Back to boatbuilding

A long while since I upddated the boatbuilding part of the blog, but I have not been idle. 

After the last reported step of glueing the planks together, carefully skipping over the copper wires to avoid cementing them in place, I pulled the wires from along the keel and fiberglassed the middle two planks. Near the stern I widenened the fiberglass to cover two additional planks on each side. That proved difficult because the cloth did not want to stick to the corners where overlapping planks meet, and left bubbles I could not get rid of. That worried me, but in the end it just meant that a few spots had to be ground out and refilled.

Once the fiberglass cured, I was able to pull out all the rest of the wires. The next step was to go back and refill the seams with epoxy. But before I could do that I spent several hours sanding, grinding and shaping the first coat of glue so that the seams would come out looking neat and uniform. In particular, I worked on the "gains" at the bow where the overlapping seams taper to a smooth surface.

Yesterday, December 10, I filled all the wire holes and then put the second bead of glue along each of the ten seams, followed by a coat of epoxy over the whole exterior of the hull. The pictures show the before and after of that last step.

Today is too cold for epoxy or boatbuilders to work, but yesterday's epoxy had cured so I looked over the whole bottom and marked spots which need filling or extra sanding. It still needs a lot of work, but already looks pretty good.

The jigsaw-puzzle joints in the planks are smooth but conspicuous, so finishing the exterior bright (varnished) is not an option. She'll be painted. But I will try to work neatly enough that most of the interior can be varnished. 

If I put her in the water now, she'd float and not leak, so I guess she's actually a boat.

Next step will be to turn her over and work on the inside.

short cruise 2

Saturday, Nov. 26
Couldn't have had a better sailing day. Sunny, 70's, fresh wind SE as we headed N. Covered the 15 mi. to Tarpon Spgs in 4 hrs., which for Carina is freefall speed.

We docked at Tarpon Springs City Marina, on the Sponge Docks. Took a walk along the main drag. Still a busy strip of T-shirt, sponge and shell shops, along with many Greek restaurants and hawkers gathering passengers for the sponge boat excursions. Not high culture, but fun. Back aboard for reading and a nap, then dinner at Mykonos, our favorite Greek place.

Across the sreet from the marina is a Greek taverna with an open front and a good sound system. It was Greek kareoke night, which lasted until 2:15 a.m. You can imagine.

Sunday, Nov. 27
I took the bike parts ashore and assembled it, just a 10-minute job, and we rode one mile to Sunday Mass. We opted for breakfast aboard, including some Greek pastries we picked up last night.
Later we cranked up the dinghy and explored they bayous and springs. On the way back we were stopped by a FDLE police boat, who noticed we had no registration number displayed. I explained we'd just bought the motor (slight exaggeration) and although we have had the dinghy 30 years or more, had never registered it because a small rowboat didn't require it. We got off with a warning, but talking with them about the registration process made me realize we may not be able to document ownership. If that's the case, will need a new dinghy. And in any case, I'll have to get right with the law and register all our fleet of small boats.

Greek kareoke doesn't go late on Sundays, thank God.

Monday, Nov. 28
The forecast was for a front to come through this afternoon, shifting the SW wind arond to NW and N. We motored out the Anclote River and across St. Joseph Sound to the Intracoastal channel near Anclote Key. We'd intended to anchor at Anclote, and the S. end of the island gave good protection, but with a shift to the N we'd have been exposed to a strong wind and to a lee shore. So we continued to Three Rooker Bar, which had just the opposite features: would give good protection from the NW or N, but was exposed and choppy this afternoon. So onward. We decided to anchor offshore at Dunedin, but were able to get a slip for the night. By the time the front arrived: a vicious blast of NW wind, a hard short rain, and a drop in the temperature into the 60's. But by then we were tied up and snug

Off on a short cruise

Boatbuilding will have to take a breather. S and I will celebrate Thanksgiving with about six days aboard Carina.

Thursday, Nov. 22:
Away from the dock about 10:30 with clear sky and east wind about 10 kts. Temp in low 60's. A good sail from Treasure Island Causeway to John's Pass, and again at the outer channel marker as we headed northwest along the coast. When the coastline curved northward and the wind died, we powered the rest of the way to Clearwater Pass. What wind there was felt cold when it became cloudy, and the last part of that leg got pretty choppy. We were glad to get inside to calm waters. another few miles took us to our objective,  Dunedin Marina, before sunset. We opened a nice bottle of St. Emelion and relaxed a while, then grilled a T-bone steak for our Thanksgiving dinner. Rolled out our sleeping bags and sljept like stones.

Friday, Nov. 23:
A few problems cropped up yesterday. Although I'd filled the water tanks two days ago, they were empty. I know where the water went because I had to pump the bilge frequently, but I didn't know why. This morning I refilled the tanks to try to find where the leak was coming from. All I could see was that water was flowing from the direction of the starboard tank. It feeds the faucet through a common line, so if one tank empties, they both do. I pulled the hose and bypassed the starboard tank, refilled the port one, and problem solved. We only have 10 gallons instead of 20, but we also have some jugs of water, so we have plenty for this trip. At home I'll tear the forepeak apart to get at the starboard tank. My guess is there's a leaking connection at the tank's exit, but I can't get at it now.

Also, the new automatic bilge pump wasn't working at all. I found a loose wire which put it back in commission to the extent of running when I hold the switch. It still doesn't automatically run when the flapper floats up. Another job for home.

Also, the battery voltage was lower at the end of the day, even after running the engine for several hours. Some problem with the alternator, evidently. I hooked up to shore power and charged the batteries. Should be OK for this trip because we don't use much juice: autopilot, phone chargers, and LED cabin lights. Again, it's on the to-do list for home.

Those chores took part of the day, then we relaxed, read, and napped.

We'd wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner at a good restaurant ashore, but had learned none were open. So we did our shore dinner tonight, at the Black Pearl, a real cloth tablecloth place. An extraordinarily good dinner: duck for S, lamb for me. Good dinner and a good day.

Boatbuilding Part 4

 Now She has a name. Despite all the exposed copper wire ends poking holes in my hands and arms, she will not be Porcupine. I wanted to name the sharpie skiff after my girl, but she declined. I must have caught her at a weak moment, because she agreed that the new boat will be... Sandy.

I've been lazy with the blog about boatbuilding, mostly because it has not had many challenges. Anyway, here's a summary of the project to date:

10-22 Received the kit from Chesapeake Light Craft.

10-27 (interim was site prep and erecting the "little white house" shelter) glued up the four scarfed rub rail 8' sections into two 16-footers. They will go onto the boat later in two layers on each side.

10-28 Started gluing the plank halves into twelve 16' planks.

10-29 Did another few planks. Not enough room on the shop table to do all them at once.

10-31 Ditto

11-1 Sanded the planks. Stitched the two garboard planks together with copper wire every 5". Assembled and glued the four frames and bulkheads.

11-2 Stitched the rest of the starboard side planks, sanded the frames, ordered more copper wire.

11-3 Stitched port planks, drew bow planks together and stitched them to form a stem.

11-4 Stitched the port side of the transom, rounded the edges of the two foot braces with the router.

11-5 Stitched the rest of the transom, rounded rowing seat pieces, rounded frames and bulkheads, rounded breast hook and quarter knees.

11-6 Fitted and glued the breast hook and quarter knees.

11-7 Removed screws from above- that's all I did.

11-8 Stitched the frames and bulkheads in place.

11-9 Turned the boat over, tightened the stitches along the keel and the next two planks on each side.

11-10 Tightened the wires on all the rest of the plank seams, frames, bulkheads, and stem. There are over 400 stitched wire connections, and a somewhat smaller number of holes in my fingers, hands and arms.

11-11 Day off.

11-12 There is no provision in the plans for a bow fitting. I really need to have a sturdy fitting midway up the stem to which I can secure the winch cable and use my rollers to get the boat up from the beach to a cradle ashore. And there is no solid stem to fix hardware to. The solution I devised is to cut a slot in the planks at the stem, insert a stainless steel tang, 1/8" x 1", the inside end of which I twisted 90 degrees to lie flat and be bolted to the forward seat. The seat will be fiberglassed in permanently, so it will be a secure anchor for the bow tang. Today I fashioned the tang and cut the slot.

11-13 Turned the boat bottom up on two carefully levelled and parallel saw horses to keep it in the right shape to glue the seams together. Glued the keel seam and one plank on each side.

11-14 Glued the rest of the planks together, being carefull to do a neater job than yesterday, when I left myself with a lot of sanding to do.

Boatbuilding pt. 3

The two midship frames are wired in. Likewise the bulkhead frames which will support the bow and stern seats. The breasthook in the bow, and the quarter knees,  are screwed and glued in place. It doesn't show in the picture, but I have put a thick fillet of epoxy in the bow to take the place of a solid stem, and a similar fillet between the sides and the transom.

So far the project is straightforward. The instructions are B+ clear, and all the precut pieces fit precisely. No great skill required, but I would never attempt such a complex hull shape except through a kit like this. 

Boatbuilding Pt. 2

  Although the boat's design is called "Chester Yawl", that does not  imply a yawl sailing rig, or any sailing rig at all. The word yawl, especially on the Chesapeake, can also mean a general utility boat.

I have made good progress. Each of 12 pre-cut planks came in two pieces which mated in a jigsaw puzzle pattern. I just needed to glue and clamp  them, which took about three days. Then boatbuilding could start in earnest. I stitched the planks all together with copper wire about every 5" along each joining edge. As usual, I got the hang of that just about when the task was done. After all the planks were together, the assembly looked more like a tamale than a boat, but when I pulled the bow ends of the planks together and stitched them, I could see a hint of what the result might be.