New Blog

I'm moving on and probably won't post much here anymore, but will leave the content up for those that are interested in plastic classic restoration.  I've started a new blog with new adventures about fixing up beat up boats, this time on a smaller scale.  I'm building a new shop that will be better suited for new projects, especially in the winter.  Visit www.fernhollow.net for more.

My first project fell in my lap before I finished the shop. It's a 1977 Force 5 that followed me home from the interwebs (free boat on craigslist).  I sailed one as a kid at camp and have many fond memories.  I'm close to getting it back in the water, and then I will finish the shop.

After that, I am looking at a number of small boat designs that embrace beach cruising and camping.  The Maine Island Trail is something I've wanted to do for some time and I want to build a boat that would suit that type of sailing.  I've been looking at building a Caledonia Yawl, Ness Yawl, Goat Island Skiff, Core Sound 17 or 20, and a few designs of my own.

Magic has sold!

I'm both happy and sad to report that Magic has been sold.  The good Karma Gods must have been smiling down on her, because one of the new owners is the daughter of a former owner and sailed on Magic when she was young.  I can't help but think that I've passed Magic into good hands, and will enjoy and take care of her.  Fair winds.

The End!
(or the beginning)

My last sail as owner of Magic.

Magic For Sale!

It's with mixed emotions I've decided to put Magic up for sale.  If you've been following this blog then it may come as a surprise, but as much as I've enjoyed the fruits of 4 years of labor this summer, I decided that it's time to take on a new challenge.  I'm realistic and know that I will never get the labor and time that I put into her and am selling her for $22,000.  Overall she is in excellent condition and I've detailed her extensive restoration on this blog.  There is lots of information here as well as more images and links to videos of Magic sailing.

Her storage is paid up until summer and she is shrink wrapped and winterized.  Listing details are here: Listing Details. Feel free to contact me at matt@bowser.com if you want more information.

During the first years after I bought Magic in 2001, the circumstances of my life were significantly different.  My kids were just toddlers and could be packed away in the car for the 2.5 hour trip without much of a fuss. Additionally, my parents lived down on the Cape so we were traveling down from New Hampshire regularly anyway.

Times have changed though; my kids both like sailing but now that they are 15 and 13 respectively, they are beginning to have lives of their own and it has become difficult to plan family getaways. With that said, we had a great week sailing down on the Cape and Martha's Vineyard this summer and a few weekends that I wouldn't trade for the world.  I was able to sail quite a bit this summer, but much of that time was spent solo and I started to come to terms with the fact that it didn't make sense to spend so much time and money (mooring and hauling costs) on a big boat that I was for the most part day sailing.

I still love sailing and I have a number of friends with big boats that I'll crew on going forward, and back in late July I spent a day sailing a few boats in the Small Reach Regatta up in Brooklin Maine and fell in love with one in particular. The Caledonia Yawl designed by Iain Oughtred.  It sails great, is trailerable (read: no mooring or hauling fees), and will satisfy my desire to sail the Maine Island Trail in a small boat.  The proceeds from the sale of Magic will go toward the cost of building a Caledonia Yawl or something similar.

Magic's last morning in the water this year.  Note the frost on the dock!

Sleigh Ride

Here are a few videos from last weekend coming back from Vineyard Haven.  We were just outside of Wood's Hole on our way back to Marion and the SW wind made an awesome showing and we just flew back.  My only regret is I didn't have the spinnaker on board that weekend.

Summertime

The boats been in the water for almost three weeks now and I have taken every opportunity to get out sailing.  We've had several family outings on the weekends and I've done a couple of mid week solo sails over the past few weeks.  I really love going out alone because it really helps me get to know how the boat behaves again.  Before the restoration I had gotten comfortable enough to sail on and off the mooring and maneuver through the very tight harbor without any help from the engine.  So far this year, I've been using the main to get off the mooring, but I've had the engine running just in case I screw up.  I'm surrounded by some very expensive boats whose owners would probably not appreciate me running into them and I don't feel totally confident yet to go without the motor when leaving or approaching the mooring.

First Sail 2015

We had a fantastic first sail last weekend, with the temperature in the low 80s and a nice 10-12 knot breeze.  It was completely uneventful except that nothing went wrong (when does that happen on the first time out) and the whole family had a good time.  With a South East breeze we were able to sail down to Mattapoisett before tacking out to Cleveland ledge and back across the bay to Marion. No marathon, just a great Sunday afternoon sail.  To top it all off, my 15 year old son was excited to get hoisted up the mast to install a wire above the spreader to hopefully keep the birds off.

Salty Again

Finally, the boat is back in salt water.  Last year's soak in Lake Winnipesaukee was done because it was really close to home and I could run up after work to take care of some of the many unfinished projects.  Being close was nice, but I wasn't fond of the squirrelly winds and lack of destinations.  

One of the many projects
that needed completion.

It's funny how launch dates sneak up on you.  Two weeks ago it dawned on me that I had a huge number of things to do before the boat was picked up on June 3rd.  I started making lists and scrambling to get everything done, but of course I didn't quite finish everything.  The big thing I missed out on was getting 3 additional coats of varnish on everything; we got only got one on for a total of 6.  I'm planning on putting another coat on now that the boat is in this weekend, but boat work usually doesn't happen for me once the boat is splashed.

So pickup day on Wednesday was absolutely crazy.  The truck was scheduled to arrive at 1pm and finally crossed the last item off my list at 12:45 when I tossed a half cord of wood blocking the boat shed into my truck.  Jonathan from Brownell Systems showed up before I stopped sweating.  Close call.

Putting the boat on the trailer.

The loading was nerve wracking for me as usual, but Jonathan was completely at ease and had no trouble backing the big truck and trailer into the tight confines of the boat shed.  It took a little over an hour to load the boat and get the mast secured on the trailer's rack and then it was over.  The boat was gone, the shed was empty and I felt a huge sense of relief.  

The next morning I drove down to the Marion town launch and met Jonathan and his crane operator to step the mast and launch the boat.   Another nerve wracking hour for me; there is just something about a 250 pound (guess) mast hanging from a crane above your head while standing on the deck of a boat 15 feet off the ground on a trailer that just doesn't sit well with me.  

All went well though and once we got all the standing rigging attached I started to feel a bit better. The strap from the crane was dropped, the mast stayed up on its own and then it was time to back down the ramp.  I wish I had taken photos, but I was trying to pay attention.  Once the boat was in the water Jonathan gave me a minute to fire up the engine and it started right away.  Then he lowered the hydraulic rams that keep the boat on the trailer and the boat was free.  

I tied the boat off to the dock and thanked Jonathan for all his help and he was off.  I hopped back on board and headed out to the mooring.  It took a while to find it and ended up having Barden's Boatyard find it (it took them a while also).  It turns out that the float was partially submerged so I never saw the number. 

The rest of the day was uneventful and much more relaxing.  I made sure all the cotter pins were crimped (or whatever it is you call it when you bend them around the clevis pin), put the boom on and rigged the mainsheet.  Then I had some lunch and relaxed a bit before heading home.  Next up - Sailing... Finally.

Frenetics

I've been neglecting to post here for a while now, but it's not because I've been off skiing or mountain biking somewhere and blowing off boat work.  I've been busy getting the boat ready to launch in two days and I just had a ton of little projects that were either partially completed or just never got to them last year.

First off, I finally finished the new hatch and got it installed.  Most of the work since the last post involved varnishing (6 coats), installing hardware, and final fitting.  All went well and I'm happy with how it turned out.

At the same time I was working on varnishing the brightwork, bolting on the builders plate (finally), and installing a new VHF cable that runs from the radio to the mast.  At any given point in the past month I've had 5-6 small projects going in various stages of completion.

There were a few larger projects that I should have done over the winter, but I just don't get much boat work done over the winter, so once again, I was under the gun once the weather warmed up and I was sure we were going to launch this season.

Last fall I had started putting bead board on the main bulkhead in the cabin, and I had finished the port side but didn't start the starboard side until last week.  It isn't a difficult project, and installing the bead board is quite easy, but cutting and fitting the trim just takes a lot of time.  In particular, the trim board covering the chainplate bolts took forever because I had to get longer chainplate bolts and I decided to use some old chainplates as a backing plate for the chainplate located on the other side of the bulkhead.  I finally got it done and I think it looks a lot better (See before and after photos below).

Bulkhead before

There were a lot of other projects that amounted to a pain in the ass and were time consuming but required no creativity or much skill.  I did consult the considerable talent amassed in the wooden boat forum to determine the best approach to repairing a split along a glue line in the boom.  I just wasn't sure what to do, but in the end it was quite simple to do (open up the glue line with a japanese pull saw, fill with epoxy and plug the end to keep the split from continuing).  Hopefully it will last and I plan on re-building the whole thing for next year.

Bulkhead completed, minus the clock that still needs to be installed.

Mud Season

So here in Northern New England we have a dreaded 5th season known as mud season.  It's the time just after the snow melts and just before the black flies start biting.  Mud season is a sub-season of spring and in my case it means that I can't go near the boat until things dry out and the ground stabilizes. Of course there is a lot to do, but mud season gives me an excuse to find other things to do.

I have been picking away at finishing the forward hatch though, and I decided to get all artsy and see if I could do an inlay.  I've never really done inlays before so I cracked open the interwebs one night and found some good youtube videos by 'The Apprentice and The Journeyman'.  Seemed easy enough so I gave it a shot.  I didn't take any photos of the process because I never thought it would come out as nice as it did, but you can see the whole process on the link above.

In any event, I decided on a compass rose with an alternating wood pattern, and I had some leftover teak from the top deck and a chunk of ash from the firewood pile. The ash is significant because it was a beautiful tree next to our house and my wife and daughter's favorite tree.  Unfortunately, it came down during one of the snowstorms this winter and I had to cut it up.  I saved a few pieces and cut them up on the bandsaw for use later on.   The ash will live on.

So with the help of the youtube videos I did some basic math and cut out a bunch of 22.5 degree wedges with a little jig I made for the bandsaw and glued them all up.  The result was surprisingly good, so I took then next step and traced the pattern on a piece of sapele and chiseled out the relief before dropping the glued up compass rose.

I sanded it all down and then embedded it along with a bunch of mahogany strips that I had left over on the underside of the hatch with epoxy.  After a good sanding, I applied the first of several coats of varnish.   Next, once the ground hardens up and I can get on the boat again, I'll get the hardware mounted and adjusted and then it's just a matter of more varnish and I'll be done.

Hatching the Hatch

Getting close now, I almost have a finished hatch on my hands.  This was my first foray into Teak Decking Systems SIS 440 (or any teak seam sealer for that matter) and other than the long cure time, it was easy enough to use.

I started by taping off the teak planks between the seams to minimize cleanup.  I don't think it's needed because everything needs to be sanded down anyway, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.  Once everything was taped off pretty well, I clipped the end of the tube and popped it into a mechanical caulking gun.  I squeezed out the black goo into each of the seams, letting it mound up behind the nozzle (as instructed).  My cheapo mechanical caulking gun doesn't really have the leverage to easily get the caulking to flow and my hand quickly began to cramp.  Fortunately, I have large gorilla hands, but someone with small hands or little hand strength would likely have some difficulty.

I literally had just enough caulking to get all the seams filled, but once complete I took a 1 inch piece of scrap wood and smeared each of the seams to make sure everything was filled and there were no bubbles.  At that point I set it aside for 48 hours and let it cure up.


This afternoon I tested out the caulking with my fingernail and decided it was cured enough to sand, so I took my random orbit sander and 60 grit discs and sanded everything flat.  It cleaned up really easily and didn't take long to get nice crisp seams and that teak deck look.

I finished up by putting a quick coat of varnish on the rails around the deck to get a feel for how the contrasting woods will look.  Pretty sharp!  So, now there is lots more varnish to do and I will also epoxy in 1/8" mahogany strips to the underside of the deck to cover up the plywood and to provide a final layer for additional strength.

Shaping Up

Progress has been pretty decent with the hatch over the past few days.  I epoxied in the 1/4" plywood subdeck to the rabbets running the perimeter of the hatch and then coated it with a layer of un-thickened epoxy.  Originally, I was planning on laminating in a layer of 6oz cloth, but I was a little worried that the additional thickness would cause the teak planks to sit proud of the perimeter of the hatch.

Basically, the rabbet I cut was 1/2" deep and the 1/4" plywood plus 1/4" teak decking fills that rabbet up with no room for anything else.  It probably would have been fine, but I decided that instead I would laminate a piece of 1706 biaxial fabric to the underside of the hatch before putting on a wood facia.  That would probably be overkill so I may end up just doing a 6oz layer, but I want to get a feel for how stiff the center of the hatch is with both teak and plywood laminated.

Anyway, after I epoxied over the plywood deck, I noticed that the center of the hatch had a slight depression in it.  A straight edge revealed that I had an 1/8" depression.  I want the teak to sit as flat as possible so I mixed up a batch of Quick Fair and troweled it over the depressed section.  I didn't totally eliminate it, but took care of most of it.

Next, I did some shaping at the corners and cut a 6 degree sloping angle from the bottom up on the sides to give it a 'sporty' look.  Not really, but one of the things I didn't like about my last hatch was that even though it was curved to fit the camber of the deck it looked a bit boxy.  I think this should help.

With that complete, it was time to measure and cut the teak strips.  The fore and aft length was easy, just measure total distance between the rabbets and subtract 1/2" (1/4 gap for black caulking on either end), but the side to side proved to be more challenging.  It felt like I was back in grade school and was faced with a word problem that went like this:

You have 10 pieces of wood, each 3 inches wide and they need to be evenly spaced over 21.125 inches.  Each piece needs to have a .25 inch gap between the next board.  How wide does each board need to be?

 The answer: 2.065 inches.

Once I had checked and rechecked my calculations, I went ahead and ripped them on the table saw. Fortunately, I was correct, and they all fit nicely.   At that point it was time to glue them in, so using a tube of Jamestown Distributors Total Boat Thixo (the epoxy that is in a caulking tube and mixes when squeezed through a nozzle), I globbed on a bunch on the back of each strip and squished it in place.  Once I had them all on the hatch, I used rubber tile spacers to keep 1/4 inch between each board.

I stacked a bunch of weight on top and let it cure up overnight.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out; I had never worked with teak decking to any degree before, hopefully the black caulking that comes next will work out too.

Rabbets and Glue

It's been hectic around here lately, my inner ski bum is battling with my inner boat bum and it's been a really even match even though April starts tomorrow.  The snow is still really deep in the woods and the spring corn snow is prime right now.

Anyway, before epoxying the hatch up, I did manage to cut out a perimeter rabbet 1/2" x 1/2" on the new hatch partly with my router and a sharp chisel in the corners.  It always takes me longer than I expect, but I always do a few test cuts when using the router because it sure can make a mess of things when it gets out of hand. Fortunately it behaved nicely, but I played it safe and stayed away from the ends of the boards which slowed things down more because I needed to carefully chisel out just enough to make a nice 90 degree corner once the boards were joined.   All went well and I'm happy with the way they turned out.


Next I mixed up a small batch of un-thickened epoxy and brushed it into the joints on all the boards, then I added enough Aerosil to thicken up the remaining epoxy along with some fine sapele sawdust to color up the mix for the joints.  Then I just slathered it in all the joints nice and thick so any gaps in the joints would be filled.  I assembled all four rails together and inserted a piece of 1/4" plywood into the rabbet (I had previously measured so it would fit perfectly).  For now the plywood is just there to make sure the hatch is square, but I will eventually laminate it in to provide the substrate for teak decking strips.  Finally I clamped it all up and let it cure.

Next, I'll start working on laminating up the hatch deck.  Right now, my thoughts are to use the 1/4" plywood along with 6oz cloth on the top and bottom.  On the bottom side I will laminate sapele strips to the underside so the plywood will not be visible, and on top will be the teak decking.  The original hatch I did was built in a similar fashion, but I used mahogany strips in place of the plywood.  At the time I was literally swimming in mahogany cutoffs from a friend who was replanking his NY32.

Test fit of plywood sub-deck just before gluing up rails.

I'm Back

Wow, what a winter!  This may be a record for most days I've skied in a year.  I lost count at some point, but I suspect it even beat out the days when I was an unofficial ski bum in college and got a job as a lift operator just so I could get a season's pass.  Unfortunately, most of the ski areas are going to close just as the really nice spring skiing gets going; I was at Waterville Valley today with my son and by mid afternoon the temps were approaching 40 degrees; just warm enough to soften things up a bit, but not so warm that your trying to turn in thick mash potatoes.

Whats left of old hatch

Anyway, this is a boat blog, and even though I did zero boat work over the winter, I got started on my must-do projects for the year.  First and foremost was a new fore hatch which unfortunately wasn't secured well when the boat was hauled this fall and flew off the boat on the highway and was pretty much destroyed.  Damn shame because I built that hatch myself about 10 years ago before the restoration and I was really proud of it.  Although I had other boat projects planned for this spring, this needs to be done and since I always like doing these sort of projects, it should be fun.


The old hatch was a varnished mahogany affair that was really pretty, but it was slippery when standing on it, and it didn't match the sapele coamings and rails that well.  So this one will have a teak deck top and the side rails will be made of sapele.

Late last week I stopped by Goosebay Lumber and picked out a nice 5' length of 6/4 sapele and got started on the hatch.  Fortunately, I was able to get the measurements I needed off the old hatch, so the initial setup was fairly straight forward.  I was going to do hand cut dovetails, but I ended up doing box joints because I just don't have time to do the dovetails.


The box joints still look nice but are easy because most of the work can be done on the tablesaw with a mortise and tenon jib.  Its just a matter of setting each offset and then running the four sides through the saw.  Then move onto the next offset and do the same; repeat until done and the use a fret saw to cut out the waste (Awesome fret saw).

A little filing here and there gave me a really good rough fit that will come together nicely with a little more tweaking.  From there I transferred the deck camber curve to the front and back sides of the hatch and cut them out on the band saw.  Some more filing to smooth out the curves and I did a quick test fit over on the boat to make sure I hadn't totally screwed it up (I hadn't) before I called it a day.

Snowmageddon

The boat work has come to a complete halt and I'll be on a boat hiatus until the fluffiness melts away. Until then, I'll be skiing out in the woods of New Hampshire.  See you in the spring!

Close Call

I haven't been doing much on the boat over the past 2 weeks, but I have just about finished up the port bulkhead and just need to install the final trim pieces and re-install the chainplate.  I'm going to try and get to it this week, but the holidays have thrown everything off (the cold doesn't help either).

Speaking of cold, we had some really cold weather the past week and finished off with a day before Thanksgiving snowstorm that dropped about a foot of really heavy snow that made for a big mess. Awfully pretty, but I'm not ready for winter yet. The heavy snow knocked down hundreds of trees in the area and we were one of 300,000 customers without power over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Fortunately we have a big wood stove to keep us warm and the in-laws were only about an hour away and didn't lose power, so we went there for the feast.

The boat and shed narrowly missed getting clobbered during the storm by an old maple that decided to attempt a kamikaze run but fortunately missed. Just barely.  It took me about an hour to cut and pile the attacker and will use it for the woodstove next year.

Bulkhead Progress

After a bit of a reprieve from normal New England temperatures this time of year, the thermometer has started to head down.  The temperature yesterday never got much above 38 degrees F, but unlike previous boat work years, I was able to get a bunch of work done down in the cabin with an electric heater and the hatches shut.  It was quite cozy.

Before installing the beadboard I put a coat of semi-gloss acrylic latex paint (good grade household interior paint) on the front and back of all the boards.  Once that dried, I picked up a few tubes of construction adhesive from the local hardware store and got to work.  A note on construction adhesives: there are so many different types I had trouble making a decision.  I hope what I chose will work; it's a general adhesive that should bond wood to multiple surface types so I'll cross my fingers.

The process for installing all the boards was simple. Lay each one down backside facing up and run a wavy pattern of adhesive along the back and then press into place.  Repeat until done.  I ended up using just 1 of the 3 tubes I purchased.  It was way easier than I thought it would be and didn't run into a single snag.  I had blocked off 2 hours of time to get it done, but found it only took about 30 minutes, so I ended up putting another coat of paint on before I left. 

After letting it set up overnight, I came back the next day and use a few pieces of paper to template the section around the chainplate bolts for a piece of mahogany.  I didn't want to put the beadboard there, because the soft wood would crush under the tightened down chainplate bolts.  I took the template back to the shop and cut out another piece of the old coamings and planed it down to 5/8". I traced out the template pattern and cut out the shape on the wood with a jig saw.  

I headed back to the boat with a rasp and the new chainplate board (I don't know what to call it) and after a bit of filing away, I had the board fitting nice and snug.  I screwed the rest of the trim (I still have a few small pieces left to make) and was happy to see that everything fit quite nicely.  Of course all the trim had to come off to get sanded and the first of several coats of satin varnish (I'm just using Helmsman Urethane for the interior) before final install, but it's looking more done than not now.  

So given that both bulkheads are almost identical in size, I can estimate now that for each bulkhead the cost breakdown is as follows: $14 per package of beadboard (used just shy of 1 package), $3 for each tube of construction adhesive (used 1), and $3 for a box of 25 3/4" stainless steel #6 screws (will be enough for both sides).  This brings my grand total for each side to about $18.50.  Of course, I had free trim mahogany so if I had needed to purchase it, I would say it would have probably doubled the price, but still one of the cheaper boat projects I can think of. 

A Cheap, Fun Project

Now that the boat is back in working condition and the topsides are squared away, it's time to turn my attention down below.  The interior was never in bad shape, but it needed a little updating.  The woodstove has been gone since I've owned the boat but I never bothered to patch up the hole in the bulkhead and the steel heat shield that was leftover.  It just looked a bit crappy and wanted to give the interior a more classic look.

The hole in the bulkhead had to be fixed but there weren't that many options that didn't require ripping the entire bulkhead out and replacing with a new one.  After a bunch of googling, I realized that I could simply cover the bulkhead and discovered that beadboard is commonly used in classic wooden yachts.  There were two options, beadboard plywood or real beadboard.  I've never been a huge fan of beadboard plywood and decided that it would be a bit of a pain to cut out and fit a big piece of plywood with lots of crazy angles and curves.

I found some solid pine beadboard at the local hardware store and decided to give it a try. I started in the center of the boat where the bulkhead meets the door to the head.  Using this as the 'straight' line, I measured the length with a tape measure and simply cut the board to fit it.  The boards are only 3/8" thick so it was easy to cut with a Japanese pull saw. Then it was just a matter of cutting the next one at an angle slightly shorter and generally following the contour of the headliner.  I ended up at the chainplate on the outboard edge of the bulkhead.  It didn't have to be perfect because the edges will be covered with a mahogany trim strip.

I really wanted to keep this project cheap because it's entirely cosmetic.  The total cost of the beadboard for both sides of the bulkhead was just $28, but I didn't really have a large supply of wood suitable for trim (ie. mahogany/sapele).  I considered going over to the sawmill to see what I could find, but realized that the old partially rotten cockpit coaming boards that I replaced were sitting on top of my woodpile holding down a tarp and might have some decent wood left in them. 

I cut a chunk out of it and ran it through the thickness planer and found that the wood was still in good shape once I planed off the front and back surfaces.  Excellent, free Honduras mahogany!  I proceeded to plane down the rest of the coamings and then cut out a bunch of 1 inch strips for the trim.

Some of the trim that ran along the cabin headliner needed to be curved so taped up a paper template in the cabin and trimmed it so it fit perfectly along the curves of the headliner.  Then I traced the pattern on a wide piece of the planed mahogany (I planed the old coamings to 3/8") and cut it out with a jig saw.  I took a rasp and rounded over one of the exposed edges and took it back over to the boat for a test fitting.  I was pleased to find that everything fit pretty darn well and I would only need to make some minor adjustments to have a perfect fit.

To finish up, I took all the cut beadboard and gave the front and back a coat of acrylic latex semi-gloss interior paint.  I wanted semi-gloss so it could be easily wiped down, but didn't feel it necessary to spend much money on marine paint.  House paint would do just fine for this since it won't be exposed to anything other than humid conditions.  

I ran out of weekend to get everything re installed, but I'm hoping I'll find some time this week.  My plan is to use some liquid nails on the beadboard backing along with some screws to get it fixed in place. Then I'll put some more paint on before getting the trim installed.