The new design

The design of the new, unnamed boat is very similar to Aerie’s: marine plywood, v-bottom, four strakes per side, 176 inches long. It has some important changes in the structure and sailing equipment, all born of experience:

1. It is built around a three piece backbone consisting of keel/skeg, keel/stem and centerboard trunk all joined together, with the keel made of two layers of 12mm (half inch) plywood. Instead of a keel batten, garboard cleats are glued and nailed to the keel and CB trunk. 
2. Another important modification is the design of the centerboard, whose pivot bolt is positioned on the keel under the hull, to prevent leaks through the pivot hole. The centerboard is wider and the CB trunk is almost completely enclosed, with a small corner opening for the line and blocks for raising and dropping the centerboard. This will prevent water from splashing into the boat. The centerboard will be weighted with lead, both so it can drop easily and for ballast below the waterline when lowered. The CB was designed in tandem with the sail for a balanced helm, using techniques learned from David Nichols' The Working Guide to Traditional Small-Boat Sails.
3. For simplicity, the boat will be a cat with a single sprit sail. This way there will be no halyards (the sail will be permanently laced to the mast), no boom and only three lines: a sheet clipped to the clew, a snotter for the sprit and a brailing line for dousing the sail in rough weather. Again, thanks to David Nichols for many ideas. This being a sea-going vessel (albeit in the Mediterranean and very close to land for beach hopping only), a small outboard and oars will be on hand for when the wind is too weak or too strong.
4. The fact that I am building a cat means that there is only one forward bulkhead, at 28 inches (711mm) aft of the stem of the boat. The mast partner will be secured to this bulkhead and the foredeck.
5. The new boat has a bit less freeboard. I found that Aerie had too much, especially for the purpose of fitting an outboard. An added bonus is that the long hull pieces (garboard & strakes) will fit on two pieces of plywood (scarfed together) per side.
6. There will be a bit less in the way of seating and no lockers (again for simplicity). Instead there will be four storage compartments with open access ports cut into the bench risers. In addition, there will be three buoyancy compartments (fore of the transom and under the foredeck and rowing thwart) filled with expanded polystyrene. I got tired of relying on watertight compartments for buoyancy: they never are fully watertight and are a pain to drain and dry after water gets into them. I will make sure that the compartments have drainage holes. 
7. There will be no floorboards, which proved to be an annoyance on Aerie. Instead I will reinforce the bottom with extra plywood strips and finish it with anti-slip grit.

At it again

It’s been years since I posted on this blog, and lots of things have happened. I considered shipping Aerie to Greece, but it was way too expensive, enough to pay for the materials for two or three new boats. Plus the paperwork for getting it through customs and registering according to European Union regulations would have been a nightmare. So I decided to build another one in Greece instead, which is not surprising since I love to build things.

Meanwhile, I retired in April 2016. The plan to stay in Greece full time was put aside, on account of our children and their hoped-for offspring. We planned to move to California to be near our younger daughter, and spend up to half the year in Greece. I considered selling or giving Aerie away, but was talked out of it by members of the Wooden Boat forum that live in the Sacramento area. So we dragged the boat and its trailer over the Rockies, with a nasty incident in Albuquerque where the rear window of the SUV was smashed and random stuff taken. I could blame Aerie for it, since the length of the car plus trailer forced us to park in the one area not covered by security cameras and right next to the fence to boot. But I don’t blame the boat really; thieves are mean idiots who will steal anything they can, causing $500 worth of damage (not to mention the replacement cost of what they stole) for a duffel bag of clothes and such, with a street value of maybe $30. Breaking Bad was right, Albuquerque must be full of meth-heads drugged out of their minds!

Anyway, Aerie made to Sacramento, where she spent a while in storage and now sits in the back yard, without much opportunity for outings since we spend summers in Greece. But she is still beautiful and works just as well. But now, one grandbaby later, it was time to build one in Greece. It’s cutting into my bagpipes practice (that's another story), but you can’t have everything.

Back in the water

I sailed the boat with the new rig this past weekend. I fashioned two mast crutches that go into the mast steps and partners of the former two cat ketch masts to carry the longer and heavier mast and other spars. The standing rigging complicates the setup but once the mast is up things fall into place. One annoying mishap after we rowed away from the ramp involved the throat halyard accidentally rolling down its block until its tail end ended at the masttop. A figure-8 knot stopped it from coming through completely, and it took many, many attempts to snag it and pull it down with the boat hook. Well that's not going to happen again, and if it does I'm a worse fool than I think I am.

But once we got under way, oh man! The wind on Lake Erie was very fickle, picking up and dying down and constantly changing direction, but with a decent breeze the boat was flying. Having to work the jibsheets adds a little extra work when coming about but tacking is easy, gybes are pretty gentle and the boat much more responsive and fast. All in all a very good experience. There were no other boats around so I had no opportunities to get photos so you'll have to take my word for it!

Dry Run

Since the last post I spent three very enjoyable weeks in Greece, my place of birth, on the ancestral island where I plan to retire at some point.  Since I came back I have tried to finish the new rig and try it out on dry land.  Here is a photo of it.  In the second photo (bottom right) you can see the jib attached to the forestay with jibhanks and its tack clipped to the bowsprit.  The stay connecting the bowsprit to the hull is not fastened because the winch is in the way: when launching it will need to be the last thing done before she floats off.

There are a couple of things missing in the first photo.  One is reef lines, which I will add before re-launch.  The other is the luff toggles (in lieu of mast hoops) of which there are four: they are there but are not fastened, since they bind on the mast and make pulling on the throat halyard to deploying the mainsail difficult.  I will have to use a piece of light line tied to the gaff jaws  to remedy the situation.

The other thing I found out while trying the rig is that I should not clip the topping lift to the boom before the sail is up: every time the peak halyard snaphook managed to clip itself to the topping lift and get fouled.  That's too bad, because the topping lift could have kept the gaff and boom in place while I deploy the sail.  Now I will have to clip it in place afterwards.

The third photo (bottom left) shows yours truly holding on the the mainsheet (notice the rudder is missing, I didn't think it necessary for this tryout).  You can see the 4x purchase tackle made of four separate single blocks: one with becket, two plain and one pivot.  All are secured with loops of line.  Behind the sail you can see the outline of the topping lift.

Remaining steps include repainting the decking and touching up parts of the hull, and building a couple of crutches for the mast that fit where the cat ketch masts used to.  Maybe next weekend I can re-launch.  We'll see.

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Gaff and boom

The next thing was the gaff.  An eyebolt was put through the throat for clipping the throat halyard on.  A metal strap bent into a U-shape and attached to the underside of the eyebolt was used to secure the mainsail’s throat.  The head was laced to the gaff just as the lugsails of the first rig were laced to their yards, using a series of marline hitches.  Photos of these will be on the next post.

I also put on a loop of line (secured with a steel eye strap on the underside of the gaff) where the peak halyard will be clipped.  This method of securing rigging with loops of line going around the spar, rather than using fittings simply screwed into it, was repeated throughout: the shrouds and forestay, the throat halyard block, the mainsheet blocks, the topping lift and the boom vang.

Next came the boom.  The foot of the sail is secured to the boom at the tack with a pin.  A gooseneck screwed to the mast enters the fore end of the boom.  The epoxy-reinforced glooseneck hole in the boom has a mouth with square cross-section to ensure a tight fit and no twisting.  Both are seen in the first photo.  

  

At the clew there is an outhaul line that runs through the aft end of the boom past a sheave and is secured with a clam cleat.  This plus the topping lift, which clips anto a loop of line, are shown in the second photo.

The third photo shows the boom vang.  It starts with a running bowline secured to a wooden cleat, runs through a block tied to the boom, and ties off on a horn cleat.  The boom vang will keep the boom on its goose neck, and stop the boom from lifting when sailing downwind, something that gaff sails are prone to.

Tomorrow if all goes well I will put in halyard and sheet cleats and try out the new running rigging. 

boatbuilder