Isles of Shoals again!

Another blast out to Isles of Shoals for my Goat Island Skiff!

The intrepid reader will remember last year's trip.  That trip was C-R-A-Z-Y with a roaring tailwind J-Pirate and myself hung on for dear life and made it the Isles in about an hour, and that included non-direct route a pansy-jibe (the 270 deg. tack).  The way back was 3 hours in pounding waves.  I went a second time with L-Man, and it took 3 hrs to get out there in fickle winds and a strong current, and about 1.5 hrs back.

Well, the other day L-Man and myself went out there in about 1.5hrs!  He felt better about all this Isles of Shoals stuff.  Epic snorkeling ensued.  The water was amazing.

I put two similar pictures because the water color was so awesome.  L-Man took some video!  Effing right, youTubes videos, Amateur Style continues to push the edges of technology!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxR2ppWVHV0

You have to click on the link because I couldn't embed it.

The way back.... L-Man not so happy.  With a screwed up current and strong winds from the same direction, FOUR HOURS to get back to the harbor with a stint of slow rowing.  Dismal, after a while.  I would like, for once to get there and back without some long slog.  SIGH  So beautiful, but we pay the price.

Mystic Seaport/WoodenBoat Show Pt. 1

Avast ye intrepid readers!

I just spent the past weekend at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut helping Clint Chase Boatbuilder assemble three Echo Bay Dory Skiffs for a Family Boatbuilding event at the 20th annual WoodenBoat Magazine Boat Show!  It was a great event, lots of great boats, lots of great people, and despite some threatening moments, great weather.  I had a fantastic time, it was not only a good learning opportunity, it was also a boat droolfest.

Let's start somewhere important and logical: Paul from Connecticut's beautifully finished Goat Island Skiff!  Baloney, I forget the name... Elizabeth Anne?  Maybe Paul can chime and remind me.  ***KATHLEEN MARIE*** thanks to Dave in NJ!  Anyway, beautiful varnish work with a jet-black exterior.  This is the real deal.  The boat is ready to row, and Paul is still working on the spars, but to say the boat is striking is an understatement!  Nice job Paul!

This was not the only Goat Island Skiff in attendance, Clint Chase Boatbuilder's perpetually unfinished Goat was also on display, near our Family Boatbuilding tent.  (I'd like to make it clear that this is Clint's personal Goat, unfinished as he is quite busy on his business end and customers take priority!)  These two boat generated significant interest from spectators, and there were enough Mik Storer aficionados on hand to answer questions and get people stoked.  The Goat Island Skiff is entering the sailing world's consciousness.  I love it.  I love it.   Preach it!

In a similar vein to the Goat Island Skiff I found this sharpie (trying to figure out what kind of sharpie it is, ideas?  Mik told me, I forgot)  wedged between two buildings.  

Plumb bow, hard chine, flat bottom, and a massive centerboard.  Massive.  Mik Storer had some great things to say about huge centerboards and how many have strayed to small boards because "there's some crazy number floating on the internet on how big a centerboard needs to be and it's completely wrong."  Beautiful boat.

Some others...

Trem, 1/3 copy of Joseph Conrad's Tremolino

Drool Catboats....

Dipping lug long boat

My rudder stock is lacking, in comparison.  I need some protective demons!

WOWZER

And now a little bit of a departure from sailing boats... this little steam powered launch was a heart-string-puller without a doubt:

The best part of this launch is that it's SILENT.  Steam is silent.  Silence is beautiful.  It could look like a turd, and if it's silent I would love it.

Below is B & B Yacht Design's Amanda/Mandy which was a cutie and another crowd pleaser.  It had a great solution to keeping the board down, the bungee through a piece of rubber hose, and it worked well.  I'm always looking for good ways to keep my board down and this looks like a very viable solution.

Finally, no visit to Mystic Seaport is complete with checking out the Charles W Morgan, America's last wooden Whaling Ship.  She's on the hard for a real restoration, and she blocks out the sky.  I haven't seen her in years.

Wall of Wood

Mystic Seaport from the Morgan

And finally most importantly, most epic-ly, I present the defining moment of the Show.  Intrepid readers, I present to you your Intrepid Author-Hero and Michael Storer mugging for the paparazzi (my arm). HUZZAH!

Hero and Genius in one frame-- Goat Island Skiff Proud

Oh yeah! There was obviously much much more to the show, this is but a small representation.  Part 2 to follow with Family Boatbuilding!

Sailing/Camping Season Begins! Squam Lake.

AHOY Intrepid reader!

I Am Zinea, Pterodactylus has risen again and spread her canvas-y wing(s) and sailed forth inaugurating a new summer of adventure!  Over the past weekend my trusty Goat Island Skiff and my lovely wife sallied forth under dark skies and sheets of downpouring rain in the company of Peteloaf, his spouse, and his Eureka Canoe.  Our destination was Bowman Island in Squam Lake where we intended to stay the weekend in quiet repose on these silky waters of this most beautiful of New Hampshire lakes.

The weather was beyond crappy, but that did not deter our heroes, whose hearts are made of Granite and whose souls sing the songs of silent years past, when Men were Men and the Rain trembled to hear our names whispered on the wind!

Anchors Aweigh!

The Group minus the Author with TWO Storer Boats adventuring!

An O'Day Daysailor joined us as well-- two sailboats are better!

Goat, Flag, Loon... America is this.

I am a hero.  Subtract points for fender.

A quiet moment, I can add repetitive pictures all I want.

I am going to sum this trip up in a few sentences:  It rained.  I almost ran aground at high speed but saw the rocks loom out of the murky depths (actually the water is crystal clear) and hoisted the board up just in the nick of time.  The Squam Lakes Association does not staff their building on weekends apparently, so I didn't get a chart of the notoriously rocky waters.  It rained some more.  There was some more rain.  I got bit by a dog.  We brought lots of food and burned lots of wood.  There was some mist, and before we knew it, we were heading back home!

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In other Goat Island Skiff news:

I have glassed the front end of my Goat with 4oz cloth.  I wish I did this last year.  If you look at the picture in full size, you'll notice lots of white dots.  That is where rocks pounded the veneers inward and the paint from the bottom is in the well.  The dark areas in the plywood are water intrusion which occurred before I could get epoxy in them to seal them up.  My bow skid (not in plans) took some huge hits last year.  IF I could do it over I would have widened the two main skids (which are installed to plans on my GIS) widen them outwards just a bit and carried them much more forward, eliminated the bow skid, and made sure the first 3 feet of the boat had 4oz cloth for abrasion resistance.  This area gets abused on beaches and rocky shores, there is no way getting around it.  Might as well beef it up.

This is normal for me

This picture is my Quick Canoe after a capsize.  Basically, impossible to right and empty solo when in water above one's head without installed buoyancy-- either built in tanks or strapped in bags or foam.  Great way to cool off on a hot day though!

Little Chebeague Revisited

Hello intrepid readers!

Last year Al from Brooklyn and I made a camping trip out to Little Chebeague Island in Maine.  Al in Brooklyn constructed his own Goat Island Skiff, and he drove up to do a little camping.  As the intrepid reader will remember, it was blowing great balls on the way out, and it took us all day to sail back.  On Little Chebeague I realized that my precious camera had been soaked through and through-- ruined by the salt water.  Fortunately, we met two MIT (maybe Harvard? whatever-- one of those awesome schools in BOS) students doing an economic study of the MITA, and they graciously took some pictures for us.  I received them today.  Here are two:

Goat and campsite

Intrepid heroes-- author (left) and Al from Brooklyn (right)

This was a great trip.  We compared the differences between Bourbon and Rum on a nautical adventure, and explored the cosmos from our beach looking up into a starry sky.  The Bourbon/Rum debate needs more analysis, and the cosmos are awesome.  What more should I say?  Additionally sailing is quite cool, we decided.

Sailing season is almost here, intrepid readers, so bottoms and up and get your boats ready!

Payson Joint repair

Ok, intrepid reader!  Sailing season is soon upon us!  Before you know it I will be sailing around in my Goat Island Skiff and rocking house, and maybe you will feel that kick in your pants to get outside and do some adventuring of your own!

As presented in my earlier post, I have some repairs that require my attention.  One of them is cosmetic by nature, and that's the pesky buckled buttstrap joints on my sides.  This buckledness was born from my inadequate gluing job many moons ago in my garage when my Goat was but an infant in many different pieces.  That being said, I am attempting to make correct this blemish.  I have posted this picture before, but here it is again:

Note joint

Boo buckled buttstrap joint.

I have been advised by Mik Storer (Goat Island Skiff designer you should know that by now) that the best way to tackle this issue is through the use of a "Payson Joint" which basically entails fairing the buckled portion, digging a trench to lay down some fiberglass tape and epoxy, and then sanding smooth and repainting.  A Payson Joint is a way to join two pieces of plywood together, and usually the trench and fiberglass tape are used on both sides of the joint.  It is a flexible, strong, and cosmetically innocuous way to join two pieces of ply together, since the tape lies in the trench that was hollowed out and doesn't bump up and out and sticks out.  It is strong, like bull, joint repair technique.

My repair only needed it done on one side, since I have a buttstrap on the inside of the joint.

First, I needed to sand away the paint from the bumped areas:

Starboard, note ghetto torture sanding board!

Port

You'll notice that on the port side I already have done some work, this was last spring before I painted.  I noticed the buckling before I applied the paint and I just ground it flat with my ROS and painted it.  It was suitable, but not ideal by any means.  The starboard side didn't show up until halfway through the season.

After the ridge was faired smooth it was time to "dig the trench" that would accept the fiberglass tape.  Here is the Starboard side trenched out.  The trench should not be more than a veneer, but after the fairing the first veneer was almost gone anyway, so it didn't take much to get down to the next layer.  The glue between veneers offered a good guideline too, visually offering the trench as opposed to feeling it out with my fingers.

Starboard trenched

 After the trenches were dug it was time to apply the fiberglass tape and thickened epoxy.  These would fill the trench and make everything smooth and fair.

Port side with fiberglass tape in trench

After this whole shebang cured, I have it a light sand to see if I had any hollows or ridges.

Starboard

Port

Obviously, I needed to do some filling, so QUICK FAIR TO THE RESCUE!

Starboard

After the Quick Fair set, I sanded it down until I got back to the epoxy.  Everything seemed smooth as a baby's bottom, so tonight I applied the first coat of primer.

This is the real test, the paint, because one's fingers can only feel so much, but glossy paint will show every flaw in your boat for the world to see!  Ugh.

My port side came out as good as it was going to come out.  I am pleased with the results.  My starboard side, ever my nemesis, came out almost just right, except on the bottom of the tape on the aft side.  There's a little ridge there than didn't get filled.  I mean, I have to be looking to see it.  My lovely wife basically told me to forget it.  My enabler told me to fix it.

Starboard

Also Starboard

Now please take note that this imperfection is actually almost impossible to see in any real world scenario.  I have to shine the flashlight "just so" to see it plainly.  On the water or on the trailer, no one will ever pick this up, I actually have to move about a bit in the garage to see it under normal light.

But I know it's there.  It's going to bug me, I did all this work, I'm going to have to fix it.  It's only one coat of primer that is meant to be sanded off anyway.  UGH.  So close.

My only fear is that I screw it up worse!

Oh, I also put in a plug in my daggerboard:

Check out the leaves that finally coming out! WOOT!