When I’m not at the shop I’ve been writing a blog for my old school.  You can find it on the home page.  I may be doing another one following another boat project, but we’ll see… Yeah, it’s a cheesy tease.

This post is simply the best because it appeals to our inner Sherlock Holmes.  Or at least it shows what some boat builders think about while they’re building.  Oh, and it was fun to write.

I’ve decided to keep the blog here.  It was too much trouble to transfer all the photos over to the wordpress site, I like the look of the site as it exists here, and I have more flexibility with how to use photos.  In short, I like having my own domain better.  So, please disregard the previous changeover notice, and I promise I’ll start posting here again very soon.

-Tom

The day after graduation, we started up on the Cherokee project.  The original plan was to drive up to Maine that day and bring the Concordia Yawl down that David (the project manager) and I would be living on for the duration of the project.  No such luck.  The museum opened on graduation day, and we really needed to get something going on the Cherokee asap.  So, we’ve delayed the boat trip, found temporary housing, and got right to work.

Here’s the space where we’ll be building Cherokee:

The view out of the front door isn’t half bad either:

I haven’t decided what I’ll do with this blog just yet, but there a couple of things I do know:

1. it will move over to http://shipwrightintraining.wordpress.com/ very shortly 
2. I’ll be in charge of the Cherokee blog over at the Museum of Yachting.  You can find it here.  In fact, I’ve already started it!

This may morph into a larger version of the Cherokee blog, perhaps with a little less tact.  After all, when I’m writing the Cherokee blog I become a part of how the museum presents itself.  I have to watch my goddamn mouth over there for instance.  

It may turn into something else entirely… perhaps stories of clever ways that boatbuilders are solving the problem of how to make a living doing this job.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have something you’d want covered.  And, no, an all-porn format is right out.

A while back I’d made these running backstay bolts along with the 1/8″ bronze plates that they go through. 

The purpose of the plate is somewhat decorative and somewhat protective.  The plate helps to prevent water from entering the boat through the bolt holes.  They also look nice, and dress up an otherwise plain bolt.  The original plan was to weld the plate from the underside to seal the plate / bolt joint.  In our case, the hole that the bolt went through was just a tiny bit bigger than the bolt diameter, so even with the underside sealed, it looked like there was a gap that water could enter through.  So, we had to weld the top face of the plate to the bolt as well.  If the plate had been any thicker, this would have been easier, but the thin plate was very tough to work with.  The heat from the MIG welder tended to blow through the thin plate if we weren’t super careful.  The solution was to quickly lay down blobs of bronze weld, and then grind it all down to a nice fillet. 

Sounds easy, yes?  Welcome to an entire day of work.  Here’s a hint when grinding metal:  wear a glove, any kind will do, even a thin latex glove.  Otherwise, you shoot tiny slivers of metal into your hand. 

After a little while grinding with the die grinder, you get this:

Of course, this reveals voids in the weld (the black spots along the bolt edge on the left arm of the bolt there), and that means you have to go back, fill the voids with another weld, repeat.  Round files, flat files, sandpaper and a wire wheel all help to shape the weld into a decent looking fillet.

It’s far from perfect, but it’s a lot better than where I started.  A little chisel work on the toe rail,

and they get installed.

After they’re set in place, it’s down under the rear deck

behind Jason’s excellent seats, and into the very cramped space where the legs of the running back stays come through the swallowtail plate. 

That’s a standard sized clamp light by the way, just to give you an idea of scale here.  The metal swallowtail is a little taller than my hand with the fingers extended.  The point is:  cramped.  I trimmed off the ends of the U-bolts as they came through the plate.  Unfortunately, some bone head one day decided in their wisdom to pick up my U-bolts and just saw on the threads a little.  I have no idea why.  They were sitting in the metal area, clearly were boat parts, and it appears that they turned on the band saw and made a couple of little nicks with the saw on the threads.  What. The.  Hell?  This meant that the nuts didn’t want to go on very well, so I actually re-threaded a couple of these in place. 

I think I’m ready to work with a crew of professionals.

Nevertheless, we got the backstays in, and they looked quite nice, particularly after we varnished everything.

Warren helpe re-cut the bootstripe to a better shape on Friday, and we painted it in the morning.

And at last, the deck was completely clean.  Tom, Mike, & Jason got the deck hardware installed, and it looked great.

All the Beetle cats were rigged to go as well.  This is where the shop really looks spectacular.

And then it was time to take down the scaffolding. 

Finally we could see the whole boat without anything in the way. 

She really is a pretty boat.

Members of the family who have owned Macap since 1949 were in the shop to watch her get finished up.  They were completely sweet folks, and we heard many stories of their times on her.  They had donated Madcap to the school because they knew that they couldn’t take care of her properly anymore, but they had a very deep connection with this boat.  It was bittersweet, like giving a child up for adoption, but they met the people who had bought her, and they got to meet the crew who worked on her, and that helped somewhat.  Still, all eyes were not dry, and for good reason. 

But these are the people who were responsible for this boat being in such good shape when we got her.  If it weren’t for them, this would have been a 2 year project, minimum. 

And then the truck came

And out she went at last.

Man she looked small going out that huge door.  My family showed up that afternoon and they were thrilled to see how a hydraulic lift truck worked.  I admit, it’s pretty cool.

And then, there was nothing else to do really but clean the shop, pack up my tools, and go to dinner.  Wow, An almost normal work day!

Launch / Graduation day was all the more special because it didn’t rain when it could have.  But more than that, there were tons of old and new friends who came down fot the event.  My parents, my sister and her husband, my oldest friend Lyons, my buddy and ex-boss from Mystic, Walt Ansel and his wife Carol, my friend Laura, and the divine Ms. Holly (who took many of these photos).  It was a regular love fest.

Walt had many nice things to say about Madcap,

And Lyons was generally helpful as usual.  Here he’s helping to make sure that no weasels get on the boat.  One boat weasel can ruin your day.

Lots of folks showed up for the ceremony, despite the impending deluge.

And the hall was dressed up with many of Madcap’s racing and yacht club flags. 

That’s Clark, the program director, at the podium.  Behind him are the instructors and some of the school staff.  Warren is on the far right, and Lew is just to the right of the podium. 

And zoom, it was over, we all had our certificates, and it was outside to launch our boats. 

Of course, all Holly photographed were the dogs.

Kidding kidding kidding.  By this point, my camera batteries had died, so every photo from launch day was hers. 

We started by launching Odessey, an MBOD from a previous year that some of our class worked on near the end of the year.

Followed by the Bulldog class Spot.  Half of the 2nd year class restored her earlier in the year and did an outstanding job with her. 

And lastly, Madcap was trailered into the water very slowly.  She sat high in the water without her mast and rig, but she floated very nicely.   Here we are starting to guide her around from the ramp to the dock. 

It really was a great day.  All of Madcap’s new owners were there, and relatives of her original owners even showed up.  It’s things like this that make it clear that we’re not just working on a boat.  We’re part of a much bigger series of events, and it feels like a real honor at these times.

Tags: graduation, launching, madcap, bulldog, odessey

On the trailer, ready to go over to the ramp.

Putting up a beetle cat mast to dress her.

Dressed with just some of the many flags she’s gathered during her racing career.

And finally, I got to douse her.

More later!

Tags: madcaplaunch

Last Friday.  Setting up the stick for the MBOD (Manhasset Bay One Desigh, an Olin Stephens design) a group of 2nd years repainted.  Pretty sketchy platform there…

But it worked fine.

Jib track.  The bolt heads had to be individually bent over to sit flat on the track but also fit in a hole that angles inboard.

Forward jib track laid out.  Front coaming getting installed.

Life on the boat… it gets crowded. 

Sunday.  Waterline marked, cut, & taped for priming the topsides.

First coat of primer on the topsides.

It’s nice, but it’s only primer.

Monday.  Aft jib track and car finished & installed.

And forward track ready to be installed.

Tuesday.  Lew’s very nice forestay and plate.  Curved toe rail.

Ben’s coaming.  He has an excellent eye for detail and good form.

Tuesday.  2nd coat of primer on topsides & red oxide on the bottom.  Bottom of boot stripe getting laid out.  I know, the boot stripe bottom is usually the waterline.  On this boat, the first waterline (called L1) is actually in the bottom paint.  Don’t ask, I don’t know.

Wednesday.  Cove stripe routed in.  More fairing around the stem.

Scott carves in the arrowhead at the front of the cove stripe. 

He does excellent work.

Green bottom paint applied except to areas of the rudder and ballast that had just been primed with red oxide.

You can’t really tell, but there’s LOTS more to do and we’re out of time.  The white line under the boot stripe will be filled with green bottom paint.  That line is where the painting tape was.

Still, she’s looking nice with some paint on her.

Film at 11.  Launch day weather prediction:  thundershowers.  It’s 2 days out, let’s hope they’re wrong.

Tags: paint, finishing up

Well, the folks who made the track we need went out of business, but, hey, lucky us!  Someone bought all their stock, and now they will sell it to us.  All we had to do is have Warren meet them at a rest area by the highway so the truck could stop on it’s way to somewhere else and drop off the 2 lengths that we needed.  “So, youse showed up?  Well my pal and I was thinkin… the price of gas bein what it is, we thinks the items you wants now cost twice as much.  Youse gots a problem with that?  That’s a nice car you gots there.  Shame if someone was to drive a truck into it and break the drivers legs or somethin, know what I mean?”

Ok, so we get 2 lengths of bronze track, a total of 20′ 2″ for over $700.

Cutting it to length was easy.  At that price, I should save the shavings.

Now, comes the fun part: shaping it.  The boat is curved, so a straight length of track stuck on it would look awful.  So, it has to be curved to match the sweep of the boat.  The curve goes side-to-side, through the thickest part of the track, so there’s no way to do it by hand.  The track is way too thick for that.  No kinks, and no mess-ups, because bronze can break if you bend it back and forth too much.  No pressure, but hey, don’t screw up.

So, I templated out the curve of the cap rail where this will go, to get the proper curve, and made up a jig to bend this sucker. 

This is the same metal bending press I used earlier for shaping the swallowtails that brace the running backstays.  In this case, the jig has to hold the track vertical, and not dent the soft bronze while it gets pressed.  Here’s a close up.

The blue arrow points to the wiper that presses down on the track.  The black arrow points to a plate I welded to the wiper that spreads out the pressure to keep the wiper from making a dent on the top of the track.  The track is the gold colored stuff by the way.  The red arrow points to one of 2 square lengths of steel that hold the track straight up and down.  The green arrow points to one of 2 rods on either side of the wiper that hold the track up.  When the wiper pressed down, the track bends between these 2 rods.  The plate resting on the rod distributes the pressure, just like the one on the wiper. 

The whole process started out as trial and error:  bend a bit, put it on my template to see what that amount of pressure did, adjust, bend again.  After I while I got pretty good at it.  Here’s the tracks sitting on top of the template before being bent.  You can see the slight curve in the template on the right. 

One section of track had a twist to it that needed to be straighted out.  The only solution we could come up with was to clamp the track to a bench, attach a big clamp to the end, and use that as a lever to twist it. 

It worked surprisingly well.  But again, it was hairy… what if I snap this stuff??!!  Fat chance of that really, it’s 1/2″ thick and strong as hell.

In the end, it followed the sheer very nicely.

There was a 2nd set of tracks by the mast, and those had to be straight.  Naturally, the track that was left over after cutting the long curved tracks was… crooked.  So, back to the press with that stuff, and another chunk of time learning how to un-kink track. 

Then it was under the boat to caulk the garboard / keel seams.  This is the only place in the boat that gets caulked.  The rest of the planks on double planked boats have inner and outer seams that don’t overlap, so the inner planking seals the outer planks seams. 

In some areas, folks that had patched up dings with epoxy didn’t bother to wipe the epoxy out of the caulking seam while it was wet, so I got to dig it out wth a reefing hook.  There was cursing.

There was also squeezed out shellac in the seam at places.  Not clearing that out was my fault.

I didn’t realize that this stuff would get on your caulking iron and make it all sticky… it grabs hunks of cotton and generally makes a mess.  Ok, reef that stuff out too.

But, once the seam was clear, it was back to re-learning the art of caulking.  I was happy that it came back pretty fast. 

Put you caulking iron up against the cotton vertically,

twist couterclockwise while holding it against the cotton,

this gives you a length of cotton to whack in.

Whack it with your mallet, and you’ve now tacked a section of caulking into the seam.

Do a series of these and you get a nice line.

It feels like sewing.  Then come along in a second pass and hammer it all home.  

Good caulkers sound like metronomes.  I did not sound that way. 

In the meantime, the painter, Tim Conway, came and hand painted the names on the big boats.

He said that most boats now get vinyl stick on letters, but this was all done by hand with gold leaf, sizing and paint.  It was very impressive to watch him work.

Madcap before the letters were outlined

And after.

Wow.

I’ve been at the school late most nights, and right after launch day will head up to Maine to bring a 40′ Concordia down.  I’ll be living on that boat for the next 6 months or so while we build Cherokee.  In other words, the blog may suffer from a combination of fatigue and lack of time. 

I promise, I’ll update as much as possible.

Launch day and graduation is 4 days away

HOWEVER, I’ll be doing the blow by blow at the Museum of Yachting’s web site to track Cherokee, and you can follow it here.  And this little blog will probably keep going too.

Tags: caulking, jib track, painting

Everyone said it, and I said it too… you can’t believe how different she looks outside when you’re used to seeing her inside.  In the shop, you never get to back up and see her completely… you only get to see sections at a time.  Outside, you can step back and see her for the big, saucy, shapely craft she is.

Who’s a pretty boat?  WHO’S a pretty boat??  You are!

Walt Ansel, the lead shipwright, described her aft end as “bodacious.”

Absolutely, Walt.  You can’t describe her without moving your hands as if you’re running them along her.

The grand daughter and wife of Chet Westcott were there for the launching ceremony.  Chet sucessfully fished Roann out of Point Judith RI for many years.

They poured seawater on her, as Walt looks on.  For a relaunching with the same name, you don’t smash a bottle of champagne, by the way.  That’s just for christenings.  Walt looks like a happy fellow.  He looked like that all day for some reaon.  Weird.

Roann was designed by Albert Condon in  1944.  Albert was a classically trained designer, meaning that he started out as a shipwright.  He took marine architecture classes at night and gradually moved over to ship design from there.  His son was also a shipwright, working under Alan Vaitses in Maine (Vaitses wrote the first book on lofting that I ever read). 

And so, when Walt was given a backing out plane that used to belong to Albert, and later to his son, you get it that this was a big deal.

Walt told me that one her captains came to the museum and walked along her deck, like he’d done thousands of times in the past.  He knew the boat intimately, by feel, in daylight and pitch black.  He told Walt, “you got it right.” 

There was ceremony, pomp, circumstance.  Lots of dignitaries from all levels.  Olin Stephens was there.  It really was a good pre-launch ceremony.

I didn’t get a single picture of any of them.  Sorry.  My sweetie took this nice photo of dog feet if that helps at all.

And a few people took photos of those of us involved in the boat’s construction.

But mostly we took photos of the boat.

You can somewhat see the extra layer of sheathing that was put on the boat to protect the hull from the banging fishing equipment as it came over the side.  Walt and the crew did a beautiful job with it… it just blends right in to the lines of the boat. 

And we took photos of ourselves witht he boat.

That’s the area that I faired out last summer.  See, you just can’t keep your hands off of her.

And then, they started the lift dock, and she began her slow descent into the Mystic River.

Down

Down

Down

Nice view of the lift dock motor housing, don’t you think?

The whole process takes 17 1/2 minutes.  Lots of time to talk, take pictures of dog feet, that sort of thing.

And at last, she was quietly afloat.

Aside:  I think it should be a requirement that all ship builders have white beards.

And once again, in the water she looks very different than she looked in the shop, than she looked on the hard.  It’s weird that way.

Aren’t those just the nicest lines?  She looks sweet and substantial.  And small again.  She’s only 60′ long, after all.

A few folks stuck around after she was moved to the side of the lift dock to check her out.

The eternal question:  “What’s Down There??”  and “Can I Go??”
(Answers: the foc’sle, yes.)

So here we go, down into the foc’sle.  This was the crew quarters, and will soon be refitted with everything that was on the boat when she was given to the seaport in 1997.

It seems small now.

But, once again, it’s tough to keep your hands off her.  These are the ceiling planks I installed with Shaun.

Quite the change from this:

All in all, a beautiful day.  There’s nothing like a launching.

PS  if the link to Roann at the start of this entry doesn’t work, go to Mystic Seaport, search for Roann, and click on the link with her name.  That shoudl get you to a good little description of her, as well as a photo of her coming out of the shop.  She made it through the door by inches.

Tags: roann, launching, mystic