Sea Trial

A couple of days ago, I was finally ready enough to take the Seaclipper to the local lake. I worked in town until 2:00 then rushed home and with great excitement hitched the car to the boat trailer. The ride to the lake was without any trauma despite there being so many things that could have blown off or out of the cockpit. The boat was badly positioned on the trailer too, being too far forward, with too much weight on the hitch.
Once I got parked in the lot, it took me awhile to get everything untied and laid out. First real work was the unfolding of the beams and bolting the hinges in place.
I had practised the raising of the mast a number of times in my own yard, so that went easily too. I secured the stays and disconnected all my straps then backed down the ramp and slid the boat into the water. So exciting to finally see it afloat!


I left the rigging of the rudder and the main sail until the boat was on the beach. Took me awhile to swing the boat to get the stern in shallow enough water to pin the rudder and tie on the control lines. Raising the sail was more difficult as the wind was shifty in that little cove and the rising sail kept hanging up and pinching the bolt rope in the groove. Finally with the help of a friend who happened by, we got the sail up while keeping the boat pointed into the wind.


Took me a few minutes to organize all the lines piled in the rear cockpit, but finally I was aboard and given a push into the lake. I paddled further out of the cove and into the breeze. The boat sat as stable as a raft! A few tugs of lines locked both the rudder and the centerboard in place and I tightened the main sheet and felt the wind grab the sail.
A moment of fright as the boat heeled with the gust. Took me a little while to recall that every boat has to heel with the wind. That's what boats do!
I sailed around for awhile using only the main, getting used to the motions, the steering and the heeling. I am so used to a hand-held tiller, one that moved opposite to the intended direction, that I frequently steered the wrong way!
When I got comfortable again, I unfurled the jib and added more power. Then it got to be exciting. Lots of speed yet hardly any real motion of the boat due to small waves. The heeling of the boat settled in and I started to look for more wind, for more speed!
It felt like I was barely moving along when actually the GPS said I was at 4 knots. Just gliding! This was frantic top speed in my other boats! At about 6 knots, the rudder or the centerboard started to hum and add to the excitement. I presume that vibration is slowing me down, but for now, I don't care.
There was some rocking in boat wakes, but never any rolling if the sail was pulling.
I think the trip was a success as I had a terrific time and came home with a list of things to fix and alter. Can't wait to get back out there!

Two Month's of Progress

The weather has turned warm enough to epoxy anytime, knowing it will set up nicely. Construction has finished and painting has happened in spurts of warm and dry weather. Easiest to include a bunch of pictures then come back to comment on them.



I decided a simple paint scheme would be best. I used marine enamel on the creamy coloured parts and an oil-based house paint on the dark red. It took a lot of thinking and the help of a neighbour to bolt the beams to the amas. I propped them up on tall sawhorses then rolled the main hull underneath. The problem then was lining everything up for the final assembly. So, here it all is, for its first roll-out into the sunshine.



I knew the amas were heavy, but I figured they would be manageable. To try out the folding part of the operation, I undid the bolts holding the hinges in place and rotated the amas onto the main hull. That was a huge grunt! It feel like they weigh about a hundred pounds. Rolling them back from the folded position to the 'open' position was much harder again. Then my lifting was with poor leverage, making the effort even worse. I am working on some system, but it may be simplest to stand on a short step stool so my legs are more effective.

Raising the mast was the next challenge. I am using the winch on the trailer. To keep the mast from moving off to one side, I have support lines between the outer ends of the main beam and where the mast-raising line attaches to the mast. I also used a pole to change the angle of the winch line. If anyone wants more information, leave me a comment here.

This was a very exciting event. My first sitting in the cockpit with the sails, beams and amas up and in place. Much easier to see how it is going to work.
A picture to show the jib sail we made from the Sailrite kit. That project went together very nicely, including the fancy corner treatments.
I now have a long list of fun and fiddly things to make and install. Things like rudder controls, center-board controls, sheet controls etc, etc, I am facing a week of rainy weather, so I am in no great rush to get things done so I can go to the lake. Rolling the boat out into the rain will be a nuisance.
Next report should be all about the sea trials. So exciting!

Late March

Once again, these pictures are out of order, but the progress all blurs together in my memory too. The above picture was take just a few days ago. It shows the rear cockpit with the seat base in place. It also shows the dashboard in place, nicely secured to the back of the centerboard case and to the fir side rails. They should give great arm rests as well as places to secure blocks and deflect the waves.
This picture was taken at the same time as the first one in this entry. But looking aft from in front of the front cockpit. It also shows just a bit of the front dash board.
This shows the rear of the main hull. Instead of installing a plastic hatch cover, I made my own. It is framed in below deck to give the deck extra strength. I don't think much water will rush back there, so a much smaller screw-on hatch cover hardly seemed necessary. This should also give much better access to that area.
I could no longer work in the inner shop. The doorway was barely able to fit this hull. Next to go on were those side shelves and the dashboards. Time to re-pot this plant!
The amas were due to be connected to the beams so I moved them (with help) to the second car port and lined everything up with measured lines sprayed onto the floor. Because the mounting areas of the beams are canted, I rolled them onto their backs so I would have flat and level areas to work with.
It is getting very exciting now. Today's job is to finish the interior of the main hull forward of the front cockpit so I can install the front deck. After that, I will be busy rounding corners, filling and sanding.

Main hull progress

When I look back on the previous entry, I see I have accomplished a few things.
I spent several days sanding the outside of the hull and adding extra filler coats of epoxy. I have the hull pretty smooth now, but it was too cold to do any painting anyway, so I decided to roll the boat upright and go to work on the interior.
First thing I did was to measure everything to make sure it was all lined up. To my horror I found that the center board case was leaning in relation to the sides of the hull! I got out a long clamp and a spacer board and returned everything to design. It has been tied in that position for a few weeks now and each time I release the clamp I find it more vertical on its own. I have to leave the clamp on it until I get a substantial bracing part of the boat built. That would be the dash board for the rear seat.

In no particular order, these are the additions to the boat in the past few weeks. I poured epoxy into the gaps between the stem and the sides of the bow.

I cut back the bulkheads to their finished size. I added bracing on the sides for the blocks that bolt the cross beams to the main hull. I drilled, beveled and notched the blocks for those beams and epoxied then bolted them into place.


I installed rails to the sides of the boat to support the seat backs and bases. I sanded the hull interior then painted on a coat of epoxy. I glued in the little bulkheads to support the centerboard case.

Fiberglass on Main hull

It took me a few days to get all the edges filled and rounded. Weather had again turned cold.






When we were promised a week of very warm weather, I made the push to get everything ready for laying the fiberglass cloth and pouring the epoxy.


Last Thursday, January 14, was the day. My friend Manfred came over to give me a hand. Though it was around +12 in the shed, it was pouring rain.
It took us about six hours to spread the epoxy over the cloth. I was so glad to have his help.

When we were finished, I left the lights on in the boat shed to keep some heat and I left the door open too.

I went back out after dinner and found the epoxy setting up quite nicely. I decided to use a small paint roller and put on a filler coat of epoxy. That went very quickly. When I was finished, I thought I would slow the curing so it would be ready for its next coat when I woke next morning. I closed the shed door but left no heat.

Very early next morning, I returned to find the boat was slick as fresh-caught salmon. I noticed the shed reeked of epoxy fumes too. I left the door open, turned on the exhaust fan and left the lights on too. I came back in the house realizing it was not uncured epoxy on my hand. Too greasy. A quick trip through the epoxy sites made me think of 'amine blush'. I had to go to work and didn't want to leave my door open, so I closed up and left some heat on. Six hours later, the epoxy had lost its greasy feeling and had gone to feeling more like curing epoxy - tacky like masking tape. Still smelled like it had not cured. I continued the heat and fresh air treatment for the following few days and was happy to find yesterday that the epoxy was no longer tacky and the shed no longer smelled.

I gave it a good scrub with hot water and an abrasive pad. When that was dry, I risked the sander and found it was ready. It did not gum up the pad. Hooray for that! I do have one small area that was gummy yet, but if that doesn't set, I can easily cut it out and refill.

Every project has its tense moments. There seems to always be a 'fix' even though I may not know what it is. Good training for the next phase of the build and good training for sailing too. Calm down and think. There is always a fix.

Because the weather warmed up in the last week or so, I have rushed to make progress on the main hull. Before Christmas, I screwed the frames to the building jig then cut out the bottom panel. At that point, the case for the center board had to be installed.

I made some strips of wood to follow the profile of the bottom of the boat and glued/screwed them to the matching places of the case. While that was clamped in place, I traced and cut the opening for the center board in the bottom of the boat. Taking a deep breath, I glued and screwed everything together. In this picture, I have also added the stringers to the frames. The frame with the big hole cut in, stays in the boat, but the two behind the centerboard case are temporary.

In the last few days, I got brave and brought in the side panels I had glued together in August. It was an easy job to rest the first panel against the side of the hull and trace its shape. Took it out to a cutting table and with the skil saw set very shallow, cut out the finished shape. I checked to make sure it would fit and predrilled for the screws. Once the epoxy was spread on both faces, I screwed the panel to the side of the hull. Then it was the time to attach the side with the bottom of the boat. As there was no stringer there, I drilled little holes now and again and stitched the side to the bottom with wire.

As the other side panel was not in place, it was easy to reach inside and apply little fillets of epoxy to hold those panels together.

Yesterday I took the wire ties out and put the epoxy fillets where the wires had been.

Repeated the process with the second side. That took longer as I was not able to reach inside the hull, but had to crawl underneath around the building frame.

Now the boat has a bottom and both sides. Feels great to be making progress again.

January 2010

It has been far too long since my last posting . Too many things keeping away from the project.

One of the things has been the weeks of work in the house as well as the weeks of very cold weather, keeping the epoxy work inside the warm house.
This picture shows the case I made to hold the center board. Plywood sides and caps made of pieces of spruce. The box is lined with epoxy and fiberglass.
The centerboard is shown below. The spine is made from a two by four and has sides made of eighth inch plywood. Since that picture was taken, it too has been covered with epoxy and fiberglass cloth.

After much searching around on the net and locally, I decided I would make the folding beams out of pieces of laminated spruce. I found the local lumber store had nearly clear spruce one-by-fours in stock. I bought an armload of those and set them to dry a bit in the living room. Once they were all glued and screwed together, I cut them to length, dressed the stacks then filled the gaps with runny epoxy. A few trips to the freezing shop to use the drill press and the hinges were bolted in place. Bolt holes were drilled oversize to help the bolts line up with the hinges and once the bolts were in place, the holes were filled with epoxy.

Happy New Year! Happy to be boat building again!

REPEAT, REPEAT

In the last month, I have built the second ama, going through the same steps that I did for the first hull. Today, the deck was screwed and epoxied in place. In the coming days, I shall fill the screw holes, round the edges then apply epoxy and cloth over the deck and deck/hull chines.
I am recording my steps here in case some other builder is following and can learn from my mistakes.
Some days it feels like I am writing this for my own benefit only. Anyone else reading this blog?

Today was a small but significant step in the building of the boat. Today I took the first hull from the building frame and moved it to a car port for final coating of epoxy and sanding.
Which means that quite a bit of work has been done on that hull since the last post.
After the screw holes were filled and seams rounded off, I was able to cover the sides and bottoms with fiberglass cloth then coat it all in epoxy.
The hull was then turned over so I could work on the interior. The extra blocks of wood were bolted to the tops of a couple frames to give a solid place to bolt the cross-beams. The frames were then cut level with the top of the decking. Strips of wood were attached to the tops of frames to attach the decking. I epoxied an extra piece of plywood to the side of one section to give a strong attachment place for the chain plate for the mast shroud. The hull was cleaned out and given three coats of paint.
I cut strips of plywood for the decking. They were painted on the underside too and location of the bolting blocks was photographed. The decking was epoxied and screwed into place.
Finally, the corners were rounded and the screw holes filled in the deck. Fiberglass cloth was draped over and epoxied into place.

Planking

I have had a few long days in the wood shop. I have accomplished a few things.
I do not want to rush this project, but it gives me a great deal of pleasure to make progress. The hours seem to slip by and I emerge late in the afternoon covered in sweaty sawdust, but feeling satisfied and at peace.
After the chines and the support pieces at the stern were glued in place, I clamped long planks of quarter-inch plywood on the sides and traced the outlines of their new shapes. I was nervous to see how they would all come together, so I had some long days getting to the closed-in stage.
Yesterday I screwed the last of the planks in place. John Marples says to use dry wall screws to hold the planks in place until the epoxy has set, then remove the screws. Instead, I used stainless screws, counter-sunk and filled the holes with epoxy filler. I am never sure how well the planks are secured. Extra work, weight and expense to leave the little screws in, but the security is worth it to me.
The attached pictures show the hull with the epoxy filler over the screw holes and filling the gaps between some of the planks.

More Progress

In the past week, I have been able to mark and cut out the ama frames. They came out very nicely and with great information for mounting them on the ladder frame. One small glitch that the designer, John Marples was quick to correct when I emailed him for help. Next was to cut long strips of fir to make the lateral chines for the plywood sides to attach to. The attached picture shows the bulkheads attached to the building frame and the first two chines epoxied in place. When the boat is upright, those chines will be the edges joining the sides with the deck. The plans have full-sized drawings of the shaped strips of plywood making up the tapering stern. When studying the plans, I was unable to figure out how they all went together, but once the pieces were in my hands, they were easy to figure out.
Putting those pieces together and adding the next chines will be today's fun.

First Assembly

Always seems to take me awhile to get into a new project. I delayed and worried about my first use of the epoxy and fiberglass cloth. One of the reasons was the failure of a couple of very small batches of epoxy. I think now that the proportions were wrong. I dreaded finding out that the epoxy stayed runny on a whole section of fiberglass! How would I fix that?
The store which sold me the fiberglass supplies advised buying a rotary cutter for the cloth, saying the edges would not fray near as bad as using scissors. Expensive, but I bought the cutter and mat.
A discussion on Duckworks led me to worry about the fiberglass cloth adhering to the sharp corners of the hulls. I know the cloth will appear at first to lie nice and flat, but before the epoxy can set up, the stiffness of the cloth lifts it away from the wood on either side of the joint, causing bubbles to form underneath. I guessed that I would need some kind of gentle pressure to hold the cloth in place until the epoxy cured. I decided to cover the affected areas with 6mil poly then place miniature sandbags on top.
In the attatched picture, I have joined, end to end, two sheets of quarter-inch plywwod. The ends are joined with epoxy-embedded 6oz fiberglass cloth. The joint was covered in poly and little sandbags just to see how they would work. I am relieved to see the epoxy set up rock-hard and where the poly covered the epoxy, the joint is glassy smooth.

Monday, July 5, 2009

Yesterday I was able to spend a couple of hours in the boat shop. I have been caring for my friend, Diana, whom you may have met in the other blogs. I have been redoing the bathroom too. Yesterday I took the afternoon off!
I built the strong back for the new project. I used two pieces of 2x6, 16' long and have them about 30" from the floor.
Next thing was to make a platform upon which to glue together two sheets of marine plywood. The platform is nice and flat, but the sheets have some warping. Nothing to worry about when building the boat, but a nuisance when gluing the panels together. Last thing I had time for was to grind a space for the fiberglass cloth to live. Next thing is to bond a 6" piece of fiberglass bridging those two sheets of plywood.

Though work on the Seaclipper itself has not yet begun, I have been busy getting ready for it. I bought a Hobie 14 from which I will take the sail and mast. That boat came with a trailer that may be good enough to haul the new boat. I have been practising raising and lowering the mast. I know I am not going to get much stronger and I want to use this boat for years, so I need a secure way to raise and lower that 22' mast. So far, I have found there is a spur on the bottom aft of the boom that fits into a notch on the mast step. As long as that union is secure, the mast pivots there and can be rotated to vertical. I rigged up a jib halyard and use that block and line to secure a set of bracing lines to the outside corners of the front frame of the trampoline, which is in line with the mast step. With those lines tight, the mast has lateral support too. Last thing was to rig a block and tackle between the fore-stay and the post on the front of the trailer. Standing on the trampoline, I can help the mast a bit, and pulling on the tail of the tackle, raise the mast to vertical without any trauma. Once the fore-stay is secured to the bridle, I release the jib halyard and take off the lateral support lines. Lowering the mast is the reverse process. Seems like a lot of lines, but I would rather do that than worry and grunt it up.
I have decided to build this boat under a bit more cover than the last projects. My carports are separated by two store rooms which have been turned into workshops. Last week, I cleaned out a trailer load of old parts and left-overs. Then I tore down the wall separating the two shops. I now have one area big enough to build the main hull and the front door is wide enough to get it out. No insulation nor heat yet, but I do have four walls!

Opening the door

I have always loved the idea of multihulls. But I am not a sailor who loves to be on the edge, flying one hull of a catamaran. Five years ago, I bought the plans for John Marples Seaclipper 16 but instead of building it then, I followed the wisdom of the mono-hulls and built the Walkabout, rebuilt the National E and the Alacrity 19. All good boats, but I always looked over their shoulder as I danced with them, thinking of a sleek trimaran.
I want a boat that is first of all, trailerable. Then I want it to be safe. After that, I want it to feel like a motorcycle swooping through the turns. I want to sheet in the sails and 'go for it', not at all worried that I am going to flip the boat in the middle of the freezing ocean.
After dealing on a few sailing dinghies early this spring (Wayfarer, Lightning, Davidson 17) I 'woke up' and realized these were not boats that I really wanted to sail. It was then I brought out the Seaclipper plans from under the bed and again examined the details. I also found youtube has a number of videos of small sailing trimarans, Windrider 17, which helped me follow the dream. This time, the stars were aligned!
So, I have begun. Seizing the opportunity of 'low' petroleum prices, I bought five gallons of epoxy. Gasp at the prices!
I found a Hobie 14 with a new main sail, perfect for the project! It is on a home-built trailer, which will also serve very well for the new boat!
I have a number of house/yard projects lined up in front of this one, and I have a summer of playing with my other boats too. Including the Hobie before I pirate its parts.
The next entries may be a few weeks from appearing.