Springtime! Reality re-established.

Much has transpired since I suspended reality last September.

I retired in December.

In January I left Sacramento and hit the road. Since then I have visited or driven through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas (man, that is a BIG state), Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Whew! I've thoroughly enjoyed myself visiting family and friends (and wondering why I haven't done more visiting over the years).

Central Michigan has become my home base. Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law I have a great place to stay, house the GIS and WORK on the GIS. This is also a great place to plot and plan new adventures - and that next boat.

As for the GIS, I am building the mast, working on the yard and getting ready to re-paint the hull. I ordered a sail kit from SailRite so over the next few weeks I expect to be building the sail!

Well, this post ought to serve the purpose of breaking out my self-imposed hibernation and re-establish reality.

Reality Suspended

The time has come to face reality and make some choices.

I am retiring in less than four month. My plan is to leave California in early January to drive cross-country visiting friends and family along the way to Virginia. In Virginia I will pick-up a 13' Boler camper trailer and truly begin the adventure.

In the meantime I wanted to “finish” my Goat Island Skiff, take it to Paulina Lake in Oregon and enjoy sailing this beautiful boat I built.

I have been experiencing increasing levels of anxiety as each day fell away from the calendar. I need to pare my possessions down to a bare minimum. The goal is to leave California with what I want in the Jeep and to not have anything in a storage locker in California.

I cannot do both – prepare the boat for Paulina Lake and get rid of those possessions I do not want. I have chosen to focus on the big picture: preparing to leave California.

The boat work can wait. I have been offered space in central Michigan to store the boat and to stay as long as I like. I will take the boat to Michigan in January or later in the spring depending on the weather. Space and time will let me finish the Goat Island Skiff in proper fashion next spring.

So, the bottom line is, I will not be building the mast or the sail this month. I am, in effect, suspending work on the GIS to give me the time to prepare for moving out of the apartment and storage locker on January 1, 2011.

As work resumes and progresses, I will post updates.

Bow Repair Nearly Done

Well, slowly but surely, the bow repair is nearing completion. No, I haven't spent much time on the boat lately and you'll just have to take my word for it that I have been spending my time in worthwhile endeavors.

The the hook nose - er, bulb bow - was ground away along with the offending dowel ( I still believe that the dowel offered a solution to my perceived problem but was poorly installed - leading to the massive quantities of filler} as well as the paint, primer and epoxy. Down to the bare plywood. I sanded the bow down to bare ply back about 15" from the stem. Once all of that was removed, I began reinforcing the bow.

I applied a coat of neat epoxy to the bow and then wrapped a piece of 6 oz FG cloth around the stem and back about 9" on each side of the hull. Additional epoxy was applied wet-on-wet to fill the weave of the FG. Slightly thickened epoxy was used to finish filling the weave and to fair the edge of the cloth with the hull. When the epoxy had set up there was more sanding to do. I was pleased with the results as the work progressed through the end of April.

May was a busy month for non-boat type activities. A two-week vacation in early May was well worth the time away from the boat. Since returning to work I have been getting things figured out and lined up for an unexpected treat - I recently realized I will be able to retire at the end of the year! The possibilities for retirement are almost endless! And so far, no one has told me, "No, don't retire - it isn't worth it!"

So, getting back to boat work (I began varnishing the oars last week), I have just about finished the bow repair. Here is an "After" photo of the straight edge taped to the hull. The hollow is gone! If you recall the "Before" photo (or go look at the previous post), you know the hollow was very pronounced. I am happy with this aspect of the repair.



Here is the starboard side of the bow with two coats of primer and a single color coat.



Even though I will apply additional color coats, I am less than pleased with the results so far - the area where the new paint on the repair blends with the original hull paint needs some work. I suspect additional coats of paint will help blend the two together. In addition, although not very visible in this photo, there is a faint line where the edge of the FG cloth is faired (or not!) with the hull. I am disappointed with this line as I could not see it or feel it before the color coat was applied. Perhaps I will refinish the hull this coming winter.

The bow definitely looks better now than when the boat was launched in February and when I had it out for a row in March. This weekend I am taking it back to Richmond to experiment with several small boat sail rigs. A friend has access to an assortment of sail rigs that have been in storage at his sailing club. Since my mast and sail are not ready, this will give me an opportunity for some sailing! I'll report on that outing early next week.

Bow Repairs - Revisited

Having identified the problem, I set about to correct the errors I built into the bow.

These images are self-explanatory. If there are any questions, just ask.

Port Bow (after a bit of sanding):



Port side, voids, hidden behind the FG tape and fairing compound, appeared during the gross sanding - done with 80-grit disks on a ROS.




Lumpy starboard side - and still, with all that thickened epoxy, that visible hollow and "hook-nose" were evident.



Having created a lot of dust grinding away with the ROS, I uncovered the starboard voids. Taking apart my own work was helpful in several ways: It showed me that rushing through a task rarely makes sense. I also learned that I fooled myself into believing - at the time - that I had done a decent job of fairing the bow (I downplayed that hook-nose look in my mind's eye.). It was at this point in the deconstruction I decided to take out the dowel and fair the stem and bow properly.



More of the starboard side.



All of the fairing compound and the entire dowel were sanded away. Doing that also took me down to bare plywood. I was able to do some sculpting with the ROS to get the stem shaped nicely.

(I'll add a couple of photos showing that step - but the camera doesn't do it justice).

Next - Fairing with epoxy, FG, and filler.

Bow Repairs

Goodness, after last month's outing in Richmond, I have been busy - a bit reclusive, but busy.

One major effort has been the repair and fairing of the bow. This is what the bow looked like early last month:



Almost a "hook nose" or maybe a modified "bulbous nose," but either way in need of repair.



Damaged riding home from the outing... obviously, I need to figure out the trailer set up and configuration.

Another perspective of the hollow originally (but not intentionally) built into the bow:



That's a short metal ruler taped to the hull to show the depth of the hollow.

A bit of work was going to be needed to fair the bow. Fortunately, I avoided creating a similar hollow on the port side. However, the port side had its own flaws to be revealed and repaired. Here is the port side after the first bit of sanding:



Let me back up just a bit... How did such a catastrophe ever result from the simple slab-sided Goat Island Skiff design? I can assure you it wasn't easy!

When I assembled the hull, I did not get the two side panels as close together as they should have been right at the stem. Now, that was my take on the plans and how I assembled the hull. Having gone through this entire repair process, I'm not so sure...

But, I was convinced that the gap between the side panels needed to be closed. The gap seemed huge, flat (once partially filled with thickened epoxy) and altogether wrong.



(And, yes, the outwales to not match up - but a later solution will take care of that.)

My solution to filling the gap and getting a start on fairing the bow was to glue a dowel into the gap, cover the dowel with FG tape, and fair it all into the hull. In theory that should have worked and probably would have, had I used a smaller dowel and taken a bit more time to install it. As it was, I was pushing against a self-imposed deadline and I used too large (3/8") a dowel. I troweled fairing compound on the bow trying to get a fair shape. Failing that, I covered the stem with FG tape, thinking the tape would span the hollow and provide a nice sleek shape. Didn't work.

Next, the deconstruction...

First Adventure!

Although there is still work to do on the boat, it was time for my first adventure with my boat (I like the sound of that - my boat)

Yesterday was one of those Chamber of Commerce days and I had the good fortune to spend it on the water in small boats!

I left Sacramento under blue clear skies and 35*. An hour and a half later, I was in Richmond, CA, under the same blue clear skies and about 55* and warming.

Getting ready:



Underway:



We launched at Marina Bay located in the Inner Harbor in Richmond, CA. I rowed while Thorne (WBF followers will recognize the name) sailed. 90 minutes after launching, I arrived at the Point San Pablo Yacht Club. Thorne arrived about 30 minutes behind me. We had a great potluck lunch (my contribution of oysters with crackers and homemade truffles was well received!).

The Goat Island Skiff rows well - and will do even better once I practice a bit more! I'm also getting help with some ideas on installing foot braces to help with the rowing. I borrowed 8' oars yesterday but my own (there is that word again - my) oars are 9' and the longer length should help, too. I need to finish shaping the oars and then prepare myself for varnishing them... I'm getting help with that, too.

After lunch, I crewed on a Whitehall.



We had a blast! Of course, we had an adventure. An H-28 shadowed us for the afternoon (that skipper's small boat is not quite ready... ).



While our plan - after a fun day of sailing - was to row in (the owner of the Whitehall wanted to see how it behaved under two rowers), The H-28 offered a tow back to the club. Since the Whitehall owner had never been towed before, he opted for the tow.

So, 2 or 3 minutes into the tow, my Tilly hat blows off and overboard. Okay, so we cast off the tow line and retrieve the hat. The H-28 comes around to pass us the tow line - and runs aground (on a falling tide!). He worked himself off, passed us the tow line and proceeded to the docks. Could have been an expensive "lost" hat.

It felt really good to be on salt water again (not sure what the difference is - not that I object to fresh water. I just feel better on salt water.)

Looking forward to the next adventure!

Getting Ready

I guess I've been too busy working on the boat to post anything lately.

Well, I have been busy. The interior is nearing completion - center case glued into place, second and third coats of epoxy applied to the interior, BH-2 and BH-4 frame arms installed, quarter knees and breasthook installed, inwale spacer "oopsie" repaired, oarlock socket pads installed, and the first color coat applied!

Quarter knee:



Spacer repair (before)"



Spacer repair (after):



That dark square is the BH-3 arm extended up through the inwale.

Sky-box view showing the breasthook and oarlock pads:



First color coat:



I found out today that the color coat reveals more flaws and blemishes than the primer coat revealed. I will apply two more color coats (sanding between) and call it good for next week's rowing event. I will work at cleaning up the warts, pimples, flaws and blemishes after that.

So far, I am pleased with the boat.