Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES 28 Oct 19 Voile et Aviron

28 Oct 19:

ST. JACQUES had been moved around as part of Tropical Storm TETRIS, she had bits everywhere. We had her in the Carriage House for a bit and it was clear enough to move her back to the Sunfish Shack aka Penobscot Pagoda, so we gathered up her bits and dollied her around to the backyard.

Along the way I noticed a light wind on the bay and 72F air temp. It only seemed right to go ahead and rig her, just to make sure wha had all the bits and lines sorted out, so she would be ready to go on her next adventure.

I got the brailing line, halyard, sheet and ensign line untangled, dropped in the mast and set the sprit, brailed and unbrailed the sail, that all worked. The ensign line was clear, and I rigged the bridle. Put on the rudder. Bay still looks nice. Skipper walked by and I said I might take ST> JACQUES out for a short row. Skipper said she'd get her hat.

We beach launched and cleared the groins usinf an oar for a push pole. Well, almost cleared, I should have pushed harder on the last push. Skipper gave a few strokes of her paddle and I was able to get the oars in the oarlocks and row out to the pier. Winds from the west, small swell, the original thought was to turn and row into the wind for about 10 minutes, then pop the sprit and take her back to the pier on a run and do some gybes and gybes there. As we took a look, a kayak fisherman appeared in that direction, so Skipper decreed that we just reach out and reach back. Fiddled with the centerboard, rudder angle and sheet angle for a few minutes, and then turned back to the dock. We actually tacked, with the assistance of a couple of strokes on the leeward oar.

Spotted a few pelicans and took some detail shots. Approaching the beach Skipper bore down on the kayaker, he had encroached on Skipper's avenue of approach, he quickly paddled away when he saw the mighty Penobscot bearing down on his ship. I think Skipper hollered "Starboard!" About 100 feet from the shore the rudder and centerboard came up and we ran ashore at 1-2 knots, perfectly lined up with the dolly.

ST. JACQUES got hauled and we gave her hull a fresh water rinse, wiped down her innards with a couple of towels. Downrigged her, this time I left the brailing line loose and rolled up the sail nicely, I had been leaving the brailing line tight, which caused creases along the sail up top. Put her nice cover on and stored her back in the Penobscot Pagoda, ready for the next trip.

First Mate's vantage point of the spritsail, aft the mast on the forward thwart.

Oarlock and vintage longleaf pine oars, the oars were gifts from our neighbor Al, his Uncle had used them on his mullet boat.

Padook and boat hook. Acceptable patina.

Centerboard trunk and mid thwart details.

Tropical front moving in off the Gulf, rain expected for the next few days. Another reason we thought it might be good to go mess about for a bit.

Played around with sheeting angles for a bit, did not come up with anything defintive.

Brailing line block at the top of the mast. We might swap this over to a small ring, and smoother line, to get that last 1/2 inch of leech opened up.

Miles rowed 0.5/Total 23.0

Log of ST. JACQUES

Pascagoula Catboat MARGARET ROSE 03 Jan 19 Keel Longeron

03 Jan 19:

Moved the keel longeron to the Carriage House, took some measurements from the Newport Catboat plans, scaled them to 16 feet.

14 inch rise from the keel up to the bottom of the transom, starting just behind the centerboard trunk slot. We screwed the longeron down to the floor at about 10 1/2 feet.

Centerboard slot runs from about 5 1/2 feet back to 10 1/2 feet.

Tape measures show approximate location of centerboard trunk.

Log of MARGARET ROSE.

Alcort Catfish SMEDLEY 16 May 18 Centerboard Pivot Bearings

16 May 18:

The 3/4 inch polyester resin bearings on either side of the pivoting centerboards were broken off. They ride in channels on either side of the centerboard trunk and are used to position the centerboard and provide a pivot point.

We decided to make new bearings out of a 3/4 inch oak dowel. We cut the dowel just a little long and rounded the ends with a 3/4 inch roundover bit on a compact trim router. We held the work piece with vise grips to keep our fingers clear of the router bit.

The old bearings were held in with rusty nails, Skipper used an awl to chip away bits of the damaged fiberglass and start a new hole for the dowel.

Rounded out the dowel hole to just over 3/4 inch with a rat tail file and a rounded diamond grit tile file.

We made the hole just over 3/4 so we could bed the new oak bearing in TotalBoat THIXO thickened epoxy, that epoxy coating helped seal up the raw fiberglass.

Test fit.

Added a small strip of 4 oz fiberglass along the front edge of the board by the bearing, wet out with TotalBoat Low Viscosity THIXO. This will help protect the centerboard should it swing forward of vertical and strike the forward edge of the trunk.

We also used THIXO to build back a damaged area on the tip of the starboard centerboard.

Line for our Alcort Catfish SMEDLEY. On the left is some 5/32d Dyneema that we might use for a temporary side stay and also use for the centerboard uphauls. We also bought New England Rope StaSet, 3/16th for the halyard, bow line, downhaul and outhaul and 5/16th for the sheet. And picked up drain plugs for the transom.

Log of SMEDLEY.

St. Jacques Log 24 Dec 16 Rudder and Centerboard

24 Dec 16:

Gathered bolts and bushings for the centerboard and rudder. I decided to use the same size for both pieces. Got a 5/16th inch bolt and what I thought was a copper pipe with 3/8 inch inner diameter to use as a bushing. I drilled the hole for the bushing then discovered that I bought the wrong size and now the hole was too big. So back to Ace Hardware and they hooked me up with 2 different size bronze bushings that they pressed together. So now I had a good bushing to fill the oversize holes and the correct inner diameter. Trimmed to fit with a reciprocating saw and bedded with Jamestown Distributors TotalBoat THIXO thickened epoxy. Got the fast cure because I expected temps to be in the 60s.

Measured the centerboard case and rudder head to determine required bolt length.

Checked the fit.



Click here for St. Jacques complete log.

St. Jacques Log 14 Dec 16 Rudder, CB and Paint

14 Dec 16:

Worked on the rudder and centerboard.



Profiled the edge of the centerboard. Still have shaping to do on the rudder but we got the top edge trimmed so that it will swivel in the cheek.

The Penobscot has a reverse transom so the rudder has to swing quite a ways to be level with the keel. We will need to add a retract and extend line so we don't have to dive over the stern to move it up and down.

Where the madness happened for the centerboard.

Right now the plan is to paint the planks, stringers, bulkheads and centerboard case Oyster White. Varnish for the seats, seat supports, centerboard cap, inner transom panel, top stringer, breasthook, knees and rail cap.

The flood coat of paint gets a lot of paint onto the new wood, helps seal the wood, fill the grain and gives us an idea of what hills, valleys and voids we want to sand or fair. Then we apply the show coat and the finish coat. We are going to leave the okume inner panel varnished for now, and see how that looks with the varnished seats and gunwale. If the eye jumps around too much from cypress to okume to Oyster White, then we paint the inner panel as well.

Go to the Log of St. Jacques.

St. Jacques Log 13 Dec 16 Rudder, CB and Wood Sealer

13 Dec 16:

Continued work on the rudder and centerboard trunk. Left enough space between the rudder blade and rudder cheeks to put in bushings to help the rudder pivot smoothly. We will use stainless or nylon.

Planed the centerboard to 3/4 inch thickness.



Made a pattern for the centerboard case. It also serves as a seat support.

Had to find station 7 so I knew where to place the centerboard trunk. I was able to find it by looking at the screw holes in the stringers from the Station 7 mold.

Fit the centerboard to the trunk, checked clearance.



Rustoleum Spar varnish, thinned with mineral spirits to seal the rudder and centerboard parts.

2 coats of Rust-Oleum sealer varnish on the rudder and centerboard because I had some left over. The blade edges still need to be profiled, we will copy the edges that the Sunfish rudder and daggerboard have.

Go to the Log of St. Jacques.