Chebacco News 78 – Richard’s interesting project

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Richard Cockburn wrote to me in November 2022. He had purchased a partly completed hull from Duck Flat wooden boats in Adelaide, Australia. The advertisement is still up on their website https://duckflatwoodenboats.com/boats_for_sale/chebacco-21ft-glass-house-design/ but I guess they will take it down soon – it sold over a year ago!

Richard agreed a good price and brought it home.

It turns out that it was no ordinary hull. A glasshouse cabin but an off centre centreboard. He asked me for details of the numerous variants of Chebaccos and he also corresponded with Suzanne. (I was obviously helpful because Richard made a useful donation to the website – Thanks Richard)

Richard continues:

Dear Andrew,

This is the history of my progress finishing the bare  hull of “Glasshouse version” I purchased the end of November 22.

The first steps were to establish what I had bought because after examination it is a combination of the standard version, Glasshouse, with an offset larger centre plate with pivot some 600mm further forward than standard.

In detail the versions divide at the waterline.

Below the water line it is the standard Chebacco with the rudder ending at the stern and no ballast.

Above the waterline the hull has the 150mm deeper sides of the glass house version.

Internally the cabin is as per glasshouse version.

After reading the information you provided I also at the same time contacted Susanne Altenburger through Bolgerboats.

Armed now with copies of MAIB of all the versions published

As I want to sail in the gulfs Spencer and  St Vincent – semi Off shore – the design is now as follows.

  • Cabin extended out to almost to the gunnels, for extra stability in case of knockdown.
  • forward hatch to make reefing and anchoring easier and safer.
  • Cockpit kept the 1100mm rather than sitting with feet at the top of the keel making the cockpit self draining.
  • Sails I have existing sails and mast  from the Piver Tri I used to own, so will modify the main and make a mizzen from them. At this stage the main looks like it will be square headed but the same area as design. This moves the C of E approx 200mm further forward than standard. Equivalent to the change suggested for the cruising version .

I have glassed and painted the  bottom fitted the Bulk head and framed the cabin. Cockpit and aft  deck have the floors fitted awaiting glassing along with finishing the  centre plate coating .

I turned the hull back upright on my own using 2 chain blocks and a rope and tackle photos attached

Along with photos as it is now and sketch of what it will look like completed . It is still a work in progress but planning for mid 24 completion . This is 6months later than planned

Regards

Richard

I think this is going to be a really comfortable cabin! Well done Richard.

Now a short story about a chance meeting of “The Chebacco club”: Last month I was trying to catch a tram home and I walked past a chandlery, so I dropped in to browse and chat. I was describing my rudder to the salesman when another customer called out from the other end of the isle “you are talking about a Chebacco!”. It turns out that Graeme had just bought a Chebacco that was to be delivered in the next days from interstate. He had studied the Chebacco.com site in anticipation. Fancy that, recognizing a Chebacco owner from overhearing a verbal description of a rudder end plate! Well welcome to the club Graeme! I hope you email me a story about all the fun you will be having in your Chebacco.

By the way – If you want to support the Chebacco.com website, the largest collection of Bolger boat material on the internet, there is a donate button down near the bottom of each page. A few dollars would be appreciated as it costs me a couple of hundred each year.

Chebacco News 72 – Chris Smead’s Chocolate Moose Part 2

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Chris’ project continues on through the pandemic – Great photos, well thought through build, it is going to be a sail boat comparable to any Chebacco out there. – it looks like there is a part 3 to come too. Chris writes:

I forget to mention that I glassed the bottom, all the way over the joint with the bilge panels. I did not glass around the keel  or the topsides. 

I started sewing the sails, a kit from Sailrite here in the States. This is the mizzen with panels joined but it still needs patches and all the edge work. My church was closed for a long time during the pandemic and it gave me a great opportunity to use the huge lobby floor as a sail loft!

I decided to paint the bottom before flipping the hull. I used latex floor enamel paint. It won’t have that glossy finish and maybe not the wearability of marine-grade paint, but it was easy to apply and clean up, as well as quick-drying and not so toxic to the people who live in my house (especially over the garage). Besides, this boat will live indoors, in my garage for the majority of its life! Painting revealed lots of imperfections to be filled and faired. That process is ongoing even today, but I had to get after the ones that would be harder to reach after the hull got turned over! Here I am getting ready to unfasten the hull from the strongback in preparation for turning over.

What a triumphant moment! Here we are basking in glory – a hull in one piece and right-side-up! I have a second-hand trailer shown here. It still needs to be fixed up, but I’ll block the whole thing up to continue working on the hull on top of the trailer. 

I took off the front part (tongue?) because it had to fit in my garage. Wouldn’t you know it – I had to park it diagonally because my garage door wouldn’t otherwise clear the bow in the upright position. My “manning-esque” bench came apart and got reassigned.

In this picture, I am preparing the FG tape on the inside seams.

I gotta tell you, it’s a surreal feeling when I look at the upright hull. That bow is so high! I didn’t expect it to feel like such a rise. Once I gained the confidence to step aboard, I spent a long time sitting in the cockpit just looking around. So happy!

This is a dry fit of the rudder box. I just had to install it on that square hole in the hull. Man, it was hard to start cutting that hole (mentally).

I did some framing next, for the cockpit and deck. I thought about making a bridge deck. My decision against it came from wanting to keep a large cockpit, and a plan to use the floorboards to make a flat platform in any configuration needed. 

Here you see the aft quarters and the framing just installed. You can also see the side deck, which overlaps the last bulkhead into the aft section a little bit. I did this because I couldn’t figure out how to make a trustworthy butt joint right on the bulkhead, so I’m going to make one here instead, with a patch of wood underneath.

Here you see the same method (if you can even dignify it by calling it a method) on the forward end. I also fit the cabin sides. I thought it would be easier to do this before decking.

I got some great advice from Jamie Orr about mast slot design and it helped me think about how the mast partner pieces must go together. I read some classic posts from chebacco.com discussing weather helm. P. Bolger reportedly experienced a sail on a Chebacco and found more weather helm than he would have liked. He said moving the mast forward 3 or 4 inches wouldn’t hurt. I agonized about this for a few days, tried some different pencil marks and clamping arrangements, and settled on 2.5 inches forward of the mark on the plans.

I made the roof from 2 layers of quarter-inch. You can see here I also made the seats (which are not yet glued down in this picture) and also the, shall we say, backrest. In the plans, this backrest extends upward into a vertical coaming. I’m going to attempt an angled-back coaming and attach it to the backrest.

Then I cut the companionway and mast slot out.

Someone gave me an old 3-pulley bandsaw that I finally figured out how to repair and use. I used it to rough out the Jonesport cleat.

I took a shot at the sliding hatch by first looking at some examples for bigger boats in “How to Build a Wooden Boat” by David C. McIntosh and Samuel F. Manning. Then I dumbed it down and cobbled this, keeping the rails in place while gluing so I don’t mess up the shape and the squareness all around. No, that’s not the roof – just some scrap scaffolding to hold the shape while the glue dries.

I tacked on the roof later and started thinking about how to make the windows. I want them to be simple. Bill Sampson reported (over 20 years ago on chebacco.com), “I did SYLVESTER’s portlights simply by cutting oval holes in the sides of the cabin and screwing1/8″ acrylic sheet on the inside, with some clear silicone sealant between.” I think I might do that and maybe put a plywood border on the outside? 

Here are the aft deck pieces and also the side benches being glued down.

I mentioned that I wanted to angle the coaming and tried to figure out a good method. A local guy has a J. Welsford boat (I think it’s a Pathfinder) and I stopped by his garage. His boat has beautiful angled solid coaming and I checked the angle and height, then tried to carry the idea to my boat. Here is the block beside the cabin, cut to about 10 degrees. 

I also glued little angled, cypress blocks right on top of Frame #5 to help hold the coaming and also to place an oarlock someday. I sat against the coaming for a while after the epoxy cured. They seem pretty comfortable! Fellow chebacconist Howard Sharp suggested I also angle back the benches for comfort, but I decided not to try because of all the drainage engineering it would’ve required. 

Here are the slots for the companionway boards. Some glue ended up curing in the slots and I didn’t notice for days after. I’m having to scrape as much as I can reach. Also, I’m shaving down the boards so they will fit the slot. 

These aft-quarter coaming pieces had to match the rest of the coaming in curvature, so I had to carefully brace them in the right position while gluing. I still haven’t worked out all the mainsheet traveller and mizzen sheeting arrangement back here. Plus, there will be some kind of hatch for storage. I made the clamshell vents too. 

I glassed the joint between the cabin and deck. I’m not sure if it was necessary, but it seemed weak and I didn’t want to worry about it. 

I named it “Chocolate Moose.” I’ve tried on all kinds of other names. Some were more cheeky, some were more serious, even borderline profound, but they didn’t fit. A moose is a majestic animal, brave, large, fierce, strong and peaceful. On the other hand, one can’t escape the fact that a moose has a certain, unavoidable tinge of ridiculousness woven into its very identity. Yes, a moose is ridiculous. I mean, just look at that nose and those big ol’ antlers! This mix of character reflects my boat, I believe.

(Brittanica)

(Rocky and Bullwinkle)

But even beyond these kinds of moose lies the best mousse of all! I mean, seriously, is there anything better? I doubt you could name a single better dessert. You might call it heaven in a cup. 

(Cooking Classy)

Andrew, sorry for the long-winded update, [Not at all! – Andrew] but let me leave you with a couple of questions:

1. I saw the pictures and videos of capsize testing using Jamie Orr’s Wayward Lass at the Wooden Boat Festival a few years back. When she was on her side, she floated high and water didn’t get into the cabin. She righted easily, it seemed. However, when turtles, she did come up, but completely flooded. With so much volume in that cabin and unsealed storage under the seats, etc., I don’t know how you would possibly add enough flotation to make her rescuable from a complete flood. Do you? it seems like the best strategy would be to make a mast float to help keep her on her side in the case of a knockdown. What do you think about this safety issue? 

2. Where and how do you attach the mast traveller? I was planning to use a simple rope one. Does it need to be tended while under sail? 

3. Do you have any suggestions regarding how to set up the boat to optimize its sailing performance? By this, I refer to the fact that, without a motor, I need the boat to be able to point well and sail well generally over a broad range of conditions. Any tips or rules of thumb? 

Chebacco News 71 – Chris Smead’s 19’3″ Chebacco part 1

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It has been a while since we have had a reader story – it has been worth the wait. Chris has been asking questions and posting photos of his build on Woodenboat forum for a couple of years now. This is the first part of a two part story. Enjoy. Chris Smead writes:

Hi Andrew! I started building my sheet-ply version sometime in mid-2019, with great inspiration from those who have gone before me on chebacco.com! My wife and I have four kids and live in a Virginia Beach neighborhood which doesn’t allow building projects outside. I chose the design partly because it seemed like the “most boat” I could build and store in my garage! 

Dude, look at this picture (from chebacco.com). I don’t know who this is or where this photo was taken, but look how many adults and kids are just having a blast on this thing! It’s like a sailing adventure party and it fired up my imagination. 

I started out laminating the spars, trying to get used to epoxy and how to work with it.

I think that’s the boom, oblong in cross-section. I used cypress. I still haven’t made the mast, which will be fir, but the rest of the spars are made and just waiting for fittings/finishing. 

I hired these guys to be the crew. This picture was taken in 2019 out by Lynnhaven Bay. They look so small now. Two years makes such a big difference with kids. Don’t they look like they need a boat for adventures? 

I remember laying out all these huge plywood sheets in the garage back in 2019, making straight lines and cutting with the jigsaw. You can see bulkheads and the temporary forms up against the back wall. On the ceiling is the other boat I built, an awesome 8’ Dave Gentry skin-on-frame sailing pram. Maybe it could be the tender one day? You can probably see that I have to work around lots of clutter. Our little garage serves many purposes besides boat building. It’s hard to keep it all organized, especially as the boat evolves. The curvy parts were more interesting and fiddly. This is the making of the stem pattern, bending battens over nails. This made me feel like a real boat builder, instead of just a jigsaw handler for straight lines on plywood. I made the inner and outer stems at the same time, thinking this would SURELY make them line up perfectly when it was time to attach them. (They didn’t, but it ended up working anyway.)

Here is the inner stem being laminated. It was hard to keep the layers aligned. I would have tried another system to hold everything in place if I had it to do over again. Luckily, it worked out anyway and there was plenty of wood left for the bevelling, which I messed up anyway. I needed more clamps. I still need more clamps. The thing is, it’s hard to make the inside surface smooth once all the epoxy cures because the surface is so concave and I don’t have a tool to match. A smoothish surface is needed later when fiberglassing the joint between the stem and the plywood panels on the inside, especially up near the breasthook.

Then, I got to shape the stem with a planer and a file. It’s funny, I tried to keep the bevels symmetrical as I did this, but I got off track somehow and didn’t realize it. In a later picture you may be able to discern the consequences of this mistake. If you look at the bow straight on, you mayyyyybe might see a slight asymmetry. It worked out alright, and I don’t think anyone would notice by looking at the boat now, but I will always know…

I tried to construct the hull bottom (which is flat athwartships, of course) using Payson’s method of fiberglass butt joints. Why did I make my first attempt upon the largest joint in the whole boat? You are right to ask this question. I messed it up. It’s supposed to go: Wet out fiberglass tape and ply ends with epoxy, lay out on (plastic-protected) floor, wet out new ply ends, apply fiberglass tape on top, saturate with epoxy and squeeze out bubbles with a painter’s edge.

I’m not sure if you can see in the picture, but there are a few air bubbles under the fiberglass tape (somehow). I had to perform some surgery on the big joint. Then, I had to completely remake the small forward joint. Maybe I didn’t measure the epoxy components properly? Nearest the bow, I remade the joint using some thickened epoxy between the butted edges. I also needed to make a small fillet, as the forward section of the bottom is made of Okoume 12mm, whereas the rest of the bottom is made of Doug. Fir 5/8″, which I had on hand. I know, I know, “Why would you try to make a flat panel out of different thicknesses of plywood?”  Next time I will not be doing that, as it adds too much complication.

Humbled yet again, I sat in a chair for a long time thinking about what I could’ve done differently. Payson made it sound so simple in his book! Anyway, I laid some blue tape and a straight line and measured offsets to join my side panels. I used lots of epoxy this time to really saturate the tape. Yes it ended up on my floor. I also used a bit of thickened epoxy in the actual joint (I think this helped). Then, after using a roller to remove air bubbles, I lay down some saran wrap and plywood and screwed it down just to hold it together. I was nervous to look the next morning…

They actually turned out great! I then carefully laid out the strongback with a straight string. I put it on casters so I could roll it slightly out of the garage when working, since otherwise the transom is right up against the wall. 

I recently learned that my neighborhood association will not allow permanently stored boats or boat trailers on the property. However, after fuming about it for a few days, I realized there would be a few advantages to storing the boat permanently in the garage, especially during hurricane season. Also, the finish might hold up longer, etc. I’m building the boat 5″ shorter than in the plans so it will fit in my garage. Trust me, I thought about all kinds of ways to build out my garage door so I could keep those 5” but didn’t come up with a reasonable solution. I briefly investigated the practice of scaling a boat’s length. It seems that boats often get stretched more successfully than “smooshed,” but we’re only talking about 2.5%, so I think it’ll be fine. Here’s hopin’!

Moving forward, while measuring things out, every 4′ becomes 47″. Things got more confusing than I thought. Here is the first bulkhead up at station 5.

I had trouble making sense of the plans regarding the transom bevels. After sitting and scratching my head for a long time, I cut some wood and made this.

I left the transom with some curve on top. This was meant to be an experiment in motorless cruising, so I didn’t see the need to cut out the motor mount yet. I know Chebacco was specifically designed to take an outboard, but I’d prefer to leave it off. I’m willing to take more time to account for tides, winds, etc., and possibly extra sail. I also realize I will need to build in safety features that don’t depend on an outboard. I am open to suggestions in this regard! My mission is to take the whole crew island-hopping in the Chesapeake Bay and Albermarle Sound over multiple days, albeit with primitive accommodations. 

Here is where I noticed I had somehow messed up the bevels on the stem. See the humongous gap? I had to do some re-thinking, then some re-shaping, and later some generous gluing.

There are 7 “frames,” including the transom, which are attached to the strongback. Only Frame 4 and the transom have vertical levels specified in the table of offsets, as far as I can tell. I tried to guess at the remaining 5. After this, I lay the side planks on the frames. It took HOURS to adjust the heights of the frames to make them look right. Since the side planks are vertical, they have defined marks from the plans for placement on the frames. These fore-aft marks on the planks lined up remarkably well with the frames.

See how the bow wants to stick out of my garage? It’s a good thing I measured so carefully! I was so proud of myself. Later, when I flipped the boat, it did NOT fit because the pointy bow hit the upper rolly part of the garage door. Why hadn’t I thought about that?

I had a tough time fitting the “bilge panels” in the forward section, but got it done with some straps and clamps. Maybe I should have laminated it instead, but it wasn’t too tough. You can see I also fit the keel pieces! The centerboard case is in there too. Trust me. This is a messy job, but the end product is quite satisfying! 

I spent some time on the inside fillets of thickened epoxy but decided to leave the fiberglass tape for when the boat was right-side up. I did fit the sheer stringer. Maybe you call it the clamp? Here is the ugliest part of it, where I scarphed in a piece and tried to make it look like it belonged there. Luckily, this piece will be under the deck behind the cockpit coaming and will not be visible in the finished boat. Here is the test with the centerboard pivoting in its case. I had to do some sanding with a long stick to smooth out the epoxy on the inside of the case. Once I got it working, I shaped and ballasted the board. I used some lead shot I found combined with some ingots I ordered online. I painted it with some red leftover Rustoleum hardware store paint. I mean, only fish will see it, right? 

I spent some time fairing the hull. I used West System fairing filler with some silica thickener. By this point, it was much harder to see the asymmetry between the topsides at the stem! 

Oh, and I started messing with an offcut from one of the spars to see if it could become the Jonesport cleat. I really like the look of the Chebacco bow, so I wanted to get this piece right! 

Chebacco News 64 – The Coulson Build

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Over a year ago, Canadians Shelley and Jerry sent me some photos of their sheet ply build – and a great looking marine grade aluminium rudder. I am looking forward to hear how it works. Jerry has built over 40 boats and this build shows his skills.

Great news just today:

Hi Andrew. We just put her in the water. We are in midst of setting the sails properly and adding fittings etc. We are hoping to go sailing this weekend. Thank you for your interest. I’ll send a picture.   Take care. Shelley.

UPDATE July 2019: She is for sale, the for sale pages.

Chebacco News 63 – Octagonal or round mast?

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When I built the birdsmouth mast for Khaos, my Chebacco 25, I liked the look of the eight sided stick. So I rounded the corners and varnished the beautiful octagonal showpiece.

The Octagonal mast

But that turned out to be the wrong thing to do, The varnish didn’t like protecting the corners and after a time cracked and let in water. After some more time the water got into the timber (Queensland hoop pine) and the swelling caused cracks to form.

So, over the last few weeks I have removed the mast from the tabernacle and put it on saw horses outside my shed. Epoxy filled the cracks. Planing took 8 sided to 16 sided. More planing took 16 sided to 32 sided. At this point I made up a sanding contraption with an old drill, threaded rod and two plastic wheels.

This contraption is the third version I made, I discovered that the rubber tyre was important for grip and that the tyre must be a larger diameter than the mast. None of the websites I visited mentioned this fact, but it is critical, the friction on the driving tyres must be more than the friction on the mast itself, otherwise you end up sanding the driving tyres not the mast. For geometry reasons the larger diameter tyre has more contact area than the smaller diameter mast and this results in more friction between the tyre and the inside of the (inside out) sanding belt.

I started with 80 grit and ended with 220 grit.

I held the other end of the rod with a bit of steel with a hole in it. Simple.

This turned out to be the only way to practically sand this mast. 5″ x 20′ turns out to be a lot of sanding and completely impractical for hand sanding. Even then it took me two weeks of sanding sessions (limited by my stamina)

The round mast looks good too.

Andrew

Chebacco News 62 – 11 years and counting, a cedar strip build

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Received from Dennis Gamble recently:

I live in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and have been building my Chebacco for about 11 years now.  After completing a Bolger Gypsy back in 2004, I decided I needed something a bit larger.  I did not enjoy the sanding of epoxy required for the tack and tape method, so I decided to build my boat using sawn frames and chine logs instead. 

I first lofted the boat full size in my basement on ¼ inch gypsum board.  I then built the frames, inner stem, centerboard and case.   The frames and stem are of douglas fir. The next step would have been the strong back, but I didn’t have a large enough space to set the boat up at my previous residence.  So the frames and centerboard went up into the garage rafters for a couple of years until I moved into my current home. 

I have a double garage now, about 22 feet deep.  The strongback went up in the right side stall, and the boat has lived there ever since.  My hull is constructed of 3 layers.  The first 2 layers are ¼ inch by 1.5 inch cedar strips laid on a diagonal at 90 degrees.  The outer layer is 1/8 inch meranti plywood.  The hull is covered on the outside with 4 oz fiberglass cloth set in epoxy.  I will not be fiberglassing the inside. In retrospect I would probably have used plywood for the hull, as this is a fairly labor intensive method of construction.  Also, my hull is not as fair as it could be.  This did not become apparent until after I had glassed, painted and flipped it onto it’s trailer.  I will repaint with a flat finish rather than re-glass.  I have been using ½ inch MDO for the cockpit, deck and cabin construction.  All exterior horizontal surfaces will have a layer of 4 ounce fiberglass cloth set in epoxy.  I am using thickened epoxy for exterior glue joints.  I have been using PL Premium construction adhesive for most interior joinery. 

Progress has been slow but steady.  I added a heater to my garage a few years ago, which has allowed me to work through the Winter.  I try to work on the boat a little every day, but probably average only 5 hours a week.  At my current pace, I’m probably 3 to 4 years away from launching.  I haven’t taken many construction pictures, and have lost track of some of the earlier shots, but here are some newer shots.  More shots at https://saildubay.club/boat-building-project/

Chebacco News 60 – raising the centreboard

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I had a question about how to raise the centreboard on a chebacco.

The centreboard is not very heavy and it is possible to raise the board without mechanical advantage, but I wanted it to be easy for anyone to operate the board.  I looked everywhere for a simple cheap winch but in the end it was easier to make one.

 

The winch is mounted to the top of the case inside the cabin. The spindle is a stainless steel tube and you can see I made plywood washers held on with a through bolt.  The 4mm spectra line is clamped in an off the shelf cam cleat and the line passes through the cabin bulkhead and round a sheave down to the plate.

It was a relatively simple job – more time was spent/wasted looking for an off the shelf solution than actually making the winch.  I do not see why a Chebacco 19 centreboard couldn’t be raised the same way, but just plain muscles work too.

 

Andrew

Chebacco News 59 – Pete Greenfield’s Outdoor Boat

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Pete Greenfield is the editor of Watercraft Magazine in the UK (watercraft-magazine.com) a magazine dedicated to small home build boats.  In 2009 he recycled the moulds from a lapstrake Chebacco that Connie Mense had used to build her beautiful “Argo”.   See the resources section under websites for photos of Argo. Peter wrote about his journey to build his own Chebacco (actually he is still writing about his journey, like so many boatbuilding journeys it is a long one!) in Watercraft Magazine and he has graciously given me permission to reproduce some of his articles.

This is the first one he wrote in the November/December 2009 edition:

Building the OUTDOOR BOAT

by Pete Greenfield

Underneath the spreading chestnut tree, the editor has recycled Connie Mense’s moulds to build his own Chebacco Boat. And the green-ness of the project doesn’t stop there. With photographs by the author and the resident twitcher.

Why do birds suddenly appear every time I go near the boat frame in our garden? The cat has only to purr from the depths of a duvet in a distant bedroom and they take flight instantly. But when I peel back the polytarp from the boatbuilding frame, every tit in Cornwall turns up to perch on it.  I never liked that Hitchcock film. Worse, they’ve all been devouring the autumn’s raspberries, so my boatbuilding frame is beginning to look like a Crime Scene and – I kid you not here – a hungry-looking lesser-spotted woodpecker has also taken to visiting and I swear he has his onyx eye on my lining-off battens.

I’m quietly proud of my lining-off battens, not least because in the past, I’ve had problems with battens. Last time, they were fairing battens. A fairing batten is a length of small section timber which you lay across the erected inverted mould frames to check that they are …er… fair, meaning that you have set up the moulds so accurately that the batten takes up a suent curve, without humps or hollows, as it drapes across them. Needless to say, the fairing batten should not be so thin that it sags between moulds or so thick that it will not bend over them without resort to brute force. Equally, there should be no imperfections in the fairing batten – knots, kinks or badly made joints – which cause deflections, making it harder to check whether your moulds are really fair. Or, in the case of my previous ferro boat, really not.

You do not need lining-off battens for the monocoque hulls of ferro boats. You do need them when building a clinker planked wooden boat because they delineate the edges of the planks which are a major factor in the visual appeal of the boat. These clinker planks might look to the untutored eye as if they have straight parallel sides and are all of equal width but as Water Craft alumni will be aware, in reality such planks are frequently banana-shaped, sometimes S-shaped and the beamier the boat, the more curvaceous they need to be. Further, the illusion that the planks of the topsides are identical is created when the boatbuilder determines the shape of the garboard, the plank nearest the keel, which may well need to be a convoluted S-shaped banana with extra-wide ends…

But enough of GM crops… take it from me that when a shapely clinker hull is lined off so that the lie of every single plank from garboard to sheerstrake looks just right, it’s a work of art as much as craft and the tangible testament to the hand and eye of a real boatbuilder. Which is why, rather than mess it up myself, I decided to use the lining-off marks Connie had left on her moulds. But I still needed a full set of lining-off battens, all long enough to wrap around the hull from stem to stern, all knot- and kink-free. Fat chance of finding suitable timber in west Cornwall, I grumbled and went to the nearest builders’ merchant with little hope and less expectation.

Alas, dear reader, that I should have been so unjust! There at the Culdrose branch of the Travis Perkins chain, beyond the inevitable breeze blocks, pea gravel, drains and decking, huddled in the crepuscular cathedral of the timber shed, I found long lengths of straight grained and generally knot-free red pine in various sizes including a nominal 38 x 16mm, which they supply ‘Planed All Round’ at 34 x 11mm. Which is how, me buckos, a national disseminator of what Betjeman called ‘bungaloid growth’ came to determine that the lands – the overlaps of the clinker planking – on our Chebacco boat will be precisely 1 5/1 6″ (34mm) wide.

Unfortunately, however, the longest pieces TP could supply were around 15’6″ (4.8m) which meant proper joints would be needed; scarf joints which would not create kinks when the battens were bent to the hull curve. In the past, I’ve had problems with scarf joints.

The scarf joint, Grasshopper, is the boatbuilding joint. When one long length of timber must be made from two short ones, the shipwright cuts identical opposed tapers which mate together. Long tapers are required to get the largest possible ‘faying surfaces’ – the faces of the timber which will be glued together – which means the scarf needs to be at least eight times as long as the thickness of the timber being joined.

In the past, I would try to cut the taper with a tenon saw, the saw would invariably veer off-square and I would then need to plane vigorously to get a uniform incline, all too often creating in the process a speed-bump halfway along the taper. Planing down the speed-bump, I would start to get break-out at the feather edge. I would also start to get rather irritated.

So, Grasshopper, reach not for your western saw. Take up instead your Gyokucho Ryoba Kommane – yes, I had noticed that this running metaphor is crossing cultures, thank you – which has a 12″ (0.3m) double-edged blade, with rip teeth on one edge and crosscut teeth on the other. This gives the unique combination of a saw blade short enough to be used with some precision yet with rip teeth which are much better suited to a shallow diagonal cut virtually along the grain. Do not – at first; you will later – saw to the line; cut a little shy to allow for a couple of passes of the plane.

My other problem with scarfs used to come when I glued the two halves of the scarf together: all too often, as clamping pressure was applied the tapers would slide apart and sometimes go off at a tangent in the process.

It was under the tutelage of Mr D Phillips at Falmouth Marine School that I learned to do scarfs properly. First off, you need a base to support the scarf while you glue it: a clean plank, as long as you’ve got, with a nice straight edge. About midway along the plank, square across two lines to show the extent of the scarf joint, then wrap this area in cling-film to prevent the job sticking to the base.

For quick jobs outdoors, I have found Gorilla Glue easy and forgiving to use, tolerant of low temperatures, quickly cleaned up and very strong once set. It’s a polyurethane, so no mixing is needed and it’s not only tolerant of damp timber, it likes it. So much so that you are advised to spread the Gorilla Glue on one of the faying surfaces – now you do remember what a faying surface is, don’t you children? — and paint the other one with water. The wetter you make this face the more the Gorilla Glue will foam up as it sets; the foam fills crevices but does not act as a bonding agent on sloppy joinery.

So, my method when gluing scarf joints is to first clamp the piece of timber with the lower part of the scarf to the base, aligning it with the marked lines and the edge of the base and positioning the clamp well away from the action. Apply the Gorilla Glue to the taper. Wet the matching taper on the other half of the joint and lower this second piece of timber into place, again lining it up with the joint lines and the base edge and securing it firmly in place with a clamp well away from the joint. And it’s only when I’m sure the two pieces of timber are correctly aligned and firmly held in place that I wrap the topside of the scarf joint in more cling-film, add a scrap of ply on top to spread pressure and then clamp up the joint firmly. This way, I suffer from none of those old kinks and slippage; an important consideration at my age, Grasshopper.

Chebacco News 58 – Cruise Lake Eildon

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Cruising Eildon Lake in late Autumn

I am the local scout leader.  It is a role that means I can help young kids learn skills they would never learn on an iPad and can be great fun at the same time.  By one of those happy coincidences, we have 6 leaders in our troop and 4 of us are sailors.

So when it comes to having fun ourselves, without the scouts, we chose to go sailing of course.

Lake Eildon is about 2 hours away from us in central Victoria, Australia.

eildon The lake level goes up and down, and there is a bit of a drought in Victoria at the moment so the level is down to 30%.  But there is enough water to sail on, and the exposed banks are good for camping on.  Mid May is getting a bit cold up there, with overnight temperatures around freezing, so that means we won’t be disturbed by too many tourists and we have an excuse for a big campfire.  Very scout leader like.

11 cub and scout leaders turned up at Eildon Pub on the agreed Friday night.  The cook had conniptions when he realised  11 hungry sailors had just turned up and his usual 3 or 4 diners had just quadrupled in number for the evening.  We camped near the shore under a cloudless sky and woke to a frost.  A fire was soon started and a hot egg and bacon breakfast delayed our arrival at the ramp to a civilised hour.

My Chebacco 25 and Leo’s 26′ Seaway 787 were launched in a light Northerly breeze and hardly a ripple on the water.  Coats stayed on as the clouds got darker and the breeze freshened to maybe 8 or 10 knots.  But at least we picked up a little speed on the beat to our intended campsite.  Scout Leader Chewy, our self appointed camp cook, was very keen to get a fire going but personally I didn’t see the need to rush.  The lightly forested hills to the West hid all sorts of interesting houses, from holiday shacks to mountaintop mansions with windows on every side.  But the densely timber covered mountains to the East showed no sign of human habitation.  That is where we were headed.

Where there are two sail boats there is a race.  Beating in the cool breeze kept me concentrating on keeping up with the Seaway.  The Chebacco wouldn’t point as well as this 1/4 ton racer.  Initially this did concern me, the skipper. (I suspect I need to rake the mast back a bit to improve the helm balance.)  But soon my crew convinced me the reason for the trip had more to do with fun and comradeship than speed. The rum was brought out and I handed the tiller to Scout Leader Suzanna who quickly learned the basics of sail boat handling.

The Chebacco 25 is well suited to this role of cruising comradarie.  We had a 12′ cockpit with spaces for 6 adults.

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Fishing?

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Suzanna

 

After a couple of hours in light conditions it was clear we were being left behind.  The iron topsail (a 15hp Johnson) soon solved that.  The Chebacco makes 6 knots easily with half throttle, but full throttle gives you hardly any more speed, she won’t plane, at least not with that many on board.

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Camping for the night

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The gangplank

 

We found a secluded bay with flat ground to pitch our tents on and light our fire.  The gangplank was a handy idea – no wet feet.

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Argentinian BBQ

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Relax

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A magnificent sunset

 

We ate well, we figure we make good examples for our scouts – we came prepared with a BBQ rack and a small chainsaw for an ample fire.

Some of us slept aboard, others preferred to set up their swags (Australian for 1 person canvas tent/beds)

After another hearty breakfast we cleaned up, including some litter we found from a previous, less conscientious camper, and sailed back to the ramp.  This day I was much happier, the Chebacco runs well and we kept up with and passed the Seaway.

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That is all 11 of us in the cockpit

 

It wasn’t my most serious sailing trip – but serious fun, with a group of guys and girls who are serious about teaching kids about the magical experiences you can have outdoors.

Andrew