Boat Plans And Patterns | Shallow minded sailing

Boat Plans And Patterns

The past few days Lillian my daughter and I went out for a few days exploring with our sea dog Bequia on the Hogfish Maximus . The island that we live on is one of 18 in a small bay on the north coast of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. From our house we can see about half of these with the farthest one away being 7 miles. All have good anchorages in their lees depending on the wind direction. The best all weather anchorage being the landlocked harbor on Royal Island. The entrance to Royal Island has a small rock island almost in the third middle of the channel. The entrance for deep draft is to the west side of this rock. But when entering the east third looks so logical that lots of competent and lesser seaman think this is the way to go forgoing the pilot books and guides. Unfortunately just under the water in this part is a nice big shoal that has enough keel grooves in that the guest book it must have is in volumes. I love sailing in and out of here when the harbor is full of newbies at anchor on Hogfish Maximus she looks to have a deep draft which most times is drawing a bit over 7 with her board down. We know the bottom by heart so always go in and out the wrong way with all the crowd giving good advice as to the danger ahead via VHF radio . Reading old sailing yarns like Peter Pyes Moonrakers cruises , it is neat to know that he made the mistake and ran Moonraker up on this ledge too. I like diving along its length feeling the limestone ledge, with its multiple colored scrapes along it and think of old Moonraker here in the 40s stuck with no one to see her embarrassment.

I being a very cautious navigator have never run aground, but there has been multiple times when there has not been enough water to go where I am headed. This is only a temporary setback which we are used to being in the mode of calling out water depths in inches . An inch under our bottom is plenty but it can be slow going as the mass of displacement sucks the water away and we kind of inch worm along stopping and filling back in and going and sucking and stopping with a messing dusty underwater wake. This is not running aground its just not having enough water. When we do run out of water its really no big deal as the HFM just sits upright as solid as a concreat parking lot. With a 9 wide bottom you dont  lean her over you just climb down aft into the water hopefully with a Sandy bottom with only your shorts gettin wet. If in mud then its a bit deeper . My usual thing is to wade to the bow squatting  down with my back to the boat grabbing the chine with both hands behind me and lifting a bit. By lifting up just a couple of inches the boat rocks aft and with the added displacement of the stern sections an inch of draft is gotten and so with the 32,000 lb boat now floating I spin her around and push her back into deeper water, something like 28". This is why I say we never run aground. The times we are being inconvenienced by not having enough water to go when and where we want I just blame on the moon as not keeping in sync with us.

Dont ever follow us as we take a lot of short cuts . We have found that in a simple breeze pif the seas are not breaking a bit or the swell is not giving a slight hump then there is enough water for us to go. So on we press but only in daylight and not over coral reefs or steel ship wrecks.

When we are sailing with the daggerboard down fully the HFMs draws 710"s. We have hit many unmarked sunken boats in far off harbors when tacking into them. This usually stops us dead in our tack- tracks... But only for a moment as we quickly let go the floating daggerboard down line and up pops the board and away we go with one of us quickly cranking the board back down. Most times nobody notices us in our impromptu bottom surveying of this new harbor. 

When racing and cutting corners on shoals , cruising and thinking we can make it over some shoal the same drill happens with only a little less glass on the tip of the board, a shagrinned skipper and off we go. That is another reason why we never run aground.

Anchored off of Egg Island in 7 

Looks shallow but at least 7 here

Nothing like clear water

This is actually 4 of water.

Our friends the Underwoods summer camp house on Egg Island

When the tide goes out we would be on the bottom. No big deal if the wind stays this way. If not when the water comes back we would have about a half an hour of bumping before lift off. This we have done with both Hogfishes at least a thousand times. These boats were designed and built for this.

One of many small islands in our bay. Water is 3 deep here now . As they say in the Bahamas  

  " We have lots of water here, its just spread out very thin."

Beach coaming treasure ! A free cleat from a wreck.

It sure is nice having a shoal draft vessel but if your draws a bit more then you will be anchored out a bit farther than us. The fun difference between keel and non keel boats is that when you run aground you are aground, no lifting your skirts and moving on. Sorry

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Dinghy Boat Plans | Multihulls in the islands

Dinghy Boat Plans

We are anchored in Prince Rupert Bay in Dominca today. The sail down from the Saints was in 30-35 knot close hauled conditions. The HFM made the crossing of 19 miles in 3 hours with three reefs in the mainsail and the 1# jib. When tacking into the bay we had to sail into an excelleration wind zone with gusts up to 40. With the jib furled in half we still put the sheer down to the water for the first time but had no problem tacking in and anchoring under sail. We have renamed these the exzilleration zones. There are 93 sailboats anchored here today. Five years ago at the same time there were only 10 yachts. Times are changing. The town boasts new roofs, docks, a half built huge hotel , and is remarkably clean. The place has gone through a clean up act. 

Having asked the boat boys how business is with all the yatchs about they say it is down because not so many charter boats that spend the money, just cruisers that only spend a bit in each island. They understand that our boats are our homes . But they do their best to help out and to see what $ can be earned from this crowd. 

Yesterday , Tim , Gayle, Rachel , I and our daughter Lillian climbed and hiked up one of the mountain peaks here taking 5 hours for this hike. It is mostly strait up on slippery leaves, rocks and mud. Going up the trails is hard but going down is worse as its so steep and slippery.

Today is recovery day so I will post some boat pictures in various categories .

I will be showing cruising multis mostly. A simple nice cat.

A fast looking tri in Guadaloupe sailed by a young couple.

This tri comes apart for shipping.

An oldie foiler. This tri has got to have some tales to tell.

This I belive is a Rodger Hatfield design . Built in plywood. Very simple and very strong.

Going to rot in Guadaloupe as this tri is outdated already.

A nice old Newick wooden tri in the Saints.

Simple plywood catamran . Truth is it takes as much time to build this boat as the HFMS as you have to do every thing perfect. The HFM in plywood could build 3 of these easyily. No lead though.

31 tri in Antigua. Looks fast but not so sexy.

A Nigel Irens tri getting ready for the Caribbean 600. I have had the pleasure of drinking rum and getting drunk  with this great designer talking shallow draft boat ideas and designs a few years back after a days racing during the Antigua Classic regatta . I was sailing on "Gaucho" a 65 double ended Mario Campos design from Argintina as tactian. We won third place in our class. 

This Dutch tri has anchored in front of our place last spring . They hung out for a couple of days waiting for a good weather window to sail to Bermuda in. They like light winds of 10-15 knots of wind as this tri would sail at 4-5 knots faster than wind speed so in 12 knts they would be doing close to 18 knts. When the wind got up so would the seas and so would the spray, motion and noise. After 18 knts they would then have to slow down to be comfortable. All boats are a compromise.

The Dutch speak such perfect English it makes me feel like I should go back and study my own language again. The woman that was sailing on this tri had built it herself years before with a husband and then sold it. With a new partner she found it again and bought it back. A work of art and a sailing machine.

Here is Lew Mcgregger on his Russell Brown Proa " Cimba" cruising with us on Hogfish 23 years ago. 

What a great concept. So much fun to watch them sail into a bay heading into the fartest Cornner with no room to move, suddenly stop , swing the mainsail around and sail back and out on a new tack and new bow.

This is Rodger Hatfields 31 tri built and designed by him in wood,ply and nomex. Here we are sailing out of Salt Run in St. Croix to go over to St. Thomas to do some warranty work on the first wave piercer power tri. This boat was a dream to sail as it was so fast you could just breeze by any sailboat. We closed reached over the 42 miles at an average of 18 knots an hour. This shot was taken 24 years ago.

This is my own Dick Newick Val  31 trimaran that I salvaged from a remote island in the Bahamas. It was sunk up a very hard to reach creek. I will be bringing this boat back to life when we return from this cruise. Its taken apart now and up high and dry for the Hurricane season.  It should be very fast as I will use all my knowledge to keep her light and strong with todays modern materials. So far I have removed whats not needed and she has risen by 6" . I feel this will be the fastest Val to date when Iam done. Iam looking forward to this project. This boat will be my fantasy speedster if I can handle the pressure. Ive told Rachel she will have to share a tooth brush and only wear bikini bottoms with Pareos only. Must stay light and fast.

This tri and my other sloop project are both 31 long have the same size masts and sail area. The tri weighs 1,900 lbs  designed vs the sloop at 9,800 lbs. The tri has one bunk. The sloop We can live in comfortably.

When we eventually sell the HFMS these will be our Bahama sailboats. I hope to live long enough to enjoy these boats.

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Boat Plans Aluminum | No water for a bit

Boat Plans Aluminum

When the tide goes out from under your boat you want a nice soft spot for your boat to sit on for the next 10 hours or so. Sand is great, mud is nice but muddy. Round rocks ok , but move the conchs out of the way if you can. Not for the boat but for them as 16 tons is a lot to bear for the duration of the tide.

This is our latest project boat. Its an Irwin 31 built in1968 of solid fiberglass. Nice lines , shallow draft, good sails, 800 hrs on the engine, and bought for less than the price of a used 6 hp outboard. Here she is saving us $ 400.00 on a one day haul out to put in a new stuffing box. Sheer legs made from beach wood and line straps to aft chain plate. She draws 36" . As she sits she is solid as a rock.

This boat will be our Bahamas boat to keep at our place so we will always have a boat to use when here even if we are off somewhere on Hogfish M.

A day at the beach in Abaco at Bill and Leslies on Manjack Cay.

In shallow water so we dont have to use the dinghy. This is Saddle Back Cay in the Exumas. We were caretakers there for 3 years 20 years ago. Have gone up and down on this spot twice a day ....a lot .

Kinda shallow

 

Looks like a big Heron from this angle sitting on brown sand.

Sitting on the beach in cold water to scrub the prop and bottom. 

Nothing like a nice sand beach to let the boat have a rest on. Kinda like looking at a big ole square Elephant Seal here resting from all that time at sea.

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Boat Plans Aluminum | Passage door update 2

Boat Plans Aluminum

All five passage doors are hung in their openings and have two coats of urethane finish on them. Another fairly large job can be, for the most part, checked off of the list.

Because of having to build the boat in two sections ( hull/ wheel house @ salon), I cannot install the ceiling in the hallway and master cabin. Because I cannot finish the ceilings, there is no point in casing the doors, so that job will wait until the boat gets to the launch site.

I purchased a mortise lock set for the master cabin bathroom door. The lock set is solid brass with a brushed nickel finish so my hope is the lock set will handle corrosion. I installed the lock set and Im happy with how it looks and works. Installing a mortise lock set is a slow, time consuming job with very little room for error. I roughed in the mortise with a 5/8 forstner bit, then cleaned out the mortise with a chisel. I had to make a jig to hold the door plumb with my drill press, and other than cutting the mortise a 1/4" shallow, all went well. From start to finish, I had about 2 1/2 hours in installing the lock set with 1/2 of an hour consumed with building the jig for the drill press. The lock set has a dead bolt so we can lock the door from inside of our cabin. I think Ill have dead bolts on our cabin doors, and the bathroom doors, but will use lock sets without dead bolts for the other doors.

I brushed two coats of gloss urethane finish on the doors. Im not incredibly happy with the finish and I think Ill spray the final coat of finish on the doors. No matter how hard I try, I just cant seem to brush a good finish on my work. I think my problem is Im expecting too much out of two coats of finish. Next summer, when the boat is at the launch site and were putting the final finish coats on everything, Im hoping Ill get some help on getting a decent top coat on all the wood. For right now, everything is getting two coats for protection, and thats the story Im sticking with.

The next job is to get the bathroom completed. There is really not a huge amount of work left to finish that room, and I should be able to get it off of my list in a week or so. I have to install the exhaust fan, install the ceiling, fabricate the interior trim ring for the portlight, and install the portlight.

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