Dinghy Boat Plans | Out of the barn

Dinghy Boat Plans

The hull is out of the barn and another big milestone has been achieved.

The hull is wider and taller than the 12 x 14 doors I have in the barn so a overhead door company had to be called in to remove the door. Once the door was off, it was up to me to remove some of the siding, the purlins, and two posts. It took me about two nails to remember that pole barn siding nails are not meant to come out. It took me about 30 more nails to realize that a cats paw and a hammer is really not the preferred way to remove these nails. My right angle die grinder with a cutting disc used to cut the nail head in half, then a punch to knock off the nail head is the fastest, cleanest way to remove pole barn siding nails ( if any one really cares ;-0). Because the 6 x 6 posts are on the gable, and I had bolted them to the foundation when I built the barn, I was able to easily remove them for salvage on the re build of the door opening.

I had to use the swim platform of the boat for scaffold while I removed the door header. Using the skid loader to pull the boat back and under the door header had me realizing just how easy she moved across the barn floor. Walking around on the swim platform with demolition tools and using a chain saw to cut the posts out had me reminding myself that I can fix the dings Im creating later on down at the boat yard.

For some reason Ive long forgotten, I decide to build the boat in the barn facing the wrong way. Building her in the barn backwards ended up causing some more work in getting her out.  Because the parking area outside the barn is on a grade I had to use a I beam with one end chained to the boat dolly axle, and another end chained to the dozer blade so I could control the hull and prevent her from rolling down the hill in to the dozer. The I beam idea worked good and getting her in to the barn  yard was really no big deal.

Once out in the barn yard I backed the dump truck in to position so I could get a measurement on the length of the hitch. Once the hitch was welded to the dolly, and the pintle ring was bolted to the hitch, I again backed the truck in to place and hooked the dolly to the truck. For the most part, shes ready to leave our property.

 This morning Im going to chain her down, and move her further away from the barn using the dump truck. I need her away from the barn door so I can back a trailer in to the barn and load the wheel house on to the trailer. Hopefully, this time next week, both pieces will be down at the boat yard ready to weld together.

As she sits on her dolly, she measures 143" above the road.

Getting her out of the barn was a pretty big milestone for me. This is the first time Ive really been able to see what she looks like. It feels amazing not having to duck under the trusss. To say Im happy would be an understatement.

Cheers

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Boat Plans Nz | Haul out

Boat Plans Nz

As I stepped out of the house early the other morning, I noted how quite the fall woodlands is vs the summer season. Gone are the summer song birds whos chatter fills the woods from the moment the night scape fades. The sound of the dormant season is of the nuthatch and chickadee with their husky calls. For some reason I think of and older lady bartender, withe her bar room baritone voice when I hear these birds.... the laugh of too many Marlboros and cheap scotch whiskey.  Why that bird call reminds me of this I cant say, but what I can say is that this subtle change in the surrounding woodlot keeps me well aware that the cold months are soon upon us and its time to haul Gragodeo out for the first time.

I would have much preferred to keep her in the water over the winter. Having coffee in the wheel house on a winter morning, while looking out on a harbor scape sure did sound appealing, but my wanting to see how the below the water line hull fared during her first season was more important. Im happy to say that the hull looked good, with no sings of electrolysis or failure of the barrier paint.  The only below the water line issue I saw was where I did not get a good enough scuff on the barrier coat to give enough tooth for the anti foul to be able to bond. On advice from the boat yard paint guru, Im going to spot sand the areas where the anti foul was blown off by the power washer and re coat those areas only.

The prop is the other below the water  line area thats going to get a hard look. As I posted some time ago, Im getting a high pitched sound at certain RPMs . Between 1100 and 1650 the sound is most pronounced. Theres really no reason for the stern tube bearing to be making this noise as the bearing was  machined correctly, and the alignment is spot on. Now that shes on the  hard, I looked closely at the bearing, and found no signs of wear or any play in the shaft/bearing. The prop was purchased from an on line dealer and is a Taiwanese or Chinese import. After searching out this harmonic issue Im having, Im starting to think I have a case of whats commonly called prop sing. Prop sing is where the edge of the prop is somewhat defective and causes a harmonic sound similar to one rubbing a finger around a fine wine glass ( only louder). The fix for this is to machine a 45 degree chamfer on either the trailing edge or the leading edge. This can be done in field or by a prop shop, and I think Im going to have a prop shop look at this for me. I want a professional to measure the prop and tell me what I  have in regard to quality beginning with the bore, and ending withe the blade tips. I went the cheap route when this prop was purchased so now is the time to see how expensive my cheapness actually is.

The cruise down to the haul out yard was done with my 17 year old daughter on a drop dead gorgeous fall day. I recorded a short video of our "three hour tour" so that when the winter blues has found me, Ill have this nice video reminder of a great day to cheer me up.


There are some big projects that need to be done on the boat build this winter to get her to a more finished state, but they will have to be worked in with some renovations well be doing on the house. My goals for the boat build this winter are to install the mast and boom so we can carry a dinghy on the roof. Complete the hydraulic system so I dont have to  hoist the anchor by hand next year and also have the bow thruster operational. The air conditioners are on board, but have not been hooked up, so thats a biggie on the lists. While Im up on the lid working on the mast, I also want to fabricate the  hand rails for the salon lid.

The next weekend will be spent winterizing her, and after that a few projects around the house need to get finished. We have plans to take a few extended cruises next season, and getting my list checked off is going to be tight given that my launch date is only seven months away. Sound familiar?

Cheers    

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Boat Plans Stitch And Glue | The need of keeping water out of the bilge of a metal boat

Boat Plans Stitch And Glue

I always start my surveys on metal boats by using Thermal Imaging of the hull. This helps me locate the structural components of the metal boat. I am also looking for trapped moisture and/or water. If this is found, then there is a good chance there will be corrosion. Next I conduct an inspection of the bilge of the boat, including, anchor, sail, cockpit lockers, and lazarettes. Now I have a very good idea where to concentrate my UTM-audio gauge. I take readings of the whole hull, but will do more readings in the areas of concern.

When I see water in a bilge of a metal boat beyond what might be in a sump I get concerned. I would like to see dry bilges on all metal boats, but this is not always possible. On Tuesday I surveyed a steel trawler. Overall this boat looked to be in fair condition, but then I saw the water in the bilge, a lot of it! There was heavy scale in some areas because of the standing water.  I knew this was an area I needed to spend some time getting thickness readings.

The next day I did my audio gauge. My readings indicated plate wastage. In some areas I could not get a reading that most likely is caused by heavy scale. My visual inspection from inside confirmed the heavy scale. When I arrived at the boat I noticed some weeping from what I hoped was paint blisters. Then an hour later water stared streaming from one of the blisters. Just to think only the paint was holding this section of plate together.

The good news! The boat was out of the water it will not sink. Steel boats can fixed; by cropping out the bad plate and adding new. In a short period of time, she will be underway again.

The moral of this story? If you own a metal boat keep an eye on the bilges.

I will post photos in my next post.

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Boat Plans At Mystic Seaport | Im running out of places to stack my tools

Boat Plans At Mystic Seaport

Late on Sunday afternoon I had just nailed in the last piece of shoe molding, and after surveying my build, I sort of realized I had nothing else to nail up. I had nothing else to rip, and nothing else to cross cut. The next thing I did was throw every piece of lumber off the boat to be hauled away in my truck ( well almost every piece... I stashed a few bits in the engine room). Once the lumber was off the boat, I hauled the table saw off the boat and placed it under the hull, covered with a tarp. Shannon had just spent five  hours giving the below deck areas a thorough cleaning, and along with the left over building material and the lumber I just threw off the boat, we had a very full load for my service truck. Throughout the build Ive always had this fear of not having some piece of building material, so I sort of hoard left over material, and today was the day we realized 90% of it had to go. 

I actually have decided to some time soon make a list of things I need to complete in order to launch. Lots of little things have been getting completed along with some big ticket items. I can officially say my bilge pumps are wired, and I have the picture to prove it. I guess I should clarify this a little and admit that two of the three pumps are wired. The engine room bilge pump along with the pump in the cabin area are complete. The pump in the lazzarette is not wired because its not purchased. The two pumps I have wired are big pumps being Rule 3500s. I had to wire these off the the battery switch panel as these breakers are always hot even if the house bank is turned off. I did have to install 25 amp breakers for each one of these pumps. Using #10 wire, I wired these two pumps to the wheel house so I could see when and if they come on. A pump control  panel seemed to  make sense and the Sea Dog panel appears to be what I was looking for. The panel has a manual and auto mode along with having an audible and visual alarm. If the switch is inadvertently left in the off position, and water rises up to the alarm float, the alarm float along with alarming, will turn the pump on.

We have a few intake and exhaust pipes I had to deal with in regard to insect screens. Using a slice of PVC schedule 40 and cross cutting the slice creates an internal clip that works great holding screen in. Youll have to fool around with how much to remove from the slice,but when youre finished, it gives a nice clean look thats easy to get in and out, holds the screen great, and doesnt corrode.

Because the finished flooring is now complete, we were able to move in the reclining love seat. Ive been on too many boats that did not have at least one comfortable seat, and I for sure did not want our boat to be one of those. The recliner sort of buries the book case, but you can still get to the shelves, and thats a small price to pay for a super comfy place to sit.

The counter top fabricators finished the granite tops, and theres not a bad thing I can say about this. Because we have so much wood in the salon, we decided to do away with the wood top on the book case, and use granite. This little detail changes the way this area looks, and is a much appreciated improvement. The guy who made the templates for the fabricator knew what he was doing, and the tops fit like a glove. The installers did a top notch job and we couldnt be more happy. Before we started the install, I had told the template maker we had to glue the tops to the cabinets. True to that conversation, the installers showed up with the adhesive needed to do the work.

We decided to go with an under mount sink, and Im glad we did for the one reason of being able to fabricate a cutting board that will fit exactly in the sink.

As Ive said before, in order to do this boat launch thing the right way, more time is needed on my part to make this launch happen. I keep going back to needing about another year. If we put off the launch to much longer, were at the end of the summer, and at that point we should just keep her at Washington and finish her up righteous over the Winter. It sure would be nice to have her in the water being 100% complete with nothing left to do... I mean its only time, right?

Cheers

     

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