Keel Grounding Shoe

 In the olden days, ships had sacrificial wooden "shoes" on the bottom of the keels for the worms to eat instead of the keel and to bounce off of rocks and other immovable objects and protect the keel (worm shoes).  Buehler calls for a metal grounding shoe for the bottom of the keel that is 3/8" steel flat bar.

I made one futile attempt at drilling the steel free hand then went out and bought an inexpensive drill press.  Typically I try and buy good quality tools, but this was going to be a limited use tool so I bought a cheapo and honestly it has served me well for what I needed.

The aft part of the shoe also serves as the attachment point for the rudder.  This is thicker stock- 1/2" with sides to create a stronger attachment to the keel where the rudder will attach.  This required welding.  I don't weld, but my friend Brad is a renaissance man and does many things including welding.  Being the good friend that he is, he dropped what he was doing to help me get this keel piece welded up.

This also required putting the keel on its side (then putting it back up) one of the many times I went through this little dance.  I hit the mild steel with cold galvanizing spray (hence the gray tint).