: How did you install it?

I used the 'half round' of the 1/2" wide variety. They used to sell it by the foot at the Wood Boat Shop in Seattle before it went belly up. I bought some by the pound at Alaska Copper and Brass. While called 'half round' or maybe 'half oval', it's not, at 1/2" wide by 1/8" thick at the center.

I measured the length, then scribed the keel and removed 1/8" of it. This means I removed the 'sacrificial' keel tape, the 6 oz. hull covering, and just a bit of the plywood itself in this area, leaving my interior glass and fillet to hold the boat together. The brass is pre-bent to conform to the curve, then installed on a thin bed of thickened epoxy and held in place every 4" or so with 3/4" brass screws set into countersunk holes. On the inside, I made little pyramids of thickened epoxy to cover and reinforce the screw ends. Before final installation, I filed the excess width of the brass to be even with the hull, so up around the stern it's only about 1/4" wide now.

Since this is intended to be an abrasion strip rather than a crash bumper, I installed it only on the stern. So I really can't say what kind of true skid plate it would make.