Yes! It's straight!

So, the hull sits on the keel. Now it is time to tie the frames and ribs together with the keel, before we fit the floors around the keel bolts. To do this I needed to cut sockets into the rabatt to allow for a flush finish so the garboard can sit properly... Only about 40 to cut... A nice afternoons work after the stress of lowering the boat!

And a little more fairing of the stem... But I will complete that when the planking is finished next week.

The knee is connected to the.... Backbone?!

Well sort of! We finally got the hull to a position I felt it was safe to lift it from the hog and keel. This was a very nervous moment ( ok, half a day!) and we don't have pictures of the process. We lifted her with two points fixed to the beams in the workshop, then supported her all round. This allowed us to remove the knee, hog and parts of the stem and sternpost for renewal.
The knee was in dreadful shape.....

 And literally fell apart in my hands!

 Even the bit that held together did not hold up for a more rigorous inspection...

But we already had a bit of grown oak for the job. Out with the chainsaw and time for some carving...
The first is it roughed to shape with the chainsaw...

 This is it sort of ready for final finishing...

 

Before I could proceed with it's shaping I needed to make the hog and the bit of the stern-post that needs replacing.

This is the old hog sat on the oak that will make the new.

And rough hewn to shape. All the final shaping will be done in situ, to fair it into the keel. the rabatt must be cut after the hog is correctly dimensioned.

You can see the new "backbone" of the boat now all ready to meet up with the rest of the boat hanging over it. This was a really scary process! Lots of running around, different sight-lines and measurements: jacking the keel here, sliding it there... Unti at last it slotted together!

Is it straight?

Progress

Well the title is progress... And yes we are progressing! Always too slowly, but hej-ho! Just keep going...
We got a nice picture...

But only because we pulled the transom... Not a pretty sight behind that, rotten and messy. We needed to replace a bit of the "keel" running to the transom and a knee. But thankfully the hood-ends were all in good shape.

The tarnsom was built with an inner and outer - the inner you can see what is left of it! The outer looks ok - but we will be making new.

The plan is to laminate up from 7mm ply, then a veneer...
The knee was fun to play with, got to use the chain-saw again ;-)

As you can see, my "helper" strolled back after I was finished with the noisy tools. Then some finer shaping...

And eventually it fitted back in place.

Then it wa stime to scarf in some new wood under it, while Oscar welded up a ring frame to support the new transom... Pictures to come when all is fitted.