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Picked up my white oak for keelson and sisters (cheeks) today. Inspecting original keelson still on boat it appears to have slight curve (rocker). Is this correct?
I had the impression from other posts that the keelson's are a straight shot from transom to stem.
Also, I need to replace the stem that fastens to the keelson. It appears to be thicker than the keelson? Stem is 1 3/4" and keelson is 1 1/4".
New keelson material has been planed to 1 3/8". I asked them to to just take the "hair" off the 6/4" rough sawn. A suggestion has been made to run the "cheeks" long (forward) to overlap the the stem/keelson joint. Fastening the cheeks into the stem. If stem and keelson are diff. widths I'm considering notching the cheeks at the stem to allow them to run long across sides of stem. Thoughts?
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Woody,

Keel & Keelson should be dead flat, no curves or hooks. Curves or hook will cause the hull to "HUG" or "Belly" which will cause handling problems.
Yes, the original internal portion of stem is wider then the keelson is. It is tapered on each side to the width of the keelson and thru botled to the outer stem and keel where they join.
I see no problem with running the sister keelsons longer and either notching or tapering them to flush out into the stem. A little extra support never hurts as long as you keep things straight and a smooth transition from one to the other.

Good Luck,

Phill

[/url]Stem to be replaced after keelson. Stem notch approx. 2 1/2 inch deep.




Keelson removed.



Keelson disassembled.



Tape illustrates tapering of keelson at attachment to stem.

Here are my questions:
Keelson is not straight. When I put a string on top and bottom, top has about 1/2 taper and bottom has about 1/4 inch. The aft end of the keelson is 3 3/8 inch wide and the forward width is approx. 2 1/2 inches.
Is the top tapered or the bottom?
Should I duplicate size of keelson and sisters or can I increase the depth?
I had to cut three screws at the inside of the transom to remove keelson. Are these screws installed through transom?
I uncovered three heads but they only spin. Broken?

I'd replicate what you have, however, increasing size is not a problem. Increasing size may necessitate decreasing size of floor supports or other changes.

Yes, there are typically three screws from the outside of the transom into the keelson. They are bunged with wood plugs. If the heads spin, they were probably broken.

Andreas