The Harris family has a reunion every few years on the North Carolina coast.  Beth and I had not planned on going this year because we knew we would be so busy, between working, and working on the boat, we have our hands full.  I had hoped that other family members wouldn't show up, making our absence less noticed, but no.  Everybody is going this year, which hasn't happened in quite a few reunions.  Pops(grampa) called about a week ago and filled us in on what we were going to be missing out on, and I told him we would look into coming out.  Two hours later we had tickets and with some help getting from Charlotte to Columbia from my aunt Melanie and uncle Norman we are going to NC for a week.

One extra bonus this trip has afforded us is a deadline.  We really wanted to get the fiberglass on the boat before the beach trip.  And a few hours ago we wrapped up the last of the big fiberglass work on our now shiny hull. Nothing like a little pressure to make you pull 14 hour days.

We wear tyvek suits to keep the copious amounts of epoxy, I bought the smallest size they had, I don't think a lot of girls do this kind of work.

We wet out the hull with a saturation coat first.  Then we apply the fiberglass fabric, followed by another pass of epoxy to saturate the glass. The glass we are using is a 9oz tight weave.  Which means that it weighs 9oz per yard and the tight weave just gives it better resistance to abrasion.  The glass on our boat is non structural, it will strengthen the boat some, but it is primarily for abrasion resistance and water barrier.  The glass usually needs a considerable amount of work once its saturated.  Here I'm using a special ribbed roller to chase out air bubbles caught under the fabric.

The hull is glassed and looking smooth.  There will be more fairing to do, but it should be minimal.  Epoxy is pretty crazy stuff, it looks exactly the same wet as it does dry, so there is lots of touching wet epoxy out of curiosity.

The good old Tartan 27 that is being slowly cut apart in the parking lot was in much worse shape than I was told.  Luckily it doesn't matter, but you can see in this picture that when I cut open the decks water was pouring out. 

Hoping for Surf, Cody and Beth

Three's a Crowd

I have had my eyes out for sailing gear on KSL (better than craigslist in Utah) for a couple of weeks now.  As you can imagine the market for used sailing equipment in the desert is very small, not many people selling or buying.  Last Monday I saw an ad for something that just might work for our boat...  another boat.  I had always tossed the idea around of buying a cheap run down boat for parts, but figured that with the limited amount of boats around here it just wouldn't happen.  But it did!   I called on this boat, a Tartan 27.  It turned out to be the perfect fit for us, the guy selling it had bought it with intentions of fixing it up, but instead he just let it get worse.  

The boat had been stripped of almost everything, winches, cleats, stanchions, windows, all work that we now didn't have to do.  I was concerned that the owner would be offended if I told him that we were going to cannibalize his boat, but he just wanted it gone and didn't care what we did to it.  The most important thing that we are getting from the Tartan is 2500+ lbs of lead.  With lead selling for 60 cents a pound this alone would have been worth buying the boat for. 

We moved pretty quick, borrowing the owners boat trailer and a truck from a friend, we moved it to the shop on Wednesday.  

The boat was in a neighborhood chock full of kids that were stoked to see the huge crane. 

It was pretty exciting lifting during lift off, there was lots of creaking.

Nestled in on the trailer and ready to go.

We hired another crane to drop the boat in front of the shop.  It looks pretty ghetto, so now we finally fit in!

Beth scrounging the hull for anything of value.

Sailing the high asphalt.  I have been slowly cutting away at the hull. I think I might just throw the whole thing into the dumpster piece by piece.  Its probably not allowed but most things that happen in this complex aren't allowed.   The Klan suit is to keep me from itching while cutting through loads of fiberglass.  

The keel!!  This thing ways 2400 pounds, and then there are some other lead bricks elsewhere.  I had all the bolts pounded out before we lifted it off the trailer.  The plan was that the keel would stay on the trailer and the boat would lift off without it.  No luck.  It is glued on pretty well and will have to be taken off another way.  

With crane fees we are into the boat about $1000.  It has been a lot of work, but we have so much stuff, lots of teak, freshly powder coated window frames with new glass.  The list goes on and on.  I think it was well worth it.  

Until next time.

Keel and Stem

Work on the boat as of late has been visually slow, we have been working on the keel(not the heavy part) and the stem.  The keel assembly on our boat is larger than just the space it would take to place the lead.  This means that a large portion will be what is called deadwood,  just filler.  Having the keel larger has advantages and disadvantages.  Generally a smaller keel will yield a faster more nimble boat, whereas the longer keel like we have will be slower to tack, but will want to stay on course and be more forgiving to the helmsman.  The balance of sailboat design is a never ending compromise.

We have decided to put a minimum amount of deadwood on now and do the rest after the boat is rolled over.  The shape of the keel makes it a pain to glue up and shape while its on the boat.

Here you can see the keel and the hull, we are just filling in the areas where the keel isn't touching the hull.  Making a curved surface flat.

Once that is done we will glue and bolt on the deadwood and the lead portion of the keel.  This picture shows the airfoil (well, hydrofoil) shape of the keel.

Here you can see the very first layers of the keel taking shape.

 

We've also been working on the stem post, which is the square cap that runs along the point of the bow.  Ours is made of Ash, which is a very hard wood, so it will stand up the thumps and bumps we may encounter.   It also covers and protects the end-grain of the plywood sheeting, which is crucial to avoid rot and water damage.

I've been working on my dinghy lately as well-  we made a trip to the fancy wood store, to buy ash, and a nice bright piece of purple heart  (an exotic hardwood,) caught my eye.  I needed another layer on the gunwales, so we picked it up.  Cody helped me add a thin stripe of fir, to really set off the amazing natural color of the purple heart.  Things are coming along! 

Oh, the abundant wildlife to be found just outside Shop 61.

Six Canadian Goslings!  So cute!

 

Well, gotta go.  

We've got important stuff to do, like take hands-free phone calls.   

Total brain-meltdown. Can't think of title.

Its crazy to think that is has been three years since Beth and I were married.  Sometimes I catch myself thinking that it has flown by.  Its easy to just remember the big events and just blur over the rest, but its amazing if you really think back how much life there is to remember in between the highlights.  The last three years have been great, and we expect nothing less in the years to come.

We ended up going climbing and camping in Joe's Valley for our anniversary.  It was pretty relaxing and nice to get away from everything.  This is a big reason we wanted to build the boat in Salt Lake,  because it's just so easy to get away to so many amazing places.

Pristine Joe's Valley sandstone bouldering.

Beth and Rumsy

We were dog sitting Rumsy and Chili, they loved going camping at least as much as we did.

 The Salt Lake spring has been pretty typical, last week it was hovering around 90 degrees and this week its back down in the mid 60's.  But with no A/C or fans in the shop 90 degrees was feeling pretty hot.  We are not the only ones affected by the warmer temps.  At 90 degrees  the epoxy cures around twice as fast as it does when its 60.  But adjustment have been made (ie. working faster) and we are ever moving forward.

This last week has mostly been work on the bow section.  As it has a lot of shape we are laminating it out of three layers.  The fist layer was just two big sheets, here you can see the second layer going on at 45 degrees to the fist layer.

The second and third layer are done in as wide of strips as I can bend onto the boat.  Here I have kerfed(made shallow cuts) into the plywood to help it bend around the more curved sections.

The plywood is glued and fastened with temporary staples and some screws.  The little wood pieces make it easy to get the staples out later. 

It's hard to see, but this is the third layer, which goes 90 degrees to the second layer, a process which is called "double diagonal planking." This ensures that all joints and seams have been overlapped at least once. 

After the sheet is attached to the hull, we take a hammer and tap all over the sheet to listen for voids in between the layers.  The difference in sound between a solid spot and a void is distinct.  I've seen this method used not only to find voids but to detect rotted sections in wooden boats and to check the condition of fiberglass windmill blades.  

Our big baby is moving steadily forward.  A few hours ago Beth and I put the last layer of plywood on the bow section of the boat.  This is huge for us, the hull is totally sheeted now, it's awesome.

As if one was not enough.

Turns out that building a sailboat requires a considerable amount of money.  This translates into going to work every once in a while.  I spent the last to weeks in Brooklyn working on a climbing wall.  Lots of work and great ethnic food.  But while serving my sentence Beth started a new project to keep herself occupied......

After searching for quite some time we found a Dinghy that we liked, and Beth has been making quick work of it.  Selecting a dinghy seems like an easy decision, but it actually was far from it.  We wanted something we could sail this summer, but something that would fit on the cabin top of the big boat, for easy transportation.  Oh yeah and ease of construction was important, we don't have the time to be building a classic lapstrake dinghy.   This left us with a narrow scope of boats, but we settled on Catspaw 8, from B&B Yacht Designs. 

The Dinghy is built using the "stitch and glue" method, so Beth first cut out the sides and ends of the boat.  Then she "stitched" them together using wire ties.  

After some beveling, the pieces are ready for stitching.  It is quite impressive, no layout, no tedious measuring, just cut out six pieces, stitch them together and voila, you have a boat.

The topsides and ends are stitched and ready for the two bottom panels.

And here it is.  Beth has the whole thing stitched together and tonight she got all the epoxy fillets that hold it together finished.

The main event is back to full speed, we have been finishing up sheeting the hull with plywood.  All that is left is the bow section, which has to be laminated out of 3 layers of 1/4 ply, as there is too much curve for anything thicker.

Shooting the laser down the length of the hull to check that everything is in line. 

Now for the fist time we are laminating up large pieces of plywood, so we use a notched trowel to spread the epoxy evenly. 

Here it is! Two boats:  one small, one large, one up one down. 

One day at a time.

Ps:  This is Big Cottonwood Creek, which runs right by the shop, usually we eat our lunch on that rickety pallet sitting in that tree.  Its pretty nice.

 These two ducks live in the creek and are quite friendly, I almost had them in the shop one day.  Beth has named them Lin and Larry, after a famous sailing couple.  

Until next time, Cody and Beth

Sheets and Sheers

Man.  Time flies!  It's been far too long between posts.  

We've been keeping happily busy on the boat these last weeks, and making progress- progress that feels pretty big!  We've begun to attach the plywood to the frames!  She's looking more and more like something that will someday float...  hopefully...  

We've put together another little time-lapse video for you-  entitled:  "How Cody and Beth wrestled a 16 foot by 4 and a half foot, 165 pound sheet of plywood up onto the bottomsides of the hull." 

 Or something like that.   

 It's a good thing we have access to some climbing gear.  

And that was just the first sheet!  These days, we've got both of the big amidships sheets on, as well as the aft sheets.  Tonight, we're putting the first pieces on the topsides.  You can see one of them in the next photo, just being cut and fitted.  

The plywood sheets really make a difference to the look inside the hull.  We've flipped these next photos upside down- to make the boat look right side up.  

Looking forward, down at floor level.  

Looking aft, at the handsome transom- complete with stern post.  

There's a lot of bracing in this photo, which makes it kind of hard to see the boat itself.   

In order to be able to attach the topsides sheeting, which will go along the sides of the boat, we need to get the sheer piece laminated into place.  You can see it in this photo- it runs along the bottom of the frames, is curved, and has a few clamps on it.  The sheer line is the most important aesthetic line of the boat.  It's important that it runs fair and smooth, which is why we're upside down on the table trying to get a good look at it. Looking at it right-side-up makes it easier to see the curve properly.    

More clamping!  Laminating a sheer piece into place.  

I hope you all are having a happy weekend!  We certainly are.  Yesterday was quite the Saturday, filled with sunshine, some granite routes with the Mannions,  a drive to the Great Salt Lake Marina, a cold coke with a 107-year-old Navajo Sailor named Paho, a few introductions and invitations to go sailing, a little bit of sanding and epoxy work for good measure,  some chinese food, some frozen yogurt, and this.

Whew.  Good times.  

Chine of the Times

The latest development on our boat has been to install the chines, or chine logs as the salty old sailors would say. As you may have noticed, the center section of our boat has a hard bend, much like that of a power boat, this is called chine.  When the plywood planking comes together at this hard bend it creates a weak point and you need something to give support and allow the plywood to be fastened to.  Now when the plywood meets at that corner it will be supported and there will be no weak point.

This chine has too much curve to try and bend the wood on, so we scarfed together smaller pieces to form the curve.

 

This was the first chine piece we installed.  It doesn't quite go to the ends of the boat.  It would have been too difficult to lift a 30ft. curved 1X8 into place so we installed it in several pieces.

This is where the chine meets the stem.  I used a circular saw to make a bunch of cuts at the correct depth, and then knock out the pieces with a chisel.

Here is the finished product, the chine now sits flush with the stem and is glued in place.

We are almost done shaping the stem, it has come a long way.

We added a "knee," just a piece of wood on the inside corner of the stem to give more support to a vulnerable spot on the boat. 

I accidentally made two of the same frame, so I decided to test the extra to destruction.  We stuck one end of the frame around the telephone pole outside the shop and tied the other end to PJ's truck.

 It took several attempts to break.  It needed much more force than we expected.  You can just see the frame stretching and warping.  It bends quite a bit before it breaks, have a look.

The Result couldn't have been better. The frame broke the wood and not the glue joints.   It is reassuring to have hands on proof of the incredible strength of epoxy.  So far there is not a single mechanical fastener on the boat just lots of epoxy. 

Just for fun, Beth and I wrestled a sheet of plywood onto the boat today, we are getting so close to sheeting the hull.  It is very exciting.