Mary Mouse

Outside the marina at Haslar opposite Portsmouth is Light Vessel number One AKA Mary Mouse 2. She was the first light vessel to be commissioned by Trinity House after the Second World War, built by Phillips and Son Ltd in Dartmouth at a cost of £50,392. She was posted to various sites along the English Channel. Light vessels are not typically self-propelled so she was always towed to location regardless of weather.



She was manned with a Master and six crew on rotating shifts of four weeks on, two weeks off, and the crew would spend spare time radioing back weather reports to the Met Office and doing basic maintenance. Crew changes were by boat but later a helicopter pad was added to make crew replacement safer and easier.

In 1983 she was fully automated so was unmanned until her retirement as lightships were replaced by LANBY buoys.



Sold by Trinity House in 1993, John Dean and Richard Reddyhoff saved her from the scrap yard and had the vessel towed to Poole Quay for a head scratch and a think. Major modifications were carried out, including: a new lower deck amidships; addition of portholes, doors and windows; installation of shower cubicles; addition of bar, restaurant, galley, etc; marquee, and a colour change. Large pile guides were also added to anchor the vessel pontoon style on piles to the sea bed. LV1 was then renamed ‘Mary Mouse 2’ (after Mary Reddyhoff and Joanna ‘Mouse’ Dean)

Following the refit Mary Mouse 2 entered service at the Dean & Reddyhoff Haslar marina.

Length overall: 137,25 feet (ca. 41,80 m)

Length: 119 feet (ca. 36,30 m)
Beam: 25 feet (ca. 7,60 m)
Draught: 15 feet (ca. 4,50 m)
Displacement: 450 t

Authorities: Trinity House, London
Year of construction: 1946

Shipyard: Philip & Son Ltd., Dartmouth, England

Yard No.: 1133
Contract price: 50,392 GBP
Material: Steel

04.1945 Ordered by Trinity House, London

04.10.1946 Handed over

11/1946-12/1948 Royal Sovereign station

02/1949-05/1956 Tongue station

08/1956-06/1959 Outer Gabbard station

10/1959-01/1963 Tongue station

06/1963-06/1966 Smith´s Knoll station

09/1966-04/1967 Shambles station

08/1967-12/1967 Seven Stones station

03/1968-07/1968 Smith´s Knoll station

11/1968-03/1969 Shipwash station

05/1969-08/1969 Humber station

06/1970-10/1970 Royal Sovereign station

10/1970-03/1971 Galloper station

03/1971-08/1971 Owers station

11/1971-03/1972 Varne station

08/1972-11/1972 Shipwash station

05/1974-09/1974 Cross Sand station

09/1974-01/1975 Dudgeon station

02/1975-06/1975 Humber station

06/1975-11/1975 Outer Gabbard station

11/1975-03/1976 Tongue station

06/1976-04/1983 East Goodwin station

04/1985-04/1988 Tongue station

06/1989-10/1991 Dowsing station

1993 decommissioned

Quick Fair is amazing!

HOLY BALLS its been a long time since my last update.  Work has been eating me alive, folks, eating me alive.  Im actually home now for more than one day, so I can update this blog, and work on the boat, but in the reverse order because the boat comes first.

Several weeks ago I ordered some Quick Fair from the fine folks at Duckworks.  This stuff is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  Its well worth the money.  It mixes easily, quickly, with little fuss.  It applies itself with astonishing ease, especially using a plastic spreader.  It dries quickly.  It sands easily.  I made several corrections over time as I got used to the stuff and ended up with a chine that is-- wait for it-- very fair.  It filled in the little weave bumps left over from the fiberglass tape, it nestled into the ridge between the tape and the hull that hadnt been filled with epoxy, it filled in some holes, and it faired out the gap between the hull and the stem-dowel-thingie.

I am in love with Quick Fair.  To boot, it even looks like chocolate pudding, except if you ate it, you would die.  The smell tips you off to this.  It smells, bad.  I used my respirator.

I also bought a little digital scale for twenty bucks at the local pharmacy.  Its a "The Biggest Loser" scale, named after the TV show, I believe, I wouldnt know because Ive never seen it in my life, but the box talked about it.  This made mixing the Quick Fair in the appropriate manner mucho-easier, because frankly, theres no way to tell how much you have.  It doesnt pour into a graduated cylinder or anything like that.  I am also using this little scale with my epoxy, and it cuts down on waste.  Another "shouldve thought of this a while ago..." moment.

Heres my chine, needing some serious fairing, including little holes in the fiberglass tape that sanded out because there was air trapped underneath and Hand of God seriously pissed:

And bingo!  Quick Fair to the rescue!

Heres a progression of working around the stem.  Slop it on, spread it out, sand it, touch up, presto!

Oh boy!

For all your fairing needs, Quick Fair is the way to go.

I watched this video for some very good tips.

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.
 

The new boat the design and the first piece of ply cut

Long Steps, the build has begun.

I’ve four frames drawn, the stem, and the spine for the forward section, the mast box and some of the detail around the “cabin”.

The drawing is progressing in my “spare time” as I’ve other jobs to get completed before I’m really free to get on with my own project, but I need a break now and again and wanted to get started on “Long Steps” so the overall timeline does not become impossible.

To give an outline of “the project”.  I have thoughts that as the numbers on my birthday cake are getting alarmingly large, its evident that if I am to have that life defining adventure then I’d best get on with it.

A second motivator was an article in the newspaper last year that described the adventures of a young woman who’d kayaked alone right around New Zealand. It took her a year to cover the distance of around 2100 sea miles, with a few of breaks along the way. What an adventure, she’ll remember that forever.

I’m not quite as ambitious as that, but to get around the North Island is workable.

That’s about 1300 nautical miles, only a little less than the distance  around the British Isles, or the distance from San Diego to Seattle. About, don’t quibble over the odd mile or three.

In an open sail and oar boat. Mostly open anyway.

The circumnavigation of Te Ika a Maui ( North Island of New Zealand)  has some challenges, I’m planning to try local voyages first, and have put a lot of thought into the design,  so, below is a pic of the working drawing.

She’s 5.520 metres long, 1.660 wide, I’d expect a dry weight of around 220 kg.

That’s 18ft 6in x 5 ft 5in x 460 lbs.

Sail area 13.5 sq m / 145 sq ft.

One of the “interesting” things about the planned voyage is that there are at least two long stretches with either bar harbours with prevailing onshore winds or no shelter at all, even in favourable conditions these two stretches of coastline could take up to three days to cover so nights at sea have to be provided for.

Shallow draft is a must, there are some shallow river harbours in some places, but much of the course will be in very open waters, so this is to be essentially a blue water capable boat.

Now I’ve mentioned this to people who’ve banged on about Shackleton and Bligh, but I’m not that tough, so safety, self reliance in emergencies and a modicum of creature comforts are all part of the design brief.

What I’ve done is to take the midsection of the very successful SCAMP design, with its high up bouyancy, sheltered “veranda”, self draining cockpit and water ballast.  The same offset “board” and lying down space is there, along with the massive dry storage that the little boat offers.

This is fitted into a hull shape similar to that of the “Walkabout” design, that boat is very fast under sail, rows well, is easy to right if capsized, and is a very good load carrier.

The ducks and batten marking the curve of the stem.

I started the build today, drew out full sized and cut the stem and spine, cut and glued the doublers around the stem, cut and finished a stack of cleat material and sanded the whole lot so they’re going into the boat almost completely “finished”.

The first cut, thats a Makita 10.6 volt cordless circular saw, nice tool, very accurate, light and easy to use. Its great on plywood up to about 12mm.

The spine, stem, and mast box support will have B#1  B#2 and B#3 slotted over it egg crate style.

The jigsaw is a Makita 4200 BV, Ive had it for over 30 years and its done a huge amount of work.

Good machine.  As is the Japanese saw, wouldnt be without either of them.

Doublers cut out, the edges radiused with a router and all glued up. Progress already!

Tomorrow will see B#1 and B#2 cut out, I expect to be putting the whole lot together on the building frame in January, I have to extend the floor in the boatshed, plus have an adventure in the Straights of Magellan which will soak up a few weeks around the end of the year.

Plus I still have to get some work done.

But I’ve started. The boatshed / workshop is not empty any more, the symptoms of empty workshop syndrome are under control again.

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!

Shaping the daggerboard rudder design dilemma

Today and yesterday I spend predominantly tackling my nemesis, the daggerboard and its subsequent shaping.  For some reason I have held a slight amount of apprehensiveness towards working the rudder and the daggerboard, I dont know why, but I get the sneaky suspicion that they dont like me, and I dont like them, and were going to fight.  Meanwhile, my Goat Island Skiff languishes in the garage waiting for a rudder, waiting for gudgeons, waiting for the rear seat to be glued down, etc etc etc, as I suspiciously eye the squared off blanks that will be my blades.  See the previous post to view the blanks.

A disclaimer:  You will notice SUN in these pics.  The garage doors are OPEN for the first time months!  It hit 50 F. deg. here at the homestead, the first time in months and months.  I worked without a hat or jacket!  It was nice indeed.  

First, using the template included in the plans I kind of traced the shape of the foil onto the blank.  I roughed it, because I would use the template later to match the shape correctly.  Then, the first pass on the plane down the trailing edge side... and away we went.  Remember that the trailing and leading edges are cherry, a hardwood.  I sharpened my planes before this project and also during when I would swap sides.  It made my life much, much easier.

 

As time progressed, I slowly worked inward, taking off the wood and feeling the idea of the shape rather than mechanically proceeding.  Its kind of difficult to explain, but I knew the shape I was going for and went for it, with checks to the rough outline to keep me true.

 

As the planing progress, I would check my jig for appropriate foil shape.  Here, I have achieved the desired shape, OOF!

 

Now, I will be the first to tell you that the entire blade doesnt necessarily have this nice of a fit the entire time.  It is, however, close enough for this amateur! We all build to our own goals.  The foil shape I got is very even, nice, and for all purposes close enough without whacking out a giant mistake and having to start over... something I definitely do not want to do since the cedar in these blanks cost me a pretty penny indeed.

The blades were notched on the trailing edge per the plans.  On retrospect,  I could have probably left them how they were because it just made for a more complicated shaping project.  I wanted to keep the shape of the foil through the transition to the end of the blade, and therefor got this kind of neat compound curve (see below).  It worked, but it almost didnt, and for a few moments I thought I had taken off too much and really screwed myself.  Also, this is a good spot to let the reader know about the trailing edge width.  Its supposed to be squared off, but I didnt know how wide.  A quick journey over to my compatriot in CA gave me the answer.  He had finished his blade to 3/8", mine was 1/4".  Apparently, its supposed to go to about 1-2mm, or a 1/16".  HA HA HA  Sorry, I got mine down to 1/8" and Im very very pleased with that.  Again, I dont want to risk breaking through the back of the board, Im looking for durability, and the alignment of the centerboard trunk with the hull will make more difference than the 1/8" Im off.  Im not saying you cant go to 1/16", I just didnt want to.

The leading edge was next.  I took off a 45 deg. edge first, and then added subsequent degrees from there, until I got a nice rounded leading edge.  It worked out very well, and with a sharp plane, the work was precise and enjoyable.

 

I still have to sand everything down, cut off the top, and get things nice and smooth, but the blank is now shaped and I have a daggerboard worthy of some sort of aero-hydro-dynamic performance.  Its not perfect, but Im happy with it.

 

Next up is the rudder.  This is important because Im waiting on several other issues until I finish the rudder.  First and foremost is answering the question if Im going to go with Storers design on the rudderbox.  I am not a fan of it.  First:  The rudder is never permanently attached to it, it slides up and down the box with no rear, bungee cords hold it in place  I dont like bungee cords, the degrade in UV and salt, and Im not interested in having to replace parts like this.  Second and most importantly, the box and the tiller are permanently attached, which means I cant remove the tiller without removing the rudder and the box from the transom (now I have to put them somewhere-- think sleeping aboard).  I could design some sort of device that folds the tiller up, but then it gets in the way of a theoretical boom tent or something else, or it comes crashing down in the middle of the night on my head.  No thanks.  Give me a tiller that dismounts from the box, so I can throw it on the floor.  Third, with a permanently attached tiller-to-box, I will either have to enlarge the hole in the transom to use the pintles and gudgeons I want to use, or use Storers suggestion which is two gudgeons on top of each other with a pin running between all them.  I have spent more than enough time struggling with rudders and bizarre attachments that I know, in waves, with current, with wind, its going to be a total pain in the ass trying to thread a needle through a million holes (of course the rudder wouldnt be attached which might make it easier).

Anyway, call me a curmudgeon, but Im not a fan of the back-less, bungee cord, permanent tiller design.  I may have to come up with something else.

New post!

With nothing in it!

Work on the Goat Island Skiff has been temporarily stopped due to a return to work/on the road status.

I have pictures of some work I did just before I left, but they are unfortunately inaccessible at this point in time.  Stay tuned until next week!

Download aluminum fishing boat design plans

aluminum fishing boat design plans

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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.

Navigator John Welsford design

Fellow blogger Robert Ditterich has reminded me to include one of my favourite open boats the Navigator, designed by John Welsford this pretty and traditional looking boat has proven to be a highly successful, fast and capable open cruiser.

The words and pictures are of Roberts own Navigator Annie, the build log of which is chronicled on flickr.

LOA 4.5m 14ft 9in
Beam 1.8m 5ft 10in
Weight 140kg 309lbs
Sails 12.6sqm 136 sqft


Robert explains - Available as a sloop or yawl rig the latter seems to find favour with builders and sailors due to its flexibility and frankly it is a very handsome rig.

Annie is one of hundreds of Navigators dotted around the globe, and while not all of them spend endless days cruising placid bays, and camping on impossibly beautiful beaches, plenty have done that, and all are capable of making many of our boating fantasies real.



Mine was launched towards the end of our good weather, so experiences are limited and action shots are scarce. But I have to say that I was surprised and very pleased with Annies manners since I first took her out. The most surprising thing was her initial stability. When the first gusts caught me, I was amazed to be still within the cockpit, and not making use of the tiller extension. I dont mind sitting out, but it is wonderful to have a choice about these things in a dinghy.

Building a Navigator has the distinct disadvantage though, of making it harder to justify building another boat, because it is attractive and practical and flexible, and it gets you cred with the stink boat people at the ramps. Every outing will create at least one good conversation with a total stranger. So another boat often seems to be just a gratuitous, superfluous thought. A pity, if you like building as much as sailing. Some of you might see me wriggle and squirm as I try to rationalise my way out of that one.



JW got something very right when he drew Navigator, and for my money the most important thing he got right was to make it possible for so many people to be able to build such a good boat themselves. All strength to anyone who empowers ordinary un-skilled people to get away from the TV, into the shed and to make something wholesome and exciting and capable of bringing people to-gether in a natural setting.

Robert a who also makes violins professionally has built Annie to an incredible standard, the pictures which show the plank stringers and the planked up hull above has an almost sculptural quality about them. I also agree with Roberts comment about encouraging others to build, while not many of us can build to his exacting standards we can all be encouraged by his enthusiasm and enjoyment of building.

Robert is also author of a book "Something About Navigator" which is available as a download and thankfully for those of us who still prefer a volume we can brush with our fingers as we work along the book shelf a printed version.

Epoxy coating the interior and more turtles

Today I took advantage of some free time and some of the most glorious weather you can imagine in beautiful New England this time of year!

Drum roll please.......

I epoxy coated the interior of my Goat Island Skiff! Yeah!

This is big for two reasons:  One, I wasnt looking forward to it, Two, my back has been in such a state that I havent physically been able to do it.  Being able to reach down in there and coat up the inside was a real good feeling, lemme tell you!  I was stoked.  Again, physical therapy = awesome.

So, coating the interior is much like the exterior.  It came out very neat, too.  I am pleased with the result.  Heres a romantic picture of her in the sunset, just her and me:

 

 She looks good.  So far, Ive done two coats of epoxy.  Im supposed to do three, which I did on the exterior, but I feel like two is good enough especially since its not going to be saturated in water.  Not to mention its going to be covered in two coats of primer and two coats of paint.  I should be ok.  Maybe I will do three layers on the bottom and chinelogs...

That all being said, I want to point out again how she can ride on her side when turning her over:

This is HUGE.  To those who have extensive dinghy experience, you all know exactly what Im talking about:  Turn the boat over, get it on a side, attempt to balance it on the gunwale, fail, catch the boat, wrestle around one of the ends in an attempt to get to the other side, fail, watch boat fall to ground in a random direction, wince at possible damage, etc etc etc.  It sucks.  This baby, she rests on her side.  You can walk away.  Drink a beer.  Pick your nose.  Go on vacation.  She will sit, on her side, patiently.  Awesome.

Finally, I caught a Painted Turtle today.  This is a quite common turtle on the North American continent, and not as big or as long lived as the Blandings Turtle that I found a few days ago.  Whats neat about this one is that Ive been trying to catch one for a year.  Now, that doesnt mean Im out everyday like its my job, but many attempts and sneaky approaches have been tried, to no avail.  Catching this guy, while swimming, is a minor coup for you know who.  Me.  Quite beautiful.  Hissed at me when I picked it out of the water.  I put it back where I found it, and I hope it forgives me.

A little grumpy.  

Pilot Cutters

Were fortunate to have several Pilot Cutters based locally, but its rare to see them out together so it was great to receive these pictures from Keith Allso (fellow Solent Old Gaffer member - Keith has a great collection of classic boat photographs on flickr). He explains that they were taken around the Isle of Wight during an event for the TOE IN THE WATER charity for injured service men and women.

I recognise a couple of them Polly Agatha identified by the PA on the mainsail, it looks like Westerman is among them and Annabel J. It must have been fantastic to see these magnificent boats racing out in the Solent

Much is written about Pilot Cutters and their performance and legendary sea keeping qualities but this time please just enjoy the pictures.