completely halted while I decided where to position the skegs.
I bought a trailer with rollers on the back. My plan had been to center the skegs on the rear rollers, which were centered 25 1/2" apart.

Center the skegs on the rear rollers.

However, that put the skegs right where I wanted to put some andersen mini bailers in the foot well.

In the below shot, you are looking up into the footwell. You can see a pencil line near the outside wall. That pencil line was going to be the center line of the skeg. That wouldn't leave much room for the bailer in the little well.

The footwell. See the pencil lines?

I considered getting 5" rollers instead of 10" rollers and rearranging the trailer. That would pull each skeg in by 2 1/2" inches (the second line pencil line above). This would leave room for the bailers just athwart the skegs.

After looking at it for awhile, I decided it was easier to push the skegs athwart by 3/4" (essentially, use the center line as an edge line because the skegs are 1 1/2"). I'll have room to put the bailers inside the skegs, the skegs will still sit on the rollers, I'll have room to put on a centerboard gasket and the skegs are close to the seat supports for structure.

Once that was decided, then I had the terrible job of drilling holes for the 1 1/4" stainless screws. The screws went through the hull, sole and doubler. Unfortunately, I forgot there were 3 layers there rather than 2. I should have used longer screws.

I measured carefully and drilled down from the bottom of the hull first. Then I drilled countersunk holes from the footwell up.

Two small screw holes

I drove in stainless screws until they just fit into the pilot holes in the skeg.

You can just barely see the screws

Then it was time to butter up the skeg surface. I mixed up some thickened 404/406 epoxy and filled in any low spots in the keg bottom. Then I pumped a couple more pumps to make a slightly thinner epoxy that was brushed on to cover the entire bottom; all uncoated wood surfaces. Then I put on a full bead of 610. These skegs aren't going anywhere.

Flipped them over and drove in the screws. Clamped the aft and weighted them down with tiles and buckets of water. Also ran a gloved finger over the squish out.