and sailing as slow as I can….
Sitting down below with a warm fire and an about to be removed wisdom tooth. Figured I’d chew on a well toasted sausage bread before days of mush.
This is also my first iPad post.
The view yesterday under the dock at Beaton’s. I knew as soon as I shipped the rudder, the sailing conditions would revert to mean.
but the tiller needs a bit of the cut and shim. For now I’ll fit a custom wedge and glue it back to shape later. Looks like we’ll be sailing this week. (Written 02.22.12)
Friend and carpenter Andy helped me with the installation last Saturday. Andy was nourished with the ship’s best before his “stand here; hold this” efforts.
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Andy passes the stand here; hold this test. A few years ago he passed the sit there; hold this test on Charlotte.
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It fits though a bit closer than it needs to be. When very hard over it binds a bit. I’ll fair in the tight spots next haul out. And yes, the cotter pins are in place. I’ll place the lower one when I get a half dozen Beatonites to stand forward.
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The tiller is a work in progress. I need to take a further wedge off the bottom and glue it on top to bring the end of the tiller above the mainsheet blocks. Fun work (as he mutters walking off to the band saw for another slice.)
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Sails bent on and about ready to go. Waiting on a light to moderate dry Northeaster, about 40 degrees, bright sun and fresh sausage bread. The water’s still clear so the first order of business is a cruise of the Rudder Grounds. Hope springs eternal.
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Plenty of water but gusting from the NNW about 20 and building. No thanks.
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The Joys of living at Sea Level. And it is rising. I’ve been driving by this corner for, well forever and you can now see marine growth on the lowest drain and curb. Get used to it.
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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Just another coat of bottom paint and it’s done.
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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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One needs nourishment for the shaping of the tiller. Cozy below as always.
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Rainy day at Beaton’s. Taken from the wood shop after a watch below on Sjogin.
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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’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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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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After 23 years we’re about to have a better view of Stockton Lake and more importantly, the Atlantic, from Ourhouse.
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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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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Looking in the windows of the Duckboat room. That’s a covered Ghost in the reflection.
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At the sizzle last week. The dock-bound visits continue per usual.
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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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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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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.
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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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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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 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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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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A sure sign of the end of the season. Another faithful year of service by the yard garvey.
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Last in, first out. Speedwell, stern to on the right, sleeps with her sisters.
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Ghost faired and primed. Looks like a fast bottom. Here’s hoping she can return to her race winning ways.
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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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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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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Once again swimming against the tide as Sjogin’s mast is stepped while all others are doing the opposite.
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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 of the season on board this leaky old tub. Certainly makes it all worthwhile. Cheers!
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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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A fuzzy but happy pic of the Christmas Party at Ourhouse. Brisk evening which made the fire most welcome.
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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.
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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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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Bolted in place with enough goo to keep it tight. The white streaks are filled in checks.
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The joint looks like it did 50 years ago. Thanks Paul.
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Leaving the best boat shop in NJ.
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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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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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Here’s one of the cheeks and the pattern. A little different than the original but they should look fine.
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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.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
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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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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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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Here’s a view from the cockpit. Speedwell awaits a break in the Sjogin action.
I managed to complete one race without dumping (and not losing the rudder). When the three minute gun went off I was chatting with Carl Danish well to leeward of the starting line. I wasn’t alone being late so I had some company working around the olympic course in very light air. Suited me just fine.
The new rig worked great, allowing for relaxed sailing. With less area she was a bit slower than the other boats but not that much. Lot’s of compliments.
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Drifting (and towing) down to the start. Sailing, without a doubt, as slow as I can.
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Meghan Beaton ghosting by.
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See, I did beat a few boats, finishing 62nd out of 73 boats in the first race. Left the course after the first race to get home and finish Irene preparations. Wait till next year.