After putting the trunk in place on the keelson this morning, I located the first bolt hole by tapping a bolt down through the log and rapping it to make a mark on the keelson. I drilled through the keelson, bottom and gripe, using a level to keep the drill straight up. After the first bolt was seated, I marked and drilled a second hole at the other end of the trunk. Since I was drilling 1/4" holes for 1/4" bolts, the holes (after the first one) needed to be in just the right place or they wouldn't fit. I was worried how that would go, needlessly. I put a rat tail file in the electric drill and reamed the hole out just a little, and the bolt dropped right in. The other six bolt holes went just as well. I'm using carriage bolts, which for final installation will be driven up from underneath, so I went under the boat and countersunk the bolt holes so the head of the bolts will seat below the gripe's surface level, and can be filled and faired later. To give myself a fore and aft reference for fitting the trunk when the thwarts are in, I marked the side of the trunk at the bottom, perpendicular to one bolt hole, and marked on the keelson at the same place.
When all the centerboard bolts were drilled, and the board was in place, it was finally time to cut the centerboard slot in the bottom. I have been putting that off on any pretext, because cutting a hole in the bottom of the boat is a thought which should make anyone uncomfortable. And any mistake would be hard to fix. To mark where to cut the slot, I could think of two approaches. I could mark where the outside of the centerboard trunk lies, and measure how far the slot is from the ends and sides; or I could go low-tech and tape a pencil to a long stick and reach down in the centerboard trunk and mark the slot outline. I did both. The measured marks lined up pretty well with the stick/pencil marks. Where they were off a little, I gave greater weight to the stick/pencil marks. But I was out of excuses: it was time to cut. Using the circular saw, I lined up the blade and the saw's reference mark with the cut line and gradually lowered the saw until it was flush with the keelson. Success: the saw blade was on the cut line. After cutting the fore and aft lines, I cut the ends with the jigsaw, and checked the hole by replacing the centerboard trunk. Not only looks OK, the saws had made clean cuts which will need very little trimming or sanding. A hole has never looked so good to me:
With the centerboard bolt hole reference marked, I could start to fit the trunk with the thwarts. I moved the trunk out of the way and screwed the forward thwart in place.
Using the refernce marks, I measured for the notch to cut in the thwart for the trunk, and made the cut with the jigsaw.
When the trunk was moved into the notch in the forward thwart and the bolt locations checked, I removed the thwart and the trunk and repeated the process with the thwart at the after end of the trunk. When the notch was cut in that thwart, I replaced the forward thwart and the trunk, and negotiated the after thwart into place. When the after thwart dropped into place, it was a happy moment. I had been worried that this assembly would be an impossible Chinese puzzle, like screwing three pieces together in both directions from the inside. In the event, the trunk and the thwarts fit together very well with little complaint.
For good measure, I hung the centerboard, just to see how it would look in place.
Although I'd already accomplished a lot today, there was still time left to take it all apart and sand and fair the outside of the centerboard trunk, in preparation for painting it. That will be easier before it is bolted in place and the thwarts are screwed down, putting some parts out of sight. For the same reason, I'll paint the underside of the thwarts before permanently attaching them, and the inside sides and frames before any of it.
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