What's up my sleeve?

Who cares---all that matters is that I finally got the keel faired so I could use it to glass up the keel sleeve. My first attempt on the keel sleeve consisted of three wraps of polypropylene paint drop cloth on the keel. The sleeve itself was composed of a layer of 0-90 cloth, a layer of biaxial, and a layer 0-90 cloth. I wet out the first (inner) layer with epoxy mixed with a liberal amount of graphite powder. I figured that if there was any wear on the inner surface of the sleeve, super-slippery graphite would be released---couldn't be bad, right?

FYI, to avoid giving yourself a hernia trying to remove the sleeve, drip a little water between the release liner and the foil and that sucker will slide right off! Ask me how I know...

Turns out the first try on the sleeve didn't work out just right since the end of the keel I used as a male mold had a chord dimension 1/8" shorter than the opposite end. Therefore, the resulting sleeve bound up as I tried to slide it down the foil. I wound up running the trailing edge of the sleeve through my table saw to open it up and "remolded" the sleeve around the opposite (wider) end of the foil with a ~1mm sheet of foam between the leading 1/3 of the foil (sorry no pics). This allowed a little extra space between the foil and the sleeve to account for maybe another layer of epoxy and finish paint.

I dry fit the sleeve with a couple of pieces of plywood with groove cut in them to serve as guides to keep the sleeve vertical. I epoxied those in place and set about trimming the keel box side panels to fit.

To glass in the keel sleeve I spread generous fillets on both sides of the sleeve, for and aft. I also filleted the bottom edge of the sleeve (with the sleeve protruding ~1/4" through the hull) and layed a 3" strip of glass cloth along each side at the sleeve-to-hull joint.

I epoxied up the core of the keel box with a bead of epoxy on the edges of the vertical sleeve guides and a bead up the sleeve at the maximum thickness. After getting the side panels in place I clamped them and turned in for the night.

Next up: Trimming the keel sleeve even with the top of the keel box core and extending the sides of the keel box up to deck level. Stay tuned!