Topsides Finished

The second and third coats of paint went on the topsides today; it dries almost as fast as I put it on. Later I downloaded a font I liked and printed a pattern for the name. For fun I cut it out and pasted it to the transom. The photo is inverted, of course:

The next step will be to re-tape the waterline over the white, and paint the bottom. It will be a red anti-fouling paint, although I do not expect to leave the boat in the water much. Maybe before the end of the week (another trip out of town) I'll be able to flip the boat and work on the inside again.

Science, Technology and Topside Paint

In my last post I bragged of striking a waterline on one side by simply moving along the side with a spirit level and a pencil. That claim, to use a Watergate-era phrase, is no longer operative. That approach produced a nice fair line, but not a level one. It took me a while to figure out why. The topsides flare out, so a level placed against the topside will give a reading perpendicular to the "fall line" on the side. It will be level only at that point. Any other point marked on the spirit level will be closer to the chine, and not level to the ground. If that sounds counter-intuitive, trust me. When I sighted along the resulting waterline to the horizon, the difference was obvious; it would have been even more obvious in the water.

Technique #2: I tried a water level. The idea here is to use a long clear plastic tube full of water, fix one end to a reference point, and move around the side marking the level of the visible water in the other end of the hose, taking advantage of the fact that water seeks its own level. The science is perfect. Applying the science is a complete failure. Can you guess why? Every time I moved the hose, the change in its shape affected the volume inside the hose slightly, and moved the water up or down both ends significantly. You wouldn't think so, but it did. A water level would work, but only with two people working together. One would monitor the reference point and call out up, down, and mark. Other problems with a water level are bubbles of air, which must be carefully flushed out, and the drops of water in the ends of the hose, which can run down and join the main column of water, changing its level. All in all, good science but poor technology.

Technique #3, which I did not try: A laser level, which I don't have, would work well set up to the side and panned from bow to stern, once the boat were levelled precisely fore and aft and side to side.

Technique #4: Do it the way the book says. Erect two horizontal boards across the bow and stern at the height of the desired waterline. stretch a string between the boards, and where it just touches the boat is the waterline at that point. Move the string around to create a series of points, and finally connect the points. Again, the science is indisputable. The problems in real life are daunting: the two boards must be perfectly straight, which no board ever is; the points at the bow and stern where the waterline should end must be exactly at the same level as each other; the boat must be perfectly level side to side; and the boards at the ends must be at precisely the same height as the boat. It is hard to get it all right at once, and hard to keep it that way while working. Nevertheless, with Mrs. Strongback's assistance, I finally struck a satisfactory waterline that way. In the picture below, look how the blue tape lines up with the horizon in the background. Not perfect, but what is?

It took two full days and half a roll of masking tape to get the waterline right, but only 20 minutes to put on the first coat of topside paint.
If I were a boatbuilder, I'd have been fired long ago for lack of production. As it is, I'm having fun. It is time very well spent.

Not a Cello

I remember many years ago my Dad describing the beautiful old Dragon class boats as being built "like musical instruments." That mental image was so vivid it stuck with me, and I thought about it yesterday while sanding out the latest coats of epoxy.

The bottom and topsides were fair and pretty much smooth: no drips, runs, sags or bumps. The plywood butts were imperceptibe. It did have a sprinling of small slightly low spots, typically about 1/4" across. More epoxy and sanding alone wouldn't get the surface perfectly smooth. I would need to spread a mixture of epoxy thickened with glass microballoons, and then sand that fair. From experience I know that once you spread a putty mixture like that it is easy to sand it smooth but a long and aduous job to get the surface fair again, with no assurance of success. So I considered how smooth I needed to get it. If I were building a plug for a fiberglass mold, the answer would be that nothing less than perfection would do. If I were building to a "Dragon" standard, well, I fell short of that long ago. Since the boat I'm building is in the tradition of humble workboats- not a cello- it is obvious the goal should be a good workmanlike level of finish, but no fancy stuff or pretense of perfection.

From having dabbled in model building years ago, I know that for a job to look right, it needs a consistent level of finish. If one part is rough and another highly and precisely detailed, the whole thing looks bad.  It makes sense that the same principle would apply to actual boats, though I've never heard it explicitly mentioned. For that matter, I'd expect that artists try to do the same thing. Anyway, it was easy to convince myself to call a halt to finishing the hull's exterior.

Also yesterday, I struck a waterline on the hull.As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have read about many techniques for doing that. When it came time to do it, I didn't follow any of them. I simply levelled the boat fore and aft and athwartship, located the waterline at the stern from the plans, and used a small spirit level to work my way forward, marking every six inches or so, and checking as I went by sighting across the bay to the top of a seawall 1000' feet away. When I reached the bow, the line I'd drawn was less than 1/4" from where I'd guessed it would be- success. Now I can either repeat the process on the other side or just measure and match what I've already done. With the waterline drawn, I can tape it and paint the topsides and bottom. That will be worth a photo. Once the exterior is painted, the boat will be turned back over and work can resume on the inside.

Last Sunday I happened to notice a classified ad for a solid brass 9# anchor. I got a careful description over the phone and bought it sight unseen. It's about 25 mi. north of here, and I'll pick it up next Friday on my way out of town for a ten-day trip. I hope the anchor is not a disappointment, but don't have much invested in it in any case.

Building Up a Finish on the Hull

Tuesday, 10-26:

No time for boatbuilding yesterday, but today I coated the hull with epoxy, and added another coat after the first one initially set up. According to the West System technical manual, as long as epoxy is "plastic", not hardened, additional epoxy will bond to it chemically; so today I was able to get two coats on without sanding in between. It's possible that I won't need any more coats to get a smooth finish. I won't know until it is fully cured and sanded.

A couple of days ago I copied all the previous posts to a .doc file so I'll have a permanent record of the project. I screened the file with a spell checker; it was surprising and humbling to see how many typos and straight out spelling errors I had made. They will remain uncorrected on the posts themselves. Since it gives me a nice warm feeling when I notice other people's grammar and spelling errors, I'm glad to be a source of similar pleasure for others.

Sanding...

…and more sanding:
Sunday, October 24, 2010
After two weeks out of town, I got back to work today.
Before I left I had put a second coat of epoxy on the bottom and topsides. At least one more coat will be needed before the weave of the fabric disappears and the surface is smooth and fair, but the quality of the final finish depends more on patient sanding rather than just more epoxy. So today I spent four hours repeatedly going over the hull with an orbital sander and a belt sander; and hand sanding the corners.

If you are curious what a sanded hull looks like, I offer this photo along with my best wishes for more excitement in your life.

Steps Done and Begun, Sail Received, and a Hiatus

Friday, Oct. 8

I put the sixth and final coat of varnish on the mast and sprit this morning. The spars are done, except (there will always be excepts) I have left the mast a few inches long until now, to facilitate varnishing. Now I can trim it off and varnish the truck.

After sanding yesterday's filled spots, the hull was ready for...

... the first of the finish coats of epoxy. This will be sanded and reapplied until either it's absolutely smooth or I say "enough already." 

While I was working, the sailmaker called to let me know the sail was finished. So after the epoxy coat was done I drove down to his loft to pick up the sail. I used a local sailmaker, Keith Donaldson, who goes by Advanced Sails, but it's a one-man loft. Although he has many years of experience, this sail is a first for him in several respects: a sprit rig, a quadrilateral sail in that there is a club at the clew, a luff which laces to the mast, and a vertical line of reef points. He took a lot of interest in the sail, and he is curious how it will perform. Of course, so am I. I am well pleased with the job he did, and can recommend him, especially for a job which is out of the ordinary and calls for professional attention and interest on the part of the sailmaker. Here's the sail. The attractive woman in the background is Mrs. Strongback.

And now work wil halt for a couple of weeks while we take a trip.

More Sanding and Filling

Thursday, Oct. 7

No way to make the last few days sound more interesting than they have been. Both bnilding up a varnish finish and fairing a hull just take patience and persistence.

It takes about an hour to sand and varnish the spars. I put coat five on the mast and sprit, and the final coat six on the club.

I decided to adapt the tiller from Maris Stella, the family boat of my childhood. It is the right size as long as I extend the part over the top of the rudder with stainless steel straps. It has the right downward bend, and it is already in beautiful condition. I refinished it for no particular reason last year, and today I gave it one more coat of varnish. Its connection with happy memories will be a pleasure, and I am willing to not make a new tiller from scratch. Maybe I can use the time saved to make oars instead. Here's the tiller:

On the hull, I sanded all the spots I filled yesterday, then went ahead and sanded and vacuumed the rest of the hull, then refilled any spots that needed re-doing. Next ahead: sand all those re-do spots and coat the hull with slightly thickened epoxy.

More of the Same and a New Project

Wed., Oct. 5

I spent some of the day watching the Rays drop our first playoff game, but on a positive note, I did get some work done.

I put a fourth coat of varnish on the mast and sprit, fifth coat on the club.

And I did get at least the first round of fairing filler on the hull. Thinking ahead, I'll sand that smooth tomorrow and probably touch up a lot of spots. Beyond that, I just need to brush on and sand a coat or two of epoxy until the fabric weave disappears, and then it will be ready to paint. Starting next week there will be  a couple of trips out of town which will occupy most of October, but maybe I can get to the point of painting before then.

What's new is that I started making the rudder today. Actually, I started last spring by drawing out on plywood not only the outline but also the solid core filler pieces of 1x6 and 1x4 pine. All the time I remember spending on that was time saved today. I went to the lumber yard for the pine I needed.

 

I drilled holes in the pair of plywood skin panels and put nails through them, to keep them aligned. Then I cut to the top finish line. If you look closely you can see the places for all the core pieces marked out.

Then I cut the other three sides and corners.

And cut and laid out the core pieces, stapling them together to keep them aligned.

Finally, I flipped the assembly over and marked the cut line on the core pieces. They will extend above the top of the plywood to provide tabs over which the tiller will fit.

Before I glue and screw it all together, I'll plane a taper into the below-waterline part of the trailing edge of the core pieces. After it is all glued and screwed, I'll trim the edges and round them on the router table, and cover the rudder with fabric. The whole project shouldn't be too hard.

I need to think about making a tiller, too. Its downward bend means I'll have to build it up of several laminations on a form. Besides the spars, the tiller will the only item finished bright, so what I have in mind is alternating layers of light and dark wood. I'll just have to visit the specialty lumber company and see what they have that will take the bend and also look good.

Plenty of work remains, but it won't be forever before she's sailing.

Sand, Varnish, Sand, Fill

Tuesday, Oct. 5

Another day of...

...sanding and...

...varnishing the spars. This makes three coats on the mast and sprit, four on the club. I think I'll go for six coats.












Then it was back to the hull for more sanding. I reached down inside the centerboard trunk to sand the fabric set in epoxy tucked down there; That was difficult to reach until I hit on the right tool: a 4-in-hand rasp, which made short work of it. I continued to sand the bottom and topsides until I had sanded off all positive bumps, leaving just low spots and irregularities to fill and fair. I did not have time to do all the filling, needed mainly along the gripe, but I did get the other odd spots filled and ready to sand tomorrow. Boatbuilding will have to share my time tomorrow with the Rays opening post season game. Maybe I'll listen on the radio while I work.

A recent ad in Woodenboat was looking for boatbuilders "quick and meticulous". Imagine that. Besides the professional builders, there are plenty of amateurs building much larger and more ambitions boats than mine, and they have my deep and growing respect. I looked at Reuel Parker's big sharpie schooner this evening (http://www.schooneribis.blogspot.com/). And yesterday, while looking for ideas how to strike a waterline, I read excerpts of Lin and Larry Pardey's books. Incredible that they ever finished their boats and went sailing. This boat is plenty of challenge for me. I wouldn't say I'm meticulous, maybe painstaking would be more like it. And as for quick, they built clipper ships outdoors in the winter quicker than I'm building my little boat. Who cares?

Sanding, Filling and Fairing

Sunday Oct. 3

I sanded all three spars and gave them a coat of varnish this morning. Then I got a good start on sanding the hull. I wanted to get the skeg covered with fabric, but I needed to put that off and sand the bottom and topsides today because epoxy hardens as it cures for several days, so once it initially sets up, the sooner you sand it the better. Besides, now I have good feathered edges to cover when I do put fabric on the skeg. The inside corners between the bottom and the gripe are most in need of sanding, and the hardest to sand, and that's what I spent 80% of my time on today.

Sanding epoxy raises clouds of dust which I don't want in my lungs. I wore a respirator dust mask and ran the shop vac attached to the the power sanders.

I knocked off a little early to watch the Red Sox finish beating the Yankees on this the last day of the regular season. That loss by the evil empire makes our Rays the Division Champions! Then I watched the Rays come from behind in their own last game and beat the Royals in extra innings.  Sweet.

Monday, Oct. 4

Today was a lot like yesterday. Another coat of varnish on the spars, then sanding and grinding on the hull in preparation for sheathing the skeg with fabric and epoxy. I went ahead and covered the skeg with fabric, and that job went smoothly- I'm an old hand at it now. Maybe tomorrow I can start filling and fairing.

Thinking ahead, I'll be painting the hull after it's as smooth and fair as I can get it. I looked into how to strike the waterline, and found four techniques. Dynamite Payson has the simplest solution: set the boat up level on a flat surface, make a stick with a perpendicular arm, hold the stick plumb vertical, and move it around on the surface, marking the boat's sides. The only reason I won't do it that way is that there is no flat level surface around. Other techniques include a laser level, a water level (a clear plastic tube fulled with water), and the traditional method, which I will use: set up horizontal boards at each end, perpendicular to the centerline of the boat, at the height of the waterline at the bow and stern, and stretch a string tightly between the boards, moving the string around so it just kisses the boat's sides in various places.

Here are a couple of pictures of the spars:

The douglas fir mast is starting to look pretty, but in this picture it doesn't show up as well as the background, a local day cruise "pirate ship". It passes the house at noon and four o'clock, and I guess they start the same CD when they leave the dock because the same song is always playing when it comes by. The captain yells at the passengers, makes them sing pirate songs, and sells them lots of beer. Sounds hokey, and it is, but by the time it passes the house everyone is having a great time. I'll try to post a better picture of the mast another time.

This is a section of the spruce sprit, showing the glue line between the two laminated halves of the spar. I don't know if it will be stronger or weaker than a one-piece spar, and hope there is enough safety margin in the specified diameters that I never find out.

This shot of the stern shows the skeg with its fresh fabric cover starting to cure. Lots of finishing to do before painting. The whole hull exterior is now sheathed.

Bottom and Sides Covered with Fabric

Saturday, Oct. 2

I got an early start, by my standards, and was laying up the first polyester fabric by 9:30.

The one previous time I fiberglassed a boat, I used fiberglass cloth and polyester resin, and I made a hash of it. It wouldn't lie flat, and I ended up having to sand a lot of it off. So I was worried about this job.

I started with the inside of the centerboard trunk. I laid strips reaching from the outboard edges of the gripe and down 2" inside the trunk to cover the exposed surfaces of the gripe, bottom, and keelson, and slightly overlapping the insides sides of the actual trunk, which were fabric coated before installation. That little job (like every job) was harder and took longer than I'd expected. It also took much more epoxy to saturate the fabric than I expected, leading me to worry for the rest of the day that I might run out.

Then, knowing that the piece I'd cut out for the port side would not reach the stern, I put down a separate piece covering the transom, side, and bottom at the stern.

Moving to the starboard side, I laid out the precut piece intended to cover the side and bottom, and to reach over both sides of the skeg. The bottom went fine, and the fabric smoothly covered the topside with a little persuasion. But even though the xynole polyester fabric is much more flexible than fiberglass cloth, it absolutely refused to smoothly turn the corner between the bottom and the skeg. So be it. I trimmed off the fabric a couple of inches above the bottom and left the skeg for later- left if for another day, it turned out.

By the time I moved back to the port side I was five hours into it. The day was getting warmer and the epoxy was setting up faster, encouraging me to work faster. And hours of breathing epoxy vapors, even outdoors, probably contributed to my growing anxiety about the job. But I kept at it, repeating to myself that the important thing was to do a good job. If necessary I could run out to the Fiberglass Coatings store for more epoxy, and if necessary I could quit any time.

Just as I finished covering the port side, I ran out of 2:1 catalyst. I wanted to give the whole job a second covering coat of epoxy, so I headed to the fiberglass store. No go- they close at one on Saturdays. Can't fault them for that. But when you're retired, every day is Saturday. Back home, before quitting, I used a razor blade to trim off the semi-hardened fabric along the sheer.

Here's the boat with the fabric covering set in epoxy, about 80% hardened. I still need to cover the skeg, and there will be plenty of sanding, filling and fairing to do, but the main job is accomplished. Not the most enjoyable part of building the boat, but satisfying to have behind me:

Another Day, Another Change of Plans

Friday, Oct. 1:

Well, I didn't get the fabric covering on the bottom today after all. A combination of things took up too much of the day.

I gave a neighbor a ride to a doctor's office on the way to the sail loft to pick up our boat's sail, and I didn't pick it up after all; the sailmaker was concerned that the way he'd sewn brass thimbles along the luff left the metal edges of the thimbles exposed, which would certainly chew up the mast over time. He had an idea how to wrap the thimbles with webbing, which sounded good to me, so I left the sail with him.  The sail does look great. He reinforced all the corners well and on his own initiative sewed a reinforced seam along the vertical reef points to give the cloth support when reefed. I am well pleased with my choice of sailmakers. He has shown more interest and insight than I expected, considering that my little sail is such small potatoes.

By the time I'd retrieved my neighbor from her doctor's office and stopped at a pharmacy, it was too late to start the fabric covering job, so I spent most of the afternoon working on the spars. I sanded the sprit and the club, and then I sanded them some more. The only certain thing about making a round spar is that it will never be perfectly round, but I did try. Actually, let me qualify that: I've read of large spars being turned on giant lathes, which would indeed make them perfectly round, but that is a power tool I do not and will not have.

After getting the little club spar as round and smooth as I could, I gave it a first coat of varnish. Before applying any finish to the sprit, there were small knot holes and lamination voids which I filled and left to cure. The sprit and especially the mast will be exposed to the weather, so before varnishing them I want them sealed with a coat of penetrating epoxy. I coated the mast, which made it look more than ever like a real spar instead of the raw fir timber it started as.

 

I still had time, so I did a bit of work on the coaming, which will be laminated of two thicknesses of 6mm plywood. I had made a rough pattern from doorskin strips, and today I cut the top and bottom edges on the pattern. When I next have a little time for that project, I can trace the pattern on plywood and start to make the two actual coaming pieces.

The fabric coating on the exterior of the boat? Maybe I'll actually get to do that tomorrow>