Since I'm on the road all the time, I tend to do a lot of reading to pass them time. This is good, but it's also not-so-good as I get to daydreaming about my unfinished Goat Island Skiff. However, sometimes a book comes along that not only motivates, but helps embellish daydreams and pass the time.
I just finished reading this whimsical adventure book, and I highly recommend it to my fellow small-boat aficionados. The author takes his 11' Mirror Dinghy from Northern Wales in England, down to the Channel via rivers and canals, then crosses the Channel into France. Once in France he sails and rows his way across the continent's surprisingly extensive canal and river system until he gets to the Danube and takes it to the Black Sea. Filled with fantastic literary references (he's an English Lit. teacher), sailing, rowing, high adventure, and out-loud laughing points, I enjoyed this book immensely.
This book gets me all the more excited for my Super-Secret Summer Adventure that I am planning in my Goat Island Skiff. Tally-ho!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Sanding delays, running rigging
Another 48 hours at home have come and gone, and my Goat Island Skiff languishes in the garage by itself.
Upon arrival at home I had big plans to drag the boat outside and give her a wash for amine blush and start the sanding process on the outside of the hull in preparation for finishing. Here's my plan for the future:
-Wash the amine blush (if any) off the boat. Amine blush is something that can occur during the curing of epoxy. I use Marinepoxy from Duckworks, which does not usually blush. It's not "non-blushing" epoxy, but it's kind of "blush-resistant" if you will. However, I have epoxied in about a million different temperature and humidity conditions, and seeing that paint won't stick to blush I might as well wash. It's easy. A pail of water, a scotch-brite pad, and scrub a dub-dub.
-Sand the boat down smooth
-Apply Quick Fair for fairing some ridges and bumps. Quick Fair is an epoxy compound that will fill abnormalities and the extraneous Fair will sand away relatively easily.
-Sand again
-Primer, two coats or so. I'm planning on using Interlux's Pre-Kote which is a high-build primer to take care of smaller irregularities in the surface of the boat.
-Sanding
-Paint. More on paint later.
This is an ambitious list that will only be solved by time and hard work. So when it rained and snowed both days I was home, I was pissed. However, I can't change the weather! So I spent some time tinkering with some other small items that needed to be done, primarily epoxy sealing the runners, some loose ply ends, the rudder cassette/box, and so on. Not much, but stuff that needed to be done.
In bigger news, I received most of my running rigging from Duckworks! This was a very exciting package, because it reminds me that I'm coming to the end of my voyage here and it's getting time to outfit the hull! Yeah!
From top left, counter-clockwise: Shock-cord for my rudder and daggerboard, three cleats for general purposes, the last cleat is for the halyard. The fairlead for the halyard at the top of the mast, a clam cleat and another fairlead for the downhaul. Next up, traveler blocks, two blocks for the boom, a small block for the spar and halyard, 1/4" low-stretch polyester rope for the traveler, mainsheet block yoke, sail tie-downs, and downhaul. A nylon 3/8" mainsheet. My super-low stretch dyneema line for the halyard is still on back-order and on its way. I'm still looking for a mainsheet main block.
I'm super happy with the quality of the rigging. It's all made in the USA, it's made well, it will last forever, and it was cost effective. Race-Lite and Sea Dog Line bring us freedom from the tyranny of West Marine and Harken.
Hello to those new readers sent here from Duckworks Extraordinary May Webwatch! Welcome to my amateur madness!
Upon arrival at home I had big plans to drag the boat outside and give her a wash for amine blush and start the sanding process on the outside of the hull in preparation for finishing. Here's my plan for the future:
-Wash the amine blush (if any) off the boat. Amine blush is something that can occur during the curing of epoxy. I use Marinepoxy from Duckworks, which does not usually blush. It's not "non-blushing" epoxy, but it's kind of "blush-resistant" if you will. However, I have epoxied in about a million different temperature and humidity conditions, and seeing that paint won't stick to blush I might as well wash. It's easy. A pail of water, a scotch-brite pad, and scrub a dub-dub.
-Sand the boat down smooth
-Apply Quick Fair for fairing some ridges and bumps. Quick Fair is an epoxy compound that will fill abnormalities and the extraneous Fair will sand away relatively easily.
-Sand again
-Primer, two coats or so. I'm planning on using Interlux's Pre-Kote which is a high-build primer to take care of smaller irregularities in the surface of the boat.
-Sanding
-Paint. More on paint later.
This is an ambitious list that will only be solved by time and hard work. So when it rained and snowed both days I was home, I was pissed. However, I can't change the weather! So I spent some time tinkering with some other small items that needed to be done, primarily epoxy sealing the runners, some loose ply ends, the rudder cassette/box, and so on. Not much, but stuff that needed to be done.
In bigger news, I received most of my running rigging from Duckworks! This was a very exciting package, because it reminds me that I'm coming to the end of my voyage here and it's getting time to outfit the hull! Yeah!
From top left, counter-clockwise: Shock-cord for my rudder and daggerboard, three cleats for general purposes, the last cleat is for the halyard. The fairlead for the halyard at the top of the mast, a clam cleat and another fairlead for the downhaul. Next up, traveler blocks, two blocks for the boom, a small block for the spar and halyard, 1/4" low-stretch polyester rope for the traveler, mainsheet block yoke, sail tie-downs, and downhaul. A nylon 3/8" mainsheet. My super-low stretch dyneema line for the halyard is still on back-order and on its way. I'm still looking for a mainsheet main block.
I'm super happy with the quality of the rigging. It's all made in the USA, it's made well, it will last forever, and it was cost effective. Race-Lite and Sea Dog Line bring us freedom from the tyranny of West Marine and Harken.
Hello to those new readers sent here from Duckworks Extraordinary May Webwatch! Welcome to my amateur madness!
Friday, April 23, 2010
Daggerboard case intallation, spars
WELL I'm on a schedule where I'm home about 48 hrs a week, which means 47 hrs of boatbuilding, and 1 hour of laundry. Not really.
So during my past 48 hrs home I got to it and was able to install the daggerboard case and I hit on a major find for my spars.
For starters, I dragged my boat out of the garage into the driveway and noticed a pronounced twist in the stern. This.was.bad.news. If the intrepid reader remembers, I glued down my rear seat last time, and gluing down the rear seat definitely locks in and twist into the hull. Because of this I was super super careful to make sure there was no twist when I glued it in, using a level and some strategically placed buckets. I ran outside and moved my boat... and the twist was still there. There was no way I was going to get any work done if the boat was twisted. Using some brute force and a rigid vacuum tube I rolled my boat to the pond and threw it in the water.... and she floated straight as a die. No twist. PHEW!!! HOLY HOT HEART ATTACK BATMAN!
Back out of the water, I did some sanding in the interior of the hull to make it easier in the future, and went around installing the daggerboard case. What is most important is that the case is straight. If it comes off-kilter, I've got a giant blade dragging me off into some obscure direction that I'm going to counteract with the rudder, and it's going to be drag city. In order to make sure that the case is straight, I stretched a string from the center of BH2 to BH3 over the top of the case.
So here it is, mocked into position with my centerline string. I tried at first to do this on the ground, but I got much better results up on the buckets. I think the runners are slightly different and offering tweaked ground handling characteristics.
I cut the ribs for the front of the seat amidships. They actually came out ever-so-slightly larger than needed- a mistake- that ended up helping me out in the end. When I put the case into position it would slip around with the oversized rib, I could gently cajole the case into position which was verified by the string. When everything was straight, I carefully clamped everything into position. You'll notice the square behind the ribs next to the case to increase gluing area. The port rib is a little higher than it should be (remember, they were a tad oversize) and I'll plane it down level for the seat installation.
This whole skeleton will be glued together by the center seat. This, with BH3 and the forward ribs will create the lever that will hold the case in place. Remember, when I capsize, I'm going to be standing on the daggerboard to right the boat, with all my pressure on the case. This massive gluing area will keep it from ripping out when I'm in the water in the middle of nowhere.
Here are two shots of my daggerboard case lined up with my string.
In other news, I went over to Goose Bay Lumber to grab some Doug Fir 1x4's so I could glue up some spars. I had come up with some crazy idea to put the spars together as a laminated structure since I didn't think I'd find blanks that were large enough. I did. I found some finished 2x6 DF boards that were 20 feet long. I had them cut to 12 feet. A quick rip on my table saw, and I had two skinny blanks and one fat blank.
The spars are on average 40mm diameter. I get 37mm with the blanks. My spar is about 37mm x 40 mm or so. I'll keep it like this for the length and not taper it. It's kind of bendy, and I need some bendy up at the top of my sail, since I hear that the Duckworks sail can be a little flat. This should help. My boom will be 37mm x 50mm or so. If these are too bendy, I can laminate some ply at key areas to stiffen it up. This was a quick, easy, and totally suitable solution. Easy!
Until next week, intrepid reader!
So during my past 48 hrs home I got to it and was able to install the daggerboard case and I hit on a major find for my spars.
For starters, I dragged my boat out of the garage into the driveway and noticed a pronounced twist in the stern. This.was.bad.news. If the intrepid reader remembers, I glued down my rear seat last time, and gluing down the rear seat definitely locks in and twist into the hull. Because of this I was super super careful to make sure there was no twist when I glued it in, using a level and some strategically placed buckets. I ran outside and moved my boat... and the twist was still there. There was no way I was going to get any work done if the boat was twisted. Using some brute force and a rigid vacuum tube I rolled my boat to the pond and threw it in the water.... and she floated straight as a die. No twist. PHEW!!! HOLY HOT HEART ATTACK BATMAN!
Back out of the water, I did some sanding in the interior of the hull to make it easier in the future, and went around installing the daggerboard case. What is most important is that the case is straight. If it comes off-kilter, I've got a giant blade dragging me off into some obscure direction that I'm going to counteract with the rudder, and it's going to be drag city. In order to make sure that the case is straight, I stretched a string from the center of BH2 to BH3 over the top of the case.
So here it is, mocked into position with my centerline string. I tried at first to do this on the ground, but I got much better results up on the buckets. I think the runners are slightly different and offering tweaked ground handling characteristics.
I cut the ribs for the front of the seat amidships. They actually came out ever-so-slightly larger than needed- a mistake- that ended up helping me out in the end. When I put the case into position it would slip around with the oversized rib, I could gently cajole the case into position which was verified by the string. When everything was straight, I carefully clamped everything into position. You'll notice the square behind the ribs next to the case to increase gluing area. The port rib is a little higher than it should be (remember, they were a tad oversize) and I'll plane it down level for the seat installation.
This whole skeleton will be glued together by the center seat. This, with BH3 and the forward ribs will create the lever that will hold the case in place. Remember, when I capsize, I'm going to be standing on the daggerboard to right the boat, with all my pressure on the case. This massive gluing area will keep it from ripping out when I'm in the water in the middle of nowhere.
Here are two shots of my daggerboard case lined up with my string.
In other news, I went over to Goose Bay Lumber to grab some Doug Fir 1x4's so I could glue up some spars. I had come up with some crazy idea to put the spars together as a laminated structure since I didn't think I'd find blanks that were large enough. I did. I found some finished 2x6 DF boards that were 20 feet long. I had them cut to 12 feet. A quick rip on my table saw, and I had two skinny blanks and one fat blank.
The spars are on average 40mm diameter. I get 37mm with the blanks. My spar is about 37mm x 40 mm or so. I'll keep it like this for the length and not taper it. It's kind of bendy, and I need some bendy up at the top of my sail, since I hear that the Duckworks sail can be a little flat. This should help. My boom will be 37mm x 50mm or so. If these are too bendy, I can laminate some ply at key areas to stiffen it up. This was a quick, easy, and totally suitable solution. Easy!
Until next week, intrepid reader!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Daggerboard trunk glued up, and rear seat glued on
Ok my patient mates, here's 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 wasn't 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 don't know how I'm 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 didn't 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 I'm 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:
First, I finally got that bedamned daggerboard trunk glued up. Somehow, I wasn't 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 don't know how I'm 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 didn't 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 I'm 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:
Friday, April 16, 2010
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!
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!
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