Eric Johnson's "Victoria" (P19): New Keelcap
Here's a new keelcap I built. I destroyed the fiberglass original when I removed it last winter to rebuild my rusty old keel.
It is milled from a solid piece of 2" thick mohagany. Oak dowels were insterted into the ends for aesthetic reasons, and to strengthen it along the lateral axis. A single piece of oak was glued to the bearing surface, the theory being that oak is harder than mohagany and would tolerate wear better.
It is finished with three coats of spar varnish. For an exterior application, I would normally use many more coats, but it looked so good after three coats, and it would be protected inside the cabin, that I decided to consider it done.
Hardware is all stainless, and it goes through the cap and through the underlying steel. In the steel, I over-bored the holes, filled with epoxy, and redrilled to the correct size is an effort to minimize galvanic corrosion from the dissimilar stainless bolts against the mild steel keel. One of the bolts, as you can see, uses an eyenut. A ball-bearing wire sheave is used for the cable loop, and at the end of the cable I have swaged on an old halyard shackle. This arrangement allows me, with the keel lowered, to easily remove to cable and tie it out of the way.
As you can see, there's also a layer of inexpensive foam weatherstripping to help seal the joint and protect the surfaces. Also notice I've added some brass coat hooks to the compression post - this has proven to be a very handy feature and keeps jackets and such off the berths.