Nice investigative work... That saves you some time and testing. If you machine the new ones, jest make sure you leave a little room for the paint on the keel. The shims I sent you are pretty thin and you might use just one or none at all.
More important that squaring up the keel while it is in the Up position, is Having it not knocking around in the DOWN position. If wobble just a little while it is UP, so big deal... but you'll want to make a set of keel spacers so it won't wobble or knock when you tack while in the DOWN and locked position. You'll see in my build thread that I went crazy redneck engineer in the garage and maxed out the boat stand height plus added blocking; this was the only way I could allow the keel to come down and up full swing to check spacing and center. You'll notice where I placed my spacers is NOT where Catalina Direct suggests you put them. Mine only enter the keel slot just as the keel before it is full down and they sit flush just inside the slot. This is the strongest part of the keel slot and the best place for them to be, which by the way happens to be the easiest place to measure the gap as well! If you put the keel spacers where CD says to put them, they end up going super high in the pocket and jamming in there, flexing the fiberglass out and possibly cracking it if they are too wide. The top edge of my keel was so thick it nearly jams itself into the top of the pocket while the gap at the bottom is almost 1/4" on each side.
If you have enough epoxy left over and some scrap fiberglass its easy to make your own set of keel spacers. I just layered about a dozen patches of cloth together (8.9 9 oz, use maybe 18- 20 layers of 6 oz cloth) on a piece of plastic, wet them out, covered with plastic and laid a piece of plywood over it with a car battery on top. When cured I cut it in half and used thickened epoxy to glue them together. The I just trimmed it up on my mitre saw and made two rectangle blocks, each was just about 3/8 thick to start. You'll notice in my thread how I had to shape and shave them and they were not equal thickness when complete... not all boat parts are ever really 'square' lol. I was pretty pleased, the keel is pretty dang center and although I didn't try shaking the keel (dear god don't that with the hull that high on the stands!), I'm fairly certeral there is zero play in the keel when its down.
More important that squaring up the keel while it is in the Up position, is Having it not knocking around in the DOWN position. If wobble just a little while it is UP, so big deal... but you'll want to make a set of keel spacers so it won't wobble or knock when you tack while in the DOWN and locked position. You'll see in my build thread that I went crazy redneck engineer in the garage and maxed out the boat stand height plus added blocking; this was the only way I could allow the keel to come down and up full swing to check spacing and center. You'll notice where I placed my spacers is NOT where Catalina Direct suggests you put them. Mine only enter the keel slot just as the keel before it is full down and they sit flush just inside the slot. This is the strongest part of the keel slot and the best place for them to be, which by the way happens to be the easiest place to measure the gap as well! If you put the keel spacers where CD says to put them, they end up going super high in the pocket and jamming in there, flexing the fiberglass out and possibly cracking it if they are too wide. The top edge of my keel was so thick it nearly jams itself into the top of the pocket while the gap at the bottom is almost 1/4" on each side.
If you have enough epoxy left over and some scrap fiberglass its easy to make your own set of keel spacers. I just layered about a dozen patches of cloth together (8.9 9 oz, use maybe 18- 20 layers of 6 oz cloth) on a piece of plastic, wet them out, covered with plastic and laid a piece of plywood over it with a car battery on top. When cured I cut it in half and used thickened epoxy to glue them together. The I just trimmed it up on my mitre saw and made two rectangle blocks, each was just about 3/8 thick to start. You'll notice in my thread how I had to shape and shave them and they were not equal thickness when complete... not all boat parts are ever really 'square' lol. I was pretty pleased, the keel is pretty dang center and although I didn't try shaking the keel (dear god don't that with the hull that high on the stands!), I'm fairly certeral there is zero play in the keel when its down.
) definitely working up some spacers-- and I agree I like the lower location over the top of the trunk as well. It will be interesting filling that much void above the hangers with epoxy-- thinking it will go on one bracket at a time and possibly in two parts directly above the bracket for the seat, and then fill the rest of the cavity from above. Printed out full page photos of the install to go with the actual new and old parts.... should be a fun outing with the machine shop. I think they get a kick out of my crazy boat project-- they enjoy figuring out what all the crazy pieces are for.
