The keel-board should be 4½ inches wide, 1 inch thick, and should be cut pointed, to fit snugly in the bow, and nailed in place along the centre of the floor, before the seats are put in the boat. A similar board along the bottom, joining the two cleats each side of the skeg at y ([Fig. 199]) and extending to the bow will prevent the danger of loosening the bottom-planks when bumping over rifts, shallow places, or when the boat needs to be hauled on a stony shore; this bottom-board may also be omitted to save time and lumber and is not shown in the diagram.
The Skeg
is a triangular board ([Figs. 198] and [199]), roughly speaking, of the same dimensions as the pieces sawed from the side-board b, c, d ([Fig. 196]). The stern-end will be about 7 inches wide and it will taper off to nothing at y ([Fig. 198]). The skeg is held in place by cleats of 1-inch lumber, 2 inches wide, nailed to the bottom on each side of the skeg. To get the proper dimensions experiment with the pieces sawed from the A boards and cut your skeg board so that its bottom edge will be level with the bottom at y ([Fig. 198]); the diagonal line, to correspond with the slant of the stern, can be accurately drawn if the skeg is left untrimmed until it is fastened in place.
To Fasten on the Skeg
rule a line from the centre of the stern to the centre of the bow and toe-nail the skeg on along this line. This must be accurately done or you will make a boat which will have an uncomfortable tendency to move in circles. After toe-nailing the skeg to the bottom, nail the two cleats, one on each side of the skeg, and let them fit as closely as may be to the keel. Now saw off the stern-ends of the cleats and lay a rule along the stern, as the stick is placed in [Fig. 198], where the boy has his finger; rule a pencil line across the protruding end of the keel and saw off the end along the diagonal line, so that the stern-cleat z ([Fig. 198]) may be nailed in place to finish the work.
You can buy rowlocks of galvanized iron for about a quarter of a dollar a pair; the brass ones are not expensive, but even when the store furnishes the hardware there must be a firm support of some sort to hold the rowlock.
If you use the manufactured article, to be found at any hardware store, the merchant will supply you with the screws, plates, and rowlocks, but he will not furnish you with the blocks for the holes in which the spindles of the rowlocks fit. [Fig. 202] shows a rude, but serviceable, support for the lock made of short oaken posts much in vogue in Pennsylvania, but [Fig. 201] is much better, and if it is made of oak and bolted to the sides of the boat it will last as long as the boat. [Fig. 201] may be put upon either the outside or inside of the boat, according to the width amidship.