Model making

I started building a model of my re-design of the sailboat in September of 2020 (see December 2019 entry "Next"). I actually started on the forms in the spring, and didn't get back to it in earnest until September. The model is 22.5" long and 7" wide.

The core of the model is paperboard, 'cause that's what I had enough of that I thought would be easy enough to work with. Balsa would have been much easier to work with, as the paperboard was very hard to cut, and when edges are sanded, they splay out as the inside of the board falls apart. It held the curves well, though.

I had my doubts as to whether the model was going to come off of the forms, so I didn't blog about it at the time.

The bilge panel was a trip to make and to install.

The outside has a layer of glass cloth in epoxy. The inside has a coat of epoxy. The insides of the chines have a somewhat messy fillet of epoxy with a silica filler; the bigger gaps have chopped glass as filler.

I want it to be able to sail, so it needs a functioning rudder. I made gudgeon eyes using the stainless wire I used when making the real-life sailboat. The "legs" of the eyes are bent over inside and held permanently in epoxy filled with glass. 

The cotter pin, used to hold the eyes in line, was padded out to give the leading edge of the rudder space when turning. The cotter pin will be what holds the rudder to the boat, through matching eyes on the rudder.

The dark patches on the transom are where I sanded through the outer layer of the paperboard. The decks and bulkheads are balsa.

The wires in the photo below are prototypes of the wire eyes with long tails that I used for the rudder. On the left is the rudder being built, of popsicle sticks! 😃

Bulkheads are ready to install:

Next will be the side benches. Pro tip: vinegar works well to clean epoxy with; not quite as well as acetone, but friendlier.

Ready to go again

The boom is re-installed with its new cheeks on, and the pole got shifted from the boom to take the place of the yard when I took the original yard home to add cheeks to it as well.

I went sailing Saturday, and that pole looks just right as a yard! The test will be heavy wind.

I've got to shorten that aft jiffy reef line!

I take it as a good sign that the rounding in the head of the sail (along the yard) has more curvature than the yard itself while the sail is unloaded. The reason I say that is because the yard won't start bending till there's enough wind in the sail. In my brief glances at it while sailing, it looked good, although I don't remember thinking about that specifically at the time. There's usually too much happening to be focussing on the details unless I've decided ahead of time to focus on something.

My new neighbour (right background, white lapstrake hull) I'm told is a Jack Holt design. So far no luck finding out which one of his many successful designs it is.

Boom upgrade 2

Found some ½" by 1" half-round at the Finishing Store, so I bought their last two pieces. They're shorter than I wanted, and they're different lengths as well, but I decided to use them as they came. And, they're poplar, which I've never used before. I glued them on the sides of the boom and now the boom has the same (small) amount of bend horizontally and vertically, the point of the whole exercise. The yard will be next.

For gluing, I bought some System Three "General Purpose" epoxy, with their #1 fast catalyst, rather than W.E.S.T. system, because I didn't want to bother with the pumps for WEST. The smaller containers, which can be firmly capped, are easier to store in a small apartment, whereas the WEST pumps both take up space and inevitably drip. Working time of the General Purpose + #1 at room temperature is about 15 minutes. I used Cab-O-Sil (I think that's what it is, from the bin at the shop) to thicken it after wetting both surfaces. Now I'm varnishing with Minwax's clear gloss "Helmsman Spar Urethane", many thin coats.

Boom upgrade

The yard and boom were basically made with scraps. They should have been round, or rounded squares in cross-section. But they got made with a rectangular cross-section that is taller than it is wide. Consequently, if there's a sideways pull on the spar, it bends more in that plane, and the ends go up or down.

I think the boom especially needs to be stiff, since when it bends in the middle, the ends will get closer together, making the foot of the sail looser.

I thought I could make a round-section closet-pole boom work, but first of all the pole had a wow in it, and then, at 1¼" it's just not thick enough to be stiff for its length.

Here's the new boom in my living room just about to be varnished:

I temporarily dismantled my stalled model project and used the station forms to hold the pole up so it could be varnished all over. Stainless wire from stitch-and-glue projects goes between the forms, through the pole. I forget where I got that orange tarp runner, but it's come in handy often enough.

I started to make the holes and decided too late they were too big, so one end got a set of wide-entry holes:

I carved the shoulders out with my pocket knife, then sanded the edges off.

Here's the finished pole boom on the boat. I hoisted it while ashore to make sure I had everything set up right, especially with the jiffy reefing:

The bend is quite apparent. Now I can still go sailing while I work on the old boom. And who knows, I might like it better!(?)

The original boom is now getting some "cheeks", pieces ¼" x ¾" laminated on lengthwise. Here's the original boom with the new wood sitting where it will get glued on:

It's called "screen batten" by the lumber yard, and it's not as big as I'd like it, but it's closest to what I want and I no longer have a table saw, so have to take what I can get. Now I'm thinking I need to check and see what the Finishing Store has in stock. The boom is 2" tall and 1" wide, so I really should be adding ½" to each side, rather than ½" total. Thing is, with laminating I think the glue itself adds stiffness; but still, ¼" may not hack it. Stay tuned. 🤔

A sail-by video at last

Thanks to Kristl for taking a bunch of little videos that I spliced together into one somewhat jerky movie. 

First Sail in 2020

Today the wind was supposed to be light but increasing through the afternoon, but it didn't happen that way. It was the usual die-off for the run home; I rowed a couple of times between wind patches. 

But it was a beautiful day, and there was a nice breeze for awhile. I noticed that the sand dune hadn't appeared at the top of the mat this year, so chanced it. It was all that I could do to get the boat up over the hump when I came back in, though.

In the first photo below you can see a pile of logs on the left side, which were taken off the ramp area. They had been blown in by winter storms.

The parking lot was quite full, so I was glad that I was able to cycle there.

I need to report that the new oar collars work finest kind. This was the first time I used them since I installed them.

Here's a closer-up of the boat:

Kristl came and got a little run-down of the boat. It doesn't look like she'll be going out in it alone for a while, meanwhile there's a fair bit to learn just to get out of the compound. Hopefully, she got some video of the boat sailing. I'm looking forward to seeing, from outside of it, how the boat goes, check on the trim (like, am I sitting too far forward?) how the sail's setting, etc.

I'm thinking of replacing the yard and boom with round stock, like closet rod, as the tall rectangular shapes aren't working well. They twist, and then bend through their smaller dimension. They were basically thrown together with stuff I had, rather than going out and buying more stock. Now that I'm not working at the shop, I've got the time and energy to change things up a bit.

Winter sailing?

I thought I was going to be able to get out on the water in the sailboat, if not in January, then in February. But unless something major happens to the beach at the ramp before then, it's not going to happen. 😢

This is what the sand ramp looks like today, January 11, after a king tide and big wind:

Well, I'll just have to be satisfied with kayaking.

Photo by Kathryn Marks