SCOUT is filthy, so we moved him over next to the work deck for a bath. That opened up space for us to lay out the piers and beams for his new canoe cubby, aka the SCOUT Shack. While it is a bit of overkill, we use ground contact rated pressure treated lumber for the construction.
SCOUT is our Boat of the Year. She did all of the heavy lifting for Hurricane Cleanup, carried lumber for pier repair and was many times our floating tool box. Most important, she hauled all the gear and Skipper for the post storm Flag Rescue Mission.
She spent more time being towed around than being paddled.
The Gorilla Carts received Honorable Mention, they hauled tools and lumber to SCOUT.
We launched SCOUT for rudder Sea Trials, Paddle Mode, total success once we remembered the uphaul line was jam cleated! To back up for a second, the rudder is being added to the arsenal for use with sailing rigs, but after the discoveries today during tandem and single paddling we might use it when just paddling.
Here's a photo to get a general idea of where the steering line and rudder uphaul line are routed.
First I needed to place a couple of blocks for the line steering to run through, to determine their location I laid out the steering line that came with the rudder and picked the nearest thwart, which turned out to be the midships thwart. I drilled a 1/4" hole in the gunwales just forward of the thwart and used 1/8" Dacron Cord from New England Ropes to tie a block to port and starboard. The blocks came from Capn Jack's stash, not sure where he found them, they might have come off of the USS Portsmouthfrom back in 1846. The I ran the steering lineup through the blocks and added a snap shackle to the end to connect to one side of the rudder horn. The line was barely long enough to where I could skip the snap shackle, pull it real tight and tie a Figure 8, but I deduced that the line had shrunk over time and it needed some work to stretch it back out. The line was too tight for my liking is why I added the snap shackle, plus it was more Capn Jack hardware that gets to see Sea Service on a small boat.
Next I contemplated how to rig the rudder uphaul, it needed a fairlead centered on the rudder horn so that it would not pull the rudder off center. I thought maybe I could run it under the pintle keeper but not only did the steering line pull loose when tugged on, it displaced the pintle keeper as well, which would allow the pintle to fall out if the canoe capsized. The next options considered were to add an eyestrap or drill a small hole, so I drilled a 1/4" hole angled aft top to bottom, centered on the horn, and fed the uphaul line up through that and forward near the stern seat. Next I needed a place to secure the line to keep the rudder up, and Capn Jack whispered "jam knot" in my ear. I tied a loop in the uphaul line at a position where Skipper can jam the knot into a small gap between the stern cap and the gunwale, and secured the rest of the line with some semblance of a clove hitch further up onto the steering line. More on that later, plus a video.
We launched SCOUT with Skipper in the stern seat and Moveable Ballast up in the bow seat. Set out to sea and paddled about 15 minutes. I asked Skipper if the rudder was working and she said not really. I thought about it for a bit and asked if the rudder had gone all the way down. She sail it was barely in the water, so I asked if she had released the uphaul. She said something to the effect of "what uphaul?" Note to self, I need to write up a Functional Check Float (FCF) test card and brief the Functional Check Pilot (FCP) on what items need to be checked during the FCF. Skipper released the uphaul, the rudder dropped and after that we Ported and Starboarded and Slipped and Skidded and Tracked all over the bay with ease, which is a feat. Our corner of the bay has a bayou nd a river that dump into it, plus we get strong fetch at times. Winds were NW, light at 7-9 knots, seas about a foot with short sets, and with the rudder I could do a 360 turn from the bow seat with 10-12 strokes from just the bow seat, with no Skipper steering. Without the rudder it took about twice many strokes that and some retired Jarhead aggressive paddling. We also found it was easy for her to set a little rudder trim and keep us tracking to a point vs the convoy zig zag we had been doing, counteracting tide, wind and current. Back to the beach, the rudder uphaul worked as advertised. Tandem FCF complete.
We got back to the beach and I took out the canoe for a single seat FCF, I paddled from the aft thwart, did some 360s, paddled backwards and played with the uphaul. Here's a photo of me outbound, will I make it back?
I found that I could slide the clove hitch on the end of the rudder uphaul line back and forth on the steering line to allow the rudder to drop and then raise it again, and there was enough tension to hold the rudder up.
FCF complete, no discrepancies noted, celebration time. Cafe du Monde from a Stanley thermos and mandarin oranges.
Next up, install the main mast step, rig the gaff, peak halyard, throat halyard, leeboard bracket, port and starboard leeboards, mizzen mast step, mizzen, bumkin, mizzen sheet, rudder, rudder steering line, rudder uphaul line, grab a cup of coffee, push Skipper and SCOUT out to sea, take pictures.
Important Apple Watch Note: The Apple watch has an annoying feature that tracks Activity - Move, Exercise and Stand rings. We always close our Move and Stand rings, but to close the Exercise ring the watch has to sense 30 minutes of exercise equivalent to a brisk walk. We have gone out brisk walking and even jogging (wogging) and the watch might count 14-20 minutes of our 30 minute WOG aka "brisk walk." A pleasant surprise was we found that if we select Workout - Paddling, it counts pretty much every minute, whether paddling or not. Now we can select Paddling, even when walking, and close that pesky ring :)
SCOUT took us out for morning coffee and oranges, saw a few pelicans. Light winds from NE, tide coming in, river flowing out, 72F.
Skipper's duct tape cup holder works great.
Stanley thermos just for fun...
...just like the NC-4 crew used!
Beach Inspector.
Inner layer of rudder adapter is cured.
Wetting out the outer layers of 4 oz fiberglass cloth tape for the rudder adapter with TotalBoat THIXO. Worked the THIXO into the weave with part of a paint stir stick.
Stainless Ronstan gudgeons encased in fiberglass cloth. Rudder and pintle attached to get the correct alignment with the gudgeons.
Gudgeon shimmed with small pieces of wood where stern cap tapers.
Took a few pictures of SCOUT's interior, little details.
The end caps have bolt holes for tow rings.
The Grumman G is die formed into the end caps. The end caps cover the closed cell foam floatation blocks.
Older Grummans had 2 different sail rigs as accessories, a Gunter or a Lateen. The small bracket is the mount for a mast step that was attached with 4 machine screws.
SCOUT's data plate 1384-GP-5-17. That decodes to indicate that she was an early Marathon, NY boat, mid 1950s hull number 1384. General Purpose vs Lightweight hull, hull thickness .051 inches, 17 footer.
Bow seat.
We're pretty sure this bracket was to attach floorboards, another accessory.
Stern end plate, with Capacity tag.
5 people, up to 770 pounds. 805 pounds total with cargo.
Main and mizzen mast steps that we made. The yawl rig is of our own design.
Took our Grumman 17 Double End canoe SCOUT out to get photos for an upcoming article in Small Boats Magazine, May 2020. We needed photos of her being paddled solo, tandem and a few other shots. One thing we recently learned was that this design is self righting, we never thought about it but it makes sense when we considered the end comapartments are filled with closed cell foam blocks and the keel is stout, so weight, flotation and balance wise she wants to float upright.
Skipper steered us around for a bit, I did the solo act, then I jumped out for the self righting and swamping videos.
Here's one fuzzy shot that won't make the magazine cut, plus we are going so fast that we left the shot.
Once the article publishes we can post some of the photos that weren't used, Skipper did a masterful job of steering us around in light chop and a bit of a breeze.
We printed up a real size photo of the rudder adapter for a Grumman canoe, then marked some measurements. The adapter is made from T-6 aluminum, with 2 gudgeons that take the 1/4 inch diameter pintle on the rudder. The adapter had a thin rubber pad underneath and attaches to the stern with a bolt through the stern cap bolt hole.
We used our pocket bevel to get the angle off of the stern cap, then marked that onto the pattern.
If anyone is geared up to make a piece like this, drop us a comment. Otherwise we might try making it from fiberglass and two Ronstan gudgeons.
Our Grumman 17 Double End canoe SCOUT went out for 30 minutes today, took us with it. After we got back I tried out paddling solo, with the stern end first, riding on the bow seat facing the stern. Balance was a lot better than going solo from the stern seat. Also tried kneeling just aft of amidships and rolling the canoe onto her chine a bit. Balance and control were great, but the knees probably wouldn't hold out too long.
File photoS of SCOUT.
SCOUT was originally olive drab. One of Jack's favorite boats.
Worked on an article for Small Boats Magazine on the venerable Grumman 17 Double End canoe, so we pulled out the 1965 brochure to use as a reference. Also wanted to look at the sail rig photos to get ideas for our 17 SCOUT.
75th Year of Grumman canoes, still being made in Marathon, N.Y. by Marathon Boat Group.
Wandering around the Carriage House, worked on the mizzen for our Grumman 17 Scout and took care of a few other items, not all planned or in an expected sequence. When we get distracted by multiple small or large jobs while on the way to do what we first set out to do, for instance today it was to work on the mizzen spars for SCOUT, we call that "yak shaving." As an example, when I pulled out the spars today, I noticed the cork board behind the work bench. That got me to thinking about the catboat that we are designing, and I thought, hey, I can move this cork board real quick to a more accessible area before I start on the spars. So the work bench got rolled out away from the wall, and I saw that the border had fallen off the cork board. Should I fix that or just put the board in the new spot by screwing the frame to the studs? Tried screwing the frame, that didn't work. Take the board back down. Skipper said fix it. I tried putting screws in the corners to hold the frame, which required me to pull out 2 drills, different bits and a hardware box. That didn't work because the particle board frame just crumbled where the screws went in. So I went to find some gaff tape to just tape the corners, that worked.
Next I had to move a couple of tool trolleys to get to the new spot of the cork board and Skipper said, "Hey did you cut yourself?" She said it looked like there was blood on my elbow, I looked around and noticed drips of red on the floor, on my shorts, but it wasn't blood, it was paint. Followed the drips and saw where a bag of red paint had been punctured by a nail when I moved it to a new spot, out of the way of the cork board. So I got the paint wipes, Skipper cleaned up my elbow,and I got rid of the bag and cleaned a little where it dripped, but it added some patina. I have a new set of Shop Shorts now. Finally got the cork board moved to the new spot and hey, an hour and a half later, we're finally working on the mizzen spars.
The issue with the mizzen spars was that the boomkin was too short. The mast was also right close to being too short. So we bought a longer closet rod to become the new mast, and planned to move the old mast to be the new boomkin. The spars are held together by a Sunfish spar interlocking bolt. The old bolt was stripped so I pulled out the Alcort parts box to find a new piece. Here's the bolt, with the boomkin installed upside down. I noticed that later...
Some of the flotsam and jetsam that accumulated during yak shaving.
Hey did we mention that the cork board got moved?
Mizzen bent onto the new mast.
You know I just remembered, I originally went out to the carriage house to shoot a short video about our line whipping kit!
Back to the canoe, I wandered back to the house to find the Grumman Sail Rig Instructions. They're for a Gunter Rig but there are other tidbits in there that are helpful, like where to place the leeboard spreader.
That'll get us started, might need adjusting because we have a mizzen added to the fray. Still looking for the metal rudder adapter, if anyone has one to send our way please post a comment below.
Adjusted the angles of the boomkin, it ties to the stern to keep it fixed, and Skipper will adjust the sheet like she does on the Lugger. Poor Skipper, all she wanted was a gaff sail for running downwind, and she would steer with the paddle. But we knew The Usual Visitors might get a laugh out of all of the extra bits we are adding. Not sure if SCOUT finds it amusing though.
Starting to get a little busy. Rudder control line, mizzen sheet....supposed to be another 8 foot long rudder lifting line back there somewhere as well...
Rudder goes about here.
TLAR
With those yaks shaved, we turned our attention back to the catboat. Laid down a baseline for lofting, marked out 1 foot increments out to 16 feet, actually I first marked out 11 foot 2 inch increments and then realized I goofed that up...too much math...called it a day.
