January 26 29 Four More Lay Days in Marathon Zero Miles

Here is a view, looking east toward the mooring field in Marathon from ILENE.

LOTS of masts. and more beyond them. A few of the boaters are at the marinas dock, a seawall.

And the marinas inner dinghy dock with lots of room. They have as much room again at the outer dinghy docks to the right at the rear end of the photo.  And they have "project rooms" where you can sew sails, varnish your oars, etc.

We had a very pleasant day with Bev, who was introduced to us by my friend, Hugh. She picked us up in her truck and drove us back to her beautiful home on Duck Key, about twelve nautical miles back east from here. Bev served us a lunch, let us do laundry and take showers, took me to Home Depot and Lene to Publix and then we had happy hour and dinner with her at the Sunset Grill, at the western end of Marathon, with great sunsets, before driving us back to our dink. It was a very full afternoon, on a day when the wind had moderated somewhat so we were not afraid to leave ILENE unattended. Bev lost her husband, suddenly, less than two years ago. They were boaters so she knows how to treat cruisers. She has five lovely grandkids in MA and in MO, where she will be moving back to soon. Bev is a pretty woman but sadly declined the offer to appear in this blog. Duck Key is an upscale residential community on an island south of Route 1, with mostly waterfront homes on the canals that run through the island. Shopping is a ten mile drive to Marathon. Sadly, we may never see you again Bev, but if you ever come to NYC and we are home, there is a berth for you.

These manatees come to the dock where there is a fresh water hose. But we are not supposed to feed them water because it encourages them to come in too close where they get hurt by propeller blades. You can see a white scar on mommas back (upper left). She is ten feet long! They are vegetarians and will not intentionally harm a human. Sort of a weird cross between a walrus head, a whales body and a beavers tail.

While at Home Depot, with a lot of help from a very knowledegable staffer, I bought all of the parts (except nuts, bolts, washers and sealant -- which I had) to install the aft, 360 degree white running light atop a length of PVC pipe.

The problem was that the base of the light had only a threaded hole for a six mm bolt. I needed to create a stub to stick into the PVC. About two hours of work the next morning in the wind sheltered inner dinghy dock area, and it is done. Until now we had to hold the white light on the top of one of our heads, which gets tiring on the arms after a while. And while I was at it, after looking at MANY other dinks at the dock, I tied a thin short line around the base of the dinks red and green bow light, with the other end secured in the boat. So when, the section cup fails, as it will, the $35 light will fall into the boat rather than into the sea.

Then we met Alex, proprietor of SeaTek. He had come recommended by John and Marcia of s/v Remora. A very pleasant and efficient young man with a beard who lives aboard his boat, anchored here. He advised us to visit Marquesas Key on our way to the Tortugas, and stay in an unmarked place where the water is deep enough. He is also an intelligent and inexpensive marine electrician. He came to our boat, fixed a lot of things electrical and ordered the "combiner" we need to solve our battery charging problem which he will install when we stop here on our way north. I had caused one problem when I installed the batteries: I crossed two black cables causing the Link interface to confuse the two batteries. Another problem was a fuse that took ten seconds to replace. He pointed out a poor crimp which I fixed after he left. I took the aft part of the boat apart before he got here to save time and was very pleased with how much he got accomplished in one $70 hour.

An afternoon of shuffleboard followed by Lene watching her TV shows on the Marinas wifi while I visited the Marathon YC, where, as Harlem members we are welcome to dine. They have 300 members, mostly power boats, and only 20 slips -- no moorings. Most of the members keep their boats at back yard docks in the canals. A rather unforgettable, except for presentation, dinner at Marathon Steak and Lobster rounded out our visit here.

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BoatBuilding A Mad Mothist does a Bottom ectomy

On modifying my Classic Moths Ive rebuilt decks, rebuilt daggerboard trunks, added buoyancy tanks, glassed interiors, but Ive never grafted a new bottom onto an existing Moth - performing a bottom-ectomy so to speak. British Mad Mothist, Jim Champ, former Cherub sailor, dinghy historian, amateur dinghy designer, current International Canoe sailor, and webmaster of the International Canoe website is doing just that to a fiberglass Skol he purchased.

Ill let Jim explain his project in his own words.

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"The back story is I picked up this 1970ish Skol Int. Moth because I needed something to sail while a health problem was stopping me sailing my Int Canoe in most conditions, and besides, Id always fancied one. The fact that I am now about 5 stone too heavy even for a vintage Moth didnt deter me.

Anyway, the boat came out of someones garage roof, and I completely failed to spot, under the layers of dust, that at some stage the boat had been sliced off at the waterline and been given a new wood bottom, replacing the original glass. This was no problem until after a seasons use it became apparent that the wood bottom had been allowed to rot back in the day, and some crucial bits were now leaking badly as the water had re-penetrated.

So I ended up cutting off the wood bottom, and Im now building a new one, and learning about cold moulding while I am at it. Shape wise its roughly based on a Cherub I drew in about 1974 but could never afford to build.

What have I learned from this project? Not to be afraid of cold moulding, and when you do it use plenty of strips. I originally was trying to use quite large panels in order to minimize the number of accurate edges I had to cut, but actually getting the sides of the strips accurate is surprisingly easy given a small sharp plane and a block and sandpaper. Its definitely right to have too many strips rather than too few. Getting the length right on a very 3d boat, on the other hand was a nightmare, but in any rational new build that wouldnt be an issue. 2mm ply was definitely much easier than 2.5mm veneer, having tried both, but if you use ply you cant varnish because the smart money is youll go through the outer layer in some (or in my case, many) places when fairing up.

I did the boat partly in 2 * 3mm and partly in 3 * 2mm. The junction between the two was something of a pain and in any case I carried 3mm too far forward. The last bit of 3mm was definitely excessively 3d. Im sure the boat is somewhat asymmettric in that area because with the panels at 45/45 ish, bending the last bit was problematic. The first layer has a much bigger impact on final shape than subsequent ones, and in the transition on one side the first skin was 2mm and the other 3mm. It would probably have been better to suffer the horrendous cost of the 2mm ply and done the whole boat in that. If I were doing a new boat it would be 2 * 2mm ply all over with a glass skin inside and out, uprating the inner skin appreciably in the slamming area round the bow by adding inner glass over skin and stringers, not under stringers.

This was the first project I used a router on which was interesting. Vision really was a major problem, I guess my shop isnt that well lit because I found it really hard to see what the cutting edge was doing. For a long accurate cut to put a rabett in the glass topside (ouch, terrible thing to do to a cutting tool) I stapled a batten as a guide right along the boat and that was a major win. The other thing that helped with a router was to get a marker pen and colour the area I wanted to remove, which made it soo much easier to be confident about what I was doing. I still had a few slips in the wrong places though. 

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Some photos...

Looks like Jim was able to cold mold over two stringers per side as well as the topside stringer junction.

Finished hull. The Skol featured a self-draining hull. George A, fellow Classic Moth bloggist over at Mid-Atlantic Musings, has also deconstructed a Skol back to a bare hull. Click here to read about his Skol project.

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Jim adds the history of the Skol in the comments section which Ive dragged to the main post.

"From what I can make out there seem to have been 4 Skol [models].

Mk 1 may have just been 3 prototypes, which look as if they had unstayed masts and a fair gunwale line.

George A.s boat is a Mk 2. The 1969 Moth yearbook said production was planned for two versions, a SL and regate version. The SL was to have a daggerboard and was the lighter built. The yearbook also says [it sported] an unstayed mast. I think in practice many were built with stayed rigs. They seem to have had false floors and stern tanks, at least some with drains through the stern tank. The actual production detail may have varied, but all had the little extra piece at max beam [hiking winglets].

Mine started life as a Skol Mk 3. She has a fair gunwale line, an open stern and a deck stepped mast. The shrouds were supported by glassed in alloy tubes down to the base of the mast foot.

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Applying Thermal Imaging To Metal Boats

Applying Thermal Imaging To Metal Boats

This was a topic that fellow marine surveyor Jack Allinson and I presented at the 2013 IBEX ( International Boatbuilders Exhibition & Conference). I am new to thermal imaging, but over the past year Jack Allinson has proven its worth when it comes to metal boats. Mr. Allinson has been applying thermal imaging to marine surveying since 2003. Here at DBYS I am working on my Level 1 certification and have acquired a Flir Thermal Imager to add to my tool box for my metal boat inspections. Thermal imaging or also known as Infared Thermography, has been used in factory inspections, home inspections and marine surveying of composite boats for years.
When we apply it to metal boats it gives us  "better set of eyes" along with visual inspection and audio gauging. We have found that often where thermal anomalies are found there is trapped moisture and/or corrosion, and paint voids. One of the benefits is the ability to see the structure of the boat and location of the tanks. I find this very helpful to speed up my layout for UT/audio gauge inspection 

  From our presentation:
Infrared thermal imaging and correct interpretations of surface thermal patterns can be a real boon to cost-conscious clients keen on the price point required to find metal wastage, trapped and hidden moisture, and to document the water routes (trails) created when dewatering a vessel. On most UTM jobs, as much as 60% of the work effort goes into planning and implementing where to take the random spot checks for plating thickness. With the right environmental conditions this work can be easily reduced by half by scanning the shell plate with an infrared thermal imager.

 

In the images below the transverse framing and longitudinal stringers are visible.  I will post other photos at a later date that I have been able to locate corrosion.

Steel Brewer Schooner

Steel Dix 47

Steel Dix 47

Aluminum Utility Boat

 

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Boatbuilding Lark Scow Part 1

Other posts on the Lark scow.

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Peter Gilbert of the Erieau Lark fleet in Canada has started a new Lark scow (named Pinky Too, his Dad built Pinky 2 and Pinky 3) using the Kerr plans. He sends along some photos. The Kerr plans follow the original C.G. Davis plans in using a lot of frames. Instead of sawn frames, Peter has laminated the arc sections. He is planking the bottom of the Lark with plywood but with a hi-tech twist; he is using 3mm plywood with a carbon fiber sheathing (I wonder how this will square with the Erieau Y.C fleet as Peters construction may possibly result in a Lark considerably lighter than the current boats.)

I like how these builders determine fairness using a full glass of beer as a sight-line.

The solid timber side planks hold everything together before the bottom and deck goes on.

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Virginia Beach Optimist Project

Update from Als project at the end of April, 2013:

Well, I really have been working on this baby but being retired takes up a lot of time.  For the last month I have been trying to get her finally ready for the water.  What this in essence means is that i have sanded, and sanded and sanded some more.  I have used every type of sanding device that i know of including wrapping a piece of sand paper around a 3/8" drill bit and sanding along some of the rough fillets.  What I have definitely learned is that neatness is worth a lot and I was not as neat with the epoxy as I could and should have been.  This left a lot of high spots and some really sharp edges that could do a job on little knees.  They are all gone now and another thin coat of epoxy has been rolled over all the unpainted areas, mainly the inside of the boat but also the spruce part of the gunwales.  I plan on attaching strips of mahogany as the outer rub rail and just vanrishing these.  No epoxy.  They are almost ready to attach.

I have made my mast and gooseneck from PVC..  The mast 1 1/2" pipe cut to length and then reinforced with treated wood and the goose neck is from a 1 1/2 x 1 1/4" tee.  My boom was supposed to be a 1 1/4" hardwood dowel but HD and Lowes both have ceased carrying that size (where i live) so the closest I could come was a poplar dowel 1 3/8" in diameter that I sanded down and have a nice fit into the 1 1/4" side of the tee.

I also found that my back couldnt take much more bending over to work on the inside so I made some 24 high saw horses that bring the boat to a perfect (for me) height to save my back.  Cute little things.

Today I attached to rudder.  Put the pintles & gudgeons on and took a lot of time to make sure I got it right. I think I did.  The rudder and tiller look really nice.  Hope they work as well as they look.

Now I am at the stage of what next? It appears that a dinghy dolly will be that project.  I havent found actual plans for one but have seen photos and  figure that I can make something close to what Ive seen that will fit the bill.

There is one more go round with epoxy filling some dings and gouges and no doubt some sanding after that.  Then it will be a clean up and Helmsman for the inside.  Really cant wait to do that finishing.

 

 

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Header Photo Sabre Dinghy and the Return of the Retro Singlehanders

The previous header photo is of Aussie Matt Kiely sailing the Australian singlehander Sabre class dinghy. The photo was lifted from the South Gippsland Y.C.Facebook page.

Probably the major trend in dinghy racing over the last 30 or so years has been the growth of singlehanded racing at the expense of doublehanded or triplehanded classes. And the trend since the millenium has been the explosive comeback of  what I call the retro hiking singlehanders; those other singlehanded classes designed before, or around the date of the introduction of the Laser (1969). For the most part, these classes are not international (excepting the OK Dinghy and Europe Dinghy); they are popular country-by-country or region, and they attract fleets of thirty, forty or more boats at major championships. They have a builder or two turning out modern hulls, some have carbon masts, many have aluminum. They seem to fill a need in the marketplace that the Laser does not.

I have compiled a list of retro singlehanders. I have excluded the Olympic Finn - 1949 (which has a huge Masters scene) and singlehanders with hiking assists (trapeze, sliding seat). Feel free to add your thoughts about this list in the comments section. (Before the Sunfish sailors jump all over me for excluding the Sunfish from the list - let me state the Sunfish has maintained high levels of popularity in parts of North America and parts of South America for many, many years - I dont see a comeback in popularity - they just maintained it.):

• Solo (U.K.) - 1956 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• OK Dinghy (Den.) - 1957 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Streaker (U,K.) - 1975 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Phantom (U.K.) - 1971 - carbon mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Lightning 368 (U.K.) - 1977 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Sabre (Aus.) - 1974 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• Impulse (Aus.) -1975 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• O-Jolle (Ger.) - 1933 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Larken-Klasse (Ned.,Ger.) - 1920s - wood mast, stayed rig, full battens 
• Europe Dinghy (Moth) - 1960 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Zephyr (NZ) - 1956 - aluminum mast, stayed, full battens

Despite the recent introduction of the "modern" RS Aero, or Devoti D-Zero, with lightweight hulls, mylar sails (correction - the Aero has dacron sails), carbon rigs, it seems the singlehanded market is marching in the other direction. (I must admit the North American market is an anomaly here with not a lot of singlehanded classes under the Laser - still king by a long-shot-, and the Sunfish - a solid runner-up, The other singlehanded classes in North America - like my Classic Moth - are mustering small numbers...Oops! I forgot about the MC scow, now very popular in the U.S.)

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Working on a July Launch Date for the Optimist

My brothers and I have slowed our building of the Optimist down to a crawl. However, my brother Darren has taken the lead and wants the first boat to launch on July 4th.

He has purchased sail, tiller and extension, blades (rudder, centerboard), gudgeons from APS - Annapolis Performance Sailing.

To protect the chine he has laid down a 2 inch strip of fiberglass cloth in simple-clear polyester resin. It should provide a bit of resistance to any "hard blows" on rocks that make up the shore of our part of Lake Ontario.

Polyester resin is quick to harden and very easy to sand. It costs about half the price of shipping epoxy to us. Its just a short drive to the auto parts to pick up a quart.

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