Masts!

The boat shop remains chilly, the days remain long and dark, and Trevor's shop remains heated and well-lit. Glue something up, the cry rang out!

So -- masts it is. 

The astute reader will remember that this Narai Mk IV will be rigged as a wingsail schooner, so are two masts. Each is 34'6". We're building them from Douglas Fir. 

"We" in this case really means "Trevor" so far. Life having shouldered itself into the way in its usual fashion, Robbie hasn't been able to devote any time to mast building so far. Me neither -- educational consulting is boat work too, right? Sure -- it's all boat work, as we say.

Step 1 -- Buy the lumber. We went to Pacific Forest Products, and picked through what felt like every 16' 1x6 on Vancouver Island to find 24 we were satisfied with.

Doug fir, Doug fir everywhere -- but not all mast-worthy.

It was a nasty, sleety, snowy day, so the lumber had to be tucked in for its trip up the island.

Planed and in process. The mast is built as a square, then shaped.

Trevor added a bump-out at the front of his shop to allow for the mast length.

Custom-made bases to allow for clamping. A simple and elegant solution to a somewhat awkward problem. Wharram suggests wiring the pieces together while the glue sets, but not all boatbuilders rejoice in the Henderson clamp collection and Trevor's ability to solve problems in woodworking.

Since

It's winter, and some days really too cold to work on the boat. Trevor's been making heroic progress in hand-freezing bursts, though, and we are close to the point of mocking up the galley. The galley side will be a bit more complicated than the chart table, or so we think.


The galley, though, will not be complicated. We're not planning for refrigeration. We don't want through-hull fittings, so the sink will be a counter-mounted bucket. Our firm sailing plans focus on the Strait of Georgia, so we're not equipping the boat as if we're heading offshore on launch day. 

So far progress consists lots and lots of fillet joints, and a tremendous amount of sanding. And a beautiful companionway.

Looking towards the bow on the day of the turn. Photo by Virginia Hayes

The interior on turn day. Trevor had done some interior sanding while it was still upside down.
Photo by Virginia Hayes.

In this photo, you can see the two benches installed on either side of the galley. You can also see, at the centre of the picture, the lifting sole panels that cover the bilge. Trevor redesigned these panels -- playing naval architect, he calls it! The original design calls for the panels to overlap the ledges at the edges, and that's how we did it on the first hull. You can see that in the picture below.

We didn't like the results in the original. The sole seemed unpleasantly springy underfoot -- there was a lot of flex.

So this time, Trevor built some support pieces in underneath and used these narrower panels. It's altogether more satisfactory, and gives us the thickness of the plywood more headroom. This is minor for most and really irrelevant for us, but we're hoping the tall brother-in-law's neck will now be able to stand upright.

First sole. In this picture, you can't see the ledges visible in the picture above, since the sole overlaps them.

There's a bit of a difference in the companionway, too. On the first hull, we fitted packing pieces between the stringers, leaving no gaps behind the plywood stiffeners at either side of the companionway. It looks great. And it took quite a bit of time. So for this hull, we're following the plans as written and not putting packing pieces in these spots. Of course there are still packing pieces at the bulkheads. For the galley, though, it's easy to imagine uses for the gaps -- we're thinking about hanging vegetables in net bags and such. Mostly, it's easy to find other things to do with the time saved on packing pieces! And the interior of the second hull is going to look great without them.

Here are a couple of final pictures -- the first hull's companionway, with packing pieces, and the second hull's companionway, without.

The companionway is on the right in this picture. It's hard to see the packing pieces -- but you can see the lack of gap between the stringers and the companionway. 

Here's the companionway on the second hull. Here you can see the shadows below the vertical piece -- these are the gaps that on hull #1 were filled with packing pieces.

With the new year and the return of the light, we're anticipating more hours spent building. Stay tuned -- galley mockup is coming soon.

Jinny's wonderful photos

A blur of motion as the boat rises and the photographer runs... photo by Virginia Hayes

And it's up!              photo by Virginia Hayes

Hands take their turn in the spotlight       photo by Virginia Hayes

Our friend Jinny took these wonderful photos of the turn. These three are favourites.

Up and over!

Thank you all! What a wonderful afternoon! 

Cradles ready for installation. 

Robbie's mum in position to supervise

The crew assembles. 

Wonderful friends and neighbours...

... from the Commons, Save Our Shores, Positive Energy Quilters, the Gabriola Recorder Consort, St. Martin's ...

... fellow boatbuilders, gardeners and family...

... together can do amazing things!

Almost there! This is the scary part for spectators.

Whew!

And she's upright. She rested on cribs first, and then the cradles were installed. The photographer was busy distributing turnovers so missed these details!

The six survivors of 161 apple turnovers baked this morning in advance of the turn.

Thank you, everyone! It takes a village to turn a hull, and we are very lucky in our village.

It's that time again!

Here's the invitation you may have already received if you live on Gabriola! Haven't received an invitation? Turn up (and turn over) anyway!

There has been a flurry of mixing epoxy, applying fibreglass, spreading epoxy, rolling epoxy and all manner of other things to do with epoxy since our last entry. It's taken a fair few tanks of propane from the Co-op to keep the shop warm enough to cure everything, but now we're almost there. The final coat went on yesterday. This week Trevor and Robbie will build cradles, detach the hull from the floor, sand the edges so that no one's hands will get hurt, and do the various other things that need to be done before the hull can be turned. Mary will be making turnovers, with help from cousin Pam! (120 last time, and eaten to the last crumb.)

Roll, roll, roll your boat...

... well, roll-coat, really. When glass cloth is first applied, the weave is very obvious. Although this would give a snazzy tweed texture to the finished hull, it is not desirable. So -- roll-coating.

Yesterday we mixed up batches of epoxy and applied it all over the hull with a roller. We'll do this likely three more times, until the weave of the cloth is no longer visible.

We intended to do another coat today, but yesterday's coat was still tacky late this morning. It's green-cured now, but too late in the day to begin. So -- tomorrow it is! We want to apply each of the layers before the preceding one really hardens, since if we do we needn't sand everything.

Glassing hull #2 -- thanks, yogurt eaters!

No final count yet, but last time I checked we were up to 40 yogurt pots. Perfect for mixing!

Here's the starboard side, with the glass taped into position. Tape comes off once there's enough epoxy to hold the glass in position.

And they're off! Let the spreading commence.

... and continue. It took us one day to install the glass on the two sides. Mixing epoxy takes about as much time as spreading it. Note the sunny day outside -- yay weather!

This is Day 2. The keel gets five layers of glass. On Day 2, we applied two of them.