Time Out

Capt. Strongback will be out of town for the next week. Once back, one more good week of weather should be enough to finish Tugga Bugga. Maybe we can celebrate her completion and launch in mid-February.

Odds and Ends

After a week of enforced silence (computer trouble), I can give a brief report of progress since last Sunday:

Last Monday and Tuesday: Sanded the deck and sheer.

Wednesday: Made what I call the tiller base, which connects the tiller to the rudder (picture below).

Thursday: I trimmed up the edges of the tiller base on the router table, and gave it a coat of varnish. I painted the rudder, both above and below the waterline, and I have the wooden main sheet block another coat of varnish.

Friday: I trimmed off the tabs at the top of the rudder, and gave it another coat of paint. I also started to close down the boat's building site. I put away all the tools and materials which will not be needed for finishing the boat, and I cleaned and organized the indoor work shop.

Saturday: I gave the tiller base and block another coat of varnish. The outside of the coaming and the top of the topsides at the sheer still needed smoothing, so I applied a coat of epoxy thickened with glass microballoons.

Today, Sunday: The epoxy fairing applied yesterday has not cured hard enough to sand because it is too cold, And yesterday's varnish has not dried yet, either, for the same reason. So besides bolting the pintles onto the rudder, nothing much got done today.

Here is how the tiller base connects the rudder and the tiller. It fits well, and the wood is beautiful. Dark red like mahogany, but much harder wood.

She's getting there, but plenty of sandng and painting is still to be done.

Mostly Sanding

I will often be working on several different projects at the same time each day from now on, not because I am rushing but because a lot of finish work consists of small jobs.

Yesterday was a short day by the time I got organized, but you can only do so much sanding in one session anyway. I got the port side of the deck sanded, starting with a belt sander and following up with an orbital sander. And then, since the result was better than the previous day's effort, I went back and resanded the starboard side.

Today's tasks included giving the rub rails a light sanding and an initial coat of paint,

... and filling all the spots on the deck which still needed it after all that sanding. I also bonded in place the trim piece behind the top of the stem.

To enable me to keep the boat suspended from a single davit, I need lifting lifting ring support points, and fitting those took most of the day. The lifting point at the stern was an easy choice, since the sternpost provides a secure member. I drilled for a U-bolt, and secured it in place permanently.

One the sides forward, I would have made one of the frames extra sturdy if I had planned ahead. I spent a lot of time thinking of alternatives, and I like what I came up with. On each side I cut a slot in the deck for a stainless steel strap which bolts to the inside of the sheer clamp and then continues down to bolt to the topsides in three places. The strap runs alongside the forward edge of one of the frames.

Happily, although it wasn't a requirement of my plan, I already have all the hardware I needed for the lifting supports, except the bolts for the straps forward. Years ago I salvaged ALL the hardward from a small boat which had deteriorated beyond saving, and ever since then, before buying any marine hardware, I check that I don't already have what I need. It's nice to save money; I don't make do with what I have, but what I do have sometimes gives me an idea for how to rig what I need.

Next up: sand the deck again, and fit the rub rails.

Making the Rub Rails

I bought a piece of straight-grained southern yellow pine a few days ago, for the rub rails. Yesterday I carefully sawed it in half, then used the thickness planer to make two pieces 1 1/4" by 1". The plans specify the rub rails to taper to 7/8" x 3/4" at the ends. Making those tapers took most of the day. The rub rails are highly visible, and any lack of fairness would be obvious. So I calculated the dimensions at each one-foot point, marked them on the pine sticks, connected the points with lines to plane to, and gingerly tapered them with the handheld planer. How trimming two slender sticks could generate enough planer chips to provide the circus with sawdust for a week I don't know, but it did. Once I had the pieces planed down to the lines, I ran their outside edges along a router, with the help of a friend, to round them off.

Southern yellow pine is the timber they use to make pressure treated construction lumber. But if you can get a good, clear, untreated piece, it makes a good boatbuilding wood. It planes and sands smooth, and as it ages and the sap crystallizes, it becomes very hard. But once it is cut it needs to be screwed down pretty quickly or it will warp. It is a good choice for the rub rails, and anyway it was the only wood I could get locally in the 14+ foot length I need.

Today I pre-drilled all the screw holes, sanded the rub rails, and gave them a sealer coat of epoxy.

The rub rails, will go on after the topside is sanded smooth at the sheer, where the fabric from the deck overlaps the side. After that all the aft portion of the tiller will be the last wood piece to make. And I need to install lifting rings. Then I'll just have a lot of sanding and painting to do.

The epoxy on the deck has cured long enough that I scrubbed it with isopropyl alcohol today and began to sand it. I got one side done. It will still need fairing, filling, and one or more additional coats of epoxy before it is ready to paint, but today's sanding got the one side 95% smooth. Look at the difference:

Fitting the Tiller

For many years I have had a beautiful tiller from our family's boat from my childhood. We owned her in the 1950's and '60's, but the boat and tiller probably dated from before the War. It would be a pleasure to put the tiller back in service on Tugga Bugga, and in any case it is much finer than anything I can make.  Furthermore, I see problems with the tiller on Chappelle's plans: the illustration at the top of the page shows what I mean. It may be okay for tending a crabbing trot line, but it sticks way up in the air, can't pivot up and down, and is too short to reach from the main thwart.  I think I can solve all those problems with the pretty old tiller, so a little work to make it fit is well worthwhile. This will be my only significant deviation from the plans.

When I was finishing the spars I also refinished the old tiller, with six coats of new varnish.

The old tiller was made to fit into a bronze bracket over the rudder post. But the new boat has a "barn-door" rudder, so the tiller needs to extend another two feet aft past the pintles, the rudder's pivot point. My solution is to make a piece to fit over the top of the rudder and fit the old tiller into that piece. I bought a nice plank of hardwood for the new piece, but before cutting it up I decided to make a prototype out of cheap scrap wood, and that was today's project. Here is the result:

The tabs at the top of the rudder will be trimmed off.

Most of the work was cutting the inside taper to fit the existing tiller. Now I have a pattern to make the real piece, which will be a dark hardwood to complement the old tiller.

I left the deck alone to cure today. By Friday or Saturday I can scrub off any surface blush and start sanding and fairing.

Tomorrow, time and weather permitting, I'll make the rub rails.

Deck Fabric Covered

I started early today and applied a saturation coat of epoxy on the deck. The job went slowly but without a hitch. It conformed easily to the corners, and I was glad for all the preparation work I had done. As I applied the epoxy, I covered the deck with wax paper. The idea is the wax paper doesn't adhere to the epoxy, and it leaves a smoother surface when the epoxy cures and you peel it off.

While I was waiting for the deck to cure I sanded the rudder. It will need one more coat of epoxy before painting.

When the deck was halfway hardened I trimmed it at the top of the coaming and just over the sheer on the topsides. The wax paper did peel off in most places, but in other spots it tended to stick. It may have been easier to peel it off after the epoxy was cured; I'm not sure it was worth the bother.

I applied a second, thicker coat of epoxy while the first coat was still fresh. Doing it that way, the second coat bondschemically with the first.

As you can see from the reflection, the deck will need thorough sanding and probably another coat of epoxy before painting, but I'll probaby have to leave it alone to cure for about three days to get any amine blush scrubbed off. In the meantime I'll work on the rudder, tiller, and rub rails.

Ready to Fabric Cover the Deck

Though silent for a few days, I have not been idle. I was late ordering the fabric to cover the deck, and while waiting for it I have been prepping the deck. I filled all the screw holes and faired the joints between the three deck pieces, sanded it all, and did a second round of filling and sanding. I also sanded the outside edge of the deck to about a 1/4" radius, so the fabric does not have to make a sharp turn. Filling and fairing the joint between the deck and the coaming was a multi-step process. In places, the crack was as much as 3/16" wide so I was concerned that filler might sag and drip through. I cut fiberglass drywall seam tape into strips and stuck it up underneath the joint between the frames. I put a mixture of epoxy putty in a zip-lok bag, snipped off one corner, and squeezed a bead of filler into the joint as if I were decorating a cake. After it started to cure, I peeled off the drywall seam tape before it stuck permanently. Today, after that filler was well hardened, I repeated the process to make a smooth fillet in the joint. The purpose of the fillet is to provide a radius for the fabric to turn the corner from the deck to the coaming. Finally, I masked the topsides to protect against dripping epoxy. All that done, the deck is smooth, fair, and ready for fabric covering:

The fabric arrived this morning, just-in-time, and I laid it out this afternoon, trimmed it, and taped it in place. Rather than fiberglass cloth, I am using xynole polyester fabric because it is more flexible, and will more easily go around the outside corner of the sheer and the inside corner of the deck/coaming joint. The deck is ready now for the fabric to be set in epoxy. I hope it doesn't get rainy or windy tonight.

After I apply the first coat of epoxy and it starts to set up, I will trim it at the top of the coaming and just over the edge of the deck on the topsides, which will later be covered by the rub rail.

I spent all day Saturday working on the rigging. I laid out the mast and the sail in the yard and planned how it can all go together. I made lanyards for the reef points and tied them in place. I laced the luff to the mast, as the plans show, and figured out how I will tie the ends. Likewise, the little club spar laces to the aft end of the sail, and I spent a long while figuring how to secure it without a tangle of knots. The forward end of the sprit has a hole for the snotter line, which runs up to a block on the mast and down to the deck where it will be cleated, somewhere. I need to buy line for the halyard and for the sheet. Over the last few days I made a wooden block for the mainsheet. The picture shows it secured to the aft end of the sprit; the loose loop of line will fit around the club. If it works well I may make two more wooden blocks, for the halyard and for the snotter. Of course, when I try it all out I may find better solutions.

Today I bought what I expect will be the last of the wood. I got a pretty piece of ipe, a dense hardwood from South America. Ipe has pretty much taken over from teak, which has gotten extremely expensive and which now comes mainly from Burma, a country I would just as soon not patronize. It which will be the part of the tiller which fits over the top of the rudder. It will be varnished, like the existing tiller, which will fit into it. I also bought a long piece of straight-grained yellow pine for the rub rails. I'll work on those pieces, and the rudder, after I get the deck fabric coating going.