SPLASH!!!

This morning I took the boat over the Little Lake Conroy and put it in at the boat ramp off of Hoffner ave. behind the church.  The ramp was very crowded and busy but my son, Sean is experience with this and was there to help me.  After getting the boat prepped we waited in line to get the boat in the water.  Finally it was our turn.  We backed the boat as far as we dared but couldn't get it to float off.  We eventually had to get in the water and push it off.  This exposed the need for a tongue extension for the trailer.  I had ordered one when I got the trailer but they had forgotten to put it on.  I'll taking the trailer back for that work on friday.

The boat ramp is about 3 miles across the lake from where my Seans' dock is located.  He has a home on one of the many canals that provide access to the lake.  My other son Scott and I set off across the lake using the Torqueedo outboard.

I didn't have the mast up and left the sails on shore with the mission to just get the boat over to Seans' dock so I could do the running rigging there.  I did drop the centerboard and that worked just fine.

I kept the throttle eased back since I didn't know how much distance I could get out of the Torqueedo.  Once we got to the other side of the lake Scott had problems identifying which of the 3 canals in the same general area was the one that would take us to Seans' dock.  I called Sean and he rowed out in the last boat I built and flagged us in.  By the time we got to the dock the Torqueedo was down to 52%.

I beached the bow of the boat on the left hand side of Seans' dock and tied it up.  Sean had brought the car and trailer around to his house after he dropped us off.  We did a little cleanup and I left her in Seans' back yard.  A previous commitment to go visit my mother in law kept me from getting the mast and sails up and having a nice sail around the lake.  I'm going to try to get out and do that on tuesday evening after work.  At that time we'll have the christening ceremony and first sail.

Boat on Trailer

Been getting all the little things done on the boat in preparation for launch day.  Managed to get the boat on the trailer without too much damage (just a couple of scuffs and a small dent).  Nothing that can't be easily fixed.  Should've paid more attention while getting it on the trailer.  I hate having to re-do work 'cause I rushed or didn't pay as much attention to something as I should have.  Thanks for the help from Rob, Mike and my son Sean.

The boat does look beautiful.  I've got the mast on now and shrouds have been mounted.  I purchased the "Pocketship Sailing Hardware Kit" from clc.  The shrouds ended up being just the right length for my mast.  I guess that means I got all the dimensions correct.

The trailer is an aluminum Magic Tilt that was purchased from a local dealer.  They set it up as best they could from the dimensions I gave them.  The bunk supports are a little long.  Gonna borrow my sons saws-all and take care of that tomorrow.  The only option that I added was the spare tire.  It's a nice trailer and the out the door price + TTL was a shade over $2100 new.  On a related note I was able to get the boat registered (although it threw the local DMV into all kinds of convulsions and took about 2 hours and lots of phone calls) and was able to obtains reasonable insurance through BoatUS.

Since this picture I've remounted the removable tabernacle, and boom support and mounted the mast.  I also loaded on the 150lbs of extra ballast and mounted the running lights.  Measuring the current height of the trailer and comparing it to the garage door height I have a scant 2" of clearance but should still be able to put it in my garage should I need to.

I finished adding the drop boards while it was in the garage.  They fit pretty well right out of the box.  I had to shave just a little off the outboard edges of the curved top of the top board to get clearance for the sliding hatch.  After I did that it fit perfect.

Also note the compass.  I really like it in this position but I can't take credit for it.  I saw it on someones blog I just haven't been able to find it again to give them attribution.

Interestingly last night we had one of those severe Florida thunder storms that drops torrents of rain in a small amount of time.  This morning I went to see where I was leaking.  I checked inside the lazarettes, not a drop.  Checked the cabin interior, again dry as a bone as was the dorades.  Pretty nice.

I added a swivel cleat to the base of the mainsheet block.  Others have done this and manual tells you that small boats should never have the mainsheet cleated.  However, my rule of thumb is that you should always have the mainsheet in hand.

I've still got some running rigging tasks to complete.  The plan is to splash it this weekend if the weather cooperates.

Fitting Out. Part 2.

Last I left off I was adding all the fitting out parts for the PocketShip.  It's amazing how time consuming this is.  Seems like there is an endless list of little things to do once you've got the hull built.  On another note, my sails from CLC arrived last week.  They subcontract those out to a sailmaker whose name I've lost.  Anyway he did a very nice job.

The companion way hood was very tricky to get perfectly aligned on the boat.  I should have marked it better when I was laying it out.  The hatch slides easily but not so easily that it will move around in rough seas.

I really like the way it turned out with the black walnut.

Another shot with it open.

In the front I used white oak for contrast.  I like the way that turned out too.

Nice shot of the rudder with the hardware attached.  Pretty wood.

This is the drop board slides (again black oak) with some trim rings that I used around the vent inlet.  Between each interior vent hold and trim ring I captured a butterfly vent control.  This makes it easy to adjust the amount of air flow into the cabin and it looks nice.  No picture so you'll just have to use your imagination!

Here are the drop board slides installed.  I love that dark wood.

I made up about a dozen of these little guys for  epoxy and (later) painting/varnishing the spars.  They are very handy and keep the after drying touch ups to a minimum.  Not my idea, I saw this on Offcenter Harbor.  Geoff Kerr, the builder of the PocketShip prototype, is a frequent contributor there.  He has a multipart video on building a Caledonia Yawl that is a very good reference to small boat building with epoxy.

If you look at this pile of wood you see the mast, boom, boom gallows, tiller and bow sprit.  These have all had their sealing coats of epoxy and await touch-up sanding and painting.

The "Hull Hardware Package that I purchased from CLC appears to have been shipped without the properly sized lexan drop boards.  In the picture above the template is underneath and notice that the lexan is too small to cover the template (both pieces of lexan are the same size).

Note in this picture the lexan is exactly the same size as the template.  I've asked if this is right on PocketShip.net.  Maybe it's just a mistake and not the way it's supposed to be.

Hours this session: 16

Hours total: 667

Fitting Out. Part 1.

Over the past few weeks I've been working on getting some of the hardware on the boat.  I purchased the "Hull Hardware Package" from CLC so I've been working mostly on getting the stuff that they provided me installed on my hull.  The majority of my time has been spent getting screws and bolts cut down and then marking the location of them.  I'm pretty careful about making sure I've got things exactly where they need to be before putting a drill bit to the boat.

Here you can see the eyebolts for the rudder.  Installation on this went smoothly.  Installed just like the manual instructs.

In this picture you can see the bushing for the centerboard pendant.  This was a little of a problem and outlined a shortcoming/mistake in the construction manual from CLC.  If you're interested you can find the explanation at the Pocketship Forum.  If you look down at the lower corners of the photo you can see the access hatches for the lazarettes.

The dorade vents went in easy.

The anchor fairleads are held to the rail with 1 1/2 wood screws.

The most time consuming task was installing the portlight lenses.

I chose to differ from the manual in that I used the decorative washers and chose not to countersink the screw heads.  This eliminated the worry of cracking the acrylic lens during tightening.  Instead of using marine calking compound to bed the lenses I chose to use butyl tape as a bedding compound.  It's easily shapable with your hands and stays where you put it.  The dark edge around the portlight above is the butyl tape.  The uneven edges are the squeeze out.  This was easy to clean up by running a plastic knife around the inside and simply pulling off the squeeze out.

I clear painted and mounted the companion way hatch and its spray cover.  I chose to epoxy mine down.  All the planning on it must have been right.  It slides easily and without any play.

Attached the two cleats and drilled holes for the boom gallows.  I still need to line these with epoxy to prevent rot.

The mount for the boom gallows was an awkward install.  Hard to get in there and drill.  I used a dremel tool with a shaft extension to create the holes.  Used the same tool to cut off the outboard edge of the support.  You can see the squeeze out of the butyl tape that I used for bedding.  Aside from the U-Bolt on the front which I used 5200 on, the rest of the bedding has been done with butyl tape.  It's just way too easy to use and it also make future maintenance and cleanup much easier.

Here you can see my nifty outboard mount.  Pull the cotter pin on the center leg and the hold thing lifts off easily leaving behind only the three small mounting brackets.  I still need to fabricate a wooded plate to bolt to it.

I've ordered the sails and the "Sailing Hardware Package" from CLC (that was a fast 3K).  I'm getting close enough now to smell the ocean.  Need to build the mast, gaff, boom, and bowsprit, take care of the electrical, buy a trailer and I'll be on the water!

Hours this session: 12

Hours total: 651

Topsides Painting and U-Bolt

The topsides turned out rather well.  I chose to roll and tip the topsides because I was afraid of the surface complexity and my competency at using the sprayer.

Rolling and tipping with WR-LPU is a nerve racking experience.  The first coat looks so god awful bad that it's hard to believe that it will work out in the end.

I ended up doing 4 coats of color and 3 coats of clear over everything.  Each coat took about 3 hours to apply.  You can't wait more than 24 hours between coats of the WR-LPU otherwise you have to sand the prior coats.  I had to plan out about 3 days of work to get it all done correctly.

Had a few little runs, drips and sags but nothing that couldn't be taken care of.

I decided to drill the first holes in the hull for the U-bolt.  It was more than a little terrifying to drill holes in my nice hull.  Incidentally this is one of the few places that the manual is a little fuzzy.  The location is noted on the plans but require you to extrapolate the location on the boat.  After a bunch of calculations and measuring I put drill to wood.

Part of my trepidation was that I set the access tube in the front compartment more than a year ago.  I couldn't find the sheet that I had used to make the calculations back then.  So I was trusting that I was going to hit that location with my new set of calculations.  In theory it should work out the same all the time.  Luckily for me that theory held true in this case.  The two holes were almost perfectly centered in the access tube.

The U-bolt supplied by CLC in their "Hull Hardware Package" had legs that were about 1 1/2" too long.  This wouldn't be a problem if I could get a conventional wrench down that access tube.  That tube is only 6" in diameter so there isn't much room to work.  I had to use a socket extension on a 24" T-Bar to reach the nuts.  The socket meant that the legs couldn't extend too far out of the nuts or the socket would loose purchase.  A few measurements and calculations cumulating in about 5 minutes with a dremel cutoff wheel and all was well.  Slather on some 5200 and tighten up the nuts and the deal is done.

Hours this session: 21

Hours total: 639

Topside Priming and Sanding

The priming of the topsides took 3 coats of high build primer.  Even then there were a few places that I had to go back over and fill with fairing compound.  It's amazing how many imperfections you can find in a perfect finish!

Sanding this primer is very easy and makes for a silky smooth surface.  All that was required was a very light sanding to produce a great surface.  It's easy to sand through and I did in a couple of places.  I don't worry about it too much as long as the surface is fair the WR-LPU will produce a nice finish.

The plan from here is to mask the topsides and paint with three coats of color (white).  Then remove the mask and cover the color and the brightwork in three coats of clear.  This will provide a nice gloss for the topsides and protect the brightwork from UV deterioration.

The green tape is a automotive masking tape that makes a very fine line.  The primer is thick and I can use regular painters tape for that but the WR-LPU paint is very thin and often runs under painter tape.  Even though the automotive tape is expensive it provides a very razor fine paint line.  For those of you following along at home just make sure you "burnish" the edge of the fine line tape.  I use a spoon and go over every square inch of tape.

Hours this session: 8

Hours total: 618

Topsides Sanding and Masking

I procrastinated a little while before sanding the topsides.  But once I got started it went quickly.  The hardest part of the sanding was the anchor well.  Lots of crevices in there to get smooth.

My plan is to prime all the non-masked areas with high build primer do a quick sanding with 220 and then paint.  I'll shoot several coats of color on the masked area and then a few coats of clear on everything.  That should give a good gloss to the paint and a nice look to the unpainted areas.  I need to do some anti-skid on the cabin roof.

I need to start working on the spars and I need to order my hardware.  I'm starting to think about the hardware I need and fitting out.  I'll probably just go the easy route and get it from CLC.  

Hours this session: 16

Hours total: 610