First thing was to try and deal with the angle at the bow and the measured distance at the control point. After pushing and prodding, blocks and spacers, and several additional wires used to try to stitch that gap from yesterday, no luck. Drastic measures were called for.
Two blocks and a spacer was what it took to spread the panels, achieve the angle and almost match the distance at the control point (1/2" too wide right now). This will be an absolute pain to deal with for a while since I'll have to work and fiberglass around this contraption.
Even with the extra wire used to try and close the gap I was still not successful so I went to stage two: blue painters tape. I started out just putting the tape under the keel along the gaps, but decided to do the entire keel.
Then it was on to preparation of the fiberglass. Multiple strip 4", 6" and 8" wide.
Multiple sets of parallel lines to the keel were drawn to assist in alignment of the fiberglass and then the epoxy work began. A quick painting of resin in the keel area to wet the plywood and then multiple batches of peanut butter were made, poured in the keel and spread evenly. The area around the bow was tricky as the epoxy needed to be very thick so that it didn't run back down. Then the layers of fiberglass were laid in; 4", 6" then 8" on top.
This massive amount of fiberglass and resin (plus its' duplicate on the bottom when the hull is flipped and the fiberglass layer on the top and the bottom) provides the necessary strength to hold the keel together. As you can see from the above picture, the fiberglass is still white necessitating a large additional quantity of resin be added, carefully spread to keep all the layers in place, bubbles worked to the surface, and up near the bow, the fiberglass cut to allow for the bend in the hull creating folds in the fiberglass. All the while the clock is ticking as the chemical reaction in the epoxy starts and I could actually feel the heat from the epoxy as I was working the glass. But finally it was done!
It's a far cry from perfect, but it'll do fine. I think it will take a couple days to cure, which is good as I have the chines to work on for the next couple days and then I'll fiberglass the inside of the bottom.
I put some fiberglass on one side of each of the shelves at the scarf (it needed to be done days ago, but I couldn't get to them for lack of space) and that finished it up for the day. I've run out of working space so I did a little preparation for the next few days that included another run to Home Depot and then I quit for the night. Early too! 5pm.
7.5 Hours