an opportunity and its FREE

Some needful reading, does sixty-days seem a little light for stealing $230K, and in the "modern fascist movement driven almost entirely by racism, stupidity, and xenophobia" department...

I wont go into the many and varied reasons that it makes sense for folks sailing boats to have at least a working knowledge of basic navigation skills and that includes celestial.

Yeah, yeah I know Im a Luddite dinosaur.

On the other hand, if you happen to feel that learning how to navigate your boat without the aid of prone to failure electronic systems and devices that you can neither repair or fix youre in luck. Vanderbilt University has an online class (thats FREE!) and looks to be very good.



Hard to argue with free.

Listening to Typhoon

So it goes...

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Fitting Different Rigs to an Existing Boat

One of the great joys of owning and/or building a small wooden sailing boat is that there is plenty of opportunity for experimentation. For some reason it doesnt seem right to go shifting things around on a glass production hull, but wooden boats lend themselves to modification. With high-quality epoxy and fastenings, the end result should be as good, or better, than the original work.

Ive mentioned previously that rig modification was something which interested me from before I left school. I had been brought up sailing racing boats at the local club, all of which had modern, deck-stepped rigs with lots of stainless-steel fittings and sails full of batten pockets. Although I loved the sailing, I felt the urge to cruise alone in a boat fitted with a more simple, traditional rig such as a standing lugsail.

Phoenix at about age 20 with her original rig

For me, the first real experiment came when I converted the cruising dinghy my Dad had designed and built. She had been constructed with a deck-stepped Bermudan rig just like all of the racing boats Id sailed. She was (and still is) a fine boat, but I got it into my head that Id re-rig her with a Chinese Lugsail (a.k.a. Chinese Junk Rig). I spent a long time on the calculations - far too long, I believe - but that was because I didnt really know how accurate I had to be with all of the proportions, and I was particularly concerned about the location of the centre-of-area of the sail in relation to the centre-of-lateral resistance of the boat.

Phoenix showing how well she could get to windward with her Junk Rig. A nice day in tropical North Queensland.

Accelerating out of the tack and heading off hard on the wind. This rig was exceptionally easy to handle, reef, and furl, and has been one of my all-time favourite rigs. I will be making another one sometime...

After the Chinese Lug rig, I fitted the same hull with about four or five other sail configurations, finally settling on the Balance Lug which she currently carries.

When I designed boats such as Phoenix III, First Mate, and Periwinkle (and some others which have not yet been published), I decided from the outset that I would arrange the rig proportions so that several different rigs could be used on the same mast(s) and/or using the same mast step and partners. This results in boats which can be rigged in a number of different ways without having to make any physical alterations to the structure of the boat. I have already spoken about this a little in my post about Phoenix III and the Perfect Customer 

Here are some more photos to illustrate what I mean.

John Shrapnels Periwinkle showing her standard Cat Ketch (Periauger) rig. Crew weight is a little far aft, but she is going nicely. This boat is very fine up forard, and needs to have weight kept out of the bow when pressed.

Same boat, but with the mizzen removed and the mainmast and mainsail moved aft to another mast step and partner. The rig is still perfectly well balanced, even though the 51sq ft mizzen has been removed entirely.

Here she is with just the mainsail up, stepped in the middle location, but with a substantial reef tied in. It may look calm in the little bay, but it was blowing outside on the more open water.

When it really starts to blow, or when the crew weight is low, you can set the mizzen in the central location. Once again the hull balance is fine, but the rig has been reduced to a snug 51 sq.ft. Even so, when this picture was taken, the boat was doing 8 knots by GPS! If you needed to , even this sail can be reefed.

This shows you the rig combinations on paper. Note how well the centres-of-area cluster near the centre-of-lateral resistance of the hull in all combinations. The key to this was careful proportioning of the sails and the mast locations.

This is another rig which can be used on the boat. The little flying jib is optional, but will help her a lot and will stand ok without shrouds or backstays. The gaff-headed cat rig is set on exactly the same mainmast as in the standard rig, so there is no alteration required to any part of the boat. This print is of an early sketch and some elements are not shown.

...and her you can see Graham Faulkners Periwinkle with the Gaff-Cat rig, beachcruising on Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia (this was the second boat built, and Graham even made his own sail!)

This shows the three mast locations - the mainmast partners in the lower/left of the photo, the central position through the main thwart, and the mizzen partner through the stern sheets (aft thwart)

All of that thinking made me very tired! Actually, that is just me showing the comfortable sleeping position on either side of the centreboard case.

Build yourself a wooden boat, and then try some rig experiments - it is great fun.

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An improved winch

An interesting read that involves a speedboat, some very scary reading, and have you ever wondered about the average IQ of some folks into guns...

On "So It Goes" we have some Barlow winches (a pair of 24s and 26s) which are as old as the boat... Considering that they are at least 46-years old, still working finestkind, and looking like theyre up for another 46 years, I dont actually pay much attention to the state-of-the-art of new winches. That said, these winches from Pontus are really interesting.



Watching/listening to Mariachi El Bronx

So it goes...

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Little Egret an Egret style Sharpie

Ive often been asked the question, "What is your favourite boat?". In fact, I frequently ask myself the same question, and there is no single, correct answer because it depends on the job the boat has to do, and the conditions under which she has to do it. However, I do have a changing short list of favourites, and one boat which has been on that list for decades is Ralph Munroes Egret.

Profile of Egret drawn based on research by Jon Wilson (Woodenboat Magazine Founder), with input from Bob Baker, Maynard Bray, Dave Dillon, and Joel White. Image courtesy of Woodenboat Publications.

Lines Drawing of Egret. LOA 28 2" LWL 22 8" Beam 7 2" Draft 1. Courtesy of Woodenboat Publications.

Egret was designed by Ralph Munroe to act as an ambulance, mail boat, and water taxi for the early residents of Biscayne Bay in Southern Florida. Here is a short description in Ralph M. Munroes own words;

The difficulties of beach travel being thoroughly realized, and the Weather Bureau having established a telegraph line to Jupiter, it seemed imperative that something in the boat line superior to any of the existing craft for this work should be obtained. So in the summer of 1886, to replace Kingfish, I had built at Browns the 28-foot double-ended sharpie lifeboat, Egret, very strongly but lightly constructed. She drew eight inches, and had only fifty to seventy-five bricks, laid under the floor, for ballast. She was fitted with all the appurtenances needed to keep the sea in almost any weather, and if necessary to be put on the beach without harm. That she fulfilled all requirements until the first road was opened the older residents can testify. (excerpted from The Commodores Story by Ralph Middleton Munroe and Vincent Gilpin - Historical Society of Southern Florida)

Like many others, I have found myself under the spell of Egrets superb lines, which could be described as a cross between a sharpie and a dory. Her swept-up stern and distribution of buoyancy put me stronly in mind of our Australian Surfboats, so the combination of the three hullforms gives her a wonderful pedegree.

Australian Surfboats in action. They share full forward sections, substantial flare, and fine, raised stern sections with Egret. This is not surprising as both were designed or evolved to deal with the same conditions.

This is a superb photo of an Egret built in the mid nineteen-eighties by Graham Ero for Robert Jones. (Photo by Ray Egan, courtesy of Woodenboat Publications)

This is my favourite Egret photo, showing her character very well. (Courtesy of the Historical Association of Southern Florida, scanned from Reuel Parkers excellent book, "THe Sharpie Book")

Several months ago I was approached by a fellow who has also been in love with Egret for a very long time. For nearly thirty years, on and off, he had been searching for plans which would allow the building of an Egret-like boat of around 18 feet LOA. He had become frustrated with the search, not being able to locate exactly what he was after, but a chance occurrence put him in contact with me, and he gave me the opportunity to try my hand at a modern interpretation.

Scaling the size of a boat up or down introduces many hydrostatic and hydrodynamic complications, so I did not in anyway attempt to copy Egret. In fact, as disciplinary measure, I refused to look at any of my original Egret plans until the hull modelling was complete - that way I knew that I was drawing an entirerly new design - inspired by Egret but not copied.

I suggested a gaff rig using short gaffs as per the original, but my customer wanted to keep the boat as simple as possible and opted for a jib-headed sailplan. Other steps taken in the interests of simplicity included un-cambered decks and sheet plywood construction using the stitch-and-glue method.

We passed ideas backwards and forwards, and my customer proved to be polite, informed, and insistent about a number of small details. However, he kindly allowed me to dictate elements of the hull design, and after many iterations we agreed on a hull and proportions.

Little Egret showing her full sailplan upper/left, and the mainsail stepped in a third position lower right. She measures 18 10-1/4" LOA, 4 9-3/4" Beam, and draws about 6"

Plans are largely finished except for rudder, mast step details, and instructions. However, they wont be released until an example has been completed and tested. The plans include developed panel shapes for the topsides and the bottom, so no lofting is required.

Outboard Profile and Layout

Lines drawing, to the inside of planking.

Im really interested to see how this boat goes, especially when dealing with bar crossings and moderate surf.
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An Interesting Observation About Paint

For those of us who are obsessed with small boats it is almost impossible to avoid becoming aware of the complexities of painting. Unfortunately, I have the sort of personality which over-complicates everything, and the subject of painting and varnishing was a vicious trap just waiting for me to come blundering along.

It was all a lot easier when I didnt know what I was doing. As a child, and as a young man, all I had to worry about was opening the can, stirring until the lumps disappeared, tipping in a little turps until the brush stopped dragging and everything was sweet. I assumed that bristles came out of brushes, so therefore I didnt try to pull them out of the applied paint, and I didnt get angry or stressed.

I also assumed that paint stuck to everything, so I didnt get stressed about chemical bonding windows, sanding of shiny surfaces to get tooth, and matching primers, undercoats, and topcoats. In addition, nobody told me that I would be struck down by lightning if I painted directly from the can rather than decanting into a separate pot. Oh, life was much more simple in those days.

Unfortunately, experience, common-sense, an inquiring mind, and a genetic predisposition to over-complicate everything has thown me headlong into the paint and varnish trap. Trust me whan I say that I have a true love/hate relationship with paint, and to a lesser extent, varnish.

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A nice job of painting and varnishing. The Phil Bolger-designed Harbinger we built back in 2003/2004. She was built strip-diagonal, with an inner layer of 7mm Western Red Cedar strip, followed by two diagonal layers of 3mm Hoop Pine.

I think Ill write a few more articles about the various paint systems that I think are appropriate to small craft which live on trailers, but at the moment I want to bust a specific myth.

Two days ago, my wife, dog Brandy, and I went away on a 24 hour holiday. Hitching on our little caravan and having loaded my old sailing-canoe on the roof-racks, we set off for a nearby lake and spent 24 hours reading, sailing, paddling, and walking. We tend to regard visits to nearby destinations as not being "proper" trips, but the fact is it makes sense to maximise the stay time and minimise the travelling time. In this case we had no option - nearby destination, or no trip.

Not bad for a holiday destination less than 15 miles from our house!

 The boat on the car is an Iain Oughterd-designed MacGregor Sailing Canoe which I built in 1991. She has been on a number of interesting and long journeys, but in recent years she has sat around gathering dust due to my workload.

Because of the simplicity of this short trip, I just spent my time fiddling around, and I took the opportunity to wash the canoe and remove many years of built-up storage dust and mildew.

Scrubbing the old boat in pleasant surroundings

The outside of the hull and the gunwales were showing significant deterioration in the paint film. This boat had originally been painted with a single-pack, oil-based enamel, but the outside of the hull and the gunwales had suffered physical damage during a period of heavy use. As a result of this damage, a few years ago I decided to sand back and repair the hull and gunwale surfaces, and after very careful surface preparation, paint them with an exceptionally high-quality single-pack oil-based polyurethane-modified enamel from a very well-known international paint company based in Europe. The inside of the canoe was OK, so I left the original paint in place.

I was very pleased with the high standard of the new paint job, but when loading the canoe for an outing less than a year after completing the re-painting, I was horrified to note the appearance of some very fine cracks in the paint film, presumably caused by checking of the plywood veneers beneath. The planking of the boat is 5mm Hoop Pine Marine Plywood made to AS/NZ2272, which is one of the most stringent plywood standards in the world, so I knew that there was no problem with the quality of the plywood. As the surface preparation was good and the paint was one of the best available, I just shrugged my shoulders and decided that single-pack oil-based enamels are not suitable over Hoop Pine and (from what I have heard from American and Canadian writers) Douglas Fir plywoods. The fine surface checking of these plywoods has no effect on them structurally, but it obviously cracks through oil-based enamel paint - something I have encountered many times before, I have to say.

Back to cleaning the sailing canoe. After finishing the outer surfaces of the hull and gunwale, and noting how badly the paint cracking had progressed, I rolled her over to continue cleaning on the inside.

Contemplating the interior of the sailing-canoe.

 

Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, I realised that my old sailing-canoe was being a teacher, but that I, as a student, was somewhat slow. As I scrubbed away at the inside of the hull using my big sponge and a couple of gallons of lake water, the cleaned paint showed not a single crack. The surface showed some signs of wear due to abrasion in places, but was essentially in perfect condition after twenty-one years of intermittent use. At the time I built the boat I didnt have enough spare money for a fancy marine paint, so I said nothing to anybody and went ahead using plain old oil-based house paint (Dulux Super Enamel from memory) over pink primer and oil-based house undercoat.

Difficult to see here, but the outside is in poor condition but the interior is nearly perfect

The point of this overly-long story is that books, magazines, internet forums, and group conversations frequently contain debates about the difference between "marine" paint and "house" paint. I hasten to add, that by "house" paint I am refering to oil-based single-pack house paint which I guess is based on an alkyd resin. 100% acrylic water-based house paints are another thing again, but arent what Im talking about here.

Some people say that the only difference between "marine" and "house" paint is the printing on the can. I disagree, as most of the marine single-packs that we have available to us in Australia are polyurethane-modified enamels, and they do have a very hard and shiny surface. Regardless of the chemistry, the arguements have continued for as long as I can remember with the conspiracy theorists saying all the paint is the same. By the same token, there are many people who throw their hands up in horror at the thought of using "house" paint on a boat, despite the fact that some towering authorities have said it is OK - the late John Gardner being one of them - surely a weighty recommendation.

Sailing after the wash. The sail is not as per the plans, being a sprit-boomed leg-o-mutton from a Bolger Nymph set on a yard and boom as a boomed lateen - I just cant stop rig experimentation. The mast is the one for the proper rig, which explains why it looks to be too long in this photo.

Ive been up, down and around the painting tree many times, but for twenty-one years an experiment had been conducting itself in my own back shed. My Macgregor sailing-canoe has delivered a verdict to me which says that house paint is fine to use on a small sailing, rowing, or paddling boat made from wood. In fact, in this application it had performed better than the marine paint. Now dont get me wrong - the marine paints are extremely good as long as they are used in an appropriate fashion. In fact my favourite single-pack polyurethane enamel is Norglass Weatherfast which is a marine paint, and my favourite non-polyurethane-modified paint is Hempel Multicoat which is also very much a specialist marine paint (which is self-priming and self-undercoating as well!)

A pleasant evening sail

Ive got plenty more to say about paint, including a discussion about the use of 100% acrylic water-based house paint (known as "latex paint" in the U.S. which is interesting because there is NO LATEX in water-based acrylic paint ). Im also about to start a series of experimental applications of WR-LPU (water-reducible linear polyurethane), which I first used back in the year 2000. From my past experience, this stuff is tricky to apply properly, but if done well over the correctly prepared surface, it is exceptionally tough, UV-resistant, and durable.

In the meantime, if you feel like using a house paint such as Dulux Super Enamel for example, go ahead without thinking you are committing a nautical sin. As long as you follow the instructions and carry out the correct surface preparation, you will get a good result.

Back to the 24-hour holiday - it was wonderful, providing benefits which will last much longer than the trip away.

The view from my bed in the van...........

.......and from my camp-chair at night.

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An Old Head on Young Shoulders

It is often said that words of wisdom come from the mouths of babes...

The other week one of my sons mentioned that he wanted to build one of my First Mate designs. I was full of enthusiasm and told him that Id build one too, and maybe I could arrange to have the parts for both boats cut by CNC.

He looked at me and said, "Marking and cutting is easy and fun - can you arrange to have the sanding and painting done by CNC instead?"

First Mate is a nice boat - you can see more designs on my website here.

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Opportunity to Own an Aluminium Shearwater 39

Looking for a classically-styled cruiser that has the robust strength that will allow you to sail anywhere in the world that your cruising thoughts might take you? An aluminium Shearwater 39 might fit your bill nicely. It has the ability to bounce back from altercations with rocks, coral, ice or logs as can only come from a metal boat.

We can navigate our way around solid bits if they have a precisely known location but when they are not where the charts show them they can eat most boats. Heavy flotsam that drifts right at the surface can be anywhere on the ocean, lying in wait for boats at night when even the most vigilant watch wont spot them.

"Skylark II" in idyllic setting in the Pacific.

An aluminium Shearwater 39 has come available, one that appears to be well-worth the asking price. She is "Skylark II", the very first Shearwater 39 that started construction. Her first owner was to have the first GRP boat out of the moulds but production delays led to him commissioning the aluminium version, which was built for him by Jacobs Brothers in Cape Town.

"Skylark II" is fully equipped for world-cruising. Her first owner sailed her from South Africa to New Zealand via the Caribbean and Panama. Her current owners have cruised the North and South Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Red Sea and much of the Med. Their transit through the pirate-controlled waters of the Indian Ocean was particularly scary and is recounted in the book "A Harrowing Journey : Sailing into Danger".

"Skylark II"

Now they feel that they have achieved everything that they wanted to when they bought "Skylark II" and need to get back home. They have her priced for a quick sale, which makes her really good value, at US$110,000.

If you are interested in acquiring a cruiser that has exceptional sailing qualities and an international reputation as a wonderful boat, you can see more info on my website.

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