Dave's Pocketship

The Better Late than Never 2011 Update

2011-12-14T20:41:00.001-06:00

It is difficult to believe that my Pocketship launched more than two years ago. It is also harder to fathom that people are still reading this blog but evidently there is a Pocketship readership out there. Therefore, I guess it is overdue for me to update the continuing trials and tribulations of “So True”.

The sailing season of 2011 was delayed as the previous year due to extremely wet conditions on our cottage lot. The photo below illustrates how much water can accumulate due to the saturated soil. I could probably pull the boat and trailer from its garage but in the process would dig ruts a foot deep in the boggy soil conditions. Backing the boat and trailer back into its garage would likely have been impossible.

Conditions did improve faster than 2010 and the cottage lot finally dried up but wind conditions on Lake Winnipeg were once again our nemesis. This novice sailor is just not ready to challenge 25 knot winds quite yet.

We did finally get out on the lake in mid July. It wasn’t just the weather that plotted against us. In early July I pulled the boat out for what appeared to be a pleasant sailing day. After making everything secure for the short drive to the Hnausa Harbour boat launch I noticed some thunderclouds rolling in. I decided to back the boat back into its garage to keep it dry. With my first mate guiding me to keep the boat centered in the garage I slowly backed up as usual. However with the new crushed limestone driveway we had put in to alleviate our water problems we had forgotten to anticipate that the boat and trailer now had less vertical clearance.

The mast caught the peak of the garage and pulled off the boom gallows cracking the boom gallows in the process. Our sailing attempt would be delayed until I could epoxy the gallows back together. At first, I considered the incident as minor and was relieved that the boom gallows had actually been pulled completely off preventing more serious damage.

When I returned the next week with the repaired boom gallows I discovered I was premature in my optimism. The force of pushing the mast and connected mast tabernacle towards the bow had resulted in the tabernacle pulling away from the front of the cabin wall. It was similar to the damage Pete McCrary had on his Pocketship on a sailing trip. The details of that are a story for Pete to tell. But long story short the tabernacle should not be constructed to be removable. I had 4 extra large bolts instead of the standard 2 but my tabernacle was not epoxied to the cabin wall. Needless to say, it is now epoxied and filleted to the cabin wall with a large backing plate for the bolts on the inside cabin wall.

After the repairs “So True” finally got to test out its new 2.5 HP Suzuki outboard. The maneuvering ability and power more than exceeded my expectations compared to my failed electric trolling motor experiment. The photos show the motor in its up and down position and also that when in the down position the cavitation plate is a good six inches below Pocketship’s waterline.

The motor mount turned out to be less obtrusive than I anticipated and it is sturdy enough that the motor does not need to removed for trailering.

There is also a photo of the solution to not having to remove the bobstay for the bowsprit when launching the boat. Who knows how many times I had stared at the winch but, “Doh!”, not realized the winch is adjustable. Thanks to Pete M. for that remedy.

With the winch and crank moved down the bobstay is now nice and taut and never has to be unhooked. The arrows indicate the old position of the crank. You cannot move the crank completely to the bottom or the crank handle will hit the triangular plate.

Our boom gallows misadventures were still not behind us however as the gallows snagged on the cords for rolling up the garage door the next time we backed up into the garage. This time we were watching the vertical clearance so carefully we neglected to notice we were a little to close to one side of the garage. The boom gallows was broken worse than the first time and my new repairs now included fiberglassing the gallows for extra strength.

Despite these incidents we are becoming slightly more comfortable sailing and our launching and re-trailering preparations are much more efficient. Raising and lowering the mast with the assistance of the spinnaker halyard was a fantastic discovery.

Some actual sailing photos are included below. I DO have to remember to bring my wide angle lens so that more of the boat is actually visible.

I'm looking a little crusty in this one as we motor out of the harbour. The cars are parked on the large breakwater for the harbour and you can see that the lake level is less than a foot from the top of the dock. In normal years it is a 4 or 5 foot drop to water.

In this photo you can see my economy track stop. Instead of paying an outrageous $40 for a track stop with a lock screw I simply used a $1 track slide and lashed it to a small cleat on the other side of the mast.

This is about as calm as it gets on Lake Winnipeg. Fifteen minutes later the chop picked up and we were motoring back to the safety of the harbour.

Enjoying the ease of use of the new outboard. The tiller lock comes in handy when using the outboard.

“So True” received some other upgrades this year. The companionway louvered doors and cockpit floor grating have added a nice touch to “So True’s” appearance.

We purchased a sail cover kit from Sailrite to protect the sails when trailering and to keep out the spiders when the boat is stored in its garage.

We are looking forward to an earlier start to the sailing season next year now that we put in the gravel driveway. The driveway is elevated enough that even with lots of standing water we will still be able to pull the boat and trailer in and out of the garage.

We also have plans to boost our sailing confidence by going out in “So True” with Fred who has 30 year experience sailing on Lake Winnipeg. We tried to hook up with Fred this year but our schedules just didn’t match up. Fred did drop by to look at “So True” and was impressed with what was crammed into Pocketship’s 15 foot design. Another sailing couple who were moored at the harbour when we were launching one day were equally impressed. It was a surprise for them to see such a fine gaff rigged sloop design. Thanks again to John C Harris for designing such a sleek modern design based on a classic sailing rig that just isn’t seen much anymore.

Winter, for us , is only about 30 days longer, as we will again be visiting both our kids in Australia for two and a half months. Lots of time to get a good head start on a protective tan for the 2012 sailing season.

I thought I would finish with some photos that show just how destructive the high water levels were on Lake Winnipeg this year.

The beach is a hundred yard walk from our property through an empty lot.

This was our "beach" this year. At least 15 feet of shoreline were eroded away this summer.

Yes, I have to confess we are some of those awful people who when sailing conditions are not optimal haul out a jet ski for some fun.

The big old Cottonwood that was standing in a previous photo did finally succumb to the wind and waves.

By late September the lake level had finally dropped and Mother Nature had started to return to us the beach she had borrowed for the summer.

This is the type of day that we don't have the confidence yet to go sailing.

At least the geese were amused by the windy conditions.

Year End 2010: Addendum (newest boat projects)

2010-11-13T16:41:00.000-06:00

Here are my newest boat projects. I made mahogany louvered paneled doors for the companionway opening. They are oversized right now and the vertical stiles will probably have about 2" cut off each side when I can custom fit them to the boat in the spring. Should give another classic touch to the boat even when they are opened up against the cockpit/cabin wall. I cheated on the construction a bit; I call it my Chinese manufacturing method. This is where the true woodworkers out there will cringe but instead of cutting complicated grooves with a router to fit all the slats in I just nailed them into the smaller vertical strips you can see using my nail gun with two 1" SS nails in each end. It turned out actually to be quite sturdy. The slats are mahogany door stop that came already milled with a nice rounded edge on one side.

The second project is a simple mahogany slat floor for the footwell sole. It is already finished with 5 coats of urethane so that is why it is darker than the doors. I did look at making a traditional grate but I would have had to buy a $100 dado blade for my table saw to cut all the necessary grooves and plus construct a complicated jig for doing the cutting.

A couple of weekends ago we had a very strong winds on Lake Winnipeg where our cottage is and where "So True" is stored for the winter. Winds gusts were up to to 90 km per hour and the waves did a lot of damage on some shorelines. Several lakefront towns had flooding one or two streets in from the beach and part of a concrete/wood boardwalk was washed away on Grand Beach. We decided to go check that "So True's" portable garage survived and were pleased to find out that everything was still secure. This gave us more confidence that the boat's winter storage should be uneventful.

I have had some very useful correspondence from Pete McCrary who participated in the first Pocketship fleet with his boat. As you may have read earlier I have abandoned my electric trolling motor auxiliary propulsion experiment and will purchase a small outboard in the spring. Pete has done a neat cutout on his transom to accommodate a Tohatsu 6 HP SailPro extra long 25 inch shaft outboard. He provided me with several photos and a couple of design sketches.

The drawing shows the propeller shaft of the 6 hp about 4 inches higher than as actually installed. After installation the bottom of the shaft assembly is just about even with the rudder winglet.

He has also tested out a 2HP Honda and reported the following:

The prop was only about 8" below the waterline. But she pushed us along pretty good at between 4 and 4.5 knots. At first it was pretty choppy, but even when rocked by larger wakes the prop never spun out of the water. It's just fine for day sailing. For overnight cruising, I'd take the 6 hp for the extra range and margin of safety.

Our cruise was about 2 hours and we just ran out of gas 100 yards from the ramp. Tank volume is just 1 liter. We refueled with our spare gas can. It looks like the extra 4 hp gets you about one more knot and right up close to the hull speed. She might not make much [if any] headway against waves and a strong wind.

Based on his sea trials it sounds like that for my intended use the Tohatsu 3.5HP could be a reasonable compromise between the 2 and 6Hp models concerning both weight and power. I have not yet decided if I will use a cutout as Pete did or buy or make a motor bracket.

Sailing Season Wrap-up and other goodies

2010-10-28T15:22:00.002-05:00

YES, we finally did get sailing on September 18th!

Here, you can see it was a beautiful calm day; almost too calm.

The next day, not so calm, and officially the end of our very brief sailing season.

The previous sailing day, fortunately, went very smoothly (practice makes perfect). No rigging problems, a smooth launch, no dock/boat mishaps, and a nice leisurely cruise in light winds. The electric trolling motor behaved for leaving and returning to the harbor but my trolling motor experiment is now concluded and I have decided to purchase a small 4 stroke outboard for next spring. Right now the Tohatsu 3.5 HP long shaft looks to be my first choice.

Here is proof that we were actually on the water, a nice view looking forward from the cockpit.

Another view looking forward but with a bit more wind in the jib. The harbor is visible in the background.

Proud captain enjoying the mild late September weather. You can see the rope for the tiller lock I purchased. More details later in this post.

On our next sail I plan to bring my camera which has a wide angle lens and hopefully shoot some photos that show more of the boat. In our limited sail I was impressed by Pocketship's handling and stability. I am anxious for spring now to test her out in some stiffer winds. Our plan is to arrange to have an experienced sailor help us out on our first spring cruise to gain some sailing confidence.

And Now Some Things I Learned This Year

1. You need to be careful re-trailering the boat to make sure the keel lines up with the keel trough on the trailer or doesn't slide/float out of the keel trough. Next spring I am going to increase the height of the keel trough by adding a 2x4 to the existing sides.

2. Wherever, possible, all hardware should be through-bolted instead of just screwed in. I had screwed in fairleads for the gaff halyards pop out from the strain of hoisting the gaff. Now, they are bolted through the cabin roof and are much stronger.

3. Instead of having to purchase a $50 track stop for the main sail a regular $1.30 track slide can be used that is simply tied to a cleat on the mast.

4. A tiller lock is definitely handy. I purchased the Cansail TillerLock. Only $39.95 and made only of stainless steel and navy brass, no flimsy plastic parts like found on many other versions. Installation was very easy. I just put in 2 small padeyes (through-bolted, of course) at the stern of the cockpit seat sides and attached the rope on one side with a simple clasp if you want to remove the tiller lock rope quickly for more room in the cockpit.

The tiller locks in position easily and quickly and was very useful when motoring out of the harbor or hoisting the sails.

This is probably the last blog entry until spring. "So True" is all winterized in her portable garage which hopefully protects her from a long and cruel Manitoba winter.

Some random thoughts...

I have been following the progress of several other Pocketship builds and have found that their trials and tribulations are very similar to my experience. Reading the blogs brings back fond memories.

I am contemplating building a 2 person kayak next year to keep me out of trouble. Mill Creek 16.5 plans are on their way as I write this post.

Photos of the first Pocketship fleet are available here.
I am interested what outboard is on the newest Pocketship because it appears to have a extra long shaft that does not need an outboard motor bracket on the transom.

The Pocketship prototype was only 150 miles south of me this summer in Fargo, North Dakota on its Mid-West tour. Originally, I thought the closest it was getting was 500 miles away in Minneapolis. Well, maybe next time we can meet up to have the first international Pocketship fleet.

Missed it by that much...or Would you believe our non-sailing adventures still continue

2010-08-23T16:04:00.000-05:00

If I was a conspiracy fanatic I would almost think that Poseidon himself was preventing us from our first sail on "So True". As posted before, the first half of summer was a no go for sailing because the flooded cottage lot from torrential rains prevented us from pulling the boat out of its brand new protective portable garage.
Finally, on August 6th, the lot was dry, wind conditions looked good, and we pulled the boat out to go down to the boat launch and dock.

Everything looks fine in the picture but what you cannot see are the thunderclouds rolling in from the opposite direction. With much pent up frustration and some anger I sadly backed the boat back into the garage and crossed my fingers for better weather the next day. No such luck, the winds were far too strong for these novice sailors who are now having trouble remembering what we learned in our beginner sailing lessons more than a year ago.

We were unable to get to the cottage over the next 2 weeks as my mother-in-law fell down the stairs in her house and was in the hospital. Fortunately, she did not break anything but suffered some nasty cuts and bruising on her head. Her recovery is proceeding well so we decided to spend 2 days at the lake, catch up on our cottage chores, and most importantly get the sailboat out. On arrival Saturday, weather conditions looked perfect for us, a slight breeze that should cause no problems at all.

Checking some final rigging before backing down to the launch. Hoisting the mast using the spinnaker halyard has made the rigging process much less of a struggle.

Pulling the boat back on to the trailer after realizing I had the bobstay trapped through the trailer winch.

Finally in the water and all set to go. This boat is so much more stable than the dinghies we learned in. When you step on board she barely moves. While we were getting set a powerboat came to the launch and parked behind us and then used a rope to walk the powerboat to its trailer. I simply grabbed their rope for them and walked along "So True's" cockpit, up on to the foredeck and into the the anchor well and barely rocked our sailboat.

We then hopped aboard "So True" and prepared to motor out of the harbour using the trolling motor. On "So True's" christening sail the trolling motor appeared to work admirably but I guess I hadn't really used reverse yet. In the confines of the boat launch and docks on both sides, reverse simply spun me around in uncontrolled circles. There just was no control and then we actually spun around slowly and ended up accidentally ramming the dock. It was a slow speed collision and we were still set to head out until I noticed the shackle holding the bobstay in place had popped off during the encounter with the dock. Even if I had a spare with me I would need to trailer the boat again to attach it. Therefore, we packed up and went back to the cottage determined that our bad luck was behind us and that tomorrow would be a better day.

I don't know if this picture gives you a true indication of what a "better day" turned out to be like. Winds were Force 5 to 6 and these waves breaking at the dock are 6 to 8 feet tall.

Someone had managed to back their car half way off the dock and it was taking a real pounding from the waves.

The video below shows the waves breaking right over the car. Some of the waves were large enough that they moved the car. Definitely not quite a day for us to be out sailing. When we came back an hour later the the car was gone, either towed off the dock or disappeared into the lake.

We are still optimistic about sailing next weekend, although we are getting a little nervous that our sailing abilities are diminishing from lack of practice.

On a side note, the Pocketship prototype was only 500 miles away from us this weekend in Minneapolis.
Maybe, next year when CLC is on a Pocketship tour we can meet up and have a fleet of Pocketships in the water.

A Proper Home

2010-07-15T18:37:00.001-05:00

"So True" now has a deserving storage home. Constructing a real garage at the cottage for my Pocketship would have cost more than the boat so I opted for one of those portable garages. On one trip to the cottage I assembled the frame over top of "So True" and on the next trip installed the cover.

Final assembly was just in time to be tested by multiple thunderstorms and more monsoon like rains.

The cottage lot had just about dried enough to pull the boat out and now I am back to square one as you can see by the photos.

After the garage was up I had time to clean up "So True" from all the water and dirt that had mysteriously made its way through the tarp that was previously covering the boat. Cleaning the boat was like a scene from the movie Arachnophobia; I am sure I killed dozens of undiscovered species of spiders.

I am anxious to get "So True" out on the water before I completely forget everything I learned in our sailing lessons last spring. On the other hand, if we get any more rain I will be able to sail her right on the cottage lot.

We are planning to have a swale dug to help with drainage problems on the cottage property as there is a ditch we can connect to that drains to the lake which is 100 yards away.

For those interested the portable garage is a Shelter Logic 12 x 24 x 10 foot garage designed for trucks and SUV's and has an 8"6" door height that easily accommodates Pocketship's tabernacle and mast height. It was on sale for $549 and hopefully will survive our winter snow loads.

I really, really, really want my next posting to be about actually sailing in "So True". Ironically, apart from all the rain, wind conditions on the lake have been almost perfect for us beginner sailors.

Furry Pirates and Landlocked by Water

2010-06-26T17:25:00.013-05:00

It's hard to believe it has been 8 months since my last posting. I could make excuses about being busy at Christmas, visiting our kids in Australia in February and March but it just comes down to being lazy.

"So True", the world's first completed Pocketship after the prototype, survived being covered with a tarp over the winter and I had actually kind of forgotten what a beautiful little design she is. After her short maiden voyage last October I have been anxious to get her out for a real sail but the weather has been rather uncooperative.

There have been very heavy rains this spring and much of the cottage lot has standing water making it impractical to pull out the boat's trailer without creating huge soggy ruts on the lawn. Hence the landlocked by water in the title of this post. Read on for more photos and also details on furry pirates.

I do promise to post sailing photos and videos as soon as we can actually get the boat down to the nearby harbour.

The water in front of the boat...

The water around the boat...

The water on the supposedly high ground of the cottage lot. For us it is just an inconvenience but for the local farmers it is the third year in row that some of them will not be able to sow their crops because of the saturated fields.

I did manage to get the sails fully up and do some minor rigging adjustments that I found were necessary from the boat's inaugural sail. I discovered John C. Harris' (Pocketship's designer) instructions for raising the mast easily by one person lifting the mast up from the cockpit while another person on the ground pulls it up the rest of the way by using the spinnaker halyard attached to the top of the mast. I also sawed off part of the keel trough so that the rudder can stay on the boat rather than being attached and removed every time it is launched. In the wet conditions it has been difficult to clean the boat without tracking mud into the cockpit. Hopefully some respite from all the rain is in the future.

And now for something completely different, the furry pirates story. When we opened the cottage this spring one of the roof vents was damaged from what I thought was winter ice and snow. I replaced it only to find the next weekend that the new vent had been completely chewed through. I assumed it was squirrels but when replacing the destroyed vent with metal vents I looked in the roof opening to discover a nest of baby raccoons. The photo shows the mother raccoon giving me the evil eye when I looked in the attic to investigate. Wildlife management informed us that we would have to trap the mother before making any attempt to crawl in the attic and remove the babies as the mother can be quite dangerous and vicious when protecting her young.

The mother raccoon ignored the trap baited with sardines and instead spent 2 nights chewing her way out of the attic through the metal vent. Conveniently for us, we had disturbed and made things uncomfortable for the mother and she evacuated the attic with all three babies.

If we had trapped the mother and babies it would have been our problem of how to dispose of them.

A photo of me and my son in front of the 36' Pearson that he and his wife are now living on. He is now out of this marina and at a swing mooring at the Southport Yacht Club on the Gold Coast, Australia. I did get to do some minor cabinet work alterations done while I was there on our visit in February and March.

The entire family in our Australian apartment that was right on the beach. Left to right, my daughter Dana, her Kiwi boyfriend Paul, my wife Gab, myself, my son Trev, and his Australian wife Ali.

There is not enough room for 3 vessels on our cottage lot so the old stinkpot is up for sale. The sailboat and jetski should be enough to keep as busy.

Until next time, and I promise it won't be 8 months.

Plywood to Pocketship in less than 2 minutes

2009-10-23T15:55:00.005-05:00

As promised here is a little video of "So True" from a pile of plywood and epoxy to a boat on the water. The music is the boat's namesake song "So True" by the Black Seeds.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their generous compliments about the boat and blog. I will continue to make some posts especially when we get back on the water in 5 or 6 months. I also intend to post a few things I would do differently if I had a do-over on my Pocketship construction.

We will be away in Australia for 5 weeks this winter visiting my son (who lives there now) and my daughter (who is there on an an extended visit of at least a year). My son and his wife are purchasing a 32 foot boat to live on so I am sure I will have some boat maintenance/projects to keep me busy when I am there.

Additional thanks to the friends, relatives, neighbours, and ex-colleagues who assisted in flipping the boat twice and getting it on the trailer. More thanks to those of you who posted help on Pocketship.net and Pocketship designer John C. Harris who was always speedy and very helpful in his responses to my emails for technical support on my build.

Finally, the biggest thank-you to my first mate who brought me down to earth when I was becoming boat building obsessed and was able to remind me this was a fun project that I shouldn't be getting stressed about.

My brother very thoughtfully purchased this Rolex Yacht-Master II watch for me in celebration of the launching of "So True". I friend of his was in Hong Kong and brought it back for him. I don't think he really spent $33,000 on me but it is the thought that counts. But, it does look authentic down to the smallest of details; so if you don't tell anyone that it's a replica no one needs to be the wiser :-)

Crazy Canuck Christening Chronicle

2009-10-20T08:24:00.015-05:00

Air temperature: 9 degrees, chance of rain : 70 %, water temperature: let's just say the lake isn't frozen over yet. Perfect day for a boat christening!

October 19, 2009 --- The Christening Adventure

The Curtis Pocketship emerged from her garage cocoon of the last 7 months on Saturday, and after 2 full days of final rigging, was ready to head out to the lake on Monday, October 19 for her maiden voyage.

We left at around 10 A.M. full of excitement and some trepidation not quite expecting some of the problems that were about to befall us on this adventure.

It started while still in the city with a lady frantically waving and yelling at us from the car beside us. We quickly realized that it was not a case of road rage but that she was trying to signal us that our boat was about to fly off of the trailer. Luckily, it wasn't that drastic but the tie down straps had come loose and one of the bunks had slipped down slightly. A stop at Canadian Tire and an hour later the bunks were adjusted, new ratchet tie downs were installed and we proceeded to the lake with no further problems.

After opening up the cottage and turning on the heat we drove the trailer to the dock and ramp a kilometer away.

The lake was calm with only a slight breeze, perfect we thought for our first voyage.

The five minute rigging for sailing and launching on the ramp dragged out to 2 hours as we struggled to put up the mast. The gaff insisted on getting tangled in ropes or trapped under the boom gallows when we tried to raise the mast. Finally I undid all the lashings and completely removed the main sail. After several abortive attempts my first mate found the spot where she could help push up the mast enough so I could get that final bit of leverage to get the mast in to the tabernacle and tighten the jib halyard.

Slowly I installed the main sail, re-did the lashing, only to find that the pin for the throat halyard just wouldn't close because the shackle was too far bent apart. Did a temporary lashing, hoisted the gaff, only to find that the boom gooseneck I custom ordered from Racelite doesn't have a shackle for the tack grommet on the main sail.

Another temporary lashing and were finally ready to put the trailer on the boat ramp. Boat launching hint: don't remove the tie down straps before putting up the mast. With the tie down straps the boat is steady as a rock but without them there is a slight distracting rocking back and forth on the bunks as you work on doing the rigging.

Launching the boat is not as easy as our 18 foot powerboat which you can just drive off the trailer. With a bit of experimentation we realized the first mate would have to hold a long painter while I backed the trailer into the water and stop slightly suddenly to let inertia drift the boat off the trailer.

After some careful maneuvering to the dock being careful not to scratch the hull since I forgot to pack a fender bumper I tried to install the rudder. I cannot install it while the boat is on the trailer because the keel trough is too long; something I will correct in the spring. Lake Winnipeg is a sand bottom so the water is quite murky and it was a hit and miss affair trying to get the bottom pintle in to the bottom gudgeon when you are doing it blind.

With the auxiliary power trolling motor in place we slowly cruised out of the harbor past the breakwater. Remember the calm water I described when we first arrived at the dock hours before, well the wind had now shifted from the north to 20-25 kph and the swells and chop was starting to pick up. No problem, let's put down the centerboard and start some sailing. The centerboard wouldn't move and when I opened up the inspection ports on the centerboard trunk I could only push it down about half way without having a stick to get it the rest of the way down.

The wind was picking up some more so we decided discretion was the better part of valour on our maiden voyage, doused the sail, and headed directly into the wind and waves back to the safety of the harbour using our little trolling motor. By now, we were both a little colder, and it was time to attempt to re-trailer the boat without having to step into the water at the dock. That was easier said than done but I managed to tightrope along the trailer, connect the fully extended winch strap and jump to the dock. I could only crank up the boat most of the way so that I could remove the tightly fit rudder which would not lift off while in the water.

Putting down the mast went smoothly but it was now 5:30 ( we had expected to be home by mid-afternoon) and we still had to tarp and pack up "So True" for her winter hibernation.

Despite sounding like a series of misadventures on are her maiden voyage we were thoroughly thrilled with how the boat looks and handles on the water. Talking to our son later, he reassured us that the first few times out will be a learning experience and to look at the positive side. No one got hurt, no one got wet, nothing got broke, and nothing was lost.

Overall, it WAS a successful first sail despite some minor setbacks.

Here are some more photos and comments from our most excellent day:

How do you keep that darn gaff from flopping all around before you completely hoist the peak halyard?

I look like I am praying here back actually I am following the trajectory of the cork from the champagne bottle barely visible in my hands.

"So True" gets her official champagne shower with lots of extra going into the lake so as not offend Neptune.

You can see the prototype trolling motor mount necessary to get the motor prop low enough in the water. A newer version or at least giving this one a makeover will be another spring project.

Finally, a picture of my first mate of 35 years, and photographer for our first time on the water. You can tell that it is now colder and even in the shelter of the harbor the water conditions have changed from when we first arrived at the dock.

A closer look of how nice and stable Pocketship floats. A world of difference between her and the International 420 dinghy we took sailing lessons on in the spring. Pocketship barely rocks when you step in to her from the dock and walk around. On the 420 just putting the rudder in you always felt you were about to tumble in to the water.

"So True" all wrapped up for her 6 month winter sleep.

Next post: A slideshow of a Pocketship from a pile of plywood to floating on the water in less than 3 minutes.

Birth of the Curtis Pocketship

2009-10-18T21:41:00.012-05:00

With the cooperation of the weather (barely) the Curtis family Pocketship finally emerged from its home of the last 7 months.

In this photo it looks like I am loading the boat on to the trailer all by myself. If I didn't have a sloped driveway where the trailer wants to run away in an instant you probably could maneuver Pocketship to the trailer solo.

Here are my helpers, holding back the boat so it wouldn't slide down the trailer too rapidly. In the video you can see them hoisting it up to the trailer so that I could start winching.

A group shot of some of the usual suspects who helped flipped the boat twice and load the boat on to the trailer. Starting on the left, myself, then my brother Jeff, ex-teaching colleague Eugene, my next door neighbor Terry, and another teacher Harald.

Proud first time boat builder

The boat looks considerably different and more impressive when you can stand back and view in its entirety as compared to the restricted views in the garage.

Carefully making sure the mast pivot gets installed in the correct location

Jib self-furler works slick.

Installing the main sail and testing if the gaff rides up and down the sail track easily. It does but the track does need lubrication as advised in the manual.

"The halyard is dead ended on the side of the mast above the track, leads down through this bullet block, through a Harken 092 cheek block screwed to the mast just above the track, thence to the deck" That's easy for you to say! Here you see me in one of several puzzling moments trying to sort out where all those ropes go.

Rigging is now all complete on what I am quite certain is the first finished Pocketship besides the prototype. Weather permitting, it is out to the lake tomorrow for the christening and a quick sail before having to wrap the boat in a large tarp for winter storage. I promise lots of photos of the christening and first sail.

Best Laid Plans...

2009-10-10T10:23:00.004-05:00

I think the photos say it all, it is unlikely "So True" will launch this weekend. There didn't seem to be much point putting the boat on the trailer to do the final rigging in the unseasonable weather. Perhaps, if the weather returns to normal ( daily highs of 12 , no snow, cool, but sailable) there is a possibility of christening the boat next weekend. If not, I will have to be content with putting her on the trailer, completing the rigging, storing her under a tarp for the winter, and then impatiently waiting until spring to put her on the water. The video is a quick walkaround of officially, the first finished Pocketship besides the prototype. Maybe with some luck, she will still be the first one in the water.

Swaging through the shrouds

2009-10-07T17:14:00.008-05:00

Sorry about the title, my mind has been spinning a bit sorting out all of Pocketship's rigging installation. Things are starting to sort themselves out and the goal is still to have "So True" on the water this weekend (or next) whether it is snowing or not!

As you can see the name lettering from the local sign company turned out nice on the ribbon striped tiama transom. The lettering was only $40 cash and they did it while I waited. As a bonus, they said they could print three of them on the same sheet of gold vinyl so I have two extras that I can put on the bow if I want to.

The gudgeons and pintles installed with only slight modification to spread out the lower pintle and they appear to be quite sturdy. Supposedly they are rated for a 20-22 foot boat.

Sail track is installed as are most of the cleats, cam cleats, and blocks. The masking tape in the photo separates the glossy white from the non-glare no-skid paint I used on the cockpit , cabin decking, and anchor well. It will receive a final coat in the spring when temperatures are more conducive to painting and also when I won't have to walk on it for a few days when it is drying. Some of the rigging is more easily completed once the mast and tabernacle is in place. For now, I will be bolting the tabernacle in place with larger and extra bolts rather than also gluing it to the cabin wall. This is not so I can remove it for storage in the garage but because the epoxy probably wouldn't cure well in the low temperatures we are experiencing now. The Pocketship manual suggests making the tabernacle removable for storage for a standard garage door height but you would also have to remove the boom gallows which is slightly taller than the tabernacle form what I can tell. I will probably glue my tabernacle in place in the spring when I do the touch up painting and varnishing on the boat.

This is the economy tool I used to swage the bobstay and shrouds. One end of the shrouds is not complete because I decided to put the mast up first to get a more exact length for the shrouds rather than just scaling it from the plans. I have read that technically speaking, putting on the nicopress sleeve is not really swaging but the company does call the device in the photo a swage-it tool.

The trailer is now modified and ready to accept the boat (though I am sure there will be some trial and error fine-tuning of the bunk height). John C. Harris, Pocketship's designer, says the boat can be transferred almost solo to the trailer by winching it place but I have a sloped driveway so I will have to round up the usual suspects to assist getting the boat on board the trailer.

The forecast for the proposed launch on Sunday or Monday is only 6 or 7 Celsius. But heck, it was only 10 the evening of our first sailing lesson in the spring and we capsized into water the same temperature. Maybe photos of "So True's" maiden voyage will be interesting with snow flurries. At least, the champagne should stay cool.

Fastener Nightmare

2009-09-30T20:47:00.005-05:00

I spent yesterday morning sorting out the boat hardware and figuring out all the stainless steel and brass fasteners I needed to purchase. Then it was off to the local Big Box Depot and spend an hour trying to match up all the correct nuts, bolts, and washers. Stainless steel and brass fasteners are not cheap, everything cost at least $150 total.

The brass deadlights are now installed and also the dorade box vent cowls. The bow eye is in place and the nuts are hand tightened but I need to borrow a couple socket set extensions to tighten the nuts. Working in the forward bulkhead compartment and reaching in through the inspection port was to say the least a little awkward.

This photo shows the stainless steel tubing fitted and cut to the correct length for the boom gallows. I must have measured 10 times before cutting the holes in the seatback decking for the tubing. It was a tight fit but the gallows seemed to be straight and true. As mentioned in the manual the stanchions for the tubing that are mounted on the cockpit decking inside the storage astern must be trimmed with a cutoff wheel or else the hull sides interfere with the stanchions lying flat. Even then it is an extremely tight and awkward fit and if I had the foresight I would have simply moved the holes in the boom gallows about an inch closer and would have had a much simpler installation. WARNING: Do not permanently install the boom gallows while the boat is in a standard garage. The height of the boom gallows from the keel is about 82". A standard garage door is about 80 inches so if you install the gallows at this point you will have an interesting conversation piece in your garage for awhile.

Magic Companionway Hood

2009-09-28T17:23:00.006-05:00

I guess I should be satisfied with the fit of the companionway hood. It was a little stiff so I sprayed some waterproof, odorless lubricant and now it slides open just by gravity. The companionway sea hood has 4 coats of varnish but on inspection you can probably spot some areas that I scuffed or scratched during installation. This was not unexpected and I will put the final finish coat on once all the hardware is installed.

Topsides painting is now complete and the rubrails need to be varnished. The mast and spars also need a couple more coats of varnish but I am now ready to start installing all the hardware and rigging. There are a few small spots of the white that I want to touch up but as with the companionway hood I thought it would be more efficient to wait and see what kind of damage I do to the paint drilling all the holes for the sailing hardware.

As you can see I have not painted the cockpit deck with the non-skid Interdeck yet. You are not supposed to walk on it for a couple of days so I will wait until I have most of the hardware installed.

I am more optimistic about a mid-October launch for my Pocketship and am now curious if mine will officially be the first Pocketship to be christened since the prototype Pocketship was launched.

Right side up again

2009-09-27T09:41:00.005-05:00

The boat was successfully flipped over again and moved back into the garage for topsides finishing work last Tuesday. I had sanded most of the fiberglass previously so I was ready almost immediately to start painting.

I test fitted the bowsprit and made the adjustments that were not possible when the boat was facing the other direction in the garage.

You may remember in a previous post my difficulties with the tortured rubrails at the bow. My worst fears were realized and after the stress of flipping the boat the rubrails pulled apart on the first foot of the bow. It appears with all the struggling I had pulling the rails together that some sections were joint starved of glue. It has now been repaired and I have left some stainless screws in place for reinforcement.

The topsides now has two coats of primer and one coat of finish paint. I am using Brightsides white on most of the topsides but I am using non-skid white Interdeck on the cockpit bottom, cabin decking, and bottom of the anchor well. The Interdeck is also non-glare so the sun's reflection won't be blinding; which wouldn't have been much of an issue during this year's disappointing summer.

The companionway hood is now glued to the cabin and since I constructed it entirely out of varnished mahogany I am not going to put a fillet around the edge. The fit turned out to quite tight when screwed in from the cabin decking but for complete water tightness I will put a small bead of clear marine caulking along the edge. You can also see that the tabernacle made from the leftover ribbon striped tiama used on the transom turned out nicely. The manual suggests that the tabernacle could be made from 1 inch timber instead of 3/4 inch for extra strength. I figured using plywood should give me at least the equivalent strength of 1 inch timber.

A couple more days of painting and it will be on to all the rigging and hardware. With a bit of luck with the weather So True's maiden voyage could be in a couple of weeks.

Time to Rock and Roll: Part Deux

2009-09-20T19:31:00.010-05:00

Hull painting is now completed. The Interlux Brightsides Sapphire Blue went on much nicer than the VC Performance Epoxy. Tipping off with a foam brush after rolling on the paint was not quite the hectic rush as with the bottom paint.

My waterline looks straight and as can be seen by the reflections in the photos the blue paint dries to a nice gloss finish. Boat flipping is scheduled for Tuesday night and I can then start painting the topsides. Most of the fiberglass on the topsides is already sanded so I will be able to almost immediately put the primer on the topsides. Varnishing of the companionway hood and spars is still underway.

I picked up the trailer last Friday and have installed the keel trough. I selected an EZ-Loader EZL80B 15-16 galvanized model that is rated for 2000 pounds. This is quite a bit more capacity than needed for Pocketship (800 lbs) but it was the trailer that best seemed to fit Pocketship.

The smaller capacity trailers also did not come with the drop axle and therefore I should save a little height when my Pocketship is trailered and launching should be a little easier. The trailer weighs just over 400 lbs which is about 150 lbs heavier than the aluminum Trailex model used with the prototype Pocketship. On the other hand its cost was only $1539 Cdn as opposed to the at least $3200 the Trailex one would have cost (plus the Trailex one comes as a kit that you must assemble).

It is now official, after much deliberation and consultation, and reminders that the captain has final say in naming the boat (especially since he has built the boat), the name of the boat will be:

So True

This means the boat will have its own theme song "So True" by the Black Seeds.

Some things you just don't anticipate

2009-09-16T19:28:00.008-05:00

Progress has continued on my Pocketship but reporting on just a lot of sanding and painting didn't seem to be all that interesting. The Pocketship manual casually states that sanding the fiberglass on the hull bottom could take the better part of a day. That's true if your typical work day is 18 hours long. After a couple of days of continuous sanding and listening to a good part of my Itunes library I finished the sanding and started painting below the waterline with Interlux VXC Performance Epoxy. I chose this two part paint because I don't need antifouling and this paint is supposed to give a very slick but durable finish for trailering. It is supposed to take 3-4 coats but I have not been entirely pleased with how it covers and will be using at least 5 coats. This paint sets up extremely fast. It was quite a rush to roller on a 2 foot section and then to tip off air bubbles with a foam brush before the paint was almost dry.

These photos show that I have multi-tasked and also applied 2 coats of primer for the sides that will be painted with Interlux Brightsides Sapphire Blue. When I remove the masking tape for the white bottom I will re-tape and fill the narrow strip that needs primer.

And now for something that I just didn't think ahead about. I decided today to install the centerboard before I put on the last coat or two of white paint because I thought it was likely I would scratch up the paint while installing the centerboard. I carefully maneuvered the centerboard and myself on to the top of the hull only to discover that the garage door opener motor hanging from the ceiling was blocking me from dropping the centerboard into place. I contemplated having to temporarily detach the opener and then thought I'd try to see if I could shift the boat enough on its tire supports. I was able to slide the boat just enough and was able to carefully lower the centerboard into place solo and insert a screwdriver into the pivot hole. I had previously put a rope through the centerboard pendant hole and centerboard sheave to which I could attach the real pendant rope attached to the centerboard. I slowly pulled on the rope, it got a little stuck, so I gave a harder pull and my tape connecting the two ropes pulled apart. After much colorful language I spent about an hour trying to fish a line around the sheave and through the pendant hole. Luckily I remembered the access ports in the centerboard trunk to assist me in this formidable task. This time I made certain my splice would not come apart and managed to pull the line through successfully and got the centerboard in place for the SECOND time. The pivot bolt is now epoxied in place, hopefully never to be seen again.

My tentative schedule is to have the finish painting completed in the next few days and the boat ready for neighbours and friends to flip back again early next week. There is still hope that the boat can be ready for its sea trials before the frost is on the pumpkin.

Pocketship Expense Report

2009-08-31T08:18:00.007-05:00

I wish the photo above was my Pocketship but I did wet out all of the fiberglass on the bottom of the hull today. Hopefully, I will be ready to rig my boat at the end of September or early October.

As promised here is the summary of how much my Pocketship has cost.

All amounts are in Canadian dollars and include taxes, shipping, exchange rate if shipped from the US, and duty if applicable.

Pocketship Plans $293.16

Okoume plywood (16 sheets) $1074.08

Epoxy resin and hardener $1506.23

Fiberglass cloth and tape $404.83

Cabosil, wood flour, microballoons $294.24

Subtotal of above $3572.54

Note: All of the above is available from CLC (Chesapeake Light Craft) as a Pocketship kit for $3350 US.

My estimate is that the kit with shipping, exchange, and taxes would have cost about $4940.

Teak cabin decking $305.32

Timber for stringers, companionway, tabernacle, cleats, rubrails etc. $760.55

(this includes using mahogany for the companionway)

Primer and paint for cabin interior $141

Interlux primer, Brightsides, Schooner varnish, VC Performance Epoxy

for hull, topsides, cockpit $595

Sailboat hardware (includes all sailing hardware, hull hardware, running rigging) $2568

CLC sells all of this in 3 kits for $2467 US which with shipping, exchange, and taxes would have cost me about $3496 CDN.

My hardware also includes brass deadlights, turnbuckles, gudgeon and pintles which is probably about a $300 upgrade from the CLC kits.

Sails ordered from CLC $1496.22

Saw blades, clamps, respirator, shop disposables (tons of sandpaper, foam rollers, brushes) $727

250 lbs lead wheel weights from tire shop $80

New tools ( jigsaw, power planer, orbital sander, hand planes, pneumatic brad nailer, router and router table, bench grinder, table saw) $930.86

Total for my Pocketship $11,469.43

This figure is accurate within $100-200. I became a little lax lately about keeping track of some minor purchases.

If you already have most of the power tools the cost is closer to $10,500.

By comparison a brand new Club 420 dinghy like we took sailing lessons in this spring costs about $10-11,000. Pocketship is certainly a lot more boat than a Club 420 and of course I didn't really decide to build my Pocketship because I was looking for the cheapest way of getting a sailboat.

I still haven't purchased a trailer but it appears a EZ-Loader EZL80 15-16 foot 2000 lb should be about $1550 before taxes.

The Boat Flip: Part 1

2009-08-26T20:26:00.005-05:00

Here is the photo story of the first flip of my Pocketship.

Remove one side of the cradle.

Remove the other side of the cradle.

Stare at the boat and realize there is not enough room in the garage to allow 2 people to flip it over.

Call over 5 neighbours and friends and carry the boat out of the garage.

Roll the boat over carefully and cross fingers the keel does not snap off.

Do my little happy dance since the boat is safely on the lawn.

Carry it back into the garage.

A completely different view of the boat that I will be looking at for a couple of weeks. I will jack it up so the keel is level later; it was now time to enjoy a beer with my helpful neighbours.

Not quite ready...

2009-08-23T15:56:00.004-05:00

Last week didn't work out quite as planned. A combination of wet weather and neighbour and friend schedule conflicts meant I have postponed turning over the boat. Instead I spent a couple of days sanding the topsides, cockpit, cabin decking, and forward decking in preparation for painting.

Lazarette turned out to be a convenient place to toss all of the used sandpaper as I sanded all the topsides surfaces of this "large" 15 foot boat.

I use 80 grit on the first pass over to get rid of the drips and larger imperfections and then go over a second time with 120 to get that smooth consistent gray colour. I am still getting used to spots where initially I think I didn't fill the fiberglass weave enough and then it turns out just to be the transfer of the weave pattern to the epoxy coats. When wiped with a damp clean cloth the surface has a nice smooth wood grain finish which I guess means it is ready for primer and paint.

Final cleanup of the garage in preparation for painting has started. This photo show the boom, yard, and bowsprit ready to be moved to the more dust free basement for epoxy and varnish. The mast is also laid out for assembly.

I ordered the last hardware for my Pocketship, the sail track. I will have to use 6 foot pieces instead of 12 foot track. Shipping of the 6 foot sections was $12.95 by post rather than $200-$500 by truck freight for the 12 foot lengths. The track was only $130 so I will have to compromise and work with connecting 2 pieces of track for the mast and for the boom.

I should be able to post shortly a record of what my Pocketship has cost to build. If you want to leave a comment with your guess I'll help you out. It is more than $7,500 but less than $15,000.

Ready to Rock and Roll

2009-08-14T10:37:00.006-05:00

Time to go get some old tires and get organized with friends, relatives, and neighbours to roll over the boat. My single garage is too small (only the standard 12 feet wide) to flip the boat over so we will have to carry the boat out to the lawn , roll it over, and carry it back into the garage. I'm hoping 8-10 people should be enough. Note to self: hand out the beer AFTER the boat is back in the garage.

I just happened to have my rudder in place for a test fit of the gudgeons and pintles and tiller. The rudder is hollow construction but with a substantial timber frame. There are large 3/4 inch cheeks at the top making the rudder 3" thick at the top and 1 1/4" thick at the bottom. The rudder has an endplate or winglet or the rudder would have to be at least 8 inches taller. I'm using gudgeon and pintles instead of the eyebolts and rod attachment shown in the manual. The gudgeon and pintles cost about $50, which is cheaper than what 3 inch stainless steel eyebolts were going to cost me from available suppliers where I live. The arrangement works only because the bottom gudgeon mounted on the keel bottom is a "vertical" gudgeon about 1" wide.

Here are closeups of the companionway hood fiberglassed and epoxied but not finish sanded yet. I think I was careful enough that I can follow through with my plan to leave the nice mahogany companionway varnished and not painted. The lighter coloured trim handles are white maple simply because I could not find any 1 inch thick mahogany. The contrast turned out quite well even if I do say so my self. The companionway will be permanently attached after the boat is turned back right side up.

Not wanting to waste some left over epoxy I couldn't resist giving the port side rubrail a coat of epoxy.

As promised in a comment in my previous post this photo proves that there are some patch filled holes where screws temporarily held the rubrail layers in place. The big round patch above the rubrail is not a mistake; it is a 3/4" drain hole from the dorade box filled with epoxy. A 1/2 " hole will be drilled into the epoxy fill so that the plywood core is very safely protected from water penetration.

All my fault! (as opposed to July 23rd post)

2009-08-09T20:48:00.010-05:00

I am not too ashamed to admit to some construction faux pas, maybe it will help other boat builders to not duplicate the same mistakes.

Presented for your inspection the first mistake of this past week.

What is wrong in this photo?

It is a nicely milled companionway hood side piece but something is wrong. You know the old saying measure twice, cut once? The mahogany piece has its proper bevels to fit the deck camber and I measured more than twice to cut the groove for the sliding part of the hood BUT if you cut the groove on the wrong side there is no way it is going to work! On the positive side I was much quicker and efficient cutting out a replacement piece; practice does make perfect or as I used to tell my basketball teams when I was coaching, perfect practice makes perfect.

And now for mistake #2 this week. This photo shows the 3 layers required to make the rubrails.

As documented in the last post the bend at the bow is no fun at all. The photo above shows the clamping I used to accomplish the last 2 feet of bending.

On the starboard side this was not good enough for the second layer and luckily I had some hex headed screws that I could use my socket set on to ratchet in the piece of mahogany at the bow.

Because of the clamping technique I was not able to glue a layer on each side at the same time but had to alternate back and forth allowing at least 24-36 hours for curing before gluing on a new layer. The epoxy appears to have cured with a strong bond but I still have fears of being at a dock one day and all of a sudden a rubrail springs off and kills an innocent seagull or maims a bystander. But onto the mistake. I milled and scarf jointed all of the rubrail layers at the same time but when I went to put the final layer on the starboard side it was 6 inches too short. I scarfed in an additional foot or so and will attach it tomorrow.

That's it for mistakes THIS WEEK but here are a couple of extra photos.

This a scary step, cutting holes in the boat.

Here is the port side rubrail partly sanded and it does add a nice line to the boat (and still looks straight even after all of the clamping and slippery epoxy that makes lining up the layers difficult).

You can also see a test fit of the dorade vent cowl and a brass deadlight. I think the brass deadlights will look really classy against the white hull and will be a nice upgrade over the flush acrylic ones used in the Pocketship construction manual.

The companionway hood is milled and has been test fitted. The companionway decking will be glued on and epoxied this week and after some sanding of the rubrails and cabin interior the boat will be ready for its first turnover ( time to get all the neighbours organized and to remember not to hand out the beer until after the boat is flipped over).

Almost good as new

2009-08-04T21:26:00.006-05:00

This is the the repaired gouge the router made on the cabin front. Except for the filler color you would have to point it out to someone and it looks pretty good compared to the photo in the last post. All the topsides fiberglassing is now complete. A little bit of sanding has been done where the rubrails will be attached but the bulk of the sanding will be done much later after the bottom of the hull is fiberglassed and the boat is turned back upright. The woods always looks so nice after the epoxy is applied; it seems a shame to sand it to that boring gray color before painting. I now realize why kayak builders love their bright finishes. A Pocketship with a bright finished hull would probably look great but it would take more than the skills of this novice boat builder to keep the hull free of construction dings and scratches. I'm having enough trouble protecting the ribbon sliced tiama transom to finish in varnish. They say that doctors bury their mistakes; beginning boat builders hide their mistakes below the waterline or in watertight compartments.

I don't think I ever mentioned that after using the first 5 gallons of epoxy resin that I discovered I had used more than 3 gallons of hardener instead of the expected 2.5 gallons for a 2:1 ratio. Measuring the output of the pumps I found out the resin pump was pumping 10- 20% less that it should. I guess a little more hardener in the ratio is a better scenario than not enough. I had a spare resin pump but now I have had to order another gallon of hardener. It looks like I have about 3-4 total gallons of epoxy mixture left which by my calculations could be just enough to finish all the hull fiberglassing. If not I will have to buy epoxy other than MAS epoxy because it is not available locally and shipping just a gallon of MAS hardener from Noah's in Toronto was $40 plus the $139 cost of the hardener.

Speaking of costs I have now purchased all the sailing hardware and rigging except for the 5/8 inch sail track. Once I have tallied it all up I will include in a future post exactly how much my Pocketship has cost and the vendors I used.

The remaining photos in this post show the fiberglassed topsides. The cabin decking toe rails are in place and the first layer of the rubrails on the port side is glued in place. The rubrails proved to be a very reluctant bend on the the last 2 feet at the bow. You can see the large clamp I used to pull the rail to bow so that the temporary screws could be put in. I will find out in the the next day or so exactly how strong an epoxy bond really is when I very carefully and while crossing my fingers remove the clamp and screws. The sheerline of the first layer appears to be a true curve to me but it is difficult in the confines of a single garage to stand back and get a good broadsides view of the boat.

Not My Fault!

2009-07-23T15:45:00.005-05:00

I didn't get careless trimming the cabin decking, the stupid ball bearing guide on the flush trim router bit came off and the bit trimmed right into the cabin wall. I guess that's what epoxy mixed with microballoon filler is meant for. Except for the companionway hood, gluing the rubrails in place, and putting the mast together the boat is essentially built. Well except for all the fiberglassing, painting, and just a LITTLE bit of sanding. I'm still aiming for a fall launch and when I start fiberglassing the cockpit and topsides next week I will have a better idea how realistic my goal is. The photos show the results of today's sanding of the topsides in preparation for fiberglassing next week. I still have some holes and nicks to fill in and sanding of the fillets in the cockpit. I have been filling in the small holes from the stitches and brad nails even though I have read that the fiberglassing process "magically" fills the holes in with epoxy.

With all the sanding I have done lately I have discovered another law of boat building. The wind never blows sawdust and other crap out of the garage but only into the garage. Before I start painting I have resolved myself to the fact that I will probably have to empty out the garage so that I can do a thorough vacuuming before starting any painting. I vacuum almost every day but stuff stored in the garage is accumulating a layer of dust.

R.I.P. July 20, 2009

2009-07-20T22:15:00.003-05:00

After a life dedicated to cleaning, the Curtis wet/dry vacuum expired while selflessly sucking up liters and liters of sawdust and epoxy dust from the Curtis Pocketship construction. The vacuum was predeceased by its spouse Dustbuster and now joins her in that great Hoover in the sky. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Shop-Vac Retirement Home.

By the way, the photo also shows the transom skirt cap in place and on the right hand side of the floor the mahogany rubrails are milled and ready to have the scarf joints glued. The cabin decking is epoxied on one side and after sanding will be ready to glue in place tomorrow or Wednesday.

Only 88 pages to go...

2009-07-16T21:35:00.004-05:00

Officially 430 hours of labour on my Pocketship and "only" 88 pages of the 285 page manual to finish. However, those pages cover a lot of sanding, fiberglassing, painting , varnishing, and all the hardware and rigging installation. Actual construction remaining includes the cabin decking, companionway, and rubrails. Just as I am getting better at fillet work I have only the fillet on the keel left to do once the hull is turned over. It appears the 10 pounds (a 5 gallon pail) of wood flour called for in the plans is going to be just enough for all the fillet work on Pocketship. A 5 gallon pail ( 5 pounds) of cabosil for gluing is going to more than enough although the plans call for using 25 pounds of cell-o-fill. The photos below update my recent progress.

Flotation foam roughly cut to fit seatback compartment. As in the bow compartment I didn't worry about a careful fit but filled the voids with a can of expanding foam insulation once the seatbacks were installed.

Seatbacks glued in but not trimmed flush yet. If you look forward into the cabin you can spot the dorade box inspection plate in place.

Cabin carlins, cleats, dorade box cleats, and sheer clamps finally all planed with matching bevels. Took a few hours until I was satisfied with all the angles and was not exactly the quick work with a block plane as described in the manual. But I enjoy getting the curves just right and being able to caress the fine lines of Pocketship; must be a novice boatbuilder thing. The unseasonable cold weather of late has had only one positive; I didn't get all sweaty (not with the caressing, the hand planing!).

Seatback decking glued in place but not yet trimmed. Trimming will be done once the cabin decking is installed next week. Pocketship construction is generally Monday to Friday since the weekend is cottage time at the lake.

Let's play spot the differences!

2009-07-12T17:25:00.006-05:00

How many changes can you find in the 2 photos? The first photo is from July 1st and the second one is from July 11th. The differences are listed at the bottom of this post.

This photo shows additional construction not visible in the other photos. The forward deck has had strong fillets done and been fiberglassed. The upper breasthook is in place and the sheer clamps have been planed. The cabin carlins to support the cabin decking are also in place.

Differences in the 2 photos:

1. Rear cabin wall fiberglass tape installed.

2. All topsides stitches removed and fillets done.

3. Topsides fiberglass tape installed.

4. Sheer clamps and seat back stringers and cleats glued in place.

5. Sheer clamps and stringers planed to accept seatback top.

6. Tricky transom skirt blocking glued in place. Tricky because it has about 3 or 4 different angled cuts to match the seatback top and the rake of the transom skirt. You can see a boo-boo I fixed with a seatback stringer that I cut short before realizing it had to be longer to reach the transom skirt.

7. Interior of seatbacks all epoxied.

8. Transom top was trimmed 1/4 to 3/8 inch to fit the transom skirt. Somehow it was taller than the full sized pattern from the plans. My story is that it was cold outside when I cut the transom and it expanded in the hotter summer weather; I am not going to admit to measuring wrong :-)

Canada Day Boat Building

2009-07-02T20:47:00.010-05:00

Topsides and rear cabin wall were stitched on the boat on Canada Day (July 1). The photos now give you a much better idea of Pocketship's overall lines. Pocketship's cabin is integrated with the hull sides which I find more attractive and modern than being just a box on top of the decking like so many of the other older style boat plans I looked at. The aft view shows the seatback frames and emphasizes again how spacious the cockpit is. The lighter colored piece at the top of the rear cabin wall will be cut out later to make way for the companionway opening.

After a morning of topsides stitching I went to the Osborne Street festival Canada Day celebrations. Several blocks of the normally very busy thoroughfare were filled with vendors, extra large patios bars in the middle of the street from the neighbourhood bars/restaurants, and lots of live entertainment. Over the course of the day it is likely that about 70,000 people took in the festivities.

Weekend Update with Captain Dave

2009-06-28T16:49:00.004-05:00

Workspace is at a premium again. Just enough room to lay out the topsides for gluing the scarf joint and then for fiberglassing once they are cut out. The pattern is partly rolled out for the tedious process of poking pinholes through the pattern on to the plywood. Then the pattern is removed and pins are pushed into the holes so that a batten (in my case a flexible metal meter stick) can be used to draw the long curves of the topsides. The entire transferring process took at least an hour.

The forward decking is now glued in place. I didn't realize until after it was glued in place that it was oversized and was flush with the hull sides. It needs to be a 1/4 inch smaller on each edge to allow for the thickness of the topsides. An hour of router trimming and chisel work and it is now okay.

I was stitching the seatback frames in place and couldn't resist putting the seatback and cabin rear wall in place. I think the photo gives you some idea of how spacious the cockpit is on this "big" little 15 foot mini-cruiser.

Our fifth and final sailing lesson is tomorrow and I am crossing my fingers that we do not have the 21 knots gusting to 35 knot winds we have today. In those conditions I am fairly certain they wouldn't send us out in the little 2 man 420's that we have been learning on. Two capsizes and my first mate being knocked out of the boat by the boom is plenty enough for these two landlubbers.

Construction update

2009-06-24T15:54:00.017-05:00

It has been 8 days since my last post but only 3 days of boat construction because of hosting the 8th Annual Shaftesbury High School Men's Gourmet Dinner and being at the cottage for the weekend. I was also hampered yesterday and today by my fingertip meeting the wrong edge of a utility knife while cutting up some styrofoam sheets to fit in the car at the local big box home store. I don't think the sale clerk was impressed with the blood dripping on to the sales receipt. The following photos detail progress in the last 3 days.

Two coats of primer and 3 coats of finish paint in cabin.

Put the teak decking back in.

Oops , almost forgot to put a line through under the floorboards for future wiring. Second oops, you can see the extra wide gap between the center floorboards. No idea how that happened; but my story now is that it was intentional for the wiring.

I primed and painted the footwell sides and sole before installing them.

These are what I am calling the lazarette decking.

These are the additional cleats I installed for the lazarette decking. There is also a new cleat on the footwell sides.

Stuff in as much flotation foam as possible below the lazarette decking. The lazarette decking divides the watertight compartment into two watertight compartments and now gear stowed in the lazarettes does not chew up the flotation foam.

The cabin gets protected with cardboard and newspaper in case of epoxy drips from the next stages of construction. The footwell sides and sole are now glued into place. The red hose is for a cheap pneumatic brad nailer I bought. Much quicker and neater than using temporary screws to fasten the decking etc. The brads are stainless steel so I can just fiberglass right over top of them.

Up next: Gluing the forward, lazarette, and cockpit decking into place.

Below are some photos from the Shaftesbury High School 8th Annual Men's Dinner:

Nothing profound...

2009-06-16T19:26:00.004-05:00

Two primer coats and one finish coat and the inside of the cabin is looking good. Only I know where the little flaws are and I'm not about to point them out. Only one more finish coat is maybe necessary. I used a good quality Benjamin Moore alkyd house paint that cost close to $60 a gallon as I figured this was one not of those places be too concerned about saving 20 bucks using a generic brand paint.

The photos show a practice fit of the cockpit decking and footwell. The cockpit looks overly wide because the seatbacks are not installed yet. The last photo shows how much storage is available inside the cabin underneath the cockpit decking. I took this picture from the front of the storage compartment at the bow. Once the forward decking is in place it will be almost impossible to take a photo similar to this.

Official Boat Building Tip #3 - It really is true that paint will not adhere to unsanded epoxy/fiberglass. I had some drips of paint in the unsanded transom compartment and you can flip them off with a fingernail.

As Good As It Gets

2009-06-14T19:27:00.007-05:00

Finally, after an eternity of sanding ( okay 15-20 hours) the inner hull received its coat of primer. I worked extra diligently on the parts of the cabin that will visible ( the As Good As It Gets part) but as for the parts that will be hidden under the cabin decking lets just say they are sanded and leave it at that. I am not painting the watertight compartment in front of bulkhead 1 at the bow or the compartment at the transom. I have lots of primer left so I am going to do a second coat of primer before applying the 3 coats of finish paint.

There is an "oopsie" in the Pocketship manual at this stage of construction. The manual forgets to mention to put in flotation foam in the watertight transom compartment before sealing it up forever with the cockpit decking. The designer of Pocketship is adding this omission to the next revision of the manual. The manual is still probably the most comprehensive instructions you are going to see for a project this large. As a novice boat builder I would be lost without it. The designer is also fantastic at answering emails pertaining to any questions I have had about the construction process.

This transom watertight compartment is also the lazarette storage so I have made a modification and added some some extra cleats you can see in the photos to install decking above the foam so that stuff stored in the lazarettes does not get lost in or chew up the flotation foam. The extra cleats are on the bottom of the transom, the bottom of bulkhead 8 and the bottom of the footwell sides (not shown in the photos). A few more coats of paint ( and more SANDING after the second primer coat) and it will be on to installing the cabin decking, cockpit decking , and upper hull assembly.

I couldn't resist a photo of what the teak cabin decking looks like against the white cabin hull.

Deck the cabin with heartwood teak, Fa la la la la la...

2009-06-04T20:45:00.001-05:00

Step 1: Cut off all the tongue and grooves from the heartwood teak hardwood flooring. After some consultation I decided to go with the original plan and install the teak as in the Pocketship manual with 1/8" gaps in between. Installing with the tongue and grooves would require glueing the edges and finishing with epoxy which kind of defeats the purpose of using the pre-finished teak.

Step 2: Assemble the puzzle of pieces in the hull and see if I have enough teak. The teak pieces are 5 different lengths from 1 foot to 5 feet so I had to shift things around a lot to make sure each piece would span the floorboard cleats properly.

Step 3: Still playing the puzzle game.

Step 4: Cut and screw the pieces in place and cross my fingers that I'm not missing a piece of the puzzle. The close-up shows the old deck construction trick of using a common nail for creating the 1/8" spacing.

Step 5: Trying to lay down a fair curve for the edge of the decking.

Step 6: Label all the pieces carefully and remove them in preparation for the third and final epoxy coat on the inner hull. Then it is time to sand everything and paint the inside of the hull. I think the teak is going to contrast very nicely with the white interior of the cabin.

I have just passed 300 man hours of construction. I have now completed approximately 120 pages of the 280 pages in the Pocketship manual. I am still optimistic that I can have the boat in the water by the September long weekend.

Boat building kharma

2009-06-01T21:18:00.004-05:00

After having encountered a few minor problems in my boat construction I was pleased to find out that there is some balance in the boat building universe. I finished the inner hull fiberglassing and was starting the numerous cleats needed for attaching the cockpit decking and footwell. The cleats are suppose to be 1 by 3/4 inch which means I was going to have to mill a lot of 1 by 2's to size. By coincidence the scrap I had saved from milling the mast was exactly 1 by 3/4 and even had a rounded edge on one side so I didn't need to get the router out. I saved a few hours and partly recouped some of the time spent fixing the bad epoxy coat on the side panels.

Looking aft

Looking forward

The photos show most of the cleats glued in place and reinforce the you cannot have too many clamps adage. Official boat building tip #2 is always predrill a pilot hole for screws going into small dimensioned timber like the cleats or they WILL split. The last photo shows the lower breasthook glued in place and the thin strips (1 inch by only 3/8) to attach the anchor well deck to.

Only a few more cleats to glue and screw in place on the transom and it will be time to cut the teak flooring. I have asked the experts at Chesapeake Light Craft if I can install the teak flooring as a standard tongue and groove installation as opposed to ripping off the tongues and grooves and installing as planks with an 1/8" gap between as instructed in the Pocketship manual. I would instead leave an expansion gap where the flooring touches the sides of the hull. This would mean I wouldn't need to use screws through the prefinished surface on the teak flooring.

Dave's Disposable Glove Corollary

2009-05-28T20:06:00.007-05:00

I have now fiberglassed most of the inner hull and have discovered a corollary to the boat building you can never have too many clamps theorem. When fiberglassing you can never have too many disposable gloves. I have now so far literally used more than a hundred pairs of disposable gloves for all of the epoxy and fiberglass work on the boat. I tend to change gloves frequently because I always seem to be sticking to something. You know the warnings on super glue packages not to get the glue on your skin; they are directed at people like me.

My fiberglassing technique is slowly improving but I still have fiberglass threads interfering on the cut edges of the fabric and I am finding that Mr. Gravity can create some very large drips and runs of low viscosity epoxy. In the first picture you can see where I have sanded off the rough spots on the second coat before I apply a third coat of epoxy.

The spring evening weather is still unseasonably cool and I am leaving a heater on in the garage overnight to maintain a more consistent temperature for curing the epoxy.

I removed part of bulkhead 7 even though the Pocketship manual instructs you to remove most of it after all the hull fiberglassing is done. It seemed the only way to overlap the fiberglass easily and plus there is one little section where there is a gap in the side panel/ hull fillet that needed to be filled in.

This is the inside of the bow watertight compartment. It is fiberglassed 5 or 6 inches above the side panel/hull joint and also has 9 oz. fiberglass tape running up the stem and reinforcing the side panel hull joint. This was the nastiest compartment to fiberglass. There is no easy access and standing on a step stool I almost felt like I was going to tumble inside trying to stretch and reach the bottom. The piece of wood on the left is just a temporary spacer for the lower breasthook which would have made accessing the compartment for fiberglass even more difficult. Soon this compartment will be filled up with flotation foam and sealed up hopefully for all time.

Diminishing Returns...

2009-05-21T17:19:00.004-05:00

Boat construction hasn't stopped, I've just been stalled on sanding all the fillets in the hull and getting rid of the bad epoxy coat on the side panels (see last post). I think my sanding has reached the the point where the Law of Diminishing Returns applies. I could keep on sanding to achieve absolutely perfect fillets but the amount of time required probably just isn't worth it for the difference achieved. I'm a pragmatist and have decided that the fillets are smooth enough to apply the fiberglass especially since the majority of the fillets are never going to see the light of day again once the boat is finished. I am still going to touch up some of the fillets that will be visible in the cabin.

Just out of curiosity I put a site meter on this blog a few weeks ago to see how many visits it gets per day. It appears that there are actually people besides my son in Australia who read my drivel. I won't mention that from the IP addresses it appears some people are reading this blog while at work :-)

Since there are people who take this serious I guess I should try to be helpful for other first time boat builders.

Official tip #1 is you cannot be too careful doing neat fillets. Trust me you will save yourself a lot of unpleasant sanding. I have had some really nice fillets that required basically no sanding and I have some fillets from hell created in the early stages of my fillet making learning curve. But then I am also the kid who was always gluing his fingers together when making model airplanes.

This last photo shows the brass deadlights (they are not portholes because they do not open) I just received from greenboatstuff.com. It is one of the little customizing details I am doing. I thought it would be a nice feature instead of the plain acrylic ones in the plans. One of the deadlights arrived with a crack, but within an hour the company had responded to my email and is simply sending me a new one.

My bad...

2009-05-14T20:01:00.004-05:00

I have spent a few hours scraping off the layer of epoxy that was peeling from the side panels. Once I have scraped as much as possible I will do a sanding. The probable cause of the defective last coat was suggested to be one of two possibilities. John C. Harris, the Pocketship designer, explained it was either a bad mix of epoxy where the resin/hardener ratio was off or a result of surface contamination. Quoting him: "Surface contamination can result from wiping down with a rag that has fabric softener or grease in it, a microscopic rain of silicone lubricant from an overhead garage door; a heavy falling dew just before the last coat; or use of a solvent other than denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner".

I don't think it was a bad mix because I would have had to do a bad mix 3 or 4 times. But it was drizzling out and the air was very damp. It was somewhat reassuring that I am not the first person it has happened to and these little setbacks are all part of the boatbuilding adventure.

It is ironic that the problem last coat was from me being extra careful and doing 4 coats instead of the normal 3. Once this mess is finished I have some fillets left to do and then I can move on to fiberglassing the inside of the hull. But NOT if there is even a hint of rain!

Do these fillets make me look fat?

2009-05-12T17:04:00.004-05:00

I completed about half the fillets today and it turns out my possibly too big of tack welds were not as big as I thought. Most of the fillets look like the ones in the photos. I am NOT posting any of the not so nice ones where I have some awkward sanding and chiseling to do.

However I did come across a problem that I have posted on the Pocketship forum.

Here is my problem as posted on the forum.

When I was removing the masking tape that I used to help in fillet cleanup there are places where the tape pulled up a thin layer of epoxy from the side panels that have been fiberglassed and sanded. You can peel it off much like peeling off the thin layers of an onionskin. The remaining fiberglass appears structurally sound. I searched on the web but couldn't find any help on the subject. The side panels were done outside in the garage. Is it possible the last coat of epoxy did not cure enough in cooler weather before I sanded? Other fiberglassing that I did indoors (rudder, centerboard trunk, centerboard) are fine. Being a novice fiberglasser I am anxious to find a solution and to make sure it does not happen again. I am assuming it is not something I should ignore in order to make sure additional layers of fiberglass and paint adhere properly.

I answered the question I queried on my May 6th post. After an hour and half I had removed approximately 183 wire stitches (I lost count a few times). The good news; I only entombed one stitch in epoxy that had to be removed by heating it with a propane torch. That explains the one matchstick in the pile of assorted stitches. The cable ties work quickly but do not pull as tight as the wire stitches. There are a few oversized wire stitches in the pile that I used in a few stubborn areas where the 18 gauge wire kept breaking.

Beginner's Mistakes

2009-05-11T20:54:00.003-05:00

I did the epoxy tack welds and made a lot of them probably a little too big. I guess it was a beginner boat builder's unconscious fear of the boat falling apart when I take out all the wire stitches. I have some ugly ones I will need to clean up before applying the fillets. The photo shows all the joints masked off to hopefully help create neater fillets than my tack welds. I had trouble reaching the very inside joints for the tack welds but I am now more confident about standing inside the hull to do the fillets as the boat seems to be held very well together with the tack welds. I can no longer hear any stitches creaking or groaning when I reach inside or stand on the keelson.

I plan to practice my first fillets in the compartments that will never see the light of day and then do what I hope will be my best ones in the cabin last.

I caught another mistake fortunately before doing the tack welds and fillets. For fun I put the forward deck in position and found out I had accidently stitched in bulkhead 2 about 3/4 of inch aft of where it should be and the deck did not reach the cleat on the bulkhead. Much easier removing some stitches rather than ripping epoxy apart.

I ordered the sails from CLC today hedging my bets on the value of the Canadian dollar. Originally, my wife was going to sew the sails using a kit from Sailrite but after viewing the construction videos decided our home sewing machine probably isn't large enough to handle the size of the sails. The sail kit from CLC also comes with the hardware shown below.

Mainsail and Jib - White Dacron

PocketShip main and jib built exactly to our specifications by a small-boat specialist sailmaker, in the highest-quality white Dacron available. Mainsail has one set of reef points and cringles in the main, roped foot, luff, and head, and 5/8" stainless track cars. Jib is fitted with a sturdy wire luff, ready for roller-furling. Tell-tales are included on both main and jib. Ready to bend on! Sail, furthest right below, is white Dacron.

Improvising

2009-05-06T20:30:00.002-05:00

Don't have one of those newfangled drill presses to bore the one inch holes in the boom gallows for the stainless steel posts that attach to the deck? Make a drilling guide out of the stanchion fitting that will hold the posts to the deck. The photo show my amateur looking jig that tries to keep everything in place. Make sure you screw things in place or if you just clamp it like my first attempt it may just spin out of control once you start drilling. Two hints from the voice of experience; don't touch the stanchion immediately after drilling (it can be very hot) and take out the set screws from the stanchion before drilling unless you want to be searching for them on your shop floor. I think I got the holes drilled straight and positioned correctly but I guess I won't be certain until I actually try to install the boom gallows on the boat.

This episode: "How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?"

2009-05-06T20:17:00.005-05:00

Or "How Many Wire Stitches Does It Take to Build a Boat?"

Apologies to the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show...

The hull, sides, floorboards, and bulkheads are now stitched to my satisfaction. The gap at floorboards 3 and 4 was solved by gently jacking up the hull with a car jack with a length of 2 x4 positioned between the hull and top of the jack.

I still find it amazing that flat pieces of plywood can be cut in shapes that when put together form such a nice 3-dimensional curved v-hull.

Maybe I should go on Sesame Street!

2009-05-05T16:56:00.007-05:00

One floorboard...

Two floorboards...

Three floorboards...

Four floorboards...

And a bunch of bulkheads.

The boat is stitching together well but certainly not quite as easily as is let on in the manual. Once the side panels are on you must go inside the boat and do a balancing act along the keelson and centerboard to stitch in the floorboards and bulkheads. The alternatives would be hiring an orangutan to reach the inner stitches or hang from the ceiling Mission Impossible style. Pulling the hull together at the bow and forcing some of the stubborn floorboards to conform to the hull is certainly easier with a second person for the last few stitches.

Here is the transom being positioned to measure the bevel required on the side edges to match the curve of the hull panels.

This is what is left when almost all the full size patterns have been used. The only parts I still need to cut out are the companionway ( which is best done further in assembly to make sure it fits the curves of the top decking) and the topside panels.

A few more stitches, check everything for trueness, and it will be time to tack weld all the seams with epoxy and wood flour. Then on to the huge job of applying all the fillets (large rounded joints of epoxy and wood flour), fiberglassing the inner hull, and sanding in preparation for painting. I am hoping my fillets can be at least as half as good as the works of art created by Jeff who has already finished the inner hull of his Pocketship.

Cirque du Soleil and Dancing With the Stars

2009-04-30T15:15:00.006-05:00

What does the title of the post have to do with boat building ? Well, if you want some weight loss just like the competitors on Dancing With the Stars then try the cardiovascular workout of hand planing the more than 60 feet of edges on the side panels of the boat. As for Cirque du Soleil you can see from the photo of the garage I had to use my best contortionist and balancing act to apply the fiberglass to the side panels without falling into the boat hull which is pushed as far to the side of the garage as it will go.

The above photo shows all the bulkheads being epoxied and having their cleats glued on. The epoxied gaff is also visible on the right hand side. One more coat of epoxy to fill the fiberglass weave on the side panels and then sanding of the side panels, floorboards, and bulkheads and I will be ready for some serious boat assembly.

Emailing Pocketship Technical Support

2009-04-27T21:18:00.005-05:00

I managed to stitch the lower hull panels together without soaking the front two feet with hot water but used halogen work lights to warm it up to get the last two stitches together. However when I went to position floorboard #4 at the front of the centerboard it didn't match the markings and stitch holes on the hull panels. The distance between floorboard 4 and bulkhead 7 on the hull was 43" but the centerboard was almost 43.75". I double checked my patterns and they were the same so I hadn't made an error in transferring the patterns or cutting. An email to Chesapeake Light Craft was answered in less than 24 hours and the designer explained that it seems the draftsperson didn't account for the thickness of the plywood; the centers of the floorboard and bulkhead ARE 43" apart in the CAD program to match the centerboard. Solution: just put the floorboard and bulkhead at the end of the centerboard. Now I have a few extra holes in the hull to fill.

I'm redoing Floorboard #4 because I'm not satisfied with the fit to the hull bottom. I'm also not sure about Floorboard #3. I compared it to the pattern and it is identical but it just doesn't fit flat against the hull bottom. A test fit of other floorboards and bulkheads was fine except for maybe Bulkhead #1. It just seems that the front of the lower hull panels is not quite taking the shape it should. I hope when when I actually stitch them in that they pull closer together. Some of the photos show the current gap between the floorboards and hull. I'll take a closer look tomorrow after a good night's rest.

You can see where I experimented with using cable ties as I was having difficulty achieving success with twisting the wire pieces. It took a little practice and now I have a much better feel for how tight I can twist the wires without breaking them.

On a more positive note putting the cradle on appliance rollers has been great for moving the boat in the garage and creating more workspace when I need it.

A moveable cradle

2009-04-24T11:36:00.003-05:00

Reorganized the garage, stacked the wood in an upright pallet, and managed to create a few feet on either side of the boat. Most importantly, on the suggestion of Hendrik in Sydney who is also experiencing a shrinking garage workshop I looked at putting rollers on the boat cradle. For only $9 at the local home centre I found appliance rollers that are rated for 1200 pounds. Now the boat and cradle easily moves sideways to allow access to my tools or if I need more space while working on one side of the boat. Caster wheels would have been harder to install, added more height, and would have cost at least $30 each for casters that would support the weight.

Kind of looks like a boat...

2009-04-22T20:34:00.003-05:00

I cut out the hull panels and couldn't resist a test fit in the cradle. The keelson needed a bit of trimming on one side for a better fit but it is a lot more exciting now that there is actually a shape to the boat. When I was transferring the hull pattern I didn't mark the holes for the wire stitches; I simply drilled right through the marks on the paper.

Meanwhile in the basement epoxy shop the floorboards are drying before they get sanded and the gaff and bowsprit have been epoxied at least once. The rudder and centerboard are also epoxied and ready for sanding.

When I was test fitting the hull panels to the keelson I tried some temporary stitches and found out you have to get on your back under the hull to twist them tight. If someone has some secret more comfortable way of accomplishing this I'd be grateful to know.

I am going to have to reorganize the garage again or some of my tools will be impossible to get out while the boat is in the cradle. A single garage is proving to be a little crowded. I'm lucky I didn't decide on a bigger boat.

Multitasking

2009-04-20T19:25:00.006-05:00

With the almost arrival of spring I am finding I can have productive boat building days. I can do some epoxy work in the morning in the basement and them move outside to the garage to scarf hull panels and do various sanding tasks.

Doesn't look like much but the photo shows the invaluable scarfing jig for the circular saw. It took only about 10 minutes to build, some screws, and part of a 2 x 4. From start to finish, in only 5 minutes I can set up the jig and cut a perfect 3 foot scarf in the 1/4 " plywood. This includes masking the scarf with packing tape to make epoxy cleanup easier.

Here are the hull and side panels being glued together at the scarf joints. The pail is not really part of the clamping, the joints are temporarily screwed together through wooden clamping blocks. The small electric heater and halogen light will keep the garage above freezing at night time and daytime temperatures are forecast to be at least 15 C for the next couple of days. You can see the boat cradle on the right hand side all ready to go once the hull and sides are cut from the blanks.

Now I can pretend to steer my boat...

2009-04-18T14:00:00.008-05:00

Rudder assembly is now finished and ready for fiberglassing. The rudder has my first ever wood flour/epoxy fillets and they turned out fine except for the necessary sanding. With practice I hope my technique improves and fillets will need less sanding in the future. The rudder cheeks are made from the same 3/4 inch ribbon striped tiama as the transom and I am going to try and leave them bright finished as in the photo since it is such nice looking wood.

I have been fiberglassing the centerboard and rudder and have a question for anyone out there. Is it necessary to try and wrap the fiberglass around the edges or is okay to trim the fiberglass to the edge and then just epoxy the edges themselves? In the manual it appears as if the fiberglass is simply trimmed to the edge but I want to be doubly sure.

The keelson is attached to the keel and ready to be put in the cradle. I am not going to do that quite yet as I need room in the garage to scarf and cut out the hull panels. My tentative schedule is to accomplish the hull panel job this week and then be ready for the exciting part of actually starting to stitch the boat together.

Empresa

I would still appreciate more comments on the proposed boat name. See the March 28 post for more details. The captain is sold on the name but my first mate of almost 34 years is not quite convinced yet.

Get the Lead out

2009-04-10T22:42:00.009-05:00

Some of the bits left over after melting the wheel weights.

Lots of smoke from the charred wood.
Lead poured in the centerboard.

Poured the lead for the keel and centerboard today. Glad to say there were no mishaps and working with molten lead went smoothly. The pictures show that I wore a lot of protection based on the advise of other boat builders but thankfully it proved unnecessary (not that I wouldn't take the same precautions next time). A 20 liter pail of wheel weights from the local tire store was more than enough to pour the 128 pounds of lead needed for the keel and centerboard. It took about 7 or 8 melts and 3 hours to melt the lead in the cast iron humidifier/kettle from the local big box home hardware store. I knew the old turkey fryer would turn out to be useful some day. In fact melting the lead was less stressful than deep frying a turkey in 10 liters of hot oil; and less chance of something catching on fire.

The tulips are up...honest

2009-04-07T19:03:00.004-05:00

I spent 5 to 6 hours working on the mast today and yes that is snow STILL on the ground. It was slow work sanding the scarfs , cutting the tapers on the staves with a circular saw, and planing the curved edges by hand nice and smooth. Set up the router table to cut the rabbet joints on the side staves and had lots of fun handling the 16 foot staves by myself.

Dry-fitted the mast together to check the fit and have a few places where the rabbet joint needs to trimmed a bit to get a better fit but overall the mast looks true and straight.

I am hoping that with the weather supposedly returning to seasonal norms that the snow will be gone by the weekend and I can move patio furniture etc. out of what is becoming a very crowded garage/boat workshop. I definitely need to create some space so that I can scarf and cut out the hull panels.

I am also optimistic that we can continue a birthday tradition of the last few years and have my wife's birthday dinner outside on a restaurant's patio on April 26th.

The Zen of Scarfing

2009-04-03T19:27:00.005-05:00

I tried, I really did..., sharpened up the planes, and tried some practice scarfs on plywood. I then tried some practice scarfs on the mast staves using a power planer and a belt sander. Close but no cigar. The scarfs just weren't good enough. Either the learning curve is a little too steep for this first time boat builder or my scarfing skills just aren't up to snuff. Whatever the reason I have reluctantly resigned myself to resorting to "scarfing jigs". What a godsend! I made one for the circular saw that duplicates what the $90 Gudgeon Brothers one does and made another one for the table saw to scarf the mast staves and rub rails. Pictures of both jigs are shown and a link to the instructions on how to build them.

If you are a first time boat builder looking for a way to easily create scarfs I highly recommend both these jigs, easy to build, and they consistently create scarfs much more accurately

than I was ever going to be able to recreate manually.

One day maybe I will achieve nirvana and the zen of handcrafted scarfs but for now I will be satisfied with taking the non-traditional approach and be happy with my nice , quick, accurate jig created scarfs.

Circular Saw Jig

Table Saw Jig

It's snowing epoxy...

2009-03-30T20:29:00.002-05:00

The keel has been straightened and I was outside today sanding the bottom of the keel and rounding the edges with the router. During the routering, for about 5 seconds, I thought it was snowing again because there were big white flakes everywhere. Then I realized it was the router spitting out cured epoxy. Flakes of epoxy were flying all over and unlike real snowflakes they have a lot of static and stick to everything. I'm glad I'm no longer working in the basement; the mess even with a vacuum attached would have been horrendous.

The photo shows a nice straight keel all set to have lead poured into it. I found a 3 quart cast iron humidifier/kettle at the local home centre in their BBQ section. When I got home I found out it is exactly the same one shown being used in the Pocketship manual. Hopefully, that is a good omen for the lead pouring.

Crooked Keel and What's in a Name

2009-03-28T09:31:00.004-05:00

I finished the keel assembly and was all set to get organized for pouring the lead when I noticed the keel was not straight from the centerboard back and curved left by almost an inch. Considering the entire hull is built around what should be a straight keel and keelson this was to say the least a little disappointing. I assumed that the keel blocking I had cut was not accurate and proceeded to cut it away from the keel sides. But there was still a curve. I then did some cutting at the butt joint of the keel sides and discovered that the vertical support for the butt joint was the culprit. I was now able to easily straighten the keel and block it with some lumber and clamps. I am now ready to replace the the keel blocking and crossing my fingers when the epoxy cures that the problem will be solved. A dry fit of the keelson now shows a nice straight keel so if my repair work is successful I can get back on schedule.

It looks like we are getting closer to having a name for the boat. "Forwindidaze" was briefly considered and then Abigale 2 (our dog's name is Abby and our powerboat is named Cay Sea 2 after our first dog Caisi). We want to stay away from cutesy names and also would like to have something unique if possible. And the winner (well , the captain's choice so far) is ...

Empresa

Empresa is Spanish for Enterprise so I can indulge my fondness for Star Trek without being too obvious. Any comments on the name would be greatly appreciated as the rest of the family is not yet convinced that we cannot find something better.

Finally some boat BUILDING

2009-03-21T13:24:00.006-05:00

The weather has finally warmed up enough ( 5 or 6 degrees celsius...don't laugh) that I can work in the garage. It is much easier to do all the sawing and sanding outside but there is still a lot of sawdust in the garage to clean up each day. I have reached the stage where I can actually start some boat assembly. The photos show the centerboard trunk and the keel being assembled. The centerboard trunk gets glued to the part of the keel that does not have any clamps. In a couple of days I will be ready to pour lead into the keel. The local tire store has agreed to sell me their old lead wheel weights that they normally send to a metals recycler. I have to find a cast iron pot or kettle to melt the lead in over my turkey fryer propane burner. I have checked some thrift stores but no luck so far. Maybe my former teaching buddy Ken, the hunter and fisherman, has something he has used to cast his own bullets and stuff.

How many more weeks of winter?

2009-03-10T16:04:00.006-05:00

Thursday, the temperature almost reached zero (32 for our American friends) so I decided to move my workshop from downstairs to the garage. Still too cool for epoxy work but at least I could do sawing and sanding without filling the house with sawdust. But winter returned with a vengeance with some days only reaching a high of -21 ( -6 American). I have not been impressed and my wife has been even less impressed since her car was now kicked out of the garage and she hates scraping ice and snow off the car windows when she goes to work in the morning.

Hopefully, temperatures return to seasonal normals soon. I have now put 3 coats of epoxy on the inside of the centerboard trunk and glued the centerboard together. Used almost every spring clamp I have to make sure I have a solid centerboard. I do not want to sand the epoxy until I can work in the garage without getting frostbite; should be this weekend if the forecast is accurate.

I am anxious to see if I filled the weave enough or if my second and third coats were too thin. I figured practicing on the inside of the centerboard trunk was a good idea since no one is ever going to see it. 61 total hours of construction so far.

Fiberglass Virgin No More!

2009-03-03T19:38:00.005-06:00

A milestone day, did my first epoxy, fiberglass work ever. Fiberglassed the inside of the centerboard trunk and glued together blocks of wood for the noseblock and bowsprit. I can see why gloves are an absolute necessity unless you want to epoxy your fingers and other assorted body parts together. The first photos show the trunk and bowsprit curing. The other photo is the tiller cut from a nice piece of cherry and the gallows from a 2x8 piece of nice fir that is part of a bunk bed/desk I made for my son 20 years ago. Sometimes it pays to be a packrat and save some of those old pieces of lumber. The noseblock and part of the keel will also be milled from salvaged parts of this timber that I just couldn't throw away on my clean up the workshop days. The tiller and gallows are still just raw wood and have not been epoxied and varnished yet.

Nine sheets of plywood equals?

2009-02-23T14:32:00.009-06:00

One good sized pile of Pocketship parts.

All plywood parts except the large hull pieces and the transom are now cut out. Elapsed time for transferring the patterns and cutting out was approximately 47 hours.

Due to a mistake in ordering I was one sheet of 6mm plywood short. I used the tight layout however and have an extra sheet of 9mm. I was able to cut all the required 6 mm pieces with some rearranging except for the companionway hood and slide top. I have enquired if the 9mm will have enough bend to fit the curve required and am crossing my fingers that this will not be a problem as local sources of marine plywood are non-existent and I do not want to ship just a single panel.

The second photo shows a piece of the pre-finished teak hardwood flooring I am going to use for floorboards. The teak has a very nice dark grain and is not as orangey as shows up in the picture. With the tongue and groove ripped off as in the photo they will be exactly 3" wide. The teak is variable lengths so I will double up the floorboard cleats so that I have more space to nail in where the ends of the floorboards join.

The people at CLC have created a forum just for Pocketship builders that is separate from the CLC forum which handles mainly kayak builders.

How you going?

2009-02-19T20:40:00.006-06:00

"How you going" is Aussie slang for how are things with you today. The photo is looking at Surfer's Paradise from the beach at Burleigh Heads on Australia Day.

Got back from Australia on February 7th but combined with the jet lag and returning to cold weather was very unmotivated and did not get back to working on the boat until today. My son's wedding in Australia was fantastic ( http://www.trevandali.com/ for wedding photos ) and we cannot wait to go back for another visit (or maybe for our retirement years?).

Even though I have been slow to get back to boat building I did go through the manual and make a list of all the sailing hardware I need and ordered almost all of it from The Chandlery in Ottawa. They have a lowest price guarantee and also have a sale this month with 15% off their regular low prices.

Thanks to Hendrik in Sydney, Australia who recommended a Tajima pull saw for cutting plywood. I went to a Bunnings (an Australian Home Depot clone) and purchased one for $22 ($18 Cdn). My one suitcase must have been interesting when it went through the X-ray scanner at security. Six bottles of wine , assorted strange shaped souvenirs, and then a big saw blade.

Boat building or son's wedding? (and other surprises)

2009-01-02T21:04:00.009-06:00

This will be the last entry for more than a month. I will be way from January 8 to February 7 to attend my son's wedding in Australia; and NO it was not a problem deciding whether the boat building or the wedding had precedence.

I started this blog really as record for myself and for my son in Australia to keep up to date with the progress of this project. I never anticipated that other people would actually be interested in following my novice boat building endeavour. I was particularly surprised and some what humbled today when the designer of the Pocketship left a comment on the blog. A fellow Pocketship builder in Sydney, Australia even offered to meet for coffee when I was in Australia this month; unfortunately I am only in Sydney for a couple of hours to catch a connecting flight to the Gold Coast.

I will probably cut out a few more sheets of parts in the next few days but that will be it until returning from our long anticipated visit to Australia.

I cut out a bulkhead and some smaller parts today. It is slow work especially cutting out curves. With the jigsaw or circular saw you do not always get exactly on the lines and then have to plane it down with the block plane ( but I am becoming more proficient with the block plane). Cutting out that oblong part was no fun either (it is only 1/2 inch wide) but I cut out 2 at the same time. It is really a good idea to nail or clamp matching parts together and then cut them at the same time.

If I don't post any comments in the next month please be patient, I promise to update the blog soon after I return from my trip down under.

The First Cut is the Deepest ( apologies to Sheryl Crow)

2008-12-30T19:36:00.004-06:00

Day 1 of actual boat construction, also known as, "Oh, I love the smell of fresh sawdust in the morning".

Transfer some patterns to a sheet of plywood, cut them out with a circular saw, hand plane and sand the edges, and after six hours you have cockpit decking, footwell sides, and seatback tops. I followed the tip of cutting two sheets of plywood at the same time to get exact matching parts (they may be be the wrong size but at least they are identical).

Today was a bit of experimentation with transferring the patterns and drawing curves so I am hopeful the procedure will become a little faster. I don't think I have ever been so careful in measuring and cutting wood before, and plan on accuracy being foremost and not speed for the duration of this project.

I am hoping that if I leave the clamps sitting out maybe they will reproduce and make baby clamps. I am already starting to see that you can never have too many clamps.

My Kingdom for a Horse... (Sawhorse that is)

2008-12-29T20:20:00.006-06:00

I managed to buy a few more supplies today and cleaned up and reorganized the basement work area in preparation for doing a bit of construction before I leave for Australia on January 8th. Constructed four sawhorses as I don't always want to be kneeling on the cool concrete floor while working. I should now have enough storage space for all cutout parts except the large panels that need to be scarfed together.

The pool table (shown in the previous post) should be a good place to put the sheets of plywood on while I transfer the patterns. My goal for when I move out to the garage in the spring (hopefully April) is to have completed all the following in the basement: smaller parts cut out and milled; parts of the keel and companionway, the rudder, the tiller, mast, spars, boom, and gallows constructed.

I found what I think should turn out to be very nice floorboards for the cabin. The local lumber yard had Teak 100% Heartwood flooring available for a very reasonable price. The flooring is solid Costa Rican (sourced sustainably) Teak 3 1/4 " wide by 5/8" thick with a very durable finished surface. The plans call for 3" wide but when I rip off the tongue and groove with my Christmas gift table saw it will be exactly 3". Teak Heartwood is very dense and has a high tensile strength so 5/8" should be fine even though the plans call for 3/4".

I came across some really good tips for stitch and glue construction on the CLC Boat Builders Forum that I will probably use. The tips come courtesy of username tuatara in Australia.

1/ I copied the patterns on to the timber using giant carbon paper (2' x 16'), available from www.boatdesigns.com . Much quicker than punching holes and playing join the dots. (I have no affiliation with boatdesigns.com - thats just where I found the paper)

2/ I joined entire plywood panels, using scarf joints, before marking out and cutting. Its awkward to manouvre such large panels, but it does mean the parts are cut out as single pieces, so theres no risk of misalignment from joining two cut parts ( I can't cut accurate puzzle joints with a jigsaw!)

3/ In making the scarf, I used doublesided tape to hold the edges of the panels - much better result.

4/ I did all my cutting using a jigsaw (sabersaw in US English :-), with the plywood supported on blocks of 2" styrofoam. The jigsaw blade goes through styrofoam like it wasn't there, yet the foam provides a really solid support to work on.

5/ to save time marking and cutting, where duplicate parts were required I stacked two pieces of ply, pinned them together with small nails (important!) and cut both parts at once. This also helps ensure symmetry. I left the parts pinned together for finishing with plane and sander.

The New Boat Plans are Here! The New Boat Plans are Here!

2008-12-22T21:55:00.019-06:00

After patiently waiting for 2 months (well maybe not completely patiently) the Pocketship plans surprised me and arrived on an evening postal delivery. Delivery took 11 days. I have had parcels sent to my son in Australia take about the same amount of time, but of course it is the holiday season.

It appears that good things come to those who wait as I cannot imagine there being a more comprehensive set of boat building plans being available in the marketplace. Eleven pages of 2' by 3' scaled drawings, seven sheets of 3' by 16' full sized patterns, and a 288 page instruction manual with more than 800 photos and diagrams.

I have skimmed the manual and every step appears to have been carefully photographed and explained in language easily understood by a first time boat builder. Every detail from pouring the lead ballast to building spars to attaching all the rigging and hardware is outlined concisely, knowledgeably, and with lots of expert boat building hints.

The whole package is most impressive and plans such as for the Bolger Micro are pathetically inferior in comparison (not even a list of materials and only 7 or 8 pages of building instructions).

The photos show the manual and scaled drawings, the full size patterns beside an 8 foot pool table for scale, and a sample page from the manual.

A quick read through the manual has given me a better idea of how big of a project this is actually going to be. Thankfully, not too overwhelming but I am still glad to have such excellent instructions. It looks like there is lots of stuff I can do in my basement workshop starting in February while the garage is too cold. I wish I could start sooner but will be away in January for my son's wedding in Australia.

All I Want for Christmas...

2008-11-21T13:29:00.002-06:00

I am not neglecting this blog but since my Pocketship plans have still not arrived there is not much to blog about. I have purchased some new tools, a DeWalt orbital sander, a jigsaw, and power planer. Everything is ready to go so now it is just up to Santa to make an early delivery of the plans.

If the plans do not arrive soon Christmas will take precedence over boat building and in January we are away for a month to attend my son's wedding in Australia. I guess I should resign myself to the fact that boat building will probably not begin in earnest until mid-February.

Is all of this really going to be a sailboat?

2008-11-12T17:42:00.007-06:00

10 Sheets Okoume BS6566 6MM $459

5 Sheets Okoume BS6566 9MM

$310

1 Sheet Okoume BS6566 3MM

$38

1 Sheet Tiama 18MM

$152

50 yds Fiberglass Cloth

$330.75

50 yds Fiberglass Tape

$54.80

10 Gallons MAS Epoxy Resin

$778

5 Gallons MAS Hardener

$645

Building your own Sailboat

PRICELESS...

At this point it is hard to believe that this 650 pounds of material is going to turn into the sailboat shown in the photo.

As soon as the plans finally arrive I'll be able to start cutting out panels. Canadian Prairie winters are not really suited to working in an uninsulated garage so epoxying is probably on hold until spring. Hopefully I can slowly move the plywood to my basement workshop and

have all the parts ready to epoxy and start assembling in March. I am still investigating how practical it is to heat the garage with portable heaters and see if it is possible to get started in the garage sooner.

Ordering the plans and building materials

2008-11-05T08:27:00.010-06:00

Having decided on the CLC Pocketship I ordered the plans on October 23rd. After a week I still had not received confirmation of the shipping charges and was becoming a little concerned, especially since I had chalked out an outline of the boat in the garage to reassure myself that I had made the right choice by going with a slightly smaller boat length. A followup email revealed that the Pocketship plans are so new that they are still in the final stages of being prepared for shipping and should ship shortly.

Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) sells a kit for the Pocketship that includes pre-cut hull panels etc., epoxy resin, and fiberglassing materials for $3350 US. However, agreeing with my son that I couldn't really tell people I built my own sailboat if someone else cut out all the parts, I started looking locally for marine plywood. Good luck to you if you live in the middle of the continent and have access to reasonably priced marine supplies. The best plywood I could find locally was Marine Grade Fir which of course is not close to the Okoume supplied in the kit. Okoume and Meranti (1088 and 6566) have equal and more plies and have other properties more suitable to boatbuilding ( something else that I have now read more about than I could have ever imagined). All the wooden boatbuilding forums out there have a wealth of information useful to new boatbuilders---take advantage of them!

Through the forums I learned of Noah's Marine Supplies in Toronto. They have all types of Okoume and Meranti marine plywood and cheaper than the local Marine Fir. I decided on Okoume 6566 since the only difference between it and 1088 is the uniformity of the veneer facing. But I am not bright finishing any of the wood so this is not an issue. Noah's prices on epoxy and fibeglass materials were also cheaper than sourcing them locally.

I was able to order all of the identical materials in the CLC kit for $2,799 Can; the CLC kit after converting to Canadian funds would have been over $4000. There of course is a $200- $250 shipping charge but I am sure shipping from the States would be even higher. As a bonus since I am outside of Ontario I saved more than $200 in provincial sales tax.

Next: Waiting for the plans and supplies to arrive

Which sailboat to build...

2008-11-04T19:51:00.000-06:00

There is no shortage of information about building your own sailboat on the Internet. Trust me, in the last 2 months I think I have seen more than I could have imagined. I knew a reasonable size for a first time builder would be between 14 and 20 feet. But which boat to select? First it was going to be a Stevenson Weekender, then a Bolger Micro, or maybe a Vagabond 18. I ordered Study plans for 3 Fisher-Selway plans, the Goshawk, Galway, and Ptarmigan 17. I looked at the Hartley 16 and 18 and the Belhaven 19 and some others I have forgotten. But I kept coming back to the brand new CLC Pocketship design. The final decision was made, as usual, on a lot of compromises. Designs over 17 feet would not be practical to fit in a single car garage during the construction phase. Some designs were for boats that were simply too heavy to work on unless I could manage to get 12-15 people to turn over a 700 kg hull. Some designs had a flat bottom which would be great for a day at the lake shown in the bottom picture but not so great for days like in the first photo. On Lake Winnipeg ( the world's 11th largest lake) there are more choppy days than calm days so we needed a boat that would cut through the chop rather than bounce on top.

The CLC Pocketship was small enough ( 14' 11") to work on easily in the garage, yet with a V-hull, ballasted keel and a weight of 800 lbs should be very seaworthy. It has a cockpit almost 7 feet long for our primary purpose of daysailing ( larger than some 19' and 20' plans I looked at) and a very sleepable but simple cabin.

PocketShip plans include a 116-foot long roll of full-sized patterns for all plywood parts in the hull (and many other parts besides), 11 pages of traditional scaled architectural drawings, dimensioned diagrams for sails and spars, and a spiral-bound instruction manual with each building step photographed and/or diagrammed---more than 450 photos.

These very complete plans means there is no "lofting" for this first time boatbuilder.

Next: Ordering the plans and building materials

How I decided to build a sailboat...

2008-11-04T15:03:00.002-06:00

Maybe I will test out the sailboat in the pool first!

I have never built a sailboat before, in fact I have never even sailed a boat. So, how did I decide to build a sailboat? As usual, it was my son who talked me into it. I have recently retired from 32 years of teaching and of course the first question people keep asking is what are you going to do with all of your free time. My answer of doing what you do on holidays and weekends except full time usually is not sufficient so I needed to find a project. All of the household and cottage projects and renovations are complete or up to date so I needed to be creative. My son has been living in Australia for 4 years and is planning on purchasing a boat to live on. He suggested I build a sailboat and then maybe with the experience I could build a larger one for him. It started partly as a joke but the more I thought about it the more intriguing the idea was. My wife has often suggested we look at sailing as another activity to enjoy at the cottage as we head into our retirement years. Thus the seed was sown and I dove into researching building your own sailboat.

I have never been afraid of any kind of home renovation project whether it was wiring the basement for a family room, decking most of the backyard , or the scariest of all, cutting holes in the roof for skylights or knocking out walls for patio doors.

Next Installment: Which boat to build