.
: I am now to the strongback stage and frankly am stumped. Tom Yost shows the
: supports for the strongback at stations 1 and 8 for this model, but I just
: can't seem to figure out at what height to put these and what type of
: device to build to hold them in place. I will try his method for the take
: apart models, but then how does one adjust the keel depth along the way?
: Weight the forms/keel to drop it? Just perplexed here, and would
: appreciate any advice from those of you who have been there, done that. I
: don't want to totally burn out Dave since I'm sure I will have more
: questions for him soon! :-)

Kyle,

The link below shows you exactly how to to attach the sections and the keel
low point to the strongback. I will go over it here also.

There are only two sections attached to the strongback...1 and 8, assuming
there are 8 cross sections.

Since section 1 and 8 ( keel) will end up 1 inch above the baseline, they can
be attached to the strongback at whatever height you want as long as they are
at the same height in this case, and that becomes the baseline for attaching
the other cross sections relative to section 1 and 8 height. ( See attached Link )

http://yostwerks.com/Frame2.html - Sea Ranger

The lowest point of the keel is near 0" above baseline so if you attached
sections 1 and 8.... 4" above the strongback, they are actually 1" higher than
the keel low point. Since the instructions show them at 4" above the
strongback, then the keel low point S/B 3" above the strongback to reflect a
1" difference between the keel low point and the keel at sections 1 and 8.

If you choose to attach all 8 cross sections to the strongback, then you will
use the keel offsets to determine the "relative" difference between each cross
section keel height to determine the cross section locations. If you raise
section 1 and 8 by 4" when attaching them to the strongback, then you must
raise all other dections relative to this 4 inches. I rarely do it this way
as it's more work...

Read the Instructions...and don't overthink this
Tom