Pearson Triton #680

Actually doing something

2012-01-29T17:06:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I surprise myself. A chance encounter with a high end carpenter/cabinet maker friend of mine led to an invitation to his place to mill up my maple for the butcher block countertop.

I am still looking around for a table saw but in the meantime I had a chance to work in a very very nice professional shop. While I was snooping a bit, my friend ducked out and came back with some offcuts of walnut telling me that I needed some accents. He insisted I take quite a bit of walnut to mix in with my maple. Then he absolutely refused any sort of payment other than paying for his next breakfast at the local greasy spoon.

My friend, Barry Moore, specializes in old home restoration. If you need that sort of work done or need some nice cabinets made you can check him out at http://www.moorecustomwoodworking.com/

So, yesterday, I made a visit to Jenny and removed my patterns for the galley countertops. Before taking them out I made some notes for final fitting and locations of stuff I had to be careful to work around - i.e. edge of the 'bridge deck' so I didn't build a lift up top that wouldn't open because it hit the underside of the deck...

This morning I had the maple and walnut milled up. I thought that would be a suitable amount of work accomplished today but my friend, Barry, gave me a stern look and told me that I WILL be gluing this up today or else I would be very sorry later.

As it turns out, the addition of the walnut was crucial as I think I would have run short of the maple. I started with the port side countertop which will be the simpler side to construct with just one lift up lid to the locker below and a stove mounted in front. I wanted to lay out enough for a flip over lid to cover the stove but I wasn't sure I had enough material so I just laid out enough to make the main piece.

and then I glued it up.

I was going to use a high quality water proof glue but Barry suggested I just use WEST system and since I have 3-4 gallons of resin left it made sense to me too.

So then I started laying out the pieces for the starboard side which will incorporate the sink, dish/cup storage and cooking supplies storage. I didn't have enough materials to simply make one big piece and cut out the bits later and I was thinking of framing the sink cutout with my new walnut anyway so I had to stop since I don't have a sink yet to take accurate measurements.

I have been looking and looking for a sink and I only found one that I was happy with through a commercial distributor. The reason I am having a hard time finding a sink is because I need a shallow one since the waterline is only 5-6 inches below the level of the countertop (I still need to accurately measure this and I might have to raise the sink up a bit) and it has to be on the small size to fit on the small counter space. Most of what I was finding was in the $400+ range which seemed rediculous. Lewis Marine has a 14x10 with 5 inch depth for $129 which seems pretty reasonable.

I could either buy more maple or only make the countertop for the exposed portions around the sink. I really don't need butcher block under the dishes and cooking supplies and actually recessing them a bit might make for better storage volume so I think I am going to hold off on glueing the starboard side until I can match the sink with the framing. The pieces are so short that I am not too worried about the stern looks from my friend.

Or maybe I will partially glue up the countertop and finish around the sink later. I am a little short of swork pace with the port side galley top setting up anyway so for the moment I have to stop.

Typical January Progress

2012-01-15T18:16:00.000-05:00

which is to say... 'Not much'. The winter holidays are over except for the credit card bills and I made some efforts (mostly mental) towards accomplishing something.

I purchased the wood last week that will become the galley countertop; maple. I had hopes of cutting it with the bandsaw but three inches into the first cut made it clear that plan was faulty. Even with my (relatively) thick ripping blade the cut was too wavy and the idea of sanding out the hard maple made me stop and re-consider.

The backup plan was to coerce a friend into cutting up the wood for me. Unfortunately, my friends seem to have caught on to my methods and they were unusually scarce last weekend.

I was going to try extra hard and find one this weekend but the single digit winter temperatures dissuaded me. Instead I spent the weekend researching table saws. Money is tight, especially after the holidays, but ramping up the interior work without a table saw has also had its challenges. Doing all my ripping with a skilsaw to any decent standard is annoyingly time consuming and painful to say the least. I am zeroing in on a contractor saw from Rigid mn 4512 (Home Depot) or the same saw with the Craftsman colors painted on it for about $500. Its not a super saw but its not complete junk either and I don't think I will throw tantrums every time I try and use it. 'Good Enough' is about all I can hope for right now. The $3000 cabinet saw will have to wait another year or so. I would have pulled the trigger on the purchase already except I am hoping to find a deal and the low temperatures and my unheated garage means I wasn't going to assemble it this weekend anyway.

Maybe next week.

I hope I don't continue to say that too often this year...

Jenny herself is looking snug and safe and other than a few small chafes on the tarp there is nothing to be worried about there.

Stay warm :-)

Slap Me.

2011-12-18T10:36:00.001-05:00

I have been a very naughty boy. I just realized it has been two months since I last updated this blog.

I could list the reasons, the latest being a nasty computer virus, but no one really cares, and it is still my fault anyways.

The main reason for the lack of postings is because there has been a lack of progress. The only real thing accomplished was putting Jenny to bed for the winter.

Nothing too fancy this year. Last year I spent more time building a winter cover than I spent actually working on the boat so this year I went with a simple ridgepole and tarp. I can open the tarp if I want to but I don't plan on working inside of the boat much this winter. I did all the usual winterization stuff - nothing worth noting there. I re-used the framework around the bottom of the boat to secure the tarp to. I did not realize at the time that without the bow frames tying the bottom framework and the ridgepole that there was nothing to keep the bottom framework from being pulled up by the tarp. I have one 2x4 that goes under the keel and holds the framework down but the ends still want to fly up. My solution was to take the re-bar that kept the bottom frame in position last year and bend the ends over like candy canes and drive them in over the top of the frame.

The ground is pretty soft and the re-bar is not staying in too well so I wound up going to Home Despot and buying the tube sand at $3 for a 60 pound bag and laying a few across the frame until the ground freezes.

The holidays are taking up my time at the moment but the next project is to take the galley counter top mockup and start making a real countertop. That should start in the next few weeks.

Just for fun I thought I would include pictures from previous winter covers.

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Sorry again for the lack of postings. I will try to be better.

God Jul og Godt Nytt År!!

Little bit of vane

2011-10-17T18:15:00.000-04:00

The weekend was not quite as productive as I had hoped but progress nonetheless.

Fuss and more fussing and then drilling the final holes for the windvane mounting. I was short a bolt and I don't like how the supplied bolts are threaded all the way to the head so I am just going to get 'normal' bolts. I also need to order some G4 or some such pre manufactured fiberglass sheeting for backing pads for the transom legs. Oh, and I need to look into blocks for the lines that run to the tiller. Otherwise, very close to being called done.

The mount tubing needed to be cut to length and then bolted to connect the tubing. Here are the lower and middle legs.

...and the top tubing.

... and stepping back a bit.

I had planned on putting a coat of varnish on all the interior wood Sunday but the temperatures never quite got high enough and the wind made it unpleasant. I was easily distracted into doing household chores and 'fun' stuff.

I am thinking my varnishing temps may be gone for the year and its time to think about tarping. I might have one more weekend left but ... based on my past progress reports I would guess that exterior/warmer weather projects are just about done for the year.

Running rigging is all in the back of my pickup to be delivered to the rigger for replacement. Not sure if I had mentioned that. Not that it is very noteworthy...

Em Tasol Wantoks.

Haulout2011

2011-10-09T21:08:00.000-04:00

Well, the following weekend's weather was a lot more promising for a delivery back to the Merrimac river; a bit boring perhaps, but good for what had to get done.

A morning departure in zero wind. The Atomic Four clicked along (like a sewing machine 'they' say) at about 1500 rpm which is my normal economy cruise. That gives me about four and half knots at about 0.6 gallons per hour. I can ramp the engine up to 2200 or so with my Indigo three bladed prop which will push Jenny at nearly 6 knots but then I also nearly double my fuel burn. It wasn't necessary so four and a half knots was just fine on a flat day.

Middle grounds outside of Salem harbor.

A few hours later and we were passing Thatcher's island.

Then a left turn past Rockport light.

Keeping the Salvages on the right.

Jenny turned into Rockport harbor about four o'clock. Not the harbor actually since the harbor behind the breakwater is completely packed with local boats, but the beach in front of the town. With the wind coming from the west (off the land) the anchorage is only slightly rolly. The sunset was quite nice with the colors on the water exactly reflecting the colors in the sky.

In the morning I woke up to fog.

The fog hung around until about noon which was okay since I had about ten miles to go and I couldn't hit the river mouth before the tide change anyway. I caught up on some recreational reading and a few cups of tea.

Eventually, Jenny left in about a mile of visibilty in equally flat conditions. It was a rather boring putt putt across Ipswich Bay with nothing to see.

I still arrived an hour too early so I let Jenny drift until the tide changed. Well, I was a bit impatient and entered the river mouth about 45 minutes before the change. I figured it would be close enough to slack but I was wrong. The mouth of the Merrimac can get pretty nasty and I was making about 2 knots over the bottom at 2000 rpm against the outgoing flow. That would have been okay except for the large powerboats trying to get upriver at a faster pace. Their wakes were throwing my little vessel, with barely enough way, on her beam ends making a mess of everything down below. We got past the entrance and made our way under the drawbridge and continued about a mile upriver to a quiet spot for the night.

With the strong currents it was necessary to ride on a bow and stern anchor but the water was flat and we were far from the constant power boat wakes that plagued Jenny when she was moored on the river two years ago. It was probably the quietest night on the boat all season actually.

In the morning it was up early for breakfast, removal of sails, boom and all extra gear and then a 20 minute motor back downriver (against a stronger than anticipated current again) to the public launch ramp at Cashman park. The landing on the dock was uneventful and much more graceful against the cross current than the previous attempt. We made the whole season without a grounding !

Total length of the delivery trip not including going past the haulout point to a secure anchorage was 38.6 nautical miles.

A few days and four pickup loads later Jenny was emptied of most of her gear. I have no idea how I fit so much stuff inside and where I am supposed to store it at home...

And then I took a bit of a break. It has been a fun season but a weekend away from the boat was a nice change too.

So this weekend I started tackling a job that I have been getting a bit worried about. I had some mold starting to grow on the bamboo cabin sole.

I thought I might have missed a spot when I sealed the plyboo (bamboo plywood) but after some investigation it appears that the mold was growing under the urethane coating. I hope I simply didn't prep the area well enough since I have already noted that plyboo left in a damp area will quickly grow mold. I have heard rumors that mold might get inside the plyboo right after manufacture and simply sealing it might not be enough. That is why I am concerned about it. I love the look but the product might be defective. I have noticed that my cockpit hatch leak is still making its way into the cabin and some water will occasionally pool on the cabin sole right where I found the mold. Perhaps the puddle lying there over a few days caused the problem. In any case, I sanded through the finish and mold and used a bit of bleach on the effected areas (which seems to have discolored the bamboo slightly (not happy about that either...) and then applied two fresh coats of polyurethane to the whole cabin sole.

I am really having a bit of a hard time deciding where I want to start the fall projects. I was thinking about getting some fresh varnish down and Jenny really needs it but I just wasn't in the mood for it so instead I chose a fun project and decided to get my windvane on the stern once and for all. The windvane has been a fixture in my cellar for five years now and I really wanted to get it out of there.

More measuring and cutting and measuring again and leveling the boat and measuring again and a bit more cutting and the windvane is getting close to being installed. I just need to drill the holes for the final bolts. It was getting dark and I wanted to take a second look with fresh eyes before I committed the vane to its permanent resting place. Positioning the vane on the transom is a bit tricky since the transom isn't symmetrical at all. Maybe I am just being too fussy...

Nah.

So that is where Jenny is today, back where she is most familiar - at the boatyard. I am slowly gearing up for projects but it has been hard switching gears this fall. I expect in another week or two I will have some more focus.

The economic 'downturn' is finally catching up to me and my project list is going to be less ambitious that in year's past. I have been letting the other assets in my life run down which is not a trend I can continue for much longer. Boatwork will continue but at a less ambitious pace perhaps.

So for this winter the project list is:

New running rigging. New halyards to replace the ancient wire to rope halyards. The jib halyard was a little kinked in the spring and I thought it would be fine for the season. At the end of the season half of the strands were broken near the end which was causing the halyard to jam in the top block. At one point I wasn't sure the sail would come down but luck was with me and the sail dropped normally after I let it sit there for a few weeks. I am also going to have a second jib halyard made up for my assymetrical spinaker. I want to try that out next time. New jib sheets as well.

New sun cover/strip/thingy on the genoa. The kelly green color doesn't match the boat any more. Its very vain I know but its important enough to be up at the top of my list.

Windvane and brass rubrail installed this fall would be nice along with some varnish before winter sets in.

More varnish/finish coats on the interior paneling so that I can install hinges/latches/ clocks to the bulkhead sort of things.

and hopefully... some progress on the galley. The most frustrating thing this summer was accessing the galley equipment from under the temporary galley benchtop/patterns and using temporary stoves/dishpans. A real working sink and real storage for the galley equipment would be paradise on earth and I hope to have something like that before Jenny launches next.

If I find myself with lots of extra time, progress on an electrical system would be nice too. Realistically that won't happen but just in case I find myself with an abundance of time I want to be ready for it.

And that's it. Hopefully blog postings will be a little more regular. At least until winter really sets in. I don't think I am going to fight the winter weather too hard this year. Doing so just hasn't been all that productive. I am thinking a plain ridgepole and tarp for a boat cover. No big boat sheds to be built and and taken down again next spring.

Em tasol wantoks ;-)

End of Season 2011

2011-09-20T21:06:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been a good season full of weekend daysails and picknicks. Nothing too exciting to talk about and the pictures all seem to repeat themselves.

As for as pretty new things for Jenny, when the sailmaker was out taking measurements for the new sailcover we started talking about sun awning ideas. He had quite a few and in the end I told him to just make one up (www.withumsailmakers.com)

I am really happy with the awning. My only issue is the one piece battens make storing the awning tricky. I am still working on the ideal storage location. On the plus side, when the awning is put up, the temperature on deck instantly drops ten degrees or more and a baking hot day turns into a comfortable sunny day immediately. I swear the awning also helps channel cool air down the deck. The awning is above the boom for lots of standing headroom in the cockpit and decent headroom even along the sidedecks. I am really happy with it.

Hurricane Irene blew by a few weeks ago. In preparation I took down the sails and even pulled the boom off and stored it in the cabin. I battened everything down pretty tight but in the end the storm missed us by 50 miles and Jenny only saw some 40-50 mph gusts and virtually no wave action. She barely took on any rain water.

The trouble started after the storm. I bent on the genoa only to find the jib halyard didn't want to go all the way up, something was binding. I decided to simply remove the extender I had at the foot of the sail to keep the sail below the point where the jam was happening. That worked fine and the genoa even rolled up fine at first. The reason for the extender was that I rigged the halyard wrong and I don't have the necessary angle between the upper swivel and the halyard. The swivel was wrapping around the forestay and jamming the furlling action. The extender brought the sail up high enough to make it all work.

After a weekend daysail however the jib stopped rolling up. I was thinking to myself "no problem, I will just managed the jib like a normal hank on jib and take it down at the end of the sail". The problem was the halyard jammed again and the sail wouldn't come down. With the foresail giving me more problems and the sailing season fast approaching anyway I decided to call it the end of the season a few weeks early and bring Jenny home to Newburyport for the winter. That was the plan for this past weekend.

Myself and a sailing companion spent the night on Jenny Saturday night and got an early start for Gloucester harbor. Since it was only about a ten mile trip we took the roundabout way and included a tour of Marblehead harbor and all the pretty boats there. I was too busy threading the boat through the mooring field to take pictures but any reader can guess at the number of beautiful boats found there. From Marblehead we took a heading around some ledges and into open water and made Gloucester a few hours later. It was a nice day if a bit 'lumpy'. We anchored off of Niles Beach in Gloucester Harbor (my usual spot when spending the night there) which was well protected from the northeast winds that night.

The next day we got off early for the long slog into the wind around Cape Anne and northeast to the Merrimac River (and Newburyport). Leaving the harbor seemed nice but the lumpiness continued and continued to worsen...

Its really hard for me to take pictures that show the actual wave conditions well. The waves were 4-5 feet but steep and spaced quite close together.

At some point the whole front half of the boat started launching itself into the air and leaving the water behind only to slam back down the trough and bury itself under the next wave. We had a few hours of this ahead of us before rounding Cape Anne and putting those short choppy seas on the beam for another six hours or so. This prospect didn't hold much excitement for either of us so we turned tail and ran back to Gloucester to work out 'plan B'. After a few phones calls plan 'B' became re-schedule boat haulout for next week and sail back to Salem (downwind and running with the waves) The return to Salem was exciting but easy and we had a nice run at hull speed bombing along down the waves.

One funny thing. At some point on the run home a fish jumped out of the water, hitting my sailing companion on the leg, bouncing off only to glance against my wrist, bump the aft deck once and disapear back into the ocean. It was quite funny and quite surprising. I can only guess what the fish was thinking once he was back where he belonged...

So, that is it. We will try to get Jenny around Cape Anne next weekend in time for an early haulout Monday morning in the Merrimac. Early weather reports suggest a nice SW wind pushing us instead of the NE winds we were up against this past weekend. Fingers crossed that we find better conditons...

Hopefully, the next pictures on the blog will be of Jenny back in her spot at the boatyard and ready for some more upgrages :-)

August 6 update

2011-08-06T20:59:00.000-04:00

Still mostly winds in the 0-5kt or 20+ ranges; neither of which are particularly fun for daysailing in my opinion. Maybe if I didn't like working on the boat so much I would sail more but when plan 'B' is work on the boat its not too hard to forego sailing in less than ideal conditions. There has been a few more light wind daysails and there has been some small projects advanced.

Daysails are self explanatory.

Jenny came with an ancient roller furler and the furling line blocking was equally ancient.

Not only was the blocks decrepid but they stole several valuable inches in my all-too-narrow sidedecks. Anything to make a Triton's sidedecks wider is a good thing. Lucky for me Harken had a solution. Side note: I love love love Harken. I use Garhauer a lot and their products are decent and very reasonably priced. If I can close my eyes to the price though I really like Harken - first class stuff. End of side note.

I ordered four of those Harken stanchion blocks; three for the stanchions and one for the bow pulpit. Mounting on the pulpit was a problem however.

Just skipping the blocking up forward stole valuable foredeck space.

The solution was to use the best of my old decrepid blocks for the bow pulpit. Those old ones handled the misalignment better. That means I have an extra Harken stanchion block if anyone needs it.

Other projects was tying off the jib sheets and furler line. The furler line I simply ran through an existing hole at the aft end of the coaming. At one time the traveler could be moved with lines that went through the coaming. With the traveler removed I had a half inch hole available. The jib sheets were secure to the coaming with some ... whatchamacallits, 'eye rings' or something like that. I had a couple of bronze ones that were removed from the deck. They are probably original to the boat.

That little project freed up the jib cleats where I had tied the sheets to. A simple and very satisfying upgrade.

I also put a sealer coat of thinned varnish on all the interior woodwork. The oil was looking a bit faded and the wood scratched easily. Since the woodwork was eventually going to be varnished with a rubbed effect finish anyway I figured I might as well get started.

I didn't want to get too far ahead with the varnishing before I got the panel screws plugged so I ordered some cherry plugs and installed them. Most of the screws will be covered by trim but the ones in the middle I needed to plug. I flirted with the idea of covering them with with some sort of trim too but I didn't like the look. Unfortunately, the plugs I recieved were all pretty light in color and I couldn't find any that matched the wood any better. Oh well. I will stop noticing the mismatch pretty quick. I wish I had done a better job of lining up the holes though.

And finally, my sailmaker came through and delivered on the new sailcover. I love the new color. I am not completing thrilled with the fit of the sailcover but its still a huge improvement. Seeing the new cover makes me want to get started on a new dodger. Given that I expect to spend 3-5 thousand dollars on a good dodger I am going to have to wait a bit.

While measuring for the sailcover, I began a discussion about cockpit awnings. By the end of the conversation I had an awning on order too. The awning isn't ready yet though. Another week or so I am promised...

And that is it so far. I am trying to figure out a time when I can take a few days for a mini cruise. Daysailing is okay but I really miss cruising...

Oh, one more thing. Another excuse I have for not sailing more is my darned Sporta-seat. With seats so comfortable its just too tempting to sit down with an interesting book and watch the world go by. I have done a fair amount of that this summer too. ;-)

July update

2011-07-17T18:19:00.000-04:00

In my last posting I said I would post photos if I was able to do some sailing.

Today was my first opportunity with some real wind. After these photos were taken the wind continued to pick up nearly burying the rail. I was a little too busy handling the boat to take pictures at that point.

Overall it has been a pretty windless spring. The week after the last posting I took Jenny out for an easy sail only to find the wind died right after leaving the harbor. We motorsailed with the main up and the engine idling for a few hours and just enjoyed bobbing around and taking a look at the new sailing grounds.

It was nice and we did get a little push from the wind but it wasn't real sailing. Let's call it 'pleasant boating' instead.

Last week I was in Maine on a sailboat rescue mission. No, I didn't bring the boat home. It was for a friend. We ran into some obstacles and didn't actually bring the boat home but we made the proper arrangements and I am happy to report that a diamond-in-the-rough Pearson Ensign will live to sail again. Judging from its derelict neighbors the boat was destined to become part of the decaying scenery until we got to her.

Yesterday was sunny but windless so I spent the afternoon taping up and applying a coat of varnish. Its a losing battle I am afraid. The weather was very unfriendly this spring to varnish work and I wasn't able to get any fresh varnish down before launch. The finish is really showing the lack of care now and some of it will be pealing by the end of the season.

My goal at this point is to minimize the damage. The original plan for today was a second coat of varnish but the wind was just too good to pass up. Next week.

My other little job yesterday was to attach a latch to the head locker doors. I never got around to it prior to launch and everytime the boat leaned a bit the doors would open and then crash shut; very annoying. When I built the shelf I didn't factor in the space created by the door frame. I had to add a bit of wood under the shelf that protruded out so that the latches could reach the doors. The doors stay shut quite nicely now and today's on-the-rail sailing proved it.

And that's it. No real plans other than sail whenever I can.

Things that have moved to the top of the priority list include:

Lazy jacks. My fully battened main spills out all over the place when I drop it and it is becoming a pain; especially with these short daysails. Somehow I could live with it when the main was up for 12 hours at a time cruising but for a 2-4 hour daysail the hassle is really annoying. Lazy jacks for sure next spring.

Better sail controls. When the point of the activity is just sailing (as opposed to cruising and focusing on destination) then tweaking the sails becomes a high priority. I definitely want to improve the ease of sail controls and get new running rigging cut to the right length. My mainsheet is Waaaaaaaayyyyyy too long as I was using a two speed mainsheet block last time with twice as much line as I need now. Finding places to secure the bitter ends is a must too. Right now the sheets just tie off to the nearest cleat which leads to a pile of lines on the jib sheet cleats. An easy project but one that will make the day much more pleasant. I didnt bother installing my cheesy boom vang this year and watching the boom fly up is really annoying. Now that I don't have a mainsheet traveler the problem is even worse.

Canvas. The sailmaker should be coming out to the boat next week to measure for the new sailcover. I think I want to have him make a cockpit awning too for those lazy days on the mooring.

As for the interior, I want to continue with the cherry surfaces but also put the galley countertop to the top of the list. That would add a lot of utility to the interior and I could also add a sink using an available (and unused) seacock. Somehow, when the boat was a patchwork of four different colors, washing the dishes over the side was okay. Now its simply unacceptable.

OH! and a cockpit table of some sort to set down lunch. Again, eating on my lap was okay when the boat was decrepid looking but now I have to step up my game. I am playing in the big leagues now :-)

Em Tasol wantoks. More good sailing to come!

Picnic on the water

2011-06-25T22:02:00.002-04:00

Today, Saturday, I went out to the boat to put some items in order and take PICTURES. It was pouring buckets of rain and throwing thunderbolts as I ate breakfast. Luckily, by noontime things had quieted down a bit. As I write this it is raining again but I made good use of the dry afternoon.

Jenny survived the week just fine on the water.

She has made lots of new friends. She took a bit of water in the bilge but its been raining a fair amount so I am not too worried. One of these days I am going to put in an electrical system that can run a bilge pump. Until then I need to visit every week or two to keep the bilge water to a minimum.

First order of business was to eat my picnic lunch in the cockpit while relaxing in my sporta-seat.

Next was to straighten out my genoa.

I figured out during the week that I rigged the jib halyard wrong. There is a fairlead mounted to the mast about a foot below the block for the halyard. I ran the halyard up and through the fairlead and then to the block. That was exactly opposite was I was supposed to do. The halyard was supposed to run straight to the block and then down to the fairlead which creates the necessary angle for the upper swivel on the roller furler to work correctly.

I went out today with the plan of attaching a length of cord to the halyard and then pulling the halyard through leaving the length of cord running through the block. Once I started I realized that this was not going to work. Jenny has an ancient wire-to-rope jib halyard that will certainly get replaced by next spring. The block is only wide enough for the wire to pass through so neither the fitting on the end nor the rope would pass through the block. That scuttled the plans to fix the jib halyard. My only option is going to be to send someone up to disconnect the block. I have a bosun's chair. I have never used a bosun's chair. I would need a willing guinea pig or be the guinea pig. Neither option show much promise. The genoa works, it just looks funny. I might have to live with it for now. At least until I can con someone into helping me. I suppose it is about time I figure out a way to climb a mast.

So, moving on, I installed the full length battens in the mainsail and installed the mainsail on the boat.

That's a new Triton insignia on the mainsail.

Still no sign of my missing sail cover. My sailmaker can make one in a few weeks and gave me a cover that he pulled out of the trashcan. Its worn out, not hideous, and it keeps the sail covered and ready to go so that's an improvement.

I brought out some swatches of Sunbrella to decide on the color for my new (and all future) canvas.

From left to right, Basil, Aspen, Spa, Linen, Parchment. And the winner is... Spa; the middle one. I gave a lot of thought to Basil on the left. I am not a color person but the Basil seemed... stronger. I like the fact that the Spa is more subtle and let's the purple hull color dominate and just provides a nice background. The Basil is a stronger green and I felt it competed with the other colors on the boat for attention. Those were really the only two colors I was considering. I brought the others along as backups. If I wasn't happy with the my first two choices then some sort of light brown/tan that approximated the nonskid colors would certainly be acceptable. I am really happy with the Spa though.

Now curiously, inside I was planning on a dark green for the cushions; something like forest or spruce. But when I held up the Basil I really liked the lighter, brighter look it gave me as opposed to a dark green.

The Spa color on the inside is just too light and doesn't contrast as well with the white overhead.

I am liking the Basil inside. Of course, I am not going to use Sunbrella inside, its texture is too rough, but I think I might try and find something that approximates it.

While writing about colors, I really like how the hull color contrasts with the green water. The photo doesn't really do it justice.

A friend of mine was concerned about my missing burgee and sent me a new one. It is one of the last of the limited editions so I will have to be careful with this one.

Finally, I got out the 409 and cleaned down some of the white surfaces that were looking a little brownish. The V-berth overhead is looking bright and shiny now. Sorry, no photos.

And then it was time to call the launch service and say good-bye.

Salem harbor is a nice safe anchorage. The only downfall to it is that its not really dinghy accessible and you can't see the boats from the shoreline. You can't see her but she is right in the middle of the photo.

Thankfully, Jenny is well protected and has people looking after her all the time.

The plan is to actually sail Jenny tomorrow. If that happens I will post pictures for any non-believers.

Launch 2011

2011-06-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

Since I am writing this I must have survived the launch. There were a few glitches that came up that I will explain as the story unfolds but ultimately it was a successful launch.

I continued the prep on Wednesday when I installed the anchor and rode.

That is two rodes of 300 feet and 30 feet of chain each. While cruising in Maine I really loved my 90 feet of chain but its totally unneccesary for daysailing in the local sandy bottomed waters around me. Its still a bit of overkill but I like a little overkill.

As a temporary thing, I used the original V-berth filler and my old V-berth cushions from my 'four hour interior' from the 2005 cruise.

I am reallly not fond of the filler but I didn't want to take the time to cut the cushions and sew the sheets to fit the cutout. Climbing in and out of the filled in V-berth is a pain in my humble opinion. Good for spending the night with an attractive mate but not so good for anything else.

I loaded up a locker with food for the first time instead of tools and materials. Oddly, it was very satisfying to see the locker used for its intended purpose.

I re-used the saloon cushions wrapped in cheap bed sheets from the 2005 cruise as well. Its definitely not a permanent look but it makes it incrementally better inside I think.

Sails and various bits of gear were loaded into the V-berth. I remembered to install the garboard drain. I have only installed the drain once before but the pipe threads are all worn out. The plug does not tighten but instead continues to screw right through the fitting and into the bilge. With the launch the next day I installed the plug with 3M 4200 which I had on hand. I have no idea how much trouble I am going to have getting the plug out in the Fall out but its better than having it come out sooner.

Boat cleaning and checking over everything and cleaning up the mess around the boat consumed the remainder of the day. It was a long day but the boat was ready.

Thursday morning the yard crew were running late so I installed my compass and a ring to attach my safety line too. When sailing alone I like to either be tied to the boat or have a lifejacket on because I have seen the boat self steer before and I know she won't come back to me if I were to go over the side.

The launch happened fast with my helping the launch crew and another person taking pictures. I don't have those pictures so I can' show the boat actually getting wet yet.

And this brings me to my first discovered glitch. The camera was left in the car so no more pictures were taken :-( There is no place for a dinghy in Salem harbor so I left mine behind. Once I launched I was committed to Salem and there was no going back.

The launch occurred around 8:30 Thursday morning from Cashman park, Newburyport MA on the Merrimac river. I couldn't stay on the public dock so I motored out 200 yards and set the anchor to adjust the rigging, bend on the sails and get everything sorted out. The current was running strong and perpendicular to the dock which made boat handling interesting. The current grabbed the keel and it took a few of us to reel Jenny in to the dock. Gotta love full keels.

So the sails were bent on which is where I discovered my second glitch. The mainsail is fully battened but I was missing some little pieces to lock the battens in place. Its been so long that I forgot I needed them. I haven't found them anywhere and I think they were lost at the sailmakers two year ago when he was checking over all my sails and adding an insignia to the main.

I was ready to go around 12:30 but had to wait for the bridge opening at 1:00 which gave me time to sit down and enjoy lunch and 'settle in'. I was already feeling pretty rusty and I didn't have my sea legs at all. I was stumbling all over the place.

1:00 and I was under the bridge and motored out of the Merrimac river. Conditions at the mouth can be frightening at times but on Thursday at slack time they were quite tame. Clearing the outer marker I raised the sails in light winds and close reached while motor sailing. Sadly, there wasn't enough wind to truly sail but motoring for the whole afternoon helped restore my confidence in a motor that hadn't been run much in the past six years. The Atomic Four ran flawlessly the whole trip.

After about an hour I found myself pinching too much for the genoa so I started to roll it in when I discovered my third glitch. The furler kept jamming. Turns out, the top swivel was two feet below the halyard pulley which made a very small angle between the halyard and forestay. The instructions for the furler say to avoid this as it will cause the halyard to wrap and jam the furler. And that was exactly what was happening. The sails slides up the tracks as easily as a hanked on sail slides up the stay so it was easy enough to drop the genoa and tie it off to the lifelines.

I continued for three more hours until off of Cape Ann. I was wishing that I had not set up the reefing lines as the unbattened full roached main was flogging incesantly and the loose reefing lines were making it ten times worse. After rounding Cape Ann, the wind was directly on the nose and the flogging was becoming unbearable so I just took the main down and motored the remaining way into Southeast harbor in Gloucester. I don't have a fathometer installed and had to rely on the old fashioned leadline. I anchored around 7:00 at dead low tide in 9 feet of water.

I ate a simple dinner, cleaned up a bit, sat on my lovely Sporta-seat(a great gift from a friend - you gotta get one of these) and watched the sun set over the harbor. It was an interesting evening with me recalling my last sail/cruise in Jenny. So many memories (good ones) came back from my last three month cruise in the most patched up ugly looking boat with cheap temporary plywood interior panels that you could imagine.

Oh. The Lavac toilet worked beautifully and was a HUGE improvement over the previous system (a bucket). I found more loose fittings that needed tightening but the system just worked right away. Oddly, the toilet squeals when pumping and until the vaccuum is disapainted. In addition, when the boat rolls the toilet squeals. I will have to investigate that. Closing the seacocks makes the squeal go away.

With no lights other than a single kerosene lantern, I was in bed when the sun went down.

I was up again at 5:00 when the sun came up. A beautiful morning and I spent a bit of it sitting on the sporta seat watching the world go by. I missed my tea which was next to the camera back at the car and had to drink cold water for breakfast instead.

I tightened the lower shrouds again. While sailing the day before it was clear they were too loose. I also observed that, once again, I hadn't tightened the upper jumper stays enough. They are better than last time but I still don't have them right. I also rigged up a loop from some spare Sta-set line and attached it to the bottom of the genoa. This raised the genoa closer to the halyard pulley and now the genoa roller furls just fine. I will have to get a more permanent connection but I was relieved to see it work out. The new Harken Code 0 furler is awesome and I love it. The furler is on an extension that raises the drum a foot off the deck. My loop adds another 2 feet to the clearance between the sail and deck so now I have wonderul visibility under the genoa. More than I should have perhaps but its working.

I only needed a few hours to get to Salem so I was taking my time until I checked the weather and found out it was raining not far away and the thunderstorms moving in ahead of schedule. I quickly got cleaned up and underway around 9:00.

With the short sail and the wind once again close on the nose I didn't raise the main but instead motored all the way into Salem harbor. I did unfurl the genoa for awhile while I could and enjoyed the new furler a bit more. The boat will do 3 knots with the engine running at 1000 rpm and about 4 knots at 1600 rpm. The genoa gave me the five knot hull speed.

Half way into Salem the skies got really dark and the rain started to fall. I was a bit nervous coming into a strange rock strewn harbor in dark weather, with no GPS (incoveniently loaned to a friend and not returned in time) and rusty chart and compass skills. With the wind on the nose I was bashing into the small chop and getting soaked. I was really missing my dodger...

At some point my glasses were all covered with salt spray and when I flipped them up to clean them I realized it wasn't half as dark as I thought it was. It was just a pleasant light rain with some spray on an overcast day. Funny how a dark pair of sunglasses can can make everything look different.

The rain ended as I was in the final section of the approach and I motored into the inner harbor. When I called, they were not ready for me and didn't know where my mooring was and didn't have a pendant on it. I only called three times in the past week to make sure they were ready. Oh well. I set the engine at 400 rpm and soundlessly cruised around through the packed parking lot that is Salem harbor until they got everything sorted out. In general the people at Salem Water Taxi are great to work with. I am just surprised that with all the efforts I took to make sure things were ready, they were not. I did more than I needed to and enough to start to become a pain to them and still things weren't ready.

Once on the mooring I relaxed and had a nice celebratory lunch of cheese and crackers. Then I found my last glitch. I thought I had packed my sailcover but instead I had a cover for the dodger that was sold last year (wrong color, wrong shape). I have looked everywhere since then and I have a sneaky suspicion I saw the cover, thought it was the dodger cover, thought 'don't need that anymore' and dropped it into the trash. I hope I am wrong but I can't find the cover anywhere.

With thunderstorms predicted for the weekend I decided to just take the mainsail off. I wasn't too happy about that but I have spent every free day for the past few months on Jenny and I really wanted to be able to walk away and not think about her for a bit. Taking the sail off meant I could put her out of my mind (which hasn't really happened but oh well...)

So, Jenny is safely in her new home harbor of Salem MA and is looking quite nice, if overwhelmed, in the large parking lot mooring field. Sadly, you can't see her from the shoreline from any place I could find.

For the weekend, this blog is as close as I was going to get to the boat and I am enjoying some free time dealing with mundane household stuff and just nothing at all. Next week I expect to be back out at the boat.

And just an FYI, I don't really like reading blogs that go on about how 'we sailed the boat north around nameless island then had a pleasant reach across unknown bay before running home wing on wing through the such and such channel'. I will probably post a few times this summer and add some photos but I don't expect a lot of content to be added. I am just giving fair warning. Come Fall, I have more rebuilding plans for Jenny; mostly with the rigging but probably some galley work and maybe V-berth as well.

Have a good one Mates ;-)

Me wet. Keel dry

2011-06-13T18:54:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a total bust; poured buckets all day long. Everytime I thought it might be lightening up a bit, the downpours came right back like they were reading my mind. I spend the day sorting through my racks of old boat stuff trying to figure out what needs to go back on Jenny and what needs to go to the dump.

Sunday was a rainy day too but a lighter, drier rain and time is running short so I was out at the boatyard prepping for a launch this Thursday.

It was too wet for the camera and there wasn't much to show anyway. I did take a photo of my new Garhauer genoa sheet cars.

...

These are the ones that came with the boat. I think I see some improvement.

The rope loops was for hooking the bungie cord to. The other end of the bungie was connected to the lifelines which kept the snatch block upright and off the deck ... yech.

And I found my old mainsheet blocking. I am pretty happy with the Harken gear I have already replaced it with.

I still have a bunch of old phenolic blocks and stuff if anyone wants them for that 'retro' look. The stuff looks ancient. It might function but it won't be functioning on Jenny. Next year's number one project priority is to finish up all the little bits and pieces that make up the sail control systems. What I inherited was a cobbled together mess. Some of the big stuff has been sorted but what remains is too horrible to live beyond one more season.

So with everying a cobbling mess, I spent a good part of Sunday doing a 'dry run' of the rigging, making sure I had all the little bits and pieces that make the sails fly. I physically hooked all the sails up and ran the controls to make sure I wasn't going to be surprised at the launch. I am sure I will find a surprise or too but I am doing what I can...

In case the sails don't go I have a good running motor too. Just to make sure I ran it for half an hour. Everything seemed happy so that's encouraging. Oil pressure seems lower than I remember but its in the acceptable range; which for the Atomic Four is a pretty wide range.

After satisfying my fear of forgetting some critical piece I continued with the transformation of workshop to sailboat and hauled more stuff home and cleaned up. The closer I look the more sanding dirt I find. Its going to be a long time before Jenny is truly 'clean'. I had fleeting hopes of completing another project or two but the weather seems to have put the kabosh on that idea. I have the materials but I don't have the time. Oh well, there is always next year...

There are a million little things to do that aren't worth mentioning. I can only hope that someday launching won't be this big a production. I wonder how far away that 'someday' really is

Almost wet.

2011-06-06T19:38:00.000-04:00

The launch is getting close and I think I am on schedule for it.

Saturday began with a thorough scrubbing; the first real wash in nearly two years. Then I gave the bottom a fresh coat of paint. That's when the picture was taken.

I spent the rest of the weekend doing minor little things that got the boat closer to being ready. Not much exciting.

My shortened tangs on the jumper struts worked out well. I installed the upper jumper stays and tensioned them.

I serviced the engine and it started right up. (after changing fuel filter, pumping fresh gasoline through the lines, pulling spark plugs and squirting some WD40 into the cylinders, changing the oil, replenishing the coolant, blah blah)

I will admit I spent a lot of time driving home for tools, hardware store for materials and back to the boatyard. Major projects in the boatyard away from my supplies and tools is a bad idea. Have I mentioned that before?

I moved the jackstands and blocking and painted a second coat of bottom paint to get the areas covered by the stands/blocking and just to fill in a few light spots.

Lots and lots of little details, nothing worth talking about or taking pictures of. Still waiting for good varnish weather.

Launch date is set for June 16 (Thursday) around 8:00. The plan will be to launch and then hang off the anchor (can't stay on the docks for more than a few minutes) while I rig the sailing gear. Then I will head out the Merrimac river and south around Cape Ann. Most likely I will stop somewhere around Cape Ann (Rockport/Gloucester) for the night and then have an easy morning run to Salem harbor Friday morning.

Then I might take the rest of the weekend off. I am super excited to sail the boat but I am also ready to take a break from the 7 day work schedule. Someone mentioned to me that it has been nearly 6 years since I last sailed Jenny. That was the end of a three month down east cruise to the Canadian border. Seems like yesterday but when I look at the old photos I don't recognize the boat at all. Back then Jenny was more than a bit rough- a bit hideous is more like it - but I still had a blast that year. Someday I hope to repeat a cruise of that length or longer. Just give me a few more years to get ready.

Next weekend will be more small detail work. Cleaning, packing, fussing over small details. Worrying and making my hair gray(er). That sort of thing.

Em tasol wantoks

The long weekend

2011-06-01T07:52:00.000-04:00

I was really looking forward to the extra day of boatwork on the holiday weekend. Unfortunately, my lawnmower was thinking the same thing and wanted to spend some quality time with me. I hate lawns. I hate mowing lawns. I spent half of Saturday trying to get the lawnmower to work (its my own fault, I never do any maintenance on it) before I gave up and went to the boatyard only to be interrupted by other stuff. Sunday, I again spent the morning working on the mower before giving the neighbor $20 to mow my lawn. Parts are on order. I would let the lawn go how it wants except the neighbors (and my landlord) would probably give me the boot. I hate lawns.

Anyway, someone might remember this scuff mark when I hauled the boat out a year and a half ago.

I managed to get that spot painted Sunday. I still haven't cleaned the hull this year. That is on next week's list.

I found this disposable paint sprayer to be quite useful. Its not a real paint gun but its like a good rattle can sprayer.

The weather was humid and windy and not very ideal for painting but Monday was supposed to be worse (and it was) so I went ahead and shot it. I am happy with it until I can get the whole hull repainted.

After painting, I went back to the head for the last 10 percent. I measured and checked and measured again and in the end just closed my eyes and drilled a hole for the waste tank vent. The toerail and the uneven hull/deck joint had me a bit worried as to where the hole would end up but in the end it came out right where I wanted it to.

The only snag was that I found the hull to be one and a half inches thick. I expected much thinner that high up. I was also cutting through my three layers of biax cloth from several years ago when I made new chainplate knees. Still, much thicker than anticipated and too thick for the fitting I had. I couldn't get any threads to show through on the inside. In the end, I took my two inch forstner drill bit and countersunk around the hole on the inside so that the nut could be recessed in far enough to find the threads on the fitting. I installed the fitting bedded in 4200 and connected the hoses. Simple. Except that those thick waste hoses don't like spreading over the barbed fittings and there wasn't an excess of room in the head closet. It took some grunting and sweating and a little swearing but eventually, it all got connected.

Oh, a friend mentioned checking the bolts where the bowl on the toilet attaches to the mounting pad. Sure enough, they were all loose. Not sure why but it seems to be a pattern with Lavac toilets. They are tight now.

Monday was a stifling day of high humidity and no wind. That seemed like the perfect time to crawl into engine room and prep the engine. I don't know how to take interesting pictures of oil being changed, impellers changed, anti-freeze topped off, engine washed off of general working dust etc so I will just leave that to the reader's imagination. I didn't spill much so that was an improvement over last time.

After that, I spent some time doing general cleanup and prep for the transition from worksite to sailboat. I hauled a bunch of stuff home, cleaned the bilge and generally straightened up.

Oh, I also 'tried' to finish up the mast rigging. Even after shortening my long threaded ends on the jumper shrouds they were still too long to get the rig tightened up. Turns out the threaded rods in the jumper struts have to be extended quite a ways to have much effect on the tension. If I had paid more attention in trigonometry class I would have realized this sooner. The jumper shrouds are still a bit long so the solution seems to be to shorten the tangs. Now I am wishing I had left well enough alone. Oh well, I am sure after I shorten the tangs everything will fit perfectly...

Homestretch

2011-05-22T21:26:00.042-04:00

Closing in on the goal of a launch. Nothing is scheduled yet but a firm date should be established this week. I am aiming for the first or second week of June at this point.

A working head was high on my priority list so with rain in the forecast Saturday, I figured it would be a good day for that. Naturally the 10% of the project remaining took an awful lot of time; making all the bits fit together and having to fudge a few connections that weren't quite as straightforward as I expected.

I am even less enthused about using PVC tubing now. Next time I would just use hose and forget even trying to incorporate the tubing. On a small boat it has turned into more trouble than it is worth. The problem is getting everything connected. Firstly, the pipe to hose fittings never fit the hose. Its always a fight to get the hose over the fitting. I guess a tight fit will be good in the long run but there is the real risk of breakage with the force needed and in small cramped quarters getting enough force on the target area can be tricky.

The second problem is getting the bits to fit at either end. I need to slide the piping down to get the top piece connected and have to slide the piping up to get the bottom piece connected... simultaneously. The 1.5 inch waste hose doesn't bend too easily either.

After fighting for a bit I removed some sections of the PVC tubing and just used hose. Luckily for me I had a few extra lengths lying around (eye roll).

So after several hours of fussing and blood letting since I didnt have the right cutters for the wire in the reinforced hose, I nearly had the head up and working. One problem remains. When the waste tank was built, the welder asked me if 7/8 inch outlet tubing for the vent would be acceptable since he was out of stock on the 3/4 inch I had specified. I made the assumption that 7/8 inch hose was readily available and told him that would be fine. Now on several of my custom made tanks I have to figure out how to get the oddball sizes to work. My vent hose outlet is one of those oddball sizes. To make it more challenging the through hull fitting is for a 5/8 inch hose so I have some serious adapting to figure out.

Plus, another lesson I have learned is that after boat parts sit on the shelf for a few years they tend to get bored and walk away. I know I had hose set aside just for the waste tank vent line but now I can't find it anywhere. So the head is complete minus a tank vent. I will order some parts and try again next weekend. I had some more pictures but I wasn't paying attention and they came out black. The back panel is still loose to make it easier to install the vent line.

The rain never came so I finished sanding the hull repair. It looks pretty good now and is just waiting for bottom paint to make it disapear. I also got around to reinforcing the sidedeck that was improperly reinforced earlier. Its plenty stout now.

Another new item on my short list was having the stanchion tubes installed. Turns out they were all custom drilled so it took me a bit to figure out which tube went where. Then I learned that I didn't have any hardware for them. That's about where my Saturday ended.

Sunday, I picked up the stanchion tube hardware I needed and installed them. After that I ran 1/2 inch Sta-Set line in place of the old old cable. I had cut the cable a few years ago to prevent myself from trying to stretch them one more season. Getting the rigger out at this time of year to make me some nice swaged cables doesn't seem realistic so I plan on using the line for the season. I would like to replace the tubes and set up the boat for double lines with removable section at the cockpit. That means there isn't much reason to invest in the current system. The line should keep me from falling overboard this season. No lifelines make the boat look better I think but the tradeoff is a bit rough. I know for certain that my boat will happily stay on course with me on board or in the water. There is no rounding up and waiting for me with Jenny.

With the lifelines on, I dug out my mast from the storage rack and started getting that set up. I vaguely remembered when I took the upper jumpers apart last year that as I set down one of the cheesy adjusters I was thinking "I sure hope I remember where I am putting this".

Well, today I looked everywhere for it and can't find it. I have some new aluminum threaded rod on order McMaster and Carr to make a new one. Once again, McMaster's for the win. Those cheesy adjusters can only be adjusted before the mast is stepped. I thought I was being smart when I asked my rigger to add turnbuckles to the jumper stays at the lower ends so that I could adjust the tension with the rig up. What the rigger installed was some pathetic little turning things with a knurled thumbscrew. Totally inadequate and impossible to do anything with as I learned at the last launch. Earlier this year I ordered some real open turbuckles to replace the thumscrew thingies. Turns out the turnbuckles come in 10-32 and 10-24 threads. My cable has 10-32. You can guess what the turbuckles were. I found an open turnbuckle made by Hayn and I ordered a pair. And they never arrived so I ordered from somewhere else. And they never arrived. Finally, while at Hamilton Marine last weekend I picked up the only thing they had that would work; a set of closed turnbuckles.

I am not crazy about them but its an improvement. I went to install one and found out that the threaded end on the cable is quite long. Too long in fact. I will have to cut down the threaded section to make it work with the turnbuckle body. You can't see it in the picture but the threads on the cable continue under my fat little finger on the right.

I thought about setting up the furler but I couldn't find the instructions. I will have to get them from the web this week.

Basically, I uncoiled everything on the mast, re-affirmed that I want to make overhauling the mast my main priority next year and that's it.

Finally, I removed my two water impellers from the engine (raw water and coolant). They look okay but they have been sitting there for two years all crushed up and I figure I would start the season with new impellers.

I spent some time cleaning up under the boat and hauled a load of shelter bits home and that was it for the day.

With some decent weather, I hope to do some painting and varnishing next weekend as well as finishing up the rigging.

Its been six years since the boat has moved under sail. I think this could be the year that I break that streak.

Belated

2011-05-09T17:59:00.001-04:00

I had every intention of posting to the blog last weekend but it was late, I was tired and I figured, 'Monday' would be close enough. But Monday was busy and Tuesday... blah. Anyway, the usual painfully slow progress but progress nonetheless.

Let's see. I am sure there was some reason why more didn't get done last weekend - probably weather related. Cold, wet, windy, take your pick. I did 'fix' my companionway step by shortening it. Now I will need to make some nice trim along the top edge to hide the fact that the panel is now too short.

I sanded the keel where the repairs had been made a layer of fairing filler had been applied. I expected to have to add another coat and I did. I had a picture but I wasn't paying attention and the image is too dark to be useful.

Oh, I glued and screwed the panels that go on either side of the head area. It made a huge difference and I like the look. Thank God for trim that will someday cover up my poor pattern making. I also installed the shelf in the head locker. I could have installed the back panel with the door but I forgot the hose clamps and it is much easier to install them before the panel goes on. Its doable either way but why make it harder than it has to be?

So this weekend, the sun was shining and I was itching to make the boat more launch ready. Interior panels are nice and all but I only have a few weekends left before the launch and there are more pressing things to do. So I started taking down the cover by cutting the strings on one side and letting the wind blow the tarp over to the other side. Then I started removing the frames. And then the heavy thunderstorms started. I removed some frames, ran inside the boat for cover, came out 20 minutes later and removed some more frames, ran inside for cover (found a few cabin leaks) removed some more frames. Eventually the job got done.

Today was a little drier if cooler. I finally finally finally, finished securing the deck hardware to the deck. The bow pulpit was the last remaining piece. Normally, I ask a friend to help hold the nuts while I turn the screws or vice versa. A friend of mine suggested getting a few more vice grips and doing it myself. Spending all that money one three more vice grips seemed kinda silly until I realized that after receiving help from a friend I was usually obligated to buy them lunch. Turns out the vice grips are cheaper. It actually worked pretty good too. Once again, I should have done it a long time ago.

And then, I sanded the hull one more time. There are a few spots that are still slightly low. I shouldn't worry about it, it is on the bottom after all and I am bound to whack something again sooner or later. On the other hand, the last time I made repairs down there I was .. shall we say... less experienced and the fairing job left something to be desired. I applied another coat of fairing filler to bring the work up to my current standards. No doubt in a few years I will be doing it again.

So here finally is the boat uncovered for the first time this spring. Its a lousy picture but in the middle of the day with the bright sun its about the best I can do. Jenny really prefers early and late day lighting. Mid day lightly is just too harsh.

The pressure of launch day is really starting to kick in and the list of things to do just keeps on growing. I am not sure why that is actually. The boat was in the water just two years ago and I haven't done anything to make the boat less seaworthy. The real difference is that at launch the boat will immediately be going 30 miles away and I will be raising sails for the first time in five years. I guess that is the part that has me worried. Its the stuff that I have forgotten about that I will remember as the boat goes splash that has me worried. Oh well, that's what motors are for.

I am a little envious of my friend that told me last week that he returned to his Triton after not seeing it all winter and within a day had her in the water. Someday that will be me. Just not this year.

To add to the pressure, next weekend I won't be around for boat work. Its something I have to do to make more boatwork happen though so its all in the name of progress. Just a couple more weekends now...

P.S. Blogger had a problem with the new IE9.0 and wouldn't accept this post for a few days. Its not ALWAYS me just being lazy... :-P

Rain, rain, go away...

2011-04-24T20:49:00.003-04:00

Rainy days has been the story for the past two weekends.

Last weekend it rained hard all day Saturday which meant no work at the boat. The following Sunday the sun came out but unfortunately the light only illuminated the lake under the boat. There was no way I was going to lay in the water to continue the hull patching. Instead, I made a run to Home Despot for some fir beadboard and cut out a pair of panels for the head area.

The fir is notorious for needing lots and lots of priming because of how the grain soaks up the paint. As a matter of fact, the stuff is pretty bad but its what I started with and I don't want to change right now. I did try to find some nicer quality birch beadboard but my two suppliers don't carry it any more. I have a bunch of the fir in place already and don't really want the mismatch of two different types anyway. I wouldn't jump at the chance to do it the same way again next time. Live and learn.

The beadboard looks okay in a rustic sort of fashion after lots of priming and painting so when I looked out the window yesterday and saw all the rain falling I decided to continue along that vein. More primer and finally some paint. I also put a few more coats of urethane on the shelf that goes inside the head locker too.

But wait! That's not all! In addition, I managed to build a step into the front panel of the engine cover. I was happy with the original step but I wanted to reduce the number of parts strewn about the cabin when gaining access to the engine. Building the step into the panel seemed like a logical direction to go in. The plan was to simply copy the original geometry but I noticed just as I was taking the picture that I must have measured something a bit wrong. The new step is an inch higher. I will have to try and rectify that this week.

Today was the first day (that wasn't a time clock punching sort of day) with some real sunshine and I managed to drag out the panels for some more painting in the sun before my obligations to celebrate the return of the Great Bunny. (Easter...)

Hopefully, next week I can get back on track with some real stuff. Launch time keeps getting closer...

Speaking of launch time. Did I mention the mooring rental is paid for? It is. Along with the required insurance. Plus, I am averaging about $250 a week in basic parts and hardware. Its funny, I knew when I launched the boat two years ago after so much work being done that it was going to be expensive with all the last minute things that needed to happen to make the boat seaworthy. Silly me thought that would be a one time deal. Now I am starting to wonder if my wallet will continue to hemorrhage every spring just before launch day. Hmmm....

Anyway, hoping for better weather in the coming weeks.

Had det bra saa lenge ;-)

Just like the good ol' days...

2011-04-10T17:09:00.006-04:00

The weather was nicer this weekend so I took the opportunity to re-live my life from a few years ago. One of my old tools was not up to the task however.

My faithful 3M 6800 series full face respirator has been literally rotting away and is no longer fit for service- the rubber straps that hold the faceplate to the face were rotting/crumbling/breaking into itsy bitsy pieces. I once rebuilt the respirator, ordering all the parts it needed but the hassle of finding and ordering the bits and pieces wasn't worth the effort so I simply bought a new one.

Some may remember that on my last haul-out day, I got pinned against a rock and the only way to clear water was a dance through a whole rock garden. That left a few scars.

Yesterday was really the first time I took a really good look at the scars. Luckily, most of the scarring was only into the fairing filler from the last repair. There were 3-4 spots where the fibers had been scratched and one spot that was really 'damaged' in the true sense of the word.

When I bought the boat I discovered water dripping out of the hull from a boat that supposedly hadn't seen water in 2 years. After some investigating, it turned out the boat had run up on something and repairs had been made (poorly) using a polyester filler material. Water had wicked up through the polyester filler into the cracks that had not been completely removed, once I started removing old bottom paint the water started seeping back out.

I repaired that bit and added a few extra layers of 15 oz. biaxial cloth figuring the boat is likely to hit something again and a little extra wouldn't hurt. I was exactly right about that. The recent damage penetrated into the extra layers I had previously added but didn't get into the original hull structure.

blah blah blah....

Anyway, I used my grinder with the flap wheel attachment (overlapping sandpaper arranged like a fan on the grinder wheel- great tool) to dish out the damage.

Then I started adding new material. The weather felt warm but in reality it was a lot colder than the weather I usually do composite work in and I was grossly optimistic as to how long the epoxy was going to take to kick off. I spent an hour watching my first patches slowly try to pull off under the weight of gravity. Eventually the epoxy did kick but I was too scared to put on a second layer that day for fears the extra weight would pull the whole thing off. I really really want a vacuum bagging setup. Maybe for the next boat.

So the slow epoxy took up a lot of time. I also pulled the panel from behind the toilet and altered one of the holes for the hoses that come out for a better fit. Then, because I hated the painted plywood shelf I had made for the storage area behind the toilet, I cut out a new shelf with some pine I had left over from the settee storage locker shelving. I am much happier with the looks now.

I am sure I did something else on Saturday but I can't remember what it was now.

So Sunday, I applied a second layer of material to my patches but this time I applied clear epoxy to the damaged area and patches and then waited 20 minutes before applying the patches to the hull. That worked much better and the patches gripped within a few minutes. Much easier.

After that, I decided I needed to try and recover as much of the hardware that fell into the bilge a few weeks ago as I could. There was a lot of dust in the interior at one point and the bilge still manages to collect it along with some water which leaves a nice slimy mud in the very bottom of my deep bilge. I thoroughly enjoyed vacuuming up all my hardware out of the bilge and attempting to clean it all up. And I only spilled a little mud in my cockpit...

There were a few bits and pieces projects that got done but hardly worth the mention. Oh, and the poorly made patch from the old fuel fill fitting (I take full responsibility) got a workover this weekend. I decided not to hang upside down with a grinder in the cockpit locker and instead drill a few holes and injected thickened epoxy into the gaps in the bad 'glassing job. Then, where the deck had started to crack, I opened up a small hole and injected some more thickened epoxy. Its ugly but solid now. I was only worried about it because its about six inches forward of the jib cleat and I didn't want the cleat to depart taking a section of the side deck with it. Knowing me, I probably won't be happy with what I have done and I will hang upside down in the cockpit locker with a grinder and do the job I should have done in the first place...

and that about sums up my boat work for this weekend. The slow epoxy meant that I couldn't complete the patch job on the hull. I will clean up the patching next week and add a layer of 1.5 oz. cloth and epoxy with sandable fairing filler added. I want to add the 'normal' glass because it seems the filler from the old repair wanted to separate right where it attached to the biax and I think a layer of regular cloth will make for a better bonding surface. Who knows. More fibers is always better right?

Em tasol wantoks.

8 weekends left

2011-04-03T20:46:00.003-04:00

I can hear the countdown in my sleep now.

The plan was to do some fiberglassing this weekend but some items I ordered last week are taking their sweet time getting to me.

I started off the weekend adjusting my reverse shift cable. The original Atomic Four direct linkage was removed when I put a fuel tank where the shift linkage used to be under the cockpit. The replacement was a series 64 cable that didn't quite work out last time. It looks like it should work but the Atomic Four doesn't have a real reverse gear, just a friction band, and apparently the band wasn't getting quite tight enough to get the propeller turning backwards. I learned this the hard way when I hit the dock at 3 kts while trying to dock in a crosswise current. I came in with some speed for steerage and the only way I slowed down on arrival was by crashing into the dock. Not one of my proudest moments.

Anyway, I only had a little extra adjustment room to play with and I adjusted the cable as much as I could to get a little bit more postive reverse pressure on the transmission lever. It is definitely not the cabling holding the lever back so I can only hope it will work this season. I find it hard to believe that my engine spontaneously unadjusted itself and needs an internal adjustment but if my correction doesn't give me a good reverse then that is the only thing left to do. Or maybe Atomic Fours just shouldn't be controlled by cabling. I have heard that A4's and shift ables don't get along well.

I only lost one set of pliers to the bilge monster while making the adjustment. Not so bad.

After that I decided to try cutting my toilet outlet hose for the fourth time. Seems I cut the first three times a wee bit short every time. 'nuff said about that. The hose seems to fit now.

I forgot to bring the hose clamps and I want to modify the back panel a bit so I didn't make the toilet work permanantly. I think I have some chance of a working toilet this spring though. That should be a nice change. oh- I hated the shelf I made for behind the toilet so I am making a new one. That's another reason for not securing the panel behind the toilet.

I have some 1/4 inch plywood patterns for the galley counter top that have been filling in for the real countertops which I haven't started building yet. First thing yesterday, I stepped off the companionway ladder, bumped one of the patterns and watched four full (and open) boxes of stainless steel screws that had been resting on the pattern, disgorge their contents gracefully into the bilge. The bilge is about four feet deep back there by the way. 'nuff said about that too.

So then I decided to spend some quality time on the engine box. That was very satisfying work but it took forever. There was lots of fussing and 'aha' moments. I first cleaned up the original teak bottom step and decided to use it for the time being- at least until the rough work in the cabin is done. I needed to slide the step further forward which meant changing the position of the stop cleat. Then I noticed the step would tip forward when putting pressure on the forward edge so I built little cleats to support the step and keep it from dumping someone unexpectedly on the cabin sole. Then I realized there was nothing keeping the step from sliding rearwards so I installed a second cleat.

Then I realized there was nothing keeping the front panel from kicking out so I installed yet another cleat on top of the step to hold the panel in place. Then I cut the front panel and oiled it to match the rest of the interior. I still need to build the middle step into the front panel but I was done playing with the panel that day.

Sunday I had More Big Plans but my lower back decided it wanted a vacation and decided to lock up about 30 degrees from vertical. Over the course of the day it got a lot better but I never managed to get more done on the boat.

Now its just 7 weeks left...

Oh, I have decided to moor the boat in Salem MA this season. The benefits are a nice harbor with lots to see and places to sail to and readily available moorings. The con is the horrible traffic in and out of Salem. Salem isn't too far from my home but it will be over an hour's drive each way. Oh well, some people have it worse. Salem Water Taxi offers seasonal rental moorings at a good price (about half what I paid for the horrible mooring in the Merrimac river last time) which includes launch service. They have been recommended to me by a number of people. They also have moorings available immediately without a waiting list which is highly unusual on the North Shore MA. I don't think I want to keep the boat in Salem forever but I think it will be an interesting area to explore in the short term until I decide where the 'real' home will be - (most likely Maine)

em tasol.

Incremental Interior

2011-03-20T17:43:00.003-04:00

The weather this weekend was nice enough to work around the boat but not warm enough for epoxies or adhesives so I used my precious remaining weekends before the launch to play with the interior some more.

I pulled back the tarp a bit and let Jenny peek outside a bit.

Saturday was full of fits and starts and running back for a missing tool or running to the store for the correct sized hardware. It was raining a bit too so I couldn't bring any wood from the house to the boat and had to make do with what was already on site. It was frustrating and I made little progress but by the end of the day I was finally settling into a pattern that would carry me well on Sunday.

So for Saturday, I managed to permanently secure the settee backs into place which improved the look of the interior a bit. Then I started fitting in the tongue and groove strips to the settee backs. On Sunday I cut and fit cherry plywood panels above the shelves behind the settees. Then I finished the tongue and groove strips on the cosmetic bulkhead and got about half way through the starboard side main bulkhead before I ran out of hardware and construction adhesive simultaneously.

Just as a reminder, the tongue and groove are anchored in place with screws to the plywood bulkhead with a bead of contruction adhesive to help keep the strips in place. Later, I will come back and cover the screw holes with trim or bung them depending on the location.

Snow in the forecast in two days but spring is definitely thinking about moving in. Hopefully next weekend willl be nice enough for some epoxy work so I can play with the hull where I danced through the rock garden on haulout day two years ago and reinforce the underside of the side deck on one side where an earlier repair isn't looking good enough to fully support a jib cleat that mounts on top.

Em tasol wantoks.

Getting into gear

2011-03-13T14:30:00.007-04:00

Believe it or not, I actually made it to the boat today and I actually did something that pushed the project forward. That's a good thing because the spring launch is 10 weekends away.

Without going back to the blogs, I think I spent about three weekends putting up the winter shelter. Without going back to the blogs I think I might have done about three weekends worth of work on the boat.

For the past few weekends I have been busy with snow removal and VIP guests which has left little room for boats. The time off was actually a good thing. There was definitely some burnout going on there; feeling the pressure to keep moving forward even when conditions were not in my favor. Taking a few weeks off and not worrying about the boat meant that I came back fresh and eager to play again.

Between the poor economy of a boat shelter and the benefits of a little time off, I am convinced that next year I am going to spend half a day stretching a tarp over the boat and then I am going to walk away for the winter and not worry about getting projects done. Less work and more time off is good for the soul.

That all said. I have ten weeks before the boat splashes again and I have a mountain of things I want to do.

First of all, I wanted to get those settee fronts out of my basement. The immediate improvement in the saloon cosmetics was nice. And then I found my first setback.

When I glued in the pieces that the access doors rest against, I forgot that the shelves in the lockers were flush with the rest of the supports. The settee panels want to lie flat on the supports but the pieces I glued in intrude into that same space.

I am spatially challenged and I hadn't considered what those pieces would do. My first thought was to cut back the front lip on the shelves but the problem with that is the lips are screwed in on the edges. My cutout would separate the lips from the edges where they were secured.

I didn't want to see screws in the lips when I was done so I removed the only other option. I made cuts in the pieces the doors lie against. (what are those things called..)

Its not terribly beautiful but I didn't spend a month re-engineering the doors either. In any case. I plan on keeping the doors closed most of the time so the miscalculation won't be immediately obvious. Next time I would forego the panels and use solid wood framing. Live and learn.

After getting the settee panels to lie flat where they were supposed to I found out that I didn't have the right lengths of hardware and my only source of good stainless hardware closes at noon on the weekends. I was out of luck there.

So I switched to mounting the lid for the trash bin. I screwed in the lip for the lid to rest on.

Then I decided I could no longer make my cheapie right angle drill attachment work and I needed to buy a new one. Then I found out my smaller drills were all missing or too small for the pilot hole for the weak brass screws I had for the hinges. That ended the day.

This morning I came back with new drills and mounted the trash bin door lid and handle. Then my boat neighbor plugged in a few extra extension cords to the same electrical outlet block and blew the breaker. That meant no lights and under the winter cover that means midnight blackness. It also started to rain so I couldn't bring more materials out to the boat without getting them wet. I have already learned that letting a little rain fall on the cherry panels is a bad thing. The black stains don't come out easily.

So not a ton of work done but it felt good doing it anyway. I am looking forward to a lot more progress in the coming weeks.

Em Tasol Wantoks

Typical Winter Progress...

2011-02-20T10:50:00.005-05:00

... which is to say, not much is happening.

Shoveling, traveling to visit other boats (and friends) and staying inside where it is warm is about all I have accomplished this month. I had plans to get out to the actual boat today but the wind is frigid and quite brisk and there is still a few feet of ice built up around the boat shelter making it a chore to get in.

When not complaining or procrastinating I have continued to putter around on the settee backs. The panels have been fussed with and sanded and re-oiled.

and the latching hardware has been installed.

The hinges are going to wait until the panels can be varnished. In the meantime I can install the panels. I had high hopes of installing them today but I changed my mind when I walked out the door this morning.

I have been thinking about how to grasp the panel doors to open them. I don't want knobs that can be uncomfortable to lean against and I had planned on drilling finger holes and using wooden donut-like inserts to cover up the raw plywood edges. I am not seeng them commercially available (though I know they are out there somewhere) and am wondering about just drilling the finger holes oversized, plugging them with solid cherry, and then drilling out the plugs with the correct -finger sized- holes later. Probably more time consuming then I think it will be which is why I haven't done it yet. I am getting paranoid about what I think should be a quick half day's job turning into a month's part time work. I wonder why that is?...

More snow

2011-01-23T17:43:00.002-05:00

More snow fell on Friday.

Between the snow and the cold it was another weekend of inside work. I was able to finish up the edge banding on the settee back cutouts.

Then I glued down the blocks that the door latches will mount to.

And I glued down edges to the two side opening doors on the aft ends of the settee backs. On one of the cutouts there was a miss cut that needed to be covered up.

And then because the basement shop temperatures were in the low fifties the epoxy was going to take a long time to cure so I had to stop at that point.

More snow expected Wednesday so hopefully I will get the doors mounted on the setttee back panels and the panels will then be ready to install next weekend.

Not much to add. Progress is progress.

Det Snør...

2011-01-18T16:13:00.006-05:00

Det snør Det snør, ti-del-li-bom!

(Winnie the Pooh singing about snow in Norwegian)

That is the song that constantly runs through my head these days. Some people get Metalica stuck in their head. I get Pooh.

The boat itself is fine and the structure sheds snow like a champ.

The problem has been getting to the boat.

I have spent three of the past ten days shoveling. The weather did warm enough to make my basement shop habitable for a day. So I did a little work on the settee backs. To make the edges of the plywood look a little better I bought some adhesive backed cherry banding.

$36 for 250 feet. I had never used the banding before and it took a little getting used to. Once I got going though it was pretty simple. First step was to clean up the cuts I had made when I cut out the panels. The intention when I made the cutouts had not been to re-use the panels and I had anticipated some framing aournd the edges so the cuts needed some touch up. Then, using a normal clothes iron I just ran the iron along the banding to melt the adhesive and bond the banding to the plywood edge.

Using a sharp chisel I sliced down the extra width of the banding to match the panel. This was the trickiest part of the operation. The key is sharpening the chisel often. That and covering most of the settee back with cushions once it is installed...

I was surprised at how long it took to do one panel, a good part of the day, but it does look nicer now. I still have some work to do to fine tune the joinery but an improvement over raw plywood edges I think.

Now I have to go shovel again...

I still need to do some touch up around the corners and such.

Inside Job

2011-01-09T14:10:00.004-05:00

Falling snow and the subsequent cleanup kept me from the boat this weekend. Instead, I spent some time at home working on the settee panels. Specifically, I worked towards getting the doors hung so that the panels could be installled permanently.

While the snow fell, I spent some time shopping around for a table saw. I didn't find what I wanted so the bandsaw was put in charge of ripping some cherry to width.

And then, since I didnt' need the pieces to be so thick, I re-sawed them.

And yes, I realize I need a better outfeed system...

When I made the cut-outs for the doors, my intention had been to build doors that mounted over the cut outs. After looking at the cutouts some more though I decided to go with flush doors that used the removed sections as the doors themselves. The cutouts were much cleaner than I had anticipated and the doors will be covered by permanent cushions so there really won't be much to see when they are all done anyway.

I ordered some cherry edge banding to cover plywood edges. Since I was going with flush doors I needed something for the doors to fit against. That is why I milled the thin strips out of the cherry.

When I layed out the pieces to be glued up I realized that I would need 20 clamps to do the job. I could only find four kicking around the house. Instead, I tried a technique that a friend of mine has been trying to convince me to try for some time. The technique is to use a hot glue gun to tack the pieces into position until the epoxy could set up.

Wow.

I have no idea why I didn't try it out sooner. The technique works brilliantly with epoxy adhesives. Epoxy doesn't like much clamp pressure anyway. I spread out straight and thickened epoxy where the pieces met and then put a little dab of hot glue on the ends. In just a few seconds the pieces were held together with no danger of moving around.

Once I had the strips glued down I milled up a thicker piece of cherry to use as mounting pads for the door latches. At this point I decided that the panels should not be disturbed until the epoxy had set up. I should have thought of that first and made the pads before starting the glueing.

Oh well, there is always next week...

Good and not so good

2011-01-02T16:37:00.003-05:00

I had one good day. And one not so good day. Sometimes the key is knowing when to quit while you are still ahead.

I started off by cutting a new piece for the engine box cover. I just wasn't happy with the fit with the first one. I am still going to have to bring the lower step out a few inches.

Then I fit the panels that go below the settees into place. They needed some fitting to mesh with the engine box.

Then I cut and fit the hull insulation that goes outside of the settees.

The fumes from the contact cememt inside of a closed up boat were too much and so that is where I ended the good day.

So, the next day I was expecting some great progress to report. Instead, the lack of sleep from the recent holiday weekend caught up to me and everything I did introduced a bit of error into the project. I either scuffed the woodwork with my dirty shoes or dripped glue where it should not have been or installed a part forgetting that I hadn't finished something behind it, or the adhesive was a bit old and starting to harden up, or I just plain ran out of adhesive...

I got something done but I introduced small errors that will have to be dealt with at another time.

Anyway. The lower settee panels are in place. I am going to have to re-fit them a bit but they are in place.

I decided to quit before I did more damage or did something really stupid. The panels behind the settees will have to wait for another weekend.

Two steps forward and one step back.

All boxed in

2010-12-19T16:12:00.002-05:00

The engine that is.

Somehow the fiddles that support the removeable panel were positioned an inch or so too far forward. The easy fix will be to extend the lower step an inch or so forward...

For the time being, I am going to keep the old repaired lower step in place so as not to damage a new cherry step with my clumsiness. The middle step will be mounted permanently on the removable panel. The basic geometry of the stairs will remain as per original. I like the original and I am used to it so I am going to keep it.

I also managed to install fiddles to support the starboard settee back against the galley structure and the forward lip that will support the 'trash hatch'.

While I have this picture posted, there was a discusion on last week's blog comments about the shape of the settee locker area. On the original Tritons, the biggest turn in the bilge is right around the bottom of the locker area. That combined with a more sloping settee back positioned further outboard means the lower portion of the locker is larger than the top opening. This creates a problem when there is a full bag of stuff in the locker and you need to pull out through the top opening.

On this installation, there is an inner liner (ceiling) covering the hull insulation. Rather than make it too complicated and follow the curvature of the hull, I made the inner liner out of one piece of plywood that effectively 'cuts out' the curvature. I think I may also have slightly less slope to the settee back. I am not sure about that. In any case, the bottom of the locker is smaller than the top.

There is still an issue with the aft trash bay. The top opening is clearly smaller than the rest of the locker and getting a full bag of trash out would be impossible without emptying the contents of the trash bag a piece at time. Not a great design in my opinion. To correct the problem I cut an access door in the front of the settee panel. I can dump trash down the small opening on top and I can remove the full bag from the front opening door.

That's the plan anyway.

If I don't squeeze a blog in next week I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas or whatever else they chose to celebrate over the coming solstice period.

All the best wishes for the coming year. -BC

Great Expectations

2010-12-12T17:16:00.003-05:00

not my favorite Dickens novel actually but probably his best known one. I think David Copperfield might be my favorite, "poor boy makes good after some hard lessons" but that is just me...

Anyway, the pattern for this blog lately has been to list the excuses for why boatwork has not happened.

That is going to change. Suffice to say that Real Life reared its ugly head and Boat Life cowered in a corner.

The most interesting item accomplished is that the settee locker door openings were cut out. I have been obsessing for months about how to build the doors. It seemed like every other day I had a new idea. Well, in the end I got sick of thinking about it and just cut the damn holes. At least now I can install the panels which will allow other work to progress. In fact I do have a plan for the doors but I can spend three paragraphs explaining it or just show pictures when it gets done. I am voting for the latter.

First, I laid out where the openings were going to be and clamped a straight board onto the panel to act as a guide for my skilsaw:

Since I couldn't cut the corners completely with my circular blade I had to finish the cuts off with my pull saw. I love that pull saw. When my old standard push saw(as in I got it when I was 10 and it expired when I was 41) was finally judged too dull to live and too cheap to sharpen I decided not to replace it. I haven't missed it.

Two panels, cut and ready for the next step(s):

If I had equally spaced doors on both panels I think it would have been easier to build the backrests out of solid wood. It would have looked a lot nicer to. As it is, the starboard panel only has one door in it and plenty of flat space. For that reason the plywood panels seem reasonable. In my opinion though, from an aesthetic view, the less plywood the better. On the port side there really wasn't much panel left after cutting out three door holes.

Other than that.. I bought some solid cherry and ordered some door hardware - twice - since I changed my mind about how to build the doors after I ordered the first set of hardware. Oh well, I can use it somewhere else.

Last week, I found the boat pretty dark under the tarp and went shopping for some lighting. I bought an extension cord with outlets every six feet along its length. I ran that down the boat - bow to stern- and attached hanging lights in various locations. Its nice and bright inside now and I don't have to figure out what to unplug to use a power tool any more. Plenty of available outlets now.

Now I have to go and try a homemade mushroom soup recipe.

Em tasol wantoks ;-)

Trying again

2010-11-28T15:04:00.003-05:00

The holidays were good. I got some work done around the house and on the car. I managed to put the cover back on the boat.

In looking at the failure of the cover, I think a big reason it failed was the amount of unsupported ridge pole at the front of the boat. I think perhaps I had the frames a little further forward last year.

In any case, I brought back my 'spare' frame that I didn't use last year and installed it about two feet in front of the original front frame. Then I repaired the frame that broke by screwing on a section of new strapping directly over the break. I repaired the bow upright 'post' by splicing in a section to replace the one that broke. I also put something under the post as it seems to have dug a hole under itself which probably was the first part to separate where the post joins the ridge pole.

The bad news is that the wind was blowing quite hard. The good news is that it was blowing in a direction that helped push the tarp over the boat. Luckily, the grommets on the upwind side were fine so I just had to pull over the same way it came off. I had to get the water and ice out of the tarp first. Dumping it into my shoes seemed like an effective technique.

To pull the tarp over on the side that had all the grommets removed I secured several lines by the method I mentioned last week. This is probably old news to everyone but since I have little to write about here goes:

First, I found a chunk of something and put it on the tarp where I wanted to secure a line.

Second, I twisted the tarp around the chunk of something.

Third, I tied a line around the twisted chunk of something.

This technique is widely used in emergency shelter construction and it actually works quite well.

So after fighting the heavy ice laden tarp in the cold northwest wind for an hour I secured it with some new grommets. This was the first time I made my own grommets. Now that I have done it myself I have even less respect for commercial tarp makers. The operation is dead simple and making a good looking grommet is pretty easy. I wonder why so many tarp makers can't do the same?

And finally, because I don't want to fix the tarp again this winter and because I don't intend to repeat this type of structure in the future (having to make repairs to the winter cover before December is just not a good way to start the storage season) I screwed sections of strapping right through the tarp to the frames. I am hoping by sandwiching the tarp between the strapping that the wind won't be tearing it off again.

I say I am not going to repeat this structure because after thinking about it, I am not sure I work on the boat enough in the winter to justify the time I am putting into the cover to make work possible. I think next year, I will either have a permanent structure to house the boat or I will cover the boat and walk away for the winter. The progress I am making over the winter months doesn't seem to justify the efforts I put into the cover.

So next week, some interior projects. Hopefully, I will be working on the boat this winter instead of perpetually fixing the cover.

...and that's it.

Rough Beginnings

2010-11-21T12:09:00.004-05:00

Last week, I took a weekend away from Jenny and went to visit another boat project (and friend while I was in the area). Yesterday I stopped in on the boat. It took me a minute to realize something had changed...

My cover that held up to 90mph winds last year didn't last two weeks this year. My winter cover failed and it isn't even winter yet. I am a little concerned.

We did have some days of strong winds; 40+ mph winds anyway. I wasn't too worried based on past experiences. I should have. Maybe the strapping just can't be left around all summer to dry out. Maybe I should have painted the whole structure (?!)In any case, the strapping, installed just like the past successful season, failed very prematurely.

My guess is the first bow bow broke...

which left the front support holding up one side of the wide expanse of tarp...

which left too much unsupported tarp so all the grommets on the windward side let go...

A pretty dissapointing sight.

The good news is that I have a spare set of bows. I was going to take them to the dump with some other stuff Saturday. Luckily I stopped by the boatyard first.

I can only hope the spare bow will hold up better. I don't have particularly high hopes at this point. I am worried that the strapping just doesn't age well. Luckily I have pulpits installed. If things get really bad I will knock down the bows, set the ridgepole on the pulpits, tie what's left of the tarp to the ground and walk away until spring. Maybe I am being a little premature with that thought...

I bought a bunch of grommets to replace those torn out of my brand new tarp but I am also wondering about attaching the lines to the tarp with a hitch around a twist of tarp. I am not sure how to explain it. I will take a picture if I go that route. The best I can describe it is that you twist a round object (stone, golf ball, etc) in a section of tarp and then tie a hitch to the tarp behind the enclosed object. It supposedly works quite well. I have done it with emergency shelters for a single night but I haven't tried it for a whole season.

I am really done with temporary work shelters that need to be broken down every spring. I am going to double up on my real estate search. I am sick of winter covers.

Naturally, the tools I need to fix the structure are the same tools I use every day at work (and no I don't have the resources to have duplicates of everything at the moment - holiday expenses are coming, I need a new commuter car ...) So, I decided to continue clearing up my workspace at home in preparation for winter boat projects and pout about my setbacks.

Hopefully something better to say next week.

Happy Turkey Day!

All tucked in

2010-11-07T11:07:00.003-05:00

The wind gods must not have been paying attention this weekend. With little wind, the cover took about five minutes to pull over and maybe two hours to secure, including a trip to the hardware store for more line.

I had to run to Home Despot for some spring clamps because my old ones dissapeared after the wind storm last year. Once there I got distracted by some possible future tool purchases and wound up spending a good deal of time researching tools. It was cold too. I haven't become use to that yet. Plus, with the cover on it is quite dark and my lights were... someplace else... Do I need any more excuses or does that cover me?

... and then there is the new winter work list. Thankfully, it is a bit simpler than in year's past. Somehow I think I will still be rushing to get it all done come late spring.

Things that need to happen before the next launch:

Patch the hull where I went on the rocks last time. Initially, I was thinking I would have to lay some large pieces of cloth. Now, it looks like a few small dished out patches will work fine.

I have a jib cleat next to the patch where the old fuel fill used to be. The patch was a bit rough on the underside and it is flexing. I need to do a better job before I hook the genoa up to it in a 20 kt blow.

Fix the paint on the starboard side where the fenders rubbed through it. There are also some scratches I would like to fix. One reason I chose Awlcraft 2000 over Awl-Grip was because it is supposed to be easier to fix. I will find out shortly and I have emailed the company for any repair tips. One thing I am sure about - Awlcraft scratches easier than Awl-Grip. It is quite sensitive to clumsy tool marks...

Finish that last 5% of the deck hardware installation that never seemed to happen this fall. It's the bow pulpit and a few odd fittings next to it. Easy.

I want to move the aft cleats off the blocks next to the toerail. I am not thrilled with the look and I suspect the raised cleat puts more strain on those long bronze bolts than is necessary. I plan to move the cleats inboard into the middle of the aft deck and flat on the deck; not raised on blocks. I just have to make sure they won't interfere with the wind vane rigging.

Buy and install new stanchion tubes. I have had one tube missing for two years now. Plus, I would rather have a double lifeline system anyway.

Replace the jumper strut stay hardware. I wanted to be able to adjust the jumper strut tension with the mast up so the rigger installed some sort of tensioners into the stays that tighted with some sort of thumb screw. Under load they can't be turned. I want to put real turnbuckles in there. I removed the hardware months ago and have done nothing about it. I will call my rigger soon and get moving on that.

Get the rigging on the reverse gear right. I got a surprise last season (as did the dock crew) when I ran into the dock at 3 kts because I found out too late I had no reverse gear. Well, the prop turned in reverse but wasn't accomplishing much. The atomic four has no real reverse gear. Instead it has a clamp around a planetary gear system. When the clamp tightens, the outer band stops turning and the inner rings goes the other way. You have to see a picture to see how it works... Anyway, I need to add more tension to the system for a more positive reverse.

More varnish. Always. And getting worse with every bit of wood I add. It is the cost of true beauty.

Install the rub rail brass strip. The strip was supposed to go on right after the rubrail. Somehow that kept getting pushed back. Now it needs to get done.

Finish installing the head. The head is 95% complete. I just keep cutting the final hose an inch too short. The fourth time I expect better results. I also need to add a vent fitting and hose. I should be able to manage that.

Stop the cabin leak. The last rains confirmed that I still have a leak working its way through the cabin. I still suspect the area around the port battery shelf. One corner is tight against the partial bulkhead and I think water is pooling up and getting into the cabin there. I drilled a drain hole when the shelf was intalled. Perhaps my 'drain' hole went into the bulkhead a bit and created the leak?

That's the high priority items. A much shorter and easier list than in year's past.

Hoisting sail

2010-10-31T12:19:00.003-04:00

Not an exciting weekend. Putting the winter cover up has become a rather dull exercise really.

Saturday I finished the frame putting the end poles up. It was too windy to consider pulling the tarp over so I worked on securing the galley paneling - bits and pieces here and there- not worth a photo.

Sunday morning seemed like a good day for pulling the tarp over with the wind somewhat diminished from the day before. First, I hung my small older tarp across the stern area where it is too wide to pull the big tarp together. Then I unrolled the main tarp and positioned it alongside the boat, securing one side to the bottom of the frame and attaching several long pieces of rope to pull the tarp over.

As a side note; the new tarp from Hamilton Marine looks much better than last year's tarp from TarpsOnline.com.

When I started, the wind was working in my favor to help push the tarp across the boat and over the top.

Unfortunately...

The wind shifted and started to pick up. I was working the tarp over about six feet at a time and had the tarp over the ridgepole when the wind shifted. Now, instead of the wind helping to push the tarp over, it filled the tarp and was pulling it away from the boat. I suddenly found myself running on a broad reach with a 1200 square foot spinnaker. My simple slip knots on the lines I was using to pull the tarp became welded iron and I was forced to cut them away before any serious damage occured. I was surprised, really, that the structure didn't seem to mind at all. The tarp was flying 10-20 feet above the boat and really pulling well. While frantically scrambling for my knife (luckily in my pocket at the time) I was fully expecting the structure to flex and crack and blow apart. The structure really didn't seem to show any signs of stress though; even with the tarp picking me up when I grabbed a loose end.

So for the moment, the tarp is staged alongside of the boat waiting for more favorable conditions. After that little bit of excitement I didn't feel like tackling any other projects so I used my time to clean up the area and my shop area at home.

There is always next week...

Bahamas Bound

2010-10-24T17:18:00.003-04:00

Not me of course. A friend of mine who charters on his Hinckley 49 was desperate to get a bunch of work done before heading south. So I spent last weekend working on other-peoples-boats.

I did manage to break away last Sunday afternoon and visit Jenny. While there I installed two pieces of sound insulation around the engine. I had heard good things about this insulation and when I ordered it I expected it to be quite heavy and dense. Instead, it looks like... well like the 3200 square feet of insulation that I already own for general hull insulation. Not exactly of course. The sound insulation has slightly smaller 'cells' in the foam than what I already own, it is lined with an aluminum foil and it has an adhesive on one side already.

It looks like nice stuff and I have heard good things about it so we will see. The Atomic Four doesn't really need sound proofing. It is pretty quiet already but this should make it a bit nicer. I would be reluctant to put my general foam insulation that close to the engine too. The temperature rating is quite high but the aluminum foil lined insulation has to be a better choice.

Anyway, the sound insulation installs super easy. Cut to fit. Peel the backing. Stick in place. No complaints so far.

So this latest weekend I had to cram in all the household stuff I put off last weekend and get started on my winter cover. With October quickly wrapping up I was getting more than a little anxious about getting the boat covered.

Last year's winter cover worked pretty well; even during that storm with the 90 mph winds. The one fault was the green garden stakes which were totally inadequate for keeping the base of the structure where it belonged. The structure simply pushed over the garden stakes, flattened them and settled into a variety of 'S' curves which I had to straighten out several times.

So this Saturday I bought 14 - 4 foot sections of concrete re-bar and drove 3 feet of the bar into the ground. We will see if this solves the wandering problem.

After that I managed to match up the frame halves, bolt them together and stage them for erection. Why does it sound so porno to say 'erection'?...

Sunday was the first windless day in two weeks which was a blessing. It was an easy day raising the frames into position. By starting in the middle, I was able to place the ladder at the ends of the boat and hold the ridge joint in one hand, walk up the ladder. There was enough friction where the bows slot into the base frame for the bows to stay in position while I walked down and screwed temporary braces to hold the frames vertical.

Once I had them all up I installed diagonal cross bracing below the sheerline. Then I dropped the 3 section ridge pole into the slots and secured it with the same metal hardware I used last year. After that I installed another row of diagonal cross members above the sheerline. The whole operation took about 5 hours.

So that is the good news.

The bad news is that the structure is not going to last many more seasons. There are a variety of reasons for this.

For one, the untreated bows all warped to varying degrees. It is cheap strapping material so I really shouldn't be surprised. There is definitely some stress due to shrinkage which has weakened the construction adhesive bond around the filler blocks placed between the inner and outer strapping that make up the bow.

Secondly, the 1/2 inch plywood gussets (3/8 on two where I ran out of 1/2 inch scrap plywood) that connect the two opposing bows together take a lot of stress during 'erection' and the plywood is weakening. There was some groaning and cracking noises this time. Everything held together but I was a little concerned. Once in place I am not too worried about the joint but grabbing one bow and walking up focuses a lot of strain on the gusset joint when the bows are more horizontal than vertical. If I use the frames again I will have some repair work to do first.

Third, I am an amateur construction hack and the structure is not a model of precesion and quality. That is just the way it is.

Overall, I am still very impressed with the design of the structure (not my design) but I don't think it lends itself that well to breaking down every spring. There is too much wear and tear during the assembly. I am sure I could have left it up (and coverd from the sun and rain) for ten years with no major problems. It is the up and down and leaving them untreated and outside under the boat has taken its toll on the cheap strapping. The only real solution is a permanent structure, a boat barn, which keeps moving up on my priorities list.

Rain fell in the afternoon and I wasn't really excited about attaching the end poles or pulling the tarp over anyway so that's all I got done. Next week I need to finish up the cover and take a good look at what needs to be done before next spring's launching.

and that's it.

Resisting the urge

2010-10-10T15:16:00.004-04:00

The urge to continue with the interior construction is a strong temptation but it really isn't a priority so I focused instead on the wind vane project that is starting to feel like a never ending journey. Even the pictures look the same week to week.

In any case, last week I filled the old holes with the plan to more or less start over installing the deck mounts. I also installed the mounting pads very permanently in a bed of thickened epoxy. This week I wanted to get the deck mounts in place for good.

Since I have learned that even a little misalignment at the deck can cause serious problems where the tubing connects to the wind vane I wound up putting together a system that allowed the whole wind vane to sit in position so that I could see exactly where the mounts wanted to be. The end result looks simple but it took a few hours. On a positive note, everything is looking much better. The modifications I did earlier seem to be exactly what the vane needed. Now it is sitting pretty close to it's ideal location on the transom.

With the location of the mounts accurately located I drilled new bolt holes. First I drilled in a quarter inch with the 5/16 drill to get the exact center of the hole. Then I grabbed my 48/64's drill and went all the way through the deck. Doesn't everyone have a 48/64's drill? I bought it a few years ago for drilling and tapping a pipe thread. I needed something bigger than 1/2 inch and the only other option was my forstner bits which would have been harder to center exactly. Not too important. The job got done. Then I dug out some coring and filled my new holes back up with thickened epoxy.

Sunday, I positioned the mounts again and drilled through the center of the plugs I made Saturday. Again, I took a fair amount of time to make sure the mounts were positioned as accurately as possible. When the holes were all drilled through I mixed up some thickened epoxy and bedded the whole mount and bolted them in place. Now those mounts have become part of a rather permanent installation.

I also did some shopping around for concrete re-bar. It is time to start thinking about the winter cover and while I was pretty happy with last year's cover, the one area in need of improvement was how the structure was fixed to the ground. I used some garden stakes last year and during a few high wind storms the structure bent over the stakes and started moving around. I am thinking the re-bar should resist that tendency a bit better.

Other than that, I am going to finish this blog and order a tarp, some engine box sound insulation and some interior hardware so I can figure out how to make the storage locker doors - Some good advice I received was to figure out the hardware first and then build the doors to match. Otherwise, when it comes time to install the hardware you might be in for a surprise.

So that's it. Not terribly exciting.... oh wait... one more thing.

We had lots of rain this week with one particularly rainy day so after work I went out to the boat to look for leaks. It took awhile but I think I found my mystery leak. Well, two really but one leak is just a slight seepage from the aft starboard dead light. I have some bronze frames waiting to replace the aluminum ones anyway so I am not too worried about that one. The really tricky leak was coming out around the bulkhead between the saloon and head areas along the bottom of the settee front. A few weeks ago I did some destructive investigation and ruled out a deck leak and traced the leak back to the galley area. My search the other night confirmed that the underside of the deck was bone dry so I moved my search back into the cockpit where I think I found the problem.

Apparently, the cheap ($100 Bomar) plastic hatches are leaking. No surprise really. I knew they would. I had assumed that any leakage would travel harmlessly into the bilge. On the port side however, the leak was dropping onto the house battery shelf and running forward to the panel that I had installed which divides the cockpit area from the cabin area. The original structure was a 'mini bulkhead' about six inches wide that gave shape to the hull but wasn't a complete panel. The old icebox used to fit through this part. When I closed off the area, I screwed a full panel to the old partial bulkhead. And because there are no square bulkheads in the boat, there is a little gap between the panel I installed and the mini bulkhead. The leak was running along the battery shelf and dropping into this crevice and from there it was following the front edge of the settee until it found a place escape. At least I am pretty sure this is what is happening. I made a fix and now I need to test it.

I made the fix during the rainstorm at night so it wasn't pretty. I will have to do some cleanup later. Because of the tight confines I couldn't get a tool into the area effectively so my solution was to hold out my bare hand ... and unload several pumps of polysulfide sealant into my waiting palms. Then smear the sealant into the gap. Crude but effective. Once the sealant started to set up I was able to clean my hand. I would have taken a picture but I couldn't touch anything . Imagine a human hand and forearm completely encased in white sealant. Pretty yucky. On the other hand, I came back the next day to find the cabin sole completely dry for a change and all the damp areas dried out. I think I fixed the problem but the next rainstorm will confirm it.

And that's it. Now it is time to get the winter cover up. I will probably also be taking a weekend off soon to help out a friend getting a new-to-him boat home. By November I should be able to fully immerse myself in interior construction. My design juices are flowing these days and I can't wait to get moving on that.

Someone please remind me that the boat needs to be ready to sail next spring...

The incredible shrinking boat

2010-10-03T18:50:00.004-04:00

I will get to the title later on down the page...

After thinking about it, I decided that trying to make the wind vane deck mounts work in their current location wasn't the right course of action. I had spaced the mounts on deck the exact distance the tubes needed to be apart at the upper end where the vane attaches to the tube frame (in accordance with the instructions). I ran into a problem because I hadn't considered the deck camber which makes the tubes angle outwards at the top end. What I decided to do was re-position the mounts and let the tubes rise at whatever angle they wanted so long as they were properly spaced where they attach to the vane. I used a board with two holes spaced exactly like the wind vane to position the tubes and mounts. The picture shows how the mounts sit relative to the pads I had installed a few weeks ago.

I didn't have the pad material on hand so I skipped to the interior. I fit the paneling in front of the engine, glued insulation to the back and screwed it permanently in position.

Then, with the roll of insulation on hand, I went ahead and fit the insulation that goes along the hull under the galley countertop on the port and starboard sides. The funny angles took some time to sort out and the fumes from the contact cement were pretty strong inside the cabin so that ended my Saturday.

On Sunday I started back at the wind-vane (so much for installation in one weekend...) The mounting pads were set in sealant and came up with little work. I made new pads with one minor improvement. I made the pads wider. The first pads were just wide enough for the mounts which worked fine but any minor mis-alignment was immediately visible. My hope is that the larger pads will allow 1/8- 1/4 inch mis-alignment go by without drawing too much attention. Of couse I hope for no mis-alignment but consider who's doing the work...

Anyway, I felt so confident in my new mounts and their new positions that I set them in a bed of thickened epoxy. I will drill them out next weekend for permanent mounting. I will have to drill and fill the hole in the deck core from below the deck which should be interesting; do-able but interesting.

With the epoxy setting up, I cut and fit the interior panels (ceiling?) that covered the insulation under the galley benchtop. I oiled the panels and screwed them to the strips I had installed earlier. Later, I will give the panels several coats of Bilgekote white and the whole storage areas under the galley a freshening coat.

After that I decided to have some fun. I bought a sheet of cheap pine B/C plywood and made patterns for the galley countertop. This is where the title comes from; with the interior furnishings going in, the boat is suddenly becoming much smaller; nicer but smaller. It was a really good exercise because it gave me a chance to really see how the bits and pieces will fit together and proved some ideas while disproving others. It is one thing to have a vision in your head; everything works perfectly up there. In reality issues crop up quite unexpectedly. Making the patterns allowed all the details come together. It was quite exciting to see the form taking shape.

The plan is to use the top of the countertop as the top step on the companionway stairs. (that little lip sticking up will not be part of the final installation) I was wondering if this would work and if that first step would be too big. So far, my test walks have shown that the climb out is perfectly acceptable. I might still raise that center section up a bit. The mockup allows me to play with that. I am also going to have to give more thought as to how I plan on accessing the storage areas. Squeezing lids around sinks and stoves and smaller-than-visualized spaces is going to be a challenge. Speaking of sinks, My old plan was to try to re-locate the sink to a spot directly above the engine. After thinking about it for two years I still don't have an acceptable way of doing that. I think the sink will go back near the original location. Mostly because I don't have a better idea and because I already have an un-used thru-hull and seacock right there. I am also going to avoid a nice big sink which was part of my earlier plan. The waterline is only six inches or so below the level of the galley countertop so a deep sink would require a sump tank and pump. I don't want the added complexity. At one point I considered giving up the sink altogether and just using a plastic dish tub that could be taken on deck and dumped over the side. I decided not to go that route either. So far I have tossed out the simplest and most complicated ideas for sinkage. Now, I am thinking a small sink just like the original (Alberg just might have found the perfect compromise after all!) If I want a deep sink right over the engine I can pull out the dish tub and then pour it out into my shallow sink when I am finished. The best of all worlds.

Oh, I also have been trying to solve a rain leakage problem. I thought I had it completely licked but heavy downpours this week left a small puddle on the cabin sole; nothing like it was before but not perfectly dry either. This week should be a rainy week so hopefully I can spend some time at the boat after work tracking down the last drops of leaking water. In the interim, I used my shop vac to remove the water that has been accumulating in the bilge below the bilge drain (about 3 inches ~ 2 gallons). For future reference, when 'unloading' the shop vac over the side it would be a good idea to make sure your sneakers are not directly below.

And that is how I ended my weekend.

More surprises

2010-09-26T15:15:00.003-04:00

So the plan last week was to install the wind vane. The week before I had secured the vane mounts on the deck and had only been held up when I found the upper mount tubes were too long. About fifteen minutes after work and I had the tubes cut down and re-drilled and ready for assembly.

I had followed the directions carefully and spaced the deck mounts exactly 15.5 inches apart equal distance from the centerline. So I was a bit surprised when I went to hang the vane and found the tubes to be about an inch too far apart. I attempted to bend the tubes a little closer but I could see the aft deck flexing under the load I was putting it on. That wasn't how I wanted things to go.

After a few minutes of head scratching and measuring three times I realized that the aft deck has a camber to it. The mounts were spaced exactly the right amount apart but they also angled outward slightly due to the camber. Apparently, the camber is large enough to make 15.5 inches at the deck become 16.5 inches about a foot up. I was pretty disgusted at that point and didn't have a ready answer to the problem so I called it a day and went early to some family birthday stuff that I had been trying to work around.

Sunday, I had some ideas as to how to correct the problem but I wanted to think about it since my first thoughts are often a bit crude and less than the standards I would like to see on the boat. If I am going to own the boat for the next 50 years I didn't want to keep staring at something I couldn't wait a week to figure out properly. The following Saturday was full of household chores again but Sunday (today) I was ready to finish the job.

The first thing I did was cut a piece of scrap wood and drill two holes spaced exactly 15.5 inches apart. This allowed me to accurately position the top of the tubes exactly where they needed to be in order to mount the vane. You can see in the pictures how much of an angle there is and how much the mounts overhang the lip on the aft deck.

The plan became to grind down the mounting pads so that the tubes would rise perfectly vertical from the deck. It was going to be a tricky operation with the overhang and my normal clumsiness with power tools but I think it is the right way to fix the problem. I went home to get my grinder and came back to find my new neighbor six feet off my stern doing his end of season cleanup. The gusty winds would have blown the grinding dust directly into his open cabin. Its tough being the nice guy in the boatyard sometimes...

So I switched gears and started assembling the galley bulkheads. Not much to say there. I had to make some minor trimming to make things as square as possible. Way back during the 'disassembly' phase of the project I had left some hull tabbing in place as a convenient way to secure future interior panels. Once again I find myself really regretting that decision. My attempts to square up the interior were in direction opposition to the original bits and pieces left behind. Now I really wish I had just taken EVERYTHING out down to a bare hull and started over. Maybe leaving the crooked main bulkheads but trying to save some time and inconvenience has only resulted in more inconvenience and a standard of quality that I am not terribly happy with. Oh well.

So I started securing the bulkheads and put in the blocks for the interior liners (ceiling?) that will cover the insulation. I was just measuring the closed cell foam I use for insulation when the unforecasted rain started and ended my day early.

So, once again, not a terribly productive two weekends but still inching towards the finish line.

Speaking of the finish line, the main goal for the summer was getting all the deck hardware secured and ready for sailing next season. I am 99% done, with just a few fittings at the bow that still need mounting. For the past month I have been trying to arrange for a helper to hold the screws while I put the nuts on from inside the anchor locker but something keeps coming up and the postponements seem endless. Maybe next week.

Change of plans.

2010-09-10T13:50:00.004-04:00

I had planned on taking this week off of work and going somewhere on vacation. Those plans changed suddenly. Having a whole week with nothing to do and some budgeted money now sitting around going to waste I made a hasty change of plans.

Taking care of the extra money was easy.

As for the time...

Great visual progress but only about 10% of the interior project is actually done. Now comes all the details.

The engine cover will eventually have the companionway steps permanently built in with the top stair being the countertop or maybe a small pull out shelf that hides under the bridge deck. The original stairs are just there in the interim. While I like the overall function of the original stairs, I don't like the extra step of removing them to gain access to the engine (and having to find a place to lay them down while I work) and they make a mess on the varnish where they attach to the companionway.

The galley tabletop will extend out the same amount on both sides. My original plan was to notch the table on the port side where it came up to the settee back. As I kept looking at it though I felt I was losing too much table space and not gaining anything from the extra settee back. So I notched out the settee back and the bamboo shelf behind it.

I oiled the cherry plywood partly for vanity reasons and partly because I learned the hard way how easily a little rain water stains the wood. It has been a week of mostly beautiful weather with occasional showers.

What is there to say?... I turned big sheets of plywood into little bits and pieces and added another thousand little problems for me to think about as I fall asleep at night.

Windanes and other stuff continued

2010-09-07T08:51:00.007-04:00

Well, last week I was all set to finish installing my windvane.

... and then I got looking at those little filler pads under the deck mounts and decided there was no way I could install them without painting them first. A coat of primer and two coats of paint and then the weekend was over.

Instead, I continued with deck hardware installation. I had to make up some more backing pads. I don't know how I got along without my band saw before - so much easier than cutting them by hand with the saber saw. Backing pads for the jib cleats, windvane deck mounts and the aft legs of the forward pulpit.

The jib cleats are the only noteworthy addition to my deck. Overall, not the most productive weekend.

I am also dealing with a new problem that is becoming more important as I get close to installing the final panels that make up boat interior. I have a leak somewhere and it puddles up right here on the cabin sole. The constant and often heavy rains of last week made finding the leak a priority.

What scared me is that the leak seemed to be coming down from under the non-structural bulkhead that defines the saloon from the head. The bulkhead doesn't actually touch the hull. There is about an inch gap between the bulkhead and the hull and the attachment comes from the fiberglass tabbing on both sides. My worry was that a toerail screw was allowing water to come down between the tabbings and filling up the area in between which will eventually rot out the bulkhead. So I started some investigation by pulling up some insulation under the head platform and digging out the settee front where it will later be covered with a veneered panel. I also took out the paneling that forms the back of the head storage locker. The water was definitely pooling up right there and spilling over after it had accumulated.

I had to make the plunge and cut some investigation holes in the bottom panel of the under settee storage area. I hated making the cuts but I had to find the source of the water. I made two cuts there on each side of a panel mounting block. All very dry.

So then I did some test holes along the inboard edge of the settee front. I found some water so I drilled some drain holes that will later be covered up easily. Once the water drained out I had no more puddling around the bulkhead so I am sure the bulkhead area is not the source of the leak. The inboard edge of the settee front is wet all along its length.

I have a sort-of bulkhead at the aft end because at one time I thought I would make the galley storage go all the way to the hull. The space I gained didn't justify the work in creating the curved bottom surface over the insulation so I later just covered the aft area there to match the settee seat. You can see the tabbing to the hull that goes around the whole settee seats. I did that mainly so that any water leaking down from the deck would stop at the seat and not go all the way down to where I am finding it now.

At this point I noticed that the temporary tabbing between the settee seat and the galley storage bottom wasn't too good. I tore some of it up to have a better look. The plywood was all wet. I suspected the missing stanchion mount above was funneling water down to where it would puddle and then finding its way down under the bad tabbing. That could be the problem. I filled the holes temporarily with sealant.

I am going to be really PO'ed if I went to all this trouble and made all this mess only to find out it was only because I was a bit too sloppy with a temporary tab and left a deck fitting off in a rain storm.

After another day of rain I found more puddling on the cabin sole. Maybe the leak was just draining out or maybe I didn't solve the problem. My next step isto cut a hole in the galley storage bottom and feel around. Its possible the water is coming from the cockpit area and finding its way through the original partial bulkhead between the cockpit and saloon areas. The tabbing looks okay and I really hope it is okay.

Now we have a week of near perfect weather and I can't confirm the leak so I am stalled out. I wish it would rain...

So that brings us to this past weekend (sorry about the delay - sometimes I just really don't feel like blogging).

Back to the windvane.

I installed the deck mounts with the now-painted filler blocks.

After laying the bent upper mounts tubes flat on a piece of plywood, the holes were easily drilled straight with a drill press at work. I bolted the tubes on just tight enough to hold them roughly in position while I got the windvane set up.

Then I slipped the windvane onto the tubes and tied the vane to the stern pulpit to hold it in position while I took a look, took a few measurements and put all the other bits and pieces loosely in place.

It became obvious that there were some dimensional errors with the mounts. The top of the lower blade is about 8 inches higher than the water line. It really should be four. Planning on a little cruising overload is fine but I think an extra 4 inches is excessive. The mount is also further aft than it needs to be. As close as practical to the stern is what the instructions call for.

So, I took the vane off and cut four inches off the upper mounts. Factoring in the angle that should lower the vane around 3 and a half inches and bring it a little closer to the stern. Now I have to drill new holes again.

I finished the weekend installing the last of the stanchion mounts and the foredeck cowl with a helper. I was planning on the final installation of the bow pulpit and all the little bits of hardware up forward.

The problem is that they all share one big (and rather ugly - I was new at this when I started) epoxy soaked plywood backing pad shaped to fit the undersides of the curved deck. The anchor roller is firmly mounted through this pad but everything else had been loose for a year. Now, I can't remember how well the wood filler block for the anchor roller is sealed (that was a year ago). Since I can't remember I have decided to take it off, clean it up and start with some new sealant; mounting all that stuff at the same time. I hate to do this but I hate that nagging feeling of doubt even more. Not that a leak would hurt much up under the anchor locker but someday it will really bug me. Especially if the wood filler block starts to rot.

So that's it. Another weekend wasted ;-)

Installing a Monitor Wind Vane.

2010-08-21T17:35:00.005-04:00

well, starting to install the windvane...

Part 1:

I actually bought he windvane five years ago back when I thought the project would take a year or two. For the past five years the box has been cluttering up my work space in the basement and I am very happy to get it out of there.

I chose the Monitor for its great reputation both for quality and customer service. I can attest to both of those attributes. The quality is top notch and my dealings with the company have been very professional and helpful. Yes, the Monitor is quite expensive. I paid just over $5k for mine. But to see this machine is to understand why it is so expensive. It is absolutely gorgeous. The vane is a very well built piece of machinery and the mounting is all custom manufactured for the individual boat.

The first step is to fill out a form with a bunch of measurements and angles for my particular boat. The company had a couple of drawings from previous installations on other Tritons and using my measurements, the company engineer recomended one of the drawings for my application. Since the drawings are freely available on the web I don't think they will mind if I re-post it here:

The first step in the installation process was to install the deck mounts for the upper mount tubes. I immediately ran into a problem.

The aft deck hatch that I had installed interferred with the mounting pads. After a moment of considering grinding the deck flat and the necesary layers of fiberglass repairs I remembered that I still had some pre-made polyester based sheet material. I still don't know why I had it in 3/8 inch thickness but that is exactly what I needed to create a level surface for the mounting pads. Some quick cutting and more artistic grinding and I had my custom fitted filler blocks.

And then being very careful to space the mounts equally apart from the centerline I drilled the mounting holes. Note: there is a slight difference between the port and starboard shape of the stern - the port filler block is half an inch shorter. With the mounts temporarily fixed in place I moved onto the next step.

The mount for the Triton is a bit non-standard with the top tube mounting on the deck rather than the transom. The special instructions for this deck mounting that come with the kit (the kit instructions are fabulous overall) say to drill two holes in the tube for a through bolt. The through bolt secures the upper tube to the deck mounting pads. This is where I ran into a bigger problem. The holes need to be perfectly perpendicular to the pre-formed bend in the upper tube. When the holes are even slightly off...

The results look like this. The tube is turned slightly inwards. This event made me a very unhappy camper. The instructions suggest installing the windvane with the boat in the water to fine tune the height adjustments and infer that only basic handtools are needed to install the windvane. That might be true with a standard mount but this deck mounted tube proved to be too tricky for me working in a boatyard on a sawhorse with handheld drill motor. Maybe it is just me. After all the most complex stuff I do at work is re-build crashed airplanes and fabricating new parts to replace the damaged ones... It must be just me because the instructions suggest it is pretty easy to do on the dock with the boat in the water.

Anyway, my plan is to take the tubes into work where I have nice jigs and stationary drill presses that can accurately drill my holes. To fix my error I had to cut off about an inch of the tubing. This will lower the whole mount about half an inch which I think will be acceptable. If I am wrong then I might have to order new tubes to replace the one I ruined with the bad holes. If I do have to order them maybe I can get the factory to drill those holes for me too...

So, while I am overall very very pleased with my Monitor windvane to date, I was a little dissapointed with this particular stage of assembly. At this point in the day I broke off and sanded the cabin sole and applied another coat of urethane.

Diversions

2010-08-15T12:52:00.003-04:00

I had great plans this weekend for something new and exciting to go onto the boat.

But the weekend had other plans for me.

I was asked to give someone a hand for an hour or so that turned into most of Saturday. On Sunday my plans were made for me...

So, about all I managed to do was put a couple of coats of urethane on the cabin sole and place another order for hardware and shop supplies. If I were to add up the costs of all these small hardware orders I would probably give up boat work. You wouldn't think a few bolts and screws and nuts and washers here and there would add up to much. You would be wrong to think that.

Hoping for better luck next weekend.

Beat to fit...

2010-08-08T16:16:00.004-04:00

Paint to match.

After another hot and humid work week, the weekend turned out to be another really good varnishing weekend. I just didn't feel like varnishing. I didn't feel like doing much of anything this weekend actually.

I made more than my usual number of return trips for forgotten tools and materials. My helper for securing the deck hardware had some last minute changes of plans. The pulpits have different sized backing pads and it appears as though I used the larger pads that I made on the pulpit with the smaller feet - and the smaller pads were too small for the larger feet. I didn't have any more backing pad material so I was out of luck there. I needed to order more for the jib cleat backing pads anyway.

So, this was not my most productive weekend. I spent most of my productive time Saturday sanding the cabin sole hatch lips smooth. Getting the hatches to lie pefectly flat and without any wobble took more work than expected. They aren't beautiful under there but that is what paint is for.

And so speaking of paint, I did prime and paint the sloping fiberglass hull alonside the cabin sole and the hatch edges.

I wasn't able to get the paint matching machine to work on the bamboo because there is too much variation in color in the bamboo. I wound up finding the closest match I could with a paint chip and ordering a pint of that. I put down two coats and used the top 1/4 inch of paint out of the can so I have plenty left for 'other' projects (read: pay for hazardous waste disposal in 10-20 years...).

I also took another look at my jumper strut shrouds. I had them made up new two years ago with 'adjusters' so that I could tweak the tension on the struts after they were up and installed. Well, the adjusters are totally inadequate at the tensions necessary. My first thought was to match up a turnbuckle that I can screw into the end of the shroud just as the adjuster screws in. My second thought was to hand the shrouds over to my rigger and them him figure it out. I am going with my second thought.

And that's it. Everything I said I wanted to do last week is exactly what I want to do next week. I am hoping for a bit more success.

Changes in the weather

2010-08-01T14:54:00.004-04:00

A change in the weather meant a change in plans.

For the past month, the temperatures have been in the mid 90's (F) with 90%+ humidity most days.

This weekend, the temperature dipped into the upper 70's low 80's with 50-60% humidity. Perfect varnishing weather. During times like these there isn't any choice. One must drop whatever plans one had and pick up the varnish brush.

So that is what I did. One coat on every piece of wood on Saturday and another coat on Sunday: Toerail/rubrail, engine instrument frame, companionway trim, water deck fitting block, coamings and winchblocks, forehatch, and misc. bow woodwork. That makes a minimum of five coats of varnish on all my wood so I am getting close to an acceptable amount of coverage. At least I won't be worrying about it all the time (for at least a month).

Other than that... I continued to build up the surface that the cabin sole hatches rest upon with a couple of coats of epoxy thickened with WEST 407 (low density fill). My earlier plan of using foam tape fell apart after some thinking. I figured over time the tape would compress and I would either have the hatches sitting too high initially or too low after a period of time. I didn't like either result. Instead, I mixed up some epoxy leaving it just thin enough to self-level before it kicked off. An application last week and the first application this week brought the hatches just about perfectly aligned with the surrounding sole. I applied an additional coating Sunday to help fill in any low spots and give something to sand smooth. Next week I should be able to prime and paint.

Yes. I need to clean out the bilges and apply a fresh coat of paint. Its hard to keep the boat clean while working on it.

I really like my bamboo plywood sole and I only have one caveat about it. Let it sit anywhere near a moist environment for more than a few minutes and mold will spontaneously begin reproducing right in front of your eyes. Mold loves this stuff. It isn't just on the boat either. My stock in the garage grows moldy in no time flat and I have had to clean up my stock a few times. A solvent rag takes care of most of it. A light sanding usually finishes it up clean.

To make the mold problem go away, the bamboo plywood needs to be sealed up. I cleaned up the undersides of the hatch covers where I had not applied any finish before and then gave them all a coat of clean polyurethane on the bottom surfaces. One more coat and they should be good to go. Any of the bamboo that has been sealed this way exhibits no tendency to mass produce mold babies.

Sound like nothing happened. Maybe. Setting up for varnishing everything on deck takes more time than I would like. Nothing looks better but it does take some work. Beauty costs.

On another note. After some emails with a fellow boat restorer I need to add some thoughts about on last week's projects.

I woke up the next day thinking about the broken taper bit and the bronze screws I was using to secure the bronze foredeck cowl. After reviewing the failed installation I realized that I did not like how the screw felt going into the thickened epoxy plug. My email correspondece confirmed a better technique I was thinking about- drilling and tapping for machine screws. Taper bits just don't work well in epoxy. I think the tapped machine threads is a much better solution. Now I just need to order the machine screws. On a different note, with the cowl over the new hole in the foredeck I noticed a vast improvement in the air quality below decks when I went below after a week away Saturday. The ventilation is much better now.

The second idea we talked about was one I had heard of and then prompty forgot. The time consuming method I had for drilling the mounting screws through the backing pads could be dramatically improved with a hot glue gun. Mix up some thickened epoxy and goop it on the backing pad, apply hot glue to a few points on the backing pad and stick it into position. The hot glue sets up in a minute and holds the backing pad while the epoxy takes a full cure. Then it is a simple method of drilling through for the mounting bolts. Of course that means the backing pads will never come off again but why would anyone want to take them off ?...

Finally, the green composite material I was using for backing pads is not G10 after all. It is a polyester layup. Completely adequate for what I was using it for but I feel the need to make the correction public and reduce the amount of bad information found on the Internet (a hopeless task I know). I don't know where that stuff came from. It has been in my stock pile for a few years now and I guess I just forgot what it was.

So that was the weekend and another month of summer is gone. I have the bow pulpit, jib sheet cleats and stern cleats to install. I hope to get my new Monitor wind vane mount out of my basement where it has been taking up space for the past five years and finally get it installed on the boat. I am still trying to get enough done on the actual sailing hardware list to be able to spend some time and money this Fall on some interior paneling. If I can keep plugging away I have hopes of some interior installed before Old Man Winter comes to visit again.

I say, I say, I say... That's all folks!

Wanting is...

2010-07-25T15:12:00.004-04:00

the root of all unhappiness.

If I didn't want boat work to progress faster I would not be unhappy with the progress. Saturday was a demonstration in progress against all odds. Sunday was somewhat better.

During the week, I installed my new 1/8 inch blade in the new bandsaw and cut out backing pads for some of the deck hardware. After using hand tools for so long I forgot how nice a fixed shop tool can be. It was a much more pleasant experience cutting the blocks out. For the pads I used G10 which is great stuff (pre-made sheets of epoxy/fiberglass composite with a near perfect ratio of resin to fiber). McMaster and Carr has it among other sources. When I first got the boat I didn't know about it and was using epoxy coated plywood. It is working okay but the G10 is far superior. For some reason I had two pieces of G10 in 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch thicknesses. I have no idea why I had the 3/8 inch stock. The 1/4 inch was fine. All the same, I had to use the thicker stuff up so I used the 3/8 inch stock for under the stanchion bases. Had I been really smart I would have pre-painted the pads. I briefly considered postponing installation to paint the pads but decided I couldn't stand any more delays. The pads will most likely be hidden behind cabinetry and can always be painted afterwards in any case.

I had anticipated installing everything easily within a day. How silly of me. The little things took forever. First, I had to drill the pads for the mounting holes. I had already learned that I could not simply put the pad against the fitting and use the fiting as a drill guide. While the holes through the deck look straight, they are usually not, and after traveling though an inch of deck the holes don't come out directly under where they went in. In other words, somewhere in the drilling process a little crookedness is introduced. The solution is to drill one hole and then temporarily secure the pad via the single bolt hole. Then drill the opposite hole and run another bolt through to fix the pad into position. Then I was able to drill the remaining two (or whatever) holes in the pads. This means the pads are perfectly drilled... unless they get flipped upside down. Its a good idea to mark the orientation of the pads before walking away. No need to ask me why I believe this.

So, most of Saturday was spent drilling on deck and then going below to fuss with a pad and then going up and drilling a second hole and then going below... etc. I had to make several trips back home to pick up a forgotten tool or two. I was nearly done when my large and torque-y drill motor got the drill bit slightly stuck and promptly snapped the bit in two. I only had the one bit so I was finished with drilling for the day.

No problem, I wanted to mount my foredeck cowl. I used a taper drill to pre-drill for the mounting screws. I reached for my tube of sealant and found the end to be solid. No problem, I grabbed the first available tool - the new taper drill bit - and stuck it in the end of the tube and gave it a whirl. The new taper drill bit snapped in half.

Okay, I grabbed my utility knife and cut into the side of the tube and sort of spread the sealant out in a less than precise manner. I then set the cowl on top of the sealant and started screwing the mount screws down. Apparently I didn't drill quite far enough with the taper drill. Since I had just broken the taper drill I couldn't go back and drill a little deeper. I figured I could just muscle the screw down the last 1/8 inch. And that is how I snapped the screw in half. So, after pitching the remaining tube of sealant half way across the boatyard, I grabbed a roll of paper towels and wiped up/smeared around the sealant figuring I would try another day.

A long work week and temperatures in the 90's with 90%+ humidity might have contributed to my fatigue and set me up for the series of small failures. I was pretty disgusted with boatwork Saturday night.

Sunday I slept late and ate a good breakfast with 'my boys' at the diner which put me in a much better mood. I was able to buy some new drill bits and finish drilling the holes and then bribed a helper with a fried clam lunch to make installing the hardware go more smoothly.

Thanks Mom.

A few issues still managed to crop up. The pad for the aft stanchions straddles the division between the underside of the raw deck and the interior liner. The thickness is about the same but the angle between the two is a little off. That meant that the bolts that I had ordered were too short. Once I tightened one side of the stanchion base, the pad pulled away from the underside of the deck too far for the bolts to reach, I tried starting the bolts in different orders but in the end, I deemed it better to clean up and try again next week with longer bolts.

The other issue I had was that I had grabbed what I thought was 1/4 inch and 5/16 inch washers from my hardware rack. That is what I thought I had done. In fact, I had 1/4 inch washers with different sized outside diameters. The middle stanchion bases use 5/16 inch bolts and I didn't have any washers. I decided to mount the bases without washers. I was using the 3/8 inch thick G10 under the stanchion bases so I think they can handle nuts without washers. In two years when I re-bed the deck hardware I can add the washers.

Next, with my helper, I was able to mount the jib tracks. I didn't use a backing pad under the tracks, just some large area washers. There are 13 bolts holding each track in place so I think the washers alone will do just fine.

Yes, that is mold on the underside of the side deck. When there is water in the bilge, and the boat is closed up for a week, and the temperatures are in the 90's, mold spores go into a breeding frenzy. I didn't have anything on hand in the truck to clean it up and I wasn't going back home to get it.

After supplying my helper with the fried clam lunch I went back and installed the stern pulpit.

And by then I was pretty well cooked, working in the bright sun in the 90 degree weather.

The forward pulpit will have to wait until next week.

I might shift gears and get more varnish down if the weather cooperates. The three applications of varnish are looking a little thin already. No biggy. If I varnish I will continue with the cabin sole painting. There is always something to do.

Deck progress

2010-07-18T12:51:00.004-04:00

Sorry, no new pictures. I had planned on working both days this weekend but Sunday had other plans for me. I left the camera at home Saturday thinking the intermediate pictures would be rather dull and the final pictures (might) be more interesting. Since there was no Sunday work, there are no pictures.

On Saturday I drilled through the holes I had epoxy filled last week to the final dimensions. Then I was able to insert a known length bolt into the holes and determine the hardware I needed to install the stanchion bases, pulpits, jib sheet tracks and forward deck cowl.

I noticed a problem for the first time with jib tracks. Well two actually but one is very minor. The minor issue was that after drilling out the end holes for the jib tracks and pinning the tracks in place loosely with bolts (so that I could use the tracks as templates for the intermediate holes) I realized that the aluminum tracks bend quite easily and I *could* have bent the tracks to follow the outside curve of the decks. That would have looked a bit nicer than the straight tracks I set up for. I wasn't going to correct the minor issue but next time I would probably bend the track. Just for a slight visual improvement.

The more important issue was the lifeline set up. In my head, I was going to install a support brace for the aft stanchion so I could attach a fixed lifeline to the forward end under tension, and install a short section of removable lifeline aft of the aft stanchion - between the stanchion and the stern pulpit- for easy boarding. The only purpose was so I could removed the lifeline for boarding and not have the whole lifeline sag down. That has always been my plan. However, now that I have the jib tracks being installed I realize that the support brace needs to attach to the deck right where the track is. I can't run the support brace aft because 1.) It wouldn't be as strong. 2.) it would look funny 3.) aft of the stanchion would put the brace right over the big deck drain. There just isn't any room.

So maybe I will let the lifeline sag or maybe I will attach some sort of crimp fitting on by the stanchion tube to hold the lifeline up. The crimp won't be as strong or as visually clean but the lifeline will only be disconnected when the boat is at rest anyway when the lifelines are not so critical to have.

As some fellow boat restorers are fond of saying 'Damned because it is all connected'. Everything you do effects everything else in a myriad of ways that you cannot possibly imagine before you start the project. The challenge keeps it fun I guess.

Once I figured out my hardware needs I put in an order with Boltdepot.com. They are pretty good with the random small quantities I need.

Other than that, I sanded hull alongside the cabin sole in the area between the sole and the vertical cabinet panels. Another fellow boat restorer mentioned to me privately that filling and smoothing the hull sections would have been much easier before I had the sole installed. He learned that the hard way. I guess now I have too. Next time I will fill and smooth the hull before installing the sole. I managed to get it done but it took a lot more care and time than it needed to.

I was also going to fill in around the cabin sole hatch covers with another application of thickened epoxy but I decided to hold off and see if some foam tape might work well there. The tape would add the little height I need and would soften the contact area between the sole and hatch. The tape might also depress over time leaving the hatch cover slightly lower than the sole. I might try it and see how it works. I can always build up the lip that the hatch lids sit on later.

Sorry about no pictures. How about I post a few old picturs to remember how far the project has come and not always be thinking how far it has to go...

Mixed progress

2010-07-11T16:06:00.004-04:00

The only thing holding me back from sailing last season was a lack of deck hardware. So Saturday I was all geared up for deck work. After opening up the boat and getting some much needed ventilation, I realized I had left my power cord at home so I went back for it. At the house I looked up to see dark clouds. Halfway back to the boat the heavens opened up and dropped an ocean of water everywhere.

So all I managed to do Saturday was to get the insides all wet...

Sunday didn't look much better but I decided to dodge raindrops and get some work done where I could. I started by laying up the jib sheet tracks. I laid the four foot tracks equi-distant to the stanchion bases and far enough from the toerail to make it look 'right'. Then I drilled and filled the holes with thickened epoxy. I took a series of pictures of the operation in case someone doesn't know what I am talking about. Unfortunately, the white deck and bright sun washed out the photos beyond any form of recognition. I have a fancy camera but sometimes I forget to pay attention to what it is trying to tell me. Next week I will drill through the new epoxy for the actual mounting hardware. In the middle of this I had to button up and wait out a rain shower.

After the rain shower things cleared up considerably so I continued with the stern rail. The holes for the forward posts were the original ones but I had to make new holes for the aft posts. And yes, I will spend some time cleaning up the original pulpits before being permanently mounted.

With the weather continuing to hold I went ahead and set up the bow pulpit. Those holes I didn't have to drill and fill as they were the original ones. Next time I would have filled the holes before re-doing the decks and made new holes when I was ready for them. The pulpit has to be tortured a bit to get it into position using the original holes.

By this time the high heat and humidity were cooking me to something past well done. I spent a few more minutes and drilled and filled holes for my bronze cowl that I got off of Ebay last fall.

The heavy rain on Saturday that came in several hours early really upset my schedule. At least Sunday was partially salvagable.

Next week I need to cut out the backing plates for the rails (new bandsaw blade just for this is on order) drill out the holes and measure for the correct length hardware. And then I can finish mounting everything and have a working sailboat again for the first time in four years!

Then I need to finish everything else...

Varnish. Toerails. Again

2010-06-26T16:15:00.002-04:00

Saturday was going to be the nicest day of the weekend with showers on Sunday. The WoodenBoat show is going on this weekend in Mystic Seaport and my girlfriend invited me to go. I think she figured if it involved boats I would be more willing to give up boatwork and spend a day with her. She was right.

So I crunched the weekend chores into Saturday morning and managed to get a second full coat of varnish on the toerails and rubrails. As I drove home I saw rain showers forming...

Oh well. The varnish was kicking off pretty fast in the heat. Its only a build coat. ...

Next weekend is the July fourth holiday weekend and I am juggling several social obligations which will probably push boatwork onto the back burner.

Its nearly July and I haven't mounted a single piece of deck hardware which was the priority for the summer. I guess I am doing about average this year.

Just keep pushing that stone up the hill ...

Too hot for varnish

2010-06-19T18:15:00.003-04:00

Too hot for varnish but I did it anyway. I just couldn't wait and the liklihood of a cooler day with summer around the corner seems unlikely.

The varnish was starting to fail in many places on the toerail because I only had four coats down from last season. Now with the cover off it wouldn't be long before it completely failed. I am tempted to let it turn gray and sand it later but I can't do that to my nice toerail yet.

As it was, I sanded pretty aggresively and could have done more. A real complete heavy sanding is on the to-do list but not this year. With temps in the high 80's I thinned out the varnish some and crossed my fingers. It is not a stellar job but the wood is covered. Now I can only hope to get another 6 or so coats on it soon...

I used a tape designed to resist abrasion. I wish I could remember what it was called. I bought it through McMaster and Carr last year. It worked really well at allowing me to bump up against the hull with the orbital sander and not hurt anything. It worked only a little better than marginal as an edge to keep the varnish from getting on the hull. It worked well enough but I probably shouldn't have been so cheap and lazy and laid down real masking tape for the varnishing part. The abrasion resistant tape wasn't cheap, around $20-30 a roll, and the roll wasn't quite enough for my 56 feet of toerail x two edges but I think it was worth it. I would use it again.

I really can't call varnishing 'progress' as it should be a yearly maintenance thing. If anyone else is concerned over the pace of my work you are not alone. I think I am at the limit of what an apartment renter that commutes an hour to work can really accomplish. This is probably not the sort of boat for a person like that (which is me at the moment). Even with no new construction I think the yearly upkeep requirements would tax my schedule pretty hard. The weather, the distance, the lack of time all contribute to the endless delays.

The varnish and other yard duties was all I managed today. Tomorrow I have some other unrelated boat work that needs to get done so this is going to make for another pathetic boat work weekend.

I think after I finish this blog posting I am going to email my realtor friend about finding some buildable land for a boat barn. I was hoping to find a real home for the boat and me but now I think I just want something for the boat. I need a permanent shelter to get the spring chores done before Fall and have all the tools and materials in one spot. A bunk, a hot plate and a composting toilet and I can move in alongside the boat. What could be better?...

I can handle faded gel-coat and gray wood in my current circumstances but that time is now past and I am going to have to step up my game if I am going to keep up with my boat as it gets closer to 'completion'.

Dodging Raindrops (yet again)

2010-06-13T11:24:00.007-04:00

Another weekend of showery weather.

Making the best of it, I decided to fair some of the rough exposed sections of the hull alongside the cabin sole as well as the cut outs for the sole hatch boards.

After taping the edges of my new bamboo sole, I mixed up a batch of epoxy with low density fairing filler (WEST 407). I mixed it up thick enough to fill the fiberglass weave and other irregularities and thin enough to self-level before the epoxy kicked off. Another coat after sanding might be required.

And yes, the cut-outs in the under sole and the bamboo plywood don't line up. I think in one instance I measured from the middle of the sole and in the other I measured from the middle of the boat. One might assume these would be the same things but in a Triton that is highly unlikely. Symmetry does not exist with these boats.

No, I didn't spill anything on the new sole that didn't wipe right up. The slight stain on the port side is water stain where some water pooled up. I appear to have a small leak that wasn't readily apparent. The piece of paper towel was stopping the water from migrating back out into my fresh epoxy.

Taking advantage of a lull in the rain I decided to add more screws securing my teak rubrail. The original installation was pulling away from the hull in a few places, notably at the amidships joint.

I am still not happy with the rubrail installation. Even with the longer screws I didn't always get a good connection. In a few cases, while driving in the new screws, they would hit resistance and would pull the wood away from the hull along with the adjacent screws in the process. The problem is the rough contruction at the hull-to-deck joint. There are lots of voids, dry fibers and lumps of resin that the screws have a hard time gripping. In one instance, I hit a pocket with blew my drill out of the hole with an explosive bang, lots of white powder, and that intoxicating smell of uncured polyester resin. Next time - or if the current connection fails - I think I might use a more adhesive sealant like 4200 or 5200. I avoided these thinking I might someday have to repair the rubrail and didn't want to deal with these strong adhesives then. On a positive note, the rubrail is more decorative than anything so as long as it doesn't just fall off in bulk I can probably keep it in place for some time.

A curious feature of my rubrail is that every winter a larg-ish gap shows up between the rubrail and the hull. During cold weather I can clearly see daylight between the hull and rubrail and sometimes have over a quarter inch gap showing. When the weather warms up most of the gaps go away however. I guess that will be an ongoing issue trying to marry two different materials together over a wide span.

The original installation used 8x1.25 bronze wood screws about 12 inches apart. I put 8x1.5 wood screws in between, doubling the number of screws holding the toerail on. On top of this will be a brass half over strip, hopefully being installed this summer if I can get some decent varnish coverage before next winter...

I just found this view while adding the toerail screws and thought it looked nice. I love a nice clean foredeck.

And that's it for this weekend. More boatwork is on the schedule for next weekend.

Empty Nest

2010-06-06T13:38:00.002-04:00

Well the Dove Saga is over. The nest was empty this week. I guess Momma didn't like her new digs after all. I kinda suspected that.

I am pretty sure I have mentioned that if I ever 'did it again' I would not start a boat project without decent covered storage. I think I need to amend that opinion. If I was to ever buy a boat again I wouldn't until I had decent covered and heated indoor storage.

I make this amendment as I look at my thinning-by-the-day-under-the-intense-summer-sun varnish trim on Jenny. The weather continues to be uncooperative to varnish and it wouldn't be where I wanted it even if I didn't have the little bird issue to contend with. I have decided that to maintain the boat in the condition I would like will require better storage options. My winter cover is nice but I am restricted in width by the boatyard rules so I can't get to the toerails while the cover is on. Even with a bigger cover the temperature and humidity hasn't been where I need it to be either. Of course a big part of my problem is that I am restricted to weekends only which is severely limiting my options. I really just have no time for wage earning work. My boat needs me.

I am really sick of boatyard storage even if I am in a pretty good boatyard. I think it is time to start searching seriously for a house for my boat. A house for myself would be nice too but I think that is out of the question considering what I have spent on the boat. I have gone this far for the boat's sake; I might as well buy Jenny her own house and THEN we will both be happy and content...

Fighting the heavy rainshowers, I managed to get some details done. A thorough washdown cleared away all the winter grime (and black sneaker marks from when I was too careless about my 'no shoes' rule). The cabin sole has a coat of polyurethane on it. The saloon shelving is completely installed and awaiting the cherry paneling.

and that is about it. Nothing really worth taking a picture of.

Heartless Landlord evicts young mother.

2010-05-31T15:22:00.003-04:00

Apparently, many people know that mourning doves have two clutches of eggs every spring. Until this weekend I didn't know that.

Being the heartless cull that I am, I decided that I had had enough and it was time for momma dove to leave. I think she was quite surprised that I carried out my threat this time. She let me walk right up to her and almost touch the nest before she flew away with a few choice chirps for me that I can't repeat on a family blog.

I set the nest down on the ground figuring that would be the end of it but momma wasn't through with me. While I disassembled the winter cover, momma continued to fly around chirping and keeping an eye on me.

At the end of a few hours on Saturday I had the cover off.

On Sunday I came all prepared to wash the boat of its winter grime and start sanding and varnishing the toerails. Momma had other plans for me as I found her back on her nest where I had set it under the boat.

After a few tense moments we came to an agreement. I agreed to put the ladder on the port side and work on interior projects and thus not get the nest wet with hull washing, and in return momma promised to let me make all the noise I want inside and not give me those dovey eyes that make me feel so guilty.

So I used my time on Sunday to clean up the epoxy squeeze out from around the bamboo cabin sole. That took more time than I expected. The hatch covers sit pretty tight and the smallest amount of epoxy in the corners were keeping the hatches from sitting properly. After some boring detail work I realized that my router back at home would come in very useful. Using a quarter round bit I simply rounded the lower edges of the hatch boards which made the hatches drop into place easily. Sunday afternoon was for holiday socializing (my girlfriend made me go and be social).

Monday I was tied up with holiday guests for a few hours but I did manage to spend a bit of time cleaning up the sole and buying some materials for the final finish work.

So here is how the sole looks today:

So far I am pretty happy with the look. I have satin finish polyurethane for the bamboo and a close match of paint for the exposed bits of hull and hatch fiddles. I need to do a bit more fairing before the paint though. The hatches sit just a bit low so I need to build up the edges that they sit on slightly and I want to smooth the exposed hull surfaces as well before I paint.

The highest priority next week is to sand and varnish my starved toerails. Now that the sun is beating down on them I really feel the need to get them protected. Its nice having teak that can take the abuse but I would like to limit the abuse as much as a I can.

As I was leaving today, Momma Dove posed for one last photograph.

Momma's gone but ...

2010-05-24T06:10:00.002-04:00

but baby Dove is being reluctant about leaving the nest.

On a positive note; my girlfriend is thrilled to have me around and available on the weekends. She has been getting into sea kayaking in a big way and I have been participating with her.

I have to say, considering the aquisition and yearly maintenance costs, you get a tremendous bang for the buck with a kayak. They are tons of fun and but a fraction of the cost of a small cruising sailboat.

Truth be known, I have purposefully avoided kayaks because I knew I would like them but I didn't want any more distractions in my life. I am busy enough as it is. Despite my best intentions I may be losing the battle. Kayaks are a lot of fun.

I have high hopes for some real boatwork next week. That's about it.

Baby doves are very cute

2010-05-17T06:03:00.001-04:00

What can I say. The little baby dove is very cute. It must have hatched sometime last weekend as it already looks like it is about ready to leave the nest.

Yeah, I know...

2010-05-10T22:21:00.001-04:00

Saturday, torrential rains, high winds, thunder and lightning. No boatwork.

Sunday, Mother's Day, visiting guests. No boatwork.

I checked on Jenny. She is doing fine but the cover is looking a bit flabby.

Momma dove was celebrating mother's day by sitting on her eggs. Any day now...

Evicted

2010-04-24T11:56:00.003-04:00

So, I was away for one stinkin' weekend and I got kicked out.

Last weekend, I did something very foolish and crazy which was to rescue another Pearson Triton from being cut up. #385 needed a new home quickly and I couldn't let her die a horrible death so I have taken her in. I have no idea what to do with her.

When I started looking for an Alberg boat I found #385 sitting in my cousin's boatyard. When I asked my cousin about it he forbid me from investigating. The boat had come to the yard ten plus years earlier and had not moved since. The yearly storage fees continued to be paid promptly. He was not about to let that cash cow go. It was the easiest income he had. I had to look elsewhere for my Triton.

Unfortunately for #385, she was set in the corner of the yard and forgotten. She sailed in in apparently decent shape but was then left with the rig up and uncovered for over ten years. Ten years of New England snow and ice. Ten years of hot scorching summer sun. Whatever was good about the boat was lost. The decks are soft and to the point of being unable to stand upon. The deck and cabin skins are a maze of stress cracks. Water appears to have pooled up in the cabin. There is a nice blowout under the ballast pig through the bottom of the boat. All that is left is a disassembled engine, some ancient sails, and some bronze hardware.

The owner of #385 was finally persuaded to part with the boat and in the past few years has gone through a few owners with ideas of restoring her.

I knew she was in rough shape. She is probably rougher than I thought even. I have no idea what to do with the boat but I wasn't ready to let another Triton get cut up.

For now #385 is safe and is well blocked and covered. What comes next is anyone's guess.

And that is why I was away last weekend which resulted in my eviction.

You see, while I was busy saving the world, one Triton at a time, a young mother, very pregnant, was in urgent need of a safe place to raise her children. In my absence a nice quiet and safe spot turned out to be the top of my ladder that was left upright alongside the cockpit of Jenny.

Now my ladder is home for a young morning dove and two new eggs. I can't move the nest for fear of disturbing the mother into abandoning her chicks. I can't work around the new inhabitants because the ladder is only a few feet from where I need to be and frankly, my winter waist is still too big for me to fit comfortably through the fore hatch.

Anyone know how long it takes a dove to hatch her chicks and send them out on their own?...

For this weekend, at least, I think I will work on some other boat projects at home and catch up on some car and house maintenance while I am at it.

I have been stopped by 8 ounces of fluff that only wants a safe quiet place to raise her young. What can I do?

Buckets of Goop

2010-04-11T17:35:00.003-04:00

After dealing with a bunch of real life stuff Saturday and Sunday morning, I finally managed to get a few hours Sunday to work on the boat.

With temps in the 60's, it seemed like the perfect time to install the cabin sole that I have been talking about incessantly for months. I know everyone, including me, is just thinking, 'hurry up and put that thing in there would yah?".

First though, the tabbing holding the undersole was thick enough to raise the bamboo plywood sole up over an eighth of an inch which left a gap between the undersole and sole around the bilge access holes and would make fitting the hatch lids a pain. The solution was provided by a blog reader who suggested filling in the low spots with more tabbing which would provide a level surface for the sole to rest upon. So that is what I did.

I didn't get too picky with the fitting. Then I started pumping out resin with West System pumps; and I pumped and pumped and pumped. I have an excuse, perhaps, because it was the first epoxy job of the season but I underestimated the amount I needed by about half and had to go back and do it again. I was using slow speed hardener so I had the time though it was still getting warm in the bucket before I could get it all applied. All told, about 90 pumps of resin and hardener were used plus nearly a full gallon container of thickener. I also applied unthickened epoxy to the underside of the plyboo sole and the topside of the plywood undersole.

It was a bit tricky manhandling the sole into the boat as the epoxy was still sticky on the bottom side. Somehow I managed not to spread epoxy over everything as I squeezed the sole into position. When placed in its final resting place, the plyboo sole settled with a satisfying squish. I used buckets filled with water to weight the sole down.

There was some squish out around the edges but not complete so I had to go back and fill the edges a bit more.

Then I gave everything a wipe down with acetone and pulled the tape.

With a three quarter inch plywood undersole and another three quarter inch bamboo plywood sole I am pretty confident that my sole won't sag and squeak like it used to.

I didn't really plan on this much material. I installed the undersole back when I was planning on using a teak and holly veneered plywood as a cosmetic finish. The idea for the plyboo came after the undersole was tabbed into place. Headroom is a little bit tighter than planned but I, personally, have standing headroom and that is really all that matters after all.

So not a lot got done but an important step was accomplished and I can move on. I still have some filling in and cleaning up to do. The sole isn't finished yet but a big part of it is at least.

Any progress is good progress

2010-04-04T15:13:00.003-04:00

Warm sunny temperatures tempted me with a cabin sole installation.

Unfortunately, reality also made itself felt. I spent the weekend fixing household and automotive stuff mostly. The plan was to use five gallon buckets filled with water to weight down the sole but the boatyard has not turned on the water yet. It is 80 degrees today but last week it was freezing.

I made some small progress by washing the interior and installing the settee locker shelving which needs to be in before the settee backs are installed.

Sorry about the lighting. Despite the sunny warm temperatures the tarp is still over the boat for now. I am waiting to see how rainy April turns out to be before I start dismantling the boat cover.

Not much but I guess any progress is good.

The Remains of Winter

2010-03-28T14:24:00.002-04:00

A stormy week and cold temperatures this weekend. What the boat really needs is a good interior scrub and fresh paint and the temperature was not going to make that easy. I contented myself this weekend with other household chores instead.

We have had an awful lot of wind this winter. Twice this past week the winds have been above 50mph. Under these conditions I have been very impressed with my bow shed boat shelter. It has taken a lot of abuse, including the 90mph winds last month and 10+ days of 50mph winds over the winter, and the structure has held up well.

There are two areas where I think I could improve the structure.

One is how the structure is anchored down. The sections under the boat have held the structure down quite well and kept it from blowing away. On the other hand, the ends have been pushed around a lot; sometimes into some very odd shapes. Its not uncommon on a weekend to see one side set in an 'U' or 'S' shape. The little garden stakes I used were not up to the task. I think I need stronger ones - the front edge of the structure actually flattened a stake as it pushed over it in the 90mph winds- more of them, and on both sides of the edge rails to keep it all in position and aligned correctly would be a big improvement.

The second weakness has been the covering. A better manufactured tarp might have made all the difference. In general, the heavy duty silver tarps hold up well. At the moment, I am using a tarp that is on its third -very roughly handled - season. Its just this latest tarp which the poor quality grommets and holes right from the start, that couldn't handle the conditions. I haven't forgotten that the conditions included a near hurricane so I am not completely condemming my lastest tarp.

If I knew the boat was staying put for a few years I might consider shrinkwrapping which seems to be a stronger alternative. What I like about the tarp though is that it can be removed in nice weather or opened on the ends. Plus, a tarp is tons cheaper than shrinkwrap. I haven't tried greenhouse plastic which is what is recommended. That would probably be the best option if I knew the structure was going to be in place for a longer length of time.

Overall, the bows have held up well and show no signs of fatigue. Considering the winter we have just had I am very impressed and can't recommend the bow shed structure enough. By the way, I spent less than $400 in materials for the structure.

What I REALLY want is a spot of land for a permanent/semi-permanent structure. Just a roof would be nice. Maybe next year.

I think this weekend might be Winter's last gasp. That's what I hope for anyway. I am looking forward to packing away the structure for the summer and having free, wide open access to the decks again.

Spring cleaning

2010-03-21T14:54:00.006-04:00

Beautiful weather yesterday. 70 degrees and sunny. Unfortunately (for the boat) I had prior plans to meet friends at the Maine Boatbuilders Show in Portland Maine. Its easily my favorite show. Hardly a bland one piece deck mold to be found anywhere and they actually had boats I could think about affording. Not an inefficient power hungry hideous looking piece of frozen snot that costs more than my house to be found. Well, there was one, made by Sabre, but overall I think they are one of the better made boats and it was easy to walk past that one. No sign of Hinckley. I think for all intents and purposes they are dead.

Anyway, after the great weather saturday I was hoping to install my cabin sole on Sunday. Unfortunately the nice weather didn't quite hold. I used the day to fiddle with my engine box and do a much overdue general cleanup. Anyone that has taken more than a passing glance at some of my photos over the winter has probably noted the increasing level of clutter, shavings, sawdust, dirt and just plain grunge. I didn't have a scrubber so the grunge is still there but I cleaned up everything else.

The interior was last painted two years ago and I have done a lot of work in there since then and I think a fresh coat of paint is called for. I think it is also time to stop treating the insides like a workshop and start treating Jenny like the quality boat that she is becoming. It is going to be a tough transition considering my level of laziness but I think it is time.

I need more paint on the engine box sides I tinkered with today so I didn't install them. I am really going to miss that wide open access. I am really going to like having a framed in galley though.

Other than that, I applied more coats of clear satin polyurethane to the shelving.

Here is a picture that just shows how the bamboo and cherry paneling are going to look put together.

And that is it. Hopefully, the weather this weekend is here to stay and not just a teaser.

Em tasol wantoks.

Spring showers...

2010-03-14T14:57:00.004-04:00

Well, calling them spring may be a bit premature and calling them showers would be gross understatement. Late winter rain deluge is probably a more accurate description. We are under a flood watch and expect 5 inches of rain in the next 24 hours. Not much if you are from Ketchikan but around here that guarantees a lot of mud and swimming pool cellars.

My camera battery died so no pictures this week. You will have to trust me when I say I accomplished some work on Jenny.

Basically, I prepped and started the painting process on the bamboo and pine shelving I cut last week.

The 'plyboo' bamboo plywood was sanded to a nice finish and then oiled. I debated leaving the bamboo bare before applying a clear urethane finish but the bamboo, when laid up alongside some varnished cherry, looked too white/bright and contrasty. A coat of oil, which I was going to use on the underside in any case as a preservative, gave the bamboo a light yellow-ish tone that matched the cherry much better. I wanted to let the oil dry completely before any other coating so that was it for the bamboo this weekend.

The pine shelving I wanted to keep as light colored as possible so I just routed the front lip with a half inch quarter round bit, sanded smooth, and applied a clear satin poly-urethane. I managed two coats on the underside and a single coat on the visible side.

Other than that, I decided to go through my lumber rack and re-organize it. I save too much. Now I have a pickup truck load of scrap plywood pieces, 2x4 offcuts and odd fixtures for structures that don't exist anymore. I also have all the original teak trimmings that came out of the boat stored in an organized way so I can find them when I need them. Those are too valuable to simply toss away (given my current budget anyway).

Next week is the Maine boatbuilders show. One of the best boat oriented shows that I know of. At least for me since they display a lot of materials suppliers and small boats that I can actually think of building or buying someday, unlike the ugly glossy $800k two piece molded fiberglass behemoths at the big boat shows. I should still manage to get more coats of urethane in place and maybe I will find some special boat show prices on the veneered plywood I need to really bring Jenny's interior alive.

Stay dry everyone!

Sunny days are here again!...

2010-03-07T15:37:00.004-05:00

50 degrees, sunny, and no conflicting schedules. Nirvana.

The silver lining with my tarp ripping apart is that the old tarp is shorter and only extends to the gunwales so I can just duck under the cover and get in the boat instead of having to untie everything and spend five minutes just gaining access to the boat. I just thought I would mention that.

Before I put in the plywood paneling inside I needed to prepare the side locker shelving and get started on the engine cover.

I have been tempted to try the zebra wood that is available at my local exotic hardwoods dealer. I was thinking an inside locker would be a good place to try it out without overpowering the interior decor. In the end though, I decided some nice light pine suited my needs better.

In this particular locker the back panel took on a curved shape that was difficult to straighten out. I cut the back of the shelf to match instead. I also made a short lip to keep stuff from spilling out when the doors are opened.

Then I decided to use the leftover bamboo plywood from the cabin sole to make the top shelves behind the saloon settees. At $200 a sheet I didn't want to waste the material and I think it provides some continuity with the cabin sole - horizontal surfaces (light colored) bamboo, vertical surfaces (dark-ish) cherry.

I was a little short on material and had to stretch it a bit. I had just enough as it turns out. The forward starboard locker is going to remain open on top which made using the bamboo sheet possible. I was hoping to cover the edges with the bamboo but I can find something equally nice to look at.

So then I turned my attention to the engine bay.

Yes. The plywood is ugly but I assure everyone that it is perfectly sound. The fir strips take the load anyway. The plywood is more of a backing for the sound deadening insulation. I used some old (but good) 3/4" fir plywood just to add a little rigidity and a lot of density to help muffle the engine noise. Paint cures a multitude of ills...

And then I glued and screwed the shelf facing and engine bay sides together.

Sanding, painting and installation coming right up. I might have to bribe my budget master and order some cherry veneered plywood. I could use it really soon.

Or maybe the weather will continue to stay nice and I will switch to exterior varnish and installing the deck hardware. Its all good and with the improvements in the weather I couldn't be more excited to get back to work.

Em tasol wantoks.

Windstorm

2010-02-26T19:29:00.006-05:00

Yesterday blew pretty hard but it didn't seem so bad from the city condo where I spend my weekdays.

Today I got a call from a boatyard friend that had just gone down to take a look at the boats. He thought I should know that my boat had no cover.

I left work early.

The official reports put wind gusts at 62 but along the coastline (where the boat is) the wind bursts were estimated to have reached the 80-90 mph realm.

On first glimpse it became obvious that one side of the tarp had let go. Not so bad except...

I had become used to the structure being solid and bone dry and was in the habit of leaving everything open for better ventilation. Luckily it doesn't look like anything inside was bothered by the rain/snow/ice that was blowing around. I have taken pains to make the insides 'water friendly' and it seems to have paid off. The new cherry paneling was oiled before installation but it doesn't seem to have been touched in any case. A big 'Whew!'

What failed was pretty obvious.

I would like to blame the poorly manufactured tarp but considering the wind conditions I don't think any tarp could be expected to hold up. A limitation in my design is that wind can get under the structure and lift it up. The small opening is great for ventilation and ease of assembly but it does require a lot of support to hold it down. I have been okay in the 60-70 mph range but this was just too much. Especially for a tarp with such horridly made grommets to begin with.

The structure is fine for the most part. My aft brace that attaches to the aft end of the ridgepole and gives the tarp something to push against didn't fair so well.

and the other half.

There was enough force to push the bottom of the structure around. The stake was no match for the wind.

The aft starboard quarter took a funky wave.

The port side was straight a few days ago...

So what to do now? I cut off the remnants of the tarp and took down the back panel for now. I have my old tarp that is big enough to cover most of the boat. The old tarp is tired but better than nothing. The problem is that it is still too windy and rainy/snowy to pull it up and secure it. I don't know of a local source of a decent tarp in the size I need. I may have to order another one or try to get two more months out of my old tarp.

I am afraid Jenny will have to endure the elements for a few days until I can get her covered up properly. I don't like it but there isn't much I can do in this continued nasty weather. I brought home the unused cherry paneling. It got a little wet but the oil seems to have protected it fine. Not much to do but wait, watch and fret.

Change of plans

2010-02-21T16:18:00.005-05:00

The plan for the weekend was the New England Boat Show in Boston. My rigger gave me some discounted tickets so I thought I would check it out. I haven't been in a few years and I figured I could find some cool deck and sailing hardware I just had to have. I certainly don't go to look at the boats. I really dislike most modern designs which is why I am putting so much into this old boat.

However, I had to spend some time running errands yesterday afternoon and noticed how unusually warm it was. I decided to spend some time at the boat instead. The boatshow can wait.

I finally got some of the cherry paneling in place. I did just the easy parts but it really was a pretty easy operation. I quit before I got to the settee backrests because I want to get the backrests in first and then fit the paneling to the backrests.

Some of the details:

I made sure the first strip was as square as possible.

At the suggestion of a finish carpenter I kept the bottom of the paneling off the settee. If any water accumulates on the settee, however unlikely but it IS a boat and tends to have lots of water around, there is a gap under the paneling so that water won't wick up into the strips. I will apply some preservative oil to the cut ends too.

It will come as no surprise to any Triton owner but the plywood bulkheads are neither square nor straight. Mine bow away from the paneling a bit. There was no way around it but to attach screws to the middle of the panels to pull them into the plywood.

To allow for expansion I ensured a small gap between the panels by using some folded over card stock. That gives some gap so that if the panels swell a bit they won't come up tight against one another and buckle. That was another suggestion from the finish carpenter.

A final suggestion from the carpenter was a small amount of flexible adhesive down the middle of the paneling. The adhesive will help hold the panels in place. The small strip down the middle allows the edges to float a bit with the normal swelling and shrinking.

Finally, with some extra time at the end of the day today I managed to cut out some framing that will become the engine cover.

The frames will support the galley table and outline the engine box. The plan is for the galley tabletop to be of equal depths on both sides. The framing is shortened on the port side in order to maintain just over 6 feet of sleeping area on the port settee.

And that is it. It was great to actually spend time on the boat again after a very slow winter. Here is to hoping the weather continues to improve. Unlikely, I know, but I can hope.

Sameness

2010-02-14T11:19:00.002-05:00

It is still cold and luckily for me I have some Valentine's obligations this weekend.

I did spend a few minutes with the boat. Everything is good. Jenny sits comfortably and patiently and appears to have withstood the high winter winds just fine. The tarp, which I have already complained about, is slowly coming apart and will definitely not make it another season unlike every previous heavy duty tarp I have owned. TarpsOnline.com remains on my bad list for all the reasons I have already written about and won't bore anyone further.

I spent some time reviewing my interior plans and coming up with hard materials lists. After owning the boat for nearly six years I find myself still tweaking the plans and trying to visualize how it will all come together. There are a myriad of details to consider and I am sure I won't get it all right anyway. I am sure I will wishing I had done it some other way someday.

I had a car repair bill and a heating oil bill come in together which amounts to about three weeks take home pay so I won't be ordering any supplies right away. A few sheets of cherry veneered plywood would go a long ways at this point so I might try to squeeze it in next month.

My big debate right now is whether to launch the boat in the spring or keep it out for the coming season. One the one hand. I would like to try sailing the boat for real. I miss sailing and last season was a bit of a disapointment.

On the other hand, thinking realistically, I will be lucky to sail once every other weekend. That was the case with my last boat and with a full time job plus part-time stuff, other weekend chores, variable weather, etc. I don't see that situation changing much. I hate the idea of having a boat sit for two weeks between day sails. It seems like such a waste of time and resources. For a single daysail once every two weeks a sailing dinghy makes much more sense to me.

If I don't launch I should make good progress on the interior over the summer and have no problems finishing up the sailing hardware, getting a good 8-10 coats of varnish on the exterior teak and such. With an interior I will get a lot more use out of the boat too. With an interior I can make the most of my free weekends by sleeping over on the boat so the hour or two's drive each way to the mooring will be much easier to justify (I am definitely not going back to the nearby Merrimac river mooring) and I can think about spending some real quality time on the boat rather than half day sails here and there.

These are just my thoughts at the moment. I chose the Triton because while I like coastal cruising most of all, I realized that I might have to keep a real job and the Triton is small enough to be a decent daysailer that doesn't demand too much attention if I am busy earning a living. I hope for cruising but the Triton is a nice daysailor too. Maybe I should be happy with my every other weekend daysails and remember how lucky I am to even have this option.

Frozen

2010-01-31T12:24:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning I woke up and checked the thermometer. It was stuck at zero. I went back to bed.

My boatwork for the weekend consisted of sorting out my hardware and putting it all into bins.

Over the past few years I have been accumulating a lot of boxes of hardware. It is so much more productive buying by the box because invariably I need one or two more or the project I start the following week needs the same sized fasteners. So I buy by the box which worked fine for awhile but then I started having trouble finding the box I needed and double ordering or taking my container of boxed hardware out to the boat and finding that the only size I didn't have was the one I needed.

I bought one of these bins at Sears for $12 which was pretty cheap. I filled that up and was nowhere close to having all my hardware sorted. So I went back and bought another. Still not enough. Then I couldn't find the bins at the sale price anymore even after hitting every hardware store and mall (Sears) around. I finally broke down and paid $35 for the last box which isn't such a great deal in my opinion. Now I have 'nearly' enough storage. Enough for now and most of my hardware is organized and easy to find.

In retrospect I should have bought some real parts bins from an industrial supplier. They seemed expensive at the time but now that I have three of these cheesy little bins I think I could have had real storage for not that much more. Oh well.

Other than that, I stayed indoors and watched my heating oil tank get lighter by the minute, and a few other things that are just part of normal life.

Maybe next week.

Winter Doldrums

2010-01-24T13:35:00.003-05:00

Snow, sub-zero temperatures, and flu virus.

Nothing to report.

I will leave this little trick I just learned and tried out from The Family Handyman magazine.

When drilling large holes for seacocks and such:

Start the hole to outline the cut. Then drill a few small holes along the perimeter. Then go back and cut the primarly hole.

The smaller holes give a place for the chips to exit which frees up the cutting teeth and reduces the heat buildup. Doing a hole this way takes less than half the time for simply boring the large hole. One could say 'but drilling the extra holes takes even longer' -which is true- but it drastically reduces the heat and keeps your hole saw teeth sharp for much longer. You don't have to buy a new hole saw every three or four cuts which seems to be my practice when drilling into thick fiberglass hulls.

Note: I only tried this on wood, not fiberglass but I am assuming it works the same.

In any case, its a free advice and you get what you paid for it.

Plus, nothing you read on the Internet is actually true...

The cherry paneling is still in my basement. I have been ordering a few small bits of tools and supplies as my budget allows. I shovel, sniffle and wait for an opportunity to spend some quality time on the boat.

And that's it for now.

Life is cherry

2010-01-10T09:52:00.004-05:00

Sorry, I couldn't think of a good title this week.

I continue to nurse a bad back and the temps remain in the mid 20's (f) so I kept my boat projects close to home this weekend.

I sanded the face surfaces of the cherry paneling rounding and 'softening' the hard edges of the profile...

... and then oiled them.

Here is a preview of what the paneling might look like.

I might actually get some of the paneling installed next weekend. There are a few other non-boat projects in the pipeline that I might have to deal with and the weather is always an issue but I am looking forward to the possibility of installing the cherry paneling next weekend. It might even be time to order the sheets of cherry veneered plywood that will cover the largest portion of the interior. And there is the galley benchtop to frame up too. And a million other small projects I could do to for that matter.

As an old boss used to tell me. "Somedays all you can do is push the ball forward a little bit. Any progress is good progress and progress means you will eventually finish."

Shoveling out.

2010-01-03T15:17:00.003-05:00

Monday through Friday is for working to make a living.

Saturday and Sunday are for... shoveling. Once again we had nearly a foot of snow over the weekend so my time was spent shoveling around the house and popping Ibuprofen to keep my back reasonably supple.

No boat work this weekend other than to swing by and make sure everything was okay. (which it was)

I will try again next weekend...

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-27T12:42:00.003-05:00

The winter holiday season is a great time with lots of family and friends. Not so much boatwork I am afraid.

I managed to get away for a few minutes to oil the backsides of the cherry paneling.

I also managed a quick trip out to check on the boat. (She is just fine.) Last week I mentioned the difficulty in getting the 3/4 inch plywood sole to fit. Here is a picture looking into the forward starboard end of the main saloon cabin sole.

... and the approximate shaving necessary to get it all to fit.

A further complication is that I tabbed the plywood undersole with 14 oz. biaxial cloth which is strong and... rather thick. The plyboo cabin sole sits on this tabbing putting it about 1/8 of an inch above the plywood undersole. I had cut the access holes in the undersole deliberately undersized to support the hatch covers. In the original sole, the hatches were supported by nailed and glued fiddles which were coming loose. My idea of the plywood undersole with the undersized holes was an effort to improve the design. There is no question that the new design is much stronger. I just never factored in the thickness of the tabbing. I think I am going to simply rely on the wonderful gap filling properties of epoxy rather than figure out a way to have the entire plyboo sole sit flush on the undersole. I am not up for cutting a step that large in the plyboo. Next time I will come up with something better.

More relatives are arriving and I have to cut the posting short. Here's to hoping for a free weekend of boatwork soon!

Big planks into small planks

2009-12-20T18:58:00.005-05:00

... and not much else I am afraid. Big snowstorm left me shoveling for most of the day Sunday.

Pictures from last week:

I started with some cherry that I took to a friend's shop.

The boards were cut into thinner strips - 2.5 inches - a dimension chosen for roughly the visual effect I was looking for but more importantly, maximizing the stock we had to work with.

The shiplaps and beading were cut with a combination of routers and tablesaws. It took some trial and error to figure out the best way. We spent more time on the project than we expected. A nice router table and $150 router bit would have made the the cut on the first pass. We didn't have that. It wasn't too bad though.

Yesterday, with the storm forecasted I spent some time tightening down the tarp which had settled in and loosened a slight amount in the past few weeks. We have had several days of 50+ mph gusts so I wasn't surprised. The staking system is working well and the structure isn't moving anywhere and looks good.

After that I went to work on the cabin sole bamboo plywood. It is taking a lot LOT longer than I expected to get the right shape for the sole. The problem is that the angle between the hull and sole varies widely from near vertical to over 60 degrees. Making it that much more tricky, the curves are not anywhere near fair and are instead 'lumpy and bumpy and wavy'- both the outer curves of the sole and the angle between the hull and sole are highly irregular. With the bamboo plywood sole 3/4 inch thick I am removing a lot of material through trial and error. I have about eight hours of hand planing into the project. I am real close now but I still have a bit more fussing to do. I would have a few pictures to show what I am talking about but I left my camera in the car and in the 20 degree temperatures the camera battery quickly went dead. Inside the boat with a small electric heater going its about 60 degrees - a benefit of an insulated hull. I will try and get some pictures next weekend.

In other news, I made a bid on Ebay as a lark for a bronze cowl vent.

These things usually command a lot of money but this time I got lucky and won the bidding for $66. Its a bit smaller than I thought but a very well made and hefty chunk of bronze. I quite like it. I am not sure where to put it though. I know I need something to draw in/out air from the anchor locker which has clear air flow to the bilge and aft cockpit area. I am not sure this particular cowl is the ticket. It seems too small but then again it is really a small boat so maybe it will work. I know that no ventilation makes the insides pretty moldy and stale and it could be a long expensive wait for something bigger.

and that's it.

The next posting will undoubtedly be after the holiday so Merry Christmas everyone!

Short and Sweet

2009-12-13T21:08:00.002-05:00

It was a busy weekend of socializing and boat talk. I managed (with some help) to turn some larg-ish boards of cherry into smaller boards and sawdust. The camera is here and the computer is there so no pictures this week.

Boat work is on the schedule for next week so I expect to have something interesting then.

Happy Chanukah

'tween the holidays

2009-12-06T14:01:00.004-05:00

Miniscule progress. I felt better about the lack of progress when I remembered that it has been the same slow going between the holidays every year. There is just too many other demands on my time.

First on the list was shoveling out the driveway and walkway after the first snow of the season.

Things that did get done:

I scaled back some of my cherry tongue and groove paneling plans and was able to buy enough to get me started. The plan is to visit a friend and mill it up next weekend.

I also picked up a few fir 2x4's which make excellent interior framing. I had a need for some thin strips for non-Triton boat projects so I ripped strips off of two 2x4's making a pair of 2x2's. I plan on using these around the galley countertop and engine cover.

Other than turning as much wood into sawdust as usable product my homemade ripping guide worked quite well. The store bought guide didn't adjust in enough to make the 3/16 inch thick strips so I clamped on a longer strip of scrap wood and it held quite well and didn't move. It helped that I have a $120 Forrest saw blade on the saw. Expensive blades but they cut super smooth and easy.

We had some 50mph gusts this week which I found pushed the blunt aft end of the boat structure around a bit. I found six short metal fence stakes at $1.50 a piece that I think will do the trick. They are about 3 feet long overall with 2 feet buried in the ground.

Finally, I pulled the engine battery which completes the winterization for the season. So far the structure is holding up fine (other than a little wandering) and has withstood two storms with 50+ mph winds. The boat is completely dry and airy. My heater, radio and worklights are installed and hopefully I will find some space for some quality time with the boat in the near future.

em tasol wantoks.

Pause button

2009-11-22T12:06:00.002-05:00

I might have to hit the pause button for a bit; or at least slow it down a bit (yeah I know, how much slower can I go?...)

I did some shopping for the cherry lumber I need for some interior work. Immediately after I found a couple of bills waiting for me in the PO Box. I am still recovering financially from the launch push last spring and while I could make the stretch I really can't find the justification for it. I think it is better to get caught up with the old bills before starting some new ones.

The good news is that my annual boat costs are down this year. So far I have only spent $7k on the boat (which includes the $1500 for storage and $1200 for the rented mooring). That is down from over $10k spent last year when the decks and hull were painted and teak toerail installed. Last year was also when I spent 8 months unemployed so as you can see my balance sheet has taken a bit of a beating in the past year or so. Things are a lot better but still not quite where I would like them to be. Financial prudence and the upcoming holidays has made me think I should postpone the next big materials purchase for another month or so.

That is okay because 1.) I could use a break. I work five days a week at my job and 2 days a week on the boat. That doesn't leave much time for the other parts of my life (like house erands, fixing the car, etc) which are backing up at the moment. I also haven't spent a weekend with the girlfriend in nearly six months so I am probably about due.

I need to bring things back into balance a bit and rest up for the next push. In the meantime I will continue with some smaller projects already in the pipeline.

This weekend I managed to spend a few hours fussing with the boat and fitting the cabin sole. The angle between the cabin undersole and the hull sides vary from completely vertical to something like a 60 degree angle. While I could cut the bamboo plywood sole small enough to fit and then fill the gap at the edges with thickened epoxy I have decided to break out my Stanley #4 block plane and shape the underside to fit snug against the hull. Does it matter much? Not really. I gain about an extra two inches of width in the bamboo at the fore and aft ends though which I think looks much better than painted epoxy. And I have the time...

The cherry lumber is for the vertical bulkheads which I want to cover with cherry tongue and groove paneling. It is easier to put in the tongue and groove before the settee paneling because the settee paneling will cover the ends of the tongue and groove and save me the effort of having to fit the edges in tightly (which will most likely be covered with some sort of trim board anyway).

I am toying with my electrical system design but I am sure the component costs will run well over a thousand dollars so I don't want to get too ambitious there. Next year's goals are to finish any required deck hardware and get the basic interior paneling in place and have a workable interior. That and tie up a bunch of loose ends that I never got around to after last season's launch. The electrical system can wait. I will be working all of next year and won't have time for cruising anyway. Besides, I have already proven I can cruise with no electrical system. Deck hardware I need. FM radio is optional. Looking at the bare plywood paneling is wearing me down which is why the interior basics are next on the list.

So, a long ramble explaining why there is nothing to read this week. Next week is a holiday weekend but I might get some time in on the boat. I will post anything that gets done.

Happy Turkey Day!

Deluge

2009-11-15T15:28:00.004-05:00

2 inches of rain Saturday. I didn't get any boat work done.

I did get a call Friday night from one of my boat neighbors because the front of my tarp was coming loose. He and another friend secured the front with random bits of string and advised me to fix it ASAP. That sure made me feel good all Friday night and Saturday morning as I listened to the winds howl...

In the past, I have rolled up a piece of strapping in the front edge of the tarp and clamped it all with spring clamps. This has always worked well and makes it really quick to open up. It is not going to work this year though. The problem is that the front of the structure is much wider than in years past and there is a lot more frontage for the Northeast winds to push against.

In a torrential downpour I secured the front of the tarp by wrapping the ends around the front pole and securing them to the bows. I alternated among the first three bows so as not to load up any one too much.

Last year I pulled the ends of the ground frame in towards the bow and you can see that last year's cover was a lot narrower and more pointed. You can also kind of see the clamping system I had.

So, I guess that means I won't be going in and out of the structure from the front as much. Luckily the back opens up nicely.

Today, after the heavy rains quit, I was able to draw some antifreeze into the raw water system using my nifty 'T' valve and spare hose. It took less than a minute. I put the end of the hose in the bottle. I threw the valve. I cranked the engine. The engine ran for about five seconds. The bottle was empty. I had antifreeze coming out the exhaust at the counter. Simple. I don't think I am going to worry about an oil change or adding Marvel Mystery Oil this year. The engine only ran for an hour and it still has a lot of MMO from last year's winterizing.

You can see in the picture all of the shavings from the bamboo plywood sole that is going in. I didn't have a chance to finish that up today. Its becoming a high priority item now though.

I also cleaned up and brought home all the extra lumber. I probably have enough to make a little workbench under the bow...

TarpsOnline.com aka Tarps Direct

2009-11-09T17:59:00.006-05:00

I have used Tarps Online aka Tarps Direct several times in the past six years and have always been quite pleased with their heavy duty silver tarps. I am pretty rough on the tarps and I get 2-3 years service out of each one. I know others that have been using their tarpsonline.com products for over 5 years and still going strong. So, needing a new tarp, I fully expected the new tarp to continue to impress me with its quality and longevity.

I ordered another 'heavy duty' silver tarp. Only time will tell but its not looking good.

This is a typical grommet. I mean typical in that they all look this bad. I didn't have to shop around for a provocative photo.

and another view

Sometimes the tarp makers had problems getting the grommets on the tarp.

The tarp is advertised as 'heavy duty' with grommets spaced 18 inches apart. Does this look like 18 inch spacing?

Can't read the numbers? How about now?

The spacing is highly irregular so tying two ends together is impossible since the grommets at each end don't line up at all.

I didn't have to wait long for my first tear. It came out of the package with a few holes already in the material.

Where the seams are glued together I can see lots of daylight. The seams look weak overall too.

Definitely no local craftsmanship here. I hope they made a good profit using overseas sweat shops, paying their slave wage earners a dollar a day. I hope they made a good profit because it is the very LAST profit they will ever see from me.

TarpsOnline.com / Tarps Direct is dead to me. You have been warned.

If I didn't have a schedule to keep I would have sent this piece of junk back. With winter weather fast approaching I don't have time to sort this out. I will happily spend twice as much for a REAL quality tarp the next time.

Okay, I feel slightly better now ;-)

Wrapping it up

2009-11-09T17:15:00.006-05:00

The structure was up last weekend and this weekend was all about closing in the ends.

There was some concern from the yard staff about clearance from the road and conflicts with the snow plowing operations so I moved back the front frame about two feet. That leaves slightly less room up front but still plenty to work with and it makes the front more pointy which is probably a good thing since the boat faces in the direction of the highest winds (Northeast).

I ran a section of last year's strapping straight down from the front of the ridgepole and added a few pieces to hold it in position and give the tarp something to press against (and reduce some of the flailing).

Unlike last year I left the stern pretty flat. There are boats behind me to block the winds so I think I will be okay. The extra room under the boat is nice. I added some crossmembers at the stern to support the tarp too. They are only anchored by single screws at the ends which keeps the whole structure flexible. I don't want to create hardpoints anywhere.

Then I re-used a small tarp from a boat cover a few years ago and covered the stern end.

And then, with some help from a fellow boatyard neighbor, I pulled my brand new 40' x 30' heavy duty silver tarp and anchored it to the bottom framework. I will have more to say about that tarp in another posting.

I will left the tarp settle for a week and then tighten things up. I need to work on sorting out how I will get in and out too. Minor details.

And that is that. The boat is covered. This is boatcover version IV so we will see how this one works out. There is plenty of room inside. Full headroom at the foredeck and headroom and a half over the cockpit. The sides are tight but that is a restriction from the boatyard rules so I didn't have a choice there. A straight sided structure is the only way to improve that.

I have lots of dry storage room under the boat as well. Maybe I will even build in a workbench...

Now its time to get back to real boatwork. Winterize, finish that cabin sole installation, and then everything else.

The truth.

2009-11-07T09:22:00.002-05:00

Okay, I stole this from another blog that I read, sadly, there is a lot of truth to it.

Framing up

2009-11-01T13:49:00.005-05:00

I almost titled this posting 'Erection Day' but that somehow seemed innappropriate.

I erected the boat cover this weekend. The ends need to be finished off and the tarp pulled over but that can wait for a less windy weekend.

Saturday I connected all the frames together. Then the wind piped up so I decided to put my energies somewhere other than struggle with 16 foot bows in the howling winds.

Sunday was not much better but the urgency to get this job done meant that the wind wasn't quite as bad as the day before.

Not too much to say. I tied a strap on the bow and from the deck pulled it upright. Then I slipped it over the ground frame which in most cases was stiff enough to walk away from for a minute. I had scrap sections of strapping that I used to temporarily hold the bows into position. I just went down the line erecting the bows.

The ridgepole is in three sections. I dropped the middle one in first and secured it to the bows and then attached the two ends. I had some metal fittings from an earlier experiment so I decided to use them to anchor the ridgepole to the bows.

There is plenty of headroom in the middle on deck. I can't walk around but that isn't going to happen without vertical walls which are too pricey to consider right now. Its definitely an improvement over previous years.

I have some room at the ends of the boat. I didn't taper the ends of the cover much this time so I would have more storage room at the ends. Not much in the middle but again, I had to limit myself to 12 feet of width and this is about as good as it gets at a boayard.

With the bows up I had to re-adjust the whole structure a bit to center it over the boat. It really doesn't weigh much and it was easy to horse around into position. I added a couple of extra lengths of strapping diagonally along the inside to stiffen up the structure. I have a few more lengths which I might use next week but I am holding off for now to see how the ends are going to tie off. The ends need to be somewhat pointy to take the winds. Not so much from the stern but the bow points directly northeast which is rather open so a pointy end on the bow will really help.

Amidships the bows are a bit tight. There was more springback than I had anticipated. I will either have to stretch them apart a bit (next week) and/or add some chafe protection at the rubrails. The bows rest only lightly on the rubrails but I expect the structure to move around all winter and chafe will definitely occur if I don't do anything about it.

That was it for this week. I am looking forward to finishing up the cover next weekend and perhaps taking a short break from boatwork. Then again, I am anxious to finish the cabin sole installation and get to work on the interior so we will see...

Not quite there...

2009-10-25T15:04:00.003-04:00

Saturday rained buckets so no boat work for me. (I want a shop!) I find it slightly ironic that I need to protect the boat from the weather but I can't because of the weather...

Sunday found my morning taken up with helping a friend load (one of) his antique tractor(s). I want a tractor.

Then I found that I needed more galvanized hardware to bolt the structure together (so that it can be taken apart someday without destruction). Hopefully, I will have better luck with the galvanized hardware this time. Last year, after six months of being outside, I found the galvanized hardware corroded to the point where it would not screw apart and had to be destroyed to take the cover down and transported home. Crossing my fingers but I don't have much faith. New hardware = $50. I also picked up 3 2x4's to form a new ridge pole. Last year I made a ridge pole from strapping with spacer blocks in between just like the bows. That didn't work too well. The ridge was too flexy and there wasn't enough meat to anchor to the bows effectively. This year I will have 2x4's which should be stout enough to hoist my engine out should I find the desire.

Anyway, a late start to real work.

First off I laid out the ground frame that I used last year. It all bolted together just like it was before. I had to make some adjustments because the boat is blocked lower this year. Or rather, it hasn't settled like it had over the two year haulout.

The frame gives the bows something to attach to on the bottom and the crossmembers keep the whole shebang from flying away. The cover wants to fly like an airplane wing when the wind starts blowing and the crossbars mean either the boat has to fly or the crossmembers have to break before the structure flies away (It can happen, I have seen pictures). It took some time to get the frame square and positioned correctly. I am working near my maximum permitted dimensions at the boatyard and I am trying not to go over the line and ruin my welcome. Boat projects are always distrusted in boatyards. Too many of them get abandoned leaving the yard crew to dispose of the mess.

Last week I had laid out and cut two bow ends to fit together.

The top spacer 2x3 was left long so that there would be enough to remove later.

Then I glued and screwed a gusset onto one frame and drilled holes for bolts on the other frame. I need to be able to take the bow halves apart so I can truck them home over the cab of my pickup.

With a pair of bows ready to go I did a test fit.

This one fits well. It looks like the bows are a little too straight so I don't think the bows will naturally straddle the boat at its widest point. I am going to have to tweek the bows a bit in the middle. Oh well.

Then I realized that I had to spend some time with the ridgepole before I could nail down the bow spacing. The 12 foot 2x4's are linked with a short piece bolted on the side. I knew I was going to roughly space the bows 3 feet apart but I needed to fudge it a bit to clear the double wide ridgepole at the joints.

Sadly, I wasn't able to erect the structure. I could have put up maybe half the bows but decided it would be more stable and productive to wait until I could do them all in one day. Each bow becomes half of a matched set and I didn't want to have half of them built and then forget which goes where. Better to do it all at once. It always takes longer than I expect to clean up and get all my tools and materials put away back home anyway.

Next week should be no problem. Unless the weather continues to challenge me...

More winter cover building

2009-10-18T12:33:00.002-04:00

I finished up building the bows yesterday and spent some time figuring out how I am going to tie them to each other and to the ridge pole. I had hoped I could find some hardware to save me time and make disassembly in the spring easier but in the end, plywood gussets were the way to go.

Today, (Sunday) is rainy and cold so I made the gussets with scrap plywood. Some of the pieces were from my old settee bottoms. I like recycling stuff.

Ho hum. Not very interesting. Next week I am all set to erect the structure and if I have money in my bank account I will order a new tarp for the new structure.

Way too much work for a simple winter cover but another project of mine is finding a piece of land to call home. Should I be succesful this structure will probably find other uses there as well. I can only hope.

Barn raising next weekend!

Making a bow

2009-10-11T15:03:00.004-04:00

Making several actually.

I started the weekend with some material shopping.

I am right about $200 in materials so far which is about right for me. I seem to spend $200-300 every season on structure upgrades and new tarps every other year.

Then I had to spend some time laying out the profile for the shelter I have in mind. The bows I made last year were bent into position as I went along and by sorting through them I found one that would make a good form for the new bows. This design is based on what I have seen of Stimson sheds but the profile is different because I don't have the width to height ratio of a real Stimson shed available to me. My bows are relatively straight near the bottom and have more curve towards the top.

Using an old bow as a form I took one 16 foot piece of strapping and glued and screwed short blocks made from the 2x3's.

Once the single strap was clamped into position I glued and screwed the second piece into place which locks the curve into the bow.

I built two bows and then checked them to make sure the boat would fit under them.

and then I made fourteen more. The first few were exciting but the routine got pretty dull pretty quickly. I had hoped to get more built this weekend but a lack of enthusiasm and a lack of glue ended my work before the last few bows were made.

At the moment I have enough bows to space them about 4 feet apart. I think next weekend I will make a few more so that I can space them at something like 3 feet. Then I have to figure out how I am going to tie them together. I need to find a way to lock them together solidly but make them easy to break apart and truck home every spring.

Today, as I was thinking about this structure idea and how it has developed over the past few years I realized that it all started when I had no deck hardware to attach to. The self-supporting idea sprang up after I removed the stanchions and had nothing to attach a frame to.

This was my first cover and it worked quite well.

Later, I needed to keep the tarp off the hull so I added three bows per side to hold the tarp out with two stands on deck to support the ridge pole.

What I could have done this year is spend an hour mounting the stanchion bases (which I already drilled and filled for the mounting screws) and then attached a frame to the stanchion tubes again like most normal boat owners.

Oh well, at least this way I will have a nice roomy structure to play under all winter. I think I am satisfying my need to build stuff. My boat cover is my substitute 'shop' until I can find one of those. I dream of finding a bit of land where I can build more 'stuff'