Planking!

Well if it was a canoe, we'd be about done planking by now. But it's not, so we'll be planking for another couple of months. Not sure if I mentioned this last time, but there will be 26 planks on the boat when it is all done... 13 per side. This is a lapstrake boat, meaning the planks will overlap 1" to give it a very traditional look.


Putting on a plank takes about a week. Theoretically, our team of 3 should be putting on 3 planks a week, but theory and reality don't always meet. Here are the steps....

1) Choose a few boards from the pile
2) Resaw (the thick ones) or plane down to 3/4"
3) Drill out knots and bung
4) Create Spiling Planks / pick up points on the boat
5) Layout and scarph 3 or 4 boards together
6) Plane the entire thing down to the final 5/8" thickness
7) Transfer Spiling marks, batten off, cut top (bottom of boat) edge to line, bottom edge roughly
8) Steam the ends of the plank to get the twist in
9) Fit the top edge and ends
10) Mark the bottom edge
11) Batten off and cut bottom edge
12) Cut gains (1/2 laps at the end of the planks where the overlap tapers to nothing)
13) Sand
14) Rivet
15) Create bevel to accept next plank

We've got a couple months, so I'll post pictures of these steps (and to make it fun, I won't be doing it in order) along with a progress picture.

Anyhow... we've almost got 6 planks on. The 6th just needs to be riveted. Here is the port side. The bottom "plank" is for spiling. It is a temporary, skinny plank we put on the boat. The plank above it is marked where the next plank needs to land, and the molds below it are also marked (remember lining off?). To pick up these points, we use a compass set at a fixed radius and create arcs on the spliling plank. Now it is a simple trick of geometry to find out where those arcs were originated from when we put this spiling splank on the new plank.


Here is the spiling plank laid out on a set of new boards. Using the information on the spiling plank we'll align the new boards in such a way that when we scarph (glue) them together, we'll get a long cedar board with the appropriate bend which will allow us to get the correct pattern out.


Enough of boats for now. Off to Mexico!

Lining Off the Big Boat

Would somebody please leave a comment? All this blog work and I don't get one peep. Makes me think nobody is reading this thing.

Enough complaining. So last time we were getting the pieces together. They are now attached and on the mold. Here are shots of the front and back of the boat. The mysterious rabbet is now not so mysterious.


Not sure if I mentioned this before... but this is a double-ender. No transom.

The next step is lining off. Basically, we are putting temporary sticks (called battens) on the mold see where each plank will lie. This exercise is mostly for aesthetic purposes, but we also need to make sure that the planks aren't too wide where the boat makes a sharp turn in the center. We start in the center, where the girth is longest. We mark some plank sizes on the center mold, (They start off about 7" wide, narrow down to 4" near the turn of the bilge, and then grow again to about 6") then geometrically diminish them for the shorter girths on the other molds.

Here is the incredible geometric diminisher.

We place some tick strip on the marked center mold to pick up all the plank sizes and then place those on the bottom of the diminisher. We then draw lines from each plank endpoint to some point in the distance. Then we go to a different mold and pick up the distance between the keel and the sheer. We line those points up to the sheer and keel lines (the outer ones of the triangle) and pick up all the plank positions, then transfer those points to the mold. Confusing, eh? All this ingenuity could have been avoided if we just used the metric system. Basically, all we are doing is reducing each plank size for the change in girth down the length of the boat. But what is 59/74ths of 4 1/8"? I have no idea... so we use the incredible geometric diminisher...but I'm pretty sure I could tell you what 59/74ths of 9.1cm is, and even mark it on a mold. (It is 7.25cm by the way).

All this diminishing is just to get us close anyway. Next step is to run the battens (using the marks we just put on the molds as guidelines) along the length of the boat. Then, you stare at them. Here is the building crew doing the hard work of lining off. To my left(your right) is Josh and then Jamie, my building partners on this project.

All kidding aside about standing around and looking at this thing... this was tough. The marks we made work well up to about 4 feet from the ends. Then you have all sorts of crazy stuff going on. The lines twist and turn and if you just used the magically diminished points you would end up with a boat that floats, but an ugly one at that. What makes it tough is moving one line effects all others, in 3 dimensions. Anyhow, after a lot of cursing and moving, we finally ended up with lines that we liked.


In other news.... the other big boat is getting set up as well. This one is right side up.
The 12 1/2 (right side of the picture above) is almost done.

The peapod is planked......

One final note.... the beer making equipment has come out of the closet. We just brewed my first batch in years. Should be ready to drink after the Thanksgiving break if I can get it bottled next weekend.

On to the big boats

Hi again. Still busy up here in Maine. Had a nice break last weekend with Nicole in Boston. We met up with old friends (Jeff and Manjere... we went to their wedding in India) as well as Ashley and Ramses.

We had a special guest this week in the shop... Nigel Irons, the designer of the large open boats we are working on, came for a visit. It was very interesting to here his take on designing and building boats. He is all about working with the best of the old and new. If you haven't heard of him... he designs America's cup boats, as well as the super fast trimarans that have set around the world speed records. The person commissioning the boats also was at the shop. He recently completed a 2 year voyage around the world. He gave a great slide show.

Things are humming at the shop. I'll start off with a quick summary of what is going on :

Reepicheep : A yacht tender the shop built years back and went on that around the world journey. It is back for restoration and the addition of a sailing rig. The frames are in and the centerboard and centerboard box are installed.

Heresshof 12 1/2 : The venerable daysailer. Remeber that keel pour? Well, this thing really looks like a boat now.


Susan Skiffs : Vanya spent some times finishing up the skiff Thomas (a summer intern) started but didn't quite finish. And Sarah is almost done with hers.

Peapod : 14' row/sailboat. 8 of 10 planks are on!

And finally, my project... the twin open boats. We've been working on the backbones. I've done a stem and keelson (the top part of the keel). It has been a facinating process to see the lines we developed on the lofting board come to life. The molds are one thing. Intuitive even.... just cross section of the boat. But there is this thing called a "rabbet" where the planks meet the backbone. Seeing how this is represented on the lofting board and then being rendered in 3D in wood is educational to say the least. It is exciting to work on pieses that actually become part of the boat rather than just a construction aid.

Here is the stem. The rabbet is the cut out that runs along the right side. Note the stem is currently sitting on the keel. Hard to see, but there is a bevel along the top of the keel.

Here is the keelson (or at least a few feet of it... it is over 20' long). You should be able to make out the bevel on this as well. When this piece is attached to the keel, the 2 bevels meet and make a right angle to accept the bottom plank.
Now look at the stem picture again. See the big notch in the bottom right of the picture? That is where the keel/keelson meet the stem and the rabbet must flow smoothly from one piece to the next (since that is what the plank will want to do). Will it all work out? Find out in the next installment!

Oh.. one last word on the wood we are using. The keelson / keel stock was a piece of oak 6" X 10" by 25' long.

Eric

Susan Skiff Launched

Well fall has come and quite possibly gone, but it has been fabulous. I've had great weekends hiking with Nicole and Jessie in Franconia Notch, and watching Phillip and Krista get married in Vermont.

The apprentices took a 3 day sailing camping trip up to Warren Island, which is only about 15 miles north of us, but depending on the wind and the tides (I've learned to respect the tides here) can take you a very short or very long amount of time to arrive. We ended up having to motor to get there (after sloughing along for about 5 hours only to make it about 2 miles from home), but made the return trip in about 3 hours.

I also got to go on another Schooner trip. This time on the Corwith Cramer. Quite a ship... 135 feet overall. And unlike the Spirit of MA, this one had a friendly crew.

At the shop, my first project is complete. The 12' Susan Skiff floated, and it can be yours for a mere $1200 (a bargin at twice the price). Here are some pictures.

That's Vanya on the right... he did the Port side, I did the Starboard.



Now it is on to the big boats (remember the lofting?). Here is the first boat's molds all set up. This one is being built upside down. Just for fun, the other one will be built right side up. Usually small boats are built upside down because it is easier to plank. Then you flip it over to finish it off. Large boats are built right side up because of the flipping part. This size boat is kind of in the middle... so we'll find out which is easier. (Note... this is only about 1/2 of the boat in the picture)


My first contribution will be to put the stem of one of the boats together. More on that next time.....

Busy Busy Busy

Hi all, been awhile, so here goes......

The Susan Skiff is coming along. Here she is with the bottom planking completed, the skeg, keel, and rubrails installed. You can see she is now off the mold. We've got a lot of the interior work done as well, but I don't have a picture yet.


Curtis and Dylan poured the keel for the Herreshof 12 1/2. Pretty cool process. All you really do is heat up some liquid, open a valve, and let it run into a mold. What makes it fun is that you are heating up 400 lbs of lead to 600 degrees. Here is a picture of the set up and the result (still in the mold).


Nicole came for a visit and we went kayaking in the big pond. We went to Muscongus bay, just south of Rockland. Camped on Hog island for 2 nights and got in about 25 miles of paddling. It is pretty nice, since you are "away from it all" since you're camping on an island, but during the day we stopped in a little seaside village for clams and ice cream. We had an exciting paddle back into a 20 - 30 knot headwind and a tide that was going in (opposite direction of the wind). The conditions were rough, and we were definately on the edge of our abilities, but we poached on some rich dudes pier for a little rest and were able to push thru the rough spot and into windward shore (that is... one that blocks the wind).


In other news, I went lobstering for a day, won the kayak division in the short ships regatta, went hiking with Nicole and Jessie in Franconia Notch, and sailed on some pretty boats. This one is Tremolino.

Kayaking and Lofting

Nicole came for a visit! We did another kayak camping trip. This time in Muscungus Bay, which is only a 30min drive south of Rockland. Lots of islands with campsites (look up the Maine Island Trail Association if you are interested) and fairly sheltered. That said, the water was salty and we had to deal with the tides. It was much fun. We camped on Hog Island both nights and paddled around the bay for a couple days. When I got back I traced our route on a map and calculated we did about 25 miles in 3 days. The last day was the most exciting by far. We had a 20 or 30 knot headwind with the tide going in. So lots of choppy water. We made it though. Here is Nicole relaxing at sunrise on Hog Island before the big paddle.

In the shop, I'm taking a break from the Susan Skiff to start the next project.... a pair of 28' open boats - outward bound style. The first step is to draw the boat full size. This picture probably isn't very good, but it is part of a 8 foot by 32 foot table we built on the shop and started plotting points. There are 3 views of the boat... side, top down, and cross section. The trick is to make them all look good. Each time you move a point in one view, it effects another view. Once all the views look good, we'll make molds based on the cross section views.

Planks and Racing!

This week Vanya and I got the planks on the Susan Skiff as well as the bottom stock cut and shaped.

























We also went racing! My first time racing as the guy at the tiller. We raced the J-24 and did surprisingly well. In a fleet of 7 boats we got a 4th and a 5th place in 2 races. The 4th place race we were late.... 2 minutes late, and we only finished 1min, 50sec behind the leader. The other race was a yawner as the wind died on us. The crew performed handsomely but there is plenty of room for improvement. The 5.5m class boat will hopefully be raced as well next weekend. The PHRF (handicaps for those who don't speak sailboat racing) on the 5.5m and the J-24 are nearly identical, so it should be fun and close race. A classic rivalry in the making.

Catching Up

All right! I've got a blog. I'll try to post at least once a week, but you know how these things go.

Here is a brief overview of my first month in Maine.

Week 1 : Moved in to the Brewster house. Built a tool box/tray.








































Week 2 : Nicole comes for a visit! Built an even bigger box (18' long) for shipping a just completed boat from Maine to Lake Tahoe. Started sailing the lovely boats that Atlantic Challenge owns.

This is Ruth.








This pretty thing is Lyric, a 5.5m rule boat built in 1968. It is planked completely in mahogany. Beautiful on the inside. It was built with "tight seam" construction. Meaning there is no caulking or anything between the planks. When it was on land, you could see right through her. This picture shows her on the trailer on the boat ramp at high tide. For the first several hours in the water, the waterline inside the boat was the same as the outside. Eventually (about 48 hours), the planks swelled and now she is pretty tight. The bilge pump runs once in awhile, but we are now sailing her.


Week 3 - 5 : Started building my first boat, a 12' Susan Skiff. This is the standard design all apprentices build as their first project. The mold is all set up, so you get right into building the boat. Here is the boat after a couple weeks. The stem/stem rabbet is first cut out. The transom is created (in back...can't see in the picture), the chines and keeson are fitted (the pieces on the "top" which are really the bottom) and the lining off (3 lower lines going fore and aft) is done to determine where the plank edges will be.





During this time we also went on a 2 day schooner trip. It was my first time in open water. While the crew was a little moody (they thought they were going to be able to take friends and family on this leg of the trip, but got stuck with us), overall it was a good time. Great sailing under moonlit skies. Shooting stars and whales. You can see how happy Vanya (who is my partner in building the Susan Skiff) is and how scowly the 2nd mate next too him is.



Nicole and I met on the border of NH and Maine (3 hour drive for each of us) and went camping. We did our first kayak camping trip on Lake Umbagog. It was a 6 mile kayak to a small island at the end of a cove. (Campsite R14 if you want to look it up). One thing about a backpacking loop... if you go up, chances are you get to go back down. On a kayak trip, you can end up having to go upwind the entire trip. On the other hand, you can bring as much wine and food as you want in a kayak. My kayak actually paddled better weighted down. Here was our campsite.























One last thing. I had nothing to do with this, but here is the Blue Moon Yawl, a 22' on deck (but much longer overall) boat that the shop made this past year. She is even lovelier in person.





Did I mention this is my view from my workbench?
There is another view of the blue moon in the center....