Before today:
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
Transom prep
The transom is made of the same plywood as the rudder was, so I'm sealing it as much as possible. Any fastenings will be in oversize holes filled with epoxy and re-drilled for the fastening, so that the fastening is not touching the wood, but surrounded with epoxy.
Before today:
Today's work:
Engine cut-out before:
Engine cut-out after:
Tomorrow we glass!
Before today:
Possible rudder design
I want to keep it simple. Bolger's way of having two big pieces with a big connecting bolt makes sense. I had a rudder like this on my Windsprint.
If the blade is on the opposite side to the tiller, it can swing up until it hits the tiller pivot bolt. It would probably interfere with the mizzen boom before that, though, so it wouldn't be up there often.
I'm thinking of making the stock and the blade both with 1½" thick ply, and shaping the blade in a naca foil shape—at least, as much of a foil shape as one can get in 1½" ply and still have strength.
Here's the same concept on the rudder of one of Matt Layden's Enigma designs:
He must have recessed the bolt heads for the tiller, 'cause the blade goes past them on the other side. This rudder is huge because it's used as part of the boat's lateral resistance, since it doesn't have any other board or keel, just chine runners.
I'm thinking of making the stock and the blade both with 1½" thick ply, and shaping the blade in a naca foil shape—at least, as much of a foil shape as one can get in 1½" ply and still have strength.
Here's the same concept on the rudder of one of Matt Layden's Enigma designs:
Rudderless
Water entry could have been from the prop damage, or could have been from a break in the epoxy in the end-grain on the edge of the rudder, which didn't have glass over it.
Friday, 25 April 2014
Glass Tape Fillets
Today I taped & filleted the port side of the cabin/deck joint, all the way back to the transom along the cockpit coaming as well, with one length of 2” tape. Also, the port dagger board opening on the deck got tape around its edges.
Using the WEST system pumps sure makes it easy! I started out by brushing resin on the whole length of the corner, then mixed up a batch of thickened resin using wood flour and pushed it into the corner with the round end of a stir stick. I’m using “craft sticks” from the dollar store, which are like tongue depressors and come in a pack of 30 or so.
An important thing about epoxy is that it needs to be well stirred. It’s not like polyester resin, which you can apply hardener to afterwards and it will kick off—or even put it in the sun and it will kick! No: epoxy needs the actual molecules of the resin and the hardener to be together or it won’t get hard. So you need to stir it well. And part of stirring it well is making sure the sides and bottom of the container you’re stirring it in get scraped regularly. To this end, I shaped the stir sticks to conform to the cups I’m using, which are 10 ounce paper hot drink cups that I bought in a package of 50 from the Wholesale Club. I found the angle of the bottom and side by laying one stick across the top of a cup and resting another stick on the bottom of the cup and against the side of the cup, and striking a line on the standing stick:
Then I transferred that angle to near the end of another stick, and used that as my pattern to mark other sticks with. The ends were cut off with garden shears, giving me sticks that connect with the sides and bottoms of the cups perfectly, so the resin is constantly scraped off and mixed in.
(I don’t work on top of the stove; it just happens to be the best spot to set up on around here.)
I used the round end of a stir stick to make the fillet curve, not pushing the curve of the stick right into the corner, but just loosely passing it over the thickened epoxy to make a fairly robust fillet. One pump of resin and hardener made enough thickened epoxy to do about 18" of fillet. Then in another cup, another pump of resin and hardener (well stirred!), which was flooded onto the fillet by brush with a light touch. The tape was laid over and more resin brushed onto it.
One needs a light enough touch with the brush that the curve of the fillet remains, but firm enough to straighten out the cloth tape. Once the tape is wetted out, you can push it around with the brush by poking it with the end of the bristles, as if you were stippling. Little pushes move the tape well. I’m talking about sideways, across the width of the tape here, so that it comes out more or less straight in its length. The length doesn’t get moved, except that it gets pulled constantly towards the yet-to-be-done end as it gets stroked with the brush.
By the time I was done I was feeling like I had too much sun, and didn’t think to take more photos. Maybe the starboard side will be good for that; that’s the sunny afternoon side anyway. I’m finding it interesting that I’m even taking photos; this blog is good for that. Usually I just forge ahead and take pics later, sometimes wishing I’d documented my build. And most often I’m feeling like I’m rushing to get the thing done before the resin goes hard. I did go through two brushes, as the first one started to get hard about half-way along.
But I think this is the only way to do a long continuous piece: by mixing up small quantities as you go, and doing the whole thing with little batches, rather than making one long fillet and coming back to the beginning to lay the tape down, only to find that it's started to kick already.
I didn't think to mention this until now, but this method of putting the tape right on the freshly made fillet is so much easier and faster than making a fillet, trying to sand it smooth, and then applying glass to it. Very little sanding is needed now; mostly just taking off the tape edges.
Using the WEST system pumps sure makes it easy! I started out by brushing resin on the whole length of the corner, then mixed up a batch of thickened resin using wood flour and pushed it into the corner with the round end of a stir stick. I’m using “craft sticks” from the dollar store, which are like tongue depressors and come in a pack of 30 or so.
An important thing about epoxy is that it needs to be well stirred. It’s not like polyester resin, which you can apply hardener to afterwards and it will kick off—or even put it in the sun and it will kick! No: epoxy needs the actual molecules of the resin and the hardener to be together or it won’t get hard. So you need to stir it well. And part of stirring it well is making sure the sides and bottom of the container you’re stirring it in get scraped regularly. To this end, I shaped the stir sticks to conform to the cups I’m using, which are 10 ounce paper hot drink cups that I bought in a package of 50 from the Wholesale Club. I found the angle of the bottom and side by laying one stick across the top of a cup and resting another stick on the bottom of the cup and against the side of the cup, and striking a line on the standing stick:
Then I transferred that angle to near the end of another stick, and used that as my pattern to mark other sticks with. The ends were cut off with garden shears, giving me sticks that connect with the sides and bottoms of the cups perfectly, so the resin is constantly scraped off and mixed in.
I used the round end of a stir stick to make the fillet curve, not pushing the curve of the stick right into the corner, but just loosely passing it over the thickened epoxy to make a fairly robust fillet. One pump of resin and hardener made enough thickened epoxy to do about 18" of fillet. Then in another cup, another pump of resin and hardener (well stirred!), which was flooded onto the fillet by brush with a light touch. The tape was laid over and more resin brushed onto it.
One needs a light enough touch with the brush that the curve of the fillet remains, but firm enough to straighten out the cloth tape. Once the tape is wetted out, you can push it around with the brush by poking it with the end of the bristles, as if you were stippling. Little pushes move the tape well. I’m talking about sideways, across the width of the tape here, so that it comes out more or less straight in its length. The length doesn’t get moved, except that it gets pulled constantly towards the yet-to-be-done end as it gets stroked with the brush.
By the time I was done I was feeling like I had too much sun, and didn’t think to take more photos. Maybe the starboard side will be good for that; that’s the sunny afternoon side anyway. I’m finding it interesting that I’m even taking photos; this blog is good for that. Usually I just forge ahead and take pics later, sometimes wishing I’d documented my build. And most often I’m feeling like I’m rushing to get the thing done before the resin goes hard. I did go through two brushes, as the first one started to get hard about half-way along.
I didn't think to mention this until now, but this method of putting the tape right on the freshly made fillet is so much easier and faster than making a fillet, trying to sand it smooth, and then applying glass to it. Very little sanding is needed now; mostly just taking off the tape edges.
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Latex Paint for Boats
This is a reprint of an article that Paul sent me by email describing why it makes sense to switch to latex from oil-based paints. It's so ingrained in us older boaters that oil-based is the way to go, it's hard to imagine changing. I painted the ballistic nylon skin on a kayak I built some years ago with latex, and I noticed that it took up water: the boat was heavier after it had been in the water awhile, and the whole skin was loose. Apparently things have changed.
Update: I ended up using Petit EasyPoxy and Brightsides rather than the acrylic latex. It's harder and more durable.
Latex Paint for Boats
by Dave Carnell
WARNING: This article contains material that may be offensive if you think painting is more fun than boating.
When I bought my first yacht (27’ auxiliary sloop) for $300 in 1951 I quickly learned that if it’s for a boat, the same material costs several times as much as if it is for your house. Oakum was $1/ lb. at the marine supply store; five pounds for a dollar at the plumbing supply store. Marine paint cost several times as much as house paint of similar composition. I worked for a major chemical company that also made paint and knew that their paint that made the most money and on which they spent the most on research was house paint. Houses are out in the weather all year—no winter cover or inside storage. Their owners expect to repaint them infrequently, such as every ten years or so. They also expect a good paint job will require little preparation before re-painting. Back then the only house paints were oil paints, so my yacht was painted with top quality oil- based house paint.
All paints consist of binders or resins, pigments, solvents, and additives. The binder forms the film that sticks to the boat and holds the pigment there. The pigments color the paint, make it opaque and have a good deal to do with UV resistance. Solvents keep the binder dispersed or dissolved and the pigments dispersed in an easy to apply state. They allow the paint to be applied in the correct thickness and then evaporate from the paint film as it dries. Mineral spirits, a petroleum distillate fraction, is the most common solvent in oil-based paints. In latex paints, water is the major fluid. It does not dissolve the latex particles, but disperses them in suspension. Small amounts of special solvents are present to control the coalescence of the latex particles into a tough, tenacious film and to slow down the drying of the latex paint.
Through the years latex paints have developed to the point where 100% acrylic latex paints are better than oil paints on all counts. They are more durable and tougher. They resist chalking and fading, retaining their color especially well when exposed to bright sun. They are easier to apply, going on more smoothly and with less brush drag. They have less tendency to grow mildew. They have almost no odor and no fire hazard. Cleanup is with water. They can be recoated in as little as one hour.
The 100% acrylic latex is the key to the outstanding latex primers and paints now available. The weather resistance of these polymers parallels that of the acrylic molding powders that make red automobile taillight and stoplight lenses that last forever without fading. I checked out all the top quality exterior primers, paints, and porch and deck paints at both Lowe’s and Home Depot— they are all 100% acrylic latex products (the Glidden latex exterior primer at Home Depot used an organic nomenclature I hadn’t worked with for 50 years, but my Handbook of Chemistry and Physics translated it to 100% acrylic copolymer latex). All of the products are available as custom colors mixed to your desire.
Your new boat went together pretty fast—instant boat or tack and tape construction. What kind of a paint schedule can you use to get it in the water next weekend? Let’s say the inside will be all one color and the outside all one color, not necessarily the same as the inside. You can do the outside in one day, the inside the next, and give it a couple of days before you launch it.
Here is the schedule. Sand it all over with 60 grit and clean up the dust. Put on a coat of latex primer. That will raise some hairy fuzz [on new wood], so after drying a couple of hours give it a once over with 60 grit to defuzz it. Put on a coat of your exterior latex paint. Gloss is the toughest and most durable, but also shows surface imperfections best. Semigloss is almost as tough, durable, and easy to clean as gloss while not showing surface imperfections. For me, it is the usual pick. I have stayed away from flat paint.
You won’t have to sand after the first coat of finish paint and you can easily re-coat in the afternoon. That finishes half of the boat. The next morning turn it over and repeat the schedule for the other half of the boat.
If you use two colors on the outside of the boat, you will add another day to the painting. If you use different colors for the bottom and the side on the inside and have a steady enough hand to cut it in at the chine you can do it in one day.
While it is best to wait a week for the paint to dry hard, don’t let it keep you from getting in the water before next weekend.
A posting on the rec.boats.building newsgroup on the Internet asked if latex paint was good below the waterline, as if it was going to wash off. Look around your neighborhood. All those houses painted with latex paint sit out in the weather all the time. My boats live in the water with their latex paint jobs. Platt Monfort recommends for waterproofing the Dacron® skins of his Geodesic Airolite boats “...the simplest method being a good quality exterior latex house paint.”
How long is the latex paint job going to last? My sailing skiff that lives in the water was three years old this spring. The inside, especially the bottom, was scroungy from bilge water and having been through two hurricanes, so I gave it a one coat repaint job this spring. It looked great until Hurricane Bonnie messed it up this year.
The 16-year old Uncle Gabe’s Flattie Skiff (Sam Rabl) built of 1⁄4” fir plywood was painted when new and then about 9 years ago. It looks pretty scroungy, but the interesting thing is that while the paint on the wood has been scoured off by hurricane winds and general wear the paint on the epoxy-fiberglass joints in the sides is perfectly intact and looks great.
A fellow who was donating a boat to our local museum told me he had the real secret to boat painting. He had painted a production plywood boat with latex primer and latex paint. He was sanding the paint off and found it was almost impossible to remove the last traces of the latex primer because it had penetrated the wood to some degree. Well, nothing soaks into wood like water and some of the pigment particles are bound to be carried along with the water vehicle of the latex paint.
When I rebuilt my 1964 Simmons Sea-Skiff 20 I used a heat gun and a wide chisel to remove about a dozen layers of old oil paint. To repaint I used latex primer and then two coats of Lowe’s “Severe Weather” 15-year guarantee semigloss latex exterior paint custom colored to match the “Simmons blue” that was next to the wood. It has been three years and three hurricanes ridden out on the mooring since the boat was launched. Except where the boat has rubbed fenders or the edge of the float and on the cockpit floorboards, the paint is in first class shape. I do need to repaint the floorboards. In my survey I found that Lowe’s has an exterior 100% acrylic latex skid resistant paint (Skid-Not®) that can be custom colored. I believe I will try it.
I am not alone in appreciating the outstanding performance of 100% acrylic latex paints for boats. Thomas Firth Jones, boat designer, boatbuilder and author of Boats To Go wrote in Boatbuilder several years ago that he preferred latex paint over oil paint for boats for all of the reasons cited above. He did comment that he paints his tiller with oil-based paint because the latex paint stains there.
I was talking with “Dynamite” Payson one May weekend a couple of years ago and he told me he was going to repaint his skiff with latex paint that weekend.
Jim Michalak, boat designer and builder, uses latex paint on his boats.
Phil Bolger reported in Messing About in Boats that his personal outboard boat is painted with semigloss latex house paint.
Boatbuilders are traditionalists and it has been a hard sell to get them to accept plywood, stitch-and-glue construction, epoxy adhesives, and other similar innovations. Don’t let tradition keep you from benefitting from the ease of application and outstanding performance of 100% acrylic latex paints.
Update: I ended up using Petit EasyPoxy and Brightsides rather than the acrylic latex. It's harder and more durable.
Latex Paint for Boats
by Dave Carnell
WARNING: This article contains material that may be offensive if you think painting is more fun than boating.
When I bought my first yacht (27’ auxiliary sloop) for $300 in 1951 I quickly learned that if it’s for a boat, the same material costs several times as much as if it is for your house. Oakum was $1/ lb. at the marine supply store; five pounds for a dollar at the plumbing supply store. Marine paint cost several times as much as house paint of similar composition. I worked for a major chemical company that also made paint and knew that their paint that made the most money and on which they spent the most on research was house paint. Houses are out in the weather all year—no winter cover or inside storage. Their owners expect to repaint them infrequently, such as every ten years or so. They also expect a good paint job will require little preparation before re-painting. Back then the only house paints were oil paints, so my yacht was painted with top quality oil- based house paint.
All paints consist of binders or resins, pigments, solvents, and additives. The binder forms the film that sticks to the boat and holds the pigment there. The pigments color the paint, make it opaque and have a good deal to do with UV resistance. Solvents keep the binder dispersed or dissolved and the pigments dispersed in an easy to apply state. They allow the paint to be applied in the correct thickness and then evaporate from the paint film as it dries. Mineral spirits, a petroleum distillate fraction, is the most common solvent in oil-based paints. In latex paints, water is the major fluid. It does not dissolve the latex particles, but disperses them in suspension. Small amounts of special solvents are present to control the coalescence of the latex particles into a tough, tenacious film and to slow down the drying of the latex paint.
Through the years latex paints have developed to the point where 100% acrylic latex paints are better than oil paints on all counts. They are more durable and tougher. They resist chalking and fading, retaining their color especially well when exposed to bright sun. They are easier to apply, going on more smoothly and with less brush drag. They have less tendency to grow mildew. They have almost no odor and no fire hazard. Cleanup is with water. They can be recoated in as little as one hour.
The 100% acrylic latex is the key to the outstanding latex primers and paints now available. The weather resistance of these polymers parallels that of the acrylic molding powders that make red automobile taillight and stoplight lenses that last forever without fading. I checked out all the top quality exterior primers, paints, and porch and deck paints at both Lowe’s and Home Depot— they are all 100% acrylic latex products (the Glidden latex exterior primer at Home Depot used an organic nomenclature I hadn’t worked with for 50 years, but my Handbook of Chemistry and Physics translated it to 100% acrylic copolymer latex). All of the products are available as custom colors mixed to your desire.
Your new boat went together pretty fast—instant boat or tack and tape construction. What kind of a paint schedule can you use to get it in the water next weekend? Let’s say the inside will be all one color and the outside all one color, not necessarily the same as the inside. You can do the outside in one day, the inside the next, and give it a couple of days before you launch it.
Here is the schedule. Sand it all over with 60 grit and clean up the dust. Put on a coat of latex primer. That will raise some hairy fuzz [on new wood], so after drying a couple of hours give it a once over with 60 grit to defuzz it. Put on a coat of your exterior latex paint. Gloss is the toughest and most durable, but also shows surface imperfections best. Semigloss is almost as tough, durable, and easy to clean as gloss while not showing surface imperfections. For me, it is the usual pick. I have stayed away from flat paint.
You won’t have to sand after the first coat of finish paint and you can easily re-coat in the afternoon. That finishes half of the boat. The next morning turn it over and repeat the schedule for the other half of the boat.
If you use two colors on the outside of the boat, you will add another day to the painting. If you use different colors for the bottom and the side on the inside and have a steady enough hand to cut it in at the chine you can do it in one day.
While it is best to wait a week for the paint to dry hard, don’t let it keep you from getting in the water before next weekend.
A posting on the rec.boats.building newsgroup on the Internet asked if latex paint was good below the waterline, as if it was going to wash off. Look around your neighborhood. All those houses painted with latex paint sit out in the weather all the time. My boats live in the water with their latex paint jobs. Platt Monfort recommends for waterproofing the Dacron® skins of his Geodesic Airolite boats “...the simplest method being a good quality exterior latex house paint.”
How long is the latex paint job going to last? My sailing skiff that lives in the water was three years old this spring. The inside, especially the bottom, was scroungy from bilge water and having been through two hurricanes, so I gave it a one coat repaint job this spring. It looked great until Hurricane Bonnie messed it up this year.
The 16-year old Uncle Gabe’s Flattie Skiff (Sam Rabl) built of 1⁄4” fir plywood was painted when new and then about 9 years ago. It looks pretty scroungy, but the interesting thing is that while the paint on the wood has been scoured off by hurricane winds and general wear the paint on the epoxy-fiberglass joints in the sides is perfectly intact and looks great.
A fellow who was donating a boat to our local museum told me he had the real secret to boat painting. He had painted a production plywood boat with latex primer and latex paint. He was sanding the paint off and found it was almost impossible to remove the last traces of the latex primer because it had penetrated the wood to some degree. Well, nothing soaks into wood like water and some of the pigment particles are bound to be carried along with the water vehicle of the latex paint.
When I rebuilt my 1964 Simmons Sea-Skiff 20 I used a heat gun and a wide chisel to remove about a dozen layers of old oil paint. To repaint I used latex primer and then two coats of Lowe’s “Severe Weather” 15-year guarantee semigloss latex exterior paint custom colored to match the “Simmons blue” that was next to the wood. It has been three years and three hurricanes ridden out on the mooring since the boat was launched. Except where the boat has rubbed fenders or the edge of the float and on the cockpit floorboards, the paint is in first class shape. I do need to repaint the floorboards. In my survey I found that Lowe’s has an exterior 100% acrylic latex skid resistant paint (Skid-Not®) that can be custom colored. I believe I will try it.
I am not alone in appreciating the outstanding performance of 100% acrylic latex paints for boats. Thomas Firth Jones, boat designer, boatbuilder and author of Boats To Go wrote in Boatbuilder several years ago that he preferred latex paint over oil paint for boats for all of the reasons cited above. He did comment that he paints his tiller with oil-based paint because the latex paint stains there.
I was talking with “Dynamite” Payson one May weekend a couple of years ago and he told me he was going to repaint his skiff with latex paint that weekend.
Jim Michalak, boat designer and builder, uses latex paint on his boats.
Phil Bolger reported in Messing About in Boats that his personal outboard boat is painted with semigloss latex house paint.
Boatbuilders are traditionalists and it has been a hard sell to get them to accept plywood, stitch-and-glue construction, epoxy adhesives, and other similar innovations. Don’t let tradition keep you from benefitting from the ease of application and outstanding performance of 100% acrylic latex paints.
Glass corners!
Work has gone surprisingly quickly—and I'm still upright! Halleluja! Yesterday I rounded the corners on the cabin with John's grinder. I didn't think I would be able to operate a grinder that long. I could feel my hand tingling in the evening, but today that's gone. The next two images show the rounded corners; too bad you can't see them, hahaha! But I know they're there.
Such a jaunty sheer you have, Missy! :-)
(The dinghy half-hull on the right was from a display in a marine store downtown that doesn't exist any more.)
GLASSED CORNERS!
(In the photo above you may notice that I've taken some of the screws and their decorative washers out of the window frame, getting ready to sand and paint the frame. Actually, I was killing time waiting for the epoxy to kick so I could put the tarp back on without wrecking my job!)
Next, the bottom edges of the cabin will be filleted and glassed. I'm using WEST System epoxy, with wood flour for filler, 2" glass tape. All the varnished wood you see in this post will be painted with acrylic latex. I'll have to put that article about it next...
(The dinghy half-hull on the right was from a display in a marine store downtown that doesn't exist any more.)
GLASSED CORNERS!
Next, the bottom edges of the cabin will be filleted and glassed. I'm using WEST System epoxy, with wood flour for filler, 2" glass tape. All the varnished wood you see in this post will be painted with acrylic latex. I'll have to put that article about it next...
Moved to Booth's
Andrew towed the boat to John Booth's place on Easter Saturday, a day when there would be no vehicles in the driveway to deal with. The tow went smoothly. Bill helped get her ready to tow, then helped with clean-up of the new spot and putting the tarp back on again.
I visited the next day on my bike, to make sure all was still okay.
Below is the new bow knee I installed just before moving to Booth's. It was extremely difficult to get the size right and to install it, as I had to lie down on my back and reach up over my head, barely able to reach the screws with the screw driver while sliding back down towards the stern as I pushed. The first one I made was upside-down and backwards!
The reason I wanted a knee there (it's a wide yellow cedar board) is because I want to lift the mast from the stem-head, and the greatest pull will be toward the stern just as the mast is beginning to lift up, pulling the stem backwards and compressing the bow deck. I'm sure the bow was strong enough already, but I wanted to be really really sure about it. And I needed something to do while I was waiting to move the boat. :-)
Another change I made was to trade out the bow eye bolt. I didn't like that the original had opened up, and wanted one that wouldn't. I originally wanted a U-bolt, but couldn't find one the right size, so went with the eye bolt. It was way easier than a U-bolt anyway.
Here is Dick, John's co-worker, getting one of their Whitehall-type boats ready to go:
Isn't this just the greatest place to work on a boat?
I visited the next day on my bike, to make sure all was still okay.
Below is the new bow knee I installed just before moving to Booth's. It was extremely difficult to get the size right and to install it, as I had to lie down on my back and reach up over my head, barely able to reach the screws with the screw driver while sliding back down towards the stern as I pushed. The first one I made was upside-down and backwards!
Another change I made was to trade out the bow eye bolt. I didn't like that the original had opened up, and wanted one that wouldn't. I originally wanted a U-bolt, but couldn't find one the right size, so went with the eye bolt. It was way easier than a U-bolt anyway.
Here is Dick, John's co-worker, getting one of their Whitehall-type boats ready to go:
Isn't this just the greatest place to work on a boat?
Thursday, 10 April 2014
Ballast
I weighed the zinc plates that were under the floor just aft of the mast. Total is 106 lbs. I'll put all that back in plus possibly another 100 lbs., to put her bow down.
Also weighed the anchor and its chain: 25 lbs.
There is a total of 35.5 feet of chain, 24' of it attached to the anchor. The anchor is a small grapple. I think I'll get a larger Bruce or claw type anchor and use less chain with it. Of course, the grapple will then be the #2 anchor with its own 16' or so of chain as well.
Update:
Robin emailed to say that the plates are zinc, not lead, so I changed the wording above. Here's what he said:
"The ballast plates in the bow are zinc not lead. I pulled several hundred three-coloured etchings over the years from those plates and made quite a good living in the process."
I had noticed etchings on them. Fishing boats and government dock sorts of scenes, very nice. A boat full of art! Who knew? :-)
Also weighed the anchor and its chain: 25 lbs.
There is a total of 35.5 feet of chain, 24' of it attached to the anchor. The anchor is a small grapple. I think I'll get a larger Bruce or claw type anchor and use less chain with it. Of course, the grapple will then be the #2 anchor with its own 16' or so of chain as well.
Update:
Robin emailed to say that the plates are zinc, not lead, so I changed the wording above. Here's what he said:
"The ballast plates in the bow are zinc not lead. I pulled several hundred three-coloured etchings over the years from those plates and made quite a good living in the process."
I had noticed etchings on them. Fishing boats and government dock sorts of scenes, very nice. A boat full of art! Who knew? :-)
Friday, 4 April 2014
Before the Mast
Before I took things out of the bow section of the boat, there was a
portapotti (under which were the lead printing plates), then the mast, then a hand-pump pressure tank for water,
plus a couple of 5-gallon plastic cubes with handles. A hose came aboard
from a through-hull below the rub rail on the starboard bow, to feed
water into one of the cubes.
Needless to say, I could not get a good look forward with all this stuff in the way. Here's how the bow looks now:
This shows where the screws for the bow cleat came through the king plank:
The mast seems unsupported at deck level:
The bow carvings were pegged onto the hull. There didn't seem to be any glue. Now I see daylight through two of the holes:
These are going to be filled and will be covered by the glass tape that will go on over the sheer.
Needless to say, I could not get a good look forward with all this stuff in the way. Here's how the bow looks now:
Looking up:
This shows where the screws for the bow cleat came through the king plank:
The mast seems unsupported at deck level:
The bow carvings were pegged onto the hull. There didn't seem to be any glue. Now I see daylight through two of the holes:
These are going to be filled and will be covered by the glass tape that will go on over the sheer.
taking ballast off
Under the floor board just aft of the mast there was a pile of lead sheets that had been used for printing from. I want to weigh it. The builder says this boat needs a fair bit of ballast up forward, and this would be part of it.
They're now under my dining room table, waiting to return.
They're now under my dining room table, waiting to return.
Taking things apart
It took me awhile before I let myself start tearing this boat up. I felt like it was still the designer/builder's dream and I should honour it. But incrementally I've been taking out bits and pieces. I didn't like the portapotti, so I took that out. Also the sink in the forward area. And since I know I have a place to work on her, I've been taking off the rub rails, toe rails, cleats and everything else that would get in the way of glassing the sheer and the cabin corners. I'm also taking everything heavy off the boat.
This is more or less what the sheer looked like. The rub strakes were in three pieces on each side of the boat. They were mahogany and did not look like they had been finished on the inside. They were held on with screws only (main mast chain plate):
This is what it looks like without the rub strip and the toe rail (mizzen chain plate):
And here's a close-up aft of amidships:
The fancy work on the bow is now just a digital record (I've kept all the pieces, though):
The old name boards (waaaaaa!)
Out with the old, in with the new.
This is more or less what the sheer looked like. The rub strakes were in three pieces on each side of the boat. They were mahogany and did not look like they had been finished on the inside. They were held on with screws only (main mast chain plate):
This is what it looks like without the rub strip and the toe rail (mizzen chain plate):
And here's a close-up aft of amidships:
The fancy work on the bow is now just a digital record (I've kept all the pieces, though):
The old name boards (waaaaaa!)
Out with the old, in with the new.
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