Pause again

Oh, it's been one more month doing nothing on the boat again! Good thing I don't have to pay any rent for the shop I occupy.
Anyways, most part of the November was spent moving with family from Jurmala where we lived close to the Yacht Club to our new home in Riga. All moving was done with my superb '98 Subaru Impreza which by the way deserves a separate blog. Furniture building and setup took loads of time, too.
BUT
This will be closer to the new workshop where the boat is, and also my "hobby-job", the Aerodrome Spilve. The downside is that there will be no boat-building-friends in the close vicinity.

Pause again

It has been almost a month since my last post. It's about the same since my last touch to my boat. Visited Germany twice and once Dubai in October, almost no time at home. November I will try to get to some boatjob again.

Moving again

Today began with finishing the clamp attachment to the stem. Left the glue to sent and went out to help get Svīre out of the water as the sailing season is almost over for this year. Then moved on with cleaning up the shop, removing legs from my boat setup, packing all the tools in boxes. With some help I got the boat out of the shop, fixed on the roof of the car and eventually hauled everything out to the new home in Spilve.

Clamps et al

Now that chines are attached, I am busy attachin the clamps to have the shape whole and rigid for transportation as I plan to relocate from the premises of Latvia Yacht Club on Lielupe to my hobby-workplace at Spilve aerodrome.
Starboard clamp is almost there, except the stem attachment, port clamp is glued to the transom and the next 2 frames so far. Last night I also glued doublers to some of the frames to have extra glueing area for planking.

Scarf joint 2

Scarf joints on both clamps are ready. Clamps half-fitted to the frames. Now trying to solve both the chines and clamps to the stem.

Scarf joint

Needed 510cm lumber for the clamps. Had only 450cm at hand so the time came for my 1st scarf joint in my boat building career. First I marked the lines for 1:8 slope, then stacked the pieces, tightened together with long wood screws, chiseled the corners before starting planing, then a huge work with electric plane, finished with belt sander. I do not clame this is a perfect scarf joint but hopefully it holds well when installed.

Svire sailing

Had a little sailing practice on Saturday with Svire and its captain Viktor. Extremly nice sailing wx on the river - sunshine and 12 kts breeze.

Also we met the coolest Latvian made catamaran. No sail unfortunately.

Chines 4

This magic wet bending! Did it for the 1st time in my life and the result is astonishing for me. Before wetting I could hardly bend these chines in place, even with extra pair of hands. Now they are almost in shape. So last nite I glued the chines to the frames #4 and #3.

Life jacket

Bought my little helper Daniel a life jacket today. Will add it to project expenses too - boat equipment ;)

Chines 3

Last two days gave some progress. Glued the chines to transom. Bent the chines into place by brute force. Wrapped them into towels and blanket and poured with boiling water with a hope that this will release at least some of the stresses. My lovely wife helped too.

Pause

OK, OK, I know, no boat building for almost 2 weeks.
Well, actually I have been deep into organizing the annual aviation celebration at aerodrome Spilve in Riga. Turned out awesome! Now I will have some boat time again. Have to do the planking by the beginning of winter!

http://www.spilve.org/
http://www.aerobaticformula.com/

Stem 3

Stem is now fixed in place, next up - attaching chines "for real".

Chines 2

Added "preliminary" chines - the natural way of bending wood leaves frame #3 and #4 corners exposed. Still confused.

Movies 2

Watched also the two movies that I was going to on Monday.

Deep Water (2006) "Deep Water is the true story of the first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race, and the psychological toll it took on its competitors. The round the world sailing event attracted a field of nine, including amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst, who set out to circumnavigate the globe in late 1968. Battling treacherous seas and his own demons, Crowhurst almost immediately comes apart as he faces the isolation of nine months on the high seas." I found it interesting to a certain stage where where it became psycho-drama.

Dead Calm (1989) "Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, Billy Zane, a gorgeous 60 ft ketch, and a dying schooner. An intense thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It has only one negative, and that's the way it ended. Other than that, it's a great movie, skillfully directed to keep the blood pounding, even after repeated viewings. And it's a wonderful sailing movie! Except for the first ten minutes, it takes place entirely at sea, and was in fact shot in the Whitsunday Passage in Australia. The boat handling looked real and the way the two characters handle the challenges presented them are very believable. As in The Riddle of the Sands, the difficulty of navigating under adverse conditions was utilized perfectly to heighten the tension, and to make it a more believable sailing film. This movie, in my opinion, is runner-up to White Squall and The Bounty as the best sailing movie not based on classic literature, and is sitting on the fence for that 5th star." To me it reminded too much of those early 90's super exagerated thrillers that look silly at a certain point. Picture was nice but I would not keep it waiting on the fence for that 5th star as YachtPals do.

Whatched also the White Squall - that talking about dead bodies in the previous movie post was not true. Actually I mixed it up with another movie then. Well this real White Squall movie I really enjoyed. Would suggest it to anyone.

Attaching transom

While being ill now for a few days already my sick mind kept tinkering on how to best fix the quite heavy transom to the whole boat assembly while epoxy cures, and the toughest, keep it level, at correct angle and rigid. This is what I came up with today:

Took a basic old carpenters stool (or whteva it is called), a pair of piano hinges and voila! It turned out easily adjustible levelwise as well as anglewise. Now, let the epoxy cure.

Movies

Sittin home, being sick, again. Would be a nice time to do some boat building but feeling too bad, at least today.
On the other hand, it is a time to do some bloggin, some movie watchin and other things of this kind.
First I'd like to share some boat movies I have already watched. For reference I used the movie list from YachtPals site.

• Cassandras Dream (2007)
  "Woody Allen movie with a pretty little 25 footer in it. Big stars (Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor) and pretty entertaining." I found this movie being in very little connection with boats. Still ok to watch as a criminal drama.
• Charlie St. Cloud (2010)
  "Teen idol Zac Efron stars in a movie which features small boat sailing and includes a story line about around the world yacht racing. From imdb: Charlie St. Cloud is a young man overcome by grief at the death of his younger brother. So much so that he takes a job as caretaker of the cemetery in which his brother is buried. Charlie has a special lasting bond with his brother though, as he can see him. Charlie meets up with his brother (Sam) each night to play catch and talk. Then, a girl comes into Charlie's life and he must choose between keeping a promise he made to Sam, or going after the girl he loves." This one liked from sailing perspective, although schizo,but the story line was grabbing too.
• Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World (2003)
  "Based on the Patrick O’Brien books, Screen play and direction by Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe as Capt. “Lucky” Jack Aubrey. The movie starts and ends with the sound of the wind, and is quite simply the best movie ever made about the age of fighting sail. They managed to make this as historically accurate as Hollywood gets, and totally immersed the audience in the experience of being on an 18th century frigate. While the naval battle sequences are quite fantastic, the film is successful because director Weir chose to build the story by getting to know the men who are locked aboard the tight quarters of a small ship and how they interact everyday. The officers and the mates are well-known by the time the final battle comes. The sound effects editing alone is incredible, and that sound team was robbed of the Oscar." This one I watched already a while ago but remember it being a good one.
• Riddle of the Sands (1979)
  "Simply the all-time best small-boat sailing/adventure movie! The movie manages to capture the spirit and ambiance of Erskine Childers' 1903 novel, and, with the exception of deleting the Baltic sequences, and the character of Capt. Bartels, remained remarkably faithful to the book. Simon MacCorkindale and Michael York are perfect as Davies and Carruthers, and are well supported by a superb cast, including Jenny Agutter, Jurgen Andersen, and Alan Badel. All the elements that made the book a classic are here. A must-see for all sailors." Really good one, very influencing, I am convinced now that one day I will sail (or maybe fly) the North German islands myself.
• Waterworld (1995)
  "Okay, it's flawed but hey, Kevin Costner as the sailor of the future, versus Dennis Hopper as the evil stinkpotter, that works for me. Oscar nomination for Best Sound. Razzie nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Costner), Worst Director (Kevin Reynolds - with an assist to Costner) and Worst Supporting Actor (Hopper). Picky picky picky! This movie is actually pretty entertaining, if you think of it as “Mad Max goes to sea”." Film involved a lot of sailing but it was not really much about sailing. Watched it looooong ago and not crazy about watching again.
• White Squall (1996)
  "A modern story of tall ship sailing, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Jeff Bridges. Based on a true story, this is the best sailing movie not based on a classic novel, and ranks as one of the best sailing movies ever made. The story, sailing, and acting are all excellent." Also watched loooong ago, remember only the big waves and dead people. Will have to see again.
• Wind (1992)
  "Lightweight, but enjoyable. The fictionalized story of the '87 America's Cup. Preferable to the real thing since Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey are better-looking and far more likable than Dennis Conner. With the exception of one small scene, all the sailing was filmed on the water, using real twelve meters. For the crews, they recruited real sailors, and taught the stars to sail. This, of course, made for some very believable sailing scenes, which made up for a rather unbelievable story. Grey reportedly became an enthusiastic sailor, and bought herself a sailboat." Watched recently, was interesting for me as yachting sports dummie, don't know what the pros say.

So, what about today? Gonna try to get Dead Calm with Ms Kidman or the 2006 Deep Water. Will report when seen.

Chines

Working now on chines. Trying to bend the chines along the edges of mould frames proved frame #1 slightly not-in-place. To my understanding, when I attach the chine, it should "find" the frame corners smoothly itself.
Hmmm... will have to address my expert-friend now.

Epoxy

Yesterday I bought an epoxy set - the 331 - the most basic and most popular one. Well, this is a whole new world for me. Even when I was building an airplane I for 90% used PVA (polyvinylacetate), for 9% it was PUT (polyurethane) and only the remaining 1% maybe was epoxy. So, me is totally not an expert in this.
The main thing that worries me is mixing. My [lovely wife's kitchen] scales have only 1g resolution but the epoxy has to be mixed 100g resin to 14.5g curing agent... well, let us see then. Going to workshop to try it out now.

New home

Here we are, moving to new home, a workshop at Yacht Club of Latvia, situated on Lielupe.

Swing bulb keel

Still tinkering, no real work done. But still... here is the keel I will eventually make for the Petrel. Great design, cool advantages over regular centreboard.

Time lapse camera - 2

Yoohoo! Yesterday I finally got hold of an old but working digital camera. Fuji S3000. Now I am ordering the timer kit and in a week or so the system should be ready.

http://patenteux.com/timelapse/Timers.html



Stem - 2

Slowly proceeding with the stem. All the laminating is done so last nite I began "rough" cutting it to shape. So, while it was clear and obvious how to work on the outer arc (see picture) - sawing, planing, sanding, whatever, I got stuck however on the inner arc - no idea how to properly work it with power tools (I do not have an access to a beltsaw). Looks like it will take hand tools only.

Working again - stem

Huh, finally got back to the boat building. Actually staying home while sick and feeling good enough to do something. Here is a full scale drawing of stem I did a while ago:

And this is the wood I first laminate and then cut the stem out of:

Helping Svire

Well yesterday I spent a few hours at the local port of The Yacht Club of Latvia. My friend and also boat building mentor Viktor Saulitis is preparing his boat Svīre for the summer. I helped with varnishing. There is a pic of the beautifil mast that I did "spot-varnish" over tiny damages before the "total-varnish".

Where is that warm spring?!?

My initial plan was to move the project down to garage already in mid March. Now it is close to mid May but still terribly cold!!! Where are you, Spring?

Some extra wood

Visited my bros and brought back two planks for the keel - one 19x140mm and the other 19x90mm. So, some exciting construction is on the way! Also, still working on the workshop to get it ready for the boat.

On feet

Well, maybe it does not look like much but this is a step - the whole setup is ready to move downstairs on it own feet and as well the frames are ready to be fitted with the keel. Now it is up to me to prepare the shop in the garage and also visit my bro to pick up the wood he has already bought for the petrel.

Tima lapse camera

Dear friends,

I would gladly receive an old, maybe slightly damaged but still working digital camera as a present. What I want to do is a time lpase video for my boat project.

See example below:

CAD

While I am not very much into the physical building at the moment (not much to do in appartment but still too cold to move to garage), I decided to play around with CAD a little bit. This is what I got:

Not really perfect but still one can get an idea of how it looks. I drew the "hard" lines according to plans but the software curved the boat kind of inside of these hard lines. The "reallife" boat will be outside of these hard lines thou basically it will look about the same. Made with DELFTship.

DUST

Tried some sanding (frame nbr4 and transom) on the balcony,
last time I did something like that was ... well long ago,
don't remember much of the tips and tricks,
didn't take that muc - maybe some 10 minutes, but ->

everything on the balcony was in very fine dust,
neighbors crazy about the noise,
part of the bedroom (from which balcony is accessed) was in dust coz a little opening had to be left for cable,
the whole me was in dust, not talkin about tools or parts themselves,
Dany was in dust because he peeked though the glass door and shouted at me the commands thru the little opening for cable.
Phewwww
I NEED THE SHOP FOR THIS!!! No more mess in the apartment.

Sick

Been really sick these days, hopefully tommorow will be able to get smth done with the boat.

Getting tools ready

Now a lot of sanding work will come to get the ribs in a proper shape for planking. So yesterday i bought a new drive belt for my old half-working belt sander and a set of 60 grit sanding discs for my angle grinder for the rough job. Pity i cannot work today coz of a sore throat (angina).

Now I can estimate the size!!!

Wow, finally i see how actually big it is! And that is with stem and bowsprit still missing! Frame 4 still wrapped coz glue is still curing. Didnt want Daniel to smear it all round the studio. The frames will go lower into the form, just did not notch it yet coz some of frames might change their positions slightly. Waiting for advice from Ireland on these issues.

Frame #4

The last - #4 on full scale drawing. After this one is screwed together, we move on to stacking them onto the form.

untitled

Did i promise some building news tonight? Well... I did better, brought my boatbuildin buddy out on tour. Buildin news commin 2morro.

Silencio = i was busy

It's been too many days of silence from me here. Been busy. BUT I promise to move on with the project today. 2 more frames and it's time to put it all together!

Plywood and transom

bought today some 12&18mm plywood, 12mm went to transom, 18mm will go to deck beams, spent 6LVL; also got 4 spring clanps for 2LVL total

House for my helper

today we decided we should make some use of the 2 frames so we built little field headquarters

Engine considerations

Last night I did a little research on engine options. Well, having engine is not really an option, as I build this boat for leisure, I can't afford to get stuck somewhere just because there is no wind.
Anything above 5hp requires a motor boat captain's license here in Latvia so most likely I will go with some 3-4hp outboard. Hopefully my brothers or somebody else who will also be using the boat will help me buy it.

Second mould frame

Last night glued and screwed the second mould frame. Well, this one looks much wider than #1. (still some material to remove there)

THE FORM and tools

Today I worked a bit (5hrs) in my bro's wood shop. Worked on the FORM - the spinal chord of boat which at the end of building process is removed from the boat, kind of a workbench for the time while boat is upside-down. Chose a 150x50 mm plank, straightened it, measured, made all the curves and cuts, brought over here to my home. It still lays hidden in the basement until I am done with the mould frames, but pictures are to come soon.

Also I got a nice present from my brother - electric hand jigsaw, electric hand plane, hand belt sander, and a hand circular saw. About LVL 150 worth (if compared to new) of electric tools. Nice.

First mould frame

Made my first mould frame #1 (lil helper in the foreground). Yes, at this stage I am working on my living room floor.

Expense

First expense of the project:

GLUE Kleiberit polyurethane 510 with glass fiber pieces - LVL 8 (per 800g bottle)

WOOD (donno the actual price cause my brothers got it for me) assuming that market price for such calibrated stock is LVL350/m3 and I got ~0.032m3 of it, the theoretical expense here is LVL 11

Material, screws and glue

Today I will get my first material batch. It will be calibrated 21 x 92 mm Latvian pine (it could be equivalent to yellow pine) stock for the mould frames. Plans call for 3/4" x 3-3/4" material, well, this is quite close. After all, plans also say that one should use material that is available at one's local home depot. That is exactly what I do. As long as all pieces are equal size, who cares of the actual size.

Searched some info on local portals - most guys use stainless steel screws. Initially I wanted to go for brass but that's ~24LVL/100pcs for 5x40 round head screws. 5x40 flat heads not easily available at all. Now lookin for stainless steel alternative.

Glue - some of my neighbour builders used Kleiberit pulyurethane foam glue. Me still thinking...

Introduction

My name is Janis Maslovskis, no matter what I do in my everyday life but now I have decided that want to build a boat, a wooden boat. I chose a design called Petrel, a 16ft sloop, drawings published in some 60-ies era diy magazine.

All materials I can get locally, have my own pine forest, my bro has a carpenter/cabineter company, plywood factory is nearby, almost ideal...

The only thing, I am still looking for a place to do it. Trying to rent a garage under my condo.

This is how it could look... maybe... well... at least my mom would say it is about the same.