The Dash Point Pirate

Sailing the "Annabel Lee"

At long last, after 17 months of boatbuilding I've finally completed my Joel White Pooduck Skiff. We launched her Saturday afternoon during a Small Craft Advisory and occasional showers, and christened her Annabel Lee.

The conditions didn't make for very good photography but the sailing was great.  It took a while to get all the lines figured out, but once I did (and remembered to put the centerboard down) she sailed very easily. The mast can be raked forward so she can be sailed under the mainsail alone, or raked back when the jib is added.  She has a really cute little jib.

I found it incredible that with such a complicated craft everything just seemed to work. You know how it is with a new kayak -- after the first time out you'll want to change the seat, adjust the footbraces, change the rigging, etc.   With this boat I couldn't think of anything I needed or wanted to change.  I think it is a testament to the skill Joel White put into his designs, even into the plans for a little plywood boat.  

A few final building notes:

I added 1/4 inch bungees under the seats to hold gear, drybags, fenders, or extra floatation.  They are attached using nylon webbing and silicon bronze screws and washers according to the Chesapeake Light Craft method.  They are completely hidden under the seats and should hold everything securely in the event of a capsize.

The rope is 1/4 inch low-stretch polyester three strand from New England Ropes. Three strand rope is essential because you need to make a few eye splices.  It is amazingly soft and easy on the hands, which is also very important if you like to sail without gloves.  It is absorbent and feels just like cotton.

I'm really glad I used bronze cleats. You can't have enough of those. I added two cleats that were not in the plans for the outhaul and the downhaul, which makes them easier to adjust while underway.  

For more pictures check out my photo album.

Spars

I finally finished carving out the spars for my Joel White Pooduck Skiff. I set up a couple sawhorses outside under a backyard storage tent that has been holding my kayaks for the past one-and-a-half years, ever since I cleared out the garage to build my boat. The spars are made out of Sitka Spruce I ordered from Edensaw. This is great stuff -- totally clear, straight grained and easy to work with a plane.  Its strength and light weight makes it the standard for spar material.  I even have a 11 ft long rough 2x4 left over!

I feel like I'm limping toward the finish line. I spent all day carving out the mast and my back is sore and tools dull. Fortunately the boom has a square cross section. It's a real pain in the ass making them round.

The time pressure to get this boat done by the holiday weekend has forced me to be resourceful in getting by with tools I have on hand. For instance, instead of taking the mast blank to Bates Boatbuilding where Ricardo could have helped me cut it out precisely with a bandsaw, I just roughed it out with my old circular saw.  It worked suprisingly well.  Tomorrow I'll do one final sanding and rub on an oil finish.  No time for varnish.

THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH DATE is Saturday July 5th sometime.  Unfortunately it'll be low tide midday which will make for a long slog down to the water.  I would have launched on the July 4th holiday but too many other things are going on, including the little cruise I booked on the Hawaiian Chieftain during the Tall Ships Festival.  She'll be having a mock battle with the Lady Washington.  Stay tuned for some cool pics of that!

Down to Brass Tacks

Just a progress note on my Joel White Pooduck Skiff: I lined the mast partner hole with leather, secured with tacks and Pumbler's Goop. Note the brass half-oval rub strips positioned to protect the seat edge from abrasion from the halyards.

I installed the trunk cap using silicon bronze screws and 3M 5200 adhesive. The cap has a couple cleats on it: one for the the jib sheet and one for the centerboard pennant. The plans called for wooden jam cleats but I've gotten too lazy this far into the game to carve them myself, so I just bought a couple small brass ones.  I put a little monkey's fist on the end of the pennant to give it more of a nautical flare.

I also installed two larger cleats on the sides of the centerboard trunk for the jib and mainsail halyards.

The swing-down part of the rudder got a couple coats of red paint. 

The gudgeons were installed on the transom, with screws and more 3M 5200 (I like that stuff).

The oarlocks were fixed in place with screws and epoxy. By the way did you know that "oarlock" is pronounced "rowlock"? Thanks to Ricardo for pointing that out to me. It's probably another one of those silly British nautical things.  When the epoxy has cured she will be ready to row!

Progress Notes and Varnishing Tips

Once in a while someone will publish an "Everything I learned from building my last boat" post on one of the building forums.  I love those posts because they can be packed with good advice.  Usually while talking with people who are just getting started on their first boat I'll realize just how much I've learned about building over the past few years.  I'll have so much to say and find it impossible to distill everything into a few good pieces of advice, except for maybe "Do your research.  Read the building manual thoroughly." 

I've been asked before what kind of varnish I recommend.  I don't think it's really important what kind of varnish one uses.  More important is the application technique.  On my Joel White Pooduck Skiff I sanded with 220 grit before and in-between coats of varnish and vacuumed and wiped off the dust with a lint-free rag dampened with mineral spirits.  I like to roll traditional marine varnish on with a thin foam roller and tip it off with a good badger hair brush.  I used to use those cheap disposable chip brushes because I never liked cleaning brushes but later learned from experience that it's definitely worth it to pay more for a good brush and spend your time cleaning them.  It is very important to use fresh varnish for the final coat. The final coat of varnish is the only one that really counts.  All the previous coats just smooth out the surface and build up the layers.  Varnish starts to go bad as soon as you open the can, so the while the first coat usually flows on like a dream, the last coat from the same can might end up a nightmare, with little particles in it, and spreading too thickly which will create runs, drips and sags.  I recommend opening a new can just for that last coat.  Another thing that people do that I'm just trying now is to fill the opened can with propane from a handheld torch before closing it back up again.  That keeps the oxygen out.  I got a canister of Bernzomatic for about $13, which is less than half the cost of a can of varnish.

Here is picture of the brass half oval rubstrip installed on the stem and keel.  It is screwed in place and attached with 3M 5200 bedding compound, which provides a flexible and permanent bond.  I just discovered that 3M 5200 now comes in convenient small tubes (instead of caulk gun canisters) and in a fast curing formulation (the original formulation took a week to cure).

Lastly here is a picture of the swing-up half of the rudder after a couple coats of marine primer.

With the weather getting warmer and days longer I'm really getting tempted to try this boat out on the water with oars before the rudder and spars are done.

Painted Hull

Just some building notes on my Joel White Pooduck Skiff: I finished painting the hull and started making the rudder.  My daughter chose the color.  It's Epifanes Marine Enamel, "light green".  At the last minute I decided to paint the red accent stripe.  I followed a masking technique I read about in the lastest issue of Wooden Boat.  After laying the masking tape down, you paint over the border with the same underlying color or varnish, before painting over with the new color.  This seals the tape and produces a crisp border when the tape is removed.  It is important to use fresh masking tape and keep the edges of your roll clean by being careful where you set it down, and by storing it in a plastic bag at all times.   

Still a lot of work to be done but now it's getting close to the point where now I have to figure out how I'm going to get it to the beach!

Skin Boat Update

Ricardo sends this picture of his skin-on-frame Joel White Sheerwater.  The big box in the middle will house the fresh water supply, the 12 volt batteries for an electric outboard motor, and some steel plates for ballast.  He estimates that fully loaded the boat will weigh something like four hundred pounds.  Apparently, the Sheerwater is a scary boat under sail in so it really needs all that ballast.  Personally, I'd pick a different design (I did, in fact).  Well I can't wait to see how his sleek Sheerwater performs against my tubby little Pooduck when we go mano a mano racing up to the San Juans this summer!

Show Me The Wood!

I originally had planned to paint the entire exterior of my Joel White Pooduck Skiff, but after so many people asked me if I was going to leave the hull "bright finished" I decided to varnish the sheer strake, to show off a little of the wood.  I think that's a good compromise.  I don't want people to think that it's made of fiberglass after all that hard work!

I finally started the long slog of several coats of varnish and several coats of primer followed by paint.  When the paint is dry she'll be totally ready to hit the water as a rowboat (with the addition of a couple oarlocks).  Still, I don't plan to launch her until she's ready to sail away.

I cleaned out the shop a little, burning wood scraps in an old barbeque grill.  It's a respectful way to dispose of all that beautiful cedar, oak and mahogany.   

Keel

Well because of the fantastic response to my DVD I’ve been super busy running back and forth to the post office to fill all the orders, so I was happy to find some time the other day to get back to work on my boat.  Thanks again to all of you who placed orders and I hope you enjoy the videos.  By the way, they make great gifts too so don’t forget your friends now that the spring paddling season is approaching.

Here are some pics of the keel installation on my Joel White Pooduck Skiff.  The keel was the last major structural component I needed to install before painting the exterior hull

First I made the keel pattern out of scrap plywood.  I marked a centerline on the outside of the hull then set the plywood vertically along the line.  A few 2x4 blocks hot-glued along the side of the centerline held the pattern in place with drywall screws.  Then I marked the "bottom" edge (actually the top edge, but the boat is upside down) of the keel pattern to follow the shape of the hull using a black Sharpie pen duct-taped to a block of wood.   I unscrewed the pattern and placed it on the floor to mark the “top” (actually bottom) edge.   Marking the edge really just followed basic lofting techniques described previously: taking measurements from the plans and transferring them to the wood using those long wooden battens that boat builders always have handy. 

After I cut out the pattern with a sabersaw, I placed it on the wooden board I reserved for the keel.  The wood is meranti, a tropical hardwood I found at Edensaw.  By the way if you are looking for marine lumber Edensaw has just about any kind of wood you would possibly want.  And if you don’t know exactly what you want, just drop by and browse among their stacks.  Just the sight of those beautiful boards will get your creative juices flowing!   I was even able to convince them to give it to me wholesale because I am a Center for Wooden Boats member. YESSSSS!

I chose meranti for the keel because it was half the price of Honduran mahogany and came in the right thickness (if I can save time by not planing lumber down to correct thickness, I will).   I marked it up using the pattern and cut out the keel, then attached it to the hull using 3M 5200 bedding compound and 1 1/2 inch silicon bronze screws (from the inside and the outside) and a single 6 inch long 1/4 inch diameter machine bolt through the widest part of the skeg.  The whole thing was clamped down tight against the hull with nylon Thule straps to get good “squeeze out” bead of bedding compound.   Then I scraped off the bead.  After it’s completely cured in a week I can finally start painting the hull. 

Single-Handed

Boatbuilding manuals suggest using a block and tackle system or the help of a bunch of friends to turn boats over, especially when they start getting heavy.  But with a little planning I was able to turn my Joel White Pooduck Skiff over single-handedly, and without a block and tackle system, for painting the hull. 

First I made a little ramp with a couple 2x4s screwed onto the end of the strongback and padded with old bath rugs.  Then I just slid the boat down from the strongback onto a carpet on the driveway.  I disassembled the ramp, and also modified the strongback so that the weight of the upside down boat would be supported with 2x4 crosspieces. 

Before rolling the boat over I protected the edges with foam pipe insulation, and attached some old kayak wheels onto the stern seat with duct tape (I knew I’d find a use for those wheels someday!)  Then I turned the boat over, making sure all contact points on the ground were padded or covered with carpet.  Once the boat was upside down all I had to do was roll it up to the modified strongback and slide it onto the 2x4 crosspieces.  She's pretty heavy, but not a lot of strength or grunting was involved.

Now the boat is back to looking like a turtle.  And since all my finish work has been on the inside (except for the rubstrips), it looks as if I haven’t touched it since I first turned it over several months ago. 

Floorboards

Here are some pics of the stern seat and floorboards on my Joel White Pooduck Skiff, finally sanded and oiled.  The floorboards are western red cedar and very soft, so over a short amount of time I'm sure they'll get pretty worn and weathered.  One thing is for sure -- they won't ever look as good as they do now.  Now that the interior is basically finished, I'm ready to turn her over to install the keel and paint the hull, as soon as I do a few modifications on the "strongback" to hold the boat upside down.