Boat Plans And Kits | Is it love or endurance

Boat Plans And Kits

DO YOU TRULY LOVE your boat, or do you take it for granted?  I ask because Barbara Marrett says she never felt much affection for the boat she owned with her husband, John Neal, until they sold it.

Marrett makes this confession in Mahina Tiare: Pacific Passages, a book about the American couple’s extensive South-Sea wanderings in a 31-foot Hallberg-Rassey sloop. They eventually sold Mahina Tiare and parted with her in Brisbane, Australia.  By then, Marrett had sailed many thousands of deep-sea miles in her.

“Mostly I’ve just gotten impatient with her inconveniences,” Marrett says, “her small, tightly-packed spaces. I’ve cursed her many times but never spoken affectionately to her.

“And now that she is almost gone, I look lovingly at her sleek lines, at the wood I worked so hard to keep varnished. I pat her cushions and rub my hand over the soft curved teak handrails. I notice the subtle details which make her special, a cut above every other boat.

“Mahina Tiare is where John and I had our first date, our honeymoon. Even I, who didn’t care for boats, was impressed with her when I first stepped aboard on a cold December night. She felt warm and safe, like I felt in John’s arms that first night when he hugged me.

“She’s taken us to magical places and I never thanked her. Hurricanes, white squalls, we’ve tied up in impossible harbors, impossible anchorages like Easter Island and Pitcairn, but she has never lost an anchor, blown out a sail. I ran her into Greenhithe Bridge in New Zealand, broke her forestay, but she heeled over sideways and managed to slip us through without losing her mast.

“John always treated her gently and lovingly, but I just took her for granted. John earned her, but I married her along with John, competing for affection until slowly I spent as much time on her as John did. She has become home and I have learned the patience to live aboard her. She represents the happiest years of my life and with her passing, that chapter closes.”

Competing for affection, the lady said. Ah yes, there lies the rub for many cruising couples. If I had to guess, I’d say that men love their boats, and women do their best to endure them for the sake of the marriage. I know that’s not always true but I suspect it happens often enough to make long-term cruising an endurance test for many reluctant women.

Today’s Thought

An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: The older she gets, the more interested he is in her.

— Maurice Chevalier

Tailpiece

“What happened to your ear?”

“Well, I was ironing my shirt when the phone rang and I accidentally put the iron to my ear.”

“Bummer. And what happened to the other ear?”

“Well, I had to call 911, didn’t I?”

 

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Boat Plans Wood | Copper is on the way out

Boat Plans Wood

THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL for copper-based antifouling paint. Washington has become the first state in the U.S.A. to ban its use on boats, with effect from 2018.

Antifouling paint discourages the growth of barnacles and plant life on submersed hulls. If you have a wooden boat, it also discourages marine borers from eating your planks for lunch. Copper became the most favored biocide after 1988 when Congress banned the use of tin-based paint, which proved to be harmful to shellfish. But now there is growing concern that copper, too, is toxic to many forms of sea life.

It used to be easy to understand how copper worked. It was a poison, pure and simple, and the rule of thumb was that the more copper a paint contained, the more effective an antifoulant it was.

Now, new ecologically safe antifoulants are available, usually at much higher prices, but their modus operandi is not as obvious. There is vague talk of formulations with biopolymers and promises of photo-active technology, but the net result is a paint with a seemingly impossible mission—to discourage barnacles and slime without killing other forms of sea life.

Until 2018, however, unless new legislation changes things, there will still be four basic types of copper-based antifouling:

* Sloughing. This paint slowly dissolves over time, exposing fresh copper as it does so.

* Hard epoxy or vinyl. This is a scrubbable paint that allows the biocide to diffuse slowly through the skin.

* Ablative. This is usually a copolymer paint that acts by hydrolysis, or chemical reaction with water, and the scouring action of water flowing past the hull.

* Permanent coating. This is a coat of resin, polyester or epoxy in which millions of tiny pieces of copper metal are suspended, each one individually coated with a thin layer of resin and thus electrically insulated from its mates. New copper is exposed by scrubbing the hull every few months and it’s possible that this system could last the life of the boat. But application is a job best left to the professionals.

Today’s Thought

A ship is ever in need of repairing.

— John Taylor, A Navy of Landships

Tailpiece

There was an old lady of Worcester

Who was often annoyed by a rorcester.

She cut off his head

Until he was dead,

And now he don’t crow like he yorcester.

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Boat Plans Catamaran | Is there mutiny on your boat

Boat Plans Catamaran

I SOMETIMES WONDER how many acts of mutiny take place on small sailboats. How many times has a crewmember refused to follow the orders of the skipper? And, dare I say it, how often has a wife or girlfriend declined to do what her man has asked her to? Quite often, I suspect.

The definition of mutiny, among other things, is the refusal to obey the order of a legal authority such as a superior officer. But it is not necessarily restricted to naval and military forces. Mutiny applies to crews of merchant vessels, too, although such cases are heard by a civil court instead of a court martial.

I would like to know, then, that if I ask (order) my wife to varnish the cockpit coamings, or if I simply request her to bring me another beer from the cool box, and if she just laughs and says, “In your dreams, Captain Bligh,” is she guilty of mutiny?

I ask because this is a very serious business. Aboard a boat, there can be only one boss. During the days of the sailing navies, the penalty for mutiny was invariably hanging at the yardarm. Now I don’t have a yardarm; well not exactly, although I suppose I could rig up a spinnaker pole to serve the purpose.

In these enlightened days I suppose it would be frowned upon to hang one’s crew from a spinnaker pole, and I would guess that a case of mutiny would have to be handled by third parties in an admiralty court. I would further suppose that the penalty would consist of a fine and/or a number of years behind bars, rather than death by hanging.

What we all need to know is whether the skipper of a sailboat qualifies under the law as a “legal authority,” whose edicts must be carried out at all costs. And in order to know that, we first have to know what constitutes a skipper, a legal master of a vessel. (Or mistress.) It’s not necessarily the owner, we all know that, so if the skipper has no papers to prove his legality, who is legally in charge?  Can there be a mutiny, in fact, if the skipper can’t legally prove he’s the skipper? (Or she, of course, he or she.)

I have been faced in the past with what must be close to mutiny when my dear wife refused to sail across an ocean with me unless I provided a door to the head compartment. Unfortunately, I had no proof that I was the legal master of the yacht. I was, of course; I just didn’t have the proof. So, rather than confront her before an admiralty court, I bought a sheet of plywood and built her a loo door.

I don’t doubt that many similar acts of mutiny have been dealt with in the same namby-pamby manner since we lost the use of yardarms. I’m not saying that it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Just pointing it out in case you hadn’t noticed. Just sayin’.

Today’s Thought

The ship of democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board.

-- Grover Cleveland

Tailpiece

“Why did your algebra teacher confiscate your rubber-band pistol?”
"She said it was a weapon of math disruption."

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Boat Plans Wood | Is this the Summer of Summer Afternoon

Boat Plans Wood

Well, it looks like it, at long last. Behind boats there are always stories; boat stories. So, to explain Summer Afternoon in an nutshell, please take the time to read an article I wrote many moons ago.

Now fast track; the boat is in Newport now and Chauncey took on himself to refresh the small schooner.
Sanding, varnish, sanding, varnish, paint, sanding, varnish, paint, paint, varnish, varnish.... you got the point.
My contention was to launch the boat first, which we did before the task of refurbishing. The local boat ramp is next to the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, very close to the house and therefore conveniently located. It was fun.

Well. We had to get help. Six coats of varnish and painting is not to sneeze at, and with not much time, it became necessary to hire the best varnishers. Summer is short.




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Boat Building Plans And Kits | Central Triangle Having the faster boat is merely a good start

Boat Building Plans And Kits

Again the superb Crusader team led by Anthony Leighs beat us around the racetrack.  In a series of races that were best described as frustrating for us, we repeatedly extended a healthy lead and then lost it. stationary in no wind, before the finish line.

But what a fantastic week of racing.  For us it was a week of competing against Crusader.

Leg 1, Wellington to Akaroa, 195 nm: The first 4 hours were epic...  Out of Wellington and nearly to Kaikoura in 4 hours.  40-50 ish knots tailwind, many gusts into the 60s and a few recorded in the 70s.

These clips are with a reef in the main and a #4 headsail.  Blink felt like she was on rails, was balanced, and probably could have been pushed a bit harder.  But we were building a handy lead on Crusader and the conditions were, well, intense - so we just kept sending it over the waves....

Then we got south of Kaikoura and stopped.  The local wisdom is that you never go inshore here in a northerly, boats have stopped nearer shore in no breeze for days.  We headed further out, expecting to find enough wind to fill our sails in the slop.  Never happened.  Crusader ended up well inshore of us and got away, we never caught up again in the light airs all the way into Akaroa.  We did learn a bit about trying to move the boat in light air. But not enough ...

Leg 2, Akaroa to Napier, 350nm: After a drift-off out of the harbour we got around Banks Peninsula with a massive lead, Crusader so far behind they were hard to identify.  Then the routing was upwind all the way up the coast of the South Island and - given Blinks big speed advantage upwind - thought this would go our way.  But no - the Crusader team in the biggest (and one of the riskier?) round-the-outside manoeuvres Ive seen completely avoided sailing upwind, and when we again ran out of breeze near Cape Palliser they were 94 nm more east than any other boat in the fleet.  They got the breeze they went looking for, and moved from a 30-mile deficit to a nearly 10-mile lead.  Overnight. Wow.

Despite our losing power and not being able to cant the keel or use the boat electronics after we broke an alternator bracket just east of Cape Palliser, we went chasing after them and over the next 40-odd miles we got close, really close, about 15 miles from the finish line.  Game on.  We were less than a mile abeam and slightly behind, went for one more gybe to take an expected shift and maybe overtake, and stopped in no wind.   Crusader didnt, disappearing over the horizon for a 2-hour win.  Really.

Leg 3, Napier to Wellington, 205nm: At last a chance to stretch our legs upwind, at least to Cape Kidnappers.  There were no options for Crusader but to follow us out, and again we had a few miles handy lead as we headed down the coast back to Wellington.  Until later that evening when we again parked on mirror-smooth water, Crusader caught up again and we sat for a long time, 40m apart, in surreal moonlight.

Then a wonderful highlight of the week.  Here were these two high performance raceboats becalmed in the middle of nowhere at sea, supposed to be racing but stuck still in the wee small hours of the morning ... we fired up our stereo and played Mahna Mahna from the muppets at high volume from our cockpit speakers.

The breeze eventually filled in and we were away again the next morning.  In increasing breeze up to high 20s and even 30s around Cape Palliser Blink again had a healthy lead, several miles.  With the harbour entrance in sight, the Code 0 on and powering towards the finish line at 12 knots, and Crusader apparently well tucked away behind, it all looked good for us to at last convert one of our recurrent leading margins into a race win.  But no.  Another windless park-up at the harbour entrance.   Yes you understand correctly - Wellington Harbour entrance, no wind.  We all know that never happens.

But anyway you can probably guess the outcome.  Crusader and Blink were about 50 m apart, roughly side by side pointing in to the harbour, Blink in about 0.5 knots of westerly and Crusader picked up a good easterly (yes, dear reader, easterly) puff with their Code 0 ready.  Off they go, we never regained the lead, despite an absolutely brilliant gybing duel in a nearly windless inner harbour at night.  Crusader got us by 51 seconds for the full trifecta.

Kudos and trophies well deserved by the Crusader team for nailing every single opportunity.

Despite the disappointment of no silverware, we had a brilliant time, have formed a basis for a solid amateur offshore crew, and learnt a great deal about the boat.  Well be much better armed in the future.  It really suited Crusader to have minimal upwind sailing and very little reaching (at least at the same time that Blink was) as those points of sail would be a advantage to our more powerful and not much heavier boat.  But that did make for some spectacular racing, and pushed both teams pretty hard.   Ill be using the happy memories of that big downwind ride from leg 1 to bore people with when Im old and deaf.

The experience of all 3 legs was encapsulated nicely by an event the next day.  Robs flight to Auckland was cancelled due to fog, resulting in him getting becalmed in a queue the length of Wellington Harbour.  2 hours later some of the Crusader crew arrived, checked in, and flew out an hour before the next plane Rob could get on.

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Boat Plans Butler | ‘Daisy’ a Roamer Cruising Dinghy is for Sale

Boat Plans Butler

You’ll note that at the top of the homepage of this blog there is a photo of my old Roamer dinghy. She was designed by Eric Coleman, specifically for cruising. He was a founder member of the Dinghy Cruising Association (DCA). To learn more about Roamers, go to the links section at the bottom of this page.

If you like what you see, and you want to get hold of a Roamer, why not respond to the advertisement below and ask to see ‘Daisy’ – but no time wasters please! – Only genuine enquirers with a real desire for a good cruising dinghy and the cash to buy should respond.

If you are not already a member of the DCA, you can discover how to join by visiting their website at http://dinghycruising.org.uk/  .

Advertisement

FOR SALE: DCA ROAMER CRUISING DINGHY, Daisy

Sail number R205

A rare opportunity to buy a well-made example of this famous self-righting 14ft cruising dinghy designed by Eric Coleman, one of the founders of the DCA, and featured in his book Dinghies for All Waters. He took his inspiration from ballasted sail and oar lifeboats with raised buoyant ends, as seen elsewhere in this issue of Dinghy Cruising.

     Daisy was launched in Summer 2011, and has been sailed infrequently since. The builder worked from DCA plans supplied by Peter Bick, and she was some seven years in build. The hull was not made using the stitch and tape method but exactly as the original, with chine log / frame construction, which results in a very tough plywood boat.

      I have been asked by the builders widow to advertise Daisy in Dinghy Cruising. You should also find details on Bill Serjeants popular blog by the time you read this: http://bills-log.blogspot.com  There is a pdf available on the Roamer design on Bills site, and I have a copy I can send by return of email should you have any difficulty. Roamer is a dedicated cruising boat: with her centreplate up she is self-righting from 120 below vertical, and has lots of stowage. Her appearance is unusual, but as her designer remarked wryly, she is reminiscent of Columbuss carrack.  Keith Muscott

Note: the timber across the cockpit is to brace the cover – not a spar.

It was raining heavily at times while I was photographing the boat, so these shots could have been a lot better.

Non-slip floorboards go over the storage space above the cockpit sole, which is kept dry using a substantial bilge pump (left of main hatch).

She is not Bermudan rigged, as designed, but has gunter spars in Douglas Fir.

Immaculate sails by Mouse Loft, North Wales

Plywood from Robbins

Painted with International Toplac

Good galvanised trailer

Steel centreplate with winch, as plans

Yamaha 3hp MALTA outboard in excellent condition

Heavy boat cover, bought late 2012

Price: £3,200

Apply to Rita Leckie, Anglesey:

Tel. 01248 853 939

email: lecks@athabasca.fsnet.co.uk

Overall length: 14ft

LWL: 13ft 3ins

Beam: 5ft 10ins

Weight for trailing: 600 lbs

Links

Roamer Dinghy

http://bills-log.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/roamer-dinghy.html

Roamer Dinghy - Part 2

http://bills-log.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/roamer-dinghy-part-2.html

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Dinghy Boat Plans | Blink is Launched

Dinghy Boat Plans

Blink was splashed at Seaview today and motored over, accompanied by Caniwi Te Ruru from RPNYC, to Chaffers Marina, her permanent base.  All went very smoothly apart from the weather, which was at its worst for the hour or so of the launch and delivery across the harbour.

And the water came up to exactly where Mr Shaw said it would.

Some of our favourite pics from friends and crew:

Claudia Vause with our cameras card... (thanks Claude!)

And Mark Holmes

And Joerg

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Boat Plans And Patterns | He who meditates is lost

Boat Plans And Patterns

ONE OF THE PEOPLE out sailing on the Salish Sea right now says he’s trying to decide how much he likes boating. He told a friend of mine that he has never done anything that can take you so fast from pleasure to terror.

My friend understood what he meant. She told him she once had an experience with a kayak that got her dumped in the drink unexpectedly. “I told him it was much like going from a feeling of confidence to incompetence in nanoseconds,” she said.

What’s wrong with these people? They’re the victims of pernicious psychobabble, specifically the oft-repeated injunction to “live in the moment.”

It took me a long time to figure out what living in the moment actually meant. I was not really sure whether I lived in the moment or not. I didn’t know what living in the moment felt like, compared with living outside the moment, either in front of the moment or behind it.

But it occurred to me eventually (I’m a slow thinker) that it was largely bound up with meditation, and that explained to me why people who are not natural sailors can go from happiness to terror in the blink of an eyelid; because, if you are a real sailor, you never live in the moment. You live in the future. And he who meditates is lost.

A real sailor is aware all the time of what could happen next. He or she stays ahead of current conditions and wonders what might happen if this or that occurred. A real sailor who sees a dark cloud on the horizon doesn’t take a deep breath of satisfaction and  think how beautifully it contrasts with the fluffy white clouds overhead. A real sailor imagines what could happen if that cloud is hiding a white squall. What would be the best way to handle the downburst gusts?  Would it be better to double-reef the mainsail right now? Roll the jib, maybe? Are the reef pennants in place? Can someone else steer while you do the reefing?  Are the jib furling lines free and ready to operate? What else might happen?

All the time he or she is afloat, the real sailor is thinking ahead, not living in the moment. There is never a time when you are under way when you can afford not to be living in the future. You must give full rein to your imagination.  That’s why, when the future arrives, you are neither surprised nor terrorized. You are prepared and confident.

On the other hand, those whose heads are idling in neutral, awash with the pleasures of the moment, will certainly experience fear and uncertainty when their surroundings suddenly change into the inevitable fury of the future.

Many of you will recognize this theory as an extension of my own Black Box Theory (quod vide), which, succinctly stated, says “the more I practice the luckier I get,” and explains why some boats survive storms and groundings when others don’t. Take no notice of those meddling non-thinkers who keep urging us all to live in the moment. If you’re a sailor, live in the future, and you’ll probably live longer.

Today’s Thought

The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it.— Thomas S. Monson

Tailpiece

“How about a kiss, gorgeous?”

“Certainly not, I’ve got scruples.”

“No problem, babe, I’ve been vaccinated.”

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