and sailing as slow as I can….
No stopping me now. I added to new WordPress app to my phone (where all the pics are). Â Here’s a test Post.
One of the recent Beaton skiffs home for a touch up.
Mary Ann ready for her 91st season.
Will the Bat  be back?  Stay tuned.
Ready to rig. Â The BBYRA season starts next Saturday.
Lightning details.
Well, that wasn’t too hard. Â More soon.
this is a test to see if I can post pics directly from my iPad. If it works you just may see more frequent posts. I’m also trying Google Photo to serve the pics.
Here’s a recent pic of Sjogin in her slip. I think Tuesday will be rigging day.
I think it works!
It does work! Click on the image for a larger size.
Beaton pics next.
Sorry for the lapse but life sometimes gets in the way of best laid plans. My so called semi-retirement is becoming more like regular work. No complaints here obviously but poor Sjogin slips down the list.
Pics soon I promise. She’s out of the shed and in her usual slip. Works proceeds on the cockpit seats and spars.
Don’t be shocked but we may be sailing in a week or so.
If you can’t wait for pics here, just Google Sjogin and you’ll find all you could ask for.
Thanks all for still watching.
The long Winter and early Spring of our discontent has passed. The ice is gone from the Bay and sailing season beckons.
The mast is in the shop and almost ready to go. The sheave and a few bolts are among the missing but should not prove to be too big a problem. The cockpit sole work is coming along with some of the old cockpit sole teak reused. I had a recent consultation with Paul Smith about cockpit seat options. Looks like the seat slats will be made of Jersey cedar with oak framing, just like Sjogin’s hull.
If all goes according to plan, we should be sailing in May. (The operative word being should.)
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Ice free and mares tails on a brisk spring day a few weeks ago. Sailing soon.
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The mast work is almost done. When I have the rest of the screws the mast track will be done. Then it’s on to the gooseneck and mast head fittings. Also a new topping lift is called for. And then the same process with the boom.
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Fitting supports for the end of the cockpit sole. The teak came from one of the original floor boards.
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Who says things never change at Beaton’s. New flag pole repurposed from an old mast. Nice SW breeze.
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Shadow , a classic Blackjack,almost ready for her close-up.
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Myth, looking Beaton fresh.
That’s it for now. Perhaps a bit of more frequent posting now that heaving to off Swan Point gets closer.
Signs of Spring are out there but you have to look under the snow. Sjogin’s still resting comfortably in her ice berth. There’s signs of open water but the Bay’s still frozen solid south of Curtis Point. Spar work begins next week with the assembling of the various bits and cleaning up the mast and boom tracks. And then on to the other long pending work.
Here are a few recent pics:
An inch of water over the ice makes for nice reflections. And just an inch or so of ice in the bilge.
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You can just make out a strip of open water over by the Mantoloking shore. It will take a while for the basin to open up. Maybe in time for stepping the mast.
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Yet another snow storm. I think this one was named Thor. Which I am from shoveling.
Hang in there fellow Northeasterners. The Osprey, crocuses and such harbingers of Spring are just around the corner.
As mentioned in the last post, there’s news of a Sjogin III being built in southwest Poland. I heard from the builder who wanted to know how the name is pronounced. When launched the owner will use her on local rivers and lakes. When confidence comes, the Baltic beckons. This the 19′ version of Sjogin designed by Paul Gartside. Details here.
This is the first one I know of where an actual build is taking place. Which is different from building her in ones head where most of us do it.
In comments to a prior post, there also appears to be a Sjogin “inspired” copy under way in Indonesia. If Roberto is reading this, please give us an update on your progress.
As for the original, she’s resting comfortably in the pit at Beaton’s for the most part. Apart from progress on the rigging, little else from this end. The January thaw looms and then it’s on to the cockpit sole.
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Taking the ground. Brisk westerlies dropped Barnegat Bay by several feet in January. It’s been remarkably ice free this winter (for now) except for an occasional bitter patch. Even at normal water levels, there’s only a foot or so under her keel. No harm except to her dignity.
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In mid January the upper Bay was covered with ice. A wind shift and then it was gone.
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Here she is with a bit more water in the bay. Still cold enough to preclude comfortable work.
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At least there’s some progress in the shop. Jeff Reid has been doing fine work on serving the rigging eyes and refinishing the blocks. This is the main halyard. It’s rigged as a burton? It has a rope part that’s fixed to the gooseneck band, up through the block, down to a turning block on the cabin, then aft to the cockpit.
All else is fine, just waiting out the cold and far too busy at work. These oldish fingers don’t work as well as they used to in this weather.
I’ll put together a Post of Beaton’s pics next.
Greetings from Sjogin and Ourhouse on this cool and blustery Christmas Day. Little progress lately but the post Holiday period shows promise.
Enjoy slowly my friends.
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I promise this will be the last time the swag is placed on the stem. Next Christmas it will be back on the mast, perhaps while hove to.
The weeping is down to 12 strokes a week. She’ll stay in the pit for the rest of the Winter. When the stove’s back in place she can be slid outside for a sizzle.
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Christmas 2013
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Christmas 2012, six weeks or so after Sandy. We’ve come a long way since then.
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Taken by David Turton just after Sandy. Sjogin’s laying on her port side in the foreground with with the jib cover flapping away up the forestay. It’s amazing she survived.
Thanks all for following along. Hope to have a report on a Sjogin III build soon.
with precious little to show for progress on Sjogin absent a perfectly varnished mast and boom courtesy of Paul Smith.
The mast is now stored in the spar shed, accessible when it’s time to rig. Jeff’s working on the rigging, serving the eyes with nylon seine twine. They may get a coat of varnish or “boat soup” before using.
Little progress down below but for the fitting of the bulkhead extension down into the bilge. One of my perennial problems with Sjogin’s stove was the puff backs on starboard tack in a good breeze. The original bulkhead was open at the bottom allowing the free passage of air. It also allowed air to leave the cabin, thus sucking smoke and occasionally flame out the stove vent. Quite exciting. By closing this off (mostly, there are still limber holes), the stove should draw better.
Sjogin’s still in the pit in the South Shed. Stop by and say hi to her.
Here are a few pics from the last month.
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Looks like she’ll be here for the Winter. I expect the basin will freeze soon due to the cold November we’ve had. The rig’s still being worked on and will not be ready for a while. We’ve waited this long to go sailing so a bit more won’t hurt.
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The bulkhead extension is fitted. The gap below the original one allowed air to get sucked out of the cabin encouraging puffbacks, sometimes with spectacular results. Fitting this extension should keep the excitement to a minimum.
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Here are the spars with their fifth coat of varnish. Paul Smith has put on the final (for now) coat. Very shiny. The mast and boom are now in storage awaiting rigging.
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Sjogin’s fame continues to grow. This is from Paul Gartside’s just published book Plans and Dreams, available here. The plans are from a series of how-to-build articles for Water Craft, a british publications. The design shown is of Sjogin III, a 19′ version of the plans made by Mr. Gartside a few years ago. You can build these boats from the plans in the book. Very generous.
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Paul included this photo taken by my son Jeff during Christmas years ago.
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Here’s Paul Smith doing a bit of very small boat work. That’s a model of the Emma C. Berry with her later Schooner rig. The models getting a little TLC before she’s returned to the Bay Head Yacht Club.
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Some of Jeff Reid’s handiwork. He’s becoming quite the carver. We have a Bufflehead in flight he carved for us last year. The cabinet is the one I made when working at Beaton’s those many years ago.
Comments?
Sjogin’s resting comfortably in the slip in the south shed. The keel still weeps in spot, with one persistent leak around an old keel bolt. It’ll take a while for the timbers to return to normal. For now it’s about ten pleasant hand pump strokes per day.
There’s been real progress on the spars. While your writer was comfortably ensconced in the hills of Tuscany in early October, Beaton’s again stepped into the breach and stripped and faired the spars. When we got back I finished the sanding and as of today, there are two sealer coats applied. First coat of varnish this weekend.
The cockpit sole is moving along at my usual pace. The oak sole beams have been fitted and the initial sole pieces have been milled by Paul. With any luck the stove may be in by Thanksgiving.
Speaking of which, we gave our own thanks last week for recovering from Sandy two years ago on October 29, 2012. Thankfully no hurricanes this year (so far) but old Mister Northeaster may have a few lessons to give us this Winter.
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All sanded and ready for the first coat of Interlux sealer. No serious defects found after many years of varnish. The wood is close grained clear fir. Tough stuff.
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After the first coat. It will get darker after another coat of sealer and a half dozen coats of Epifanes varnish. And endless sanding….
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Slowly rehydrating. Nice to be able to deal with her weeping by hand pump. There’s a sump pump on board if needed.
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All of the old rivet holes have been plugged and sanded. The ceiling will cover most of them.
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Getting greener all the time. The rub rail and letters ageing nicely.
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And now, something completely different:
Our bit of Tuscan paradise. We stayed here with seven others, exploring Florence and San Gimignano which was a mile or so away. Terrific views of vineyards and distant hills. Bliss for a week.
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That’s San Gimignano on the next hill. Classic Etruscan hill town with lot’s of places for a glass of Vernaccia or dinner. We had fine dinner at a restaurant on the edge of the town walls with sweeping views of the countryside and full moon.
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Here’s five of us wandering the streets of San Gimignano. The others were waylaid by shops and such.
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Touring a local vineyard for a tasting and later consumption of their Vernaccia. Yes, that’s San G in the background.
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We spent two days in Paris at each end of the trip. (You have to change planes somewhere.) This was at a string concert of the Four Seasons at Saint Chapelle on the Isle de Cite.
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Finally, a bit of Beaton’s activity. Paul Smith giving an old fiberglass dinghy a new life. The two new Duckboats are getting freshened up before storage.
Sjogin was returned to her home waters last Saturday at 4:30 surrounded by a gathering of about 30 folks. It was a spectacular day filled with very late Summer light. Good food, good drinks and a verrrrry happy Skipper.
I was shocked at how little she leaked. After 23 months out of the water, I expected her to fill readily as the keel and stems have dried out. An hour after launch she had an inch of water over the keel. Almost a week on and what leaking there is noticeably less. The prospects for a dusty bilge look good.
Next up is refinishing and re-rigging the spars; building the new cockpit sole (mostly done); cockpit seats; reinstalling the cabin sole and most importantly, setting up the Sardine for my first sizzle.
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Suitably decorated for the Launching Party. She’ll never look better. (Though maybe better when she’s hove to off Swan Point.)
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Jeff reid, Paul’s helper is on the left. Paul Smith, Master Boatwright, is right. Without Paul’s decades long experience, unfailing good cheer and love of wooden boats, Sjogin would be in the back field at Beaton’s, suffering my attempts to bring her back from the grave.
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Thanking all for their help making this day possible. Especially Julia.
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Julia doing the honors. It’s not a new boat so the usual bottle breaking was replaced with a generous drizzle. Plus the rest of the very good Champagne will not go undrunk.
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Floating on her own with the straps ready to catch her if she settles. Beautiful light, beautiful boat.
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Sjogin’s youngest fans. Their Mom Kathy took some of the above photos. Thanks.
Thanks all for a wonderful day. Other pics on the Flickr Sjogin Album, Instagram (search for Sjogin) and Facebook (Russ Manheimer).