chris stevens

Ok thanks for these. In the end I have closed them without I stitching everything.. phew. I put the boat on a pair of sawhorses without the cradles so that the whole weight bore down on the keel at the point where it touched the horses. The gap closed and I was able to pull the zip ties nearest to the horse tighter. Moving along and adding the weight of a small toolbox to the bow bulkhead I was able to get them all tight.

Thanks for the reply. I did have the keel stitched but fairly loosely. I guess I can go back and repeat the fold. Can I also put in a strip of ply and glass the bottom anyway?

I've just had the fine experience of stitching my spindrift together but have ended up with a relatively large gap between the boards at the keel. Picture attached. Trying to pull the hull boards together with the zip ties I'm using for stitching is not making much difference, one of them is even slipping backwards if I try too hard to tighten it. I'm wondering what is the best way to proceed. Should I try to push the hull boards together in order to close the gap? Do I even need to close it when I could just fill it with thickened epoxy ? If I do this will it compromise the boats strength ? all help gratefully received. Chris