Dasher & Dancer

Quick post to show off the 3/4 done dashboard I'm installing. After a LOT of angst and diorama fun, I decided on the bottom design.

Scrap piece of 1/2" ply. Looks like a modern art dog. I will recreate this some day. The dash came from the belly.

Layout of template in pencil.

Rough cut of template. I used a rasp to get these to spec then sanded.

Why are things where they are? That's quite a metaphysical question. It's a little different layout from the one from a couple days ago. My wife, who is an expert ergonomical entity, suggested a couple changes that I incorporated here. First, the VHF below the radio didn't leave a lot of room to mess with the radio buttons. They both jut out about 1/4" and need their own space. I left the VHF on the right because I plan to tuck the mic behind the locker against a board, noting that this contraption will eventually be a 4-sided box without a top and bottom. The back of the box, on a hinge, will be where I'll put the solar controller and bus bars.

I also moved the 12v chargers to the top because there will be a small shelf between the dorade vents on bulkhead 2. This top shelf will be a nice place to rest charging things like phones and pads. I found some cool and cheap 12v USB lights and fans that can also enjoy the higher view from that shelf. It doesn't (I don't think) look as good, but it will be far more functional.

Once I'm able to install the voltmeter (it's somewhere in the Sea of China as I type this) and the switch, the row below the radio will look complete. There wasn't much I could do about the master kill switch. I thought about putting that around the back, too, but it is far too bulky to sit anywhere but here.

Dry fit of the components. Missing is a 2nd 12v charger on the right and the voltmeter in the middle. Haven't decided if I want to put a hook for the vhf mic there or a rocker switch for the cabin lights. The white bar above the radio is actually a 6" red led. I'll have a 12" one on the cabin roof, so the rocker switch will come in handy.

This post reminds me of my conversation with the Marine store guy awhile back, the one with the 26 footer without "as much stuff as I'm putting in". First, I don't think this is a lot of stuff. Maybe the VHF is extra but radios and lights shouldn't be luxuries reserved for larger boats. Second, I'm ready to go with 3 bus bars. He didn't think I needed even one. I don't see how that's possible if this is to be a clean, functional , safe build. Third, screw that guy. If I want to put in a radar tower and launch rockets off the bow, he should tell me what I need to do it, not convince me that somehow a small boat is an inferior object, not worthy of superior equipment. I didn't even tell him I've got a GPS, bilge pump, and a horn in the circuit. Yes, a horn! I'm not even waiting for fog to use that thing. This is so, so much more fun than epoxy.

Still some work to do but nice to see this one coming together. I'll likely be painting this white with a dark wood trim (probably whatever padauk I have leftover). I'd originally planned to keep this bright, but I got some significant tearout from the jigsaw, plus the bulkhead will be bright.

Speaking of padauk, I picked up another few board feet of it today from the still-awesomely named "Hardwood Supply". I walked in and the first thing he said to me was, "Got any pictures?" Of course I do... so I showed him the boom gallows, tiller, and floor so far. He was duly impressed. Readers may remember that the hardwood supply guy's dad built a 54' schooner that still sails. He spends his weekends taking care of it. I dig that quite a bit.. but not that much as I want to because he still refuses to get me good lengths of clear cut pine. He's a HARDWOOD supply, he reminds me. I'm still working on it.

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Many people think the Richard Dreyfuss character says, "You're gonna need a bigger boat" in Jaws, but in fact it's the Roy Scheider character. Fewer people know that the line was actually ad libbed by Scheider. I remember watching it as a kid and not going near the Jersey Shore for a couple summers. It's fitting that I'm thinking of terror on the water as I'm building a boat by hand.

I couldn't take it anymore and bought a boat last week. It's s/v Islander, a 1970 Macgregor, gotten for a song. I haven't decided if I want to rename her. Islander has good sails and standing rigging, a good keel, and a 6 hp motor with a terrific trailer. Most importantly, it doesn't leak. The cushions double as terrariums, so they gotta go, and she could use an electrical overhaul. But otherwise, she will be a fine weekender and I plan to use her that way. No one will mistake her for a sleek and sexy craft (except maybe me). But I'm really happy with the addition. Islander will be moored at Lake Nokomis, a 200 acre lake in the city of Minneapolis.

She's a good old boat; the previous owner took her to the Apostles and sailed the entire length of the Mississippi over 6 weeks to the Gulf of Mexico. He said the boat was too choppy on the Gulf, so he turned around and went back to New Orleans where he then trailered it home. I'm not certain if he intended to keep going in the Gulf. Make a left out of the Mississippi and you'll hit Florida. Make a right, Mexico. Straight ahead and a little to the left you're smoking cigars with the brothers Castro. Now beyond retirement age, the salty dog said his kids and grandkids prefer pontoons to mainsheets. You could hear the disappointment in his voice and that made me a little sad, too. I am sure this boat brought him many fond memories and I hope to add some of my own.

The first question I got when I started telling people is, "What about the boat in your garage?" To which I reply, "What about it?"  Of course I'm going to keep working on it. The Macgregor is there to keep my skills up and lowers my reliance on friends to take me sailing. I really enjoy being out with Chris/Chucky B. and Beth/Rudder Chaos, but it's tough when I know the wind's up and all I want to do is drop my keel and go.

Oh, about the boat in the garage. I'm still working on fitting the floorboards. They're coming along. I wound up short maybe 2-3 boards of padauk, so will need to get some more. I plan to use padauk for the rub rails, too, so I'm looking at maybe 5-6 boards for good measure. I'm not sure how I woefully underestimated the board feet on this, because I don't have a lot of waste. I can only think the boom gallows and tiller took up more boards than I planned.

After a couple hours, I got a little bit of a system down for the floorboards. Starting out, this wasn't very intuitive. In the end, the best tools for me were a piece of scrap pine to note the shape, my bandsaw to make a rough cut of the bevel (the angle of the hull transferred to the board) and then the random orbital to smooth out the cuts. No one will see the bottom of these. As long as they sit snug, that's good enough for me.

I wish there were a better system I could articulate here as the manual and other blogs aren't clear. Even the ones that acknowledge this isn't easy don't provide too helpful advice. All I can share is that you'll know when you know so keep trying to know. The way I think about is I'm actually trying to slot a board into a space, like a peg in a hole. One side, let's say, is inboard, and will be thicker than the outside if it's a port board. The outboard corner will be beveled to accept the angle of the hull. This can be quite thin. So the idea is to shave off a bit until the board lies flat.

The photo below illustrates that (I think). The scrap piece of pine was my level. If I take the scrap pine over to the right in the photo, which in this case is outboard on the port side, I'll have an area underneath. That area underneath is the profile of the next board. I wanted to be sure that the thinnest I wanted to go was 1/4". That let me know where to cut the angle if viewing the board from the from the top because if the thinnest part of the board was 1/4", I could eyeball where to place the corner of the board. Since the whole setup will be cut to the fair curve, precision isn't that important, just a good visual flow.

Oh, that's right. Floorboard fun. A test for a level bevel. Needed just a bit more.

This method, though, takes a lot of incremental cuts. It's definitely not scientific nor efficient. But it works and the boards don't squeak when I walk on them, so I can't complain. If not for being short of wood, I would've finished them tonight in preparation for the fair curve.

I put in another accent board aft of the centerboard trunk and also added a 3/4" strip of ash 2/3 of the way out. Two reasons for that: one, I think it complements the design. I also found that using an accent board with 3" standard boards requires a small strip on the last couple outboard boards. The ash makes up the difference without adding a small strip outboard, which is at risk for splitting and damage. I don't think a small strip is needed if I put a traditional by-the-manual floorboard in (without the accent board). Not a big deal but will require some carpentry to fix. It's probably one of the reasons Solitude has a large plank outboard.

Once it's all finally dry fit, I'll sand every shiny spot in the hull, open up the limber holes, and start painting. That's going to feel really, really good.

Another set of things that make me happy are new electronics. I'll have a pretty good set of lights (prior posts allude to all the LEDs I've acquired). As for more practical things, a radio and speakers are, of course, a must. Two 10v solar panels with a controller will help trickle charge the battery. I've also got a half dozen or so 12v chargers with either USB or straight up connections to put throughout the boat, especially back to the cockpit. But one of my favorite things is my new VHF radio. I didn't want a handheld one (though I'll probably get one anyway for a backup). Since I plan to be out in coastal waters and Lake Superior, I need the range. It's got MMSI/DSC capability, built in GPS, and other fancy stuff. Yes, I splurged a bit on this, but it's awesome. I added a RAM3 to extend to the cockpit, too.

Electronica - first time the full circuit got hooked up. Testing the new radio and speakers with the battery, solar panel, and controller. To my amazement, it all worked.

The trouble is, even though it's one of the more compact models, it adds quite a bit of space. That means the electrical panel to house these things might be tricky. I spent a little bit of time cutting out the diorama for fitting. The final board came out to be 8.5" x 23" including 1/2" on all sides for trim and another 1/4" offset. In other words, big.

Potential layout of the electrical panel.

The panel is about 22 inches wide. It might be the largest panel in any PocketShip. I'm not saying that's a good thing.

Other quick work was getting the lower breasthook installed. This took some extra clamping power, courtesy of my neighbor's Bessey clamps. Once epoxy'd back into place, I screwed it firm, mixed up some thickened epoxy to fill in the gaps, sanded it down again, and now consider it done. Came out pretty nice -- a test fit of the bow confirmed it. I can't find the pictures but when I do I'll post them. It's nice to get pieces off the shelf and onto the boat.

Half a Sole and a Bow

It was a glorious summer day and I spent nearly all of it in the garage, on purpose, and wouldn't have it any other way. With my wife away taking care of srs bsns, I got to cut and epoxy and, at times, admire with abandon.

First, I tackled the bow area. This was something I've dreaded since first reading the manual in December and my avoidance of it came to fruition over the last two months. Every other bay's been complete for a month. Most of the avoidance was because of my poor excuse for tack welds and subsequent fillet disaster which made a bad situation worse. In the end, I probably spent more time in this compartment than all the others combined.

Once I got the fillets sanded down to something I could work with, it actually went surprisingly fast. I first measured out a pattern with a cut up paper bag, then transferred that pattern to a "scrap" row of fiberglass. I say "scrap" because it was the other half of the long, narrow row I used for the topside panels awhile back. I worked quickly here so didn't take any pictures, but in the end, the joint is super strong with several overlapping areas of 6 oz and 9 oz 'glass. Where I used to feel nervous about banging into things, now I say bring 'em on.

Bow compartment finally 'glassed. Just needs sanding.

Strips of 9 oz 'glass line the seams over a couple layers of 6 oz 'glass.

I'm glad I spent so much time getting these fillets right. There's no way they would've been flat and of course flat equals structural integrity. This is one area (not there are many of them) where cutting corners just can't do. Though this area will be filled with flotation and sealed forever, I plan to sand and paint this for the added protection against moisture and whatever else can get in there. I'll also note that there's no way I could've done as good a job 'glassing at the bow if I didn't have all the practice to date as I prepped the hull.

I'll install the lower breasthook tomorrow. A test fit of it today required the help of a 600 pound Irwin. I'm surprised how much the bow still needs to flare out and I'm concerned that epoxy and screws won't help much. I'll just have to keep the faith and hope it doesn't fly out and hit me in the groin.

While thinking about flying breasthooks, I cut a few more planks for the sole. I noticed that some of the external-facing planks of padauk darkened from the sun. I pulled a couple from the interior of the stack and will need to be careful to prevent these from darkening, too. A little bit of sanding to get bright again is all that's really required, but I didn't want to bother with sanding.

Anti-UV varnish will extend the color for a long time, and once installed in the cabin, sun exposure will be minimal. So once I get these screwed down I'll move them to the basement out of the sun until finished. Oh, did I mention how awesome it looks? It's hard to describe how it feels to look at it in the boat, and I haven't even painted yet. I am sure I am building to one of those highlight moments, which partly explains the incredible sense urgency to get this part done. That, and I have maybe 2 more months of cooperative weather.

Planks test fitted. The grain will dictate the final placement.

Close up of the accent board against the regular boards. You can see how the bright orange color of the sanded wood contrasts with the more mature color. The mature color is stable with some anti-UV varnish. These are just placed here for now - not screwed or spaced yet.

View from aft-forward.

Need to build an accent board for behind BH 7 and below the footrest.

Some planning becomes necessary as this project continues. First, it's not exactly clear to me what the fair curve of the sole should follow. I assume it's along the outside edge of the cleats. But the cleats stop pretty far short of the floor and I'd like to have more sole. That means lots of fitting, beveling, and incremental cutting to get this right. I'll probably get to the correct bevel with some scraps of pine then transfer the angles over as necessary (which is the method used on other blogs.) I'm also tempted to put another accent board in as I move outboard. However, I may need to send Jon a few bucks every time I take my boat out as a royalty payment for nothing short of stealing his idea.

Second, I have a gap aft of the centerboard trunk where I plan to put a second accent board. That part's easy. The question is how functional do I want it to be, and how much do I care about seeing the wires. I'm adding a dual busbar on or near BH8 to catch the wires coming from the transom, thereby minimizing the wires that run forward. There are a lot of potential wires: stern light, laz lights, locker lights, 12v outlets, rear cabin LEDs, and the speaker wires, too. Having a liftout section will let me run wires without drilling too many holes. Building a small panel box attached to BH8 would be a good place to collect these wires and funnel them out of sight. It's the same principal as building a box behind BH2 except this one is at the back of the boat.

Part of me feels like I'm overthinking/overengineering, but I know with certainty that if I'm cozying up for the night, anchored off Bear Island, and I'm staring at my feet, and I can see wires back there, I'm gonna be pissed. That just won't do.

Cleats, Boxes, and Box Springs

Hard to believe it's been a month since posting, and even harder to believe there's actually been progress on the boat. The last few weeks in and out of the garage have been a bit of a whirlwind. Keen readers will remember that my bosses were all fired a couple months back. I've been assigned some new stuff because of that which takes up a boatload (!) of time. I've had a couple interviews with the special investigator for the State Department with all the paperwork that follows. My wife and I also got our ASA 101 for kicks with the ultimate goal to charter a boat in the Caribbean for our friend's wedding next year. I've been lucky enough to go sailing in the interim (including Chucky B!) and then spent a weekend at a friend's cabin. When I got back, I spent an inordinate amount of time setting up, breaking down, and setting up bedroom furniture, too. And then have been dealing with some family health issues. So while I haven't made a ton of progress, as someone said elsewhere, any progress is moving forward.

Sunset in Wisconsin.

This guy put up a hell of a fight.

Tom does a flip into Lake Pepin.

Bought & built a new bed for the upstairs bedroom. Yes, it's an IKEA special.

Moved the upstairs bed to the downstairs guest room.

With the big bed gone, the panels had to move downstairs.

In terms of boatbuilding, most of the last few weeks have been working on the cleats that support the cockpit deck. As noted in the manual, this is a piece of cake. As noted on every blog, it's actually not. There's a lot of dry fitting, wet fitting, damp fitting, and just plain fits to get this just right. I figured if I glued up the footwell sides, that would give me a good start as to where and how to fit everything else.

I think that worked well, as I didn't have to deal with straight edges and guesstimates since I had the footwell basically installed and I put the cleats all around it. That part wasn't so bad. The bad part was the few times I had to remake said cleats because they kept splitting. Yes, I pre-drilled. But Menard's Finest Select Pine (MFSP) can barely support its own weight, nevermind a temporary dry wall screw.

Using the footwell sides as guides worked pretty well.

This is actually towards the end, as you can see pretty much all cleats in place.

Rather than a single cleat across Bulkhead 7, I just measured and used two so I didn't have to cut it.

The forward cleats off Bulkhead 8 through 7. These extend 24" past bulkhead 7, or about even with the centerboard trunk. The hull cleats are slightly behind on purpose. I wanted a little bit of a "curve" when viewing this from inside the cabin. I figured an inch or two here wouldn't be a disaster. All parts are rounded over and smoothed.

The manual also isn't clear as to where the notches in Bulkhead 8 go for the cleats that run forward and aft. They're in the drawings, but the dimensions aren't given. They might be in the full blown plans, but kit builders don't get the full plans. As usual, I was stuck until I wrote Chris, who said he had the same trouble at the same spot and John C. Harris himself wrote back with the specs. While he no longer had the drawings, he had the specs, and shared them with me. Fellow readers, here they are! Drum roll! 14" outboard and parallel to the footwell sides. The cleat that runs forward is 11" outboard, leaving 3" between notches. The forward cleats should end at the centerboard trunk as the side ones do (or should).

Cutting the notches in Bulkhead 8. This is where some woodworking experience came in handy. Ever had to make a boxtail joint by hand? Congrats, you can make a pretty good notch. As noted, the notches are 11" and 14", respectively, outboard from the edge of the footwell side. Also note I installed the cleats on BH8 facing the watertight compartment vs. into the cabin, the reverse of the plans.

The cleats that run aft provide the rough framing for the lazarette hatches. In reality, there is no real structural issue with 14" vs. 12" vs. 11" but moreso the risk of cutting through the cleat than not. In other words, better to err on the side of larger (more outboard) than shorter. The only thing affected might be the size of the hatch actually used, so as long as the width is less than 14" -- and nearly all of them will be -- you'll be fine.

Another handy number to remember is 15 degrees. This is the angle of the transom off vertical (therefore, the angle of the rear part of any cleat glued to the transom) and also the angle off the hull sides. So when the long cleat that runs from the transom into the cabin is cut, you should set your table saw to 15 degrees. Since there's a complex corner at the hull side to the transom, cutting both at 15 degrees will yield a really nice connection in the corners. Of course, I miscut the angle on the starboard cleat, so don't do what I did. I'll be making a small patch to fix this.

Some blogs recommend precutting the transom cleats from behind before gluing to make it easier, then notching it out later. I didn't do that. Instead, I used two separate pieces to mate with the cleat coming aft from Bulkhead 8.

I cut the angle wrong on the starboard hull cleat and lost 3/4" of an inch. Rather than recut, I lined up the forward spot with its fancy rounded edges and will add a small block here to compensate. Of course, this will be in the watertight area (not visible) so whatever. You can see the aft-facing cleat from bulkhead 8 here glued to the transom cleat, which was two parts.

Port side transom/hull cleat connection fit much better. when in doubt, cut everything at 15 degrees.

With the cleats in and me moving the large panels around, I couldn't help but drop the cockpit deck into the hull. That felt awesome! Can't wait until it drops down for good. It fits surprisingly well. There will need to be some fillet fun as some angles here and there are larger than others (maybe 1/8" - 1/4" off) but nothing that a little planing won't cure. While the size is a bit of an illusion since the outboard 1/5th or so will be taken up by the seat backs, it does give a sense of the hugeness of the cockpit and how roomy it is. I've said it earlier and I'll say again: the cockpit, proportionally, is the biggest in nature, much like the barnacle. I've been on 36' and 30' boats and they don't feel as roomy.

Cockpit deck dropped onto the framing. That was one sweet moment.

I also finally finished up the fillets of the bow compartment.  I was going to let this one sit until the floors were done, but I want to start using materials and boat parts and the lower breasthook is just begging to be installed. I used a lot of epoxy in there: 4 layers of fillets on the bottom part of the bow, 3 on the sides, and 3 running up the middle, not counting filler fillets to smooth out the bumps. (I sand less than I used to and just smooth with thickened epoxy - much faster that way.) I think in total there are 90 pumps of epoxy plus wood flour in here. Why so many? Because I'm going to be ramming into docks, logs, and jet skiers and need the added protection.

About 2 months in the making. I'd been putting this off for so long. The turned out well, finally, after a lot of epoxy, denatured alcohol, and cursing.

The bow hook will also be installed here and I need a really good grip for that, too. There will easily be 4-6 layers of 'glass in there, but that's another day. I then threw in the bilge pump box. I wasn't sure why, but since it belongs in the boat and I had to clear out the bedroom, figure I'd put it here for now.

Adding a small bilge pump between Bulkhead 7 and 6. It will dump into the footwell.

I knew I'd need to mix up a lot of epoxy and didn't want the workout I normally get. I fashioned epoxy stirrers out of cut plastic coat hangers. Sure, all of my clothes sit in a heap in the closet, but hey - they worked great. The only trick with using these is to be sure the mixing is done at slow to medium speed or else bubbles wind up in the mix, like making a meringue, but far less tasty. Care must also be taken not to muck up the drill. I'll make these longer next time.

Finely crafted epoxy stirrers from plastic coat hangers.

With the final (for now) bow fillets drying, I officially started on the sole. I liked the idea of an accent plank from Jon's boat and decided to put one here, too. It will give a nice symmetry when standing in the cockpit (tiller -> accent plank -> bowsprit) and break up the dark orange/rustic of the padauk floor. Another reason is this allows the planks to be fit straight along the centerboard trunk on either side vs. having to cut a notch 3' long. The centerboard trunk is 1 3/4" thick. Lots of small cuts to determine the pattern yielded a simple 3/8" ash x 1" padauk x 3/8" ash lamination.

Accent plank under construction. Pretty simple but took awhile to get it Just Right since this will be so highly visible.

Test fit of the accent board before glue up. I left it a little long so I could cut it back. This was a lesson learned from the boom gallows / tiller build. Gonna look nice once it's cleaned up and varnished.

After cutting the accent plank, I sized and built the battery box holder. I'm not sure what angles are needed to secure the battery box holder to the hull; probably pretty steep, so a test fit was required.

Sideways or no? This is pre-sanding of the locker. It's now sanded!

Cut strap opening with bandsaw and sanded down. This whole contraption will be epoxy'd over the next few days. Eventually, it will be painted white.

Test fit of the box. Fits great. There's hope for the companionway hatch after all.

The accent plank and battery platform got a fair share of glue and will be cleaned up tomorrow. Before dedicating a couple days to the sole, I'd also like to make the main speaker boxes, shelving units for the cabin locker, and cleats for the lazarette shelving to provide spacing between the flotation at the transom. I tested the blue LEDs I plan to use in the cockpit lockers. They look pretty sweet. I'm thinking about putting another set in the lazarette, too.

Long way to go but the pages keep turning.