Rudder arm part 3

I was supposed to be out sailing today, but a sick daughter shot that plan. Instead I worked on the rudder arm and the boat trailer. I’m really happy with the rudder arm. This is definitely the best wood working project I’ve done to date. The oak is beautiful and the sweep of the curves very pleasing. The mortise and tenon could have been a little tighter, but it should be fine when pegged. The wood sanded up nicely and I got a first coat of spar varnish on it.

bottom of rudder arm

top of rudder arm

side view

Next I got the steel on the trailer painted with some flat black Rust-Oleum. Then it was on to the trailer lights so I can finally take this thing out after dark. I put some outdoor carpet on the crossbars and loaded up the kayaks next.

Just a few more hours on this thing and we’ll be ready for some great adventures this spring.

To the lake!

All the spring chores are done. I varnished all the spars and re-laced the sail to the yard and boom. I’m playing around with a loose-footed sail this time. I’ve got the two kayaks on the car and all the camping gear packed. We’re heading to Staunton River State Park in VA. The girls and I will spend the next 5 days boating, fishing and playing at the lake.

boats ready

Almost another launch day

We are getting very close to another boat launch day. I probably could have launched it already, but at this point there is no rush. We have a camping trip coming up in a few weeks where we’ll spend 5 days on Kerr Lake. That will be the perfect launch day and give the paint plenty of time to cure.

shiny paint

In order to get ready for that trip, it’s time to add another coat of varnish to the spars and the other set of Klepper paddles.

fresh varnish

Klepper paddles get a coat of varnish

I also drilled a couple of holes in the deck hatch and filled them with epoxy. I’ll drill smaller holes through the epoxy to make a waterproof bearing. I’ll tie a small rope through the holes to make a handle for pulling up the hatch and add a bungee line clipped to a ring attached to the bottom of the air box.

epoxy plugs

Time to get cranking on the Goat Island Skiff project!

Shipwreck on Falls Lake

Another beautiful February weekend with temps in the 50s and low 60s. I did some more painting on Fiona’s shark Toto.

Shark!

It’s starting to look pretty good. I really like the way the red gunwale looks with the grey. I also got the back airbox primed and thought I could paint the entire gunwale, but when I flipped the boat upright I realized that I never sanded the gunwale down and rounded it over as I had planned. Couldn’t do that with wet paint around, so it’ll have to wait for later.

One of my goals is to get out on the water every month of the year. I made it out on a nice day in January and since Feb is nearly over (we did get an extra day this year), it was time to get out again. It would have been great sailing today. Wind was steady at 10-15 out of the south, but I only had time for a quick paddle with the first Toto. I launched out of Ledge Rock boat ramp and paddled north along the shore. It wasn’t long before I spotted something odd in the shallows.

Shipwreck

As I got closer I realized it was the sunken hull of a small cuddy sailboat. I couldn’t determine the make, but it seemed to be pretty nice. It had an engine mount and navigation lights. Cushions were floating free. I wonder if someone tried to go sailing in the tornado weather we had last week. I was eyeing the cleats, fairleads and deck plates wondering if a little salvage was in order.

I ended up crossing the lake in a decent chop and paddling up wind for a while before circling back to the dock. It was a nice 2 mile loop.

I’m also very excited to report that I’ve purchased some wood for the next boat. I’ll be building a Michael Storer Goat Island Skiff. Matt helped me pick out some big 2×10 southern yellow pine boards that had some clean, knot-free sections in them. I’ll be slicing them into smaller strips to make a hollow birds mouth mast. I also bought a couple of 5/4×5″ syp boards to glue together to make into the solid yard and boom. $60 worth of local wood is a heck of a lot better than spending big bucks trying to get west coast doug fir and we didn’t have to drive all over the state looking for it. The remainders of the big 2x10s will also be turned into a long, skinny bench for gluing up the mast. I’m waiting on my order of Duckworks DWX epoxy (formerly Duckypoxy). It’s much less toxic than normal epoxy and also has UV inhibitors built in. Should be great for the spars and interior of the Goat.

The shark is born

We’ve been blessed with some beautiful weather this weekend. It was much needed after all the recent cold. Temps in the 60s meant it was time to get some paint on the Toto. Yesterday I put the first coat of grey on the exterior. Then today I got distracted. I didn’t have the paint I needed and my new Lie-Nielsen block plane was calling to be used.

New block plane

I’ve had a Greenland style kayak paddle in mind for some time. My friend Matt had an experimental boom that didn’t work out. Made from laminated SYP it was the perfect starting shape for a paddle. We ran it through the band saw to rough cut the shape and then I went at it today with the block plane. What a joy to work with compared to the cheap $20 plane I had before. Wow! In short time I had made a beautiful pile of little curly shavings and had a nicely rounded paddle.

Greenland paddle

I gave it a rough sanding, but it still needs some fine sanding and some spar varnish before it’s ready for the water. With that accomplished and still plenty of daylight left I headed to the hardware store to pick up a few more cans of Rust-oleum paint. I started work on the shark eyes and mouth since the grey paint was dry on the boat. The black work is nearly finished. The remainder of the mouth will be done in red.

Shark face in progress

 

Primer

I took advantage of some warm weather today to get a coat of primer on the Toto. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, but maybe I can finish closing in the carport and fire up some heaters to get the second coat of primer on. Monday the temps drop into the teens with a high of 34F. I doubt the heaters will be able to warm the carport to 50+ in those conditions.

Here’s the Toto looking pretty all dressed in white.

graphite coated skeg

I was working on a screen door project this afternoon. The screen had been ripped at the top of the door for some time and it was just enough of an opening that Carolina Wrens kept sneaking through it on their hunt for spiders and then getting stuck in the screen porch. The door is on the north east side of the house where it tends to stay a bit wet. The door also stuck to the concrete when fully opened. I decided to cut a 1/4″ off the door and give it a coat of epoxy to protect it from the elements.

screen door project

I had enough epoxy left over that I coated the nose ring hole in the Toto and then mixed in some graphite powder and painted the skeg. The combination of epoxy and graphite is supposed to make a very durable finish. I’ve been debating coating the entire bottom of the Toto in this mixture. I may yet do it. In the mean time the white oak skeg with a graphite bottom should stand up to some dragging over rough terrain.

graphite covered skeg

I didn’t have enough to cover the sides and they need a bit of touch up sanding first anyway. I’ll come back and get them later.

Happy New Year!

The crazy weather finally broke for the new year. Woke up to temps in the 40s instead of 60s. The epoxy was pouring a little slow this morning, but I got right out there and did some work on the Toto. I first ran a chalk line along the length of the boat to ensure the skeg went on straight. Then I drilled a small pilot hole through the hull and a matching hole in the skeg. I mixed up 3 oz of epoxy and painted on an unthickened coat on the skeg. I then went back and thickened it up and gooped on a layer. I flipped the skeg into place on the screw and tightened it down in the front and clamped it in the back with a good amount of sqeeze out. I then thickened the remainder of the epoxy to fillet consistency and ran a line around the skeg.

skeg installed

I had a little left over and started a fillet under the gunwale. Once that ran out I mixed up another 4.5 oz, dropped it in a ziplock back and shot a line down one side of the boat and a little bit of the other side. I used my 3/4″ radius fillet stick to smooth in the fillet and with the excess I refilled the ziplock bag and finished laying in the other side.

gunwale fillet

After a bit more sanding we’ll be ready for bottom paint.

One final shot of the “boat shop” and the new Toto with the original hanging above it.

Totos

more sanding

It’s still raining! So much for using the winter vacation to finish picking up the leaves in the yard. Despite the soggy state of the carport, I did manage to get out there and finish the sanding of the boat today. I’m glad I’m not building a much bigger boat, that’s about all the sanding I can handle. The next build is going to be a Michael Storer Goat Island Skiff. I’m planning to epoxy coat all the pieces flat masking off the places where they get joined together. It should make both the epoxy work and the sanding a lot easier. The Toto is just about ready for paint. I need to hand sand the corners gently and install the skeg. Then I plan to run a fillet down under the gunwale. As today is Dec 31, I obviously didn’t get it launched this year, but that’s okay. It’ll be a spring launch one of these days soon.

Sanding

The weather is finally co-operating enough to allow a quick sanding this afternoon. I managed to get the bottom, one bilge panel and half of the other finished. Now my hand is vibrating. Must be time for a beer break. Looking forward to putting up plastic wrap walls and better lighting to allow more evening work despite the weather.