Guilford Boatyard

Winter on the Bay

2011-12-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

November and December hammer your free time. Thanksgiving day and then Christmas are just two days, but somehow they manage to soak up a couple weeks on either side. The timing of the two manages to make a continuous block of time during December where nothing gets done, except for holiday preparations. I'd have more free time, except for the need to earn money, and be involved in other activities.

It was with great relief when Mike M. called for a Thursday night sail on the Catty Wampus. Unfortunately our third crew member, Scott was unable to attend as he contracted some sort of nasty virus. Not wanting to share with us, he abstained. So off the two Mike sailed. Given that it was a holiday we managed to get on the water before dark (but just before), quite the novelty for us during the winter.

Lacking natural wind, we motored out the Oakland-Alameda Estuary and to the middle of the bay, south of the Bay Bridge... it was all glass. Not a bit of wind stirring anything! We still managed a couple of knots on a reasonable ebb tide, with a tiny bit of wind. Intending to sail around Treasure Island, we hoped to check out the new construction on the Bay Bridge. The city front was lit up nicely for the holidays. There was some sort of strange pulsing light on top of the Transamerica pyramid, which looked very cool when it lit up the fog layer above the buildings.

The new construction on the Bay Bridge was lighted too, and it shone above Treasure Island, and provided more than enough illumination to sail under easily. We actually couldn't sail under the bridge because the tide was still ebbing, and we didn't have enough wind to overcome the current.

Since we had such an early start to the day, we managed to be back home by 11:30 PM! The Thursday Night Irregulars have noted that most of the blog entries on our sails end up with a note about getting home by 1:30 AM, so this was quite a treat. The air was reasonably warm, but did drop to the low 40's, which actually isn't too far different that summer sailing!

Another thing we've noticed is the lack of recreational traffic on the Bay. The entire Bay Area has slightly more than 7 million people living nearby. We sail in the evenings often and most of the time (90%-ish) we never see another recreational craft. How can this be that we are the only ones on the water with so many people here? We've jokingly begun to refer to it as "our" bay. I'd love to see someone else out in the evenings, there is lots of bay to share!

We'll have a few more winter sails, and endure the lack of wind, but March is close by, and then we will get hammered. Nothing like Spring in the Bay for lots of wind! In the meantime we will enjoy the slight winds and calm conditions of "our bay".

Yesterday was Tuesday, not Windsday.

2011-11-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

Had a wind storm last night so I wasn't inspired in painting the inside of the hull. When I went out to paint tonight, I find all sorts of debris in the boat! I can tell I have redwood, yellow pine, and birch trees nearby. The dust on all my nice painted surfaces was pretty bad. I had to wash it down before I could paint tonight.

I'm definitely planning on a cover!

Mid October update

2011-10-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

Two coats of primer on the inside the Navigator, and I just finished the first coat of color in the forward half of the inside. Yep, it looks like it takes 3 hours to do an entire coat on the inside. I've got a few more coats to go, not counting the wet sanding between coats. Nothing like close observation of the joins to see areas I need to touch up with the sander, or apply some more fillet work (sigh).

Good news on the water front, the Thursday Night Irregulars are going for an evening sail on the Catty Wampus (Pierson 23). With the time change and the cool-ish weather it might be one of the last for a few months.

Finish Work

2011-10-18T00:12:00.000-07:00

Lots of finish work going on inside the Nav. Sanding here and there, finding spots that need a bit more goop to fillet out areas. Endlessly worrying the little bits, and endlessly worrying that I'm reaching the point of diminishing returns. I've got all the inside pieces ready to go, even tested out a little bit of primer paint in the forward section between B2 and B3 (I couldn't wait). The best part was getting the centerboard cover installed and finished. Varnish looks way better than polyurethane. Once I'm happy with the state of things, I'll be splashing paint around the inside. I am racing the weather to get her turned over before the rains start... and we've already had a few storms (so early!)

Delta Sail

2011-09-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

It was time for the Thursday night irregulars to do the annual Fall Sail. Scott's Apogee (Hunter 39) has been berthed at Owl Harbor in the delta all summer and needed to come home to Balena Bay Marina. Of course the Team of Incredible Knuckleheads were selected to bring her back. Scott described Owl Harbor as sort of a "KOA on the water". It was a pretty nifty little place with a patio off of the marina office, containing bookshelf of paperbacks and videos that tenants could borrow or loan. Right neighborly! The morning we took off, I was able to score a nice cup of coffee from the marina office. Not the normal industrial bilge cleaner, but a really nice dark roast. It was one of those fancy machines that uses pre-measured disposable cartridges. Totally bad for the environment because of the waste, but a nice cuppa.

We sailed out of Owl Harbor into the heart of the Delta. To be honest I had no idea where we were. Miles of low ground covered with some sort of scrub, and bushes. Scott knew where we were to go. We found a secluded little side stream near a very low island and tied up. A good lunch, and of course a few beers to sit and bake in the sun. We threw out the fishing poles, but only ended catching a young inexperienced fish, who went back to try his luck another day. Staying cool wasn't too hard, we'd jump into the water to cool down. It was very different than the sails to Half Moon Bay, or certainly Drakes Bay! Sitting and watching the water skiers go by was amusing, but watching the same landscape for very long time got kind of surreal. At one point I was convinced I was looking at a Van Gogh.

Our second day wasn't so much as a sail as it was a leisurely motor down the river. None of us felt much like raising sail and actually doing any work so we spent lots of time loving the diesel. The highlight of day two was sailing by the reserve fleet. Lots of old warships of various bits of function. Those of us in the bay area have been reading about the struggle of the local governments to get the Feds to clean up the fleet. 60 year old lead based paint is flaking off and forming a more toxic sediment than was already there. I guess it's not as bad as they feared, but I wouldn't want to eat it.

Another day of sailing brought us back home to the bay. We'd brought all sorts of cold weather gear expecting the bay to be it's normal nasty self. Turns out the bay decided to go into full Fall mode. We were in shirt sleeves the entire time. Fortunately the bay still had it's wind. 20-30 knots in the slot... we knew we were home. The calmer conditions of the delta and Suisun bay turned into the standard bay craziness. It was a good thing we ate lunch before cross under the Richmond-San Rafael bridge where the wind began to pick up.

Another great fail sail, a trip to remember (most of it anyway), and time to start thinking of next year. Perhaps it's time we head back to Drake's bay, it's been 3 years since visited there. It will be more like an expedition compared to the trips we've take the last few years. No Safeway, to pubs, to restaurants. It's nice here in the Bay Area were we have such variety.

That took longer than it should have...

2011-08-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

After completing the hatch covers, I went to town on finishing the rudder stock and installing the gudgeons. It took me more time to get things aligned than it should have taken. Now I know what to do, should I ever build another boat, it won't take so long. Looks nice hanging there... peeking through the tiller access hole... do I see paint?

The push is on to get the inside finished, deck it over, and prepare for a flipping party. I want to get the bottom on before fall and as they say, "deadlines on calendar are closer than they appear".

Gotcha ya covered

2011-07-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

B2 hatch covers are done, in place, and the dogs work. Nice.

Now it's on to hanging the rudder stock so I can measure the positions and make sure it fits before I cut the blank to make the the blade.

I also need to do something with the tube coming out of the mast step. I can't have that ugly thing sticking up on the B3/B2 chamber top. I'm wondering if I should finish off the top of the centerboard case before flipping the boat. Probably. One more job.

B2 hatches almost ready

2011-06-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

I gooped up the inside of the hatch covers for B2. I used wood flour generated from scarfing the sole pieces (save everything). Now it's time to build the actual hatch dogs. Once that's done I'll finish them and move on to another interior bit of work... getting closer to painting the interior.

We had one of those rare summer rainstorms here. It dumped at least a quarter of an inch yesterday, but no water ended up inside the hull. The weather here is making it tough to make progress.

Catty Wampus in Perfect Wind

2011-06-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Another success for the Thursday night irregulars. Scott was out of town, so the two Mikes jumped into Catty Wampus. The winds had been pretty strong because of the warm temperatures inland. The slot had winds of of 18-30 knots, depending on where you were. Certainly not something the lightly ballasted Pierson was ready to handle. Fortunately the winds dropped to reasonable levels (10 kts). We had wind in the Estuary, so rather that run the iron spinaker, we sailed out the Estuary.

Seldom can we sail out to the bay, so we took the opportunity. Surprise when hit the inner harbor. Two fully loaded container ships, a passel of tugs, and to add icing on the cake the Oakland, Alameda, SF ferry. Lots of short tacks, and staying out of everyone's way. Five blasts on the horn is not something we want hear.

We sailed out to the Bay Bridge, turned and burned for home. The flood tide was again a learning experience. The current splits right at the tip of Alameda, runs West pretty hard. We needed to keep the boat sailing well North of the estuary entrance. We still made the entrance and had a wonderful sail back to the Marina. And once again, it was 1:30 AM for bed...

Thursday on Apogee

2011-06-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

Eric

The Thursday night irregular group sailed again on June 2, this time on Apogee. We had reasonably good wind, but like most days on the bay, as it tends to do, the breeze settled out and died at sundown. I think at one point we were screaming along at less than 1 knot.

Scott

Scott's brother-in-law, Eric, was in town and came out with us. He's done lots of sailing back east, and continually wonders how we deal with the tides and currents. It's true that a 5 knot current can counter 3 knots of sailing quite easily. (ask me about our "3 hour tour" sometime).

Playing with the currents and wind are fine, but then we ended up sailing through the anchorage just wet of Alameda. The charts have one of these listed as an anchorage for "explosives", but no telling what was in the ships. At least we didn't hit anything.

Mike adjusting the reefing block

Getting into bed at 1:30 AM made Friday long and tiring for me. Mike M called me and we ran over to the favorite chinese restaraunt for the deluxe noodle soup. Yum, too bad I didn't have it the night before.

Sailing with the Thursday Irregulars

2011-05-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

The Thursday Irregular sailing crew finally got together, after jumping over many scheduling hurdles. Scott and I joined Captain Mike aboard Catty Wampus for an evening sail with beverages and sandwiches. What started out as nice conditions in the Oakland Estuary quickly settled down to gentle wind, to almost no wind.

We took our standard tack over to the peninsula, then North up along the city front. Once we cleared the Bay Bridge. We headed for some wind, and the Northern end of Treasure Island. Because of the West winds, we decided to "wear the ship" instead of gybing. Since Catty Wampus is a cat boat, and the main is huge with a monster boom, gybes are actually dangerous. Wearing was a good maneuver, and we executed it quite well. Almost looked like we knew what we were doing.

Hopefully, the Thursday Irregulars can sail more often.

Rudder Glue Up

2011-04-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Just glued up the staves for the rudder, and the interior packers for the rudder stock. Aaaand there they sit. It took a couple of days before I felt that the glue was seriously cured. It's been in the 40's at night and the garage doesn't warm up very much. Seems nice and solid now, and it will have some more time to cure. I've got no free time for the next 5 days.

Next: A little sanding on the packers, cut the slot for the tiller, and glue on the outside pieces. Then start shaping the foil on the blade. With this project under way, it's time to seriously thing about the big spar. I'm thinking bird's mouth construction.

Spring Sail on Apogee

2011-04-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

It's been soooo long since any of us have been out for a sail. Captain Scott got things rolling by calling for a bay sail this last Friday. The weather was looking dicey late in the week and we weren't sure if we would be able to go. Even so, there was enough wind that we chose to use Apogee, Scott's Hunter 38, rather than Mike's Catty Wampus, a Pierson 23. The Wampus would have been a much wetter sail. We had enough wind that we kept Apogee reefed down.

Captain Scott and crew member Mike.

The Hunter has a mast reefing system, which is very nice, but it makes it harder to say something like, "we were reefed on the first set of points, etc". If it helps, I recall that the clew was about 2/3 of the way out. I'll not do the math, but that was enough sail for the conditions.

It started out warm, but cooled down quickly, so the warm clothing went on really fast. We were pretty busy getting things rigged, stowed, opened, and so on that we hardly had time to eat. It was almost and hour after casting off that we had our first food. Yummm, sandwiches from Mr. Pickles.

The Apogee is a fine sailboat, but is not a steady tripod.

We sailed North from Alameda, under the Bay Bridge, and into the slot. The city front was looking beautiful, as always. About this time, both Scott and Mike realized that in the last couple of years I'd never sailed the Apogee, so Scott bravely turned the wheel over to me. Now understand that I've spent all of my sailing time using tillers. If you've ever used a tiller, you known that it operates "backward" from steering your car. So all of my instincts were completely wrong. It took me about 10 minutes to settle in and get the hang of the wheel, which should have been easy! In the meantime Mike and Scott were convinced that I was chasing submarines.

By the time we got close to Angel Island, we turned for home. The tide had turned and we had some ebb current to deal with. It was a continual task to deal with the current, and not wanting to get set upon markers or Alcatraz. Sailing at night on the bay is magical. We seldom see any other traffic, usually just a few commercial vessels, and almost never private ones. It's like our private own bay.

Since the sun was down, the wind had lightened considerably, so we ghosted along at between 1 and 3 knots, and finally arrived back at Balena Bay. Going to bed at 1:30 AM I realized I'd rue my late hours on Saturday, but all in all, it was a good season opener.

The Stuck Rudder

2011-04-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

Spring is here in Northern California and it's now possible to go outside (occasionally) without even a light jacket. Earlier this week the weather was so nice we could eat lunch outside in our shirtsleeves. What a nice change from this Winter. Summer came to an abrupt halt in 2010 when Fall began getting cold and rainy earlier and more consistently than the last few years. My main Navigator project was to be the rudder assembly and the main mast. Because it was so cold and rainy, neither project happened. The rudder (project) became stuck.

With Spring and the surface planer, it was time to get going. A couple of weeks ago, I planed the white oak to make the rudder stock. A couple of passes cleaned it up nicely, and I had a wonderful smelling stick ready to trace out the stock patterns and cut them. Then... BAM... winter raised it's head again and we had a solid week of rain and colder temperatures. Snow level dropped down to 2,000 ft, which causes the mountains around town to have a certain romantic sense about them, but doesn't do much for working outdoors, or allowing epoxy to cure in a reasonable time.

A break in the weather, and a quick jump outside to put the stock patterns on the plank. Cut the pieces and stack them up. I'll need to clamp them together and do a bit of finish work so they have the same profile, but much of that can be done once it's been glued. Good thing I didn't take out lots of tools, or plan on lots of work, it began raining shortly after I got those pieces finished.

Another weekend of mild temperatures allowed me to rip the staves which will make the blank for the rudder blade. This time I'm using some nice ash wood, with strips of mahogany for decoration. Neither plank was expensive so I'm not too worried about the total cost of something like this. Since everyone will see the blade during rigging time, it will help if it looks extra nice. I figure one or two fine looking pieces will help distract viewers from the other numerous flaws (most of which even I won't be able to see in a few years).

It's nice looking at the staves arranged like this. I know there is a blade in there somewhere. As soon as I figure out what stripe pattern I'd like on the blade, I'll glue it up and be ready to shape it.

Oh yes, "The Stuck Rudder" would make an excellent name for a pub. When I finally open by brew house, perhaps I'll consider it.

Emerging from Hibernation

2011-03-10T23:31:00.000-08:00

Well, welcome to Spring. It's only a few days away (a little less than 2 weeks now). Northern California has had a very wet winter, so I've spent most of the time making sure the Navigator is under cover, and protected from the elements. It's been so wet and windy, I can't even remember what it's like under the tarps. All those plans I had in the Fall for doing "indoor"work during the winter went out the window. Ah well.

Since my birthday was within the last 30 days, and I needed some 16mm hardwood, but could only buy 19mm, I decided, why not get a surface planer. Time to go to the big box home improvement store! (OK, Home Depot, if you must know). I've been wanting a surface planer for quite a while, and had picked this one out a couple of months ago.

Finally last weekend, with the lack of Scouts, family, and work obligations, I had time to unpack it and check it out. While I was hoping to actually send the log through the machine and test it, I only had a chance to smooth out a short piece of 2x4.

The machine is quieter than my neighbor's Delta brand and is color coordinated with my table saw (they are both Ryobi). It sure chewed off 3mm of 2x4 very fast and very smooth. I think having nice sharp, brand new blades helps too. As nice as it is, it isn't "working on the boat".

Last night I grabbed a new sheet of foam-core board from the local craft shop and lofted the rudder stock shapes. They are ready for tracing on the 16mm oak. As soon as I get a chance, I'll run the 2 meter board through the planer to turn it from 19mm to 16mm and then I can trace out the rudder assembly. I'm hoping to do it this weekend, if I can avoid the rain. Buddha willing, I'll get rudder stock assembly ready for glue before next week. If I'm really humming along, perhaps even glued up.

This Saturday I'll need to be driving around they SF Bay Area for some family chores, and I'll be stopping in to the local Harbor Freight. I hope I'll find some nice toy. After that, it's over to MacBeath's hardwood looking for nice Mahogany and other stuff to finish off the rudder, tiller, etc. Who knows what I'll find.

The 2011 boat season is off to a start. Here's hoping that I'll get the Nav on the water this year!

(P.S. For those of you reading this on Facebook, the "real" blog is located at http://guilfordboatyard.blogspot.com).

All the Trimings

2010-12-01T22:24:00.000-08:00

This post was originally intended to come out sometime around the US Holiday of Thanksgiving. Turns out I got busy with stuff, and then the weather turned cold and rainy. Lots and lots of rain. About the only thing I do out in the boat yard is check the covers to make sure the hull is nice and dry (it is).

The last thing I managed to do was to get the oak trim on the seats. I spent a lot of time deciding what I wanted to do with the seat edges. John designed the edges with a second 6mm ply doubler, but I figured if I put in a 12 mm strip of oak, rounded over with the router it would be just as good. I departed from the plan making the foot well square-ish instead of rounded, as that would have required much more fancy wood working than I was felt like doing. If you look closely, you'll see that I ran the trim along the side of the centercase and forward to B3. The trim is to be finished clear, the rest will be painted. Which means I need to do lots of interior sanding, a cap for the centercase, clean up the B2 hatch openings, and build a "nav station" to hold gps/vhf radio/compass on the aft of the centercase... then I'll finally get to painting the interior.

Half Moon Bay

2010-09-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Editorial Note: Somehow the blog has escaped my attention (http://guilfordboatyard.blogspot.com for you Facebook people). It's not like I've dropped off the face of the Earth, but my blog time certainly has. Time for some catch up.

Fall is time for the annual "Two Mikes + Scott" sailing trip. Last year we sailed to Drake's bay in Scott's new Hunter, "Apogee". This year we were looking for something different so after a long series of dinner and beer decision meetings we chose a trip to Half Moon Bay. Scott offered up his Apogee again, so that left the two Mikes in charge of food.
Time and Tide wait for no man, and we were subject to both. We chose to leave at "'o dark thirty" on September 10th. We had two tide events to meet. The first was getting out of Balena Marina at high water so we didn't need to worry about the shallow channel. The other was hitting the Golden Gate at slack water. Avoiding the bar at max current is considered good form.

The morning was very nice and clear, although I'm not sure I consumed enough coffee to make a difference. No wind to speak of, so I volunteered to make breakfast. I believe that was the first time I did any cooking while underway. I kept looking out the ports as we passed Yerba Buena and Treasure Islands. The timing was perfect, so we got eat breakfast on deck while we passed San Francisco. Passage through the gate was uneventful, but the weather was beautiful.
There was wind as we headed South along the coast but there was also lots of fog. Welcome to the California coast in the fall. We surprised ourselves by seeing a fishing boat pop out of the fog, and we quickly realized that the radar scale wasn't matching the GPS chart plotter scale. Once we fixed that, we realized that we were in the middle of a fishing fleet.

Aside from the excitement of finding a fishing fleet in the fog not much happened. We did manage to get cold sitting there in the cold damp air. Mike offered sandwiches, but I had brought fixings to make a seafood udon soup, with big thick noodles. This was pretty cool, making a big pot of soup a couple of miles out to sea. The soup was a big hit and was appreciated by three cold sailors.

We made it to half moon bay before the dense fog beat us into the harbor. After tying up, we cleaned up and went out for dinner. Restaurants are always going to cook better than we can aboard ship. I ended up not feeling well, so I went to bed early, while Scott and Mike went to find the local nightlife. Apparently they found it.

We spent the next day sailing in the ocean around Half Moon Bay. The day cleared out and we had sun, and good clean wind. Again we were chased back into the harbor by the ocean fog. I was all set to make dinner, but realized I had left a critical ingredient, so it was off the ship and on the land for dinner. This was fine, at least someone else served us!
On Sunday we needed to get back since two of the three of us needed to get back to work the next day. We had some swells on the ocean, which was not sitting well with our late night of poker playing. Neither Scott nor Mike wanted to go below and make breakfast, and as I felt fine I volunteered. I managed to make breakfast, just barely. I'd never been motion sick like that before. I felt lousy the rest of the day. I certainly didn't want any beer until we got into the bay where we only had short chop to deal with.

We managed to get back while there was daylight and get Apogee cleaned up and everything stowed for the next time Scott wanted to take her out. I certainly got my sailing needs taken care of for a few days. Thanks to Scott and Mike for a great trip.

Gentlemen, please be seated

2010-09-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

I've actually been quite busy this summer, despite the lack of posts on this here blog thing. Shortly after I returned from Scout camp, I was summoned to Jury duty for the great county of Alameda. Not to be content with keeping me in the pool for a day, I was called up to a court room. Not being content with keeping me in the trial pool, I was called up to the jury. Neither DA nor Defense attornies could find a reason to send me home. Thus I spent the next four weeks doing my civic duty. Navigator work needed to wait until I got home in the evening. It's almost as if I had a full time job.

Mizzen step before installation

Slowly, due to restricted working hours, I began fitting the seats. Just when you think you've got all the dependencies covered, putting in the seats reminds you of more. I needed to install the step for the mizzen mast. This too got fabricated and installed, but I didn't get a picture of it before I put the final seat panel in. Perhaps I'll snake a camera down there to get one up close.

Look at all the seating

Th front "seat" went on the section between B2-B3, and needed to be fit around the tube for the main mast. The side panels went on fine, but getting the curves cut and shaped to fit the hull profile with odd things like frames and butt straps took most of the time. I glued in the final seat panel in the aft section last night. Now all I need to do is put some doubler/reinforcing material around the edges. After double checking the todo list, some final sanding of the fillets, I think I can see some interior paint in the future.

Good thing, the cover over the boat yard has holes in it, and it might leak when it rains. I've got a couple of months before that happens, and I hope to have the hull flipped for bottom work before the rain starts.

I'll let the glue cure on the new joins. In the mean time, I'm off with my friends Mike and Scott to sail to Princeton by the Sea (near Half Moon Bay) for a 3 day sail. We'll be taking Scott's Hunter 38 and lots of victuals. We might even sing a few shanties.

One step forward

2010-07-14T22:46:00.000-07:00

Most of June's Navigator work consisted of apply fillets along each and every joint on the inside of the hull. Days of work, and not much to show for it. I've got pictures, but I'm not going to share those.

After all that exciting filleting, I needed to get busy planning for Boy Scout Troop 900's week at Wente Scout Reservation. While the scouts were busy with rank advancements and merit badges, I was hiking. Another Assistant Scoutmaster, Frank, and I were hiking the Kali-ama trail. This is like geocaching, except you find a metal post with a rubber stamp on it. Collect the stamps and complete the hike. Last year we did the basic Kali-ama, and the King Kali-ama. This year we went for the super hike: Dalai-Lama Kali-ama (DLKA). The DLKA is the sum of all King Kali-ama hikes. We needed to find close to 50 post, and ended up hiking 40 miles over 4 days. Don't worry, it wasn't all hiking, some of the posts were floating.

After I recovered from camp, I was hot to get going on seating and decks for the Navigator. As I looked at the plans, I realized there was still some more things to be built; seat supports, and mast steps. Things that must be placed before the seats go on. Another kink in my plans. That and the lack of wood for the seats and decks. Another trip to MacBeaths hardwood in Berkeley. I love that store, since I get to fondle all the nice wood they have there. I especially like the really hardwood. They just sell it by the pound. The seat supports were easy to fabricate and shape to deal with the angle against the hull. Keeping them in place until the glue set up was another deal. I used just about anything I could find...

The mast steps are considerably easier to fabricate. I've built the main step, and shaped it so it fits on the keel batten nicely. The mizzen step is slightly more complicated with several angles but it's not too difficult. I've a little more work to do so the main mast has a watertight sleeve to live in. That way the compartment aft of B2 will still be watertight and air tight.

Seating and decking real soon now. Now I'm thinking about flipping the hull to finish off the bottom.

Spring in the bay

2010-06-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Navigator is still getting the interior fillets sanded. Lots of noise, dust, and noise. I'm sure the neighbors will be glad when it's done. I'm about ready to apply the rework on filleting so the public areas will look really nice once it's painted.

My order from Duckworks came in, and I'm ready to install the drain in the transom. I've also got parel beads for the rigging, when I get there. The best thing is my shiny new "meter stick". No more "yard stick" with a measly 910 mm on nosiree!

Work notwithstanding, my friend Mike (owner and captain of the Catty Wampus) invited me out for a sail on Sunday (June 5). The last time I was down to see his boat, we removed the outboard so he could take it home for a rebuild. With the maintenance done, it was time to replace it and try it out. We loaded up and away we went. About 30 seconds after pushing off from the dock, Mike realized he forgot to add the two stroke oil. Back to the dock. Minor nuisance.

We had a relatively uneventful motor out of the Alameda estuary, until we were about to leave and enter the bay. We saw a pilot ship roaring down the estuary, overtaking us. They looked like they were going to ram us, but we assumed that they would see us and change course. That never happened. This "Vasco deGamma" of the estuary came about 10 feet away from us. The wake from this thing was huge. The sad thing was that the estuary was clear of all traffic except for us. Either he was aiming for us, or he wasn't looking where he was going. We weren't happy about this.

Lots of wind, and we ended up reefing down too early, we had no headway. So we shook one reef out and started sailing along the peninsula toward the city. The wind was increasing and we decided that it was going to build and only get worse as we entered the slot, so we put the second reef back in. Just in time, as the wind was really running, steady 20 MPH with gusts over 25 MPH at times. It was nice back in Alameda, but up here in SF the fog was building and it was getting chilly.

About this time, my hat blows off (it's happened before). Mike asked me if I wanted to get it, and I said sure, if we could. We would treat this like a man over board drill. What we should have seen was that we had 2 screw ups today, and high winds. It had been at least a couple of months since we did serious sailing so both of us weren't paying much attention. We came around for the hat, and as the wind shifted, Mike called a jibe. I had my head down, but apparently he was up too high. The boom came across the cockpit and knocked him down. Fortunately we didn't break anything (on Mike or the the boat), but Cap'n Mike was NOT happy. We decided to burn for home at that point.

We quickly shot across the bay to the North of Treasure Island, ran South under the Bay bridge and slid home. Just another Spring day on the Bay.

Oh yeah, Mike, I bought you a present... it's a hat keeper. I'll be sure to use it from now on.

Fillet o' wish

2010-05-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

After getting the final plank installed, I knew it was finally time to start working on the insides. I worked up lots of thickened epoxy and applied fillets along the top and bottoms of the stringers. It's not fast work, that's for sure. Apply the goop, draw it out using a tongue depressor, and use the scraper to clean up the stuff that squeezes out the sides. OK, it's not that slow.

I found a perfect use for the produce bags my boat widow collects from the supermarket. I clip one corner and load it with filleting material. A poor man's piping bag. It works quite well.

Since I was gluing stuff up, I also decided it was time to bed the joint between the sole and the garboard. I figured that if I was going to be walking around the inside of the boat, I better make sure that the plank is secure, otherwise I could potentially break the bottom plank, which would not be fun.

I've managed to apply the first round of filleting except for the last section between B8 and the transom. I'll need to cut some wedges to fit between the transom and the plank ends, and glue those in before it can be filleted.
I've spent about a week applying the filleting material and expect to spend another week sanding and filling areas that were missed on the first round. Once the filleting is complete, I look forward to planning the final interior construction; mast step, anchor well floor and drain, finish the inside of the air boxes, seat tops, center case top, decking. Still lots to do. I'm hoping for slightly warmer weather, we've been having early spring weather here, lots of wind and cool temperatures.

Spring cleaning

2010-04-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (4-26) I removed the clamps from the final plank segment, and pulled out the screws. Looks nice now, certainly it's a boat. I also pulled out a bunch of plywood scraps that had lived inside the hull all winter. There is still more to go, but the big nasty stuff has been stored properly. A quick tour of the shop vac and I'm ready to start gooping up the inside with thickened epoxy. Waiting for the current rain store to blow through. I'm sure I've got laundry to do, or some cleaning around the house.

Spring is planking season

2010-04-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. (Oh, belated happy Earth Day, btw). After the last post, I got busy laminating the remaining spars, and shaping the others. A couple of days of focused effort has all 5 spars nicely rounded. Once I learned how to oscillate the sanding rig, everything started to some out very nice. Now I've got some blanks ready to kit out. They'll wait for a while.

Once the spars were done, I really wanted to get back to planking. I've only got the sheerstrake to finish, then it's different work. I managed to get the aft most section and midship section glued and screwed. Then the weather turned and it rained again. That's OK, I had to get busy and do my part of the taxes. That hurt. I was mostly paid on a 1099 last year. No withholding, so it all had to come out at once. So great, now that taxes are done... Navigator?

Nope. Somehow my "say NO" gland malfunctioned and I let myself get volunteered to organize a Jamboree on the Air amateur radio station for the Northern California Boy Scout 100th Anniversary. I had some efforts over the last couple of months and the team was really cranking effort in the final days before the Jamboree. I spent an entire weekend working the Jamboree, and doing radio stuff. Fun none the less, and it's Scouts. At least there was some boating related stuff. The Sea Scouts had the boat "Gryphon" just across the parking lot from our radio station. It was pretty nice, and of course I had to check out it's construction. Carvel planked with real ribs and frames. It's a very solid boat and makes my Navigator feel like it's made of tissue paper. Those planks were solid!

Great! Jamboree done, back to the boat right? Nope, more rain. Sigh. I did manage to get the planks cut before the rain, but I would need to wait 2 more days for the rain to stop and to have an increase in the temperature so the epoxy would cure properly. Finally, today was the day. The last plank pieces were glued in, clamped down, and screwed securely. Tingle blocks placed at the joints, and now it looks like a hull. You can see in the picture where I've started to fill the screw holes with thickened epoxy. A sign of the coming blotchiness.

I'm off to go camping with the Scout troop this weekend, but the warm weather over the next few days will cure the epoxy nicely. When I get back, it will be time to clear out the inside of the boat as I've been using it to store plywood scraps. It's also collected lots of sanding dust, wood curls from planing, and some leaves. I'll clear out the debris, vacuum and start filleting. Lots of gooping up before installing seats, decks, etc.

Here's sprit in yer eye

2010-03-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Despite being very busy with Scouts, I'm still plugging away on bits and pieces. Yesterday I cut and laminated some Doug fir slices to make the blank for the main sprit boom. This one will be 3200 mm long, so it take a bit room to maneuver the board around.

Lookit the sawdust flying out the table saw. The camera was pretty well dusted up when I finished with this.

Busy all day Saturday with Scouts (again :-). Sunday I think I'll get out the plane and shape the main sprit and the mizzen sprit.

Oh yeah, look at the gaping hole on the side of the boat. The top plank is taunting me for leaving it off all winter. Once these spars are done, I think it's back to planking. Then lots of filleting on the inside.

Sailing the Bay

2010-03-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend (3/11) I went sailing on the Catty Wampus with Cpt. Mike M and his crew (Matt, Glen, myself). We managed to sail out from Alameda Marina to the Bay on a part run, part broad reach. This doesn't happen too often as usually the wind hits us in the face as we leave the estuary.

The weather was great with sunny skies and relatively warm temperatures. Quite the change from a couple of weeks before when we had fog and cold. Amazingly enough there wasn't too much traffic on the bay.

While we were well stocked with beverages and food (beer and sandwiches), we did talk about the public pier in San Fransisco (Pier 1 1/2). This pier has free public docks, and we've talked about checking those out for long time. The Catty Wampus pulled in early enough that there was still some open side ties. The floating dock was quite short as two segments of it were closed due to storm damage. Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

After docking at Pier 1 1/2 we walked up Howard to the Thirsty Bear for lunch (spendy but good), then down to Gordon Biersch for a desert beer. Wow, some of the best sailing was on dry land!
Pulling u9t a couple of hours later, we decided to do a short loop around Alcatraz, and by that time it was getting dark. Time to "turn and burn". A successful trip was had by all.

From lumber to spar

2010-03-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

Boy! It's been raining a lot around here, and when it isn't raining, it's cool to unpleasant outside. That and being consumed with Boy Scouts, my available time has evaporated and the spar work has been slow. Some how the planets aligned so I was able to sneak out for some of the finishing work on the 50mm spars. I have two of spars that size and one will become the mizzen mast, while the other becomes the top yard on the standing lug mainsail.

The spar blanks were planed reasonably precise octagonal, then eyeball planed to a 16-ish sided blank. To round it out I figured that I'd sand to a finished shaped. Based on research I decided to go with a a power sander. Since you can't go to your big box home improvement store and buy a "spar sanding rig", I had to build one. I went with an approach that others have used successful in the past; Chuck up a drum in the drill, and use a reversed sanding belt. The drum was built from 2 inch ABS, wooden hubs, a 5/8 inch bolt. To get enough friction on the drum, I used pieces of a bicycle inner tube attached using double sided carpet tape. I later realized that I needed to seal the end seam of the rubber with duct tape to prevent it from peeling back and coming undone.

This sanding is working really well and I get covered with all sorts of sanding dust. Nice and messy. After making an initial pass on the spar, I inspected the spar looking for high spots. I touched them up with my hand plane, and then re-sanded it. The end result is pretty pleasing, and there are some variations. There are a few high spots you can feel but can not see, and there some thicker / thinner sections as you inspect from one end of the spar to the other. The variations appear to be withing 1-2 mm, so I'm pretty happy with it. I'll put the spar away until it's time to build it out and decide if it needs more tune up then. One down, more to go.

A Note from the Spar Shop

2010-02-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

Hull work has been halted for the last month or two because of the weather. We've had what seems like non-stop rain (due to a moderate el Niño I'm told). Neither rain nor sleet stop those appointed couriers, but it sure stops epoxy work!

I bought my prime Doug Fir boards and ripped them into strips suitable for making spars. I glued them up in my ginormous game room. The garage actually has a bit of space (tough to come by at my house) so I turned it into the Spar Shop. I built small wooden shims to hold the uncut spars on my saw horses.

Using a spar gauge I marked it to cut the spars to octagons. A nice sharp plane and a couple of hours later, left me with a huge pile of wood shavings and some octagon spars. I must have done something wrong on the gauge since the 16 sided settings didn't mark correctly. Not much of a problem since the sides are so slim, so I planed them by eye. The spars are much rounder, and noticeably lighter. That was a lot of wood taken off.

Both of the 3000mm + length spars are done, and I've got a mizzen sprit to do. The boomkin, while not a round spar, will need some shaping, but that will be easy. The mast is the next major spar to make and the main sprit will need to be built. It's good to get the spars out of the way before it warms up and I want to get back to hull work.

I can smell some trees blooming, and the fruit trees in the backyard are getting ready to bloom. Warm, hull working, weather isn't too far away.

Noah in the boatyard

2010-01-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

I expected rain. I expected lots of rain. So the hull is swaddled in a couple of white polytarps (originally intended to be sails of on my old PDRacer). So the early part of january didn't see much activity, figuring all is well, I went off to hike in Joshua Tree National Park with Boy Scout Troop 900. The only rain we saw there was an old fashioned gully washer in the Mojave, sending streams of water cascading over the surface of the desert.

I returned to find the cover askew, one leg had fallen off and the the restraining tie down lines were busted on the upwind side of the structure. No problem, easy to fix. Get rid of the goofy plastic cinches by replacing them with a serious 3 half hitch knot (Boy Scouts to the rescue!), replace the leg and good to go.

My tool cabinet was in worse shape. The protective plastic cover came off, letting water in through the holes in the top. Why didn't I cover the holes with duct tape like a good engineer. I'll never know the answer to that. So all the tools get dried off and removed from the cabinet for the duration.

In the meantime, working is ramping up in the spar shop (the garage). The plane is sharpened and the edges are coming off of the first 50 mm spar.

Merry Spar-mas and Happy New Year

2010-01-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

Whew! We made it through the holiday season with minimal bloodshed. Except for the Noble Fir who gave its life for our viewing enjoyment. In an effort to start being more ecologically sensitive, I also errected my first Festivus pole. The kids thought it was stupid, and non of my house guests even commented upon it. It's a failure if imagination.

It has been as cold as we expect for this time of year, and as expected, I couldn't do reasonable epoxy work. There is another builder on the JWBuilder list living in BC and he manages to keep his outdoor boat "shed" (plastic tarp!) warm enough to use epoxy in zero degree C temperatures. I guess I don't want to go to that amount of effort. In another month or so, we'll start to see some warm conditions again so I'll restart that effort.

In the meantime, I figure I'll do some work that will allow the parts inside. I can get some reasonable curing inside within a sort period of time. Hopefully in less than 2 days the pieces will be cured. This pretty much means parts that are not hull components. So we begin the season of the spars! I bought some really nice Douglas Fir boards that ought to do the trick. Step one is to rip the boards to strips sized for the spar and laminate them. Here I've got blanks all glued up for the mizzen sprit and the boomkin. Once these blanks are cured, I'll run them through the table saw one more time to square them up, then I can start turning them into spars.

Last time I ripped some long strips I was not real happy with how straight they cut, so I decided it's time for another tool. In this case, it's feather boards. These boards ride along the side of the piece you are cutting and keep it straight against the fence. The cost for a feather board is good, it's free since all I need to do is raid my scrap pile. Bonus optical illusion, which feather board is larger?

2010 is off to a nice start. I'll make a spar gauge to mark the blanks for 8 sides, then mark them for 16 sides. I think once I hit 16 sides, it's probably round enough to sand. Wood spars, yum!

Saturnalia shutdown (?)

2009-12-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

Here we are, just weeks before the Christmas break. I've managed to get the last segment on plank 3 before the really cold weather hits. The photo was taken just before I took off the clamps, with the epoxy nice and solid. Just in time too, tonight and tomorrow we are forecast to see rain mixed with snow. Regardless of where you live, it's too cold to do any epoxy work. I'm hoping we have a couple of more weeks with some temperatures in the mid 60s, but there's no way I can be sure. I'll prepare the stringer and top of P3 to receive P4. I'll even cut the P4 segments so I can be ready if I have a couple of days of reasonable temperatures. As always, no promises.

Since the boatyard is open air, and I have no heat, I'll work on other parts that can be easily moved inside to cure. Things like the rudder assembly, or even the spars and mast.

In my last post, I mentioned that my old Craftsman belt sander had gone to a better world (actually not, I think it's the landfill). I chose a Rigid to replace the belt sander and I really enjoy it. Variable speed, easy on and easy off for the belts. I also picked up a bullnose rabbet plane. I've used it to cut gains in the fore planks, and expect to use it to even out the bottom edges of the planks prior to glassing. The final toy is a set of noise canceling headphones made by Ryobi. The best part is that the head phone plug into my iPod. I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts while I build the boat.

This morning I sadly covered the boat with tarps to prepare for the coming storms. Perhaps I'll make a laundry list of things to complete. Boy, I'd sure like to get the boat on the water in 2010...

Plank Racing

2009-11-15T13:17:00.000-08:00

I feel like I am in a race with old man winter. His schedule doesn't change, so the pace on mine needs to increase. I've completed installation of the second plank and I'm waiting for the glue to cure. It's been almost 24 hours and the epoxy is still tacky. I like the old summer time when I can be ready to sand eight hours after application. I don't miss the frantic rush to get the glue on before the pot goes off and I've got a hocky puck though. I've got another couple of weeks of daytime temperatures in the mid to high 60's so it is likely I can get plank 3 done before the weather cools off entirely.

It's nice to sit back and look at the lines as they are emerging. The planks really make a big visual difference on the profile. They also, of course, make huge difference in keeping the water out. I'm also grooving on the fact that the bow section of plank 2 was a cake walk compared to the bow section of plank 1. No sweat, no fuss, no muss. Almost flat compared to the bad boy below.

I'm figuring that if the outdoor work needs to grind to a halt, I'll get working on smaller bits, particularly those that can be done in the garage, or brought inside to finishing curing. I've got some spars to make, and the rudder assembly to build.

I was going to tune up something on the hull using my old Craftsman belt sander. I've had it for more than 20 years, perhaps even 25 years. The bearings have been going for some time, only clinging to life support with liberal applications of WD-40. Last week it gave up the ghost and made a noise like machine gun when it tried to run. So I hung the dead tool from the canopy structure as a warning to all my other tools. Don't give me grief or you'll come to this too! I've been shopping around for a new belt sander.

Sculpture in wood

2009-11-03T16:52:00.000-08:00

That's it. I just finished gluing in the bow planks on the Navigator. Many on the JWBuilder's list have dreaded the installation of these planks citing all sorts of misfortunes. I have to say that they went in quite easily. In fact I was able to get the starboard plank into place with hand pressure. It took clamps to keep it there, but that's OK. I attribute the ease of install to the high quality mahogony plywood I'm using. I shudder to think what might have happened if I used Douglas Fir. Some of the junk I can get around here is pretty bad.

The Port plank gave me a warning crack when I was dry fitting it, so I decided to soak the wood for a couple of hours, then install it. It still gave another little crack, and produced a small split right at the top where B1 intersects the strings. I don't know why it did that, since there is no high point. None the less, it was an area of stress. The crack is less than 3 cm, and at least 1/2 of it is part of the plank that extends above the stringer (which will be removed). Every thing else seems fine, so I'll probably leave it. It will be reinforced with fiberglass, and the next plank will lie on top of. This photo shows the twist in the plank when I un-clamped it prior to gluing. John put some complex curves in there!

I'll do a bit more finish work on these front planks. Trim to the top to match the stringer, add fillets of thickened glue on between the plank and stem, and start cutting gains at the stem end. Then... more planks! Each set of planks should get easier.

Rememberance of a boat past

2009-10-31T20:43:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, while sailing the San Fransisco Bay, my friend Mike was telling us about this cool site he found: PDRacer.com. He was excited about these little sailboats because they were simple, easy, and reminded him of a Bolger Brick. He proceeded to get all of us excited enough about PDRacers that four of us got together and built them. Mine was hull #23 "Headless Duck", and I put lots of care into it. Mike thought I was "putting lipstick on the pig", but it was my boat, and I really enjoyed the building process. I can thank the old duck for getting me started on my Navigator.

This first photo is from our inaugural fleet sail in May when we had some reasonably warm weather and calm winds. The boat was the simplest design we found, and I used electrical conduit for a mast. The sail was a 45 sq foot standing lug. In light winds, everything worked wonderfully well. My boys and I had plenty of fun in the duck.

Later on a trip to Lake Del Valle (near Livermore, CA), the wind was strong enough that it bent the conduit. I hadn't used large enough conduit, but if I had it would have weighed a TON! I took a hint from my friend Scott and laminated 3 1x4 pieces of wood together, and cut it down on the table saw. I had a solid 12 foot mast, but it wasn't too heavy. Before another year had past, I had replaced the mast step (poor construction), rebuilt a rudder (too thin), and changed some of the rigging. I learned a lot putting that boat together. By 2008 I replaced the old blue polytarp sail with a white polytarp sail, and increased the size to about 60 sq ft.

I enjoyed the building process so much I decided to start my Navigator project. That pretty much killed any further use of the Headless Duck. By this point my friend Mike had disposed of his boat, and the other two boats in our group of four were gone. One was given away, and one was turned into a sand box for a day care. I gave my boat to a fellow named Paul Helbert (Virginia), and assumed I never see her again.

Imagine my surprise when reading Duckworks Magazine. There was an article about the PDRacer 2009 World Championship. About halfway through the article I see a picture of the Headless Duck! It looks mostly the same, except they've re-rigged her for a balanced lug, moved the leeboard back to accommodate the new CE, and probably removed a few other bits. None the less, it's still my old Headless Duck. Even more interesting is the captain, Mik Storer, creator of the Oz PDRacer. He took 3rd place in the boat. I'm sure he slightly mortified using such a basic hull compared to his very nice Oz design, but none the less he still did well. The article goes on to say that the boat was "on the heavy side, but rigid". I'll accept that criticism, as I sometimes use the Harley Davidson approach to design. If it breaks, make it bigger, heavier, and stronger. I think the current builds of PDRacers are done with thinner plywood and striving for light weight.

None the less, I'm very happy to see the Headless Duck keeping people happy.

Why use plywood?

2009-10-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've been working on cutting the planks. The aft portions of the garboard plank were easy to cut and stitch in. I'm using small wire ties by the way. I did a short section on the port plank using mono-filament, and decided it's too much effort. Way quicker witht the wire ties.

Quicker until I got to the bow planks. I could not get the plank against the frames in order to trace the profile. It's just too much bend. As John W. says, "it's a complex curve". That's for sure. I was thinking of using cardboard to make a template, and I did.

Amazon.com makes all my boat building materials! I was thinking this would be much easier if I just glass over the cardboard. My Amazon box shows the nice curve I'll get with the plywood. If you look closely, you can see the template butted against the aft portion of the plank. I was thinking that this might actually work. I took the template down and used it to trace the panel on real plywood.

Tomorrow I'll drill holes for stitching, and perhaps give the planks a hot water soak prior then clamp them up to shape.

Buttoned Up

2009-10-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

The Navigator is all buttoned up against the storm. We've had almost 3-4 cm of rain so far, and I don't want the bare wood of the boat to soak it up.

The storm will clear out in another day or so, and I'll uncover and get back to work. The planks are calling to me.

Update: 15:30 PDT. The wind started and we're getting very strong gusts here (20-30 MPH in Livermore, the bay is having 40+). The lousy rope job didn't hold, so I used a generous supply of clamps on the stringers. Now it won't go anywhere. Just about 5 cm of rain since dawn, and with the wind, much of it is horizontal.

Drakes Bay 2009

2009-10-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

No building this week as it was time for the second annual trip to Drakes Bay (38 00.692N 122 37.294W). On reflection perhaps it's the "first annual" since you need to do it at least twice to be annual, otherwise it's just a single event. Hmm, this is like how some people number starting at zero, others start at one (a big religious argument in the programming world).

Scott, Mike, and myself went there last year in Scott's Tartan 26, Muse. It was a fine trip with good weather. Things were to be different this year. Scott is retiring the Muse and replaced it with Apogee, a 2009 Hunter 38. This boat is a vast upgrade from the previous and changed our whole approach to sailing. The approach mostly had to do with fancier food, and more room to stretch out in the cockpit.

We left Friday October 9, and return Sunday October 11. Our sail out of the marina in Alameda was nice, with a good start. We had sun, not too hot, but warm enough to be comfortable. The wind allowed us some sailing at 6 kts. We were treated to a show, since it was Fleet Week in San Francisco. The Blue Angels were practicing right over our heads. At times it felt like they'd clip the top of the mast, although I'm sure they were much higher than that. At one point, when Mike was on the helm, he actually ducked as one of the jets went screaming over head. Sailing in the bay is seldom dull.

We stayed overnight at the Presidio Yacht Club, right near the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. The club provided our one night of freedom from cooking. A couple of ales and a burger had us bedded down after a great day. The next morning found the skies leaden and grey. It turns out that we wouldn't see the sun until it came time to put in on Sunday. At least it wasn't raining.

It also wasn't very windy. The ocean was smoother than some lakes I've been on. We did need to resort to the iron spinnaker a couple of times, but tried to sail as much as we could. The best part of the day was sitting behind the dodger, out of the wind, all three of us fell asleep. The autopilot kept us on course long enough.

We anchored in Drakes Bay, and this year we got to do it in day light. The whole process was made very simple due to the electric winch on the Apogee. Mike thought it was almost like cheating since we didn't need to haul in the rode by hand. I just thought the winch and chain were looking for fingers to take off (shudder). Mike's dad caught up with us (from his power boat Sea Castle), and so we received visitors that night. They very thoughtfully brought some champagne to toast Scott's new boat, and we were happy to do so.

All trips have the last day, and we were reluctant to head back. It would be a long day so we didn't dally in the morning. There were perhaps a dozen boats at anchor in the bay, and we joined the line heading South. The remains of an asian Super-Typhoon was going to slam in the Bay Area on Tuesday and they were predicting crazy windows (30-60 kt gusts). Even if we wanted to play hooky, it wouldn't do to be caught on the water. More wind for sailing back, but never too much. We caught the end of Fleet Week coming through the bay. A little sun just before slipping in to the marina ended our trip nicely.

Time to start planning for next year. In the mean time, I've got to button up the boatyard. The coming storm is supposed to supply plenty of rain (up to 5 cm) and strong enough winds that I don't want the Navigator to get wet.

Brrr!

2009-10-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

It was in the low 40's this morning. When I went to check on the glue on the stringers, I was wondering... is the glue hard because it set last night, or is hard because it's frozen? Progress may slow down now that it takes multiple days for glue to cure instead of a couple of hours.

Snap! Crackle! Pop!

2009-10-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

Nope, it's not breakfast, it what happens to a stringer when pushed past it's breaking point. I was dry fitting the decking stringers and a minor disaster happened. The SB stringer was in place (or not, don't remember), but the port stringer decided I had pushed too far and it gave up the ghost. The picture shows the nasty details. No harm, no foul. I just slipped the scarfing jig onto the table saw and cut the broken ends, and glued it together. The stringer was more than long enough, so I had some length to play with. It did set me back a day while I waited for the scarf joint to cure.

Did I imply that I just cut the scarf joint and re-glued it? Sorry, I forgot to mention that sometime at the beginning of September the switch on my table saw failed. It failed in a not good way, it was stuck "on". This meant I could not turn the saw off, which is rather unsafe. I ended up throwing a switched plug strip in the circuit so I could at least turn the saw on and off. In the meantime, I ordered a replacement switch from an online company. The silly people sent me just the safety key, not the switch. After I verified that the part number I used was correct, I got on the horn with them and had them correct it. The new switch came in while I was camping in Yosemite with Troop 900. The new switch worked great, and I'm back in gear. By the way, this picture is not sideways, the saw is a portable Ryobi, and it's in the "stowed" position.

Oh, Yosemite? The Boy Scout Troop was doing a service project. We removed excess ash from fire rings in one of the camp grounds in the Yosemite Valley. Any time in Yosemite is a good time. We had some cool temperatures, and some snow on Sunday morning. Snow? Yikes, that means it will be getting cold back home soon. Better get that epoxy work done soon!

PS: I installed the inner decking stringers, without any major issues.

'twas a kingly lunch

2009-10-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

All the outer stringers are installed, and the inner decking stringer is the final set to be installed. In order to put these in, they'll be connecting to the king plank in front. Whoops! Time to install the king plank. I cut the plank from some of the nice clear pine. It's pretty striking to have that nice white wood contrasting against the rich red mahogany of the bulkheads.

This photo was taken after gluing in the king plank. You can still see some of the temporary bracing still in place. I needed something to keep the bulkheads from torquing when putting in the stringers.

With an afternoon to myself, I thought I'd treat myself to lunch, and time to have the first beer inside the boat.

I pulled out some leftovers; rice, scallop and vegetable stir fry, grilled salmon. The Fat Tire ale was fresh.

I threw a piece of plywood over the seat support on B8, another along the starboard seats for a table.

The food was a welcome way to end a workday, the beer was some of the best I've ever had. I expect more beer to be consumed from the cockpit of the boat. I'll need to finish the boat first!

Sheer stringers glued in.

2009-09-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

I finished the gluing for the sheer stringers. John Welsford comments in the instructions that it should be "very boaty looking" at this point. I certainly agree, it's looking more like itself each day. I'm looking forward to the planking next week, as I want to be prepared for the rains to come (joking, I think).

I expected the sheer stringers to be easier than the the garboard stringers. I was right in one sense, the curves weren't so severe or taxing, but because the notches are two sided, the stringer wanted to bounce all over the place until I screwed it into the strips on the frames. I expect the inner decking stringers to be a little fussy too.

Not to get too complacent, but the the planking will have it's own set of challenges, so I'm mentally preparing myself for those. The other "trouble", which is a good thing, is that the boat now officially has an inside. If I want to do some work in there, I'll need to climb in and do the work from there. Right now the only access is to climb on the strong back and step over the transom. Pretty solid, but I still need to exercise some care when moving about.

This is starting to feel like a pretty substantial boat. It's taking some time, and I don't get to sail it much. Fortunately I have friends with boats. One buddy down the street has a Pearson 23C we sail every other week, and another friend has a brand new 2009 Hunter 38. I got to visit the Hunter earlier this week and it's pretty swanky. If you don't have a boat, have friends with boats.

3rd set of stringers are in.

2009-09-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

Got the third set of stringers in. They'll need some filleting around the bulkhead joints, but that's just finish work. Next up, the sheer stringers. (The decking stringers look to be a challenge!)

2nd set of stringers are in

2009-09-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

The second set are glued in and in place. This time the process took much less time (I'm getting better at it). I'll need to do a little more prep work for the next time. Some of the frames and bulkheads will need to be carefully checked against a vertical level, some need to be braced.

The previous stringers also fit fine, being scarfed from two 8 foot lengths of wood. The next couple are longer, so I need to scarf some extensions on them to get them long enough.

I'm getting strung out

2009-09-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting some more progress. Last weekend (September 12) I finally got around to gluing on the garboard stringers. These stringers have been reported to be somewhat problematic up at the stem. Mine didn't disappoint, they were quite a problem. I needed to resort to asking the JWBuilder's mailing list for advice on how to get the very front brought right up to the stem. There is a nasty combination of twist and bending involved.

Turns out that the good advice I got from the list was stuff I had mostly tried before. John Welsford suggested (via his assistant Richard) that I might try a "mini-breast hook". What I ended up doing was some clamps tied together with a clamped on mini-breast hook. It just turns out that I didn't use enough force to bring things into alignment. I was sure that I was going to crack the stringer, but since it's good quality wood (no knots), it was cooperative, just a little reluctant. I was ~~swearing~~ sweating this part of build!

All in all, I spent close to three days fitting the stringers, fitting shims, and fitting the clamps. I wanted to be sure that I was going to be able to pull this off once it was time to glue things together. Finally gluing them in felt light a "moon shot", but I certainly am happy now that they are in place. The next stringers up will be easier since they meet the stem in a much friendlier angle. I can almost imagine planking soon!

Sailing and the Bay Bridge

2009-09-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend. Usually a good weekend to stay away from places where there a likely to be lots of people. So what do I do? I went Bay sailing with my friend Mike on his boat, the Catty Wampus (CW). Our goal, to see the construction on the Bay Bridge. The CW is a Pearson 23c (a catboat), and is light and nimble. This boat sails very well in light air, unfortunately we the wind was so light, we spent a fair amount of time hobby horsing around without moving forward.

Because this weekend was a long holiday, Cal Trans is taking this opportunity to close the bridge to traffic so they can take out a segment of the roadway and replace it with a new one. The segment they took out weighed an incredible amount and had not moved in 75 years. Nor was it designed to move, but move it they did. They built heavy duty rails, cut out the old section, slide it off, and slide the new section in.

While they were doing this, they also performed inspections around the bridge, and they found a crack on a beam. I saw pictures of it on the TV, and it looked scary. Fortunately they fabricated a shim and repaired it, on time. It defentitely looks like it's time for the replacement to be finished. It's only been 20 years since Loma Prieta quake... I know I'll feel better when the bridge is finished.

So not much wind that day, but we eventually did find some... heading back in, we had good wind down the estuary. A short sail, but a good one. We also checked out an Irish Pub in Alameda. Nothing like a Guinness to finish off a sail.

Farenheight 103

2009-09-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

With no apologies to Ray Bradbury, yesterday and today were real "barn burners". Not much to do except some sanding, and scarfing stringers pieces. I sanded the interior filleting until I was uninterested in doing more. Turns out that I wasn't real interested in doing too much sanding in the heat. Needing to make more progress, I had 20 pieces of ripped pine ready to be made into full length stringers. The problem was how to cut the angle (8:1). I found some articles here and there showing how to do this. In fact, when I Googled for "scarfing stringers" I got hits on Navigator pages and Pathfinder pages. How apropos! The approach I decided to take was to build a small jig attached to my sliding bevel (show in the picture). It worked out OK, I got the cuts the right length, but they weren't as clean as I wanted.

After the cuts were made, it was time to glue them up. Remember the title of this entry? 103 F is too warm for my epoxy, and I expected it to be pretty messy. I brought out my bottle of Tite Bond II to do the job. I've got lots of confidence in that glue since I've used it on another boat with great success. Since the stringers won't be subject to tons of strain, and they're interior to the boat, I'm not too worried. (John Welsford did a post, somewhere, about strength of various glues. PVA (TB-II) is about as strong as epoxy, it just doesn't sand as well.) The variability of the scarf cut was obvious once I mated two pieces together. Some were a little longer in the scarf than others. Also evident was the variability of the width of the ripped pieces themselves. Sometimes they varied in width by 1 to 2 mm. That's more than I wanted, but I also figure that once the stringers are in place, I can fair them out with some thickened epoxy later on. I think I'll be doing lots of fairing, filleting, and more sanding!

Looks like a few more days of sanding and filleting the inside before I can put the stringers in. As long as I need easy access to the interior, the stringers will be waiting. I'd hoped to be ready for planking by August 31, but I'll probably miss it by a couple of weeks. That's OK, it's better than my previously missed deadline.

Transom and seat fronts glued in.

2009-08-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Progress is really visible over the last couple weeks. The frames and bulkheads went in smoothly. The center case fit like a glove. Finally it was time for the transom to be glued in. Since the initial steps in securing the transom are seat fronts and seat stringers, it was time to do those too. A little fitting, and sanding got things ready. I was ready but our Northern California weather wasn't cooperating. It was still in the high 80's (if not low 90's) late into the night. August September in the Bay Area can be quite warm, and I didn't want to create a cup shaped paperweight. Once I finally got the cool enough temperatures, things were glued up. You probably can not notice that I am on the border of running out of clamps.

So what's next? There are some things I can do in parallel, such as masts and spars, the rudder assembly and so on. The hull is at a synchronization point. This is the point where I'm going to be putting stringers on. I just need a little more filleting on the inside, while I can still easily get to it, then strings.

I'm really liking the way the boat is coming together. I'll come out here and just stare at it. I don't need TV.

Filleting begets sanding which begets filleting

2009-08-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

While I've been waiting for the varnish to finish up on the transom, I've started filleting the interior edges, while I can get to them. I anticipate a major problem once the stringers are in. I'm not thin enough to squeeze between them. So off to fillet I go.

The craft sticks I use for mixing (slightly larger than a tongue depressor) have a very nice radius at each end. I splat the goop in the corner, and pull the stick along, leaving a nicely rounded fillet. After the epoxy has cured, I sand it using some home made sanding blocks with 1/2 a piece of dowel on it. This helps bring the rougher fillet to a smooth enough surface for later painting. Well it would if the original fillet was relatively smooth. What I didn't notice was the divots I left the first time around. So, another round of mixing goop and filleting. I think that may leave me with a nice rounded surface. With more sanding mind you.

I know why people comment on this phase of construction, it's time consuming and you don't make much visible progress. Friends comment on how it looks like "last week". That's why while I am waiting for the epoxy to sure, I was working on the seat fronts (B8-B5). They are now dry fit, and the transom was clamped in to see what it looks like. Behold, transom-y goodness.

A little sanding on inner edges of the bulkheads will help them sit against the seat fronts nicely. Once that is done, I can glue in the seat fronts, and the transom. If I recall my building steps, I think I'll be ready to start putting stringers in. I won't have started the planking by the end of August, as I had planned, but I am getting quite close.

Usually I work alone, but check out this guy... he was inside my garage looking out through the window. I hope he is not a member of the Furious Five. Any way, I helped him migrate from the garage to the tomato plants out back. I'm sure he is happier outside. I know I am, when I'm out in the boatyard building my Navigator.

Full 3D, well mostly.

2009-08-13T14:01:00.001-07:00

I reached a milestone today, full (mostly 3D). I installed the stem, B1, B2, and B3 this morning. This picture was taken while the glue was still wet, so it's a fresh shot. You can see the stem and bulkheads sitting there, as well as a temporary king plank, to help hold the bulkheads vertical.

This is mostly 3D in the sense that the transom is not yet installed. It's in my finish booth getting a few more coats of varnish on the aft side before I install it. Nothing worse than trying to varnish outdoors with all that dust. After the varnish, I'll install the transom and the top seat stringers.

In the mean time, I think I'll spend some quality time filleting the inside of the boat while I can reach it. Once I install the seat fronts and the planking stringers it will be increasingly difficult to reach some of the places.

Yay! It's a boat! Not just parts!

Little visible progress, but lots of good work

2009-08-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

The picture wouldn't look much different than last week. Since I installed the aft set of bulkheads, I've completely dry fit the stem, B1, B2, B3. In fact they are ready to install, which I may do in another day or two. Today's temperature was pushing 105 F, which is not friendly weather for doing epoxy work. I'm not sure I could mix the stuff before it solidifies! The good news is that there is no crystallization of the resin.

I had glassed the transom last week, and it was rough finish, and it needed to be completed. Yesterday I ran my sander over the surface and got it nice a smooth. Tonight I pulled out my brand new can of spar varnish and gave it the first coat. Looks like it will take a couple to get me to a nice finish. Once the varnish is done, the transom can be mounted, and with it, the top seat stringers for B5 all the way back, and even the seat fronts.

Things are a bit flimsy right now. I'm afraid that if the kids go running through there without paying attention, they could fall into something and take out half the boat. By the time it's finished, if they run through there, they could hit it, then I'd be worried about the boat taking out half a kid!

3D Madness

2009-08-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

After a little more than a year of working on parts that are 2D (or at best, 2 1/2 D), I've extended the boat into the third dimension. This weekend was quite productive. I spent long periods in the boatyard on both days, fitting and refitting the bulkheads. Saturday provided me with B4, B6, and the center trunk. Sunday gave be B5, B7, B8, plus a backer plate on the transom to povide a little more beef if I want to mount an outboard (I needed to figure out a use for the extra glue).

I'm very pleased with the progress so far, it's finally starting to feel like a boat. I will be working on B1, B2, B3, and the stem over the next week. I stupidly didn't notch the stem doublers prior to laminating, so I have a little work to do. Turns out I did the same thing on the transom. I'm pretty good with a chisel now, so it won't be a problem. The paradox is that a sharp chisel makes the mahogany plywood fall apart, yet this boat should be plenty strong. As long as I don't run aground on a chisel....

... oh wait, the rocks at my local lake are pretty sharp. Hmmm, I'll make sure the fiberglass the bottom.

Dry fitting

2009-07-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last couple of days dry fitting bulkheads and frames. Things are mostly going together quite well. In one case (B6) the measurements came out exactly (less than one mm difference from the plans). Needless to say, I'm quite smug about that. Then there is B5, it needs some adjustments, and some on the fly thinking. Sigh. Somewhere in the middle was B8 which was off by almost 7 mm, but a little basic adjust the stringer cutouts, and attachment stringers, brought it right on target.

The center trunk has took a fair amount of time to get the slot exactly correct. Mostly what that entailed was making sure the slot was long enough for the end logs, and wide enough for the case itself. A little work with sandpaper, a rasp, and my cordless circular saw cleaned that up. Now the case drops into the slot with a solid thunk and won't move.

Almost ready for real assembly. I'll adjust B5 today, fit B7, and cut the bottom slots in the transom. It's starting to feel like a boat.

Almost 3D!

2009-07-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a bunch of stuff to get ready for the final push to 3D:

Getting the centercase ready to be assembled
Working on the swing keel pivot assembly
Gluing up the last bits on the bulkheads and frames (particularly B4, B6, B8)
Laying out the positions of the frames/bulkheads
Laying out position of big square hole in the bottom (for the swing keel)
Setting up the station offsets to place the bottom on the proper rocker
Cutting bottom seat battens and keel batten pieces, then gluing them on

Lots of work, it's just tough to show much progress. As of last weekend I got the bottom sitting on the station offsets, so it's got the nice curve the boat is supposed to have. I've even got the seat stringers and keel batten pieces glued on (although this photo does not show it). So technically, the boat is 3D, but only by 20 mm. Another week and frames will start to be installed on base. Another week after that and I may even start to install some stringers.

Planking? Wow, can't even think that far ahead. My work contract will be ending in a couple of weeks and I'm seriously thinking that it will take some time to find a new job. Then when school starts, the kids won't be needing rides to go everywhere every ten minutes. I'll have lots of time. Perhaps I'll take a couple of months and finish the hull? Who knows...

Anyway, I'm really excited to be entering this phase of construction. I'll be seeing the hull in its proper form. I realize I still have some major tasks in front of me; decking, seating, spars, rigging, find a trailer. Still, I feel like I'm finally able to make some progress, and people looking at the project will finally be able to see it too.

Where's your progress?

2009-07-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

Not long after I finished the last bit of work on the keel, it was time to go to Pismo Beach for our family vacation. We spent a few days boogie boading, eating well, and checking out the autos for the annual Pismo Beach Classic Car show. The closest I got to boat building was putting a sticker on my boogie board. I also got to try out my waterproof camera, and I didn't even lose it.

The Navigator waited paitently at home.

The day after we got back to Livermore, I needed to packup and leave for Scout Camp. The Wente Scout reservation is just East of Willits Ca, and sports an 80 acre lake. They have it stocked with canoes, rowboats, and sailboats (Lasers, an Oday 19, and a Hobie Cat). I managed to get out on one canoe (part of a hiking trip, if you can imagine) and during some time reserved for the Scoutmasters, I was able to jump into a Laser. I hadn't been in a small boat like that since I sailed a Sunfish as a kid. I forgot how squirley they are. None the less we managed to make it back and forth across the lake a few times, without dumping it.

THEN July 4th came up, and I had work to do. So the Navigator has been running slow. I am coming close to finishing some work on the swing keel trunk, but I'll reserve that for another post.

Wood, epoxy, fiberglass... a foil.

2009-06-14T10:26:00.001-07:00

I poured the lead a couple of weeks ago, and spent the intervening time fairing out the lead slug, and fixing the damaged fiberglass at the foot. I also added fairing near the top. I was hoping for a C2 surface join, but it is most likely C1 (or maybe C1.5 :-)*.

Here is the swing keel, nicely fiber glassed on both sides. That will make it quite strong. I will add a small strip of glass on the very top this afternoon, and early this week, I'll drill holes for the lifting shackle and a hole for the pivot axle. After that, I'll be ready to assemble the case.

Once the case is ready, I'll be ready to take the entire outfit "3-D". This means putting the bottom up on the station offsets to generate the correct rocker. I will then be able to start putting the frames and bulkheads up. Whoops, I just remembered I should get some deck cloth (4 oz fiber glass cloth) and finish off the back of the transom while it's horizontal. It's tough to fiber glass vertical surfaces.

Here sits my progress, parts, parts, and one really nicely finished part. I know I have it boat shaped this year, but to be honest, I had hoped I would have been further along sooner. I'll be low on progress for the next two weeks. I'll be at Pismo Beach boogie boarding (family vacation), and then I'll be at Wente Scout reservation for Troop 900's summer camp (they have Lasers there, perhaps I'll sail those).

No matter, even doing wood work and fiber glassing, I'm still sailing the boat.

* C1 indicates a surface which is continuous in the first derivative. C2 indicates a surface continuous in the second derivative, etc. A C1 surface is smooth, but there is a change in the slope.

Hot, hot, hot.

2009-05-23T16:45:00.001-07:00

I completed a major job today, pouring the lead counterweight for my swing keel. I spent time earlier this week prepping the keel; cutting out the cavity, putting in pins (screws actually) to hold the lead mass, and applying a backing plate. My friend Mike brought his high intensity propane stove over, and my friend Frank came over to watch (I put him to work using the camera).

I needed 13.6 lbs of lead and had 14 lbs, so I went with that. The "crucible" was a sacrificial pot I bought at the local thrift store. I'll never use that pot for food now that it's been used for a lead pot. The lead melted pretty quickly, sort of like melting lumps of cold butter for your popcorn. It needed an occasional stir to make sure the solid bits were melted. Another 30 seconds to make sure there was no slurry at the bottom, and it was ready to pour.

We poured it all in one go, and it generated a fair amount of smoke from charring the wood. It bubbled for a bit, which wasn't boiling, but rather escaping smoke from burning wood down in the cavity. It set up really fast, but there was still enough heat I didn't move it for another hour. At that point I took it up to the bench and took off the backer plate. Pretty! No unsightly bubbles, just a nice smooth-ish surface.

The biggest problem is that it caused the fiberglass work on the tip of the keel to delaminate. If I'd have know that this problem would occur, I might have waited to to do that bit of glassing after pouring the lead. Oh well, live and learn. I'll spend some time this weekend dressing out the surface of the lead, repairing the bad glasswork on the tip of the keel, and prepping to glass the rest of the keel. Time to make some progress.

Finally, I had someone mention to me that they wanted to leave comments, but didn't want to sign up with one of the associated ID brokers (although OpenID is getting pretty widespread, I might check it out). So I've enabled anonymous comments if you feel like it. I'll need to approve comments, since I don't want SPAM to show up here. As long as it doesn't become to onerous, I'll leave it this way.

No boat work, busy with Scouts

2009-05-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from the Twin Valley Spring Camporee with Troop 900. We had a blast, and the troop won a couple of events, including "best campsite." I've put up some photos, and a video or two. Time to get back to boat work and paying work.

Will it sink?

2009-05-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

With apologies to Will it Blend, I've been asking myself, "will it sink?" Not to be confused like President Clinton, I know that "it" refers to my swing keel. I've been planning on dropping in the amount of lead that John Welsford specified in the plans. Since he also specified building the swing keel from pine (radiata), and I built mine from oak, I'm not too worried. Oak is 50% denser than pine. But still, the question was nagging me, will it sink?

Two days ago I approximated the volume of the swing keel by geometric subdivision. The length was constant, and if I could get the area I would be all set. I approximated the area of the bottom with a rectangle and two triangles, and came up with about 10,640 cc. Knowing that oak is 0.75 g / cc and lead is 11.34 g / cc, I figured out that the swing keel was heavier than the water it displaced. So it should sink. But still, the first area approximation was a just that.

I did research on the JWBuilders Yahoo Group and found message #17474. The author did a similar calculation, except he had a magic scale number, the Block Coefficient (BC). He reported that the BC for NACA foil 10015 is 0.6. You get the volume rather simply by doing a simple calculation of W x D x L x BC = 11,520 cc. Not too far off from my previous calculation. But still, where does the BC come from? I couldn't find a definitive reference, and utilizing all my Google-fu didn't help.

It was then I realized that the plans contained a full size drawing of the profile. I figured I could get a better approximation if I spend a few more minutes and spend a few more triangles and rectangles. I'm willing to bet that my approximation is much closer now.

The results of this approximation give me a combined mass of 16,158 g to displace 13,304 g of water. OK, I satisified that it will sink. Now the question is, how beefy of a block will I need to get the darn thing up?

Spring Flowers

2009-05-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

Ooops, it's not "April Showers", it's "May Showers". What the heck? This stuff should have happened two weeks ago, and then been done for May. Instead here we are with another inch of liquid sunshine. The rain effectively shut down any work in GBWx. Look at the water on the concrete under the strong back. All my frames and bulkheads are snug under the tarp.

Instead of boatwork, I had a camping trip planned with Cub Scout Pack 900. We went to the Juniper Campground at Mount Diablo State Park. Really nice location, except for this tropical storm that was beating the mountain for the last two days. Combined with the 10 degree (F) drop because we were 3,000 ft. higher than home, made for a damp (OK, really wet) camping trip. It was so cold, I didn't even want to go Geocaching.

Wow... and it's supposed to rain for the rest of the week. Perhaps I can do some sanding, or cut notches for strings, or route out the cavity for the lead in the swing keel. Always things to do. Since I'm just back from the camping trip, I'll eat some lunch, then take a nap.

It's a sticky day

2009-04-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

Last chance to beat the rain coming tomorrow. Of course it's going to rain, I'm going camping this weekend. Sigh. I got out and did lots of good yard work, and now the urban required greenery is looking better. I needed to cut grass, sweep the driveway and pick up some sticks that blew down in the wind earlier in the week. None the less, I wanted to make some progress on the boat, as I've been hammered all week long. But first, I needed a break.

The current project on the bulkheads is filleting the various joints between plywood and 20x20 pine pieces (sticks). The pine pieces will be used as gluing surfaces for relatively important things like seats, decks, the coaming, etc. Filleting is done by mixing a thickening agent with epoxy glue (it's thickened so it doesn't run before it has a chance to stick). Then the thickened glue is spread along the joint between the two pieces. I mix the glue using "tongue depressor" sized sticks, and the radius of the end makes a very nice filleting tool. After the filleting is hardened, a little surface sanding, then I'll cut the notches for the stringers (stringers are long sticks that run the length of the boat and the planks are glued to them).

This photo shows most of the frames and bulkheads spread out on the sole. I haven't put the rocker into the sole yet, as it makes a really nice flat work surface.

One more task before I can go "3D" on the hull. I need to route out a cavity in the swing keel and pour some lead. Once that is done, a final glassing of the keel and then I can assemble the swing keel case. The case is one of the first things to get installed on the sole. It's easier to do it before the frames go on.

In case you weren't paying attention, this post has 7 sticks in it (not counting the sticks in the pictures).

Video killed the radio star.

2009-04-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

Blog, blog, blog, blog. Everyone blogs, and why me? Turns out I was being a bit of a technological dinosaur. OK, more than a bit.

The previous incarnation of the Guilford Boatyard was hosted on Yahoo's Geocities. Recently Yahoo announced that after a long, and protracted illness, Geocities would be removed from life support. I was reading, probably on Slashdot, that blogs pretty much killed Geocities. Kind of like cell phones killing CB radio. 10-4 good buddy, so here I am. The nice thing about blogs is that the infrastructure will archive them, they supply built in viewing frameworks, RSS feeds, comment sections. etc. It's the extras that people want, not a blank editor screen asking to be filled with HTML.

Blogs.

I'll be using this blog to publish the activity on my home built Navigator Yawl, designed by John Welsford. For now, the activities are building related since all I have is boat parts, not the boat. Buddha willing, the posts will reflect actual sailing activity.

Next up, a recap of the last year of building activity. (actually the recap entries are in and have been pre-dated so they show up in chronological order).

Recap: Cleaning and unbuttoning the Boatwerx

2009-04-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

I think Spring is finally here. We had some 90 degree days on Monday and Tuesday (it's Saturday). I'm getting boat fever again, and the only cure is to build or sail. This morning I was teaching Cubmaster Fundamentals course for the Cub Scouts, and tomorrow (Sunday) I'll be hiking at Black Diamond Mine East Bay Regional Park with Cheri and a friend, Tiana.

This afternoon had me sweeping up the Winter's debris, and washing the concrete floor. All the wood that piled up on top of the sole was restacked down below. The equipment cabinet was placed back against the house where it belongs. Now I was ready to glue!

Of course there was a minor disaster. It had been a month or two since I did anything with the glue. Long cold nights in the garage tend to cause epoxy resin to crystalize. (sigh). Back into the house where I boiled a tea kettle of water. I soaked the bottle in the hot water until the crystals were redissolved.

I still had two hours of daylight, so outside I went, glue and all. I mixed close to 6 batches of thickened epoxy and created fillets around many of the edges on the bulkheads. I was silly enough not to bring a camera, so no pictures for you (sorry). Sometime in the next week or so I need to get out and do a little sanding. I'll snap some photos then.

Ahh, I can start to sense that the boat is going to come together soon!

Recap: Gluing the frames

2009-02-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

February and it warmed up some what. My records show that the temperature was in the mid 60's so I took the opportunity to glue up a bunch of frame pieces. Usually when I do this, I'll move them out on the deck. This is a full Southern exposure so it gets lots of sun and the glue starts to cure quickly.

Recap: Cutting bulkhead 2

2009-01-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

On the rare days when the weather is nice, it is Winter after all, I try to sneak out and do some work. Usually it's not warm enough to mix any epoxy and do some gluing. Turns out it is usually not cold enough to stop the saw. I'm cutting hatch opening into bulkhead #2. The forward compartment is airtight, but can be used for storage.

Recap: Buttoning up for the Winter

2008-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Northern California is beautiful and really nice weather. Actually it's climate, it isn't weather. I grew up in Michigan and I would never dream of trying to build a boat outside under a simple cover like I am using here. In Michigan the wind will drive the rain/snow/sleet sideways, and that's just the Summer weather!

Still I have to deal with rain and wind here, so for the most part the boat needs to be covered. During the winter I expect to sneak out and do some cutting, etc. Glue work will be really slowed down.

Recap: The Swing Keel

2008-10-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

t was with great relucance that I ripped the oak plank up, but I did. A couple of days later, with the help of a power plane and a template for the foil (more foam core board), I had a nice foil shape. The next step is to finish the machining for the top part, get a shackle to the uphaul, glass the case sides, glass the swing keel, and assemble it.

I really want to get the swing keel and case done. Once I've done that I can put the station offsets on, create the rocker on the bottom. Then I've got a boat instead of just parts.

A lot of work is going into this one piece. Sometimes I feel that the boat is nothing more than a swing keel, and the hull, rigging, and sail are just decoration around the keel...

Recap: Planing the oak stick

2008-09-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

I managed to arrange time with my neighbor and we planed the oak board. Check out the shavings! Oak smells nice, but I think Mahogany smells better.

Recap: Cutting frames, part tw0

2008-09-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

After cutting out all the parts, I glued the upper frame pieces to the lowers, then I stacked port and starboard parts together to check for size agreement. A little touch up with the belt sander made sure I was going to have symetry between the two sides.

If one side has a defect, they both do.

It looks like all of my measurements were within about 2 mm on the plans. That sounds workable to me.

Recap: Cutting frames

2008-08-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

This photo shows some of the templates arranged on some plywood so I can cut them out. The wood I'm using is the scrap from cutting the bottom. I got most of my frames from the left overs, so I feel reasonably thrifty with the plywood. (that being said, I may need to get another sheet of 9mm. Looks like I might run short).

Recap: Lofting the frames

2008-08-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

I have a huge white oak board I plan on using the make the swing keel. Unfortunately I need to plane it, and was going to get some help from a neighbor (and his surface planer). Since vacation time was coming up, I wasn't going to be able to get to work on that... so it is frame and bulkhead time.

Not wanting to draw these twice, I chose to layout the pieces on foam core board, purchased from the craft store. Who knew that a craft store had boat building parts? Anyway, I drew up the parts and and it was not a quick exercise, but I'm glad I did it only once.

Recap: Centercase

2008-07-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

I knew that the first major assembly to be put into the boat would be the swing keel and the center case. I spent a couple of hours just learning to read all the details in the plans. It took a couple of days gluing on one side, then the other, some sanding, then they look ready.

Still to go is fiberglassing the inside of the case. I need to make the swing keel itself first, then I can assemble the entire thing.

Recap: Cutting the sole

2008-06-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

After the scarf joint, it was time to turn the long sheet of playwood into a boat part, the bottom. I snapped the center line using my chalk line, and measured off the station offsets. I used a sail batten to draw the lines relatively fair. My station marks were within 1 mm of fair so I was happy.

I used my hand held jig saw to cut the profile, but founded out that I needed to use a finer saw blade. I also found out that 9mm Mahagony dulls the blade much faster than the regular pine I normall cut.

With the bottom cut, I really feel like I am making a boat!

Recap: Scarfing

2008-06-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Some people start a Navigator in different ways, I chose to start by scarfing the two seets of plywood which would become the bottom of the boat. I tried several techniques to put the 8:1 bevel in, and finally ended up using my belt sander. 60 grit belts are great!

This picture shows the wood prepped and I've got a first coat of glue turning tacky. This is prior to joining and clamping the pieces.

Each side the joint was backed with cardboard covered in waxed paper, and then backed by 2x4 boards. The cross scheme is there to make sure there is even pressure across the joint.

I was very happy to pull the clamps off the next day. Not only was the joint solid, the waxed paper covered cardboard had flattened out the epoxy and this made final sanding much easier. You really need to look closely at the edge to see where joint it. I was afraid that this would be hard to do, but this is probably one of the easier things I've done (so far).

Recap: The Strongback

2008-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

The first thing to be built was the strongback. I finished it a week or so before this photo. I realized it was going to be an excellent work platform, so I plan on using the strongback and the bottom (flat) as a work bench for most of the frame cutting and gluing. Once the pieces go together, I'll need to get from saw horses or something to make a work surface.

This sure does give me an idea of the size of the craft. I think I'm going to like it.

Recap: New Gates

2008-05-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Step two, formally name the work area "Guilford Boatworks". A storm in the spring had destroyed the gates and I needed to rebuild them if I was to have an active construction project. In a bit of whimsy, I formally named the area and put up signage, technically the first boat related wood project on site.

Recap: Concrete

2008-04-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Step one, I needed a place to work. I measured the garage several times and could not convince my self that I could make enough room to work. I'd have to remove half the detritus and banish two vehicles to live out doors for the duration. This was not going to fly with the household manager.

Fortunately we did have a plan to pour concrete along the side of the gararge to utility purposes. Nothing like a real need (boat building!) to drive a real need (landscaping). I'm glad I paid contractors to do this, those guys worked hard to prep the ground, pour and finish the concrete. That was money well spent.