Those Troublesome Skegs Part the First

When we built punk rafts and floated several big rivers, we powered the rafts with canoe paddles and our own arms.  Though the big innertubes that floated the rafts provided so much flotation, they drew no more than a few inches of water, it was still like pushing a truck.  After a long day of avoiding Swirlies (eddies) and River Sharks (snags), we were exhausted.

Since the raft had no keel or centerboard, it had nothing to provide lateral stability.  So when we were going forward, we had to synchronize our rowing or else wed be zigging and zagging all over the water, which we did plenty of anyway.

As an aside, having no keel did have one advantage:  We could rotate on a dime. So for example, avoiding an object in the water dead ahead, the Caller might call, "Okay, give me one easy backward stroke," while paddling forward herself to pivot the raft toward the hazard.  Then shed call, "Okay, now give me three strong backward strokes," to put the raft out of the way of the snag. Facing the hazard forward thusly, we could always push off if we hadnt rowed fast or strong enough.

In short, it was a big pain.  And exhausting if we had to row any distance, for instance in still water.

The plans for the shantyboat have long skegs (sorta like double keels) that run the length of the bottom of the hull. This gives the boat lateral stability when it is powered and keeps it from skipping all over the water when the boat is turned.

While it really didnt seem like a big deal to make and install the skegs on the finished hull, it turned out to be a bit of a long process.  Heres why:

1. The skegs had to be made out of a rot resistant wood that turned out to be hard to find in the lengths I needed.
2. I ended up having to splice board together to make adequate lengths.
3. They had to be bolted through the beautiful hull Id just finished making watertight, and I was scared.
4. I screwed up several times and had to redo stuff.
5. I had inadequate tools for some of this work.

It sounds like Im making excuses, but it feels more like:  "Haha, look how dumb I am, yet I still got it done."

The plans called for any of a variety of woods, none of which the local lumber yard had in anything approaching the lengths I needed.  White Oak, Yellow Cedar, Port Orford Cedar, a few other ones that are found on the East Coast. Ideally, I was looking for 16 foot lengths. But these are increasingly rare hardwoods that simply dont come in those lengths.

I found a specialty hardwood vendor only a half hour away. They had the Port Orford Cedar and what they called Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Neither of these are actually cedar, but are cypress. For you botany nerds, Port Orford cedar is officially known as Lawson cedar or Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. Alaskan yellow cedar is Cupressus nootkatensis.

Of those, the longest they had was 14 foot lengths. A conversation with the hardwood dealer goes like this:

"Can you get either of these trees in sixteen foot lengths?"

"We get what we get."

"I mean do you ever get 16 foot lengths? Can you order that length?"

"We get what they bring us."

O-kay.  That didnt sound too hopeful.  I knew if I had to, I could splice a longer length together.  There was lots of frantic maths at the lumberyard trying to see what lengths gave me the most efficient use of wood.  While still expensive, the Port Orford cedar was half the price of yellow cedar, so that decided it.

This was expensive wood, so I wanted to make sure I got the best use out of it. I had to use the cedar for the bottom skegs, the fore skegs, the trim boards along the bottom side, and the edge boards all around the top edge. So I created a cut plan so that every bit of the wood was put to use.

Then I spent days cutting and ripping and making lots of sawdust, sure that every cut I made was going to render this expensive piece of wood unusable.

Next well talk about the splice that turned four shorter pieces of wood into two long 16 foot skegs.

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Weather tight for the most part

Im going to need to get back to work to get some rest. The last couple of days have found me dodging my paying work obligations in order finish welding the super structure to the hull and making her weather tight. Dealing with the heavy dew forces one to finish certain jobs in the afternoon or deal with repairing some rust damage the next day from the dew.

When we landed the super structure to the hull, the initial fit of the structure just sitting there at first glance could have been better. My friend Ollie, whos helping me fit out the boat, was a  little freaked out and later told me he figured wed have two or three days in getting the structure to fit. Because Im working off of plans, and CNC cut parts, as long as the super structure itself fits together, there is no other outcome available but to have it fit to the hull. When building the super structure, if I had deviated from the plans, and had cut on the parts of the super structure, it probably would not have fit the hull without major modifications.

With the superstructure just sitting on the hull, we had a 2" gap where the forward wheel house wall hits the deck, a 0" to 3" gap where the port side wall lands on the salon hull flange, and the whole thing had to be pulled back more than an inch. We had one corner, starboard,  where the salon wall turns 45 degrees to head aft that was pretty close to the mark... here is where we started the fit up. Welding a cleat to the deck, and using a ratchet puller, we pulled the structure about 1/4" to hit a mark, and tacked it. After a few tries, we finally found the right angle and location for a welded cleat to pull the salon wall forward to land on the 45 degree 8" long wall,  and laid in some heavy tacks. Those two seemingly insignificant  pulls un-twisted some of the salon, and we now found part of the wheel house starboard wall firmly on the fore deck vs the two inch gap we had only 2 hours ago. Now that the wheel hose was down on the deck, we  used the Port-A-Power to push the wheel house over to locating points and tacked it down. All the CNC parts had lay out lines etched in them upon arrival from the cut shop. Before I had painted the wheel house deck, I had drilled dimples about every two feet on the  layout lines so I could locate the wheel house layout lines through the paint when the time came. Being able to locate a part is critical and having referenced locating points saved the day. With the starboard side of the wheel house now tacked down and in its exact position, we moved to the salon and began pulling the wall to meet the flange joint at each frame. After we had the wall tacked on the frame joints, we moved between each frame, and pushed the flange up to meet the wall, then tacked.  Moving over to the port side, we used the Port-A-Power to push the whole structure back, and were feeling pretty good as it just about fell in to place. Having the starboard side right on the money was forcing the port side  in to  place. Once we had both port and starboard side tacked in to place, we then worked on the end walls, which was just a matter of making sure they were straight with no bows or bellies, and tacked them down. Getting the super structure fitted in to place, and tacked welded, took the two of us about eight hours.

Finish welding the structure to hull joint took a long 12 hours with two welders running. Because of being outside, and not wanting to deal with moving the MIG welder around, I decided to stick weld the job. We used a Miller Bobcat, and an Everlast inverter based multi process machine running off of an 8000 watt generator to get the job done. Stitch welding using 2" welds, and moving around a lot was the schedule. I had spray foamed the inside of the hull prior to all this work, so we had to be careful about catching the foam on fire. The foam is fire rated, and it for sure lived up to that description. Keeping  an eye on the foam with plenty of  fire extinguishers ready was about all we had to do as it self extinguished once the heat was taken away. 


Once the welding was complete, we knocked off the slag, ground the welds for fairing, and brushed two coats of epoxy primer. The boat yard does not allow any spraying of paint.  Before the weather gets real ugly, Im going to get some fairing compound on the welds to finish the joint and give it two more coats of primer. This is all Im going to do until next Spring in regards to painting the outside.

On both the port and starboard side, we burned off about two feet of hull paint where the salon wall ties in to the hull. This will have to be faired and blended back in to the green hull next spring.

The only paint patching I have to do is on the aft deck of the salon. Weve had two days of steady rain,  and this is the only area we did not get primed. Once the rain stops, Ill finish priming this area and scuff and prime the weld zone inside the super structure. Once all thats finished, I have to bolt some lumber to a few short frames, then patch in the foam.

The decks have been blasted, two coats of primer and three coats of acrylic urethane before we moved her outside. I had all along planned on re painting the decks, and after the beating they took on welding the super structure, they for sure will need painting before launch. There is also a lot of soot on the side walls from the stick welding that is going to  have to be washed off. The whole boat is nasty dirty, and once I have the paint patch to a point Im happy with, I might take a day and give her a bath. 

Im going to have to get back to work this week coming, although this monsoon we just had will probably rain me out half of the week. This flurry of boat building has me feeling a bit tired, but a happy tired as were getting things done in big gulps.

Cheers

 

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Mahogany Decked Seats Part 2

After all the mahogany decking was laid the next task was to apply caulking to the seams. There are two ways this can be done.

The traditional way is to apply caulking to the seams, wait for it to cure, and then sand the entire deck smooth. This method sounds easy but there were some uncertainties. I have never done a laid deck before. I was concerned about caulk getting deep into the grain of the wood and then requiring excessive sanding to get it all out. This is a concern because the hull and the bulkheads limit access to sanders. I also didnt know how easy or difficult the caulking would be to sand.

The other way is to mask the deck, caulk the seams, smooth the caulk, remove the tape, and do a final finish sanding. Although there are more steps involved, I felt more comfortable with this method.

Masking

After giving the decking a thorough sanding I applied masking tape to the entire deck and everything else that I didnt want black goop on. I bought two large rolls of masking tape just in case I needed more than one roll. I nearly ran out.

Trimming

After the tape was applied, I used a single edged razor blade to trim the tape away from all the seams.

Trimming done

Apply and spread caulking


Next I pumped Sikaflex into the seams. I needed 13 tubes of caulk. It really pays to have a good caulking gun for a job of this magnitude. I had to replace my cheap gun half way through. My hand is still sore a week later.

Pulling tape

When the tape is pulled is important. I used the LOT (Long Open Time) formula of Sikaflex which takes about 5-7 days to cure. Before I caulked the boat, I made a test piece to see how the caulk behaved after each day of curing. I determined that the best time to remove the tape is 24 hours after application of the caulk. If you try to pull the tape before then, the caulk will make a mess by leaving residue on the paint. If you wait beyond 24 hours the tape will be more difficult to remove. The caulk will be be too firm and the tape will tear rather than cutting the caulk.

Sanding

My test also revealed that sanding must wait until the Sikaflex has cured for at least 4 days. Before then it is too soft. Attempting to sand it will tear out chunks of caulk from the seams.

Lumps

Lumps like this were easily sanded off after the caulk had cured for 4 days.

Finish Sanding

Sanding was not difficult and went very well. If it wasnt for the access issues with the bulkheads and hull, I think method one would have been a better way to go.

 

Done sanding and ready for oil

Applying Teak Oil

I have to apply 5-6 more coats of oil, but after only one coat I couldnt be more pleased with the results!

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Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival Part Three

Dawn, Saturday, the busiest day of the Festival, had arrived.  I spent most of the day aboard Ellie, answering questions, but occasionally sneaking off to watch presentations and view the other boats.

The Main Attraction today, for us Welsford fans anyway, was Scamp.  Howard Rice did an amazing talk. I wish I could have recorded it. The adventures Howard had taken aboard small boats are jaw dropping. He has gone around Cape Horn, both ways, in a sailing canoe, which ranks as one of the most epic journeys ever undertaken in a small boat.  No, hes not crazy.  Just the opposite. He trains Navy Seals in small boat handling.  Small Craft Advisor magazine did a series of interviews with Howard in issues 58 through 63.  In his presentation, Howard talked about his past and about the tests he had done aboard Scamp.  Howard was having a microcruiser designed for him by a French designer, but replaced it with Scamp hull #3.

John Welsford did another outstanding talk later that day entitled "The Designers Role: More Than Just Drawing".  This time I brought my camera and recorded the talk.  Unfortunately the room was packed.  My seat was near the back of the room, too far away to make a video, and the audio is not the greatest quality either.  But if you crank up the volume, it is well worth listening to.  John talks about the Designers role, which is turning your dreams into reality, and about how he designed Scamp to fulfill the specified design criteria.

 

 

I missed the majestic Schooner Cup races this year.  I was at Johns talk instead. There are so many things to see and do at the festival that its impossible to see them all.  Here is a little bit of the race.

Ive been toying with the idea of building a cedar-stripped kayak or canoe. I know next to nothing about kayaks, but the cedar strip kayaks at the festival are just so beautiful, and they look like they would be a lot of fun to build.  I went to Joe Greenleys Cedar Strip Canoe & Kayak building demonstration.  I went away from the presentation thinking they didnt look too difficult.  A typical kayak uses a quarter mile of cedar strips!

The musical entertainment at the festival is fun. There is live music at Bar Harbor all day long. Here is a sample from "The Whateverly Brothers".  Many people play their instruments on their boats and they are quite good and a lot of fun to listen to.

These boats are replicas of the longboats that Capt Vancouver used to explore Puget Sound in 1792. Every year I kick myself for not signing up early enough to go out for a rowing and sailing tour aboard them. Next year for sure!

Remember Captain Kirk Gresham, inventor of the home-made roller furler?

Heres his latest contraption he built for his Devlin cutter Eider.  It keeps his full-keeled Eider comfortably upright on the beach while the tide is out.  They say the tide waits for no man.  Well, Kirk waits for no tide!

Here are a few more photos that I took of a few of the boats. This is a tiny, tiny fraction of the boats at the festival, which number in the hundreds. I really wish the festival was a week long instead of only three days!

  

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