Sunday, June 30, 2019

Sharknoe Sighting

30 Jun 19:

Skipper took our Grumman 17 SCOUT out for a bit, seeking prizes on the bay.





Log of SCOUT.

Grumman 17 SCOUT 30 Jun 19 Mizzen Drafting and Construction

30 Jun 19:

We made a 12 square foot mizzen for our Grumman 17 SCOUT, to help balance the gaff main. Cut it out of some fine painter's drop cloth, 6 foot luff, 4 feet on the foot with a 6 degree rise, which matches the rise on the gaff.


Marked the seam allowance.


Cut some corner reinforcement patches.


Too much air conditioning inside, let's move outside where heat index is 95F! Time to make the stern thwart, Spoiler Alert, here is what it looks like uninstalled once we were done, we just decided how to cut the next piece and what size to make it as we went along.


Cut one pine thwart to sit on top of the gunwale and one to notch just inside of it. Drilled 4 holes for 1/4 inch carriage bolts with washered wing nuts. Marked a 1 1/2 inch hole amidships, 3/4 inch forward of the aft face. Drilled a 1/2 inch pilot hole for the jigsaw blade and cut out the hole.


Cut two 12 inch side pieces and beveled the top edge so they would drop vertical and barely touch the sides. Then cut the angled bottom thwart, screwed together with deck screws. Once that thwart was assembled we installed it and dropped in the 1 1/2 inch mast (8 foot closet rod from Lowes), which tilted forward because of the angle of the thwart on the aft rise of the canoe. Used a diamond tile file to ease out the lower forward edge and aft upper edge of the mast hole, until the hole was oblong enough for the mast to be set plumb vertical. Then we leveled the canoe port to starboard, dropped in the mast and, set it plumb and vertical, and marked the bottom thwart for a hole on the top face. Took the thwart out and brought it in the carriage house to transfer that top marking to the bottom face. I could have disassembled it but I didn't want things to get misaligned during reassembly. This is a picture of the stern thwart upside down, we found the port-starboard center of the bottom thwart and transferred fore and aft measurement of aft face of mast. The positioned mast on those marks to draw a circle.



There is not much open room behind the stern seat and the stern deck, about 6 inches, so early on I sat on the seat with the thwart installed to see if the mast would be in the way. The mast was okay but the forward edge of the thwart was too close to the seat. So I took a pencil and traced a cutout for butt clearance.


Reinstalled everything to check visual sight lines, vertical and plumb with the gaff main.






SCOUT got to bunk over with ZIP, WINNIE, WAVE and MARGARET ROSE.



Log of SCOUT.

Shaving a Yak

30 Jun 19:

We were talking to our Son one day about how one project can expand into several and at one point you're not anywhere near working on the original thing you started out to work on. He says at his work they call that "shaving a yak." It has to do with task management and task shifting.

So yesterday, our example. I started off the day intending to clean some window frames inside. While I was cleaning the first few frames I thought, you know, since I have the cleaning gear out it might be a good time to pull those air registers down and rinse them off. So out comes the ladder, vacuum and drill, original task of window frame cleaning abandoned...around 0830. I got a few of the air vents cleaned and then we went to the the grocery store. On the way home I was thinking that CHIP was ready to come out of the Carriage House for Sea Trials, so I asked Skipper what the sequence of moves should be, what we call TETRIS, which is where we work the boat yard puzzle to find spots for 16 boats.

She said she wanted WAVE to go onto the finishing dolly so I could fix the nasty fiberglass patches I put on in 2000, and CHIP could have Wave's Dynamic dolly, cover and slip in the Sunfish Shack.

So WAVE dollied up to the Shack and was slid onto the grass.
WAVE uncovered.
CHIP rolled out to the Sunfish Hoist and hoisted clear of the finishing dolly.
Finishing dolly moved off to the side.
Dynamic dolly moved under CHIP.


CHIP lowered onto Dynamic Dolly.
CHIP rolled out by WAVE.

WAVE rolled into CARRIAGE House on finishing dolly.


CHIP covered with WAVE's cover.


Time to go back to vent cleaning inside, right? No! While I was rigging the sheets for the Sunfish Hoist I noticed that 2 of the sheets needed their ends whipped. So I pulled out the rigger's bag and whipped the ends, right? No! When I pulled out the rigger's bag I remembered that I needed to cut 2 daggerboard retaining lines, one for WAVE, one for PHOENIX, so I cut those. Then I whipped the ends of the two Sunfish sheets. Somewhere along the way ZIP got vacuumed, we used the Porter Cable cordless wet/dry vacuum to suck a gallon of water out of WAVE, and set up a box fan to circulate air through WAVE's hull.



CHIP rolled out to WAVE's slip in Sunfish Shack.


Oops, are those CHIP's floorboards sitting there on the paint table? Yep. Took those out the the Sunfish Shack and slid them under CHIP's boat cover. Then it was time to get back to the vent cleaning, which actually go finished and the ladder, vacuum and drill put away. Stairs got vacummed. Window frames have not been finished yet...

Graduate level Yak Shaving is called Zebra Striping :)

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Sunfish TETRIS CHIP and WAVE

29 Jun 19:

Our 1963 Alcort Sunfish CHIP is ready for Sea Trials, so she needed to get off the finishing dolly and onto a Dynamic Dolly. I asked Skipper how to organize Sunfish TETRIS and she said she wanted her 1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE to take a turn on he finishing dolly, get her purtied up like the other boats, fix the amateur patches I put on 20+ years ago. So first we dollied WAVE up to the Carriage House and dropped her in the grass. Next we used Skipper's field expedient Sunfish hoist to get CHIP off of the finishing dolly.


Lowered CHIP onto the Dynamic Dolly and rolled her out next to WAVE.


WAVE loaned CHIP her spars on deck Sunbrella cover, a fine cover that we got fro SLO Sail and Canvas. It has nice straps!




Rolled the finishing dolly out into the yard and walked each end of WAVE up onto the dolly. Rolled dolly into the Carriage House. WAVE telling fish stories to ZIP and WINNIE.


While we were in the Carriage House we shaved some yaks. "Yak shaving" is what we call it when we find other jobs to do while avoiding the primary job, which in this case was getting CHIP out back to the Sunfish Shack and finishing cleaning some air vents inside the house. Today's yaks to shave were cutting some 1/8th inch nylon line to make daggerboard retaining lines for WAVE and PHOENIX and whipping the ends of a couple of vintage Sunfish/Sailfish sheets.

We cut the nylon line to length and seared the ends. Line is long enough so that daggerboard can easily be removed, but not much longer than that. The retaining line is there to keep the daggerboard from floating away after a capsize.


Tied the line with a bowline. Make the little loop, the run the rabbit (end of the line) up through the hole...


...around the tree (long end of the line) and back down into the hole.


Snug down the bowline. Cut another line for PHOENIX. Yak 1 shaved.


Old School. Simple.



Yak Shaving Take 2. Wrapped the end of the sheet with a piece of gaff tape and seared the end. Then whipped the end with waxed line. Yak 2 shaved.


How to whip a line.




Back to our original unscheduled program, CHIP taking up WAVE's slip in the Sunfish Shack, ready for Sea Trials!

Log of CHIP.
Log of WAVE.

Sunfish Raid

29 Jun 19:

Took our 1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE and 1982 AMF Alcort Sunfish PHOENIX out for a day sail Skipper raided the North coast of the bay and I searched for prizes on the South shore. 10-12 mph wind, light chop on the bay, 85F heat index, scattered clouds. Water temp 85. Wind usually dies around 1000 so we headed back. On the way back, PHOENIX and I caught a fish! Not on purpose! I was sailing close to a dock and didn't notice that someone had left some lines out. As I went by the two fishing lines slid across the the gaff, caught at the top of the mast and turned me into the dock. Thunk. I was able to sail backwards a bit, pulled up the daggerboard and used it as a paddle to get clear of the dock. As PHOENIX and I completed our donut, the fishing line slid down leech of the sail and caught on the boom end cap. As we sailed off the line ran over the end of the boom and up comes a fish on the hook, over the end of the boom and then it plopped back into the water. A yelled "Fish On!" to the neighbors and PHOENIX and I sailed home to tell the Skipper our fish tale. It was about an 8 inch bass, under a pound.








Marine Traffic Control Board updated.


Fish stories!


Log of PHOENIX.
Log of WAVE.


Friday, June 28, 2019

1980 Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE 28 Jun 19 Mainsheet Blocks

28 Jun 19:

A friend is restoring their 1983 Drascombe Lugger's mainsheet to original configuration and needed some measurements for the double block on the clew and single block on the straveler.








Log of ONKAHYE

Marine Traffic Control Board Update

28 Jun 19:

The Pelican 10 kayaks went out a few days back, SACAGAWEA and CLARK, so we updated the Marine Traffic Control Board, our tracking device.

Spur Grommet Die Set

We ordered some Number 1, 2 and 4 spur grommets from Sailrite and found out that there are different dies sets for plain grommets and spur grommets. The spur grommet die set anvil has a little deeper cup and different shape on the hammer.


Ordered some thread also, for sail repairs.


FMI: Sailrite