18' Sailboat Build (Bilge Keel Template & Molds)

Here along the seacoast in Downeast Maine, “Wintah” is moving in on us quite rapidly. The temperature over the past couple of mornings has been 30 and 32 degrees, Fahrenheit (about 0 degrees Celsius). This means most of the outside work on my 18’ sailboat build will soon be put on hold for the next several months until Spring and the return of warmer weather.

This week, I made a template for the curvature of the hull where the bilge keels will go, and then made a template for one of the bilge keels. That template will also become the mold (along with three duplicated templates) for pouring the concrete/scrap-steel bilge keels. I have not yet assembled the molds, however this video displays how I made the template for he bilge keel curvature such that they will fit the hull bottom properly, and how I made the actual bilge keel templates that will also become the molds.

Here's the video:

https://youtu.be/TuCplTONKCQ