Epoxy warfare on my deck

16.06 in big, Boat Plans, cursing, deck, epoxy, my, on, out, sorting, the, those, urethanes, wakes, warfare

AFTER PAINTING TWO BOATS with twin-pack polyurethane paint, I thought I knew all about polyester urethanes. I was wrong.

After I had finished the second boat, the surveyor came along. Tap, tap, tap, he went, all over the hull and decks of my sweet little 22-foot Santana.

He approached me with a long face. “Bad news,” he said, “your deck is delaminating.”

“What?” I cried. “Impossible. I’ve just been all over it. Sanded it. Painted it. There was nothing wrong with it.”

“Come and listen,” he said. He tapped the deck and it made that sickening dull thud, instead of a nice bright ring.

“Omigod,” I said.

There was no doubt about it. Something was badly amiss. We pondered it together, and eventually I decided there was nothing to lose.

I took a sharp knife and cut into the deck. I pulled back a strip. It was all paint. The deck underneath was as solid as ever.

“The paint hasn’t stuck,” the surveyor said. “How did you do this?”

I told him I’d sanded down the old deck paint. I applied a coat of Interlux epoxy primer. Then, having run out of that particular paint on the weekend, I grabbed some more epoxy primer from my nearest Ace Hardware store, and applied that. Before it cured, I sprinkled sand over it, 30-grit sand from a local builder’s yard. When the epoxy dried, I brushed off the excess sand lying on top with a soft brush.

Then I painted on two coats of Interlux twin-pack polyurethane. The result was magnificent. Better than new. Much better. Until the surveyor came along.

We poked around the deck some more and found that we could peel the new deck off by hand. Large chunks of  it came away as we togged. The epoxy and polyurethane and sand had formed a thick pliable skin — but it was not attached to the old deck. Underneath this skin, and on top of the old deck, was a sweet-smelling layer of some kind of liquid chemical.

“Aha,” said the surveyor, who was a smart man. “Incompatible epoxies.” He explained that the Interlux epoxy and the Ace Hardware epoxy had not liked each other. They had not got on well together at all. One of the other had revolted and formed this liquid layer that had prevented the top layers from sticking to the deck.

So I pulled off the new layer of deck paint like you’d peel the skin off a banana, scrubbed the whole deck down with acetone, and started again, this time with two epoxy coats from Interlux. And this time it worked. But it was a hard way to learn that different epoxies hate each other so much. I always thought epoxy was epoxy. Anyway, for someone who thought he knew all about twin-pack polyurethane, it was a humbling lesson.

Today’s Thought

Good painting is like good cooking: it can be tasted, but not explained.

— Vlaminck, On Painting

Tailpiece

“Johnny, who was the roundest knight at the Round Table of King Arthur?”

“Sir Cumference, sir.”

“Very good. And how did he achieve his great size?”

“From too much pi, sir.”

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Motor Well A Mini Project Unto Itself

16.06 in a, Boat Plans, cabin, itself, mini, more, motor, planning, project, unto, well

Oh, the motor well.  Seems simple enough.  Build a box that bolts to the back of the boat, upon which the motor clamps.

Ive been working on the motor well since the days of the Troublesome Skegs and before the Boat Flip.

Turns out that though this earns only a brief paragraph in the Glen-L Waterlodge instructions, it is really quite time consuming.

And though the motor well shows up on various views in the plans three times, it still leaves a lot of unspecified dimensions. Despite a lot of fancy maths including tangents and the Pythagorean theorem my first effort to suss out the missing dimensions and angles was a loose collection of mismatched angles and incorrectly cut two-by stock.

The challenge of the motor well is that there are few right angles, several that are very close, but not quite 90 degrees, several similar obtuse angles and some crazy acute angles. The difficulty lies in translating perfectly good angles and lengths to actual measurements and cuts.

My second attempt -- salvaging as much of the previously cut wood as I could -- discarded the mathematical approach and did it the way a carpenter would. Rather than cutting the two-by stock first, I marked out the known angles and measurements on plywood, solving the unknowns as I went along.  I cut out the 5/8" plywood giving me a useful template that would be used for the sides of the motor well.  Finally, I measured and marked the two-by members to match the template. Magic!

After fitting everything best I could, I epoxied everything together to give me two assembled sides to the motor well.

This was a logistical challenge similar to assembling the side stringers -- you want to align the two-by members facing up, but the screws need to go in from the other side.  In this case, the motor well sides were small enough I could assemble the two-by members facing up on saw horses, then put a few screws in from the bottom to hold them together.

After that, I flipped them over and screwed the shit out of them.  All done while everything -- drill, screws, wood, hands -- are covered in sticky goo. Fun!

I completely encapsulated the wood inside the motor well with epoxy to protect it from decay.

I know from experience assembling boxes, it is easy to discover in the end that youve created a parallelogram that doesnt fit your last side.  How to prevent this?

I temporarily screwed the bottom on the motor well to square up the sides before assembling the rest of the box.  Im using wax paper to prevent the epoxy from accidentally adhering the bottom.  In fact, the bottom wont go on until after the motor well is already bolted on to the hull to allow me access to the bolts.

Now, I can go ahead and epoxy and screw on the back and the framing members.

We have to bolt this thing in with 5/8 carriage bolts no greater than six inches apart.  Turns out thats a lot, really.

I marked the bolt holes and drilled from the outside of the motor well using a carpenters square to get holes perpendicular to the rake of the hull.

Sixteen bolts for this 2 foot square box hanging off the back of the boat.

The heads of some of the carriage bolts would fall on angled members, and so needed to be countersunk.

I needed to temporarily hang this thing so I can mark the bolt holes on the hull.  I built a little support jig that took into account the missing bottom piece.

Here is the motor well on the boat.  Fancy.

Using a wax china pencil, I marked the bolt holes for mounting the motor well.

It seemed like madness to drill 16 holes in my previously watertight boat hull.  Soon, well finish the outside of the motor well and bolt it on.

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Never ask to pass the port

15.06 in ask, Boat Plans, never, pass, port, the, to

THOSE OF YOU who have experienced civilized upbringings must sometimes wonder why we always pass the decanter of port to the left after dinner in the main saloon. Well, the fact is that we don’t always pass it to the left, or clockwise.

We only pass it to the left in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere the decanter goes counter-clockwise. If you are ever in any doubt about which way it should go, just flush some water down the galley sink and see which way it revolves as it gurgles out. In the northern hemisphere it will revolve clockwise. In the southern hemisphere it will gurgle counter-clockwise. And those of you who paid attention in science class at school will know that this is due to the Coriolis effect, so named after the Italian plumber who first noticed it.

Port and cheese is a wonderful way to end a dinner on a boat and it needn’t always be a formal affair. For years we have recommended a small glass of port at sunset when at anchor for the night. Port travels better on boats than most wines do. In fact, I half remember reading somewhere that the Portuguese wine merchants used to ship cargoes of port wine as ballast aboard the Grand Banks fishing fleet so that it was suitably matured by the time they got back home to Portugal.

Cheese and crackers go well with port, and red grapes are good also, but if you’re adventurous you might want to try small bamboo skewers loaded with prosciutto, melon, and cheese. I should warn you that port and potato chips don’t make it.

Now, suppose you’re seated around the cabin table after a fine dinner in the northern hemisphere, and the person on your right neglects to pass the port to you, either by deliberate neglect because he doesn’t like you, or through sheer forgetfulness. What do you do? You would commit a gross breach of etiquette if you said: “Please pass the port.”

By tradition, you must say: “Do you know the Bishop of Norwich?”

Anyone with the civilized kind of upbringing I mentioned earlier will immediately pass the port, along with a suitable apology.  But if your question is met with a blank stare or an answer in the negative, you should say: “He’s a fine fellow, but he always forgets to pass the port.”

This is what is known in civilized circles as a heavy hint. If the guilty party does not respond by passing the port immediately, you are entitled to throw your gauntlet on the table and challenge him to pistols at dawn. Unless you are seated next to a lady, of course. If she looks nonplussed and fails to pass the port, I think you are entitled to grab it from her and help yourself without penalty.

Incidentally, although you may have a glass of port in front of you, obtained in the ordinary, non-combative manner, you should not take a sip until everybody has been served; and it is exceptionally bad form to drink your port before the main toast.

Incidentally, the decanter should be kept circulating until it is empty. This is because even the best ports start to deteriorate within 24 hours if they are exposed to too much oxygen. Most port benefits from an airing for a few hours before being served, to let it “breathe,” and pouring it from bottle to decanter, if done slowly and carefully, will get rid of most of the sediment that tends to collect at the bottom of the bottle. But there’s no point in keeping the remains for tomorrow. Even the ship’s dog wouldn’t look at it then.

Today’s Thought

Wine nourishes, refreshes, and cheers. Wine is the foremost of medicines  . . . whenever wine is lacking, medicines become necessary.

— The Talmud

Tailpiece

“Gimme a return ticket.”

“Yes, sir. Where to?”

“Back here, you idiot.”

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

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Why pets and boats dont mix

14.15 in and, Boat Plans, boats, brain, dont, from, lame, mix, pets, poppycock, port, question, starboard, tricky, why

A young couple readying their boat for long-distance cruising want to know what kind of pet would be best to take along on their 35-foot sloop. Well, I have definite ideas about pets on boats, and I couldn’t do better than refer them to a column I wrote several years ago. It went like this:

EVERY SUMMER EVENING, toward sunset, quiet anchorages all over America suddenly become busy as dinghies begin ferrying dogs ashore from yachts. The dogs, cooped up all day on small yachts, almost always stand in the dinghy bows, ears pointed forward, tongues flapping in the breeze, panting with eagerness to get on dry land and empty their bladders.

It’s the poop parade and it’s not pretty. It starts with the dreadful, awkward business of trying to get a dog down into a dinghy in the first place, and ends with the equally dreadful, awkward business of trying to get it up, out of the dinghy and back on deck.

Sailing with dogs is such a lot of bother that you have to wonder why anybody would do it. I love animals as much as the next guy, perhaps more than most, but when I’m cruising I don’t want my choice of destinations and times of sailing to be dictated by an animal whose only ambition is to lift his leg on the nearest beach.

Dogs don’t enjoy sailing. They don’t care if you’re doing two knots or 10. They don’t mind if you hoist the spinnaker or not. They don’t even know what a spinnaker is. People take dogs sailing because they’re lonely for their dogs, not because their dogs are lonely for them.

If you can afford a boat, you can afford to put the dog in a good kennel while you cruise, or to hire a dog sitter. If you really love your animal, you will do what’s best for the dog, not for you. Don’t kid yourself that the dog can’t live without you. Dogs are pack animals and like to follow a leader but believe me, any leader will do. And if a dog’s going to be cooped up with nowhere to go, it surely would prefer to be cooped up on dry land that stays level and doesn’t make it seasick.

In the main, dogs won’t use a sandbox on board, or even a piece of Astroturf on the foredeck or in the cockpit. They’ll hold in a pee until their bladders almost burst. They’ll hang on to a poo until their eyes change color. They only want to go ashore, find a neatly tended marina lawn, or someone’s pretty flower garden, decorate it with their internal debris, and scratch the hell out of it. That’s doggy heaven; and the whole process is repeated again at dawn the next day.

If you must have an animal on board then a parrot makes more sense than anything else. The pirates knew what they were doing. Did you ever hear of a pirate with a dachshund, for goodness’ sake?

And if not a parrot, then a cat. Cats are more compact. They don’t need exercise. You can ignore them and they’ll ignore you right back, with no hurt feelings. And, best of all, you don’t have to take them ashore. They’ll use a litter box. In fact, some will go one step better, and use the head.

I once met one called Pepe who had sailed around the world on a boat called Aqua Viva. His owner, a lawyer, had trained him to sit on the toilet seat by first placing his sandbox there. Pepe never did learn to open the seacock and flush the loo, but nobody was complaining about that.

The trouble with ocean-going cats is that they almost always seem to fall overboard and drown, or else, if they’re females, they run away with some local riff-raff tomcat as soon as they get to port. So, if you have a cat you should try not to get too attached to it because sooner or later you’re going to learn that sailboats and household pets are a very poor mix.

Today’s Thought

America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair.

 —Arnold Toynbee, News summaries, July 14, 1954.

Tailpiece

I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance

Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.

—Ogden Nash.

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

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Smoke without the mirrors

06.48 in at, Boat Plans, boats, how, hurt, mirrors, never, sea, small, smoke, survive, the, will, without, words, you

IF IT LOOKED like you had drowned in Massachusetts in the 18th century, someone was certain to come along and blow smoke up your ass. That was the published instruction, although more politely expressed. The official version was that victims of drowning were to be revived by blowing tobacco smoke up the victim’s rectum while bathing the victim’s chest with hot rum.

You may well wonder how the smoke inflation was accomplished. I can only tell you that it wasn’t done cheek-to-cheek. Special machines were built for this purpose. I have never seen a picture of one, so I can’t tell you what they looked like, or how they worked. All I know is that it wasn’t an original New England practice. The idea apparently came from The Netherlands.

Dutch people were always falling into the canals and drowning, apparently, so, in 1767, they founded the Amsterdam Society for the Rescue of Drowning Persons. These poor souls were to be taken into a house where their airways could be inspected. Their wet clothes would be removed and they would be warmed up by being rubbed with woolen clothes, after which “tobacco smoke fumigation” was administered per rectum.

More was to come. Moderate bleeding could be performed from the arm or neck, and if signs of swallowing were observed (not earlier) some hard liquor could be poured into the mouth. Spirits of ammonia could be held under the nose.

If all this brought no  results, the society advised that the victim should be laid in a warm bed accompanied by a naked person to provide natural heat. 

In 1787, The Institution of the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was founded, and the Dutch smoke-blowing trick was adopted in the New World.

Because boaters are more likely than ordinary landlubbers to come across drowning people, it might pay them to invest in a pack of cigarettes and a reliable lighter. (I’m not sure that nicotine vaping would do the trick.) But I leave it to you to figure out how to transfer the smoke from your mouth to the victim’s wotsit. It might need some thinking about.

Today’s Thought

The great secret of doctors, known only to their wives but still hidden from the public, is that most things get better by themselves; most things, in fact, are better in the morning.

— Dr. Lewis Thomas, President, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, NY Times, 4 Jul 76

Tailpiece

A game park in Texas has reported an extraordinary cross between a lion and a parrot. A park spokesman admitted yesterday that they’re not quite sure yet what they’ve got, but when it talks everybody sure sits up and listens.

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

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Columbia Gorge Fishing Report October 12th

00.19 in 12th, behind, Boat Plans, by, columbia, curtain, dale, fishing, for, gorge, looking, mertens, october, report, the, trout, velvet

Pic: Steelhead Outfitters - Sam Sickles

Fishing Report

This could be a tough week in the region for steelheaders, but last week was on the verge of epic from what we’ve heard. 

Chinook Salmon are definitely declining in quantity and quality as we are seeing post-spawn fish washing down the river.  The bulk of the spawn is still a week or two out, but this week’s “high water” should help push some of them out of the system and get the latecomers into the rivers.  We have a really good chance at breaking the all-time fall Chinook record through Bonneville Dam, and we have already broken the all time Chinook count for the year (Spring, Summer and Fall Chinook combined). 

This also marks the time of year that Chinook start to “bed up” on their spawning gravel, otherwise known as redds.  Please respect the incredibly long and difficult journey that these fish have made and avoid walking through spawning areas or fishing at spawning salmon.  They have made it this far, so let’s allow them to spawn and die in peace so that we can have more salmon in a couple of years.  If you see dark colored salmon in shallow water, they are likely trying to spawn.  A spawning Chinook does not put up much of a fight and you are taking away the last reserves of energy that it has left for its final act.  If you see someone fishing at spawning salmon, please respectfully say something and suggest that they move on to better water.  We don’t need any confrontation, just education.  Thank you so much and fish on!

Coho Salmon are really not showing up as predicted.  The following article is a good explanation of the state of the runs.  I suggest signing up for the Columbia Basin Bulletin newsletter if you are interested in keeping track of the ins and outs of the management of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia Basin.  https://www.cbbulletin.com/435193.aspx  Always a wealth of good information. 

Although numbers are far, far below the pre-season predictions, and I suggested last week that the run was late due to the lack of rain, we should still have far more fish than our current counts show. 

Summer Steelhead are definitely spread throughout the Columbia Basin.  The Grande Ronde, Clearwater, Salmon, Deschutesand Klickitat are all fishing well right now.  As of Sunday, the Klickitat and the Hood are mud, and we haven’t heard about the Deschutes, but it’s a pretty good bet that the White is puking mud into the river.  We are never sure how long it will take to clear up, but you can’t always wait for perfect conditions to go fishing.  Give it a few days and I would be that the D and the Klick will be fishable by mid week.   If you really need to get out before mid-week, head up to the Deschutes above the White Riverconfluence, it is in good shape. 

The Hood Riverhas been very muddy.  I went down on Thursday to cast the OPST Commando Heads on my old Sage XP 8100.  Finally I can spey fish effectively with a single hand rod!  Anyways, there was about three inches of visibility at best.  By Friday, it had cleared to about 6 inches, but by Saturday afternoon, it had dropped back down to zero…  There is very little access on the Hood and there are a lot of Chinook spawning in the accessible areas.  Please refrain from fishing at them.  More than one local angler has spotted filleted salmon carcasses on the river.  Targeting Chinook in the Hood River is prohibited after June 15.

Lost Lake and Laurence Lake are still fishing really well right now.  We do get very few reports from the lakes in the fall because most people are fishing for salmon or steelhead, but it can be wicked awesome this time of year with very little (no) pressure.  Laurence Lake closes on October 31, so get out while you can. 

                                                                                          

Smallmouth Bass fishing has been good… Not one report in the last few weeks, but conditions have been good on the Columbia.  Ryan needs to get back from Chicago so I can break in my new Sage ONE 690-4, aka, the smallie slayer.  I lined it up with a Rio Outbound Short WF6F/I, and it has been sitting in the corner of my tying room getting neglected…  Friends with bass boats are always good friends.

As always, we are happy to talk fishing any time.  Give us a call if you have any specific questions on local rivers, gear, and tactics, or if you just want some encouragement to get out of the office.

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

  

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A Real Sharpie

20.56 in a, Boat Plans, come, does, from, interest, real, sharpie, such, where, wierd

Our Panama skiff was very handy, and I had been reading Chapelle; thus, when we arrived in Alabama, with its big reservoirs on the Tennessee River, I decided to build a sharpie. Real sharpies have two masts and are over 20 long. I designed a sharpie 20 1/2 long by 6 wide (4 beam at the chine). In order to achieve considerable flare to the sides while keeping a fairly upright bow, I used conic projection. One apex below the bow and another amidships and lateral to make the transition front to aft. Again, I was able to calculate all lengths, offsets, and angles beforehand, thus not needing a strongback building form. However, handling sheathing panels over twenty feet long was challenging just from their size. The same mathematical techniques were used in shaping the sail panels as had been for the hull. To achieve balance between two sails and a pivoting centerboard, I used temporary mast steps, which could be adjusted, until after some trial runs; then I bonded them in place permanently. If you look at the shadow of the straight boom on each sail, you can see an almost perfect airfoil curvature, reflecting the shape of the sail. However, I made one big error. I was unable to find good information on the proper draft-to-chord ratio for sails, so I guessed. I used a draft-to-chord ratio of about 1/14 and later discovered that a 1/9 ratio would have been more appropriate. Thus, my sails were never able to develop the power that they should have, and the boat was not as fast as its potential.

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Squeezing in berths and heads

15.20 in ads, and, berths, boat, Boat Plans, heads, in, mean, really, squeezing, the, what

A READER called Eric asks: “Why do boat builders insist on putting TWO toilets/heads in a boat as small as 32 feet? Cmon, how many 400-square-foot apartments/houses on land have two bathrooms?”

Well, Eric, if I had to take a flying guess I’d say it was the boatbuilder’s sales department that demanded two heads. Apparently it’s a major selling point, especially among the fairer sex. It’s the same reason that builders insist on putting six berths in a four-berth boat, and four berths in a two-berth boat. The sales manager wants to be able to boast that his 25-footer is a family boat that can accommodate Mom, Pop, and four kids on weekend jaunts, unlike the competition whose 26-footer only has berths for two adults and two kids.

It sounds better in the ads, and looks good in the color brochure, but no boat designer in his right mind would come up with this idea on his own. He knows better than anyone how awkward and inconvenient too many berths are in a small boat, and what a wicked waste of space. He also knows how little time people spend in the head and how hard it is to compensate for the extra space a second head steals from the interior.

But he has to earn an honest nickel, and the boatbuilder is the boss, so he grinds his teeth and squeezes in a couple of berths here and a couple of heads there, knowing full well that he’s creating a travesty of boat design.

There are a few traditional designs that follow more normal rules of practical and esthetic design and, ironically, they usually cost a lot more than the plastic Best Westerns that fill our marinas.

So, Eric, I’m afraid there’s only one thing left to do, and that’s to take yourself to an old-fashioned naval architect and commission him or her to design you a boat with as few bunks and heads as you consider appropriate. You will instantly become that architect’s dream customer, and you might even feel your feet being kissed, but whether you’ll be able to find a builder willing to create this aberrant kind of boat, one so far removed from the modern norm, is quite another matter.

Today’s Thought

Change doth unknit the tranquil strength of men.

— Matthew Arnold, A Question 

Tailpiece

“Did you visit that spiritualist last night?”

“Yeah.”

“Was she a good one?”

“No, just a medium.”

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The most wonderful mystery

13.14 in better, Boat Plans, boats, deserve, joy, most, mystery, of, old, simple, small, the, these, wonderful

A READER in Newport Beach, California, says she would like to know what the Bible means when it says:

 "There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:
"The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid."

Specifically, “Nautigal” wants to know about the way of a ship in the midst of the sea.

Well, ma’am, science has made great progress since those words were written. We can explain an eagle’s flight with aerodynamics. Herpetologists now know how a snake slithers across a rock. Dr. Phil understands all too well the wicked way of a man with a maid (and spares us no details). And that leaves the ship in the midst of the sea, the most wonderful of all the mysteries.

Little ships, and especially little sailing ships, conduct themselves in many different ways in the waves of the sea. You may have experienced them all without giving any particular motion a name or a definition. But one man made a list for us to wonder at.

He is the well-known American naval architect and author, Francis S. Kinney. He held that there were eight motions of a sailboat at sea:

Broaching: Accidentally swinging broadside on to the wind and sea when running free.

Heaving: Rising and falling as a whole with the seas.

Pitching: Plunging and scending, so that the bow and stern rise and fall alternately.

Pitchpoling: Accidentally tumbling stern-over-bow in a half-forward somersault.

Rolling: Inclining rhythmically from side to side.

Surging: Being accelerated and decelerated by overtaking swells.

Swaying: Moving bodily sideways.

Yawing: Lurching and changing direction to either side of a proper course.

I note that the discreet Mr. Kinney refrained from mentioning wallowing and foundering, which has happened in boats I’ve sailed. The foundering was in a small sailing dinghy, luckily, and there was a sandbank nearby. Perhaps Mr. Kinney’s designs never did those things. But he might well have included heeling, which is simply deliberately arrested rolling.

So next time you’re out there, “Nautigal,” take note of what your boat is doing, and at all costs avoid pitchpoling. That’s the most dangerous motion of all.

Today’s Thought

I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.

— Harry Emerson Fosdick, “The Mystery of Life,” in Riverside Sermons

Tailpiece
A man rushed into the dining car of a train. “A lady just fainted next door,” he cried. “Anyone got any whiskey?”

Several flasks were offered. He grabbed the nearest one and drained it in one gulp.

“Thanks a lot,” he said, “it always upsets me to see a lady faint.”

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

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A thing of beauty is a job forever

13.25 in a, beauty, Boat Plans, dishes, excuses, for, forever, horror, is, job, not, of, rife, sometimes, thing, washing, why

WHEN I LIVED in South Africa I once owned a 30-foot boat that had bulwarks, a caprail, and a rubrail made of beautiful hardwood. I couldn’t help myself, I varnished it. And varnished it. And varnished it.  That hot sub-tropical sun burned through the varnish as if it were melting butter. Every six months I rubbed it all down and put on another two coats of varnish. But, man, it looked beautiful. People walking past in the marina used to come to a sudden halt and stare at it in awe.

Eventually, though, the inevitable happened. I got sick and tired of varnishing. I was also intending to sail that boat to America and I had plenty of other preparations to attend to. I had just about decided to paint all that nice wood a suitable buff color that looked almost like varnish from 20 feet away when I noticed the brightwork on another similar boat a few berths away. It was a lovely shade of honey teak, a transparent matte finish that always looked as if it had just been applied.

I saw the owner on board one day and asked him what kind of varnish he used.

“It’s not varnish, it’s Deks Olje,” he said. “It’s Norwegian magic. You just wipe it on with a rag. Rub it well in, all over, and you’re done. Just let it soak into the wood and dry. You don’t have to bother with fancy brushes and there’s no trouble with wind or dust.”

I couldn’t get to the boat store fast enough. I bought a large can of Deks Olje, which, lacking any knowledge of Norwegian,  I confidently translated as Deck Oil. The instructions claimed it was the “easiest maintenance system afloat,” a protective traditional wood oil, an alkyd-urethane resin. I was thrilled to have discovered it. 

I spent a week removing all the old varnish from my woodwork and sanded it smooth. It was a lot of work. I then applied three coats of Deks Olje with a clean rag. Nothing could have been simpler. Sure enough, it looked magnificent. It wasn’t shiny like the old varnish, but it had a deep, warm luster that enhanced the color and grain of the wood.

We went sailing offshore on day trials shortly afterward, and within two weeks the combined efforts of hot sun and warm salt water had devastated my Deks Olje. It looked terrible. Half of it appeared simply to have been washed away, leaving bare wood already going grey. Much of the rest had turned white, as if it were encrusted with some kind of chemical salt.  Needless to say, I was spitting mad.

I went back to the owner of the boat down the way. “My Deks Olje is a disaster,” I said. “How does yours stay so nice?”

“Oh, my Zulu house servant does it,” he said. “He comes down once a week and just applies a fresh coat. It’s the simplest thing. Takes him half an hour.”

”Once a week?” I said. “You mean, every week?”

“Yes,” he said. “Surely you have a servant?”

We sailed for the USA shortly afterward. I gritted my teeth and let the sun and waves remove the rest of the Deks Olje, which they did with remarkable efficiency. The brightwork weathered to a dignified silver grey and needed no attention at all.

Six months later I bought a can of good old-fashioned tung-oil varnish when we got to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and treated the wood to the old familiar routine. Once again, it looked magnificent and I sold the boat a few weeks later. I didn’t tell the new owner how soon he would have to re-varnish. I figured he was just lucky I hadn’t slapped on another few coats of Deks Olje.

Today’s Thought

 I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

— Winston Churchill, Painting as a Pleasure

Tailpiece

“Your wife tells me she found out you dated an eye doctor in Alaska.”

“No, no, that was no eye doctor. She was an optical Aleutian.”

(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)

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R L Winston The Difference!

12.53 in 19th, Boat Plans, columbia, difference, fishing, gorge, l, october, r, report, the, winston

Handcrafted in Twin Bridges, Montana

All Winston rods have a "Feel"! 

When I first fished a R. L. Winston Fly Rod I felt something was very different about it. I couldnt quite identify what made it different from other fly rods but I continued to fish that rod and very soon we became "One". From that day forward I can easily describe to you what makes all Winston rods different from others. Winstons rods possess a certain harmonious personality that combines with an intuitive feeling that allows an angler to relax and enjoy the art of fly fishing. Where does "Feel" come from? Having met many of the great people behind the doors of the Winston factory I can say without hesitation that the "Winston Feel" comes from a collaboration of passionate anglers who unselfishly apply all that passion into the fly rods they build and fish with everyday. Thats what you feel when you fish a R. L. Winston Fly Rod.
That is the Difference!...

R.L. Winston has been in business building fly rods since 1929 and are some of the finest rods built today. Each one of the hand-crafted rods receives its own personal serial number and has so since day one. Much pride comes from owning the work of functional art of these fine American built rods. These rods will carry their value from generation to generation for years to come. At Gorge Fly Shop we honorably respect every Winston rod purchase and value our customers just as we value the rod theyre purchasing.

The New Boron III Plus

Winston BIII Plus

The BIII Plus Comes in Freshwater, Saltwater and the new Jungle configurations and replaces the BIII SX Saltwater Series. Saltwater rods today are so versatile that labeling one salt specific just doesnt completely describe increasing usefulness of these rods. From trout streamers to jungle predators like peacock bass or golden dorado and all salt species in between this new series of rods are built to perform and exceed your expectations. Much lighter than the previous SX and much livelier! The freshwater and saltwater models certainly exceeded my expectations but it was the Jungle model that set off my adrenaline. While casting I could vision myself launching big flies from a boat into the wind and delivering them to the targets where these predators lie!

BORON III PLUS from R.L. Winston Rod Co. on Vimeo.

BIII Plus features -

• 6 thru 12wt. Saltwater Rods, 8 and 9wt. Jungle Rods, 5 and 6wt. Freshwater Rods
• Highest performance boron/composite materials
• Exceptionally powerful, high line speed progressive action
• Overcomes the most challenging fishing situations
• Turns over big flies with accuracy
• Smooth casting - won’t fatigue the angler
• Features Winston’s new "shooting guides” for turbo charging casts.
• Winston Green hard anodized all-aluminum reel seat engraved with company signature logo.
• Embroidered rod bag and Winston green super-light graphite rod tube with company logo.
• Handcrafted in Twin Bridges, Montana

Freshwater -

• Rod Weights: 9’ 5wt. and 9’ 6wt.
• Action: Fast
• Grip: Full Wells
• Sections: 4
• Guides: Hard chrome over-sized snake ‘Shooting Guides’ with chrome nano-lite stripping guides
• Reel Seat: Winston Green up-locking hard-anodized, all-aluminum with double locking rings behind pocketed slide band. Engraved with company signature logo.
• Nickel silver reel seat optional
• Storage: Super-light graphite rod tube embossed with company logo plus logo tech rod sock

Saltwater -

• Rod Weights: 9’ 6wt. thru 9’ 12wt.
• Action: Fast
• Grip: Full Wells
• Sections: 4 Guides: Hard chrome over-sized snake ‘Shooting Guides’ with chrome nano-lite stripping guides. Over-sized tip-top
• Reel Seat: Winston Green up-locking hard-anodized, all-aluminum with double locking rings behind pocketed slide band. Engraved with company signature logo
• Storage: Super-light graphite rod tube embossed with company logo and signature plus logo tech rod sock

Jungle -

• Rod Weights: 8’9” 8wt., 9’ 8wt., 9’ 9wt.
• Action: Fast
• Grip: Longer 7” Full Wells Grip with 1 ½” fighting butt, for improved grip handling in jungle conditions
• Sections: 4 Guides: Oversized Hard chrome over-sized snake ‘Shooting Guides’ with chrome nano-lite stripping guides. Over-sized tip-top
• Reel Seat: Winston Green up-locking hard-anodized, all-aluminum with double locking rings behind pocketed slide band. Engraved with company signature logo
• Storage: Super light-graphite rod tube embossed with company logo and signature plus logo tech rod sock
• Design Specs: Reinforced throughout to combat larger species. Designed to cast a range of lines for jungle conditions. Quick loading, with a strong tip to efficiently turn over big flies, a stronger mid-section for control, reinforced mid #3 section and butt section for added lifting power

2016 Model BIIIX - (New Shooting Guides)

Available now is the new 2016 Winston BIIIx Fly Rods. What is different you ask? Only one change occurred and that is New "Shooting Guides." Do guides make a difference? In fact they do and I found that out while casting each one separately and not knowing which one had the NEW Shooting Guides I was able to tell the difference and identify the fly rod with the new guides. I like the idea that Winston took an already near absolute perfected fly rod and chose one component to change that would make a noticeable improvement. It shows the commitment Winston has to take an already world renown product and continue its evolution into the future.

Friction Free Shooting Guides

Features - 

• Rod Weights: 3wt. thru 8wt.
• Action: Fast
• Grip: Cigar on 81/2’ 3wt. thru 9’ 4wt., 81/2’ 5wt, 9’ 5wt, and 9’ 6wt.
  Full Wells on 10’ 4wt. Full Wells w/ fighting butt on 91/2’ 5wt., and 91/2’ 6wt thru 8wt.
• Sections: 4 and 5
• Color: Winston Green
• Guides: Hard chrome snake ‘Shooting Guides’ with chrome nano-lite stripping guides.
• Reel Seat: Nickel silver with burled wood insert
• Storage: Super-light graphite rod tube embossed with company logo signature plus logo tech rod sock. 

Limited Time Specials on past 2015 Model Winston Fly Rods

Sale limited to quantities on hand

Im happy to report that the Winston Feel is not only alive but continues to grow. Discover the passion that lives in Winston rod owners around the world who pursue their life long quest with a fly rod worthy of the adventure. 

Greg Darling 

Gorge Fly Shop Internet Sales Manager | Product Specialist

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

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The Cabin Has a Floor

12.18 in a, Boat Plans, cabin, floor, has, itself, mini, motor, project, the, unto, well

Lets put in a floor!  This is the floor that will be inside the cabin.

Remember the beautiful old redwood I got from the chicken shed that Jen, Kai, Alex and I salvaged last year? I wanted to use these thick 1x12s for flooring in the boat. The also have the advantage of putting some weight down into the hull of the boat.

I had a worry that using straight boards for floorboards, there would be little cracks between them that would constantly filter dust into the bilge and possible squeak when you walked on them. So I had the idea to route the edges to make them lap each other.

Ten boards, eight foot long, two edges each. Thats a lot of routing.

Actually, none of the boards were eight foot long, so they had to go in piece by piece.

I used construction adhesive and exterior nails to secure the flooring down. The adhesive will keep the flooring from squeaking and slowly coming up. Modern construction adhesive is so strong, that when you take up plywood that has been adhered down, it comes up in pieces.

It ended up having a neat look.

I wanted to put hatches wherever I could under spaces that were not occupied by fixed objects such as the head, the galley, and the woodstove. After the first three boards aft, I had to start getting strategic with my flooring installation.

It slowly came together. I tried to make the hatch covers match the surrounding boards best I could.

Heres a really bad idea: Using wood that has been nibbled by termites. Some of the wood when I routed it, not only revealed whole termite empires, but actual live buggies.

I went to the lumber yard and drenched everything in Copper Green. This is a special (and more expensive) clear preservative. By clear they actually mean, kind of a deep amber -- but thats preferable to the bright green of the regular stuff.

After all the flooring and the hatches were in, I attacked it with the belt stander, knocking down edges and leaving the different shades a bit more uniform.

I quite like how it came out. I made mismatched hatch handles for each of the four hatches. Can you spot all four?

Heres one of the adorable little hatches open.

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Gorge Fly Shop Fishing Reports January 19th

10.46 in 0, 19th, 3, Boat Plans, comes, fishing, fly, gorge, january, light, ology, reports, shop, skagit, the, to, trilogy

Gorge Fly Shop Weekly Fishing Report

"Fly Fish the World with Us"

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In praise of beautiful overhangs

09.44 in a, about, beautiful, Boat Plans, boats, in, learning, little, lot, many, of, overhangs, praise, thanks, to

I FOUND A PROFILE of a Pearson Vanguard in a boating book the other day and I couldn’t help but be struck by how beautiful she was. That man Philip Rhodes could design a mean sheerline. Combined with low freeboard, Vanguards still look gorgeous 50 years or so after they were built.

The bow, in particular, has a cocky sheer and a rounded profile that seems just right for a seagoing boat, while the stern rises just enough to complement the wonderful curve that sweeps from fore to aft as befits a creature intended to live among waves.

By today’s standards, the overhangs are excessive. The bow and the stern overhangs measure more than 10 feet combined on a boat only 32 feet 7 inches overall. But today’s boats have traded beauty for utility and interior space, which is a compromise not necessarily for the better.

Designers tell us that overhangs enable a boat to go faster. They increase the boat’s waterline length as she heels, and waterline length, as we all know, is the major factor affecting the maximum sustained speed of displacement boats. I have never been convinced of this alleged benefit. Not for any good mathematical reason but just because I can’t believe it makes enough difference in waterline length to matter. I’m even suspicious about the very claim that heeling adds to waterline length. Some boats roll buoyantly upward, out of the water, as they heel. I bet they don’t add much, if anything, to the wetted waterline. And besides, when you’re running downwind, and not heeling, there is no gain in waterline length at all.

In any case, I personally don’t think the Vanguard’s overhangs are excessive. Another famous and very handsome design of that period, the Camper & Nicholson 32, had overhangs totaling 9 feet. Furthermore, L. Francis Herreshoff, the great master, designed what he called “sensible cruising boats” with overhangs very much like the Vanguard’s. His famous H-28 ketch, at 28 feet overall, had a waterline of just over 23 feet.

There’s no doubt, though, that very long overhangs are dangerous at sea. They’re very elegant, but on smaller boats they’re suited only to sheltered waters. They cause pounding at the bow and slamming at the stern.

A friend of mine once took his 30-Square Meter to sea. This was a narrow-gutted formula racing class with very long overhangs, because the goal for naval architects was to design the fastest sailboat you could build with a maximum of 30 square meters of sail area. My friend got caught in quartering seas and found that the leverage afforded by the long stern overhang caused each overtaking swell to spin the boat almost broadside on, into a dangerous broach. Those 30 Squares were gorgeous to look at, and extremely satisfying to sail to weather, but they were lousy seaboats in bad weather.

The Vanguard was designed in the days when the Cruising Club of America (CCA) rule applied, of course. When that rule was superseded by the International Offshore Rule (IOR), the rear ends of racing boats suddenly changed from generous, flowing, callipygian sterns to mean and tight pinched-in haunches, often with unsightly reverse-sheer transoms. This did nothing for seaworthiness or looks. It just helped a boat get a better handicap under the IOR formula.

Manufacturers of cruising boats, like lemmings plunging over the cliff, followed the style of the racers, of course, in the hope that prospective clients would be impressed. So we had a very ugly production run of racer/cruisers in the 1970s and early ’80s. Happily, though, there were the occasional standouts, like Pearson and Philip Rhodes.

I feel thankful to them every time I see a Vanguard.

Today’s Thought

Perhaps the greatest difference between the beautiful yacht and the plain one is the way their crews treat them, for the crew of the beautiful yacht usually gives her tender loving care.

—L. Francis Herreshoff

Tailpiece

Overheard at the yacht club bar:

“My dirty bottom is really wreaking havoc with my performance.”

“Yeah, just imagine what that would do to your boat.”

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More Cabin Planning

23.11 in Boat Plans, cabin, fancy, more, new, pants, planning, renderings

If youve been following the blog, you know that one place that Im diverging from the Glen-L Waterlodge plans is in the cabin.  While I have been true to the plans while building the hull, I am increasingly going off into the wild blue as I design and build the cabin.  The original plans called for a cabin that looks like this:

My modifications look like this:

Here are the details I didnt mention in my last musings about the cabin. It always surprises me that finish details often end up having a bearing on the framing of a structure.

Wall Construction

Cabin wall exterior finish:  Board and baton (with beautiful ancient redwood)

Cabin wall interior finish:  None, boards exposed inside

The cabin is almost two foot lower than the deck. Doors open outward at the top of stairs at deck height -- or maybe they should open inward. I will bring the studs down into the hull to secure them.

I was fretting about the wall design, whether to use 2x2s, 2x3s or 2x4s.  I was worried about the wall being burly and strong enough to hold the cabin together, but thats just because of my history as a home builder and familiarity with standard stud construction.

In standard frame construction, I imagined the 2x4s forming little natural nooks inside the cabin, that with a cabinet door could hold the innumerable things that clutter up a boat. Broom, fishing poles, gaff, a million other things.

Chicken John, always ready with an opinion, opined thusly:

"Im not looking at your design. I didnt read the other comments. Whatever it is you are building its too heavy. After your 5th revision and youve got your weight down to less then 800 pounds, then we can start talking about the simple fact that whatever is on top of the water you need kinda the same thing under the water. Or you will be punished. Get an apple. Bite into it, deliberately  Understand the leverage that your teeth are using. Bite again, even slower. Identify all the physics involved. All the muscles. The sharpness of the tooth, the rigidity. Feel when the apple surrenders to the teeth. Then ask when you boat surrenders to which force? And remember that the kayak is the result of 10,000 years of nautical design."

Chicken poetically argues for lighter construction on the topside. So I guess steel armor is right out. I heard others, including the boats designer Glen L. Witt, similarly expressing concern about weight.

My friend Scott was worried about the weight of the board and baton, but not the sheer strength:

"Boat and batten convey a surprising amount of sheer strength. Im not so worried about diagonal bracing; and a pair of X-crossed cables could provide lightweight sheer if needed. Theres also two feet of stud locked to the hull thats providing sheer, and its locked in a hole in the deck. Its not going to parallelogram no matter what you make it out of."

Bob on the Shantyboat list offered some great suggestions regarding wall width, insulation, and construction technique.

If you are going to use 2-bys I would use 2x3s perpendicular.  You would still have some space for small jars, containers, etc.  I have done that in a Tiny House build, leaving the inside open and gluing in more horizontally for shelves. Works great. I would make any shelving easily removable and live with it that first year with your heat source.  That way should you decide insulation would be better you can remove them easily to make insulating easier.   

I will probably do board and batton secured every two feet to spacers without plywood. This is ancient redwood and having that redwood facing in will feel sweet. Only worried a little about water/weather proofing, but there is always construction adhesive and caulk.

Roof Construction

Roof style:  Gabled
Roof finish:  Corrugated metal

The cabin will have a gabled roof and yes, I know that its totally absurd on a boat for a number of reasons, including height, weight, and wind resistance.  However, I really appreciate the aesthetics  It is this absurd vision, in fact, that inspired me to build a shantyboat.

Impracticabilities aside, a gabled roof is really quite practice in a number of ways. Lots of storage space, an overhead bunk can fit in the gable, easy to hang stuff from the rafters. It feels big and beautiful and homey.

The roof will be gabled fore and aft.  This gives a view forward from the bunk through a small window in the gable.  It also keeps the height lower at the edges most likely to have a brush with overhanging trees.

Ill be skimping as much as possible on the roof to save weight.

• 1x6 roof center beam
• 2x4 rafters on 24 inch centers (to support corrugated metal)
• 2x4 cross ties on 24 or 48 inch centers, to support an overhead bunk

Perhaps that gives you a little better idea how things will likely be constructed, and what kind of self-imposed constraints I am working with.

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