Virginia Beach Project Update

After letting the last coat of epoxy on the hull dry for several days I did minimal touch up sanding of high spots. As I look back I should have done a lot more from an appearance standpoint but it certainly has a passable appearance. I again wiped the hull down well after having vacuumed the garage so that I was in as dust free as possible. I then used masking tape around the gunwale line feeling that the glue would probably adhere better to the epoxy directly than to a coat of paint. I used Rustoleum Marine primer, one coat applying it with a foam roller. It was difficult paint to stir and get well mixed but it went on very well and the roller gave it a good smooth even appearance. I again let it dry well for a couple of days and then used Rusteolem Marine Topsides paint for a finish coat. It too was rolled on and was easy to use. It will take a second coat to achieve a really nice look. It should be noted that this is Topsides paint not designed as “bottom” paint so if you plan on leaving a boat in the water for any long periods of time this is not the paint to use.

One final comment on the paint. Compared to the usual marine paints Rustoleum is much cheaper but also offers a more limited choice of colors and it would appear that it is not designed to be used as a mixing base to make your own color.

I let her get good and dry and then flipped her over onto a nice soft cloth pad to protect the paint. The frames were still attached and were the way I supported the boat while painting. Now for the first time I got a good look at the inside of the boat. WOW! I had a lot of finishing to do. This included filling screw holes but mainly if was filling in and making filets were the chines, keelson etc. did not seal as tightly as I would have liked. From a functional standpoint the boat was sealed. From and esthetic one I had a lot of work ahead of me. Since the epoxy is pricey I mixed up just enough so I knew that there would be no waste. This was your peanut butter consistency and applied with a tongue depressor went on easily and gave a nice effect. I would give a piece of advice when doing this. Wipe off the excess with a vinegar soaked cloth as soon as you are finished with an area. It is a heck of a lot easier than sanding this rock hard stuff once it dries. 

I still had the frame “legs” uncut. The center ones in particular were a real nuisance to work around so I cut them off almost to where they will be finally but since I still have work to do on the sheer as far as trimming off the plywood I left a few inches that will come off later. Now I at least wasn’t catching myself on this stick that was serving no purpose. The bow and stern legs weren’t nearly the problem and I still haven’t touched them. I went off the CABBS plans for the mast step and thwart. I saw in someone’s plans that they had enclosed this part and made a buoyancy box out of it. I used ¼” maranti for the top which I fitted up tight to the underside of the inwales. Put a few cleats along the sides and fore piece to hold it tight. I then scribed a pattern on cheap plywood for the vertical piece. For this I used ½” maranti figuring that this would be extra cross bracing since I am using ½” plywood instead of the ¾” per plans. I will cut a 2 3/8” hole at the point 11” back from the bow and into this will go a piece of 2” PVC. When finished it will be sealed with epoxy.

What I haven’t got straight (so to speak) yet is the rake of the mast and exactly how the step will be angled. The mast will be reinforced 1 ½” PVC. From what I can tell, and Kyle Leonard has said, the mast should be perpendicular to the sheer line That is what I finally did. I took a piece of 1x4 sprude, used a 2 3/8’ hole saw an cut completely though it and attached it to the keelson in just the right position so that the 2” pPVC would be perpendicular to the sheer line. Not as difficult as it may sound. Used epoxy to fasten it. I put in a 4” water tight inspection port in the vertical piece a little off center so that the area may be used to store a towel etc. I will have pictures of all this. The port cover is frm West Marine and cost less than $10. Really happy with it. As looked at the inside of the bow transom it just looked unfinished so I took a piece of 1x4 spruce, as clear as I could find, and scribed a piece to fit on the inside of the bow on top of the mast thwart. I think it looks pretty good. I am doing the same on the stern with the exception that there will be a perpendicular piece running down to the keelson. Since the gugeons will attach here the added strength makes sense. BUT all this trim work adds weight to the boat so for those wanting the lightest craft possible all this is not for you.

Read More..

Seen at the 2014 Sailboat Show Part 3 the Zim 15

One of the hidden casualties in the ongoing clash between Laser Performance Europes business strategy and the rest of the small boat sailing world has been the virtual stoppage of production of the Vanguard 15, a two-hander racing and recreational dinghy that, since the late 1990s, has sold well in the United States and still has a national presence. As with any vacuum in the market someone will step in and in this case Steve Clark, one of the original team that developed the Vanguard 15, has linked up with Zim boatbuilders to produce his higher-end version of a hiking doublehander, the Zim 15.

Zim Sailing freely admits they are targeting the post-collegiate market with the Zim 15 and it comes with a bunch of modern performance features, albeit at a higher selling price compared to the Vanguard 15. What modern features do you get?

• A hull designed for higher speeds.
• Carbon spars.
• High aspect ratio blades.
• Roachy Mylar sails.
• Gnav vang to clear up the forward end of the cockpit.
• A multi-purchase rig-tensioning system run through the forestay.
• A bow stem made of high-impact plastic.
• A dangly whisker pole.
• A flow-through double bottom cockpit with open transom.
• Enough cleats in the right positions to make adjustments easier.

Some photos.

Here is the bow bumper which is cleverly molded in during construction so as to be an integral part of the hull.

The Zim 15 has a centerboard for easier launching but the centerboard trunk has grooves in each side so the board can be pulled up and "reefed" in a breeze, just as you would with a daggerboard.

The dangly whisker pole is not seen in the U.S much but is very popular in the U.K. non-spinnaker classes. It resides on the front of the mast when going upwind. To deploy, pull the dangly pole down with its control line. To retract. uncleat the control line and a shock cord returns it to the front of the mast. There is also the multi-purchase forestay tensioner sitting on the foredeck in front of the mast.

The flow-thru double-bottom cockpit with the nifty tilt-up rudder. The hull sports soft-chines as it was also designed for team racing.

The business end of the cockpit. We can see the Gnav vang on top of the boom, the dangly pole, recessed cleats in the wide thwart and plenty of adjustments at the base of the mast.

A computer-rendered sideview of the Zim 15 (lifted from Zim Sailings website).

Read More..

R2AK The Marathon Begins

"In the name of uncomfortable fun!"

R2AK, the Race to Alaska, a 750 mile jumbo version of the Everglades Challenge, started the 2nd and final leg yesterday. The first leg, raced last Thursday, was a 40 mile sprint from Port Townshend, Washington to Victoria. The rules are simple; no engines, no outside assistance.

Unlike the Everglades Challenge, the R2AK racetrack is open water, very cold and some of the entries are sensible, full out cruising craft. I expect once the dust has settled, the racier catamarans and trimarans will fill the top spots. I dont envy those hardy kayakers in their kayak-trimaran hybrids who will spend the entire race ensconced in their dry suits.

For those who like to get their online jollies by watching the R2AK unfold, the organizers have got that covered - just click here for the race tracker.

There is at least one large open dinghy racing (editors correction: There are two - a Mirror 16 is also competing). Team Barefoot is the product of Barefoot Wooden Boats and is a Tad Roberts design, a 5.8 meter (19 foot) plywood dinghy playing in the same design space for long distance small boats as the i550 mini-sportboat. In looking at the video, the Barefoot dinghy appears to be more in the realm of a high freeboard Classic International 14 from the 1980s. Team Barefoot put this interesting video up on their dinghy and the thoughts behind designing for this race.



Team Barefoot Wooden Boats | Race to Alaska 2015 from Vancouver Maritime Museum on Vimeo.

Designer Tad Roberts has the sideview and sailplan of the Barefoot Dinghy over here.

Some photos of the Barefoot Dinghy I pulled from the InterWebs.

It turns out that Classic Mothist, Jeff Linton, is pursuing the same direction for the next Everglades Challenge. He has scrapped his modified Flying Scot (which won the monohull class in 2014) and is home-building a new 6.7 meter, O.H. Rogers designed, large dinghy for next years Challenge. Boatbuilding details with lots of photos are over at Amy Lintons blog.

1. Part 1 here
2. Part 2 here
3. Part 3 here
4. Part 4 here
5. Part 5 here

Read More..

Classic Moths in the Mist

At this years Classic Moth Nationals we had a marine layer settle in Saturday night, giving us fog on Sunday morning, a rare event for Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The fog started to creep out towards Pamilco Sound around 9 a.m. and racing commenced, on time, in sunshine.

I took a couple of photos.

The fog didnt stop the sailors kibitzing about Mothboats.

Two transoms in the mist. The Laser transom of the Maser and the wide Europe Dinghy style transom of the Mousetrap Mistral.

The view from the Pughs pier.

The original post of the 2015 Classic Moth Nationals can be found here.

Read More..

Maiden Voyage of Optimist 1

Published on Feb 8, 2014 This is the first of three Optimist dinghies we are making from CABBS (Cleveland Amateur Boatbuilding and Boating Society) plans. The plans have been redrawn from Clark Mills original drawings for the Optimist in 1947. Check out www.woodenoptimist.blogspot.com to see more about building this sailboat

Read More..

HYC Cruise Day 1 July 25 City island to Port Jefferson on Long Island 39 Miles

Every cruise  has some boats that try as they might, just cant make it for mechanical or personal reasons. This year, so far, it has been Paul and Mary on "Little Jumps", a victim of the press of business. I use to be a slave to the law so I know. We will miss you.

The day was warm and sunny; well you know, pretty much the same as back in Eastchester Bay.

Mark and Marsha of "Leeds the Way",  spent Friday night in Oyster Bay to make a shorter sail today. They got to the mooring field of the Seatauket YC in the 2 to 2:30 time frame. As did "True North" who motored from the Harlem.

ILENE, left the HYC mooring field at 7:30 in a dead calm and put up the main for almost the whole way and one or the other or parts of both headsails for most of the way -- after a bit of wind stirred the surface of the water. So we motor sailed almost the whole way. The problem was that the wind was from the east, where all the boats were heading. Motor sailing took us from Huntington, Long Island to Norwalk, CT and back across the Sound again to Port Jeff, arriving a bit after three.

And thats why Leeds the Way and ILENE were the only ones able to enjoy the wonderful cocktail party that True North hosted, starting at 5 pm.

PC Mark, Marcia, Lene, Diane and PC Bruce. Im the photographer and I kinda like the diagonal of the heads though this was purely accidental.

But we three were not the only Harlem boats here in Port Jeff. The rest just arrived too late for the party: PC Ernie and Camille and their guests, pc Marty and Ghenie, on "Blast", Dan and Mary Jane on " Tively II" and CJ and Jenny on "Shanghai" (who sailed with us and the Hermione on the Fourth of July).

Shanghai wins todays award for most intrepid sailing, not motor sailing but sailing. They had a long day.

Tomorrow, Leeds the Way and Tively IIs schedules require them to turn back but the armada is headed for a two night stay in Mattituck, LI. Unfortunately, ILENE will be there with them for only the second night. A funeral for a dear friends son means we will spend Sunday in a rental car, catching up with the fleet on Monday.

Read More..

Gas and Diesel Sterndrive I O Power

In my posts,"The Chosen One.The Boat Plans For Me", and "Fitting Out A Newly Built Boat",I eluded to the fact that a lot areas are starting to ban two stroke outboards.Following Spria Internatioanls horse power chart,building Sitka by the plans,I need 120 recommended horsepower.I am building to the optional plans which extends the boat to 30 feet and includes a vee entry bow.I am also building my cabin larger like the Bahamans.

Spira International website quote.

The Sitka may be shortened or lengthened from 25-1/2 (7.7M) to 30 (9.1M) in 1-1/2 (457MM) increments. The plans also show an option for a vee entry to the bow, but these Pacific dories ride quite well in rough water with their upturned bows.

The fact that I will need four stroke power plant,limits my options.Four stroke outboards are rare on the used market here and expensive.Then there is the cost of a gauge package and controls.That can easily add $800 to $1000 to the install, considering the length of steering control hydraulic hoses or cables I would need.So I contacted Jeff Spira about using a stern drive,or inboard outboard(I/O) if you prefer.He has approved the use of a stern drive and will make the needed changes to the plans when someone buys the plans.

With everything sorted out and a power plant type has been chosen,I can get on with deciding on which stern drive I want to use.I know that the stern drive will come from a used boat,probably one I buy for a parts donor.I know I need 120 recommended horsepower.I will also have to compensate for the additional weight from the added length,longer cabin,contents of longer cabin,and stern drive.Checking the horsepower chart,the Coast Guard recommended horsepower is 342.That isssss noooooot happening!This is a cruising boat,not race boat.I want some economy.I will mostly be on inland lakes for the first few years before I do the Great Loop Cruise.On lakes,I wont be dealing with fast currents or rough water.I really dont plan to run the boat on plane.It would be nice to have the option.Technically speaking,I could use 120 horsepower.I think I want a little more.

Looking around and asking the right questions,I have decided to go with a carbureted 135 horsepower four cylinder 3.0 liter Chevrolet engine with Alpha I Mercruiser sterndrive.I might get lucky and find a cheap donor boat with a fuel injected 3.0L.The reasons I have chosen this set up over others is numerous.The main one being parts availability.These were produced from the 1970s to present day.They are still being made.There are literally hundreds of thousands of these across the US,Canada,and Mexico,maybe millions.Most parts sellers either have the parts on hand, or can get them fairly quickly,usually overnight without additional charges.These set ups being as simple as they are,most anyone can work on them with basic mechanical skills and knowledge.

While I am cruising to local lakes and enjoying my new boat,I will be designing a new engine install using the 3.0L stern drive set up.The engine will be based on a retuned 1.9 liter turbocharged Volkswagen TDI diesel.Please dont confuse DEtuned with REtuned.Before anyone jumps on the Pathfinder VW diesel and starts bashing them,the only people that had issues with those set ups are the ones that dont understand how to properly run a marinized diesel.99% of all failures were directly related to operator error.CDKs forum post is where I got the idea for this set up.His twins are sweet.


Marine Conversions: Car Engine Conversions for Boats.

Now,where to start.The best place is with the adaption of the diesel engine to the stern drive.I plan to keep the heavy manual transmission flywheel.The weight will help the engine keep spinning and reduce fuel consumption a fraction of a gallon.Depending on the year of the stern drive,all I will have to do is machine the flywheel to accept the engine to stern drive coupler.Next issue will be lining up the engine to keep the engines crankshaft center line centered with the center of the stern drives input shaft center line.Its not a difficult process,just tedious.I will use adjustable motor mounts and an engine plate front and rear to mount the engine.Going with the mounting plates will allow me to mount the engine semi solidly at all four corners.The starter will mount to the rear plate in a position that allows access.The starter will be swapped out for an ignition protected unit.

I will use a completely enclosed and self contained cooling system like an automobile.Bowman and Lancing Marine both offer products to marinize a 1.9L TDI VW diesel.I plan to weld up my own using stainless steel tubing.The factory turbo is water cooled but the exhaust side will need a turbo jacket to help contain some of the excess heat.Most of the heat will be absorbed through the water cooled exhaust manifold.The exhaust will run dry.It will be expelled through the stern drive and out of the prop like the original set up.A water cooled oil cooler  will help the longevity of the turbo and engine.In place of the cars radiator,there will be a liquid to liquid heat exchanger.Raw water will pass through a heat exchanger that circulates hot engine coolant through it.Then the raw water will exit the heat exchanger after its cooled down the coolant.Think of it like this,its a small radiator, that is sealed inside a box, with water circulating through it.The water box circulates the water around the radiator, to cool off the coolant that circulates through the engine.Its way more simple than it seems.Doing it this way, will allow me to remove the impeller in the lower unit and plug all of the water ports on the exterior of the stern drive.I could leave everything in place and route the water coming out of the stern drive over board.

Know Your Boats Diesel Engine


The next issue will be the engine itself.Most people that have done this type of install,run the engine as it came from the car.I think I would like to go one step further and have custom ground camshafts to fit the type of use the engine will get.Along with that,I will upgrade the turbo and injectors.The injection pump is electronically controlled.This makes the engine difficult to use in a boat.I will have a custom built and tuned mTDI injection pump that will basically make a one wire engine.The one wire will be to shut off the engine.I will also have a bypass to allow me to run and shut down the engine with no electrical power on the boat.Think of it as a limp home mode.

An air intake for a boat has to be designed in a way that allows enough fresh air into the engine but keeps water out.There are many ways to do it.Mine will basically be two air dams inside a box.The air flows over the first one and under the second one.Then, onto the engine through an intake mounted high on the back side of the box.Its a little hard to visualize but I am no good at drawing with a computer.A lot of marine engines dont run air filters. I will be running a secondary air box with a filter.

Going with a diesel cuts down on the risk of fire.It does not eliminated it.Diesel fumes are not as flammable as gasoline fumes.Ignition protection isnt as critical with a diesel,but that doesnt mean you should use standard automotive electrical parts.I have already stated that I will use an ignition protected marine starter.That goes double for the alternator.As long as the engine is running the alternator could be sparking inside which can ignite any fumes around.I will be running an externally regulated Balmar 150 amp alternator package.


Marine Diesel Engines: Maintenance and Repair Manual

Read More..

May 12 13 Last Two Lay Days in Washington No miles

No, not a Maritime Museum. This is one of the fishing boats used by the Danes in WWII to smuggle most of their 7000 Jews into neutral Sweden. It is one of the many artifacts in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

I spent a whole day (10 to 5:15) here and did not see it all. Designed of the same beautiful pale yellow stone that is used in most other government buildings in this city, the interior has a long atrium around which the horrible history unfolds, as one starts on the fourth floor and works ones way down. This atrium is glass covered and reminded me of a railroad station  -- such an integral part of the Germans "Final Solution". I have been to such museums in NY, Jerusalem and smaller ones in many other cities but none that were as comprehensive, with a significant slant on US responses before, during and after the war. It showed how gradually Hitler came to power, consolidated his power and set to work first trying to drive the Jews out by making life unbearable and dangerous, then deporting them and finally, exterminating them. One huge wall of etched glass, has the names of the numerous European towns where Jews lived before Hitler, including my fathers birthplace, Untergrombach, middle row, right, with my imagined "RR Station" below.

The place was very crowded with lots of high school kids who were very respectful. I was quite moved by the experience. The museum repeatedly discussed the plight of the Roma (gypsies) and other victims. It also had exhibits on the three post-Holocaust genocides: Cambodias killing fields, the Serbo-Croation conflict and Rwanda. It seems humanity has not learned yet, despite the saying "Never Again! We had lunch in the museums cafe, located in a small building outside the Memorial.
Our final day was for Congress and the Library of Congress. We had planned to visit the adjacent Supreme Court as well. I had to be admitted to its Bar to oppose a Petition for Certiorari  in the late 70s. (Since about 95 to 99 percent of such petitions are denied, winning that one was rather easy.) But our tourism stamina gave out before we got there, which was a shame because Lene has never been there. On our way we passed the Frances Perkins Department of Labor Building.

Ms. Perkins was one of FDRs "brain trust" and the first female Secretary of Labor. She co-taught a seminar in labor history I took at Cornell in about 1964.
In 2008 Congress opened a huge underground entrance, visitors center, "Emancipation Hall," with Museum, gift shops, a large cafeteria and many restrooms to handle the throngs of tourists. We were shown an inspirational movie about how well Congress works, which is somewhat of a joke given todays hyperpartisanship. Leah, our assigned

tour guide was energetic and bright with the kids but the tour did not include either house of the Congress. We easily secured a pass to visit the House, which was in session, but just barely. The person acting as speaker recognized a stream of Representatives who rose to give speeches of up to four minutes. It was mostly women in red suits on the Democratic side and men in blue suits on the other side. Several democrats spoke in favor of refinancing the Highway Trust Fund and opposing yet-another bill to restrict abortion, which the Republicans are addicted to and will undoubtedly pass. The Republicans spoke in favor of the anti-abortion bill and in memory of slain police officers. They all spoke to an almost empty room. The speeches go into the Congressional Record and are fodder for the folks back home. "See how I represented your interests!"
After lunch we visited the Library of Congress through an underground tunnel which avoids having to go through security again. Our first time here.

The entrance hall reminded me of The Hermitage in St. Petersberg, with its staircase, marble, red, statuary and grandeur.










The main reading room is much smaller than the one in NY but more elegant.

A highlight of my stay here was a visit to the Geography and Map division, where I was given access to their collection of nautical charts published by the United States Navys  Hydrographic Office from about 1850 to 1950. The charts are numbered, to about 6500, with some omissions. I have been studying them and cataloging them, as a volunteer in the Map Room of the NY Public Library for about seven years now. They describe the coastlines of the world (excluding the U.S. and the Philippines which are the subject of a similar series of charts published by the Coast Guard. Each branch of the armed forces had its champions in Congress and back in the 19th century they worked out this geographic compromise.)  I had a good conversation with the director of the map room who invited me back. Maybe, by land, some day.

I also saw a German antiquarian map of the world, in Latin, published a few decades after 1492, purchased for $11,000,000 (less than half of it taxpayer dollars), an exhibition of Herblock political cartoons, and a recreation of Thomas Jeffersons circular library of Monticello (he sold it to the government) with mostly his original books. He was a well read man.

Read More..

It is getting close! The Metal Boat Festival 2014!

We are a few weeks away from the 2014 Metal Boat Festival! You you have an interest in Metal Boats, I hope to see you there. 

Read More..

Surveyors Round Table Metal Boats

A year ago Jack Allinson and myself were invited to be on Pro Boat Radio to discus our talk for the 2013 IBEX.  We will be back this year at IBEX in Tampa, FL.  http://www.ibexshow.com/tampa2014.php

To hear the Pro Boat Radio program follow the link.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/proboatradio/2013/06/04/surveyors-rountable-metal-boats

Read More..

July 2 to 13 Six Days of Sailing and First Two Nights Aboard

Yes, twelve fun filled active boating days (and two nights) for Lene and me. Six were sailing days which averaged only about 3.35 hours per day, plus a work day and two overnights. Before that, a fireworks party on the 37th floor of Devs apartment, which was great, including the fact that due to the distance from the event, the fireworks were like children should be: seen but not heard.

The first sail in this period was with two of the men from my Book group, Arthur

and Gary, Arthurs wife, Marie Genevieve (the photographer) and Rafael, their son, on his dads lap. This pic, like many others are taken on the launch because your correspondent is too busy sailing the boat to perform his photographic responsibilities, and because the bimini and dodger do too good a job of providing shade, which makes it hard to get good pictures.

So we had the Chief Librarian of a prestigious New York university, an Emmy Award winning Film Editor and a practicing Psychiatrist. They were my friends who have became Lenes friends as well. Marie is the sailor in the bunch, with lots of experience with her father in Europe, and took the helm most of the time, but her husband and son took stints. Rafa steered like a Navy Helmsman, taking orders such as "a little to the right" -- because at eight, he can not yet see over the binnacle.

Next up were four of Lenes friends who have become mine as well. Sheila, MJ, Christine and Heather, all repeat sailors whose pictures are in other posts. We put up less sail than normal and went at a slow stately pace that the guests appreciated. We started with reefed main and small jib but finished without the jib.

Then came Ilenes first sail on Bennett and Harrietts new Beneteau. Lene, as I had been, was quite impressed with the boat. I was able to whip the ends of all of her lines that terminate in the cockpit. Another day, not underway, will be needed to get the other ends of these lines. She has a lot less lines than On Eagles Wings.

A work day to get the top of the Genoa working and mostly sanding the cafe doors for another coat of varnish, which could not be applied because the varnish I had had jelled to a solid. I also got two spare fuel filters - expensive little buggers, which, in their boxes are now aboard in zip lock bags to prevent rust.

For the final three days and two nights of sailing, in addition to the human guests, Whitty and Alpha Girl got reacclimated to the boat. That process was hardly an event; they walked about like they owned the place and tried to get into the cabinet where their food is stored. Cats are smart, especially when their dinner is concerned. Alfie is quite at home inside the aft end of the stack pack, atop the boom, when ILENE is on a mooring. The red and black lines are the first and second reefing lines, respectively.

It is warm and quiet in there. But we have to remember always to make sure we see the little devils before we hoist the sails to avoid crushing them. Our human guests during the first of these three days were Jill and Ken, her boyfriend. She is the kitties Vet and he is a family therapist and soon to be published memoirist. Neither of their expert services were required for this voyage, just the pleasure of their company.

The most remarkable thing about this daysail was the tidal effect of the so called "Super Moon" -- which was full and at the point in its orbit closest to the earth, increasing its magnetic effect on the water. Coming north back toward the mooring we passed what is usually safely east of  Stepping Stones Light. The depth sounders beeping alerted us to the fact that the rocky seabed was only seven feet deep -- 16 inches below the bottom of our keel. I veered sharply to starboard to get further away -- toward deeper water. At high hide that day, the water would have been another eight feet deep. The same low tide problem almost prevented us from getting back to our mooring. Other members of our Club, who had intended to race that Friday evening, had to wait for the tide to rise a bit, being stuck in the mud.  We made a groove in the soft mud bottom for about ten yards of our approach to the mooring; inertia carried us through. Our keel is 5.66 feet deep and the water was only 5.6 feet deep. After dinner at the Club, I took our guests to the subway so they could get home and listened to our Clubs mostly amateur but great sounding six piece rock band playing. But it was already 9:30 and my bed time. A calm cool night.
Next day, after breakfast, our guest was Christine, a frequent sailor with us, here with Whitty.

We had the best sailing of the summer so far. We beat deeply into the south end of Little Neck Bay on eight tacks using Main and small jib, then ran out and through the passage behind Stepping Stones off Kings Point, which required three gybes, and finally turned south into Manhassett Bay to the M.B.Y.C. on a single starboard close reach. Lene had the helm most of the way and has mastered the art of taking advantage of puffs that round us up slightly. Our speed rarely dipped under six knots and on the broad reach we were making eight.
MBYC charges $60 for a mooring and has a lovely big pool. We got there late in the afternoon and lounged on the pools deck. It was not at all crowded and we just read. Later the pool attendant told us that our guest mooring fee did not include use of the pool. Apparently this rule resulted from an experience a few years ago when a boater with twelve souls aboard took a mooring and his guests clogged the swimming lanes. But MBCY has a great guest shower which we did use before an excellent dinner in their restaurant. From the restaurant deck, you see the pool in the foreground, their mooring field in mid ground and a wee bit of the east side of City Island under the setting sun.

Another good nights sleep and a good breakfast aboard before sailing back to the Harlem.









Before casting off, however, I finished the improvements that I had been working on. I hung the wool (or maybe cotton) wall hanging of a stylized sailboat that we got in Finland (dare I call it a tapestry?).  (Sorry about the color and underlined nature of this next paragraph; I didnt intend it and cant get out of it!)  I installed a new block at the base of the mast and a new fifth clutch on the starboard side of the coach roof, next to the other four of them there, so the winch there can handle the outhaul. From now on I can change the tension of the foot of the main sail and thereby trim it better without having to go forward to the mast, laying on my back there, having Lene steer up into the wind and hauling on the outhaul line manually. My only mistake was caused by Lewmar, which provided absolutely zero instructions on how to install their clutch. To release the four existing ones, I lift a lever that swivels up and forward on a pin at the forward end of the clutch. So I installed the new one with the lever moving the same way -- which was backward!!

All the others open one way; this new different one, the other!

In other words, when closed, the clutch did not hold the line when you want to lock it, but it did prevent you from tightening the line. But having done all the drilling and bolt and washer selection and grinding and snakeing of the line needed for the first installation, it took only ten more minutes to detach and reattach the clutch the right way. The clutch is fastened to the coach roof reinforced by strong washers, above this removable panel in the cabin ceiling.

This little job used an enormous number of specialized tools and I confess that I was pleased with myself. Thanks go to my rigger, Jeff Lazar, proprietor of Performance Yacht Management, who encouraged me to do it myself and gave me some helpful hints. He had also told me the size of the Allen stud which I installed myself (And I sorely regret that I did not bring my camera to the top of the mast to gain pictures of our clubhouse and mooring field from an altitude of 63.5 feet above sea level. Lene cranked me up and let me down gently. Another time for that photo.) While working from the top of the mast of a nearby boat Jeff also advised me to possibly shorten the strap at the clew of the Genoa to lower it a bit. The last step on the clutch job will be using a punch that Jeff recommended, and a hammer, to drive out a horizontal athwartship pin embedded in the forward end of the boom on which three thumb cleats rotate. They were used to hold the out haul line and the two reefing lines (red and black, remember) in place. Now, that the third and last of them is led to the cockpit, the thumb cleats are worse than superfluous --  they tend to chew up the lines.
Our sail home on Sunday in the late morning was via the shortest logical route on a variety of port reaches, from broad to close. It rained a bit en-route and with more and heavier  rain forecast for the afternoon,  and my shoulder getting sore from too much sailing, we made a short day of it.

Read More..

Interview With Beth Leonard And Evans Starzinger Of Hawk

This is the first of my interview series for the Metal Boat Quarterly. I will be posting my interviews on my blogs after they are released in the Metal Boat Quarterly. I recommend reading Beths books, you will not be disappointed. Click the titles for more information.

http://www.bethandevans.com/

DB: Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger sailed their Shannon 37, Silk on their first circumnavigation in 1992 for three years and 40,000 miles. For their second circumnavigation, they sailed Hawk, a 47-foot aluminum Van de Stadt Samoa design from 1999-2009 through the high latitudes by way of the Great Capes. They have sailed Hawk 75,000 miles.

The first circumnavigation is documented in Beths book, Following Seas. 

Stories from their travels on Hawk are in the book, Blue Horizons.

And in my opinion, the best book on outfitting a cruising boat is the Voyagers Handbook, written by Beth Leonard.

You both a very well known in the cruising community, thank you for taking the time to talk to MBQ.

After a circumnavigation on a fiberglass boat why did you chose aluminum for Hawk?

B&E: Most people guess we chose metal for strength, as we planned to go to the high latitudes.  But in fact we picked it because we could make the decks absolutely leak proof.  Our experience with fiberglass decks was that after two or so ocean crossings the boat had worked enough that at least a few of the fasteners through the deck would start leaking. There are zero fastener holes through Hawks deck. Everything is either welded on, or machine screwed to blind tapped plates that are welded on.

We picked aluminum over steel both because it is less maintenance, and because it can produce a better performing/sailing boat.  You just dont have to keep after rust the way you do on a steel boat.

We have members building their own boats, you chose to have a hull built for you by Topper Hermanson and to finish the boat yourself. At what point of construction did you take delivery? 

From the outside the boat looked complete - deck hardware and mast all installed.  Inside it was close to a bare hull.  The foam was sprayed in, and the major bulkheads were in and the engine was installed, and I installed a head and two sea bunks, but otherwise it was just a bare foam cave.  We had an igloo cooler for food and I strung up some lines as hand grips to get to the head and sea bunks. And we sailed it like that offshore from Florida up to Annapolis.  She sailed very, very well, and Evans tried to talk Beth into just adding a couple beanbag chairs and going like that, but Beth insisted on a galley and settees and nav deck and proper storage, etc.

How long did it take to complete?

Evans had done some furniture building in school, so he knew what was involved to do a really fancy interior. He told Beth that we could take five years to do a really fancy interior with dovetails and hidden joints, or we could put a practical, easy-to-clean and easy-to-maintain interior in in less than a year. We both decided we preferred sailing to boatbuilding – which is not always the case. We have met many people who took years to build a boat, and when they got out there they discovered they really did not like cruising. We knew we loved cruising and wanted to get back to it as soon as possible.

In the end, the hull took two years, and then it took us about nine months to do the interior. Then we untied the docklines and sailed up to Newfoundland.

Beth I remember you saying this was your first experience with using power tools?

Yes. I had no experience using power tools, and was more than a little intimidated when Evans got sent off on a three-month trip to Russia leaving me to put in the ceilings. But instead of even getting to work on the ceilings, I spent most of the summer with an electric bread knife in 90 degree heat and 90 percent humidity in the Chesapeake carving off the excess foam insulation. By the time we were finished, I was pretty comfortable with more than just bread knives – I got used to handling radial arm saws, band saws, and drills.

What did you use for insulation on Hawk?

Three inches of sprayed-on fire resistant closed cell foam, with a paint barrier over it to prevent moisture getting to it.  It has worked perfectly and is still perfect today.  It does not seem to have absorbed any significant/noticeable amount of water.  The only thing we would differently is to try to get a contractor who could have sprayed it on more smoothly.

Evans could you tell us about your choice of bulk head material?

The whole boat interior is made of cored panels.  There are various cores (honeycomb and foam) and various skins (Mahogany and fiberglass) used in different applications.  These panels were about 3x the cost of plywood, but made the boat lighter, and are totally rot resistant, and are much easier to handle during construction.

How did you isolate the dissimilar metals on deck?

Mostly we used Phenolic pads and bushings.  Where we screwed into blind tapped holes we used helicoils set in red loctite.  

The topsides of Hawk are not painted., which can be a benefit of aluminum hulls. Have you been happy with this choice?

Absolutely, one of the two best things about the boat (the other is the hard dodger).  Bare topsides takes absolutely all the stress out of docking along pilings and rough fuel docks.  You just dont have to worry about dinging them up.  We often come alongside docks with no fenders down and just put them in place after we are tied up. One of Evans’ few regrets is that we did paint the coachroof and dodger. But Beth preferred that, even in retrospect, since she doesn’t do the maintenance. Bare aluminum is blisteringly hot in the tropics.

What was your paint system for the bottom and deck paint?

The boat was sand blasted and then a couple coats of a Devoe epoxy metal primer, and then the bottom paint (we were originally using a tin based paint when it was still legal, but are now using Pacifica Plus), and the deck paint is a factory floor coating (Durabek) which is a very nice and durable non-skid but does not look very yachty.

You have a Van De Stadt Somoa design, what are some of your favorite things about this design?

The hard dodger is the designs single best feature. It looks nice and offers excellent protection. That is a surprisingly rare combination.  Other than that, the boat sails really well, almost at race boat performance levels and much better than the vast majority of cruising boats.

Is there anything you would change about the design?

We would have gotten a slightly smaller boat, perhaps 42, if we could have but this was the smallest design that had the perfect hard dodger.

Do you have any advice for maintaining an aluminum boat or a cruising boat in general?

That is a huge topic. Generally we made a fundamental decision to keep the boat extremely simple.  This vastly reduced both the initial cost and the ongoing maintenance work load and we have never missed any of the conveniences we left off.  That goes double with an aluminum boat, where the single best thing you can do is keep the electrical system extremely simple, especially with minimal AC current.  This avoids the potential problems aluminum can have with bad electrical systems.

Just to give you an idea, we don’t have a watermaker, refrigeration, pressure water, A/C, SSB, powered winches, or an installed generator. Since most of our sailing has been in cold water, we use the bilge to keep food cold most of the time. We use  hand and foot pumps for water, and we have a Refleks drip diesel heater that gravity feeds out of its own tank. All of that means that we have minimal electrical draw which allows us to have a very simple electrical installation but with lots of battery capacity.

Do you have any suggestions about outfitting a boat for cruising, and anything in particular related to an aluminum boat?

Keep it simple is our best advice. Beyond that, keep it affordable. We see way too many people who end up with more boat than they can afford and not enough money to go cruising. Far better to downsize the boat at the start than to end up having to sell it because you can’t afford to keep and maintain it.

You two are not cruising full time now and Hawk is moored near Annapolis Maryland. Could you tell us about what you two are up now, and what plans you might have?

We have four parents all alive, between 75 and 85, and we want to stay close by where we can help them until they all pass away.  So, Beth is working as Director of Technical Services at BoatUS, and Evans has been CEO of two start-ups, and has been sailing up to Newfoundland for the summers.

Read More..

Last Stop Amsterdan

Four days here in Amsterdam, after leaving Celebrity. Mike had arranged for an apartment at 402 Singel.

Singel is one of the rings of canals in the fashionable west side of town. An even house number so it is on the west side of the canal, very close to the main drag on which three of the trolleys run from the main station.  Most of the streets are one lane wide and one way, but are traversed both ways by many bikes and motor scooters.

So you have to look both ways, carefully, before stepping off the curb.

Here a treat was that we were joined by Mike and Lindas grandson, Trevor, from Austin via a year abroad in Spain for his sophomore year of High School. The only problem was the injured list grew worse. Mike and Linda flew home to get care for Lindas wrist two days early and Ilene was feeling punky too, maybe bronchitis, so we were not as active as other we would have been.

One nice thing about cruise ships: they visit port cities. Pretty obvious but important to a water lover. Amsterdam moves on its canals, like Venice, except here freight moves by land rather than exclusively by canal boat, and here they do have a land based trolley system rather than rely on the vaporettos --canal bus-boats -- for passengers.

They have a museum of canals, which I visited, -- flying the Amsterdam flag, not the Red Light District flag, despite its XXX appearance.

It spoke about how planned the city was and how it expanded in planned stages, with walls built around it before each new expansion, walls that are useless in the face of modern warfare. The drive to the airport with our driver, Abe, shows that most of the city is now outside the walls. But most tourism remains within. This museum also showed how the houses were built on platforms mounted on myriad pine pilings, imported from Scandinavia, reinforced  (recently in the long history of the town) with cement filled steel piles. So too did the Harlem YC have to be reinforced during the early 90s. It was very cleverly done with visuals shown against the sides of model houses and internal projections inside the windows of a big doll house to show life inside such a house. But this museum, only two blocks from our apartment, was ultimately more about the houses than the canals themselves.

More instructive as to the canals was a boat tour ride, about five miles in a counterclockwise loop. The canals have no tides, the city being separated from the sea by locks and depth is  7 to 15 feet. The annual fee for a canal side tieup for a small boat is very inexpensive but if you want to live in one of the many houseboats that line some of the canals, you have to buy one; there is no more space available.

We boys strolled about the red light district in the evening which I found garishly unpleasant with coed mobs roaming the streets, Dam Square with the City Hall, left, and its adjacent cathedral,center,

the courtyard of the Beguins, a community of religious Catholic women who wanted to live together but not to become nuns,

and the Van Gogh museum.  None of these had any watery references. Though I did see Van Goghs painting of this bridge. or one like it, that we passed under on the canal tour.

Better luck, for those interested in things nautical, was at the Rijsmuseum,

which was built late in the 19th century and recently reopened with the courtyards  covered

which provide spaces for this Calder which was being assembled while we were there.

It was built as a secular cathedral to the art of the Dutch rather than for religion. Nice library, restricted for scholars.

Off to the side of the great hall filled with famous works by Rembrandt, Hals and Vermeer was a salon of naval scenes.

I learned of the antagonism between the two great rival trading nations of the day (the 1600s). We all knew of the British taking of New Amsterdam from the Dutch West Indies Company. But I had never known of the context of the larger war including the Dutch Attack on Chatham. They sailed up the Medway, a tributary to the Thames, near its mouth, and blasted the heck out of the town and the British fleet at anchor there. There is so much non-American history that I did not know about.

They also have a nautical room in the basement with models and artifacts related to the sea.

A highlight of our visit was the Anne Frank House where we waited on line outside for about 80 minutes, along with a horde of others who felt this was an important place to be visited.

I was moved and now have added her diary to my reading list. I learned in the canal museum that Anne Franks family had lived next door to us at 400 Singel until they went into hiding.

Trevor is really a great kid, who patiently stayed with me in the museums, most of the time. Except for his eating habits. He is the third generation (at least) of Whitmans (with Ilene the sole exception I know of) who lets just say do not have adventurous palates. So Rijstaffel (rice table -- an Indonesian delicacy from when the Dutch East India Company owned that area of the world) was off the menu. Our apartment had a kitchen and we cooked a few times and no one went hungry.

The flight home was uneventful. And now for some real sailing!!

Read More..