A good read on drowning

I pulled the following directly from this website.  Its a good interesting read, and pertains directly to those who spend time on the water, alone, with friends, with children.

My advice is to wear your lifejacket, everyday, everytime you are out on the boat.  I have a comfy life jacket that has pockets, doesnt get hot, but breaks the wind on cool days too.  It never gets in the way.  It only works when I wear it.  Anyway, read on:

Drowning Doesnt Look Like Drowning

The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!” he barked as he sprinted between the stunned owners. Directly behind them, not ten feet away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, “Daddy!”
How did this captain know, from fifty feet away, what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television. If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that’s all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew knows what to look for whenever people enter the water. Until she cried a tearful, “Daddy,” she hadn’t made a sound. As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn’t surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life.
The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D.,  is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water.  And it does not look like most people expect.  There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind.  To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this:  It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult.  In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC).  Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine, described the instinctive drowning response like this:

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. Th e respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

(Source: On Scene Magazine: Fall 2006)

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble – they are experience aquatic distress. Not always present before the instinctive drowning response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long – but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in there own rescue.  They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are n the water:

• Head low in the water, mouth at water level
• Head tilted back with mouth open
• Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
• Eyes closed
• Hair over forehead or eyes
• Not using legs – Vertical
• Hyperventilating or gasping
• Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
• Trying to roll over on the back
• Ladder climb, rarely out of the water.

So if a crew member falls overboard and every looks O.K. – don’t be too sure.  Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning.  They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck.  One  way to be sure?  Ask them: “Are you alright?” If they can answer at all – they probably are.  If they return  a blank stare – you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them.  And parents: children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.
If you have any questions at all – please post them in the gCaptain forums under “maritime safety”
disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the Department of Homeland Security or the U.S. Coast Guard.

More gaps between BHs and bottom

Today I planed down the chinelogs to flat, in order to fit the bottom at some point in the near future. Unfortunately for me, something somewhere didnt add up.

When I cut the notches in my BHs, I was very careful to use an actual slice from my chinelog to trace a pattern for the notch. Somehow, my notches were too deep laterally, I have gaps there that need filling. Today I now realize that they are also too shallow vertically... after planing the chinelogs flat, I have a gap between the bottom of the BHs and the chinelog. Take note from BH3:


When I fit the bottom onto the boat, the gap is clear (boat is upside down):


This is especially frustrating because:

1: I measured the notches using an actual piece from the chinelog
2: I was very careful to do my best eye-balling job that the bottom of the ply appeared to meet the bottom of the BHs

In retrospect I should have:

1: After the dry-fit turn the hull upside down to get a good look at what was going on
2: Do a test plane portion to see where a flat chinelog ends up in relation to the BHs

So now I can do one of three things:

1: Fill the gap with loads and loads of epoxy when I put on the bottom
- Risky because I could deform the bottom if I screw too hard placing it into position
2: Fill the gap with a strip of wood that is painstakingly cut and glued into place
-Annoying work, AND it wont match the BH bottom frame
3: Continue to plane down the chinelogs until they match the BHs.
-I lose freeboard AND it could make the boat too wide at the bottom and the pre-cut ply for the bottom wont be able to accomodate the new width.

For all its worth, heres the boat with the bottom kinda on:


Ive just decided that solution #3 is not a good one.

I have now just decided to go with option #2.

Interestingly enough, BH1 came out perfect!... WTF, Over?

Daggerboard trunk glued up and rear seat glued on

Ok my patient mates, heres some photographic evidence of my work on the boat last week before I left for self-imposed exile at work.

First, I finally got that bedamned daggerboard trunk glued up.  Somehow, I wasnt forward thinking enough, and I glassed up the daggerboard without really giving much thought to how it fit in the already made trunk.  Well, I did but discounted further planing on of the daggerboard and decided that I was done with all the planing and sanding thank-you-very-much and whatever I had, I had.

This was most unfortunate, because I few more minutes of planing would have produced a superior quality board, and it would have fit in my daggerboard case.  So then I was stuck with the project of widening my case, but only by 2-3mm at most because really, all I needed was 1-2mm.

Fortunately, I found 3mm Okoume marine plywood at Goose Bay Lumber, and cut it to fit over the framing for the trunk.  This widened the trunk appropriately.  Here is the widening sequence in pictures:

Very self-explanatory, I think.

Next, I still struggle with the hardward issues for the rudder and transom gudgeons.  I dont know how Im going to get this rudder assembly attached to the boat.  The problem is that the hole to accomodate the tiller does not have the vertical clearance required to use a gudgeon-pintle scheme, which is by far the most convenient.  I toyed around with it and thought about enlarging my tiller-hole, but my pintle arms didnt fit around the rudder cassette.  A second order of larger, more heavy-duty gudgeons for rudder and transom fit great, except not with each other, and the arms were too long for the spacer in the cassette... A rod pushed through the gudgeons would not have fit cleanly and I would have had a clunky feeling rudder, the round peg in an oval opening thing, if you can visualize that.  So I still sit, wondering how I will fix this conundrum.  Many people have done it successfully, but Im still hunting around for the best hardware.

Because of all this drama, I have delayed gluing on the rear seat.  I got tired of having it loose, and glued it on before I left.  Here, yet again, is my "Forest of Bricks" holding it all down.

And the gratuitous parting shot:

Gluing down the bottom

After gluing together the hull, I came to several decisions, one of them being that gluing is a pain in the ass.

Yesterday I glued down the bottom, and yes, gluing is still a pain in the ass. So much so, that I swore off building another glue-only boat next time, that Ill take fasteners thank you very much, this sucks!

This morning, when I peeked into the garage at my nemesis glue-job-boat, my heart softened a bit, and I feel a little better. But I came close-- In my mind I saw a big bonfire at one point.

Yesterday I smoothed out the seam between the two bottom pieces, scoured the chinelogs and BHs with a rasp to provide a rough gluing surface, planed the transom flat, and screwed the bottom down in place. This took a while, and I was so concerned getting it on straight that it went on straight, but offset by about 2mm or so. I realized this after I screwed it on. This is not a big problem, theres supposed to be a gap of 90mm between the buttstraps for the daggerboard trunk, and I left 95mm for just this scenario. Storer recommends placing the bottom on with the centerline marks on the inside, to line up with the centerline marks on the BHs. A good idea, but then I would lose out on the markings up top that showed where the edges of the boat were (bottom is overcut by 2omm) and they provided a good guide as to screw placement. A better idea would be to have a centerline on both sides. Needless to say, lots of crawling under the boat and back, and shifting the ply ever so slightly.

Screws were placed every 300mm (lines from lofting) and along the BHs (3 for 1+2, 5 for 3, 4, transom). This was insufficient as you shall see later on.


After the bottom was screwed on I made special note of where I had some larger than normal gaps between the bottom and the sides. In these areas I would apply extra glue. Everything appeared tight and for the most part, everything fit together really well. I was impressed.

Next up, I unscrewed the bow of the boat, lifting it with 2x4s. After pre-coating the chinelogs and bottom with unmixed epoxy (more crawling around under the boat), I applied what I thought was copious amounts of glue, using the ziploc-bag method which I still dont like, but it seemed to make the most amount of sense. Mixing the glue with the silica is still a bear, I still dont know how to judge how much silica to add so I eyeball it until I get the appropriate consistency. This takes time. Then, the application. 3 pumps of resin with 1.5 pumps of hardener covered approximately- maybe- 4 feet. Hardly anything. This was going to take a lot of glue.

I moved down the line, sending the 2x4s down to the stern and gluing and screwing in their wake.

(notice me mixing always mixing more mixing in background with knee pads that didnt come off between 10am and 11pm)

I think I made 3 moves aft, covering large sections at a time. The port bow had a little bit of a gap between the bottom and the side, and needed even more glue. This was going to take a lot of glue, as I mentioned before. This is when I started getting frustrated. When I put too much glue during the BH construction phase, it poured out all over the place and was a giant mess. Now, I was putting large amounts of glue onto the chinelogs and when the bottom came down, nothing. No excess squeezage, nothing. Let me just say this: Gluing the bottom takes a lot more glue than you think it will.

About halfway down, I realized I forgot to line the sides with packing tape to ease clean-up. SOB. So I had glue dripping down around the bow, which means Ill be sanding forever. Out came the packaging tape around the aft sections and the transom. By this time my wonderful wife took pity on me and she applied the glue while I mixed it. This doubled the speed of the operation, since mixing takes a long time-- at 3 pumps of resin per bag, there was a lot of mixing to do. She has a knack for how much glue to apply and when we screwed down her end, a perfect amount squeezed out. Damn.

With all the screws down (she held up the stern bottom and gently lowered it as I screwed it down moving aft), we inspected for a gaps. There were a couple small ones along the chine, and a few gaps that needed more screwed to hold the ply down. I would recommend a screw every 200mm at least, as opposed to every 300mm.

Then we flipped her over:






Hot damn, I have a completed hull (above pics are after the "clean-up" (used loosely)).

Clean-up was a super pain in the ass, by this time a lot of my squeegees were gluey and tacky and my rags were used up and I was running out of mixing cups and no matter how many new gloves I put on, I was sticking to everything. Some glue was firming up nice, which meant a struggle to clean it up as is smeared everywhere. Be ready to spend some serious time bent inside the boat cleaning it up. My glue station aftermath:

This took me a few hours of prep, followed by about 7 hours of gluing/cleaning up. Solo, it was slow going, no doubt.

The bottom is still not done, I have to trim the excess off, which will be another pain because its covered in rock-hard epoxy, but as far as Im concerned, the big jobs in this are completed. From now on things can be accomplished in short spurts as opposed to 12hr marathon sessions. Thank goodness. Im tired.

Did I mention this takes a lot more glue than you may think?

Gluing on Front seat

YO.

Today I glued on the front seat. I also epoxy sealed the rear watertight compartment.

Im just going to let you know that today was the most productive, least disastrous, most efficient gluing event yet on this boat. Still some mistakes, but NOTHING like gluing the boat together or putting them bottom on. Which makes me worried that I screwed up or was deficient on the most important parts of building, but alas, what I have, I have, and well see if she sinks or swims. Hopefully, she soars.

Anyway.

When I realized that the garage was holding steady at 44 deg. F (7 C) I decided to get with some gluing. I mixed up about 3 pumps of resin and the corresponding hardener and dumped in a bunch of thickener, and applied it to my pre-coated seat cleats and BH1 + 2.


I just really dumped the thickener into the mix. I figure this: If I have a tight fit, less silica, if I have a loose fit, more silica for a more filling mix. It took me this long to figure it out. This, with some valuable information from the Storer forum has helped me make better epoxy mixes. One rule to follow: Pulling the mixing stick out of the glue, if the point droops, its good for gluing, if the point stands tall, its good for filleting. Variations apply to temperatures, however, as you will soon find out.

After I applied the glue, I realized it was stiffening up because of the cold temps in the garage. This is not conducive to smearing and filling holes. I grabbed a hair dryer and tried to warm it up the best I could. Using this information that is stiffens, I kept my fillet mix a little thinner than the point "standing tall." I applied the seat and it dropped right in nice and tight. I threw some bricks on it to weigh it down, and took a few pictures from inside the compartment to see how I was faring with the glue. Here, were looking towards the bow:


As you can see, good squeezage on the middle cleat, not so good up around the bow. I added some bricks. I DID have good squeezage from the sides of the seat upwards, so I know I have good contact. Im not bothered I dont have excess spilling off the side of the cleat. Next up was some fillet work. I was using a squeegee and then a PLASTIC SPOON that did absolute wonders to throw down a sweet sweet fillet. Nice and clean. I kind of eyeballed what looked good to me, and this was the result:


I think thats sufficient. Heres the forward seat glued in position with the forest of bricks:


Im pretty happy with the result. However, after I was done I wandered into the kitchen where my beautiful wife asked me what I did.

Wife: So howd it go?
Me: Oh it went great, Im the man, Im the next Herreshoff, I glued on the front seat. I am The Man.
Wife: Great! Youre great. Im so glad I married you! Thats the watertight compartment, right?
Me: Yup! The seat forms the forward watertight compartment!

Then I wandered downstairs to get a beer and realized... Son of a GUN... Do I have any gaps between the plywood seat and BH1 that forms that watertight compartment? OH NO! Look at this picture again, pay attention to BH1 starboard side and glue amounts:


Now look at this picture snapped from within the mast-well between BH1 and 2 looking forward on the starboard side!


Gaps! And while I dont think they run through, there are photodocumented gaps on the inside of the tank as well. Dammit.

Im too tired and whooped to worry about it tonight, I will make sure to squeeze some epoxy in there in the future. Its also a strange spot to get to, I have to get into the boat to make this one work, and shes up on buckets, so it will have to wait.

Thank you, wife.

OH YEAH, heres my heater tent. I can keep it 56 F (13 C) in there with my little space heater.

Progress on SEI and a really good evening out

Ive been working away in the shop, fitting the seat tops and filleting them, turning the offcuts into doublers under the edges and sanding out the odd dribbles of epoxy,  read on.

Blog 4 September

Its getting close,  today I fitted the forward seat top.   Tis is in two pieces joined down the middle and glued in to form  to form not only the seat but the top of the forward bouyancy tank, as well as bracing the mast box.

 Filleting, the white stuff is a low density filler from Epiglass with a little cotton mill fibre ( glue mix) mixed in, thats for strength. The brown is Microballoons but underneath that is a smaller fillet of straight glue applied about 6 hours before.  

So that’s done, yesterday I fitted the doublers under the edges of the center thwart and the after seat ( which should be referred to as “Stern sheets” but I’m not that “correct” in my terminology).  These doublers make a big difference to the feel of the boat, stiffening the overhanging edges of the seats considerably as well as giving them a much more “solid” appearance.

These adoublers re made from the scrap left over from cutting the big parts, there wont be much more than kindling left when I’m done with this project,  successively smaller parts get cut as the project goes on,  so the scraps get smaller each time around.

Stern sheets, the doublers sitting on the seat  above where they will be fitted underneath the overhanging plywood seat edge.

Center thwart.  This is a great way to use the offcuts from the planking, makes a much nicer job of the edges of the seat. Next job to do is to glue them in, then round them off.

Forward seat tops to come next.

So tomorrow its at them with the angle grinder and sander to finish off the endges, round them over and fair them.  Then some filleting, more sanding,  and then its time for paint.

I must say that the Fein Multimaster is an amazing tool for sanding fillets, the point of that triangular sanding head with 60 grit paper on it does a very good job, effortlessly and quickly.  I love this tool and would almost own it just for that.

Paint, the outside looks good,  two coats of primer, and two coats of  satin finish paint looks good, so tomorrow I’ll be splitting the white between two containers and pouring a little of the dark green into one to get the pale green for the interior and then start swinging that paintbrush again.

Tonight, my friend and next door neighbour Emily Scott sings.  She has won a scholarship to the UCLA School of Music where she will study in the Masters classical voice program,  this is seriously top level stuff!  I’ve been to a couple of performances and she’s got me converted to Opera.

Tonights performance is a fundraiser, she’s got to get enough money together to live in Los Angeles for two years to take up her scholarship, and I’m going along.

We’ve had shared dinners, helped each other out some, and enjoyed each others company.  I’ll miss her, all the very best Emily.

http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news/news-2014/2014/07/scholarship-helps-talented-singer-find-her-voice.html

Here’s her facebook page, well worth a look.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=675895038&fref=ts

Time I got myself tidy, don’t need the black suit and tie but epoxy and paint covered overalls wont quite cut it.

( I went, full house, I listened, I enjoyed the concert immensely)

Count Gregoire de Frontenac Goes On Adventure

Intrepid readers will remember my crewmember during BILTrek2012, the highly esteemed Count Gregoire de Frontenac!

Lord of Manor

Count Gregoire de Frontenac is currently sailing his own Ship of Tubes and Plastic Bags from Boston to a destination called "Health and Home."  Here he is with his ship:

Wheres my caviar?

Sure is fancy-pants looking!  Only the best for Count Gregoire de Frontenac!

If you so choose to follow Count Gregoire de Frontenacs journey, you may on his and his wifes blog (sorry ladies).   Counting Up From Zero

Join me in wishing Count Gregoire de Frontenac fair winds!

(Goat Island Skiff posts will resume shortly)

Duck Punting MOAR!

By popular demand, MRS MUMBLES went back to Plum Island Sound for some more punting!

Strapped to the roof of the car, we shot down to meet again with Dan Noyes and his idiosyncratic 12 punt, and were instead met with calamity-- Dan was dismasted at the bottom of the ramp. While he was sheeting in his dipping lug to fiddle, he wind, barreling down the river at a steady 15kts sent a higher and unanticipated gust which filled the lugsail and broke his burly spruce mastwhich in turn wrecked his mast thwart. His punt was on the hard, so it couldnt heel, applying full force to the mast and partner assembly.  

There was a moment of collective hair grabbing and talk of what the wind was going to do to my bendy POPLAR DOWEL mast and accompanying spars, and what kind of hypothermia would set in after they were chewed up and sent overboard.

The damage is done.

HOWEVER, we are burly New England sailormen, and such trivial matters such as masts, strong winds, and 33F/1C air temperatures hardly register on our annoyance scale when the sun shines as bright as it does and the water beckons. Its only going to get colder, after all. We adjusted our plans and sailed to the flats instead, to do some clamming.  MRS MUMBLES secretly loves Dan, so I offered to sail her down and he could sail her back. This way, everyone got to go sailing, and MRS MUMBLES and Dan get to do their innate sailing thing, which almost sounds obscene but its not, its beautiful to watch.

Also, Dan got to take some FIRST EVAR pictures of ME sailing MRS MUMBLES. (just in case we forget).

The poise as we barrel downwinds. Note bendy mast.

Here, just at this moment, I break a thole pin.
I broke two thole pins today, making it three broken in two sailing days.
I need a new solution.

Downwind, under control, and check out the forestay! Bendy POPLAR mast at its finest.

On the flats, and Dan clamming in the distance.

TIME...

...AND TIDE.

One of these nifty salt pans that remain full of water, above the waterline.

Dan getting ready to go.  I add this picture to show how she sits on her lines.
Disregard wrinkled sail.  Snotter stretched a bit.

I found ICE in Dans bilges.

Dan working MRS MUMBLES upwind and back home. She cuts a fine figure.

Wet on wet epoxy coating

Today I coated one side of my BHs with two coats of epoxy to seal and waterproof the wood. I used the wet-on-wet method that Storer recommends. The first coat when on quite well, I used a small cheap squeegee thing to spread it around, and a small roller held stationary to smooth it down. I kept one BH on just using the spreader, to little difference. Once the first layer got tacky I added the second layer of epoxy, again with the squeegee and then rolled smooth. The second coat went on waaaaaay smooth and took less epoxy as well. I was actually surprised at how little epoxy this whole operation took. A little goes a long way.

At this point my wife called me to join her downtown for dinner, which I happily did. I thought I would have had enough time to get back to apply coat three, but I was wrong. I came back and the epoxy had all hardened up. Some bulkheads will have to be "de-waxed" and sanded for the final coat, because I need these to be waterproofed up. Others are good to go right now with two coats because in some places it went on a little thick. So Im good in some area, not so good in others, all in all, Im not worried. I made a little more work for myself, but oh well.


Damn. Those look good.

The gluing of the buttstraps and the chinelogs yesterday still goes. The temperature is maybe around 50 deg. in the garage, so today I built a heat box with a space heater and a sheet:


Not the most efficient design, but better than nothing under the circumstances. The glue has set up, but if I press firmly I can still get a fingernail in, which is a Storer-failure. So Im not touching anything and well wait until tomorrow before I move anything.

The dreaded stem still continues to stump me, but I shall solve it by jove!

Symphony

This interesting and unusual yacht was lying on a mooring in Fowey recently.

The hull is constructed in clinker like planks, although that top plank is uncharacteristically wide and a bit of a odd shape.

The basic hull shape has quite fine ends and reminded me of a Van de Stadt designed Warshipp , were it not for the reverse sheer line. Not sure about the raised full width coach roof, but it would give good interior space in what is a small volume yacht.

With roller reefing on both jib and stay sail Symphony looks like she has done some serious offshore sailing. It would be nice to know more about her.