Second sailing solo this time

 No pictures today folks.  I was too busy swimming or trying to stay dry.  What follows below I also posted at the Woodwork forum for Storer boat designs.  It sums up my second sail rather well.  A very interesting conversation is ensuing for those that are interested in handling the Goat Island Skiff.

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I have extensive racing experience in Blue Jays, Lasers, 420s, FJs, and recreational experience in Beverly dinghies and Beetle Cats. All marconi rigs except for the gaff Beetle Cat. I am an athletic 30yr old and weigh 150lbs.

The first time I went sailing in my GIS it was in a force 2- light breeze with my wife. The boat handled superbly.

I went sailing today for the second time in my boat, and I was by myself, and it was force 3- gentle breeze with some higher gusts. I got spanked by my GIS in ways I didnt even see coming, and Im surprised and a little humbled. I went sailing planning on a picnic as I cruised up and down the lake tweaking the rig. Instead, I went swimming.

So, as I headed out things were looking good. Its 65F (18C) and overcast, with a good breeze and slightly chopped water. I was un-reefed full sail, sitting on the rail and humming along, with a little bit of heal. A gust came up that I saw coming and I let out the sail a bit. This did not stop the boat from going over. I completely let go of the main and dumped it, but she still went over. Water poured over the gunwale, and that was it, I was in the drink and my flip-flops were floating away. That was fast. I swam around and clambered up on the daggerboard, no problems there, she came right up but obviously swamped. Balancing the boat was precarious. The nose was down, and I feared a breach in the forward compartment. I bailed her out with my 5 gallon bucket, and checked the forward compartment, it was dry.

I decided to reef. My sails are the stock Duckworks sails, with no reef points except the grommets along the luff and leach, its the full-batten idea.

In my personal opinion, the full batten idea is not conducive to reefing underway, especially with a sail this large. I was skeptical when I ordered it but decided to go with it anyways since it came with Miks recommendation and he looks so comfortable on his beautiful Beth. I found that that when situated in the bow of the boat the GIS is highly unstable due to its narrow beam in this area, and this was in only lightly chopped water. I tied off the "new" tack of the sail and then tied off the clew and re-hoisted the sail.

The full-batten sail with two reefing points cannot exert enough pressure along the boom to keep the sail folded up. Despite repeated attempts at re-tensioning the clew and tack and "new" outhauls I was not able to get enough tension along the "new" foot of the sail to keep it under the batten. As the chop increased, it became a more precarious situation to sit up in the bow fiddling with the tack. I attempted to keep the boat pointing in the wind, but with the large windage in the bow, it kept falling off the wind. A mizzen in this case would have helped immensely. Kudos to Clint and John.

Sailing a half-way reefed sail with a large pregnant foot billowing out I sailed close to shore and dropped anchor.

Dropping the rig I sat up in the bow to re-tension the new tack and clew, and found myself back in the water, as I capsized again, quite unexpectedly. As said before, the boat is unstable with no one else on board and the sole occupant up on the forward seat. This happened really quick.

I bailed the boat back out and made the tension along the reefed foot as tight as possible. As I headed back out to sail some more, the boat really moved along with the first reef. Exhilarating! However, the sail pulled back out of the batten, and I got the "pregnant" foot again. This is not conducive to pointing into the wind. At one point, I could not even tack, the boat kept falling off. I was almost forced onto some rocks, so I jibed around to remedy the situation. This was immensely frustrating, as you can imagine. Was it due to the rather flat head on the Duckworks sail?

Needless to say, I found that the GIS exhibits the following attributes:

*Difficult to de-power the sail in gusts. (is this an attribute of the balanced lug? I have zero experience with this)

*Unsteady when sole occupant is in the bow.

*The full-batten two-grommet reefing idea is either frustratingly difficult to accomplish successfully or only viable when launching reefed-- reefing underway with this fashion system is precarious at best.

*Boat has difficulty tacking through the wind when reefed.

Obviously I would like these remedied. My multi-day Maine coast trip is at risk unless I can figure these out. Im happy I didnt finish in March, or it would have been a very cold day indeed. My sail is going to get extra reef grommets immediately prior to any more sailing.

These are my first impressions of the GIS, but I would like to hear yours, or from anyone who can shed some light on this issue. The lug rig, as I understand, is a "reef early, reef often" rig, and I can attest to that. I would also like to know why I wasnt able to depower the sail to stop the capsize.



One thing I would like to emphasize:   This boat has 105 square feet of sail area.  Most boats this size have anywhere between 65-80 square feet.  This boat is overpowered, there is no doubt.  This makes it awesome in light airs, and its a necessity to reef when it gets heavy, especially when alone.  Just something to keep in mind.

Laser:          76 square feet of sail (crew of 1)
Beverly:       66 square feet of sail (crew of 1)
Walkabout:  80 square feet of sail
Mayfly16     91 square feet of sail
Beetle Cat:  100 square feet of sail (and 450lbs hull weight!)
FJ:               100 square feet of sail (crew of 2)
420:            140 square feet of sail (crew of 2)





Oh, she looks really pretty at anchor as viewed from the shore, and I continue to get "thumbs up " when driving on the highway.  

Painting Priming

We are now in the finishing stages of this particular Goat Island Skiff.  Shes coming down the home stretch, I tell you!

To be honest with you, dear intrepid reader, I am several posts out of date with the current going-ons.  Work has been a killer recently and I just cant get on top of it.  Back to work tomorrow to boot, and I still havent done my laundry.  Lets just say time at home is at a super mega premium.

The boat, once faired, was ready for priming.  To accomplish this, I wanted a good sanding job over her so the primer would adhere real nice like.  Using stacks of 120 grit discs on my random obit sander (ROS) I spent a bulk of a day sanding her down to a nice matte finish.

 You can see the Quick Fair that I gushed about in the last post.  Also notice the buckets, without the towels on them.  This was a slip-up on my end, and they ended up gouging the transom.  Smooth-move Ex-Lax!!!  Im such a moron.  The boat is taped up, including the ends of the ply.  These are kind of critical since they are exposed ends of ply that will be submerged at times.  They are well encapsulated in epoxy and I will paint them as well.  This adds protection, and a classic look.

Then, for the first coat of primer!  I used a quart of Interlux Pre-Kote primer, slightly thinned with Interlux 333, a thinning agent.  This stuff is mega-not-cheap, as in 34 bucks a quart, or 136 bucks a gallon, if youre the type that enjoys heart attacks.  It is a high-build primer, which means it will fill small irregularities in the prepped surface.  In practice, the painter will apply one coat, sand it down leaving the crevasses filled with primer, and then throw on another coat of primer, lightly sand it smooth, and then top-coat.

Initially the primer went on rather thick, I didnt thin it at first.  A few drops helped things along immensely.  I used a roller, and the roller would apply the paint unevenly, heavy where the roller initially absorbed the paint and then thinner on the other sections, leaving a speed-bump appearance to paint coverage.  Later research at the paint store revealed some roller tricks, which I will cover later.  Here is the boat, with the first coat of primer.

Then, its time to sand away!  Again, using the ROS and 120 grit discs.  I sanded outside, as this stuff tends to blow dust everywhere, which it did.  My father-in-law has a little car in the garage that he fawns over, I didnt want to get it dusty.  Fortunately, I had good weather, and was able to charge ahead.

Shes looking like a proper work-boat now.  This took a few hours.  I used many sanding discs, about one every three to four feet initially, and then in subsequent passes a increased the acreage with a disc.  The point is to get a good clean cut and not be pressing down trying to get a filled-up worn-down disc to grind away, smooth is the point. Speaking of smooth, this primer, albeit dusty, was quite smooth to the touch, surprisingly so.  After this, I de-dusted her by blowing with a shop-vac, vacuuming with said shop vac, and then rubbing down with cloth soaked in something flammable or toxic, like 333 or de-natured alcohol.  After that dried, the next coat of primer

WOW!  Shes coming along now!  AND THEN I had to leave for work, and I left her for 5 days.  This was not necessarily good, because this primer can absorb humidity, which can then prevent adhesion of the top-coat.  For 5 days I chewed my fingers down to bloody stumps pounding on Intellicast looking for possible bad weather.  I left explicit instructions with my parents-in-law about when to have the garage open or closed.  Fortunately, things turned out great weather wise!

More on painting later.  Im also varnishing my mast.  My wife is helping and she is doing a fantastic job.

Notice the tree is green.  This means GO, as in GO SAILING, as in FINISH THIS BOAT.  Im trying!  Im trying!

When I got back from my trip, I immediately set to sanding the second coat of primer.  Again, same as before, but a little less aggressive this time.  I wanted to keep the primer, but wanted to smooth it out.

Thats not my dog.

The paint and the sun illuminated some things on my boat.  When I faired the boat with Quick Fair I was absolutely anal to make sure I got smooth chines.  I wanted to make sure I had the fairest boat I could possibly have.  I actually spent hard-earned days off fairing and then waiting for it to cure so I could sand it and then fair again before I started the long painting procedure.

So imagine my surprise when I get her out in the sun after she was painted in something that shows shadows really well, like, lets say, a white primer.

OH THE PAIN!!!  WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?  Im heartbroken, a little bit.  I put in the ruler to help you judge.  Its a 16" ruler.  I swear on whatever holy tome of your choice, that I did not notice this when it was in the garage.  I even used setting-sun light to grab inconsistencies like this on the boat, and didnt see it.  It happens sporadically on the port chine, specifically.  The starboard came out pretty bitching if I may say so myself.  Needless to say Im disappointed.  My friend Matt who is always swatting away the mental flies that cloud my judgement was good enough to say something that went like this:  "Im sure I wont notice it, just add it to your laundry list of items you want to take care of next winter, theyre going to rack up anyway as you sail it this year."

Hes right.  If I was home every night I would take my time and lollygag around and be able to fix this.  Time for me is at a premium.  Every day I spend on details like this could translate into weeks and/or months of delays for me.  I screwed it up, I have to live with it for now.  Its actually not that bad, in this picture it looks horocious (new word), but in reality its not that bad.  Surface scum will obscure it anyway.

MAIDEN VOYAGE

On June 12, 2010, I humbly presented to Poseidon my Goat Island Skiff along with the requisite champagne on the waters of Lake Sunapee, NH.  I now present to you,

I Am Zinea, Pterodactylus

May you enjoy fair winds and following seas,
High adventure and times of quiet relaxation,
May you always find the port before the storm,
and may you never abandon your crew in their most dire moment of need. 

What can I say, I enjoy long absurd names for my boats.  Pterodactylus was part of the pterosaur family.  Usually they were light, fast, small flying dinosaurs that have been widely hypothesized to live near the sea.  Some larger pterosaurs were definite coastal cruisers, so close enough for me.  I went to the American Natural History Museum in New York and spent some time enthralled with all the dinosaurs and pterosaurs.  They were cool.  My boat is cool.  It all works out.

Under rainy skies and low overcast, and when most lakes were glassy calm, we were able to find a fairly steady light breeze, and do some sailing!

My lovely wife also got me a wonderful present for the launching of the boat, and it was full of Pussers!

A salty gift if I may say so myself!

HOLY BALONEY BATMAN! SHE IS LAUNCHED!

More posts detailing some fixes and other maintenance items, including sailing adventures are to follow.