Herreshoff Double Paddle Rewind

 12 Jan 22:

I was trying to figure out the best way to shape the concave face on the paddle blade, when Richard showed me how he cuts away most of the excess concave material with a bandsaw BEFORE he glues everything together and before the cuts the outer edge curve. So I took our bandsaw and cut enough bits off that they would fit through my small bandsaw (4 inch throat). I them tracced the profile on the side of the blade, hard to do when the surface is curved. And the resulting surface was not terribly flat, so there were come vagaries in alignment when I worked the smaller pieces through the saw. One bit got cut a little too shy and several others had a lot of excess wood left, but nowhere near what I started with. 

Glued everything back together. New clamps reported for duty, Webb and Doug.

BLUFF RATTY 16 Jan 21 Bow Angle, Garboard, Chine and Frames

 16 Jan 21:

We plan to incorporate design elements from BARBASHELA into BLUFF RATTY, one of the first is to put a small rake on the bow and reverse on the stern, so we found the angle using our BARBASHELA bow porch table and our pocket bevel.  

After we cut the rocker on the garboards with a DeWALT 20V jigsaw, we clamped them together and sanded with 60 grit on a DeWALT random orbital sander to get the edges matched up. We'd like to have good fits where we can and plan to use thickened adhesives like THIXO or PL Premium to fill in any spots we miss, which will be a lot. (Note: All cuts could be made with a handsaw or jigsaw, and sanding could be done with sandpaper.)

2 side planks.

We used TotalBoat THIXO thickened adhesive to attach the chine strip to the side plank. 

If you have a lot of clamps, use 'em. Light pressure only, just enough to hold the chine in place, too much pressure can squeeze all of the adhesive out of the joint. We wiped off most of the excess that squeezed out to avoid later sanding, and used a gloved finger to make a little curve over the plank/chine joint, like you do with tub caulk, this ensures the joint is epoxied and will help shed water off of the joint.

No clamps for the other side? We predrilled pilot holes through the plank into the chine for #6 x 3/4" screws,  then fastened the plank with THIXO and the screws. Silicone bronze screws (Jamestown Distributors) are optimum, other options are marine grade stainless, stainless or exterior deck screws. Each step down in quality will shave years off of the boat's life. 

2 chine strips attached to 2 lower side planks (garboards).

Next we started fiddling with frames, the "elbows that will hold the planks to the bottom. You could make the side angle straight, but we wanted a little flare to the sides, like BARBASHELA has. And the frames could be rectangles, but we wanted the curved feet and used a salvaged bit from BARBASHELA to get the curve. The bottom of our boat will not be flat side to side either, we want some V, so that will be incorporated into the frame angle and truss that runs side to side to connect the frames. We're putting 1/8th" of V across 15 inches of the truss, you can see the truss poking its head into the photo top right. The V bottom will help the boat track straight.

Prototype frame laying on its side, with notch for chine strip cut out. Thoughts here are to not make this notch a tight fit along the chine, to allow water to drain to a low spot in the bilge. Those drains are referred to as limber holes.

Jamestown Distributors

TotalBoat

Log of BLUFF RATTY.

1971 O'Day Day Sailer II CYANE 21 Jun 19 Tabernacle Lower Mast Clamp

21 Jun 19:

CYANE has a tabernacle mast, and the lower mast section that goes through the cuddy down to the mast step needs to be secured so it does not come loose when raising or lowering the mast. Capn Jack had an ingenious solution, he put a rubber washer and hose clamp around the mast, just under the cuddy top, that way it could not be pulled out. But clamps not being what they used to be in the saltwater environment, it rusted out after only 19 years. We replaced it with a new marine grade stainless clamp.

Here is the clamp and the rubber washer. The washer insulates the stainless clamp from the aluminum mast, preventing dissimilar metal corrosion.

Working in the cuddy, we found it easier to put the clamp and washer on loosely down low, then slide it up to underneath the cuddy top.

Once the clamp was up at the top, we tightened the nut with a socket on a nut driver, easier than using a screwdriver.

The DS II mast step is about 1 inch high and affixed to the floor, the mast nestles over the top of it. We saw no indication of fasteners to secure the mast to the step.

Ready for the next adventure

Log of CYANE.

1978 AMF Sunfish SUGAR 2 06 Jun 18 Hull Repairs and Foam

06 Jun 18:

Sealed up the old transom plug with TotalBoat THIXO thickened epoxy on a cardboard backer plate. We find that as well as being drain holes they also make good leak holes.

Cut new cypress backer blocks for the bow handle and halyard cleat and fixed them in place with THIXO. Clamped the bow handle block and screwed in the cleat block.

To pour the 2 part expanding foam on top of the flotation blocks we use blue tape to make a trough, that keeps it mostly on top of the block while it expands and adheres.

We used TotalBoat 2 part foam and we also use FibreGlast 2 part 2 pound foam. Then we have to clamp fast so the deck seam does not get pushed open.

We poured the bow foam also and clamped the hood shut.

Log of SUGAR 2.