Boat Plans Bruce Roberts | The siren song of boatbuilding has lured another

Boat Plans Bruce Roberts

You cant stop what you cant stop.  (Im pretty sure thats Rumi.)  Count Gregoire de Frontenac has realized that boatless man is truly bound like the t-shirt says, and he must escape his shackles with a project that will dominate his garage, pick his pocket, and estrange him from family and friends.  Yay boats!

I ripped this picture of my Goat off his first and only post.

BILTrek2012 was spent mostly doing this.  Note bank of fog.

Good luck to Count Gregoire de Frontenac!

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Boat Plans At Mystic Seaport | Mast glued up rudder and daggerboard glassing

Boat Plans At Mystic Seaport

Ok, another frustrating boatbuilding day here in New Hampshire.

The mast got glued up today in a long session.  It takes a deceptively large amount of glue.

First, I laid down the mast ladder frame, with the two sides to be glued next to it.  I primed the wood to be glue with unthickened epoxy, and then made up the thick stuff.  Application of the glue went along the base plug, narrow staves, and ladder framework.  Afterwards, I picked up the ladder section and placed it upside down on the wide stave.  The other side of the ladder was then glued up and the wide stave dropped onto that, making a sandwich.  Mr. Storer recommends a clamp every foot.  I only have 9 clamps that can be used on the mast.  Mr. Storer advises his customers to use packing tape... use a clamp, wrap the mast with packing tape to hold the pressure, move on.  This method has been used by other Goat Island Skiff builders, successfully.  It kind of worked for me, but not to the degree I would have liked, the clamps hold more pressure.  Regardless, better than nothing, and with some careful maneuvering I was able to make sure that all gaps were closed up.

It took longer than I thought, and a lot more glue than I thought.  There were a few areas where I really had to force the staves into position, and this was a pain.  For some reason I dont have any real overlap in the lower half part of the mast or I could have used nails to hold it in place.  I used my muscles instead, and clamped them down, and hoped for the best.  In  a few locations theres an overlap on one side and an underlap on another... not much, about 1mm, but I see it, and it pisses me off.  I should be building to tighter tolerances by now.  I dont know if its impatience to get this done with, or its a level of meticulousness that drives me batty.

Off to check the bottom runners, shall we?

Oh look, gaps!

 In my quest to use less glue (I keep throwing out tons of squeezed out glue) I went with what I thought was a moderate amount of glue... but it obviously wasnt enough.  These are, surprisingly, my worst scarfs on this boat yet.  This is not the end of the world, I can force some glue in there, they are not necessarily under pressure (that would compromise the scarf) and they will fully glued onto the hull.  So this is not the end of the world.

This is:

My daggerboard.  What a mess.  I was so concentrated and focused on making sure I got it smooth around the end of the board, I didnt really care what happened along the edges of the glass.  I figured I could sand it smooth later.  Now, Im realizing I really screwed myself up the wazoo.  This clean up job without going through the soft wood of the board is going to murder my day tomorrow.  UGH.

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Boat Building Plans And Kits | Portland almost to Seguin Island and back

Boat Building Plans And Kits

Not my picture, not my boat

Before we get started on some SeaPearl 21 adventuring in Casco Bay, I want to point out Dave-in-NJs blog about his Goatee Goat Island Skiff "Chivita" and some pretty damn epic sailing he did around New York Harbor.  Its somewhat of a departure from my Goat perched on a wild island in Down East Maine, but it is just as epic, if not more for the sheer stupendousness of that mother of all cities, New York City, and her crazy harbor.  Please see this post in particular.  If your heart doesnt get thumping, you must not like Goat Island Skiffs, and I question why you are here in the first place.

Dave, you go man.  You go.  Impressive.

***

Now for the main feature:

In which SeaPearl Scout and I sail around Casco Bay, meet a squall, and get boarded by fictitious pirates.

Red = Day 1, Yellow = Day 2.  Black = Iron Mizzen usage

I headed out of South Portland recently and met up with a Pearson 30 as she sailed north along the Maine coast, destination Brooklin and WoodenBoat.  I planned to be along for a day, maybe two.  The first nights destination was either going to be Damirscove Island or Seguin, depending on distance travelled.  I thought I could probably make Seguin via Half-Way Rock, but Damirscove was probably out for me due to the distance and my energy level.

The weather was fine, with a remote chance of thunderstorms, and calm winds gave way to a beautiful stiff breeze of the kind that you can only really find on salt water.

Scout moved along smoothly and with efficiency. I pushed her hard which means I pushed myself hard, and gave myself little time to eat, drink, pee, or enjoy the sailing, as I was intent on keeping up with the Pearson 30 (which I did, but jeez... enjoy the ride already, right?)

Blowing out to Half-Way Rock with nice water and a good breeze!

Pearson 30 

 After I had passed Half-Way Rock (no pictures, sorry, but lots of seals!) it started to become blatantly obvious that the slight chance of thunderstorms was going to probably become a very real chance.  In the deeps of my ears I imagined I could hear low-frequency rumbling, even though the sky still looked somewhat innocuous.  Soon however, it was apparent that we were in for a blow.

Trouble brewing

 I cracked down to make as much mileage as I could towards Small Point/Cape Small not in a vain attempt to outrun the storm, but to get closer to the shore so that if things went bad, I wouldnt be miles out to sea.

Behind me, the wall of bruised green and black advanced, with thunder filling the air.  It was on.  My buds in the Pearson 30 became insignificant by contrast.  I hoved-to and started preparations.

Trouble is creeping up on the Pearson 30! Run guys, run!

Battened down.  Small Point in the distance behind me.  Trouble is on its way!

We tied Scout up and towed her behind the Pearson 30, which was actually a mistake.  When the squall hit she sailed on her own, and the skipper had to stay ahead of her.  It would have been far more desirable to hunker down in Scout and ride out the storm with her as it would have been significantly less nerve wracking.  Lesson learned.  When the storm passed the crew of the Pearson decided to make for Damirscove, and I broke off and headed towards Harpswell to a small island on the Maine Island Trail.

The Squall over, I take my leave of the Pearson 30 and sail out of the dark and into the sun.  This was a good feeling.

Wet, but pleased with this particular outcome

 I reached the island after navigating around and over several treacherous reefs (again, yes! 6" draft!) and found that there were few good access points.  I was somewhat chuffed at the description of this particular island as I was lulled into thinking Id have a good beach, but with a stable west breeze, Scout was held perfectly in a small cove with a flat bottom so she could bottom out at low tide.  Exhausted after approx 22 miles of sailing, I ate some rice and crashed in my tent on shore.

Nestled in for the night... or is she?

My view in the morning.  Peaceful.  I am happy!

 I awoke the next morning to *BANG CRASH BANG* and the first thoughts in my tent was:

1. Raccoons are searching for tasty food morsels and ripping things apart

2. Crazy hobo person who probably lives on island is ransacking my boat

3. Pirates (this one bad)

With little fanfare (Im pretty sure I was naked) I went running out of the tent down to the shore and around the corner, where I found Scout slightly south of her original position and bottomed out on a now not-so-flat bottom, her bow pointing skyward, and my booms sliding down to the stern of the boat.  No pirates, but a sorry sight!

It looked steeper in real life.   

When you are waiting for a tide to fix your sorry boat, you might as well make coffee.

 When the tide came back up and floated Scout into position, we hauled back for Portland.  Southbound, I had some of the finest sailing I can recount this year, making significant mileage against the tide with a steady breeze.  There was much hollering and hooting and, as with IAZ,P, lobstermen waved cheerfully as we passed.

Booming home.  

 The wind really picked up and we reefed down continuously as the day progressed, finally putting in at Fort Gorges in Portland Harbor where we waited for the wind to calm a bit so pulling the boat out of the water wouldnt be as dramatic.  Scout happily sat in the small harbor while I read my WoodenBoat and napped on the beach.  This is summer.  This is happy.

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Small Boat Plans And Kits | Bulkhead 3

Small Boat Plans And Kits

Things have been progressing more slowly than I want, but this is due to several extenuating life factors. First, my work takes me on the road for days at a time, and then Im home for a few days where I need to cram in my errands, my personal life, exercise, sleep, etc. To boot, the weather has been fantastic, and I cant justify being in the basement. SOOooooo, during my last time home, I was only able to frame BH3, which is very straight forward because there are no curves. Im back on the road again, and will be for a while.

Once the winter rolls around with its bad weather, this boat is ON.

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Boat Building Plans And Kits | Bulkhead 2

Boat Building Plans And Kits

Yesterday and today I worked on BH2. This went smoothly, with no problems. I spent some time shaping the side frames down to match the curved bulkhead. I was pleased with the result, though my plane is not working as well as I would like. Ive got a sharpening problem I have to deal with-- as in I have to learn how to sharpen my blade iron better.

During the construction of BH2 I realized that I screwed up on BH1, cutting a 19x19 mm piece for the bottom frame instead of the 45mmx19mm piece that the plans call for. I have not decided yet if I want to keep the original piece or put together a new one. The question is pending on the Storer forum. Im OK on wood, but I dont have a lot of extra, and cedar is pricey.

On the road for the next 8 days.

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Wooden Boat Plans And Kits | A quick note on oars and boatbuilding

Wooden Boat Plans And Kits

Building this Goat Island Skiff has been quite the up and down. There have been days of boredom when I stared at her and couldnt get started, days of excitement when she came together, days of satisfaction when I see my cumulative efforts, and of course, those days of agony over how to fix something or worse, "did I do that right? Because now its too late..."

Oar building, however, has been phenomenally exciting, a shaft of light onto my project. To shape with my hands the object of manual propulsion for my beautiful boat brought a feeling of overwhelming satisfaction. Not only could I see immediate results, but I could easily see where I could make improvements on future oars. Nice. When I looked up from the first oar, and saw that, dammit, I just made an oar, and then saw my boat sitting on her buckets... well, it was definitely a "holy s**t!" moment, for sure.

I think during a build it gets easy to see the trees-- the small projects, the small problems, the next step. In that process the big picture of a boat sitting in the garage ready to go sailing gets overshadowed. The oars brought the forest back into focus. My boat is not a series of problems and tasks and items to be completed. My boat is a she, a vessel designed and built to carry me over the water and to those distant shores of my summer dreams. When I look down at the oar in my hand that just yesterday was a pine plank, and I look up and see the boat, my boat... well then the smile is very broad and I am happy.

So go build an oar. If youre on the fence on whether or not to build a boat or not, get some plans for an oar and build one.

Then build another.

Then build your boat.

Then go sailing. Go rowing. Smile!

Michalak (simple oar plans in this book)

Storer (free oar plans)

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