A Dory for Gazela Primeiro and at the end tips on glass application

A while ago I received a nice email from Tony Souza regarding construction issues with a new dory he intended building for the old Portuguese barkentine Gazela Primeiro.

Hello Ross,
Thanks for your recent article "Stems and Trailers".  In that article you discuss natural timber vs plywood construction and show the merits of plywood glued lapstrake for boats that are dry stored.
Im trying to choose a construction technique to use for a reproduction dory that will be "dry sailed".  The dory is a Grand Banks dory of 17 feet overall, 13 feet on the floor. The new dory has to resemble closely the last of the three dozen Portuguese grand banks dories that sat on the deck of Gazela Primeiro, the 100+ year old Portuguese barkentine on which I am one of the all volunteer crew.  Last winter we patched and repaired the last dory, and this year Id like to build a dory to be used often for the teaching of boat handling, rowing, and dory sailing.  the boat handling includes launching and retrieving over the side using hand operated boatfalls. The new dory will spend most of its time stacked inside the old dory, the two as deck displays of what was used in long line fishing of the early 20th century.
As a matter of resemblance the new dory will have four frame sisters overlapped, removable thwarts, 5/8" cedar planking, solid gunwales, a mast step on the floor and two sets of oarlocks.
For ease of construction and in keeping with the dry storage idea I plan on using modern materials where I can.  The flat bottom will be Meranti plywood already on hand, no need to soak the floor seams closed before putting boat into the water.  The frames are already built from laminated ash. Tree crotch and buttress sections are too difficult to find.  I plan to epoxy the garboard plank to the bottom, glass tape and epoxy the inside seam.  After planking I plan to turn the boat over and glass the bottom and garboard with cloth.
After that long prologue we come to my uncertainty area, the clinker planking joints.  Its tempting to use lap-stitch aka ship lap joints, easily cut with a router and epoxy fastened.  On natural, i.e. not plywood, timber that may lead to splitting along the grain at the join.  Likewise dory lapped (rolling bevel) joints likewise glued might suffer splitting.  I should have said earlier that using modern glues and eliminating metal fastners is a goal.  The old dory is a pincushion of steel nails on the planking joints which has resulted in rusty streaks and rotten wood.  (Of course dories were not supposed to last more than a couple years in ocean service. Old dory is probably 40+ years old.) 
Would it be better to caulk the planking seams with Boat Life, a polysulfide, rather than epoxy fasten?  The frames are there to give cross grain strength.  With your expeience you might see that Im headed for problems not yet envisioned.
Any suggestions will be very welcome and gratefully accepted.
Gazela can be seen at www.gazela.org.
A picture of the old dory is attached. 

Here is part of the text of my reply: -

I agree totally with your concerns regarding "hard" gluing of either "lapstitch" or dory-lap joints when using natural timber rather than plywood - I believe that they would definitely crack at the point where the planking thickness returned to single-plank. Harry Bryan wrote about the matter when he did a couple of articles for WoodebBoat Magazine about the building of his Daisy design. She had either double-planked cedar (glued with epoxy) for the bottom, or a single sheet of plywood. The topsides were planked with lapstrake cedar planks in the normal manner (I think using copper clench nailing from memory). The important thing in our context is that he expected her to be dry-sailed, and after completing the planking in the normal way, he dragged a sharp, flat-blade screw driver along the underside of the lap on the outer side of the planking. This produced a sort of square-shaped groove of about 1/8" x 1/8" in the underside of the lap. He then filled the groove with a bead of polyurethane (I would use 3M 5200 or Sikaflex 292, using a polyurethane-specific primer)

Having said all that, I wonder whether you could just glue the entire lap with polyurethane (I dont know enough about polysulfide to say anything about its adhesive qualities where no fastenings are used). The polyurethane is strong enough, but I dont know whether a fully-glued lap would allow enough movement to overcome the cracking problem, even given the flexibility of the compound - but my guess is that it would be ok, especially if the glue-line was thick.

If I was doing it, Id go the copper-fastened route, with the polyurethane (or polysulphide) run into the groove under the lap.

I think that the garboard arrangement you propose would be fine. The glass on the outer face should supply cross-grain reinforcement, and the tape on the inside will extend some distance beyond the vulnerable line of intersection between the inside faces of the bottom and the garboard.

On two boats I built (one of which ended up in the Jody Foster film, Nims Island - see the recent comment made on Duckworks http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/10/reports/may/index.htm ), I made the bottom from Western Red Cedar glued strip, continuing around the turn of bilge, after which I continued the planking as plywood glued lapstrake. I cut the bevel on the bottom planking to accept the first lapstrake plank before glassing the bottom. When glassing the bottom, I continued the glass right around and onto the bevelled face. This meant that when the first plywood plank was glued on, the glass was sandwiched between the WRC strip planking and the inner face of the plywood - the aim being to prevent splitting in the WRC.  This explanation is a bit clumsy, but I havent got time right now to do a sketch. In your case this will not be necessary, as you will have the glass on the outside of the cedar planking anyway.

??

Western Red Cedar bottom planking

???

Bottom covered with 400gsm (12oz) double-bias glass and the first two planks of plywood lapstrake attached - the first plank going over the glass, which itself had been laid over the bevelled edge of the cedar bottom planking.

???Here is Tonys latest up-date: -

Hiya Ross,
Here are three pix of the dory project to date.  This boat is a copy of the last original belonging to Portuguese fishing barkentine Gazela Primeiro.  You can see more pictures on www.Gazela.org and my facebook page. My version of the dory has a meranti plywood bottom and white cedar planking over laminated ash frames.  The gunwale and cap are white oak. The dory will essentially be dry sailed i.e. living on Gazelas deck most of the time and occasionally be used for crew training and exhibition at home and ports of call.
After corresponding with you some time ago I took your advice and epoxy joined only the garboard plank to the bottom.  The rest of the construction has followed traditional methods. The upper edge of the garboard and the remaining planks are dory lapped and copper riveted.  Planks to frames are joined with Si bronze screws.
I think we talked about covering the bottom and up to the upper edge of the garboard with synthetic cloth and epoxy. 
Now areas where I could use advice:
What cloth would be appropriate? I dont think the dory will ever see a beach, but it might. So a light cloth should do.
Is there an advantage to graphite additive to the epoxy?
Any tricks to applying the cloth?
Thanks for your help,
Tony Souza

And part of my reply: -

Dear Tony,

Thanks very much indeed for the up-date, and for the nice photos. The boat looks super to my eyes, and Id love to take her out in the rough stuff - preferrebly with some weight in the bottom to represent the ballasting effect of a load of Cod!

My appologies for the delayed reply - we have been recovering from the devastating flash-flood which wiped us out on January 10, and priorities tend to be re-arranged!

For the cloth, the simplest would be 200gsm (6oz) woven glass. This is light and easy to use, and gives a good level of protection, and more importantly, provides a sort of screed to ensure an even thickness of epoxy. Dynel is also a good option (4oz, I think, but you would need to check with the supplier). Dynel is bulkier than glass for the same weight, and it has superior abrasion resistance - I like it on decks - but it doesnt have the tensile stiffness of glass so it will have less structural effect on the garboard-to-bottom joint. For a hefty boat like yours which may get handled roughly, Id give serious thought to using 400gsm (12oz) double-bias glass cloth. It isnt woven, so it takes bends fairly well, and with the fibres aligned 45 degrees/45 degrees, every fibre crosses the longitudinal joints. It is cheaper than woven glass, but is heavier than the normal 6oz stuff.

I normally use the dry application method (for weights up to 12oz). I lay the cloth over the dry, sanded, and vacuumed surface, and them smooth it into position with a dustpan brush or a wide, dry paintbrush. Tape any troublesome edges down with temporary bits of masking tape. Then start by mixing small quantities of epoxy and pour them onto the glass (or Dynel) and spread them with a squeegee - I use rectangles of 1/16" model aircraft balsa as they can be bent along the grain if required, and the corners dont snag on the glass.  Dont press too hard, as you will end up aerating the epoxy and making it go creamy with minute air bubbles (just like what happens when whipping cream). Just use a gentle figure-eight sweeping motion to get it out onto the surface. Dont fuss about getting it to wet-out - that will happen automatically. Keep on mixing, pouring and spreading until the entire surface is covered. Small batches are good, as they dont heat up so rapidly in the container.

When the surface is covered, use disposable brushes and/or disposable foam rollers with about a 1/8" nap to distribute the resin evenly. I use dry brushes and rollers - they pick-up from the excessivcely wet areas and put down in the dry areas. When all is even, use the squeegees again (held at about 45 degrees to the surface) to scrape off excess resin so you end up with just the wet cloth, but no visible pooling of liquid resin.

After the epoxy has gone off enough to be certain that the cloth wont float up off the surface - this depends on temperature and rate of cure - but when it gets to a "green"state of cure, lay on several more coats of epoxy to fill the weave so that when you finally sand the surface (after removing any amine blush with water and cloths, sponges or Scotchbrite pads) you are only sanding epoxy and not going through to the glass.

Have a look on my website under the button labelled "First Mate Photos 3" for a brief pictorial demonstration - the thumbnails enlarge if you click on them.

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Sail Plan for CIY

The Calendar Islands Yawl will be a lug-yawl rig. Details forthcoming!! 

Stay tuned for the quarter scale model of the boat. Ill be assembling the hull to check the fit and fairness of all her lines before proceeding to build out the interior structure and complete the model.

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Aiming for Perfection

A comment submitted by Mike about my previous post has reminded me of a short article I wrote a number of years ago. The article was an attempt to explain that it is impossible to achiece a perfect result, but that it is very important to aim for perfection. Maybe some of you may find the message to be encouraging - here it is again...

The middle-age man stood quietly, brush in one hand and paint container in the other. He was carefully observing the hull of his boat, which stood upside-down on a pair of saw horses, the smoothly sanded timber hull glowing in the late afternoon light. 

The construction of this boat had taken the best part of eighteen months of his spare time, but seemed to have taken up all of his spare thinking time! Throughout the man’s adult life, he had been planning to build a boat, but the pressures of work and family had meant that his fiftieth birthday had passed before he had commenced making sawdust. 

Highs and lows dominated his emotions when the boat was under construction. During the years of planing for the project, the man had formed a vision of perfection – he had gone over every detail in his mind, and being a careful and methodical person, he was sure it would all go together just as he had anticipated. A stack of books and magazines provided witness to his thorough approach, and many of his friends had given advice. 

It had therefore come as a surprise to him when things didn’t work out exactly according to his imagined perfection. Over the months he learned to come to terms with broken screws, incorrectly measured pieces of timber, batches of epoxy which went off too fast (and some which didn’t go off fast enough). He came to discover that no matter how much effort he put into the construction, perfection was not within his grasp. No matter what element of the construction he attempted, he found himself wishing that he could do it all a second time in order to get a perfect result.

The desire for perfection, and his inability to achieve it on the job, almost defeated him. However, a friend had pointed out to him that as long as a person tries to do a perfect job, the average standard of work will always be impressive. With that in mind, the man didn’t become depressed if his jigsaw strayed from the perfectly marked line – he just concentrated on the rest of the cut and made sure that the average of the cut was on the line.  

There were hundreds of processes he came across during the construction – many surprises lurked, just waiting for him to relax his guard. What he discovered was that while it is impossible to attain perfection, a determined effort will yield good results. The satisfaction gained from knowing that his glue joints were sound, and that he could work around mistakes, eventually convinced him that his boat was going to be a good one. The materials were of high quality, and he knew that the boat would last a lifetime. 

Towards the end of the structural work a new and pressing problem arose – when was enough enough? Each time he sanded or scraped a deposit of epoxy, he found another blob which hadn’t been seen before, and stood proud of the smooth surface of the plywood. Every time he put the “final” application of filler into cracks and nail holes, he discovered unseen blemishes after the “final” coat was sanded. It sometimes seemed that he could work for another year just on the sanding and filling… 

In the end, he made the decision to apply the first coat of paint – regardless of imperfections. So here he stood, paint brush at the ready, and the result of a year-and-a-half of work in front of him. Taking a deep breath (through his protective respirator, of course) he commenced painting. What a relief! Once started, he knew that he had crossed a threshold, and once again, having fallen short of perfection had not been the end of the world. 

As the painting progressed, his mood lightened, and he found himself enjoying the process of working the thinned primer/undercoat into the smooth surface of the boat. The paint was absorbed deeply by the wood fibre, and although the painted surface showed up previously unseen imperfections, he knew that the end result was going to be good. This boat had not been slathered in epoxy (the epoxy had been used chiefly as an excellent adhesive, and also used in matrix with glass cloth in areas which needed reinforcement), so the man was able to gain satisfaction from seeing the paint lock itself into the grain of the timber. He had, of course, epoxy-sealed the insides of the buoyancy tanks, and a few other areas which would not be well ventilated when the boat was in storage. These areas were not subject to ultra violet radiation, so he was happy to leave the epoxy un-painted. 

A couple of weeks later saw the same man surveying the end result of all of his labours. The painting was finished – all eight coats counting the priming and undercoating – and he was able to see what his friend had meant about the “average” of the job. Sure, there were imperfections, but the boat gave off a distinct feeling of quality. The lines were highlighted by a subtle combination of colours, and the depth of the high-quality, single-pack paint could be seen. In fact, the man was pleased that he had been unable to attain a perfectly smooth surface, as the boat could now be seen to have been hand-made, and it was obvious that the building material was wood.  

Some of the glue joints could be seen, but there were no gaps to hold water that could otherwise induce rot. The man knew that even though the finish was not perfect, all of what really mattered had been done without compromise – the gluing, the fastening, the marking-out and the painting – all had been done properly, and with the best materials. Structurally, this boat was really good. 

Perfection is unattainable, but if you pay attention to what really matters, you will end up with a boat of high quality. However, boat building should carry a health warning – it is highly addictive.

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Waiting for a Window

We arrived at Puerto Los Cabos Marina a couple of hours before sunset on June 12th and were assigned to our old berth at the end of gangway L. The daytime temperatures here have been hovering in the high eighties, with light southerly winds and intense tropical sunshine every day. The humidity index has also been in the eighty percent range which makes life aboard a bit sticky and sweaty. So I broke out the air conditioner which brought the temperature and humidity inside the boat down to 78 degrees and 50% humidity. The air conditioner is a little 5,000 BTU window unit that fits neatly in the companionway, and stores in the starboard cockpit locker when not in use. It has made life bearable here while we wait.

The only problem with the air conditioner is that it makes you want to stay inside the boat from about noon to dusk.

San Jose is rapidly turning from a town to a city. In 2010 the town had a population of approximately 70,000. Combined with the tourist mecca of Cabo San Lucas a few miles down the road, this area hosted over 900,000 hotel guests in 2011. I remember visiting here in the 1970s when San Jose was a little town that no one went to and Cabo was just becoming popular as a sportfishing destination.

Marina Puerto Los Cabos. 

Heres something for the history buffs out there. Back in 1847, during the Mexican American War, a force of 24 American marines and sailors landed with a 9 pounder carronade and took up a position in the old mission San Jose. There, with a reinforcement of twelve men from California, they fought off an assault by a Mexican force under the orders of one Capitan Pineda Munoz. A couple of months later a larger Mexican force returned and laid siege to the American outpost. The seige lasted about a month and was finally lifted when a strong American naval force arrived. Nowadays we dont remember much about our 19th century conflicts, except for the Civil War, and a bit about the War of 1812. At least Ive never seen anyone doing a Mexican American War reenactment.

9 Pounder Carronade. It fired a 4" diameter cannonball. As far as I can determine, this is a British gun dating form the early 1800s, but its probably fairly similar to the one used at San Jose.  Photo courtesy of Gunstar.co.uk

As you can tell, weve had some time on our hands while we wait for that weather window to open, but its been fun meeting new and interesting fellow cruisers. A couple of days after we arrived the pretty little Eastward Ho 24, named Molly, with Eric and Christine aboard tied up on our gangway. They sailed Molly down from Portland, Oregon and spent the season cruising in the Sea of Cortez. They left San Jose on Tuesday, June 16th, bound for Mag Bay, where we hope to catch up with them in a few days.

The Eastward Ho was designed by the venerable Walter McInnis and is a pretty salty seagoing vessel.

The weather forecast is for light southerly breezes for the next few days, so we will head out early tomorrow morning for Mag Bay.

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Home For The Summer

Finisterra left Avalon at 0900 on June 23rd for the short trip to the Isthmus, or Two Harbors as it is called on the charts. We picked up a mooring there at 1130 and sat back to enjoy the view of one of our favorite places in the world. Though weve anchored in many beautiful coves and harbors in Mexico, there is something about the Isthmus that makes it more special to us than anywhere else. In the afternoon we hiked over to Wells Beach in Cat Harbor. Its a beautiful walk with views of the surrounding hills and the broad bay below. It was nice to be back.

The following day we hiked three or four miles up the road toward Avalon until we reached a peak that overlooks the Isthmus and out toward the west end of the Island. Catalina, like the rest of California has been suffering from a prolonged drought and the vegetation along the way was pretty dried out. But compared to the sere landscapes of the islands we visited in the Sea of Cortez, Catalina still looks fairly lush.

The superyacht Attessa IV was at anchor off Avalon when we arrived. Weve crossed paths with this well traveled yacht in Cabo, Puerto Vallarta and La Paz.  For more info on this magnificent vessel visit: http://www.superyachttimes.com/yachts/details/1243

After the shark, the next fish to come aboard was this plump little perch, which we released after taking its portrait. 

Two Harbors. The coves on the far side of the bay are called Fourth of July and Cherry cove.

This pretty little schooners home port is Dana Point. Ship Rock is in the background.

Another schooner passes by Ship rock.

Walking back to the harbor, we stopped and chatted with a couple of people chipping golf balls in a little clearing near the village. Turns out they cruised in Mexico a few years earlier aboard their Morgan 44, "Missteak" and will be heading south again about the same time as us. They had found this little makeshift chipping range, so the next day we went back and I spent an hour or so learning how to hit the ball with a wedge. Fun. The following day we hiked toward the west end, passing Fourth of July cove, Cherry Cove, Little Geiger and Big Geiger Coves, and Howlands Landing. It was great to get back in touch with what we consider our home island.

When we left Long Beach back in January we had no intention of coming back, so we gave up our slip in Alamitos Bay. Of course that marina is full now, so we were forced to look elsewhere for a place to keep Finisterra. We had once kept a boat at California Yacht Marina in Wilmington and after checking with the folks there, we took a slip on gangway E. The location is not quite as upscale as Long Beach, but the people are really friendly and its a great place to get work done on the boat. Well probably stay here until we head south again next fall.

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Oars and Oarmaking Different Strokes for Different Folks

Oars are a delight to make and we are trying to make something new for the market. A prototype for a Carbon Fiber blade-Spruce oar has been completed for a customer here in Portland to be use for his new sculling boat, an Annapolis Wherry, being built by him from a Chesapeake Light Craft kit.

The main prototype effort here were the blades, an infused laminate of carbon fiber with a light core material in the middle.


The core adds stiffness with negligible additional weight. Infusion is incredibly tricky to get right and much time was spent in making it work to make a perfect blade.


The looms are Sitka Spruce for these oars (and can be done in native Northern White Spruce) and they are specially designed such that they counterbalance perfectly with the carbon blades. The blades will lay on the top of the water and without any pressure from the hands.


This balance means less fatigue for the rower, a better feel, and greater speed because the rowers kinetic energy is not wasted in moving a blade-heavy oar forward and backwards as the blade exits at the release and enters at the catch. Another design element to Clints oars is in their flexibility. Oars should flex a little, especially in fixed seat boat, but also in sliding seat boats (the amount will differ depending on the rower). The faster the boat goes and the faster the rower wants to go, the stiffer they may want their oar to be made. But for recreational sculling and pleasure rowing in fixed seat boats, you want an oar with an amount of flexibility. It means less fatigue, a gentler stroke at the beginning and end, and better endurance for the rower. How much flex is very subjective and based on experience on the water as well as intuition. When Clint makes oars, youll often see him shaping the loom then taking it to the floor and springing it. Then the shaping continues based on the feedback from the wood.

Every board, each species, and different length oars will all feel different. What is right is based on our customers needs, rowing style, their goals, the waters and conditions the rower is in most of the time, and of course it depends on the boat itself.

Youll notice that the oar blades are quite different between these two oars.

The blade area and the shape are key factors in how much "Slip" the oar has in the water. Slip is a term for how much grab the blade has on the water, how much water the blade holds. Thus, a large, wide blade slips less in the water and can potentially produce more drive for the boat. There are other factors of course. But for the sake of this post, looking at these two different oars, the spruce spoon blade oars are specifically made for open water conditions where feathering is not completely necessary. The carbon blades will need to be feathered especially when the water is choppy. The blade area is also more outboard making these more efficient oars for flat water conditions or when there is a slight chop, for feathering. Other differences between these oars are in the oar leathers.


The carbon blade oars have a plastic sleeve that makes feathering easy. The all spruce oars have traditionally stitched leathers with a custom button that we produce on a lathe with nylon.


The split buttons are seized to the leathers with nylon twine and epoxy (and elbow grease). Another big difference between these oars are the upper looms. We laminated spanish cedar to the upper looms of the carbon blade oars to help counterweight the oars and make the looms a little more durable (and it looks snazzy!). The result is very nice and no lead counterweights were needed in the handle. The oars are sensationally light for 96" sculls.



I will update the post when I have a proper scale to take weights. The spruce spoons are counterweighted with 2lbs of lead (see lead insert sticking out of handle, boring hole for other insert).

The balance point for both oars is just below the leathers and the result is a very comfortable oar on the water that is effortless to bring through the stroke cycle, from recovery to catch, the blades have little perceptible weight to them. Careful varnishing follows construction. We use a fabulous product called Le Tonkinois, a linseed varnish that makes a durable finish that is very easy and pleasurable to maintain.


A parting shot shows what makes me as excited about this new kind of oar as much as the performance benefits it is the aesthetics that make them special. The contrast of Spruce wood and Carbon Fiber to me represents the yin and yang of oarmaking -- balance. We are trying to make rowing more fun with balanced, high-quality, beautiful oars made with passion.

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So what do you really get for that extra 425K

Very interesting, well worth a read, and a good point being made...

Reading a recent issue of Sail magazine I was admiring the look of the new Rustler 36 and, thinking to myself, what a nice cruising boat it would be. Well, right up till the point that I saw it was around $450K for a "sailaway" version.

Which is not to say that the Rustler is not a very, very nice boat but an over half-million dollar, old-school design boat by the time you get it off the dock for something that performs like and will take you to the same places as an old CAL 36 (or insert your favorite older classic plastic 36 here) you could buy for less than $15K.

Throw in a smart $10K bespoke refit and anchor it next to the Rustler 36 and 99% of folks who dinghy by wouldnt be able to tell the difference between the two...

Maybe its just me but I just cant see any way that extra $425K spent would make my life any better.

Just saying.

Listening to a hurdy-gurdy man...

So it goes...

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A new rig for a Goat Island Skiff Spruce for Roger Longs Yawl Dory and more Birdsmouth Masts and Spars

The finished mast and spars delivered and stepped into John Goodmans Goat Island Skiff Yawl #1 in Houston, TX. John does the Texas 200 in a few weeks!

To find good spruce you need to go right to the source. I enjoyed some wonderful walking with a customer who is having a Yawldory by Roger Long, N.A., built and wanted the Spruce for the spars, masts, and oars (my job) to come from her friends land. We walked (i.e., bushwacked) and tagged a few nice Spruce trees.

 

Birdsmouth Masts under construction for a Michael Storer Goat Island Skiff. With Michaels blessing, Clint drew a yawl rig for the boat.

 

Varnishing the Sitka Spruce/Northern White Spruce Birdsmouth mast allows the grain of the Sitka to deepen and develop the contrasting lighter-colored Northern White Spruce. You get some of the benefits of Sitka for half the cost by mixing it with the local spruce we get hear in Maine and Canada.

The two masts are for the Goat Island Skiff, a birdsmouth on the left and a hollow-rectangular mast on the right. The mast on right is a customers that I took in to check for chafing and leathered the chafed areas to prevent more.

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CNC Boat Kits and Prep for the Maine Boatbuilders Show

It has been very busy as evidenced by fewer postings. We have launched a new website for the CNC Boat Kit business www.CNCboatkits.com

ClintChaseBoatbuilder.com will feature the boatbuilding, mast and spars, and oars work.

One of the most important details in a good CNC kit is working out the NC scarf. Here is a CNC router cutting some test scarfs.

 

The router above is using a 1/4" bit to follow lines of code generated by computer software. The code is specific to a .dxf file for the part, in this case a scarf joint.

 

The dogbone shape you see is the key, literally, in that it locks the scarf together and aligns the entire plank. When a builder receives a kit, all the planks are precut to the precise spile and sweep of the plank but it short segments. To preserves the proper shape, this NC scarf needs to be right on the money.

 

The beauty of this scarf is that it is blind, covered up by the outside plys so that it is not seen from the outside. This would be especially important for varnished planks.

We are very busy getting ready for the 2010 Maine Boatbuilders Show in less than a week! We will be in building #2 on the left as you enter from the main entrance direction.

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On gifts for the Holidaze

Why I no longer eat octopus, a very, very good point, and on a related note...

Im finding it an entertaining process to read the varied and sundry blog posts of the boaty kind which revolve around gift lists for the Holidaze two-step. While, I, on the other hand, am knee deep in lists of things I want to get off the boat because "So It Goes" really wants its waterline back and been hinting that a new (long promised) rudder would not be amiss...

So, just a thought, but before you decide on giving your boat a lot of presents you might want to check and ask what it would like...

Listening to Silversun Pickups

So it goes...

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Maybe one hand for yourself and one for the boat just isnt enough

Im reading about this sort of shit thing way the frell too often, organize-fight-win, and a cruising perspective I share...

The recent loss of Carly Hill from "Oryx"  has had me reevaluating my entire thought process where MOB situations and two-person crews are concerned. My old thoughts on the subject being mostly centered around the DFOTFB (dont fall off the fucking boat) plan.

Back when we sailed Loose Moose and Loose Moose 2 we were often criticized because neither boat had lifelines (Phil Bolger not being a fan of such things) and I felt that lifelines enabled a false sense of security... Just for the record I still think that lifelines are problematic in this regard but they do make a good place to hang up clothes to dry which they are quite handy for.

On the other hand, I do put a lot (perhaps too much) faith in jacklines and a somewhat obsessive use of harness when the the conditions indicate needful.

The thing is that when Carly Hill went overboard the conditions were reportedly benign...

Accidents happen and just yesterday walking to the store I nearly went ass over teakettle on a sidewalk avoiding a bit of nastiness left over by some errant dog and, as I regained my balance thought to myself how easily accidents happen as a school bus nearly clipped me as it roared past. To be honest, the thought of "It was a dog turd/schoolbus that got him" on my headstone being somewhat tacky also came to mind...

Anyway, Ive been thinking quite a bit on the subject and starting to do some serious research in such things as AIS/DSC Personal Locators like this one which seems to make a lot of sense in that it gives the person left behind a proactive means of finding you in the event shit happens.

Listening to Hunter and the Bear

So it goes...

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Oarsman Tallow for your Leathers

Today I was taking an oar to show a group of students and I was reminded about how well Oarsman Marine Tallow keeps the leathers tight on the loom and quiet in the oarlock. I discovered this stuff while at the Wooden Boat Show a couple years ago, bought a small container, and now I live and swear by it. I apply it as seen in the pictures every other row, or every row when I am rowing frequently. I also use it on my oarlocks and sockets. Great stuff. To order some, contact the maker, Rodger Swanson.

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Why the Yawl Rig for the Goat Island Skiff or for any boat

I am asked this a lot and wanted to put something together to answer this and other questions. I added the mizzen to the GIS because I wanted a boat for myself that would be easier to singlehand on longer excursions and for use in sail-and-oar events such as the Small Reach Regatta, the Texas 200, and other RAID events like the Shipyard School Raid and Sail Caledonia. Many, many of the boats you see in these events have a mizzen.

For my own use of the GIS, a mizzen is needed for a variety of reasons:

1) to hold the boat into the wind while the sail is raised, lowered, or reefed while singlehanding or sailing with my kids.
2) to hold the boat into the wind while rig is unstepped and stowed and oars are rigged for rowing
3) to be able to hold the boat to windward or to heave-to while underway for taking short breaks to move people, re-stow gear, or go to the bathroom with out getting blown off course.
4) to be able to back off docks and beaches and control steering in tight spaces
5) to be able to tune the weather helm felt by the helmsman by trimming the mizzen

Other FAQs

Is the designer aware of your changes to the Goat Island Skiff?
Yes, I have a great working relationship with Michael Storer whom I consider a friend. He and I correspond often and he has OK-ed the addition of the mizzen and trusts that I will design and build the new rig so that it fits in with the concept of the GIS. For example, all pains will be taken so that this addition adds very little weight to the boat. The mizzen mast will be a lightweight, birdsmouth mast.

Is the lug sail the same and is it stepped in the same place or how has the lugs position been adjusted for the new mizzen?
I have designed new sail rigs for boats before, for dories actually. After drawing the new rig, finding the new center of effort (CE) of the added sail area, and moving things around, the new CE and old CE are in the same place such that the centerboard does not need to be changed. In the GIS, the lug is the same standard sail (105 SF) and it will step in a secondary partner/step forward of bulkhead #1. It turned out that the lug needs to be moved forward only 9" keeping things tied into the bulkheads for structural integrity and simplicity. The original mast step is retained so the boat can be sailed with or without the mizzen. The GIS Yawl is is still the usual standard GIS, but with an added mizzen. You can take the boat out with more flexibility in rig choice.

Has one been built and how well does it work?
I expect to have a GIS Yawl on the water this summer, my personal boat, but orders for sail rigs and boat kits may prevent that from happening. However, one kit is going to a customer who will be doing the yawl and plans to be sailing this summer in the Texas 200. I have no doubt that the boat will go as well as the standard, upwind and downwind, but with the added benefits of the mizzen for RAIDs and sail0and-oar type of use. If the mizzen is not needed, leave it ashore and use the Goat as the standard lug-only arrangement.

You can learn more about How to Use the Yawl Rig in my blog post.

or the Goat Island Skiff page on my website.

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Paper Jet Prototype for Sale

I designed the Paper Jet to be an exciting junior trainer, capable of taking a young sailor through multiple skill-levels, from a basic free-standing una-rigged dinghy through to a high-performance trapeze skiff with asymmetric spinnaker. This it does without having to spend bundles of money to trade up to another boat, by doing it all on the same hull and adding or swapping rig and hardware components. She is extremely light, with the hull weighing only 94lb, easily manhandled by small crew.

Paper Jet in una-rig Lite format.

It has proven capable of doing all that I intended, although I have used my prototype #001 as a single-hander for myself. I have cruised it in sedate fashion in light breezes, when it reels off the miles. I have also blasted on trapeze at well over 20 knots just clipping the tops of the waves. And between those two extremes she has given me many hours of fun and exhilarating sailing.

Paper Jet in Turbo format, with asymmetrical spinnaker on the foredeck.

But, I have had knee problems since a teenager, from surfing too many hours in icy cold water without a wetsuit. Now, 50 years later, it has caught up with me. My knees wont let me get out on trapeze any more and my left knee dislocated at least 6 times while sailing this past weekend. In the middle of a tack is no time to be manipulating a dislocated knee back to its intended format.

So, the Paper Jet prototype, sail #001, is for sale. She comes with all components for all three rig formats as well as upgrades that I made to the design over the 8 years that I have sailed her. Included are:-

Standard mainsail
Turbo full-batten fathead mainsail
Jib on roller-furler
Asymmetrical spinnaker with sock
Mast with short and long topmasts
Boom
Retracting bowsprit
Daggerboards - three different lengths
Rudders - old and new versions
All deck hardware
All standing & running rigging
Launching dolly

Selling price is $8,000, which is not a lot more than the material cost to build her with all of the sails and bits that she has. She is in good shape, with totally watertight hull, just needing some minor paint and varnish touch-ups. We will have her at the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic CT this coming weekend, from Friday through Sunday. After that she will be back at our base in Virginia Beach VA.

If interested, please contact me.

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Dory model and Jig for Birdsmouth Mast

The Deblois Street Dory model is coming together! The approach is to model it at 1/4-scale and line off the planking on the model. These points will be transferred back to a 1/4-scale lofting of the boat and the lines plan will be redrawn to show the chines. A new table of offsets will be made and a couple in Portland will be building the Dory this Fall. Feel free to see a drawing of the Deblois Street Dory by clicking HERE.

In Goat Island Skiff land, preparations are under way to produce Birdsmouth masts as kits or final products, depending on the customers needs. Well make a Birdsmouth mast for our own Goat, first, and ours may be the first Birdsmouth Mast to be used in a Goat Island Skiff! The plan is to market these to other Goat builders who might not have the time or interest in taking on this project. The picture shows the key to doing this on a semi-production basis, a stave taper jig. A long plane will be used to do the work; the plane sole will follow the hardwood guides and the staves will lie in the "bed" between the guides. The staves will eventually match the guides width and carry the right taper along their length.

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Finisterra is For Sale

All good things come to an end eventually and after three and a half years, 18,000 miles and a zillion wonderful moments aboard Finisterra, the time has come for us to turn the page and start another chapter. So we are reluctantly putting Finisterra up for sale.

Finisterra on a mooring in Catalina at the end of our last voyage to Mexico.

Finisterra has been the perfect cruising boat for us. Shes been tough, reliable and extremely comfortable to cruise aboard and we are going to miss her. Ive created a web site that describes the boat and equipment so if youd like to know more about her, visit her web site at finisterraspecifications.blogspot.com

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Parts for GIS Kit

A set of high quality plywood parts has been made. The boat will be dry fit and professional quality patterns will be made for creation of a CNC file. Kits are available now for new boatbuilders or seasoned boatbuilders. They will receive a CNC-cut kit that will go together to produce a hull that was professionally "tweaked" to get the fairest lines and best fitting components. In addition to the plywood parts, kits can be assembled for timber component (stem, frames and cleats, gunwales, etc.), epoxy and fiberglass/supplies, and hardware/cordage to help you fit out the boat and get on the water. Orders can be placed by contacting me directly at Clint@ClintChaseBoatbuilder.com

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Didi Mini for Sale

The Didi Mini "Livesey" is being offered for sale. She was professionally built in Russia and is currently berthed in Turkey. She is being offered for 20,000 Euro, which is way below her replacement price with equipment.

"Livesey", a Didi Mini outfitted for cruising.

"Livesey" is rigged out as a fast little cruiser, built with 9mm hull skin instead of the standard 6mm and with large double forward berth and quarter berths to comfortably sleep four. Unfortunately I dont have any interior photos.

"Livesey" out of the water. Fast planing underbody.

She is well-equipped, with racing and cruising mainsails, gennaker, asymmetrical, code 0, jib, storm jib and storm trysail. Other equipment includes Icom radio, Raymarine autopilot, instruments and GPS, solar battery charger, 6hp Mercury outboard, 4-man liferaft and an inflatable kayak.

"Livesey" deck view.

"Livesey" view from the masthead.

"Livesey" side view.

"Livesey" is the Mk1 version of the Didi Mini design, with the step-down aft deck. She is well-found and suitable for long distance cruising for those who want a compact little boat that will give fast passages. An owner cruising a similar boat in the North Atlantic reports that he can sail as fast as the bigger boats cruising the same route that are motoring because there is not enough wind for them to sail effectively.

If she interests you, please contact me by email, then I will put you in contact with the seller.

To see our full range of designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/.

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