Videos from Launch...

Maiden Voyage!

This past Saturday, 2 yrs/9 mos after starting the project, (and with a nod to Patrick O'Brian), she was christened "Nutmeg" at Washington Sailing Marina, just South of Reagan Airport. Before leaving the garage, there were a few last minute details to address (like checking the tire pressure and greasing the bearings), then we took off for the marina (about 20 mins away). That short drive was probably the most stressful part of the day, as we narrowly avoided being sideswiped when another car entering the highway forgot to yield...three cars and the boat had to share two lanes for what seemed like 30 seconds (but was probably more like 3).
In any case, the weather was almost perfect, with family around the company *was* perfect, and the sailing was better than I could have dreamed :)

Finishing up...

The last couple of months has been a continuation of the race against time to finish the build before Summer ends, in two days! I did end up 'glassing over the skeg and runners on the boat bottom, a difficult and time-consuming task as the fabric didn't want to make the sharp turns at the edges. I think the trick is to let the epoxy cure a while until it has just the right amount of tackiness to hold the 'glass in place, while at the same time not getting sidetracked on something else and getting back to it too late...in the end, there were a number of large bubbles that had to be cut out and filled back in with epoxy/wood flour, and the whole thing took far more time and effort than it deserved...but it will be worth it in the long run.
After that, the lion's share of the work (as usual with any painting job) was surface preparation, and I don't care if I never see another piece of sandpaper again. I was within 1/2 hr of finishing the 'glass edge sanding when my trusty random orbital sander started to make a funny noise...it was the "random" part of the motor; it had become just an orbital sander (not good for avoiding gouges, as I soon discovered). Ironically, I had just replaced the rubber pad on it a few weeks before--go figure...fortunately, Home Depot is just a mile away, so I was back in business in short order. [Note to self...if something breaks on a power tool, (unless it's brand new), strongly consider just buying a whole new one...]
The outside of the boat wasn't nearly as smooth as it should have been in a more than a few spots, but my patience finally reached its limit and I started priming. Two coats of primer, then 3 coats of paint (Interlux Brightside, Hatteras off-white 1990) then two more coats for the blue stripe (Interlux, medium blue) along the sheer line. All of it was done with a 3" foam roller (except for the very first coat of primer, where I stupidly used a brush and had to spend hours sanding smooth).
It took most of a Saturday to clean out the garage from 2 3/4 years of wood scraps and sawdust, then it was finally time to put the trailer together (another whole day, but very satisfying :)
The first rigging task was to attach the hound to the mast...measuring the luff, the distance between the tack and the mast, and the angle between the mast and the deck(86 deg), then applying the law of cosines and the quadratic equation to give a distance of 160.7 inches between the hound thru-bolt and the bottom of the mast. The two shrouds and the forestay were sized by trial and error and each fitted with a turnbuckle. It took some pondering to figure out a way to attach the mainsheet rig to the boom...I used a s/s spin strap (duckworks part #RL 318) to attach the becket block to the end of the boom, then fashioned another wooden block for the outhaul using a small nylon sheave from duckworks and some leftover ash. The rest of the running rigging went together pretty smoothly and after attaching a number of cleats and test-fitting the sails, she was ready to swim!

Sanding, sanding, sanding....

It's been a busy Summer so far. Somewhere along the way recently, I reached a milestone on the project...the woodworking part is done, and the "only" thing left is to sand, varnish, paint, and set up the rigging! Oh, and put the trailer together, and get the truck fixed, and attach the trailer hitch...
For the mast, I decided to custom build a mast-head sheave, using some parts from duckworks. The block was carved out from a solid piece of ash, leftover from the tiller--I left a 4 or 5 inch round dowel on the bottom of the block, which was fitted into the hole in the top of the mast...I had to drill it out slightly. The mast itself came out ok...but if I could do it again, I would have tapered it non-linearly...as it is, the diameter seems a bit too thin near the top, and I'm a little concerned that it may flex too much (or even break off above the point where the shrouds attach. Well, if it happens, it happens...at least now I know I can make another one!
I also got a really lovely set of 8 1/2 ft oars from Barkley Sound, shipped from Canada.
The only other part that had to be build was the mast tabernacle, and that went together pretty smoothly. I used a couple of wood screws and 4 stainless steel bolts to hold it onto the deck...under the deck, I had to epoxy in a couple of blocks of wood on either side of the king plank so the bolts would have more to hold on to.
I spent a long time sanding every square centimeter of the inside of the boat and the deck and side decks...then started varnishing. It took about 5 hrs to varnish the entire inside (including the storage area under the deck), and I put on 3 coats, sanding in-between coats. It turned out fine, except for one major screw-up...I should have put another coat of unthickened epoxy on the deck before starting with the varnish...I tried to mitigate the mistake by adding a couple extra coats of varnish to the deck, but as it is, the finish looks pretty amateurish when the light reflects off of it...maybe someday I'll sand the whole thing off and start over, but somehow I doubt it...
She's over on her side again now, and I'm sanding the edges of the fiberglass tape. I'm also contemplating whether to attempt to encase the runners and skeg in fiberglass cloth--at least the bottoms of them...they look pretty vulnerable down there where they will bear most of the brunt of beaching. I think I've just convinced myself to try.
As far as a launch date, friends and family keep asking, and I've been wrong time and time again...one thing I've learned--I'm lousy at predicting how long things take...but I'm confident it will be in the water this season!

Spars...

The long snowy Winter has finally ended, Spring has sprung, and boat-building season is in full swing! At the top of the (still) pretty long list of things that have to happen before the boat can launch is making the spars...the mast and boom. I did alot of reading and research over the Fall and Winter and somewhere along the way came across the "birds-mouth" technique for building hollow spars...The basic approach involves cutting eight long strips (aka staves), each having a v-shaped notch cut along the length of one edge (hence the name)...each mouth "eats" the corner of the adjacent stave to create a perfect octagonal wooden "pipe"...certainly more work that making solid wood spars, but the engineer in me found the combination of wood-working and mathematics too irresistible...well, that's my justification and I'm sticking with it!
There were two online articles that I found extremely helpful in the design calculations:
1) Birdsmouth Spars Revisited, by Gaetan Jette (http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/articles/birdsmouth/index.cfm)
2) Birdsmouth in Practice, by John O'Neill (http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/04/s/articles/birdsmouth2/index.cfm)
To make up for the loss in strength due to the hollow core, a 10% increase in diameter is generally recommended, so the final diameter for the boom was 50 mm, tapering down to about 35 mm during the last 2 feet or so, with a thickness of 10 mm. I was able to get 10' lengths of douglas fir from Vienna Hardwoods, perfect for the boom, which will be approx. 9.5 ft long.
The articles mentioned above give a very good description of the steps involved, so I won't reiterated them here. But there were a couple of "tricks" that have come in handy so far...one is using hose clamps to tighten the staves during the glueup...
I've been puzzling over whether to plug the ends of the spars or not to...one reason I wanted to is because I figured in the event of a capsize, having a plugged hollow mast and boom might provide some additional buoyancy to prevent the boat from going completely turtle...and also, to keep bees and other insects from building nests inside, etc...On the other hand, I've read strong recommendations against sealing the inside, as it will eventually lead to rot due to the trapped moisture. In the end, for the boom I decided to seal both ends with fir plugs. By way of compromise, I made sure every square mm of the inside of the boom was sealed with unthickened epoxy. To accomplish this, it was necessary to do the gluing in two stages. During stage one, four adjacent edges of the staves were taped with packing tape, so after the epoxy cured, the boom could be split in half easily. For the second stage, the split open boom could easily be sealed inside with epoxy, and the two halves then glued together along with the end plugs. Hopefully, any sealed moisture inside will not be able get inside the epoxy encapsulated wood from now 'til eternity...

Summer Dreams...

Too cold and snowy to do any real work...but not too early to start thinking about the next build...the Fisher Prospector 15'8" canoe :)

Gunwales...

I spent several days filling cracks where the deck joins the rest of the boat...not much fun...then it was time to start on the gunwales! Fortunately I had just enough mahogany scraps left to be able to make them by scarfing three lengths together. I finally broke down and purchased a table saw (since I'll need it for sure when work begins on the mast and boom) which greatly simplified the process. After the scarf joints cured, I rounded off the edges and sanded the gunwales smooth, as it would be much more difficult to do once they are attached to the boat. Also, I attached the shroud anchors (purchased from duckworks), since it looked like they'd be more difficult to install once gunwales are in place.
There was some discussion on the Selway-Fisher yahoo group about installing hardware using the "drill, fill, drill" technique--just in time because I would have probably not thought to do that otherwise. The basic technique is to drill an oversize hole, fill it with thickened epoxy, and then drill a guide hole for the screws once this cures. The idea is to prevent water from wicking into the wood at points where hardware is attached to the boat (since these screws generally cannot be countersunk and covered), which would otherwise lead to eventual rot. In fact, I had already attached the pintles and gudgeons to the stern and rudder without using this technique, so I had to remove them and redo it...better now than later!
The gunwales were finally shaped and sanded and ready to install. I dry fitted the starboard gunwale first, notching out a place for the shroud anchor, and left it overnight to adjust to the bend...but sometime during the night the stress was too much for it and I found it cracked the next morning. No problem...I still had just enough scrap leftover to scarf on a new piece and try it again, this time, soaking it in hot water beforehand (the phrase "waterboarding before torturing" springs to mind) . But again the next day I found the new scarf joint had failed under the stress! The third attempt worked after re-doing the joint and flipping the board around (the other end was from a different board that wasn't so dried out).
Overall, more difficult than I had imagined, but well worth it as the boat now has a much more "finished" look!