Slocum`s Spray

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by Elmo, Dec 19, 2009.

  1. MasalaChai
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    MasalaChai Junior Member

    JosephT and Bataan,
    Well, I'd sell you both mine if Bataan would let me have BERTIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
     
  2. MasalaChai
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    MasalaChai Junior Member

  3. MasalaChai
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    MasalaChai Junior Member

    Bataan thanks for the info on engine and prop. Interesting to see the starting handle on the back of the engine, more like fishing boat / lifeboat. But this engine has a workingboat / commercial pedigree. Nice one! Mine is a Volvo Penta MD2B. Would have been happy with the 1B single really, but this was already in the boat and is a reliable thumper. I rarely use it above a 1/3 throttle if I use it at all! Hand starts very well.

    Sad thing about a lot of the modern diesels is that there is no facility for hand starting which always seems to me a retrograde step.

    Bertie wouldnt notice the difference in weight between the old 16HP and the new 30HP engine, but a lot of boats do and it amazes me how people often shove huge engines into so called sailing boats and spoil them. They dont seem to realise how little power an auxilliary needs to shove you along. When power seems lacking because of a head wind it is amazing what motorsailing can do. I am sure many people with a boat the size and weight of Bertie would have dumped 80HP or more into her.

    I chartered an old wooden Buchannan sloop years ago that had a variable pitch prop, and it was well into the week before we quite got the hang of finding 'neutral'!! There is, naturally, quite a lot push from an 'almost' neutral prop that this is still turning, and it can make for some interesting capers when handling warps alone!

    How do you leave your prop set when sailing, as not feathering what position is best?
     
  4. BATAAN
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    Prop set dead flat to stop windmilling.
     
  5. jak3b
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    jak3b Junior Member

    MasalaChai wrote: "but a lot of boats do and it amazes me how people often shove huge engines into so called sailing boats and spoil them." Last time I cruised in Maine I was amazed to see how much people powered their 'sailboats'.Some of the newer Hunters and the French boats built for charter work look like power boats With there biminies and electronic arrays.A fighting chair with tuna rods and beer can holders would fit right in.
     
  6. BATAAN
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    Still overhauling the mast and rigging on BERTIE as weather allows. A couple days past I dug out a pint of real red lead paste I bought at least 30 years ago, mixed up some RL paint and slobbered a couple thin coats on the end grain and where the head fitting will go, not forgetting to wet the areas with 333 thinner first.
    Today spent the time dodging hailstorms and scraping the old Vaseline finish off of the unpainted part of the mast where the sail rides. OOh! Nice bright wood! Vaseline doesn't go black like Linseed oil but it does darken some and build up.
    Then I went to Safeway and bought 2 pounds of Vaseline and got out the heat gun and literally cooked and boiled the vaseline into the surface of the wood. Went over the 40 feet or so of relevant mast 2 times, filling any remaining checks with melted vaseline and aggressively melting it into the surface of the wood. This makes the mast very waterproof, discouraging rot, as well as cutting down the inherent chafe in the Chinese lug rig and making it come DOWN when requested, no matter how bad the situation, plus it looks like fresh expensive varnish.
    Then I managed to get a coat of finish paint on the masthead, deck portion and heel. These need three coats and few days to get hard before stepping the mast, so we're still a ways out from going SAILING again. Hopefully within a couple weeks I'll have the mast back in and all the strings back in order and I can get a nice day to test it all out.
    I'll try to get photos up soon.
     
  7. jak3b
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    jak3b Junior Member

    You should write a book!.You have a endless supply of practical methods for the care and feeding of traditional boats.
     
  8. BATAAN
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    Jak, what really irritates me is that around the year 1900 all this stuff was common knowledge among coaster and fishboat skippers, as were all the skills that keep old B going. Rig tension, sail balance, practical and cheap maintenance, all this stuff went into keeping the little ships sailing and hauling cargo, doing useful work and making a small steady profit for their owners.
    But when the all-holy gasoline and later diesel engine started designing boats instead of wind and tide (boats are 'designed' by many things but mostly their projected use and powering method), a lot was lost, and at our world society's peril, since the oil won't last forever....
    B has been a long experiment in keeping and learning these archaic and seemingly useless things and maybe a book does need to come out of it with a total printing of 50, for worldwide circulation.
    Few folks these days are willing to put up with the work and dirt of actual hands on small ship ownership/stewardship because the ships have no purpose, no reason to exist anymore.
    Formerly, before WW2, in Europe and along the coasts of the US, was a dying remnant of coastal trade under sail, carried on in ships built long before in a different economic time.
    These are not reproducible today unless one does as B was built.
    Get the skills, find a cheap place to build, usually outdoors, go to the woods for good timber, mill it yourself if necessary, and work 10 hours every day on it until it goes in the water, then 12 hours a day after that...
    Then be the vessel's slave as long as you own it. If you did your build well, the slavery will not be onerous and the payoffs tremendous.
    But don't try to re-invent the beast.
    Small wooden ships were at a very high level of development when they were supplanted by steel and power, and it is near impossible to improve on the economic return by going to light displacement/glue boats/fiberglass but steel or aluminum are usually viable, since they have a high level of commercial development, since what we are building is a commercial boat, not a yacht.
    A yacht is something different, with a cost ten times higher per ton. I was lucky enough to learn boatbuilding from a tug and barge builder, so I wasn't spoiled with a love of fine finish and perfect materials.
    The first photo is a French smack unloading compressed fuel into carts on a beach just before WW2.
    The second is a schooner a partner and I re-built, masted and rigged in the early 70s for less than $10,000, way less.
     

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  9. jak3b
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    jak3b Junior Member

    Common knowledge and common sense.Good stuff.Having beautiful shiny topsides, chrome and varnish is nice to look at but lots of hours of expensive labor to maintain.Its interesting John Alden spec'ed his first 2 malabars to have simple workboat finish.Very simple rigs that his wife could single hand if nessesary.Fenwick Williams also felt that his boats should be accessable to the average guy so a workboat level of finish worked on his designs.Simple, strong, and well put together is also more fun in the long run,Less to worry about;-).
    Look at the carnage in the latest Vendee Globe.
     
  10. MasalaChai
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    MasalaChai Junior Member

    Bataan, I think you would do way better than 50 copies worldwide. As you say it is a tradgedy that all these skills and knowledge are almost lost. You have learnt it and used it for real. You write well and with great wisdom and passion; there are many who would love to know these things from someone who has really practised them. Your book would be a real treasure of knowledge and experience to help (hugely) to carry it on to future generations. If you only make 50 copies people will be fighting over them when oil runs out and steel wont grow on trees. We might not see that day, but I dont suppose Slocum ever imagined that so many people would read his book either.
     
  11. BATAAN
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    I think possibly the reason the first two Malabars were workboat finish was because the budget forced the build into a workboat yard in Maine accustomed to building small schooners and Friendship type sloops.
    I got to sail a bit on YO HO HO, a 1929 Malabar-something converted into an enormously tall sloop. It was built at Morse's I think and nice but plain. My god did it go upwind like a train!
    Pete Culler wrote several books which have been condensed into one volume PETE CULLER ON WOODEN BOATS from internationalmarine.com.
    He was a prolific designer and builder, Captain, curmudgeon etc and the book is absolutely worth a place on the shelf.
    I learned much from him through letters while designing and building B.
     
  12. BATAAN
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    Changing the mast rake from 12" aft rake to 4" forward rake as part of the learning process on Chinese rig. I made this decision years ago but now the mast is out I have to do it.
    Step needed 2" block on fwd end and same cut out of aft end.
    Partner, which never fit exactly right anyway, got cut to fit new wedges on fwd side. The old Sheffield paring chisel, razor sharp, and a deadblow mallet made following the guide cuts easy, even in old, very hard Doug Fir.
    Next is a new plywood deck ring for the acrylic cloth boot, but first I have to find the material so the old one was left in place to keep rain out until I do.
    Photeaux attached...
     

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  13. BATAAN
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    BATAAN Senior Member

    Jak, part of the charm of varnish and polish is either 'I did it myself and I am damn proud of it' or 'See how rich I am because I can hire minimum wage starving people to do this".
    As I used to be a worker who labored for the latter type, I prefer plain but stronger than hell, cheap and very durable, so much of our interior is 'shelving pine boards' held together with galvanized or SS zip screws.
    A friend upon first coming below said, "Wow, it's just like a farm house" and that was a great compliment.
    Note fold down chart table that takes full size charts and, unlike the execrable, useless and deeply loathed 'chart desk' on most yachts, is not covered in seaboots and puke buckets.
     

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  14. jak3b
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    jak3b Junior Member

    Yup, Ive done alot of sanding and varnishing on other peoples boats to.Thats a great chart table!.Very cool.I used to correspond with Pete Culler to along time ago before he died.He answered my endless questions and seemed pleased that a 14 year old kid was interested in what he had to offer.He finally got to sick to answer.I wish I still had those letters.
     

  15. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    That's definitely old-growth Douglas fir; look at the color.

    I did a lot of remodeling work in Echo Park years ago, and I had to drill the old 2x4 framing for nails; it was like working with oak.
     
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