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....