Finally good weather and time to work on the hull! The materials arrived from Pt. Roberts. I opted for aluminum keel runners .188 thick (3/16) to top off the maple & oak.. for the "sacrificial strip". Like everyone else before me, I was worried about galvanic action between dissimilar metals.. and debated using stainless steel strips instead of aluminum. The big cost factor convinced me otherwise. In the end, I decided on trying American made aluminum screws. To say the least, I wasn't sure about the strength, but my experiment has paid off.. I can torque them down as tight as I need to and haven't had any snapping problems or stripped heads. I think this in part to made in usa versus China. I used Sikaflex as a bedding/bonding agent liberally applied and spaced the screws 1 foot apart. I countersunk the heads slightly.. I thought I had ordered oval heads that taper but they were the round ones... I did drill pilot holes, which I would have done anyhow as oak and maple can be prone to splitting.
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