WIldlife Refuge

31 Oct 23:

Happenings in our conservation area. 

Wooden Boat Mugs

 31 Oct 23:

These mugs from the WoodenBoat Store are our new favorites. Nice size and weight, and as coincidence the lids from our Yeti mugs fit, so we have different lid options. We like the handle for when we go walking, something to hold on to. Stock lid on the left, which I like, and Yeti lid on the right, which is Skipper's preference.

Coastal Skiff Privateer

31 Oct 23:

We visited Nansemond Marine and checked on the fine resto-mods they are doing on Privateer skiffs. The Privateer line was designed to suit the needs of mariners who operate on the inner coastal waters of the Mid Atlantic, think Albemarle Sound, Chowan River and the like. Nansemond Marine takes preowned hulls, repairs as needed, applies a nice Awlgrip paint job and then repowers the boats with Mercury outboards. Everything from the deck up including wiring and motor controls is new. They had 16, 18 and 20 foot models to look at.

The hull shape exhibits the classic high V deadrise forward, running to a flat hull by the stern. The V handles bay chop well and the molded in strake reduces spray.

Nansemond Marine operates from the former S. G. Chapman General Store. It is worth the visit just to step back in time inside their chandlery.

Fort Huger, James River

31 Oct 23:

We visited Ft. Huger on the James River, situated on the Southside in the norther part of Isle of Wight (Warraskoyack) County. 

"Fort Huger is a historic archaeological site located near Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The site is the location of an abandoned American Civil War fort on the south side of the James River across from Fort Eustis/Mulberry Point." (wikipedia)

Skipper felt right at home among the cannon, even though they are replicas. And I can't say that I knew about "hot shot." I am amazed sometimes, and always disappointed, at the creativity of thought and resources that go into the conduct of war.

The appropriately named Ghost Fleet is in the river below the Fort. Today there were at least three retired Military Sealift Command RORO (Roll On Roll Off) ships, manage by the Joint Ready Reserve Force.

Coastal mixed woodland forest with some cypress hiding in the middle.

Cypress knees growing in the swamp, excellent boatbuilding material.

We are pretty sure there is more to Fort Huger than just Civil War artifacts, but that's as deep as anyone has been able to dig to date. Fortunately this bit of 22 acres has been protected from real estate development through Federal, State and County historic preservation programs.  

FMI: Fort Huger

Watching Lumber Dry

31 Oct 23:

If you thought watching paint dry took a long time, try lumber. The oft repeated guideline is that it takes one year per inch to get lumber dried from a wet state to something suitable for boat building. The folks that say that obviously never lived in Arizona. 

We covered the top of the lumber stack with tin to keep rain off, but that won't keep the stack totally dry. And we also know that drying lumber in a forest is not optimum, so we are going to move this lumber either to the Sunfish Shack or find a spot for it in one of our sheds, where it can dry at a steadier rate. Other factors affecting dry time are the species of tree, humidity, temperature, air flow, wood nymphs and lunar phase. And depending on what is being built, sometimes greener lumber was preferred, a tight planking job might dry enough to create a seam to caulk, and then where is the hull going next? Right back into the water!

We are trying PVC for the spacer sticks. We have read that stacking with green sticks or a dissimilar species might create an area for mold to grow and stain the lumber....of course, look all around, we're in a forest! We also got some tips from woodturning artist Earl, to move the lumber to a shed, and to flip the planks every 3 or 4 months to help reduce lengthwise splits (checking) that can appear on the bottom side of stacked lumber. He also gave us some tips on woodturning equipment and sizes of chunks to look for from tree stumps. And he said to never turn Bradford Pear, but it will turn out beautiful if you can get through a piece without it splitting. 

Meanwhile in the conservation area...

Happy Halloween from Skipper and Clark!

Pirate Skipper Sighting

 26 Oct 23:

Spotted this wee Pirate Skipper a few days before Halloween.

A talented tailor, she made her outfit. 

Turning Timber Into Lumber

 21 Oct 23:

We want to experiment with some Old School ways of boatbuilding, in this case how were trees reshaped into usable boat lumber. So we took the broad axe and chipped away at the bark on a red oak, finding that while this would work it would be very time consuming and would wreck my shoulder muscles. 

What I found was much easier was to haul the timber to a local sawmill. First the logs were unloaded...

...then a Bobcat took them over to the mill.

...where Mike expertly cut them to the one inch thickness we desired. The oak and swamp maple will shrink a bit, and leave us with some extra thickness that will be removed with a planer. 

Video: https://youtu.be/5qtA3m9RiV4

As a bonus the crew ran the one inch slabs through an edger to remove most of the live edge.

Swamp maple and red oak are not premium boat building species, as they tend to rot faster than say white oak or cypress. But for our day sailed boats, we can use them in a few spots as long as we properly seal and coat all surfaces and fastener holes, and do not leave the boats in the water year round. We will most likely make a few interior or boat furniture pieces that get wet very little, or just use this lumber for other projects as Skipper decrees.

Common thinking is that the wood will dry at the rate of one inch per year. We "stickered" the planks with PVC strips, that lets air flow through the stack and hopefully the PVC sticks will not stain the wood. I neatly stacked the wood out in our backyard lumber yard and placed a piece of tin over the top to keep off rain, then remembered that we have a huge tin covered Sunfish Shack where the lumber would have fit, plus there will be a little more sun to dry things out.

Stay tuned.

PS Some builds might benefit from green lumber, such as a carvel planked boat where caulking seams are desired and the wood may bend easier when wet. It takes great familiarity with each species of wood to know how much and at what rate the shrinkage occurs. We'll check the moisture level periodically and make a few small things as the stack dries to see how this wood likes to be used. 

Sand Fence

 15-21 Oct 23:

"Sand fencing on a beach or dune can help trap sands and assist in building a new foredune in front of a natural dune, to provide additional protection against coastal erosion and flooding."

So we're adding a sand fence along the side of the yard to see if a dune will build up, and then maybe some navigable water will appear....

...Okay maybe we're kidding about the sand and the water, we're a mile from good creek water. The fence will be there to help us work on this area of the yard, there is a lot of hard clay there that needs to have some dirt, sand and mulch mixed in, this will help reduce runoff into the creek feeder across the street.

Speaking of hard clay, the big guns were called in for the post holes. 

Pressure treated, ground contact posts, 2x4 backer rails and 1x4 pickets will be used, fastened with deck screws. Quikrete used to secure the posts. We like the 2x4s because they are sturdier, stay straight and are easier to find than backer rails.

Since we are cutting custom length pickets, we also had to cut the dog ears for the look that we like. 192 of them.

String line to get things mostly straight. 

Our Town allows 42 inch front yard fences. How they came up with 42 I'm not sure, maybe it is a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy thing. We decided to go with 40 inches so that we could get three pickets out of one 10 foot long treated 1x6, with no waste. We'll leave a 2 inch gap at the bottom, which turned out to be a good idea, as the ground is pretty uneven along the property line. This will also give us some room to grade and build up the soil. Of course an eight foot picket could be cut in half and used, but the quality of pine pickets these days is not so good, and cedar was not available local. The 1x6 treated is thicker and I don't think I'll have to replace them in our lifetime.

Some municipalities require the the "bad side" of the fence, the side where you see posts and backers, to be installed on the side of the homeowner, so that the neighbor gets to see the smooth picket side. We actually like seeing the structure of the fence, and use the posts to hold brackets for spar storage or kayak racks.

I picketed one end to the halfway point, then switched to the other end, so we can have a Golden Spike/Picket celebration in the middle. AKA the Rum Plank, as basically we are building plank on frame. 

Skipper also tricked me into putting out Halloween decorations, she likes to drag out projects while my brain cells are being taxed by another project. We call them "Moaning Chair" projects, we can play with one project while we mull over the next steps on the primary project....with the primary here being Halloween :) 

TIPS: https://youtu.be/fk-hfedgD2Q

18 Oct 23:

Finished the fence, fastened the Rum Plank with deck screws. 

Now we'll grade this area with some lawn soil and spread some winter rye. Come Spring time we might consider a warm season grass like Bermuda or St. Augustine. A tree or bush is not out of the question.

Tom Robinson Solo Row Chile to Australia

 15 Oct 23:

We have followed along a bit on Tom Robinson's adventure from Chile to Australia in his rowboat MAIWAR. Things turned turtle four days after his departure from Vanuatu, but he is safe. We don't know the status of MAIWAR but hope to find out soon. 

From Tom: "And now, I look back on what has been, on every moment of despair and joy, and everything in between, and I cannot help but smile. I’m back home, an immense weight has been lifted off my shoulders, a weight I have carried for many years, and I cannot help but rejoice. Rejoice for what has been and for what is yet to come in life."

https://www.tomrobinsonboats.com/blog/tom-robinson-rescue

MAIWAR

"She is built using the ‘clinker’ method of construction, with epoxy glue used to fasten the planks. Her backbone is made out of recycled Douglas Fir, her planking is 6.5mm Hoop Pine plywood, which is fastened to Spotted Gum ribs using clenched copper nails, her decks and cabin are also of plywood. Western Red Cedar is used throughout for framing and Australian Cedar is used for brightwork/trim. All the timber used in her construction is either recycled or plantation grown. The only fibreglass used in her construction is in the sheathing of the footwell and seat rails, otherwise, all surfaces are coated with epoxy resin and a two-pack paint system."

(Image: https://www.tomrobinsonboats.com/the-boat)

HEUER GARAGE Update

 05 Oct 23:

Adding some windows to the HEUER GARAGE to improve ventilation over the Summer. One window on the side is not enough. We are also discussing a bumpout and a door, possible a French door. That would provide easier access to the tightly packed shed

1959 Sorg 15 Runabout WILLOW Float Test

05 Oct 23:

WILLOW has not been in the water since 2021, right before she made the 900 mile haul from Florida to Virginia. We spent some time a few weeks back making sure she had fresh fuel, started, peed water, ran, etc... and was mostly free of spiders. We also had to get her Virginia registration and trailer plate.

The smart battery tender has done a good job keeping her battery topped off, and in order to do that we paid to have electrical run to the HEUER GARAGE, where WILLOW naps. We also tested the bilge pump and auto float switch.

We're not sure if this size Sorg had floorboards, we chose to not make any but added a sliding boarding floor amidships, shown retracted under the aft seat in this photo, so we'd have a flat spot to step on when coming aboard. WILLOW's middle and aft seatbacks also fold down.

We have to angle the boat just slightly to get her fit in the 12x20 HEUER GARAGE, with the pink tape on the floor being the guide points to park her. Today I was able to pull the trailer forward a foot, get the tongue centered over the midpoint of the shed floor and pull the rig straight out with our Ford Edge SUPER SANDY. 

Plans are being drawn up to put in a bay window on the back wall, with enough space to host the outboard motor, that way WILLOW can roll straight back into the garage. We have widows left over from Sunfish Shack v2.0. We'll also be able to get some cross ventilation during the Summer.

Jones Creek launch, with a pause to see if she floats. She did, a few small leaks but no more than we experienced down in Florida. Our Learning Lesson today was that a boat hook in the boat does no good if it can't be reached, the boat hook needs to stay with the boat hooker. The fixed pier was a bit high for us, so Skipper commanded a slide to starboard and we climbed aboard from the floating pier. And now we know when we get King Tide, the water is up to the fixed pier and we could board from this side. 

Since WILLOW didn't sink we went out for Sea Trials, a 30 minute recon of the creek. The Rescue, VA bridge is in the photo, a mile and half down creek from the ramp. Vertical clearance on Active Captain shows 17 feet, and there is a fun restaurant at the bridge.

Back up to the creek to the ramp, a fun mess about. We'll check it out again in a few weeks as the leaves turn, should be beautiful out there. 

Marine Traffic Control Board updated.

Log of WILLOW.