Leeboard Gaurds

One of the things I've been sweating is getting a good fit on the leeboard guards and keeping them parallel to the centerline at the same time.  Turned out to not be so bad.  I screwed down some 1x2 with one end dead on the centerline marked on the bulkheads.  then I did the math to figure out where the outside edge of the top guard was going to be in relation to the side of the boat.  I had a couple of 8ft long trim pieces with the factory edge on the 1/2 " ply, so I clamped that down and squared it off to the centerline.

Then I did the math for a rectangular blank for the top guard, marked the pivot point on the boat and on the blank.  I also marked both ends of the guard on the boat.  I slid it up until it was kissing the boat at the high point and squared it off to the factory edge on the ply.  The I scripted the curve onto the ply.  Cut it with the little skill saw, and it only to a little work with the block plane and sandpaper to flush and square it up nice.

This was only a single 1/2" layer, so i used it for a template on another scrap piece and traced it.  Cut it out, spread the PL Premium carefully and clamped the bejeezus out of it.  Jim Specifies 1" thick ply.  Once I glue and screw it to the boat, I can fair up any errors by checking the alignment of the slot the same way before I cut it.  Then I'll use the inside edge of the slot to scribe the cut on the lower pivot guard to make sure they're dead parallel.

It was actually easy.