Category: Sjogin

Visit from

Julia this morning. Bright sun, not too cold. I went down earlier and got the fire and tea ready. While I waited I almost finished reading (for the Nth time), The Riddle of the Sands, Erskine Childer’s Frisian frolic. Perfect book for our thin waters. Nice breeze today, about 8 to 12 from the SW but spent the morning in the slip as Christmas needs called. (Tree erection and lighting today.)

Julia
Julia on board for tea and a mild smoking from the ship’s stove. Very cozy.

Bright
Bright below with the sun aft. Tea warming and waiting for a splash of Pussers.

Aft
Showing off her delicate quarters.

Swag
The usual swag seized to the mast.

Serina
Progress on the new Beaton Flatfish. Learned this weekend her name is to be Serina, a character in E. B. White’s story The Sword in the Stone. This continues the convention of naming this fleet for characters in White’s books. Charlotte, my Brother’s Flatfish, is named for his best know character.

NAME
And here’s Tom, surveying progress in front of Serina. Oh that Herreshoff bow.

Squirrel
Finally, a local recycling our leftover Thanksgiving gourds and pumpkins. We’ll probably have vines all over the place come summer.

Winter position for Sjogin.

When the late fall winds start to blow from the Northwest I turn Sjogin around so the stove will draw. Also the late morning Winter sun can fill the cabin which makes it quite pleasant. No sailing last weekend, just ships work. Blew too hard Saturday and absolutely no wind Sunday. Sat by the stove finishing the new dock lines. I did go out the week before and took the usual photos.

Also an example of another little cottage in town that’s ripe for a teardown.

Finally a pic of Dave Sherman, a WoodenBoat Forum friend who came for a sail with me on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. After our sail he launched the kayak he built and headed out for a cruise in the local marsh.

Winter position
Winter position, bow to the northeast. With the chimney on the lee side for a westerly breeze the stove will draw better.

Reaching
Reaching for Swan Point on Thanksgiving weekend.

Teardown
Here today, gone tomorrow. Tiny cottage on a lagoon that’s not long for this world.

Dave
Off to the marsh south of Beatons.

Ship’s work today

as I’m making up a new set of dock lines. Stocked up on shop scraps and sailed off the dock into a declining NNW breeze. About 45 or so and pretty damp so the stove felt welcome. Had some Joe Leone hot sausage and provolone bread crisped up on the stove along with the usual tea and Pussers. A very pleasant morning with some occasional sun.

Here are some pics from today, last weekend and other odd bits….

Reaching
Reaching to Swan Point. About 5kts worth of wind with occasional gusts to 12.

PRM
Swan Point ahead. Plenty off water today, surprising with the Westerlys we’ve been having.

Tony
One of the Beaton irregulars enjoying the Bay.

JL
Hot sausage and Provolone bread from Joe Leone’s, a world class purveyor of Italian delights.

Sunrise
Sunrise as seen from our tiny patch of salt marsh last Thursday.

Sheep
Finally, one of the highlights of my commute from Manasquan to Route 1. The farm is between Clarksburg and Roosevelt in Western Monmouth County.

First fire and tea of the new Off Season

last weekend. After struggling to get the stove pipe together, friend Paul loaned me a crimper to narrow the top of the first section. (The lower section in the photo below.)

Pics follow, including some other photos taken in the last week:

First fire
First fire after finally hooking up the new stove pipe. Last years Galvanized elbows rusted away. Thanks Paul.

I still need to have a custom flue made with a proper cast iron damper. Maybe copper? Are you reading this Quinten?

Candy
A bowl of “candy” from Venice. It’s Murano glass, twisted to look like wrapped candy. Tres cool.

Plan
This may be hard to see but it’s the Construction drawing of a 24 foot Scow Motorsailer I designed for Phil Clarke in 1978. I drew this for him while taking the Westlawn course. Through Phil I met the Beaton family and the rest is a very pleasant history for the last 25 years.

Solitude
An image of Sjogin and myself taken and refined by a local Artist, Paul Barlo. There’s a great story about this image that I’ll get to soon.

Lift
Another Barlo work of the old lift at Beaton’s with the Yard Garvey lying in the slings.

Eventful week

where your host continued the fortnight’s celebration of his 60th Birthday. Last Sunday I had a quick mid-day sail with Jeff and Julia following a party Saturday evening with friends and family. From Venice to our backyard, it was a fine turning.

Pics follow:

Julia and Jeff
Julia and Jeff, hove to off Swan Point last Saturday.

Dad and Jeff
Dad and Jeff, home from Deepest Oregon.

Dad
Tiller lines not set up yet. Phone pic by Jeff

Party
Heart of the party. Oh, the wine we drank.

Toast
Jeff, Dave, Cheryl and Robert. On the right is a print of the old lift at Beaton’s that David and Jeff gave me Saturday evening.

Sjogin
And here’s some pics of Sjogin, freshly painted and rigged. (Absent the hatch which is being stripped for varnishing.)

Kirby
Love the new Kirby paint. Low luster helps hide the scars.

Still floating

and waiting to get rigged. She was supposed to have her mast put in yesterday (just finished with the varnishing on Wednesday) but the recent Northeaster had something to say about it. We had water on Stockton Lake Blvd. for the first time this year. Still blowing NNE about 20 as I type.

New heaving to pictures will have to wait for our return from Italy. In the meantime here are some pics from the A-Cat Worlds held last Saturday:

Mixing it up
Raven leading at the windward mark.

Leewartd mark
and Raven leading at the leeward mark. There was great, close racing due to a half mile windward/leeward course.

B&B
As an added treat, Bull and Bear were racing as well.

More pics here.

Done

with this years refinishing. All painting complete, just another coat or two of varnish on the hatch frame to go. Also need to finish stripping the hatch itself and figure out how I’m going to make and attach the hatch runners. Remember I had to cut off the old ones to remove the hatch as it was assembled back in 1962 with the runners in place. I’ll probably use some vertical grain teak let in the hatch end pieces. This means I’ll either need to make new drop boards or add an arc shaped piece to the existing one. (Which also needs to be stripped, primed and painted.) It never ends (and what would I do with my time if it did).

Sjogin was launched today and surprisingly is not leaking too much. Due to the pressure of getting her back in I didn’t do my usual pre-wetting so perhaps it’s due to the damp weather lately. I’ll give her the usual scrubbing this weekend and hope to have her rigged by next weekend.

Here are some photos of my progress and Sjogin sitting in the slings:

Forward in shed
Here she is last night in the shed with all then painting done. Each year she gets fresh paint on all surfaces.

This year I’ve used paint from Kirby Paint Co. for the first time. They even matched the Interlux Seattle Grey I usually use. Apart from being a little more difficult to work with (not keeping a wet edge), I was very satisfied. It’s a semi-gloss that’s somewhat flatter than the usual semi-gloss by Z-Spar, Interlux or Pettit. It’s great for hiding the many defects that Sjogin has developed over the years. She’ll pass a five foot test now rather then the usual ten.

Aft in shed
Aft view. Freshly polished letters just visible to starboard.

Slings forward
Sitting in the slings soaking up.

Slings aft
Aft view. After the rudder soaks for a while it will hang vertically.

Happy owner
The happy owner.

Progress

on my annual maintenance program for Sjogin. The major project this year is stripping the house sides and cabin top along with renewing the brightwork. Over the last week or so I finished removing paint and have started in the other direction.

Also find below a variety of pics taken over the last few weeks.

Pics follow:

ready to strip
All the sealing has been done; epoxy on the old canvas and Pettit Sealer on the house and hand rails.

Tools
My paint stripping tools. There’s a piece in this month’s WoodenBoat about making handles for Red Devil scraper blades. The bent file can cut both ways and is handy for lifting old paint. It also makes a great seam cleaner as it can shave the sides of the seam back to clean wood.

aft
The house all primed as well the bare spots (many) on the topsides. The Yard will do the bottom.

forward
The view from forward.

beds
September beds. It’s pretty much a plant eat plant world now.

9/11
September 11th at Our House.

masthead
Finally, back to Sjogin for a snap of her masthead and fly.

One goal reached

today. Went through the grits and finished sanding the hatch frame. Also completed the repairs to the dodgy bits where thay are joined. Yesterday I fit and glued two dutchman where I had cut back to good (sort of) wood and trimmed them fair today. Finished my day with a thinned coat of Epifanes varnish to the frame.

Pics follow:

Dutchmen
Dutchmen fitted and glued up.

Start
Starting to fair.

Done
Done and ready for varnish.

Fresh varnish
The first coat of Epifanes varnish

View
The view from Sjogin’s cockpit. Nice breeze today.