Sjogin – Page 5 – Hove to off Swan Point

The Spring Offensive has begun

Tools are being marshalled, lists are being made and actual construction has resumed with the fitting of the cockpit sole beams. Also the last demolition took place when the old sole beam aft was removed cave man style.

As mentioned previously, the new sole will be about three inches lower than its predecessor. This will allow more comfortable seating forward. I want the seat height low to allow sufficient support from the coaming and new angled bulkhead trim piece. Comfort in all things.

The sole will end at the frame where the thwart used to be. In it’s place will be a raised sole/seat about a foot higher than the old sole. This should provide a nice seat when leaning against the aft end of the coaming. I guess you could drive from there too. In any event it will make sitting on the deck while steering more comfortable. (There’s that word again.)

It may turn out that the aft sole may be the same height as the seats. That leads to thoughts of some sort of cockpit berth arrangement. Perhaps a boom tent and a mosquito net for Summer evening lounging? Hmmmm…..

We’ll see.

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Cave man style
Here an old beater chisel is used to free the old sole beam. No idea why it was so massive. I know it’s Sjogin we’re talking about, but still.

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almost
Just about ready to come out. The new sole will be about three inches lower.

Done
The old bolts will be ground off. The other iron bolts will remain in place for another fifty years hopefully.

That’s it for now. Another pending cold snap will keep us close to the hearth. But it’s just a bit more winter and then we will see painting weather. (And far more sanding weather.)

Very minor progress

Beaton’s moved the mast into the shed next to Sjogin and I actually put tool to wood. A few feet of very old varnish was scraped off before your frozen fingered friend was sent running to the wood stove. The varnish is very old; it seems to leap off the mast when touched by a reasonably sharp scraper. Very satisfying work. After scraping, a bit of planning will be done to try and fair up the lumps. Then it’s through the grits with a final 120 grit sanding. Then as many coats of varnish as I can manage. Same for the boom. Scraping lessons freely given.

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Progress....
Slow and steady and it’s down to bare wood. It will take time for the deep color return but well worth it. No signs of rot or punkiness yet. (Types with fingers crossed.)

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It's a start
It’s a start. Taken in early January, before the current bout of freezing weather. There’s something to be said for having one’s boat ashore and in a shed in Winters like this one.

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Cockpit work!
This is a bit more recent. I figured out the length of the cockpit sole beams and had Paul mill some from his private stock. A needed step in the right direction.

Here are a few more pics to fill out this Post. When the weather turns there’ll be more about Sjogin’s finishing touches and eventual Launch Party.

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Beaton’s made a half dozen new E-Scow half hulls and backboards for club trophies.

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Winter fresh marsh
Fresh snow on the marsh behind Beaton’s. There needs to be a bench of some kind at this spot.

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Speaking of marshes, here’s a pic from our own tiny bit of salt water heaven. It’s Spartina patens, common marsh hay, taken in late fall when it turns color a bit.

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It's a Nor'estr
This was taken from our beach when one of the recent Northeasters was brewing.

Merry Christmas

Sitting by the fire on this bright Christmas Day and dreaming of our first heave to off Swan Point next year. Sjogin waits patiently in the shed for Spring and such work as I can do in the cold weather. Little else to report other than making sketches for the new cockpit and cabin arrangements.

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I long for next Christmas when I can hang the wreath on the mast where it belongs and go below for a sizzle.

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Julia and I send you and yours the Merriest of Christmas wishes and hopes for a peaceful, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Thanks all for coming along on this wonderful adventure. And a special thanks to Paul Smith, Jeff Reid and the many other folks at Beaton’s who helped bring Sjogin back from her watery grave.

Russ

Winter quarters for Sjogin

Paul’s work is done for now and the pace will slacken as production is transferred to yours truly. She’s in the middle shed next to the old lift. Dry, covered storage with a sand floor and nearby access to a bucket of bay water now and then will start the rehydration process. I plan to work on the new cockpit, seats and such when weather permits. When Spring returns, the painting (and sanding) will begin.

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Safely tucked away in the Middle Shed at Beaton’s. As I was ready to leave, the sun came out and it looked like the section lines were traced on the hull. Click on the photo for a larger size.

The classic iPhone photo contrast problem works great here. Consider it a homage to Benjamin Mendlowitz, whose calendar photos have delighted us through the years.

Now that the weather has turned, work will turn to making cockpit, seat and cabin bits. When warm enough a bit of sanding will take place. (Though probably on the sunny side.)

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W? Logo
Another classic shot. Remind anyone of a certain magazine logo? The reason for all the room is the still un-repaired Sandy damages to the north wall of this shed. The 1940’s cedar pilings gave way so thus the need for access to the wall. Usually the shed is packed solid with boats. It’ll be good for Sjogin when the wall’s open and the damp northeasters blow in.

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Bling
New “jewelry”. Paul Smith kindly dug these gems out of his stash. Perfect size for Sjogin.

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Caoming done
Here the coaming’s been installed and awaits a final fairing. After living a while with the two coats of sealer on the rub rails, it was decided by all asked that they will be varnished for now and when they get ratty they can always be painted. The coaming’s not set up for varnishing so it will be primed and painted after sealing.

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Whole!
New bulkhead in place with a hole for a Wiley window. That’s an angled frame that allows the glass to lean back and allow airflow without water (rain and spray, not solid water Neptune forbid) getting below. It will also allow a lot of light below into what was otherwise a dark place. It’ll be nice to lay below in the new bunk with the window providing light and ventilation.

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Coaming bent
The Boatwright’s skill at its highest. Half inch (plus) white oak, probably local, soaked in the Bay for a month and steamed till just pliable enough. A high art indeed.

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Deck done
Apart from shaping the top of the toe rail, most of the remaining work will be painting and sanding. Lots of sanding.

I hope to get to a Beaton’s only Post soon. There may be some interesting items from the past few months.

Hope to speak to you all before the end of the year, but if not, do enjoy Christmas and such.

Russ

Paul Smith’s quietly efficient magic

There has been terrific progress on Sjogin’s restoration over the last few weeks. Paul has been hard at work with deck repairs, installing the ply deck cover, applying the Xynole and epoxy fabric, laminating and fitting three new floors, extending the upper frames past the nasty bits, setting up the old and installing new rivets below the waterline, steaming and installing the rubrail and more. The mind boggles.

It looks more and more likely that we’ll have a Spring launch. I hope it will still be cool enough for fire down below and the scent of sizzling Joe Leone Bread.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since Sandy passed through. Every time I drive down Route 35 to go to the Beaton’s, the evidence of the storms destruction is all too evident. There are and will be for a while, acres of nothing but hastily pushed up dunes where there used to be dozens of homes. The scary thing is that it could happen again. All we need is a nasty, slow moving Northeaster during a full or new moon.

We’re back to normal. The floors that were wet from the surge eventually laid back down and seem fine. We were so very lucky. Here’s a link to my post Sandy Post.

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Post Sandy
This was recently sent to me by Suzanne Beaton. It’s from a aerial photo taken the day after Sandy. Sjogin’s visible on the left, laying on her starboard side and awash. The piling on her Port side is the one that pierced her planking. You can see the Starboard dock line was still attached. I can only assume that after the Port dock lines failed she laid against the piling for a while until the surge lifted her high enough to allow the piling to break the plank. I think she was full of water when it happened for she was a leaker in the calmest conditions and banging against the piling and tossing about would have opened up her already iffy seams. The more I think about it it was the remaining dock line that kept her from going into the debris pile and turned into kindling. Lucky boat.

Photo by Andrew Mills of the Star Ledger

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Smooth
Here the plywood has been glued and fastened to the existing deck and the screw holes filled. Should be almost bullet proof.

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Rails backed out
The rub rails were set up in a jig and run across the table saw at an angle. The groove created will be filled with bedding compound and will lie evenly on the sheer strake. The dark coloring is two coats of sealer. I hope to never see this side again.

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Paul set up what look like shelf supports to bend the ends of the toe rails. They’re Mahogany for ease of milling and for cutting the spaces as in the original rails.

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Hot steam
Paul bending White Oak strips fresh out of the steam box. When cool and dry the will be glued together and then fashioned to replace the old floor.

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And here’s the almost finished set of new floors. The upper frame ends will have the ends cut back to good wood and have laminated extensions added.

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Rails On!
New rub rails. After I did some preliminary shaping, Paul and Jeff installed the rails. Now that they’re on, I’ll finish the fairing. When done I’ll prime and paint them the usual Malachy Green. When done, 3/4 inch Bronze half oval will be installed.

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Rail work
Paul and Jeff fastening the new rub rail. Very solid.

Once again, sorry for the delay between posts.

Sjogin’s back in the wood shop

It’s time for another burst of productivity. Paul’s completed the cockpit carlin repairs and now that the deck plywood is here he has started to figure out the deck job. I managed to get the bulkhead out, again dealing with nails. The bottom was punky as expected and had to come off to make repairs to the main beam. All of the old, below waterline butt blocks have been replaced and some of the adjoining rivets have been tightened up. I think a lot more of the rivets will need to be set up again. Blistering progress.

In addition to all of the above, Paul found a prime 13′ by 4/4+ white oak board and made the new rub rails. The old ones had two joints. These will have just one.

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Back in the wood shop, looking much like she did last winter. At least she’s ready for the next round.

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Instant progress
Within two days of being back in the shop, Paul had cleaned out the punky bits and fit this yellow pine piece. I sat in the boat the day before trying to figure out how to make the repair. Experience wins.

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More removal
The rotten end of the carlin and the main beam have been removed and are ready for new bits.

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Renewal
New bits epoxied in place.

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Done
All faired and ready for new deck wood. Note the rivets backing up the epoxied joint. There’s also a bolt that runs from the inside of the beam into the carlin. There’s a pocket cut into the bottom of the carlin that allows a nut to be placed on the bolt. Classic yacht construction.

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Deck replaced
New white cedar tongue and groove deck planks.

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Smooooth
All of the old nail holes, new planks and old deck have been faired and sanded. You can see the first piece of plywood being fitted forward.

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Okume for Sjogin
Prime Okume plywood will yield a bullet proof deck. Here it’s in place to layout the cuts needed to fit to the mooring bit, stem and house.

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New butt blocks!
Missing bulkhead! Note the new butt blocks on the garboard strake.

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Butts!
Here’s a close up of Sjogin’s new garboard butt blocks. With all of this renewal the prospects of leaks has gone down. What a treat that would be.

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Dead Floor
Here’s the first of the floors to come out. It’s astonishing how Sjogin has held together all these years with such dodgy bits. I think the fact that her planks are riveted has allowed her to live so long. Had she been carvel planked she’d be compost by now.

Here are the new rub rails soaking in the Bay. They’ll need to be steamed to make the curves at each end.

Sorry again for the delay between posts but busy with work and such. It seems my key strokes at work are just barely keeping up with Paul Smiths labors. (I hope.)

Some progress over the last few weeks

Also getting ready for the Duckboat Worlds next Friday. The deck will get a quick scrapping and paint job but that’s about it.

After the coaming came out it was clear that some slab carpentry needs to be done all the way aft and on either side of the forward ends. This was all expected as I’ve been patching those spots for years. All in all nothing too major.

The deck’s been fully scraped and the picking out the loose rust from the iron nails has started. When clean the deck will be roughly planed and faired. The holes will be then filled with epoxy filler to get ready for the next step.

I spoke with Newport Nautical Timbers this week and it seems they may have floor timber stock. Julia and I are heading to Maine in late September and will stop by in Bristol at their timber yard to make a selection.

To make up for the lack of Sjogin pics, there’s some items from Beaton’s and our gardens.

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Ugly
Port side end of the cockpit carlin where it meets the main deck beam. The carlin will be cut back at an angle and a new piece scarfed in place. The deck beam will need to have a piece glued in and a new notch cut to receive the end of the carlin. Some of the deck will need to come off as well.

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Other side
Here’s the starboard side. Same problem.

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Aft issue
Not too bad here. About a half inch will need to be cut out and a filler piece fit and glued in place. Then I’ll need to recreate the curved bits at the corners.

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Clean deck
The deck has been fully scraped and ready for the next stage.

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Ghost Busted
Ghost Busted! Sad end to a fine spar. I think they can use one of their older ones to get through the rest of the season.

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Duckboat Frenzy! The Worlds are at Mantoloking next Friday the 23rd. Here’s Paul Smith fitting a new splash board. The rest of the yard is busy on Duckboats as well. Some of them needed Sandy repairs.
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Perfect
Fitted the same way it was done a half century ago.

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Hibiscus season
Bright morning sun with the Hibiscus in all their glory.

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Quiet marsh
A quiet day on Stockton Lake. More Speedwell adventures after the Worlds.

Still removing old bits

A coamingectomy pretty well describes the progress over the last few weeks as the coaming has been removed. This will make the new deck covering job easier (for Paul).

Still haven’t heard back from Newport Nautical Timbers. I hope they’re out sailing. If anyone can suggest a source for swept white oak timbers, please let me know. Thanks.

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Coaming heights
Before removing the coaming I recorded the heights every six inches. A pattern will be made so that sweet shape is retained.

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It starts
Starting to pull the coaming. It had to come out in pieces due to the barbed nail fastenings. You can see the holes made with the shop made drill to cut around the nail heads. The saw cut was at the original joint. When I became her caretaker the joint had warped, thus evidence of the dutchman used to bring the pieces back in line. Let’s hear it for epoxy.

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Half done
After a cut was made on the centerline, another had to be made about a foot away. after a bit of chisel and crow bar work the coaming pieces came free. There’s a bit of punkiness right aft that will need excavation and repair.

When I pulled the forward ends of the coamings off there are some spots in the carlin and main beam joint that will need to be addressed. All was expected as I’ve been filling the rot with dutchmen and epoxy for years.

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Easy
This was a dreaded job but surprised at how easy it came out. The weather was hot these last few weeks; more New Orleans than the Jersey Shore but there was usually a breeze in the shed.

Absent the removal of the jib eye bolts, the deck’s ready for scraping, fairing and sanding. All in preperation for her move back into the wood shop and her new deck covering.

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In between Sjogin work, work work and bringing our gardens to a semblance of pre-Sandy bounty, I managed to sneak in a couple of Speedwell sails.

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Sailing!
Hove to off the marsh across Stockton Lake. The building is the abandoned Little League field house. It would make a great spot for a community boating center. Perhaps having lots of oar, paddle and sail boats on the Lake would squeeze out the jet skis.

Other news: As some of you know I post on Facebook as well as here. I just created a Facebook page for Sjogin. Here’s the link. I hope to configure this WordPress Blog so the Posts appear on FB as well.

And maybe the frequency of my Posts will increase.

Russ

Back from Mystic

for the WoodenBoat Show. Yet another great time with new and old analog and digital friends. Here’s a link to a Flickr Set.

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Pierre and Julia
Speaking of digital friends made analog, meet Pierre, a Sjogin fan from France. he recognized me and introduced himself. It’s always a treat when that happens. That’s Olin Stephens Bolero in the background.

And there’s been a bit of progress on Sjogin.

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Foredeck work
Managed to get the rest of the toe rail off along with the vent plate and molding around the mooring bit.

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and more removing
The mast coat ring and the house molding came off in pieces. The rest of the cabin moldings remain to be removed and then on to the coamings. Before they’re removed I’ll make a template so the shape remains the same. (Except for the 53 year old bumps and humps.)

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Nice view
Here’s the view from aboard Sjogin. The Port side’s not too bad but both sides are probably an inch or so lower after decades of stripping, scraping and sanding.

That’s my friend Joe’s boat in the pit ready for another Summer of fun.

Had a consult with Paul Smith this week and Sjogin should be back in the shop in a few weeks for the next round of Beatons (and Paul Smith) magic.

Clean sweep

In the days fighting sail the order “Clean sweep fore and aft meant that all of the cabins, furniture and anything else not needed for fighting the ship was packed in the hold. Sjogin’s undergone a similar process. All of the cockpit soles, bunk and shelves have been removed. Now that the inside of the hull has been exposed, the next set of problems can be tackled.

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Empty
The iron sick floors can be seen for what they are. Nice artifacts long past their shelf life. Still, not to bad for for 53 years of service.

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What's wrong with this picture?
In a perfect world the floors should meet at the keel and planking. All are candidates for replacement or repair. Note the split plank on the right. That will be fixed with a spline.

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Busted
When I pulled off the last ceiling plank, the end of the floor and frame end fell apart. Not expected but not surprised.

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Empty cockpit
Here’s the cockpit with the sole removed. The bulkhead has a bit of rot that will need to be addressed. The design of the cockpit will be changed with side seats in the forward end and a raised platform aft. The existing bench seat will not be replaced. I usually steer while sitting on the decks so the seat was not used for sailing.

Off to the WoodenBoat Show in Mystic this weekend. Pics next week.