Summer and CAI's bronze casting - 9/30/2017

It has been five months since my last post.  So now fall is here and it's bringing cooler weather including some welcomed rain.  The adventures of summer are winding down and it's time to get back to the blog. 

It seems like we have been away more than home sometimes.  Since my last post in April CAI flew to Sweden and Finland to visit his family.   Then I flew down to Boise to visit my family and camp out in the breathtaking Sawtooth Mountains.  Shortly afterwards we packed up our R-Pod trailer and went to Port Townsend so CAI could learn how to cast bronze for his birthday.  He expects to cast small parts for the boat at a significant savings. In addition we'll get custom pieces you wouldn't find anywhere.

Happy Birthday, CAI!

 

CAI's first attempt casting bronze

A cap for our Samson posts.  CAI has just started polishing it.
It's about 4 inches square.

 

Later in August we spent 10 days with our little R-Pod again and traveled down to Stanley, Idaho to watch 2 minutes of total eclipse with my sister Mary and her husband Sheldon.

Stanley attracted an international audience for the eclipse lured by forecasts of clear weather.
Except for some episodes of smoke from nearby forest fires, the viewing was excellent.

Shadows turned into hundreds of miniature crescents on the side of our RV.

Sheldon equipped us with numerous stargazing gadgets.

In September took a week-long venture back to Port Townsend for the 41st Annual Wooden Boat Festival.

We took classes on diesel engines and electronics systems maintenance and got tidbits and advice for new equipment and gadgets.   We met world cruisers including Matt Rutherford who recently completed a solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the Americas in a scrappy little sailboat to raise money to help the disabled go sailing.  You can check out his blog here:

http://solotheamericas.org/

CAI spotted this wooden hull Ingrid at the show.
 It is one of the few original classic Ingrids, built in the traditional way.

I don't know how to adequately describe this boat festival.  It attracts people who love traditional boat building from hand made canoes to the 133 ft schooner, Adventuress.  Nigel Calder (a world cruiser and author) calls this event,  "The largest gathering of crazy romantics in the world."

Below is a lovely photo montage of the festival that I found on YouTube from this year's festival. Maybe this gives you a hint.

Lastly, before departing, CAI and I strolled the piers at Boat Haven Marina in Port Townsend.
It's a great place to get ideas for AtLast.

In between our adventures we have still been working on AtLast.  Look for future posts about these projects-

     building the fridge
     repairing the rudder
     building and installing the skylight
     fairing the cabin (on the outside)
     painting the cabin walls (on the inside)
     painting the hull
     building the main salon table
     painting and varnishing shelving
     and drilling holes in the hull, not exactly an intuitive thing to do to a sailboat!

See you soon!

Lifting In Our 300 lb Water Tank, 4/2/17

Remember our water tank? If not, you can Click here.

Today I'm sharing two videos I just created to tell the story of how we, uhm, how CAI lifted our 300 lb water tank into AtLast, essentially single-handedly.

As a bonus I added a 3rd video at the end.  It's CAI splicing rope for a block.  He needed another block during the big move, so without skipping a beat he sat down and made one. 

I hope you like it!

CAI splicing rope for his "deadeye".
A deadeye is an item used in the standing and running rigging of traditional sailing ships. It is a smallish round thick wooden disc (CAI's is made of Delrin) with one or more holes through it, perpendicular to the plane of the disc.

The completed deadeye block.

Keeping it warm, cool, dry, quiet - The benefits of insulation

No one wants to be cold and wet on a boat. I mean the whole idea is to go somewhere warm and wonderful, right? And if it's not warm outside, then the boat should be a cozy and welcoming retreat.

But boats get wet inside.  Clearly water can come in from bad weather and waves. But damp air also condenses on the cooler hull and deck.  And when things don't dry out it leads to mold and "boat smell" not to mention related health implications. 

This post is about how we are insulating the boat to mitigate these problems.  Another benefit is.....it's quieter.  :-)

Most production boats aren't insulated or the insulation is minimal.  The cabins are often built with a core construction - that's balsa wood with fiberglass on both sides. The insulating value is modest and when the fiberglass cracks (from some unanticipated impact) then water can get it.  It probably won't dry out and then the balsa wood rots and potentially molds.  Even without cracks and penetrating water, non-insulated walls are vulnerable to condensation and the resulting dampness.

AtLast won't have any core construction.  AtLast is solid fiberglass construction with wood framing.  The wood is sealed with penetrating epoxy or painted with anti-mold bilge coat.  And in many cases we are using black locust wood, a hard wood that is rot resistant. 

The fiberglass and wood structure doesn't insulate so we are insulating the hull and cabin. This should produce a strong boat that is warm, drier, and resistant to rot and mold.  Once we are in the tropics, the insulation will help keep the cabin cooler.

So what are we using for insulation? 

It's Armaflex, a dense rubber elastomer based material with special qualities:

• it's closed cell foam, so it doesn't absorb water
• it's anti-mold
• it's non-toxic if burned
• it dampens noise
• it doesn't break down over time
• it's easy to cut and flexible so if fits easily into odd spaces.
• it's light weight
• it's not cheap at $5 per square foot.

We are insulating all around the boat above water line.   Anything below waterline, however, will not be insulated.  The reason is that it is important to be able to inspect for damage that could affect the integrity of the hull.  All of the below-water surfaces are painted with bilge coat and should be relatively easy to clean.

Before and after:  Adding insulation to the forepeak. 
The vertical rails are hull stiffeners.

The insulation can be cut by scissors or I use a band saw. 
It conforms into spaces under the deck as well as on the sides of the hull.

Here, insulation is being installed above the starboard settee onto the hull side. 

After installing the insulation, I attach varnished slats over it.  This protects the insulation and it will look great! There will be little gaps between the slats for air circulation.  You can see here that I painted the stiffeners black.  I did this so they will be less visible through the air gaps.

Here are some varnished slats ready for installation in another cabinet. 

The varnished slats are ready to be installed in the picture above.  They will be installed like "paneling" on the back wall, which is, of course, the hull.  In boat language, the hull sides are called the "ceiling".  How's that for confusing?

The stiffeners give me something to attach the slats to.  I drill holes into the stiffeners and screw the slats into place.

We glued and stapled roughly 200 ft of little 1/2x1/2 ribs onto the deck beams.  The ribs have two purposes.  One is to hold up the insulation so it doesn't fall out and secondly, they provide a surface to which we can attach wooden paneling.  The paneling will be white and it will brighten up the cabin.

We are about 70% done installing insulation. There are storage areas in the bow and stern of the boat that are still bare.  Getting to these areas will require crawling into tight spaces.  That will be a little more challenging!

Water, water.... and some perspective on cruising!

As the saying goes, water water everywhere but not a drop to drink! 

But really, water on a cruising boat is a precious commodity. It is very limited when you are sailing and sometimes limited even in port.  When we are at sea or remote anchorages, we will rely solely on water in our fresh water tank and water collected from rain.  Some cruising boats have water makers that create water daily.  We will not initially have that because it takes too much power, and, if you recall from my post about power, electricity on a boat is about 25-100x more expensive than on land or about $4/KW-hr.

While we are on AtLast, we will use water for 

drinking,
cooking,
rinsing dishes.

Yeah, that’s about it.  I wince a little as I type this and CAI jumps in and tells me that when he was sailing across the Atlantic as a kid, they didn’t even rinse their dishes in fresh water. “We washed and rinsed them in salt water and dried them right away. Nobody got sick!” Uh.  OK, CAI, do we have to do that?

CAI's here -  Yes, when we are spending time in a remote Pacific island atoll or crossing large waters we need to conserve.   But the fact is that we are spoiled. 10 gal/minute from our well and no water bill.  Filling the pond with 5000 gal of water ....no problem.   That is more that 10 years of water usage on a boat.  Watering the lawn every day.   Water is available with just a twist of our hand.  Never to run out.   Power is just there (most of the time) with a flick of a switch.   OK we need to pay the bill. 

So what do we do for everything else we use water for?  If we are in a warm climate, we will swim for our showers.  Maybe a quick rinse with the fresh stuff.  We shouldn’t create a lot of laundry because we will be wearing less, like shorts and swim suits.  Laundry will get done in salt water. And another quick rinse with "freshies". Finally, the head uses saltwater so no issue there.

Alternately, we can use shore services if they are near.  Many marinas provide restrooms and showers and sometimes laundromats, too.  We will have choices.  And when we just have to have a hot shower, then we'll go splurge on a nice hotel room and lounge in their shower for an hour or so :-).

If we are in a cold climate, like Port Townsend, Washington, then we will have to depend on shore services.  And we will be refilling our water tank more frequently.  We WILL have a very simple shower on AtLast for those times that feel we must shower on board.

CAI's comment -  Yes. No running water.  No hot water.   No TV.  Yes, No late show making fun of the president. A crummy internet connection sometimes.  Radio playing music we do not recognize.   Locals telling stories we do not grasp.   Being harassed in every new port by the customs.   Trouble finding the post office to send letters home.  Walking everywhere since we have no car.  Carrying the food supplies to the boat.

No snowplowing.  No turkey for Thanksgiving.  No Christmas tree.   Just visiting a 3rd world country that has no Kellogg red berry cornflakes.  A life without a smartphone.  Visiting a place were they do not have bus time tables. 

Yes, back to water!  If we work at it we could limit our water usage to as little as ½ gallon per person per day.   That's pretty good. Compare that to typical American water consumption of 80-100 gallons per day!  If we relaxed a little, then we’d use potentially 5 gallons per person per day.  Maybe in reality we’ll be somewhere in the middle, say 1-2 gallons.  

How long will that last us?  

AtLast will have a 54 gallon fresh water tank.  Therefore it should comfortably hold us for about 10-20 days. And we do have backup.  In addition to our primary tank we will have a 35 gallon rain water tank and a couple portable 5 gallon water jugs.  In an emergency we have a hand operated reverse osmosis water maker.  So no worries about a crisis.  It won't produce gallons and gallons, but it will be enough to drink.

Tank Construction

CAI made his own water tank to maximize our water storage.  It would have been easier to buy a water tank but it would have been rectangular and an inefficient use of space.  He used a 316 stainless, a high grade less likely to corrode and it’s weldable.  He chose to stick weld the tank using low hydrogen 309L welding rods.  These rods produce a softer, less brittle, more durable weld. After he finished welding, he pressure tested the tank to 4 psi and repaired several pin hole leaks.  This was, after all, his first major welding job!

Cutting sheets of stainless

8 seams welded, a little more than half done.

We are pretty happy with our progress!

Detail work

I thought he was done after pressure testing, but then he said we had to polish the tank, an important final step. Polishing rids the surface of pits, scratches and abrasions that could be starting points for corrosion, even with the 316 stainless. It was about this time that I was starting to help out on the boat so CAI outfitted me with a grinder, sanding wheels, polishing wheels, SS polishing compound…..  eye protection and breathing protection and set me loose to polish the tank.

Sorry - no pictures of polishing.  I think they are on CAI's phone, which died. :-(   I think we spent more than 40 hours polishing that tank.  I learned that some people make a living polishing stainless steel.  I believe it! Our tank shines like a mirror now and it's waiting to be installed into the keel of the boat.  It's under a pile of snow right now so we'll wait for a warm dry spring day.  

We have a little shoveling to do before we can put this tank in the boat....!

Shine on!

Its final destination:

CAI rests his feet in the future home of the fresh water tank.

CAI again - Why do we work so hard?   To accomplish what?  What are the stories we will tell our grandchildren?   What things will make us feel that we had a long good life?  An instant hot shower?

Seagulls and the Original Name of our Boat

When we bought AtLast, in June of 2010, we brought home a hull with some bulkheads and ballast and that's about it.  Except of course the boat had a name, "Chiang".

Hmmm,  Chiang.   Chiang?  Really? Why did they pick that?  I never felt close to this name. I found it difficult to remember and, well, it's Chinese.  And, while the Chinese have a rich and diverse history, we do not have a connection. This hull was built in America and, clearly, we'd be finishing it here too.

So we thought we'd rename the boat.  We decided on "AtLast" as it highlights several aspects of who we are.  To begin,  both CAI and I are in our second marriages and we both feel that, at last, we found our partner to spend the rest of our life with.  In celebration, we danced our first wedding dance to the classic and eternal song "At Last", as sung by Etta James:

At last my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
Oh yeah yeah
At last the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
Oh yeah yeah, you smile, you smile
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine... at last!

And then there is CAI's dream.  Ever since CAI crossed the Atlantic at age 14 on the double-ender Albatross, he dreamed to build a boat in the same style.  It was 35 years later we bought the hull and moved it out to Newman Lake.  His dream was starting to take shape, at last. 

And one more thing. It has been 6.5 years so far building this boat.  It will probably be another year or two before we make it out there to really sail her.  When we go, I'm sure we all will be sighing, "at last!"

This name feels right.

But CAI thought it would also be meaningful to reflect the original name in the boat.

We found out that "Chiang" is from Richard Bach's book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull.  You may recall, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was cast out from his flock for his "misplaced" love of flight instead of food.  Jonathan continued his search for truth and perfection in flight.  In his travels he encountered a wise elder seagull whose name was "Chiang".  Chiang took Jonathan beyond his previous learning.  He said, the secret to move instantly to anywhere else in the world, is to "begin by knowing that you have already arrived."

He continued with his teachings.  "We can start working with time if you wish till you can fly the past and the future. And then you will be ready to begin the most difficult, the most powerful, the most fun of all. You will be ready to begin to fly up and know the meaning of kindness and of love."  After much practice, Jonathan developed his skills and Chiang left, however not before giving Jonathan one last piece of advice:  "keep working on love."

In reflection of everything "Chiang", we have seagulls accenting the interior and exterior of the boat. 
Here are some examples:

Seagull cutouts at the top of our storage cabinet provide important ventilation.

Ventilation at the bottom.

More ventilation for another cabinet.

And you recall, seagull inlays adorn the companionway hatch.

This is the bow of the boat. The previous owner painted seagulls flying about the leading edges.
We will be repainting the hull and I'm sure we'll do something with the seagulls here too.

Our Table and Saw Stop Table Saw

It's the main settee table.   Or saloon table. The saloon is the main room in the boat. Some saloon tables are gimbled (they swing like our stove).  Ours is not. Our table is fixed to the sole (that's the floor of the boat)  so it does not move then you sail and a big rough wave throws you on the table.  Read it needs to be sturdy.   It's large to serve as a work table, dinner table and small too. Leaves turn down so you can pass by.   In reality it is something between a coffee table and dinner or work table.  

The tabletop is composed of 5 components.  A center console runs the entire length and four leaves fold up/down. Wings underneath the console rotate out to support the leaves.  CAI sketched out a proof of concept last week:

Concept for main saloon table. 
A bookshelf is planned at the far end.

The table will be large for a boat our size!  It will measure 38" x 62" with all 4 leaves in their up position.  The center console will provide additional storage which is accessible from the top. 

CAI finished cutting the tabletop last week and pieced them together for an important fit check shown in the photo below.  The light colored wood is the maple and the dark wood is mahogany. 

Tabletop fit check atop CAI's SawStop tablesaw.

Each of the four leaves must be glued and clamped. Here's the first of the four:

The first of the four leaves.

CAI's table saw is really something special.  It's called a SawStop.  This tool will protect you if you get your fingers in the blade because it stops in an instant if senses skin contact. 

A lot of people manage to get hurt by their table saws. Google reveals there are 64,000 table saw accidents every year. 4,000 fingers are lost.  A friend of ours cut off half of his hand. So sad.

CAI and I agreed that this "finger-saving" saw was worth the extra cost.  See the video below.  If you haven't seen this before, you will be amazed.

The Companionway Sliding Hatch

The companionway is, in a way, the "front door" of AtLast.

It provides protection from the elements, will be lockable to keep out unwanted visitors and will offer a warm welcome to friends and family.   It took CAI several months to build the hatch and then he gave it to me to varnish and paint it. This post illustrates the steps to add the laminate and inlays to the piece I call the sliding hatch.

Double click any image to enlarge it.

The basic construction:  

First, a "Before and After" photo:

Here is the sliding hatch structure, sitting on a bench in CAI's shop.  This is prior to adding laminate and inlays:

A closeup of the final construction is shown below:

Fabrication of the laminate top:

CAI cut the panels or "slats" from boards of black locust using his table saw and
then used a thickness planer (shown here) to cut them to the right thickness.
This is a "gross" cut.

Each slat was then processed through a thickness sander which has
micro thickness adjustments (~.008 inch). 
This tool produces a much better surface finish too.

The slats were placed on the hatch to verify fit.
Actually, you can see the slats are constructed with two kinds of wood.
The lighter wood is the black locust and the dark wood is Brazilian Cherry (aka Jatoba).
That's ANOTHER story.

CAI used epoxy to bond the slats to the hatch.
This "MAS Epoxy" is used all over the boat.
It's expensive, more than $100 per gallon.  We try not to waste any of it.

First he coated the hatch with the epoxy.

Next, he coated each slat prior to placing it on the hatch.

He carefully placed each slat.

Then he clamped the slats in place.
You know now that if it gets glued, ahem, epoxied, it gets clamped.

Additional pieces of wood (20"x1.5"x1/4") were used to spread the clamping forces.

Final inspection of the clamps.  This was left to sit for 24 hours.

Creating the Inlays

The seagull patterns below are being used around the boat, so why not on the hatch????

These were the patterns used for the inlays.

Small wooden seagulls were cut from black locust.

CAI cut the shapes of the seagulls into the hatch using a small router.

5 seagulls were placed in the hatch.

The seagull inlays were epoxied into place.
Lead weights provided "clamping" force while the epoxy cured.

The blue seagulls aren't really blue.  That's just a leftover tape, a visual aid when working the inlays.

The final product:

This is the sliding hatch today, with about 4 layers of varnish.  I found out how hard it is to take pictures of something so shiny!

Companionway hatch for AtLast

 A nice front door if I say so myself!

Extreme clamping, and some insulation work

Two weeks ago I posted a discussion about gluing upside down and clamping. This week CAI is gluing in the framework and paneling around the door to the head. This is an extreme application of clamps, but not that uncommon.  Thought you'd like to see. I counted 20 clamps on the doorway alone.

You might notice the chunks of black foam stuck onto the ends of some of them.  That's so we don't poke our eyes out.

Building up the doorway to the head.

Those chunks of foam are leftovers from my ongoing project of insulating the boat.  It has been frigid here in Spokane.  The insulation means it can now get up to a pretty comfortable 60 degrees inside.  And on the flip side it will keep us cooler in the tropics.  Yay! 

Cutting insulation while using my new selfie stick to "get the shot". 
I can't believe I have a selfie stick.

Here I am in the forepeak again.  The insulation goes on the
underside of the deck as well as on the hull sides.