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.

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.

Colours... and a new name?

This is the colour plan so far.

Trouble is, I don't see Spindrift as a red boat. Spindrift is white, misty white, sea-foam green or something like that. I tried all those and more, trying to come up with something I thought suited the boat and me. Red is the only colour that fits. But then the name doesn't fit with the colour.

So I think I'm going to re-name her Firefly. My elder sister had a Uffa Fox-designed Firefly and she let me sail it on my own whenever I wanted as a teenager. I loved that boat. It was cold-molded ply, varnished to a high finish. I'll now have my own Firefly. Here's my sister's Firefly, #1901 Firecracker, sailing in Toronto Harbour in the 60s:

The idea of painting the topsides white between the waterline and the chine came from seeing photos of old European boats done that way:

A Place to Work!

Halleluja—I have a place to work on Spindrift! John Booth is kindly allowing me to keep her in the yard in front of his shop. And his shop is very close to my place: about a three-minute drive. He's cleaning the space up, and I'll be able to move there in two or three weeks. What a relief! I really wasn't looking forward to driving out of town to work on my boat. This is perfect.

(The Thunderbird isn't there anymore.)

Recovery Ladder

While the Spindrift project was stalled during the winter, I hacked the ladder up!

The original ladder:

And, upside-down in my living room:

 Got transmogrified into this:

The intention was to make a recovery ladder that will attach solidly to the outside of the transom. I'm not as strong as I once was, and the water here is quite cold: you don't last long in it before it saps any strength you may have started out with. If I get knocked out of the boat, or fall off inadvertently, I want to be able to get back aboard relatively easily.

The original ladder was stored across the after end of the cockpit seats and was hung over the transom as needed, with kick-out legs to keep it off the transom. There was no way it could be deployed in an emergency unless there was someone aboard who knew how to set it up.

I took the appendages off and sliced the ladder into two parts. The smaller top part will be bolted to the transom. The longer bottom part will be hinged up and held with a slip-knot. The stainless hinges are a little stiff, so it has to be pulled down, which I think is good, because then there's less likelihood that it will bonk me on the head when it comes down.

The top step, which will be against the transom, has a cut-out to drain water and to act as a hand-hold:

I drew the cut-outs in the smaller top part too big, so I put cheeks on both sides of each piece for added strength. The pull will be mostly downward, so this I believe will be quite strong enough.

I re-glued two of the steps and epoxy-filleted the top one because it wouldn't come apart to re-glue. The old varnish and epoxy was scraped off and everything got one coat of primer and three coats of acrylic paint. The wood is very nice old fir, I believe, and one piece is quite hard with lots of winter wood. I rounded the edges and corners of the cut-outs with my pocket knife. It was quite a slog to carve the harder piece. I re-used the plastic bumpers, planing them thinner to fit better.

You may notice that in the top photo of the new ladder the bottom on one side is rounded:

I did that so that the rudder has a wider arc before connecting with the ladder—and a softer landing. My guess is that taking the point off added another degree or two to the swing of the rudder. I may end up modifying the rudder.

This was my first use of exterior acrylic (water-based) paint (Sico brand). It's so much nicer to apply since it doesn't stink and clean-up is with water. It can be applied down to one degree Celsius, so touch-ups can be done in the off-season too. I've used latex paint before, and this is different; it's much harder.

Mast Raising apparatus

The boat came with a well thought out A-frame set-up which uses the winch on the trailer for power to raise the mast. The feet of the A-frame connect to the chainplates. The apex of the A had a hinge and an eye bolt that the winch strap hooked into.  The mast has permanent wire lines that attach to the A-frame with snap hooks.

I started to take the hinge apart before I remembered to take a photo, so below you see it already in two pieces, whereas the hinge was originally bolted to the L-shaped pieces that hold the eye bolt:

I found the setup awkward, as the pair of legs would not lie on the deck spread apart, and one leg would start to fall overboard when the first foot was being attached to its chainplate. Also, I wanted the legs to be easier to handle and store, and I thought that having them in two pieces instead of one big piece would be better.

After I took the fittings off the apex joint, I rounded the ends of the boards and attached an eye bolt to each. I was going to put the eye bolts off-centre (marks), but ended up centering them on the boards.

I bought some 1/4" nylon braid and two sets of pulleys: one block of three pulleys and one block with two pulleys and an attachment point.

Five parts off the moving block means I get 5 times the mechanical advantage from this set.

I raised the mast with it like this, and it worked fine except that the bottom block kept twisting and binding the line somewhat. So after I got it home again I re-rove the line so that the end that I'm pulling comes off the middle sheave. As of this writing, I haven't tried it out with this configuration to see if it fixes the twisting.

I had tried to move the boat on the trailer with this set, and the smaller bronze snap hook broke. So I took that as a warning and replaced the snap hooks with stainless shackles:

You'll notice that the line now crosses itself as it goes from one block to the other, so that it can end up coming out through the middle sheave (this view is switched end-for-end from the above photo). I don't think it will bind, though.

But, why the block and tackle in the first place? This is so I can raise the mast without the trailer winch—i.e., when the boat is in the water and doesn't have the trailer winch handy. The bottom block is shackled to the bronze stem piece on the boat, to which the forestay and jib attach. Being able to raise and lower the mast will be good for maintenance of the mast and its rigging, and for getting under bridges. Not something that will be done often, but something that needs to be done right when it is done.

Thanks to Starchy for helping me try out the new block & tackle arrangement.

Move to Hidden Harbour

Waiting for action. Gotta make the cockpit cover and a block & tackle for mast-raising.