We were at our local Picker's Market looking at a big box of macrame/parrel beads and we spotted a single oar lock in amongst the beads. We asked the vendor how much for the oarlock, and she took it from us and said "Oh, that goes with the oars." My head snapped up so quick that I think I strained something and the Crusty Boat Radar (CBR) went into full search mode. The lady pointed to the oars, sad looking 6 footers, and there was the other oarlock. They are the perfect size for the Nutshell Pram. All I could do was point and grunt in acquisition mode, which Skipper translated for the vendor as "He wants those." We gladly paid the full asking price of $25 USD, and the vendor bargained with us on the beads, tambourine and castanets that we bought. So now we can row our Floating Gypsy and Flamenco Theater to a location near you!
The wood on the oars was so dry that I think they dehydrated me when I touched them, but we could see that they are a nice length for rowing the pram with its small beam and low freeboard. The oars have a pleasing shape and a good balance of sturdy vs lightness. The looms are mostly straight with a little checking in the steeple grain, we'll sand and seal that grain back up with a bucket or two of paint. The oarlocks are crusty galvanized models, manufacturer unknown for now, so while their patina only appeals to Sea Rats, those oarlocks will be around for a long time.
Got out on the water in ST. JACQUES today, we wanted to have a little fun, reclaim part of the bay and see if we could spot any items that were still MIA from Hurricane Sally, like our channel marker number 6 sign.
But first Skipper had to clean storm debris out of the centerboard trunk, pine needles, bark and tree leaves. There was so much muck packed in there by the storm surge that the centerboard would not move. She used a knife and a stick to dredge out debris, and poured water into the trunk to flush out the muck.
Ready to go, I planned to row mostly but Skipper had other plans.
Back from a successful row and sail, 75F with light winds 8-9 mph, coming out of the East which made for a nice broad reach.
Skipper found a rock.
Maybe we should have cleaned out more of the muck and bay residue before we left, but when we were done ST. JACQUES got a fresh water rinse with a little TILEX added for style. TILEX is great to remove mold and mildew, but it is best to spray it on a rag, wipe down the boat then rinse right away. If it is sprayed directly onto some paints it can run and leave a lighter bleached out streak. The streak eventually fades but it is best to apply the TILEX sparingly in small locations, a little goes a long way. Test it out in an inconspicuous area and as always, read the application and health hazard information on the bottle. The Porter Cable cordless Wet/Dry Vac makes short work of sucking muck out of the bilge, 2 1/2 gallons at a time. Nice to not have electrical cords in wet locations.
ST. JACQUES rode out the Hurricane mostly carefree, she did get a little rash on her lower strakes, possibly from the boat next to her or the dolly.
Very small rub on the gunwale, which was protected by a Sunbrella cover. The cover didn't fare so well, it needs a few repairs, but it did Yeoman's work protecting the boat as no water got inside during the storm. Interestingly enough, the wooden boats in the Sunfish Shack did amazingly well, the fiberglass boats not so much.
In other news we put down 12 tons of #4 crushed limestone along the inland side of the seawall, with help from a Toro Dingo, along with topsoil and sod and. We are going to call restoration of the quay, aka Mini Gun Deck, complete.
Lightly sanded some runs and sags with 220 grit discs on a random orbital sander then rolled and tipped the third coat of Pettit Easypoxy Blue Ice. Used Mighty Mini rollers and roller kit from Jamestown Distributors, tipped with a Blue Hawk 2 inch sash brush. Thinned the paint with about 5% Pettit Brushing Thinner, outside air temp 70F.
We had scarfed a new handle cut from cypress onto one of the oars and needed to shape it. I sanded it at first with 40 grit on a belt sander, but that was taking a while and making a lot of dust, so I switched to a Stanley spokeshave and that rapidly took off the excess. I cut the shoulder for the grip with a shinto rasp and shaped it with a tile diamond file. Then I finished sanding the grip to shape with 60 grit discs on a DeWALT random orbital sander.
Once the grip was shaped I sanded both oars with 60 grit on a random orbital sander. There was a lot of excess epoxy and plastic wrap residue on the blades, left over from when we had glued the blades back together last year. It took a lot of sanding but I got everything smooth and ready for paint.
The original oars in our Drascombe Lugger ONKAHYE had been overhauled by Capn Jack over 25 years ago, they had split grainwise along the blades. He glued them back together and added a metal strap around the tips, partly to hold them together and partly as an abrasion guard. He put on a nice coat of white paint with red and black at the tips, he may have been confused from hi airplane propeller painting days. They held up well with light usage. Fast forward to 2018 and we needed to spruce them up (No pun intended) for a photo shoot. One of the tips had a chunk missing, so we cut a piece of cypress to rough size and glued it into place with epoxy. We left the chunk fat on the sides so we could shape it after the epoxy dried.
I had bought some TotalBoat THIXO Low Viscosity thickened epoxy to try, I thought it would pump and mix easier out of the mixing tip. Pump easy it did, and as advertised the viscosity was low. Most of the epoxy ran right out of the oar tip onto our deck. I wanted thickened epoxy to fill a void in the tip and to provide a nice protective surface for the tip, plus act as a surface to fair. What I did at that point was dispense the epoxy into a cup and mixed collodial silica with it to thicken it to my desired peanut butter consistency, Not all was lost form the first round of epoxy, all the surfaces were wet and the thickened batch set well. I got the new cypress tip positioned and smoothed the ends with a coat of epoxy in prep for fairing While the epoxy was drying we sanded the looms with 120 grit, just knocked off the big chunks.
Tips ready for the 60 grit belt sander and 120 grit random orbital sander.
Shaped the tips then applied 2 coats of Rustoleum Marine Topside Oyster White and Bright Red. Tips were still tacky so the black had to wait. Our Lowes sells the Rustoleum and so does Jamestown Distributors.
Took St. Jacques out for a short sail in light winds, worked on the transition from shore to sea. Sail was ready but First Mate forgot to drop the centerboard about halfway, so we went a bit sideways in the light breeze until the dock helped him gain his bearings. Once untangled from the bow line and mainsheet, we poled and paddled a few feet to gain sea room then crawled off the beach under sail. Worked our way up towards the river looking for dolphin, ended up ghosting a bit and rowed for a while. 7 1/2 foot oars for the forward station may be a few inches too long, but it is too early to tell with the limited rowing experience of the crew. St. Jacques was very easy to handle and likes to sail just above a beam reach. Wind died again and temp index started creeping towards 100F, so the oars brought us home. Just prior to the shore, the tiller snapped at the foot and the sail got brailed for the last few feet. Time to watch the eclipse now.
The tiller snapped where I had cut the shoulder too deep, which created a weak point. Kind of like notching a tree to fell it.
Repaired the broken tiller with Jamestown Distributors TotalBoat THIXO (thickened epoxy) and a wrap of 4 oz fiberglass cloth.
Wrapped the fiberglass and epoxy with saran wrap to help smooth the surface and hold the pieces together.
