Unlikely Boat Builder: Lining Off
Resuming our Tale of Two Boats...
The Blue Moon's hull being painted, I relaunched her, splashing half a bottle of Blue Moon beer on her bow (no need to waste the whole bottle!)
Then Bob and I motored her down to her temporary new home -- a dock in the Steinhatchee River. With her long bowsprit, the slip was a bit short for the Blue Moon, so we had to back her in. NOT an easy thing to do with her long keel and small motor....
Read complete blog post: Lining Off
Enjoy: John
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A Garboard Tragedy - Act 1
The first step in getting out any plank is to spile it. Determined, this time, to follow the advice of the Boat Building Books as closely as possible, I read and re-read the pertinent sections of Greg Rossel's "Building Small Boats" until I believed I understood exactly what I was supposed to do.
One important point was to not try to use one, long, single piece spiling batten. Such a batten cannot be curved around the forms in the right place without being edge set. And, I understood, edge setting a spiling batten is a sure path to depression, suicide, or worse...
Read complete blog post: A Garboard Tragedy (Act 1)
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A Garboard Tragedy - Act 2
All the BBBs (boat building books) tell you that when you spile, you must lock down your dividers and use exactly the same radii for all your arcs. Being an overly-clever chap, I saw straight through this lie.
This brilliant insight almost tripped me up, of course.
But before I explain myself, let me make up two definitions. There may be words for these processes already, but I don't know what they are...
Read complete blog post: A Garboard Tragedy (Act 2)
Enjoy: John
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Unlikely Boat Builder: Mountain Climbing
There are a lot of good boat building books (BBBs) out there, and I own many of them. But when I started to build Cabin Boy, I decided to pick one guru to follow. That guru, for me, is Greg Rössel and specifically his book "Building Small Boats".
Not only is Mr. Rössel a master boat builder, he's a very good writer, and as I finally fastened my very first real plank on to Cabin Boy, a line from his chapter on lofting came back to me...
Read complete blog post: Mountain Climbing
Enjoy: John
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Unlikely Boat Builder: Swedish Furled Foam
Cabin Boy's build is now proceeding smoothly... I'm perfecting my planking technique, but nothing to exciting to report, so I thought I'd take a bit of a diversion...
While finishing up Cabin Boy, I'm also preparing for my 2000 mile voyage on the Blue Moon.
One piece of Blue Moon equipment that desperately needed replacement was the bunk cushion. The old one was grungy, damp, and well past it's due date. I chucked it onto the garbage pile while I was down in Florida, and thought I'd just buy a replacement.
That was until I got a quote for $450! No way I was going to plunk down a King's ransom for a bit of foam. Surely I could make one myself for less? And -- more importantly -- learn a valuable new skill...
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Enjoy: John
Cabin Boy's bottom and the Maine Boat Builder's Show
Cutting out and fastening Cabin Boy's bottom was easier than I expected. Using plywood, rather than the spiled cross planks that I'd planned on, saved a few days work, at least.
Since it's almost time to pull the boat off the forms and start working on the interior, I decided to drive up to the Maine Boat Builder's show in Portland, to steal some ideas from 'real' boat builders.
I'm glad I made the trip. Some great pics!
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The Unlikely Boat Builder: Ready to Flip
Enjoy: John
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UnlikelyBoatBuilder: Jessica Watson
Today I'm anchored in Clearwater, Florida, having decided I didn't have time to make it into Tampa Bay before dark. Ever since threading the needle into Cedar Key in the pitch dark, I've been over cautious about getting to an anchorage before dark.
Today, I found the perfect anchorage, and then decided to try for something just a wee bit better... Oh bitter irony!
But I'm not emotionally ready to tell that story yet. Maybe later...
Read blog post: Jessica Watson
Enjoy: John
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Jumping Dolphins, Batman!
The first night I anchored in the Manatee River, I anchored off Emerson Point Park. This is a huge anchorage that was almost empty when I was there. There was just one other boat, and she was at least a half-mile off.
It was a clear, calm night, with a million stars in the sky. My kerosene anchor light was lit and hanging in the mizzen shrouds. I'd just taken a last peek outside and was tucked up in my bunk with a good book -- "Three Men In A Boat"...
Read complete blog post: Jumping Dolphins, Batman!
Enjoy: John
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Unlikely Boat Builder: Sidelights
While waiting for the antibiotics to work their magic on my poor battered shin, I have been working on my to-do list. Top on the list today was to mount sidelight boxes in the Blue Moon's shrouds.
Sidelights are the red and green running lights that sailboats must show at night. The Blue Moon came with tiny, electric sidelights, in the shape of a small plastic light that looked like it would be more in place on a kids bike than on a boat.
Even though these tiny lights were barely visible, they gulped enormous amounts of electricity from my solar-driven batteries. Taking another page from the Pardey's books, I long ago decided to use kerosene running lights.
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Enjoy: John
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Unlikely Boat Builder: On the ICW
Having completed some chores, like lashing my sidelight box into the rigging, it was definitely time to move on.
One problem: getting back up the Manatee River. When the wind has blown at all, it has blown straight down the river. Not only does this make it difficult to beat out of the river, it has made the anchorage darn uncomfortable at times...
Read complete blog post: On the ICW
Enjoy: John
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UnlikelyBoatbuilder: The Boss
Yesterday, it was finally time to leave Sarasota Bay and head south. Unfortunately, a southerly wind was blowing like stink, as they say. No matter, I thought, I'll just motor. That is why sailboats have reliable engines, and I finally have a reliable engine.
So I left my sail tied to the boom, powered up my engine, and headed south. The engine was reliable, and ran 100% better than before. As I've already said, before the rebuild, the engine had been unable to push the boat into any sort of strong headwind. It could now push us along at 3 knots against a 15 knot wind.
The engine was loyal. It was game. It ran and ran all day. But by the end of the day, I knew the strain had been unfair. It was too much for the little one cylinder 4 stroke. If I wanted it to last the rest of the journey, I was going to have to be fair with it...
Read complete blog post: The Boss
Enjoy: John