Deck Caulking

We are using Teak Deck Systems caulk with the recommended 3m fine-line as a seam breaker. Tedious but not too difficult. We recently identified that the deck is made of Austrailian white beech. Commonly used as boat decking material due to the very light color which makes a cool deck when the summer sun is direct. We have about 8 hours work into it so far and have completed approximately 15% of the total.

Engine Survey

Tauno and Dave Slocum look over the 4 cylinder Peugeot-Vetus engine to begin preparing for start-up. The hour meter reads 6 hours. We aren't sure of the install year but it looks clean and lightly oiled in areas that can be accessed. Minus a few broken hoses it looks like we'll be ready soon to crank it up. (One can hope)

Hull Laminate completed

The tedious work of stapling and epoxying two diagonal layers of cedar strips , layering epoxy coated 2 oz. shopped strand and 1 layer of 20 oz fiberglass roving spanned a three year period, taking about 40 days of labor. Lots of fairing and filling to get 40+ gallons of epoxy( a few gallons on the barn floor) to look somewhat like a factory hull. Next steps are to sand and prepare for paint and varnish above the waterline.

Spray Model at Peabody Essex Museum

Take a look at this model in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.

http://www.pem.org/

Bow section glassed

Here you see the bow section with two layers of glass. We learned a valuable lesson today. After eating lunch we came back to the barn to find a large glass section had peeled off and was in a heap on the floor. It turns out that the air pressure that is holding the glass on the hull can be easily "undone" if the dry overlap at the top is allowed to drop or peel forward. The weight of the fabric continues the peel. We were able to get it back on the hull but it was messy. The accepted boat building method ( that we were compelled to perform) is referred to as the "wet" method. (wet fabric first) I don't care what the books say about it being acceptable; it is not. I'll attempt in the future to show a video of the dry method. We have one more section to glass on the stern. Each section gets more epoxy and more sanding; then on to the starboard side. The glass and fairing has taken about 7 gallons of epoxy for this side alone ( with a few ounces of black pigment.

Glassing the hull

Here you see Tauno sanding the edge of the first two sections of glass. We are first placing a sction of 2 ounce chopped strand glass on the hull and then place 12.5 ounce roving as the final layer. We are first wetting the boat with resin, then laying the dry fabric on the boat. We start at the top, one person holding and one rolling and pressing the fabric as we move down the section to the keel. At this point, the epoxy is not very tacky and only air pressure is holding the cloth to the vertical/slightly inverted surface. We've discovered that it helps when the person holding uses a board the width of the glass to hold the fabric against the hull as the roller re-wets the fabric as both move toward the keel.

Cold molding side two

As soon as the weather turned and we started getting temps in the 50's at night ( around June 1) we resumed work on the veneer. To review, we ran out of weather last year to use epoxy so we finished dry-fitting veneer on side one, rolled the boat, and dry fit layer one on side two. After about 6 days of laying veneer with epoxy we completed two layers .

Classic capstan windlass

I found this windlass on Craig's List. The seller, Ed from South Carolina, just happened to be coming through NYS on his way to his sailboat in Toronto.
I met him in Utica, and we did the deal. This came from a 1940 Alden ketch. Ed told the story of when he took a slip at Trump Plaza Marina in Atlantic City with the Alden. Trump's boat was a few docks away and one evening "the Donald" strolled by the boat and his only comment was " Hey, nice windlass". We think it will be a nice bit of bronze on the bow of the spray.

Ship's Husband Passes

In the old days the ship's husband maintained the ship while she was in port. My uncle Howard never dreamed of long distance cruising but took great pride in constructing a few of the boat's major components . His dreams ( literally) were filled with ideas of how to accomplish the various tasks to get our boat seaworthy. Over the course of the past few years he re-greased winches, cast the keel, built the rudder, polished bronze, and worked by our side on weekends. In my last conversation with him we were discussing the amazing job he did on the rudder. He passed away on his own terms, being active on various gardening projects till the end. He will be missed by family, friends and fellow boat builders.

Bronze "poured" terminals

I recently found these old Wilcox and Crittenden terminals on e-bay from a guy in California. They are also called speltor sockets. Wires are placed in the cone shaped terminals. Once inside the cone the wired is frayed or "broomed". Molten zinc is poured in the cone and allowed to harden. A plug forms around the frayed wire. This type of connection fell out of favor because of weight and windage but are still considered one of the strongest connections available. Many supension bridges use this type. More modern connections use poured resin in place of zinc. I'm open to recommendations.

Sailing in the Grenadines

Tauno and I decided that we had better start getting comfortable in bigger wind, bigger waves and a bigger boat. Barefoot Yacht Charters in St. Vincent provided us with all of the above. Trade winds consistently blow 15-25 knots with 8-12 ft swell. Under the wing of USCG Skipper Chris Rundlett we learned how to handle it without incident. Chris is also a certified American Sailing Association instructor who got us through the first two certification levels. I highly recommend calling Barefoot and booking Chris on your next charter. (left) Sailing mates for the week Charlie and Meg navigate us to Bequia by dinghy. Contact Barefoot-
www.barefootyachts.com Want to move a yacht or get your captain's license--you can also find Chris at
www.zenithmaritime.com

Off to the Wooden Boat show in Mystic

We're going to the wooden boat show in Mystic this weekend. There are plenty of experts at the show that will answer a long list of questions that we have in the areas of rigging, epoxy/fabric, hardware, diesel, navigation, steering systems, vessel documentation, sails and on and on. We'll meeting Kevin in Charlestown to look at a few more hardware pieces (from his unfortunate misadventure with his ketch). The show also holds small seminars including bronze casting and wood steam bending that we will attend. We'll also pay a visit to our favorite consignment store in Wickford ( Wickford Marine Consignment).

Nice image of the original

Here is an image of Slocum's Spray leaving Sidney Harbor. Should we paint our hull white? The idea of leaving her natural frightens us due to the amount of effort needed to maintain all of that varnish. We have plenty of time to ponder the idea.

More on the Rudder

Howard has prepared the rudder stock and internal foil support for welding and assembly. The stock ( rod) is 1.25" 316 stainless and the supports are .25" 316 stainless. All will be embedded in epoxy and sandwiched within the locust foil seen on the left.

Bronze Cleaning

One of the many projects ( as you have seen in previous posts) has been to collect and prepare old bronze fittings and hardware. We learned that muriatic acid and water ( 1-3) cleans much of the old corrosion from bronze. There are two schools of thought on bronze. Patina vs. bright. We like patina but much of the corrosion isn't pretty. Also, we need to get a good look at all of the old rigging parts so we can identify any stress cracks. In the picture you see chain plates and travelers from the 1930 Alden ketch that went aground in RI. Much more polishing will be necessary but it is high quality bronze and will look great when completed.

Cold Molding the Hull

Now that the hull is on it's side, finishing the hull will not be difficult. Cold molding is basically like making plywood in the shape of a boat. Thin layers of veneer are coated in epoxy and stapled onto the hull. Veneer layers are placed roughly perpendicular to each other. With three guys working it takes about 4 hours to cover a 6x6 area. We esimate about 40 hours of work for the three man crew per side. We've completed about half of the first layer on the first side. Not hard labor but tedious----and sticky. Much of the art of using epoxy is keeping everything in the work area clean. Tools left sticky on the bench
may be there until you cut them off with a recipricating saw. Another complication of epoxy is that you need 48 hours of temperature above 55 degrees for the curing process. Summer is short in upstate NY and we both have sailboats on Lake Champlain that we enjoy. We may have to consider extending our building season by enclosing the barn.