By Dave Acree

We are at the assembly point for the Victoria to start work on the keel. But before getting start, there are a few of things you need to know about. First, some skippers have stated that their kit’s plastic keel fin have a slight bend to it. If your keel fin does, to solve the problem, obtain a pan and some water. Heat the water to boiling temperature, and pour it into the pan. Next, submerge the plastic keel fin in the pan of hot water. Once the plastic fin has been in the hot water for a minute or so, remove it and hold it with a cloth towel, and put an over bend at the point where the original bend is at. Hold the over bent fin until it cools and check to see if the fin is now straight. If not, do it again until it is.

The next step is to sand the plastic fin to only remove mold impressions. The Victoria Class rules only allow you to clean up the fin, not change its shape or size. First, get a small wood sanding block and 320 and 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. The 320 sandpaper is the right grit so it won’t take off too much plastic. Sand across the body of the fin, not along the length of the fin. Sand both sides just enough to remove any bumps and impressions.

Once done with the 320 grit sandpaper, switch to the 600 grit paper. Again, sand across the body of the fin. The 600 grit sandpaper will remove the 320 grit sandpaper marks and put a nice finish on the plastic fin. When done, check you work to make sure all bumps and impressions are gone. If there are any deep impressions, you can use a filler to level the surface and sand smooth. This is also a good time to clean up the lead bulb of any imperfections. Just remember, don’t remove too much lead, and just sand enough to clean it up and stop. You can fill in the bumps with filler before you paint when you are done with the assembly of the keel.

At this point you may decide to follow the kit’s instructions when it comes to attaching the lead bulb to the fin. Or you can follow Victoria Class rules, and extend the length of the keel to the maximum seven inches. If you decide to extend the fin’s length, there are some important items to know. First, the total length to the keel, which includes the fin and bulb, can not exceed seven inches at the trailing edge of the fin.

To start the process you will need a way to extend the fin’s length to the correct length. The lead bulb’s slot has enough depth to handle the extension, so that won’t be a problem. The easiest way to get the right length is to use shims in the bulb’s slot. The best way to this is use hollow round tubes for the shims. As shown in Photo 1, I used hollowed out aluminum tubes that allowed the two screws to pass through.

Insert the fin into the hull slot with the two shims in place, and check the measurement with a ruler, (see Photo 3). If the fin’s trailing edge is greater than seven inches, just file the shims down and recheck. This is an important step in assembling the keel, so check the measurement to make sure the bulb is at the seven inch depth before you glue the bulb on. I like to be a sixteenth of an inch short of seven inches so I’m well within the rules. One last thing, make sure your bulb is level with the hull when resting on the fin. If not file the shim to level the bulb; again do many checks and measurements.

The next step is filling in the bottom of the lead bulb’s slot up to the top of the shims. To do this, use epoxy with lead granules mixed in. The reason for this to add more weight to the bulb, which will make the boat sail better. To start, first place the shims in place and with a couple drops of CA glue, glue the shims in place right over the two screw holes. Once the CA glue has dried, mix as much lead granules as you can into a batch of epoxy. Place the leaded epoxy into the bulb’s slot until it is level with the shims, and allow setting up, (seeing Photo 2).

With the length extension of the keel, the kit’s two HMI3-15B self-tapping screws are not long enough to reach through the bulb into the fin adequately. You will have to go to the hardware store and purchase two similar screws that are a quarter of an inch or so longer. To cut to correct length, insert the fin into the bulb slot and screw in the two new screws. Don’t screw in too far because you don’t want to crack the plastic fin, just enough for the screws to bite well into the fin. Check the length and snip off the excess. Do this for the other screw and check again and shorten if you have to. Once done, mix up some epoxy and apply it into the bulb’s slot, and insert the fin. Screw in the two screws and wipe off any epoxy that is oozing. At this point you are now at the point of no return. If you carefully measured and checked the length of the fin at the trailing edge, and it is no more than seven inches, this part of the job is done.

Once the epoxy has dried, the last step in assembling the keel is to fill in the two screw holes in the bulb. Mix up some epoxy with added lead granules, put the mixture into the bulb’s two screw holes, level off at the bulb’s surface, and allow to set up. Now you are now done!