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Thread: Unlikely Boat Builder: Plan 'B'

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
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    62

    Unlikely Boat Builder: Lining Off

    Resuming our Tale of Two Boats...

    The Blue Moon's hull being painted, I relaunched her, splashing half a bottle of Blue Moon beer on her bow (no need to waste the whole bottle!)

    Then Bob and I motored her down to her temporary new home -- a dock in the Steinhatchee River. With her long bowsprit, the slip was a bit short for the Blue Moon, so we had to back her in. NOT an easy thing to do with her long keel and small motor....

    Read complete blog post: Lining Off

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  2. #17
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
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    62

    A Garboard Tragedy - Act 1

    The first step in getting out any plank is to spile it. Determined, this time, to follow the advice of the Boat Building Books as closely as possible, I read and re-read the pertinent sections of Greg Rossel's "Building Small Boats" until I believed I understood exactly what I was supposed to do.

    One important point was to not try to use one, long, single piece spiling batten. Such a batten cannot be curved around the forms in the right place without being edge set. And, I understood, edge setting a spiling batten is a sure path to depression, suicide, or worse...

    Read complete blog post: A Garboard Tragedy (Act 1)

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  3. #18
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    Dec 2009
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    Huntington Station, NY
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    62

    A Garboard Tragedy - Act 2

    All the BBBs (boat building books) tell you that when you spile, you must lock down your dividers and use exactly the same radii for all your arcs. Being an overly-clever chap, I saw straight through this lie.

    This brilliant insight almost tripped me up, of course.

    But before I explain myself, let me make up two definitions. There may be words for these processes already, but I don't know what they are...

    Read complete blog post: A Garboard Tragedy (Act 2)

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  4. #19
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
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    62

    Unlikely Boat Builder: Mountain Climbing

    There are a lot of good boat building books (BBBs) out there, and I own many of them. But when I started to build Cabin Boy, I decided to pick one guru to follow. That guru, for me, is Greg Rössel and specifically his book "Building Small Boats".

    Not only is Mr. Rössel a master boat builder, he's a very good writer, and as I finally fastened my very first real plank on to Cabin Boy, a line from his chapter on lofting came back to me...

    Read complete blog post: Mountain Climbing

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  5. #20
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
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    62

    Symmetry

    Only a darn fool -- or a first-time boat builder -- would try to cut the 'gains' on a lapstrake plank after fastening it to the building forms. But after forgetting to cut the gains on my first garboard, that's exactly what I had to do.

    What are 'gains'? On a lapstrake boat, like the one below, the planks overlap for the full length of the boat, but overlap magically disappears at the stem (and sometimes at the transom).

    There are several ways to perform this disappearing lap trick. I chose the method that looked the simplest to me: cutting a sloping rabbit along the edge of each plank...

    Read complete blog post: Symmetry

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  6. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
    Posts
    62

    Over the Hump?

    Wow. After finally figuring out how to spile Cabin Boy's garboard plank, I figured it would be a snap to do the rest of the planks. After all, they were so simple, compared to the garboard.

    Boy, was I wrong!

    Read complete blog post: Over the Hump?

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  7. #22
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
    Posts
    62

    Unlikely Boat Builder: Swedish Furled Foam

    Cabin Boy's build is now proceeding smoothly... I'm perfecting my planking technique, but nothing to exciting to report, so I thought I'd take a bit of a diversion...

    While finishing up Cabin Boy, I'm also preparing for my 2000 mile voyage on the Blue Moon.

    One piece of Blue Moon equipment that desperately needed replacement was the bunk cushion. The old one was grungy, damp, and well past it's due date. I chucked it onto the garbage pile while I was down in Florida, and thought I'd just buy a replacement.

    That was until I got a quote for $450! No way I was going to plunk down a King's ransom for a bit of foam. Surely I could make one myself for less? And -- more importantly -- learn a valuable new skill...

    Read complete blog post: Swedish Furled Foam

    Enjoy: John
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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  8. #23
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    Huntington Station, NY
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    62

    Planking Cabin Boy

    As I've been planking Cabin Boy, I've been trying to figure out ways to make the job easier and faster. But I found it difficult (nay, impossible!) to do more than one plank per day.

    The reason? Lots of steps. In fact, I counted 34 different steps per plank...

    Read complete blog post: Planks and a Scarf

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  9. #24
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
    Posts
    62

    Cabin Boy's bottom and the Maine Boat Builder's Show

    Cutting out and fastening Cabin Boy's bottom was easier than I expected. Using plywood, rather than the spiled cross planks that I'd planned on, saved a few days work, at least.

    Since it's almost time to pull the boat off the forms and start working on the interior, I decided to drive up to the Maine Boat Builder's show in Portland, to steal some ideas from 'real' boat builders.

    I'm glad I made the trip. Some great pics!

    Read complete blog post:

    The Unlikely Boat Builder: Ready to Flip

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  10. #25
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
    Posts
    62

    Cabin Boy's Launch

    At this moment, I am blogging from the middle of the river that flows through Steinhatchee, FL. Helena and I have spent the last few days preparing the Blue Moon for its 2000 mile voyage from the West Coast of Florida, around the Keys, and up the east coast of the US, to New York.

    Actually, I was focused on preparing the Blue Moon. Helena was focused on preparing me. We both must have done a pretty good job, because I'm tucked up in my comfy bunk (with my home made foam mattress), anchor light burning brightly from the mizzen mast, and -- miracle of miracles -- an Apple laptop connected to the Internet by a cell phone card, so I can blog all the way home.

    My intention is to up anchor around 9:30 tomorrow morning, to catch the morning tide for a ride out into the Gulf of Mexico. But before I start talking about the Blue Moon, I'd better talk about Cabin Boy's launch...

    Read complete blog post: Launch Day!

    Enjoy!
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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  11. #26
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
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    62

    UnlikelyBoatBuilder: Jessica Watson

    Today I'm anchored in Clearwater, Florida, having decided I didn't have time to make it into Tampa Bay before dark. Ever since threading the needle into Cedar Key in the pitch dark, I've been over cautious about getting to an anchorage before dark.

    Today, I found the perfect anchorage, and then decided to try for something just a wee bit better... Oh bitter irony!

    But I'm not emotionally ready to tell that story yet. Maybe later...

    Read blog post: Jessica Watson

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  12. #27
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
    Posts
    62

    Jumping Dolphins, Batman!

    The first night I anchored in the Manatee River, I anchored off Emerson Point Park. This is a huge anchorage that was almost empty when I was there. There was just one other boat, and she was at least a half-mile off.

    It was a clear, calm night, with a million stars in the sky. My kerosene anchor light was lit and hanging in the mizzen shrouds. I'd just taken a last peek outside and was tucked up in my bunk with a good book -- "Three Men In A Boat"...

    Read complete blog post: Jumping Dolphins, Batman!

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  13. #28
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
    Posts
    62

    Unlikely Boat Builder: Sidelights

    While waiting for the antibiotics to work their magic on my poor battered shin, I have been working on my to-do list. Top on the list today was to mount sidelight boxes in the Blue Moon's shrouds.

    Sidelights are the red and green running lights that sailboats must show at night. The Blue Moon came with tiny, electric sidelights, in the shape of a small plastic light that looked like it would be more in place on a kids bike than on a boat.

    Even though these tiny lights were barely visible, they gulped enormous amounts of electricity from my solar-driven batteries. Taking another page from the Pardey's books, I long ago decided to use kerosene running lights.

    Read complete blog post: Sidelights

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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  14. #29
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
    Posts
    62

    Unlikely Boat Builder: On the ICW

    Having completed some chores, like lashing my sidelight box into the rigging, it was definitely time to move on.

    One problem: getting back up the Manatee River. When the wind has blown at all, it has blown straight down the river. Not only does this make it difficult to beat out of the river, it has made the anchorage darn uncomfortable at times...

    Read complete blog post: On the ICW

    Enjoy: John

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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  15. #30
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Huntington Station, NY
    Posts
    62

    UnlikelyBoatbuilder: The Boss

    Yesterday, it was finally time to leave Sarasota Bay and head south. Unfortunately, a southerly wind was blowing like stink, as they say. No matter, I thought, I'll just motor. That is why sailboats have reliable engines, and I finally have a reliable engine.

    So I left my sail tied to the boom, powered up my engine, and headed south. The engine was reliable, and ran 100% better than before. As I've already said, before the rebuild, the engine had been unable to push the boat into any sort of strong headwind. It could now push us along at 3 knots against a 15 knot wind.

    The engine was loyal. It was game. It ran and ran all day. But by the end of the day, I knew the strain had been unfair. It was too much for the little one cylinder 4 stroke. If I wanted it to last the rest of the journey, I was going to have to be fair with it...

    Read complete blog post: The Boss

    Enjoy: John
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    Check out my blog: http://unlikelyboatbuilder.com
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