Slow going

More slow going here in NH, very very little has been accomplished as of late. Between work, 5 F. deg. temps, and a sore back, Ive been laying off my boat for a bit.

In the meantime check out my compatriot in CA!

The GIS fleet is building, people are getting STOKED, sailing will be going down! What are YOU waiting for!?!?

FrankenBoom!

I built my boom originally as a temporary boom to get me on the water ASAP.  How does that old saying go?  "There is nothing so permanent as a temporary fix" or something like that.

Anyway, that temporary boom has been quite permanent on my Goat Island Skiff for the next two sailing seasons.  It has always been a little wobbly, especially since I use my sail loose-footed.  The tension along the foot slightly distorts the boom and I do lose some power.

I decided this winter to finally fix this boom.  Originally I was going to build a fancy shmancy box boom like many of my Goat Island Skiff compatriots.  I went over to Goose Bay Lumber and purchased a bunch of cedar for $63 and cut it into a bunch of strips only to realize it would be way wobbly. So then I got some Doug Fir for $15 and cut it up and put together another box boom, but I still wasnt happy with it.

So screw it!  I decided to take my old boom and slap on one of those DF strips to the top of my boom, to compliment the lower horizontal piece.  I am proud of my laziness.  BEHOLD FRANKENBOOM!

All mocked up!

All glued up!

All sanded up!

So, this boom is definitely stiffer than the old temporary boom.  It is also heavier, but not by much.  I am happy with the results and will test it out this year on my Adventures-- of which there will be more than last year because there is a modicum amount of income flowing into my coffers.

That being said I have some very nice strips of western red cedar, no knots, 12 long, for sale.

On a side, the inrepid reader may also be interested in following my slow-poke restoration of my Beverly Dinghy.

Rudder stock design 4 Mast gluing

In yet another installment of "I try to re-design the rudder stock" I have received yet another set of plans from a Goat Island Skiff builder in New York.  He has graciously supplied me with these two schematics of his own design, as a solution to removing the tiller from the rudder assembly without having to take the rudder off the transom.  It is self-explanatory:

I really like this design, it is better than mine for two reasons:  1. It maintains Mr. Storers rudder stock design and hopefully solves the structural issue that he was concerned about, 2. There is less time fiddling over the transom pulling very critical pins over water of yet-to-be-determined depth, if you get my drift.  I can remove the tiller from the safety of the cabin.  Unfortunately, I will still have a stub of tiller sticking into my domain, but I think, for now, this is the idea Im going to go with.  The great thing about the rudder stock is that it is simple and easy to construct, I can always make another.

In other news, the mast was glued in its first step today.  In the previous post, I shaped the narrow staves.  This was a workout, but I worked carefully, and Im happy with the result.  Then, off to make the spacers for the ladder frame.  I used a piece of fir that was lounging around the garage, some stud material.  I used some good parts, and cut them to fit.  The base plug meant a trip to Lowes.  This is the first wood part of the boat that was not bought at either of my two local lumber stores.  Sorry guys.  Anyway, an 8 piece of 4x4 cedar.  I thought about using fir, for a few bucks less, but I went with the rot-resistant cedar.  Its an important piece, its light, and it should be good.  The other spacers Ill goo up with epoxy and make them plastic.

Well, that was interesting how the photos lined up, but I like it!  Notice the base plug.  After a quick mock-up my lovely wife and I took one of the uncut stave stock pieces and brought it into the basement, where I can get an even floor workspace and a slightly higher temperature, better for quicker gluing.  We made sure that we could get the wood in and out of the basement two different ways, so I dont build the mast and then get it out.  I am positive I can get the mast out of the basement.

Layed out ready for the dry fit:

Sweet, I did it again, but I dont know how.  The mast is quite straight, but I decided to use one of the wide uncut staves as a backbone for gluing, that way I could ensure that the mast is straight with no wobbles.  It also gives me a good even workspace for gluing too.  I covered one stave with packing tape, and glued away:  Notice too, the hardwood runners that will be glued to the bottom of the hull, they are long ones and needed to be scarfed.

It went well.  The bricks are slightly nudging the mast into a straight position.  Youll also notice that you dont see much of the wide stave underneath this glue-up, thats because the tolerances are super tight.  I overcut my narrow staves by 1mm and it pretty much ate up all the space on the wide stave.  I briefly considered re-planing the staves, re-working the spacers, and then gluing, but my lovely wife stopped me with some business graduate degree mumbo-jumbo stuff and talked me out of it.  I might have to plane a little extra off the base to get it to fit in the mast step, and I can (with difficulty) enlarge the mast step as well if need be.

Tomorrow, gluing the wide staves and completing the box.
 

Rudder design 4 daggerboard glassing

After many trips to the hardware store getting stainless steel carriage bolts and machine screws that were often the wrong size, I finally got my rudder box together in some sort of usable fashion.  As my intrepid readers may remember in three other previous posts (search in the month of March), I have been trying to figure something out in order to get my tiller to be detachable.  I went with the final option, illustrated in this post. 

The rudder box is glued up but not glued together.

As you can see, I am wearing my camo Converse sneakers.  Very cool.  The original tiller design calls for the tiller to be permanently attached to the top of the box, where my shortened tiller stock is now-- so originally that would be much longer, but permanent.  This way, I can remove the tiller and leave the rudder in the water, freeing up open space in the boat during quiet times.  I used a carriage bolt with a butterfly nut tensioned by a split washer.  Dont drop it, and carry a spare! 

The spacer is as of now temporary, but I could do one of three things.  I could lengthen the spacer to make it full-tiller length, giving the tiller laminate strength; I could shorten the spacer; I could make two evenly spaced spacers, I could leave it the way it is.  This is yet to be determined.  Heres a closeup for the interested:

Im having some serious problems with my hardware for the rudder, unfortunately.  I wanted a pintle and gudgeon style assembly, but my 1.5" gudgeons are not fitting around my rudder box, even though its 1.5" wide.  Something aint right.  Also, Id have to expand my tiller access hole in the transom to accommodate the up and down motion to get the rudder in and and out.  So Im scraping the pintle/gudgeon idea and Im going to go with the gudgeon/gudgeon idea, as the original plans stipulate.  Which means I have to find some sort of long pin to thread between all of them.  Boo to that. 

Also today Ive been working on my blades.  My rudder got sanded down to the matte finish, and I carefully taped off vertical areas that would run, and applied one last thin coat of epoxy onto one side of the rudder.  Tomorrow, the other side.  I used a plastic spreader, and it went very well, very smooth, and Im very happy with my luscious result:

Youll notice on the left hand side that the leading edge still isnt coated, this was taped off earlier.

Then, off to glassing my daggerboard!  Much like the same for the rudder, except I cut a bigger piece.  I had a lot of runs in my rudder, and I figured this time I would lay the board flat, spread epoxy with a squeegee, and then turn it over, do the other side, and then hang it up. 

So I went ahead and did one side horizontally:

 I thought I was being pretty smart. 

So then I turned it over and did the other side.  Something caught my attention and I looked underneath my board and...

... well I didnt take any pictures because needless to say the whole first side has very neatly peeled away from the board, thanks to Mr. Theory-of-Gravity.  Gravity is only a theory by the way, they should teach both sides in schools so kids know this, because there is lots of evidence that gravity does not exist, but "they" dont want to show you it.  I digress.  Today, gravity was obviously working quite well.  I finished the job at hand, and then hung it up, and re-spread the cloth down.  Fortunately not much damage done, but for my smartness, well, not so smart now.  Here it is all hung up to dry:

Its late, Im still periodically coating the board to get the weave filled, and Im tired.  I timed this one bad.

Thanks for reading!

Designing new rudder stock 1

Im trying to build a swing-up rudder stock design for my Goat Island Skiff, similar to the one I have on my Laser, except wood, and fitted for the GIS rudder.  The original plans call for a daggerboard style rudder stock where the rudder is removed vertically through the box, and the tiller is permanently attached to the box.  See here.  I am not a big fan of this design, though I appreciate its simplicity.

Here is why:

1.  I do not want a permanently attached tiller to the rudder stock.  I would like to be able to remove the tiller, and leave the rudder in the water, or at least raised but still attached to the transom.

2.  I do not like the bungee cord design to the hold the rudder in place

3. I want to use pintles and gudgeons, which would be difficult with a permanently attached tiller and dropping the assembly into place.

Here is a quick mock-up of a slightly enlarged rudder box per the plans, with a rudimentary rounded rudder top for swingability.

The stock has been extended 3 cm aft, and 1 cm down.  I am limited by the size of the transom and the location of the hole to accept the tiller in the transom.  The tiller would run between the two side of the stock across the top of the rudder and be fastened with a pin.  The spacer in the front of the box would be the same called for in the plans.  The exterior of the stock would have the two re-enforced areas per the plans, running across the top and bottom, and in addition a third re-enforced area to support the axle.  I will probably also trim the leading and trailing edges of the top section of the rudder in the box area to get a good climb out of the water as well as keep it from dragging along the beach.

Thoughts?

Rudder stock design rudder 2 daggerboard shaping

WELL

Informative day today as I peddled my rudder stock idea over at Mr. Storers forum.

There was enough persuasion action going to keep me going with the plans in term of a backless rudder stock with a daggerboard rudder.  However, I really want to be able to ditch the tiller and leave the rudder installed on the transom.

I came up with this idea:

In this plan, the rudder stock stays exactly as the plans stipulate, except I add on 15mm at the top.  This provides an area to attach a cleat (blue).  Then theres another below it (blue) and the tiller-- which is two pieced-- cradles the rudder stock.  Bolts run through the cleats into the spacer, and the tiller which slides between the cleats is held in place with a pin.

Storer warns that the torsional forces on the tiller could tear it apart, Im hoping that between the three cleats bolted through the spacer, and a bolt higher up on the tiller (not shown) to keep it together, I should be ok.  Time will tell.  I am almost positive this is the model Im going with, unless I get overwhelming evidence otherwise.

In other news, I finished rough shaping the rudder and daggerboard. 

Nice.

Second Gluing

I just went back and glued on the side arms to BH1. This time it went much better than the first time. First, I used 1 pump of resin to 1/2 pump of hardener. Again, I tried to put it in a ziploc bag, but the whole thing turned into a mess, and I said screw it. So another pump and a half pump into a yogurt container, and I mixed in enough silica to make it thick like peanut butter, and then I spread it over the plywood with a stick. I took the remaining to coat in the inside of the arms. This time, it was much easier to work with. Im relatively pleased this time around, but Im still getting "creep." As in, my side arms are slowing sliding around to where they want to go, not where I set them and want them. Im not screwing my frames into the BH ply, but maybe I should? Theres not real method to the creep, the top and bottom frames crept inward, but my side arms creep outwards. I hover over the entire assembly and readjust as necessary to keep things were I want them. I dont know how else to do it.


What a mess. Again, "mY Fisrt Baot."

Im definitely saving the transom for last.

Oar Prototype 1

I lost power and internet for a bit during the big blow the other day, and never posted pictures of the oar. The following day I decided to shape the oar up. Using my plane, block plane, random obit sander, chisel, and wishing that I had a spokeshave, I went to work. In about three hours I got the below product. As you may notice, there is a kink where the blade meets the loom. Also, I screwed up the shaping a bit.



I mean, for a first oar done in three hours, not bad.

The blade is kinked to the loom most likely because each measurement station was taken off the edge of the board as opposed to off a theoretically straight line connecting the two ends. So if there was any deviation in the way the board has been originally cut (most likely) then the oar would reflect that in waviness-- and thats what happened. My next oar measurements will be based off a straight line down the board.

Second, I started shaping the oar without squaring it first. This would have been an easy endeavor, however I was excited to get started and planed the thing into an oval. If I had made sure all 4 sides were square, it would have been a circle.

The grip is also oval, I think it might be rough on the hands. I should not have cut it out in the blanks, and shaped it at a block, that way I could have made it a circle with a 1 1/4" diameter as opposed to the 1" it is now (a little small for me).

In the end, an easy plan, a nice looking oar, its light, and with the pine was easy to shape.

Prototype #2 is in the works. This too, will probably be a scrapper because I already cut out the grip and then realized the advantages of cutting it out when the blank was glued up.

Float Test

I couldnt take it anymore.  How would my ship, my Goat Island Skiff, my beauty, my instrument of adventure to wonderful and distant and nebulous ends sit on her lines?  Would she list, be bow heavy, stern heavy?  There were some things in the construction of her that didnt match the plans, some bevels, some shapes, some angles, and I was worried that in the water she would sit funny, maybe bow down a bit, instead of the beautiful plumb bow sitting upright!

My pond at my parents-in-law iced out rapidly last week, which motivated me to tape the chines and slap some epoxy on the sides of the hull.  Yesterday, it rained hard.  Today, we woke up at 7, and there was no rain, but wind, and 32*F/O*C.  Snow flurries on the horizon to the west.  My lovely wife ready to rock.  It was time.

Wind was blowing about a Force 5 on the Beaufort scale, around 20kts or so.  With ice-out just a few days ago, the water temperature wasnt much higher than the air temperature.

It was now, or another nail-biting day.  It was time.  A kiss on the breasthook, a quick murmur to her... "Please sit straight on your lines..." and with a heave, and a ho, she was in the water.

Not a maiden voyage, not a christening, nothing but a quick test.  She will get all the formalities and Poseidon will get all his tributes when she is worthy.  Just a float test... but exciting all the same.

...and DAMN if she doesnt look straight!

My gunwales scarf themselves

Thats how I roll. I dont have to scarf my gunwales, theyll do it themselves!

Check my mad scarfing skills:




So I decided to officially scarf my gunwales today, since Im using temporary cheapo cedar to hold the shape of the hull. Last week I milled two .75"x4s (approx) into .75"x2s. Very close to the metric shape called for in the plans, actually, a little thinner and a smaller, but close enough. So I take one gunwale and just for kicks gently bend it around the starboard stern and CRACK!!! it breaks in two. Im a tad perplexed, I didnt even it get it close to boat. So I grab the other gunwale from the 2nd stock, and it bends fine, as does its mate. Now I suspect the wood itself. I pick up the mate from the broken gunwale and ever so gently press it against the floor... CRACK! it splits in two with hardly any pressure what-so-ever on my end. I am dissapointed and perplexed. Its very fine Douglas fir with a nice even tight pattern, but now it would take multiple scarfs to get it to work.

Otherwise, I removed the screws from the bottom, ended up breaking the heads off of three of them, leaving the shafts in the wood (dammit). I also sat her down on the floor to see how she balanced and to enjoy that beautiful rocker. Shes pretty.

Gluing BH 4 and some things I found out about gluing

Alright, Im a little frustrated at myself right now, because things are coming along nice, but not coming along like I want them too. Everything will be OK in the end, but it wont be as nice and neat as I would like to see, and thats aggravating. A lot of the mess stems from excess epoxy squeezing out and making the seams look all lumpy and dumb. A faster clean-up job before anything even begins to think about setting up would have saved me from having stupid looking frames.

First, Ive been having some problems at work that are pretty significant, and I wasnt as focused on gluing as I wanted to be or could have and that led to sloppy gluing work.

Second, I just dont have wood gluing experience. My epoxy/fiberglass experience is solely focused on my Laser, hull #194, from the early 70s. This boat has hit submerged objects, sandbars, docks, buoys, other boats, etc. at speed. Laser speed. Fast. Rig humming with 2/3 of the boat out of the water fast. Once, it fell off my car... while I was driving. Needless to say, Id just slop some epoxy on and keep going. Now that Im gluing together my wood boat, I cant be as messy, or at least, Id rather I wasnt as messy.

BH1 is messy but will be hidden mostly from view. BH2 is somewhat in view and the frames are going to visible, and its kind of messy. BH 3 could have come out perfect, but it looks messy too because I rushed and didnt STOP.THINKFIRST.NOTSOFAST. BH 4 came out really nice and clean, but the frame is mostly hidden within the rear airtight box, so no one will see my clean job! Dammit! Roar!

So heres a tip to you beginners out there: First, read all you can about epoxy. I have yet to find a nice primer/tutorial on wood gluing for boats, and that would have helped. The Storer forum, my thread in particular could help you out. Second, my biggest mistake in neatness is that I waited for the epoxy to firm up to a putty and then tried to hack off the excess. This is a mistake. This evening I glued BH4 together, let it sit for a few minutes to excess epoxy oozed out, and just cleaned it right up. Presto besto pesto yum done. A nice neat job. Why I didnt think about this 3 BHs ago, I know not.

Little Chebeague and Fort Gorges

AHOY

Last week I was in need of escape to spend some time on the water.  With just a two days off I quickly loaded the boat and got myself back to the clear waters of Casco Bay for a short and dirty one-night jaunt.  First time the Goat Island Skiff has been in Casco Bay since 2010!  Initially I had planned on going out to my favorite little island, Bangs, scene of many an adventure in IAZ,P, but when I landed on the clear sandy beach of Little Chebeague I was hard pressed to find a reason to continue onwards.

Not only did the nice beach attract me to Little Chebeague, but I saw this little piece of awesome anchored.  Note clear water.

Sweet lines

This is an Atkins XLNC, white cedar on white oak frames.  Please check out the Atkin & Co. page for XLNC here.  You will notice that in the pictures, this boat if featured.  XLNC was also featured in the 2012 Small Boats by Wooden Boat Magazine.  She is powered by a Palmer Model #27 complete with required Pabst Blue Ribbon beer can on the exhaust manifold to prevent water from dripping into the carburator.  This is called Yankee ingenuity and if you are rolling your eyes you are not from New England.

The boat is currently under the care of Bill and Jennifer who were enjoying a week cruising the Maine coast from their summer retreat.  With a setting sun and a falling tide Bill and Jennifer shoved off for home.  For all of 100 yards the boat made cute chugging noises as its bow seamlessly split the water, and then some engine fiddling was required.  Engine fiddling is a very important part of maritime experiences.  If you are not fiddling with the engine, something is wrong.

"This beer can is a fine solution"

After Bill and Jennifer left I set up camp as the tide continued to drop, stranding IAZ,P for the night.  I was alone on the island, on a beach, watching the sun set and the ferries go by.

Im pretty sure this is the same ferry that almost ran me down during VisionQuest/ManQuest2010 at this very spot!

My evening was spent in quiet reflection as I enjoyed lheure bleue  some rice, carrots, and hummus, and a swig or two of rum.  There was no wind, just the gentle lapping of water on the beach and the kaleidoscope of stars and Milky Way spinning slowly overhead.

As I was snugged down in my sleeping bag an ugly plastic motorboat showed up  and disgorged several 20-something guys.  Their self-importance was reflected in their constant braying, bottle rockets, frenetic music selections, and general indulgence in noise which totally shattered any optimistic feelings I was having about the world and humanity.  We truly are a pathetic and primitive creature, afraid of the dark and the silence that accompanies it, always insistent to fill the few sacred times with the profanity of our repugnant self-worship.

The next morning I was awakened by a hot needle boring into my nose into my brain.  I swatted at my nose to find a red ant at the tip of it.  Wake-up calls from red ants biting my nose does not figure high on my pleasure list.  I couldnt stop the tears streaming from my left eye.  I was awake, before the dawn, but her rosy red fingers were already streaming over the coast of Maine.

I had a little bit of a breeze from the northwest.  Since it was supposed to shift to the south later in the day, I supposed a period of calm would fall between the two.  A high pressure dominated.  Even though the ebb had begun and I would be fighting all of western Casco Bay to get back to South Portland I decided to shove off and use the wind while I had it.

It turned into a frustrating sail with the current against me, I made barely sufficient headway.  Time to strategize.

Little Chebeague is (A).  Fort Gorges is (D).  Bug Light Park is southwest of the fort, and that is where my vehicle and trailer are.

Purple = wind
Red = nasty currents
Blue = heroic path of jaunty skiff (approx)

Leaving Little Chebeague I usually go west of Diamond Island (marked McKinley Estates) into the broads of Casco Bay.  However, the ebb was on, and the flow was pushing out to the Atlantic (east-southeast of the island group-- to the right on this map). This made getting around Diamond difficult, since the current is rather forceful around the northern tip.  With the wind from the west, I made a gamble, and decided to allow myself to get pulled into Hussey Sound (B).  My hunch was that I would get pushed towards Peaks Island.  The channel on the northwest side of Peaks would also have a strong flow against me, but I hypothesized the westerly wind would be compressed between the islands, like a venturi.  This would give me the thrust needed to overcome the current and get halfway down Peaks Island to (C), where the flow would be reversed in the other direction.

I sped through Hussey Sound (B) worked my way towards the gap between Diamond and Peaks and sure enough, the wind velocity was much higher!  I had a spirited sail through the gap, keeping to the southeast side where the current was least and the wind highest.  I made it to (C) and the current reversed and the wind died, but now at least I was being pushed to my destination.  I was elated!  My strategy worked.  On the backside of Peaks I broke out the oars to row towards Portland harbor and the breeze that awaited me there.

Mastermind

About this point a very nice couple in a powerboat swung by and asked if I was OK.  I affirmed I was. They asked if I wanted a tow.  I politely declined.  They asked again, as if I was a bit muddled-- I was rowing and I didnt have an engine after all-- and I declined once more.  They sped off and I rowed on.

I made landfall at Fort Gorges on the beach.

Fort Gorges is a pretty sweet place.  First, its a bad-ass fort.  Second, its publicly owned which means we, as citizens, can enjoy nice things together for enjoyable picnics and family outings.  Third, its a thumb in the eye our litigious society.  Its a fort.  There are dark places.  There are high places.  There is water!  In short, I love Fort Gorges.

Entry way.  Two massive doors.  Arrow slit windows to gun down the invaders.

Walking into the fort.

Entry way is on the left.  Powder Magazines are straight ahead, the giant wall in the shade

 I explored the officer quarters, which had nice plaster and blue paint on the walls, and then walked up to the third sod-covered roof level where bigger guns were to be placed.  This is a place to wear shoes FYI, there are lots of rusty bolts from the gun placements.  The dark areas and powder magazines are pitch black nighttime dark, so bring a flashlight if you want to go in them.  And bring a friend.  Spooky abounds.  This fort is massive by the way.  Everything about it screams indestructible.

I went up to the third floor to find the 300 pounder rifled Parrott gun that was hoisted aloft but never mounted.  Interestingly, it is on the northwest corner of the fort, with a great view towards the city of Portland as opposed to a southwest corner which would offer a better view out to sea...

Note rifling and beer cans.  This is one of those pictures that you take with a hand that is quickly removed from dark tube lest the beasties eat your fingers off.

Some scale.  I am a size 13 foot.  Note "U S" stamped on metal.  This is genuine US Military Grade weapons technology for the taking!

I spent some time wallowing in the sun and the nice water on Fort Gorges, and then I made a short leisurely sail back to my trailer.

On the way back, I got passed by the legendary "Free Candy go-for-it-this-guy-seems-legit Van" which we Capn Jon and I saw back during the Portland Boatbuilder Show this spring.  It was moored off Long Island that morning.

Fenders down and everything.

Until next time Intrepid Readers!  (exciting episode in the works for next week!)

 I love summer.