This week we are removing the gutter from the keel (see photo).
The keel is one of the few remaining parts of the boat that hasn’t been looked at.
Should there be any damage to the wood, it needs be repaired now, as to do it later would require quite a bit of backtracking.
Unlike Essex smacks that would settle into the mud once the tide went out, Whitstable boats had shingle beneath them. In any kind of swell when the keel touched the seabed during the ebb or on the new flood tide, it would take a lot of battering. To protect from damage, cast iron U shaped gutters were placed around the wood.