Category: Sjogin

Done with the Rudder

and the tiller work continues. I found a piece of suitable oak with a decent sweep to the grain in the wood shed. Tom thinks it may be Black Oak. Not as durable as White Oak but will serve well as a tiller. Looks like it will take a nice finish.

Being this close may justify bending on the sails and thinking about actually sailing.

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Done!
Just another coat of bottom paint and it’s done.

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Tiller progress
From the left: the original tiller from 1985, the pine pattern and the oak blank. Should be close to the original but a bit longer. Phil Bolger observed that a longer tiller generally makes for a better sailor. We’ll see.

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At the sizzle
One needs nourishment for the shaping of the tiller. Cozy below as always.

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Rainy day
Rainy day at Beaton’s. Taken from the wood shop after a watch below on Sjogin.

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Spar building
Here’s a pair of fifty foot Skita Spruce 1 X 10s. Ready to be sliced up and turned into a new Birdsmouth spar for Ghost. Looks fast Bill!

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Myth deck work
Myth’s in the shop for a new deck. The old one suffered from melting deck seams on hot days. The new one will be teak over ply.

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Calm morning
Another ice free, high water, calm day perfect for drifting about. I know as soon as she’s back in commission the weather will revert to mean.

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Gilding the Lily
After 23 years we’re about to have a better view of Stockton Lake and more importantly, the Atlantic, from Ourhouse.

Slow but steady progress

We’re at the painting stage on the rudder which means the end is near. The rudder is hung from the pintels in the Duckboat room with the first coat of primer applied last week. By next weekend we should be at the point where hanging it on Sjogin will be a real possibility.

Still no ice in the basin with the occasional pleasant sailing day bringing dark mutterings from this rudderless sailor.

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It's white!
First coat of Kirby’s primer. Another coat, some sanding and re-priming and we’ll be ready for finish coats. Still looking for tiller stock, 6/4 oak seems scarce at Beaton’s.

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On display
Looking in the windows of the Duckboat room. That’s a covered Ghost in the reflection.

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At the sizzle
At the sizzle last week. The dock-bound visits continue per usual.

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Sleet and such
The weather on deck during the above sizzle. Sleet and rain out of the NNE, blowing 20. Nice tune with the rain/sleet on deck, a healthy sizzle on the stove and the base notes of Sjogin’s lap-chortle.

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Smoooooth
Progress on Ghost. The end of the skeg remains unpainted as the rudder need to be dropped and the stern post replaced. The checks are severe enough for a rebuild. Just who built that skeg? He needs to do a better job of wood selection next time.

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That's it?
Our only snow of the Season so far. Decided contrast to last year this time when we had snow left over from the Boxing Day storm. Curious.

Happy New Year

Greetings from Sjogin on the occasion of this bright New Year. Still plugging away on the rudder, now waiting on Tom to order 1/4″ copper rod for the rivets. And of course the tiller still needs fashioning.

And to add insult to injury, December had many fine sailing days and January’s looking good as well. No ice to date which is later than usual. I wonder how the ice is on Toms River?

One of the best gifts I received this Christmas was a half-model of Sjogin by Randy Mauterer. Randy works part time at Beaton’s and has made a number of fine half models. Needless to say I was deeply grateful for this act of kindness. Thanks Randy.

Here are a number of odds and ends from the last few weeks:

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Sjogin by Randy
Something I’ve alway wanted. Randy took the Gartside lines drawing I posted last year and expanded them to size of the model. I think this may move the Tom Beaton half-model of Hard Tack from over the mantle.

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Breezin' up
One of the decidedly non-sailing days last week. Blowing 25 out of the SSE and lively in the slip.

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Drilling for rivets
Drilling the holes for the rivets. They’ll be made from the 1/4″ copper rod Tom’s hopefully ordered. Once that’s done the rudder gets a final sanding, priming (and fixing the riveting dents) and painting. While the paints drying I’ll start on the tiller.

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The new office and store at Beaton's…
This is for Peter. The new office and store at Beaton’s. It will have bathrooms and showers (yes, showers). Thanks Beaton’s. The old office will revert to a workshop.

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End of the Season
A sure sign of the end of the season. Another faithful year of service by the yard garvey.

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Sleeping Ducks
Last in, first out. Speedwell, stern to on the right, sleeps with her sisters.

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Grey Ghost
Ghost faired and primed. Looks like a fast bottom. Here’s hoping she can return to her race winning ways.

Doing better

I managed to slow the leak in the garboard with a bit of cotton in the split so the rest of the weeping is now manageable. The butt blocks on the third plank down are still leaking so they’ll get attended to when Sjogin’s hauled to fit the rudder. That should get her ready for the ice season. (Touch wood!)

Speaking of the rudder, there’s been substantial progress with the fairing just about done and the cheeks chamfered. Looks like painting may start soon after the riveting is done.

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Cheeks and clamps
Gluing the white oak cheeks to the plywood blade. The spacer at the top is also white oak. I’ll finish the top in a simple fashion for now. Perhaps when/if we get iced in the rudder can be pulled and turned over to Jeff Reid for a bit of carving.

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Rivets next
Finished shaping and fairing. Riveting is next and then painting. (And filling in the misses with the hammer.) The plywood will be saturated with epoxy and painted as well. I still need to design and fashion a new tiller.

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Just rigged
Once again swimming against the tide as Sjogin’s mast is stepped while all others are doing the opposite.

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Ed Lowe
Slipmate Ed Lowe and a loud gull. Ed’s well into his 90’s and still messing about with boats. Hope I have another 30 years of this.

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First Sizzle!
First sizzle of the season on board this leaky old tub. Certainly makes it all worthwhile. Cheers!

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Bottom work for Ghost
Ghost has been flipped and is in the shop for a bottom fairing. Paul and Jeff will be chasing the bumps I left almost twenty years ago. Very cool to see how some of my work held up. One of my first jobs was making the oak skeg. Absent some deep checking, it’s doing fine.

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Christmas Party at Ourhouse
A fuzzy but happy pic of the Christmas Party at Ourhouse. Brisk evening which made the fire most welcome.

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Tis the Season
Best of the Season to you and yours dear reader.

Somehow the weeks go by between posts and I can feel refresh keys wearing out. I’ll try to keep the Posts more timely next year. You can always see new pics on Flickr as that page is updated frequently.

She swims (sort of)

After a spell in the care of Beaton’s, Sjogin was launched last Friday. After a week in the slings she’s still leaking more than usual. A check today showed another split plank. This time it’s in the garboard next to a butt block that may have to be replaced. She may need to be hauled to replace the butt and fix the split. Very frustrating but at least the garboard seam seems tight after caulking by Paul Smith. And his repairs to the stem and keel are tight with no sign of any leaks.

Here are some pics from the last few weeks:

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Oak bits
Prime white oak being fitted to replace the iron sick keel and stem ends. Thankfully the keel was fairly sound at the garboard so we didn’t need to open the planks to go deeper. This should keep her going for a long while.

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Progress
Bolted in place with enough goo to keep it tight. The white streaks are filled in checks.

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Faired
The joint looks like it did 50 years ago. Thanks Paul.

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Ready to leave the OR
Leaving the best boat shop in NJ.

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Soaking up
Hanging in the slings and soaking up. She’s now in the slings in the South shed with the pump going on every three minutes or so. The joys of taking care of an old boat.

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It fits
Work continues at the other end. Here’s the plywood rudder blade with the fitted pintels. Fits just fine. Still need to make a new tiller.

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Rudder cheeks
Here’s one of the cheeks and the pattern. A little different than the original but they should look fine.

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Masterwork
This is the bushing Paul turned from a piece of propeller shaft. Nice to have treasures like this laying around the shop. (And the skill at Beaton’s to make it.) The new pintels are a bit smaller than the worn gudgeons so the bushings will make up the difference.

A problem at the other end of Sjogin

Poor Sjogin; she needs a partial stemectomy. One of her less than stellar attributes is her galvanized iron backbone fastenings. Over the years the bolts have rusted, causing a condition known as iron sickness. The oak surrounding the bolts turned black and brittle; just what we have here.

Now it’s something on the “I’ll get to that next year” list that needs to be taken care of this year. Paul Smith is leading the repair, cutting back to sound wood, removing the old bolts and fitting white oak pieces to match the original profile.

When all this is finished the problem areas at the ends will be taken care of; then it’s time for the middle bits.

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Worse!
When I went over the bottom, looking for loose paint and such, I noticed my earlier efforts at fixing the problem had failed. After cutting away a bit of the keel it became clear it was time for major surgery.

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Worser!
The more I dug, the worse it got. The question was whether the planking would need to be opened to do the repair.

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Ouch
It looks like Paul Smith will be able to scarf in two oak pieces to tie the stem together. He was able to loosen two of the rusted bolts so he’ll be able to reuse the holes. The new bolts will be galvanized as well, hopefully lasting until my heirs will have to worry about it.

Sjogin will go into the Wood Shop this week for the stem reconstruction.

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Rivers of cotton
Here’s Paul pounding in a river of cotton in what I hope was a major source of Sjogin’s leaks.

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Smooth enough
Freshly painted and good enough to pass a ten foot test. Photo taken before the stem issue discovered. The painting will continue in the shop.

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Ah ha!
You may recall I had a problem with a split plank last winter. Post here. Well I discovered that the split had spread enough to warrant attention from the wet side. The split was cleaned out and filed with goop. It should take care of that leak.

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The rudder work continues; pics next time.

Speedwell sails with the A-Cats

I went to Beaton’s Saturday with every intent of working on Sjogin. A bit after I started, folks began arriving for the A-cat Worlds. I walked out on the dock by Speedwell and found the breeze starting to fill in. The three race series was to be held just south of Swan Point and an easy duck boat sail away so I gave in to the inevitable.

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Port tack start!
Ghost tries a Port tack start in very light conditions.

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Lightning
Here’s Lightning, unfortunately sailing as slow as she can.

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spy leads
Spy leading in the last race, just after the start. She went on to win on a high note for next year.

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Happy Skipper
Lazy man sailing.

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Post regatta party
Post regatta party. Nice seeing some old friends and boats.

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Shed mates
Classy shed mate. Serena’s done for the year. Work continues on Sjogin and the new rudder.

Rudder progress

The aft stem shape has been determined and a full size pattern’s been made. I’ve collected the plywood and just about ready to start cutting and gluing. When glued I’ll fair the plywood to the pattern and start getting out the white oak cheeks.

I needed a partial sheet of 6mm Sapele to go between the two layers of 15mm. Beaton’s couldn’t help so I went to Bill de Rouville’s boat shop on Toms River. Nice little boatyard on a cove off the river. I’ll get some pics next time.

When done it should be close to one and a half inches. The pintles are on their way from Hamilton Marine. They’re Wilcox Crittenden cast bronze and should be here by this weekend. The distance between the tangs will hopefully match the finished rudder. I may have to put some sort of bushing in the existing gudgeons as the new pintles have a half inch pin.

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It fits!
A one inch pine plank served to pick up the stem shape and the location of the gudgeons. Nice bit of chisel and plane work.

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Looks close
The final shape looks close to the original. The aft edge is a bit fairer at the waterline. The original was scraped and faired over the years and had a funny shape.

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Speedwell awaits
Here’s a view from the cockpit. Speedwell awaits a break in the Sjogin action.

Sjogin’s hauled

She’s out for a quick refit and for a new rudder. I had Tom order a sheet of 15mm Sapele plywood today for the lower part of the rudder. The finished thickness will be close to 1 1/2″, similar to the original. I know it’s not the same as the original, but just the blade will be ply. The cheeks and the top will be white oak, hopefully carved to match the original.

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Hauled
Back in her usual spot. This will be quick, as the A-Cats will be hauled for Winter storage in a few weeks.

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Have you seen the rudder?
This is the image I’m using to recreate the same rudder (except for the drifted oak bit). The distance between the pintles is 27″ so I’ll use that to reference the rest of the dimensions.

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Ahhhhh....
This is the carving I hope to duplicate. Jeff Reid is a worker at Beaton’s who’s become an accomplished carver. I think he can do justice to Sjogin’s new rudder.

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Mast out
Pulling the stick and always a sad day.

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Hove to!
Hove to inside Swan Point. She seems to like the sail out about 3/4’s with the wind just forward of the beam. With the board down she drifts to leeward needing just an occasional touch of the rudder. Great fun poking about in search for the lost rudder. (It’s almost Melvillian.)

Note the osprey on the pole. They’re thinking about heading south soon.

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Post Irene
The day after Irene left. Just a bit of water on the lawn and some limbs lost off our Sycamore Maple. Close call.

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Irene pruning
Survival of the fittest limbs.

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High tide mark
You can just make out the high water mark level with the top of the hinge. About eight inches over the wood shop floor.