2008 building logs

January 2008 Last of the planking

With the bows of the boat almost covered with the planking, I will finish the foredeck and the largest of the stripped panels the cabin roof. The dagger cases are also strip planked but to make them I first need to make the daggerboards and I doubt I will have them finished by the end of the month.

Jan 01 NYE recovery

Part of the reason for building our boat is the experiences that are available to people who are lucky enough to have them. Such as viewing the New Years Eve fireworks in Sydney from on the harbour. Jo, Jake and I have been to see the fireworks a number of times from Hunters Hill on Sydney Harbour's north western shore, about 15km away from the bridge, which is the centre of the display. In order to get a good spot here, even this far away, it is necessary to arrive around 6pm. The fireworks are at 9pm and Midnight. You can stake out a good spot with a picnic rug, and the view straight down the harbour to the bridge is fantastic, so as a spot to view it from we recommend it, however due to its popularity the area (Clark Park) is now limited by ticketing and once they reach safe capacity you cant get onto the reserve.

Yesterday, Warren invited us to watch it from his Cat moored about 100 meters off Mrs. Macquarie's chair which for people outside Sydney, is a peninsula between bays about 500 meters from the Opera House and 800 meters from the Harbour bridge. The land all around was shoulder to shoulder packed with hundreds of thousands of people and from the sound they made they were having a great time (I cant image how early they must have arrived to get their spots). Boats stake out an anchor space much like we did at Hunters Hill when we put down a picnic rug, but the view is unimpeded and about 500 meters from the fireworks barges and the Bridge. Warren arrived earlier that morning to get his spot and then picked people up from the jetty from about 6pm. One of the great things about a cat is that once moored, you can sit back for a while and watch the world go by. Much more comfortable than holding onto a rug space! The difference in experience is massive. One thing we had not experienced in watching fireworks before is the percussion you feel when the fireworks launch from so close.

There were 20 people on Warren's Cat (a Crowther 40ft) and it didn't feel crowded. Which is a good indication of what we will be able to do with our cat. There were boats all around, and all had as many on them as was comfortable and safe, which also speaks to the generosity of the boating community, and whilst we doubt we would like as many on our boat at one time (the Skipper never gets to relax and just enjoy the night as he/she ensures their guests are safe and enjoying themselves) we are sure we will always want others on board to share such times. Thanks Wazza, words cant express how lucky we feel to have friends like you and we cant wait to get our boat launched and join you out there.

We did have one minor hiccup at the end of the night but otherwise it was just fantastic. The waterways authority (not Water Police but with similar powers) do an excellent job keeping order and safety on the water especially on nights like this when thousands of boats are on the water in close proximity, but they can be a little over officious at times. Normally a dingy does not meed to have running lights, but Warren (as many others do) has a 15hp outboard on his 10 ft tender (the same as my duflex dingy). The laws are a little silly here, they state that any boat with a motor larger than 5hp must have running lights at night. This is patently ridiculous. Safety at night has nothing to do with the size of your engine but the speed at which you travel. The laws figure by their logic that if you have the capability of going faster then you will! That is the only conclusion you can draw from laws that have arbitrary cut off points related to horsepower rather than actual speed you travel at. Imagine getting a speeding fine simply because your car was capable of exceeding the speed limit! When Warren was ferrying the guests back to the jetty at about 3 at a time, waterways intercepted him travelling at about 4 knots, and because he had a 15hp boat with no running lights, took his details (no doubt to extract revenue from him at some later stage) and told him he could not use the dingy again until morning, leaving half his guests including one in a wheelchair stranded on board. I didn't mind, any extra time I get to spend on board is bonus time to me but you can see the inconvenience that this silly application of silly laws caused. In the end Warren moved the cat to the jetty to get the rest of the guest off.

I thought it would be interesting to compare the last pictures of Dec 05, 06 and 07 to see the 2 years progress. In 05 we had just started and all I had done was to build the strongback, glue the panels and I had started to stand the bulkheads for the first hull. By Dec 06 we were just completing the second hull, so in effect it took a year to build both hulls, and yesterday I was working on the foredeck planking with the hulls joined and the side turns also planked.

Lets hope that the picture next year is of a full boat that I am in the process of fitting out ready to launch later that year. Another interesting perspective about time it that I have just started a new 2 year contract for a wireless internet service and it got me thinking about how time is perceived. When I was first contemplating building 5 years seemed such a long time. Now I am 2 years in and the time has passed fast, and in the time I have been going many boats have been started and finished. I am hoping with a little help I may be able to finish in 4 years instead of 5 meaning we launch next year (I can say that now!). So by the time this new internet contract expires we will be on the water, and I am sure you can relate to signing 2 year phone contracts over the years, they seem like forever when you are signing on but they pass quickly.

Today I cut and screwed down the last of the foredeck planks and glued them. Because this panel does not do much twisting and really only curves down in an even downward curve along the width of it and each bulkhead is the same shape, it was already quite fair and didn't need much levelling. I squeezed glue in between each plank with a trowel in a little under an hour. Tomorrow I will sand it, which again should be fairly easy because it is pretty smooth and their is not much glue over the height of the planks.

Jan 03 Foredeck glassed and bogged

Yesterday I sanded, glassed (filling gaps as I went) and bogged the foredeck panel. The bow of the boat is taking shape. I still have to take each panel off again and sand and glass them on the inside before I can glue them onto the boat. Also before I can glue them on I have to glue the keelsons in as well as cove and tape the inside of the front bulkheads. Then I have to glue the forebeam in but before I can do that I have to fair it! So I have a lot of work to do before the panels can be glued onto the boat. But it is great to see the shape of the boat emerging.

Today I started preparations for making the cabin top. This is a big panel and I planned to make it under the bridgedeck which is a large enough space to make it, however getting it out and turning it over to glass the inside is not so easy, doable but not easy, and if I wait 3 months Nine Lives could be out of the shed freeing up a lot of space, so as much as I would like to get the panel made, it may be much easier if I wait. In the meantime, I still have a lot of work to get on with. I could and probably will concentrate on finishing the front of the boat by doing all of the things mentioned in the previous paragraph and then getting on with the daggerboards so that I can glue the side panels on.

I also spent some time today thinking about another modification to the boat. I am going to raise the height of the ceiling in the forward bunks, which in turn raises the height of the dashboard in the saloon, this change is purely internal, and does not change the outside dimensions of the boat. I don't like the tapered space behind the saloon seating above the dashboard as it is fairly useless space, you cant put anything on it as it will be in front of the wrap around the window. By raising the height by about 150mm I shorten the space by about 300mm. You make the space to see through the wrap around windows smaller by 150mm but it is at the bottom not the top and I don't think this will effect the see through visibility much, I will probably raise the seat height by about 100mm which will cut the loss down to 50mm when seated which is negligible. I also don't think the visibility loss from the helm will be noticeable either as the dash height should only effect the visibility of the foredeck from the helm not anything beyond the forebeam (to see beyond the front of the boat you have to lower your head to see along the deck, looking down from a standing position you can only see the tramps and the bows.

The added height in the forward bunks allows for a full size hatch to be fitted on the angled panel that is the wrap around saloon wall directly above the bunks. There is currently room for a portlight hatch about 120mm high but by raising the dash the angled space before the dash is about 600mm. I would like a full size hatch over the main bunks so that if there is any reason to go onto the deck in a hurry at night I can do so through the hatch, or if I am unsure if I need to get up to do something (say I am asleep and I hear a strange noise or I think the wind is shifting or the anchor dragging, etc) I can stand up in bed, take a look around, and if all is clear just lay down again, rather than having to get up out of bed and down into the hull, up the steps and out the saloon door all for a false alarm.

I will get stuck into the work on the boat over the next few days as work fires up again next week so I want to make the most of the slow time of year.

Jan 06 Lots of planning not much making.

Despite putting in 5 hours each day not much in the way of tangible work has been done this weekend. I had the intention of getting stuck into making the cabin top but 2 things got in the way. First it was intolerably hot this weekend, over 30 degrees out but in the shed it felt more than 40c. The other reason I couldn't start the cabin top is the floor space under the boat currently has the cockpit furniture panels that are still in the full panels and there are still some of the panels that need to be joined. So I started yesterday by releasing all of the furniture panels I could (that were already complete) and cleaning up. I spent most of the rest of the time either planning how and where things will go, such as tanks (Black water, Grey Water, Fresh water) and other changes to layout such as the raising of the dash, helm position, steering mechanics, etc or cleaning up. I swept the floor under the boat after I released the furniture and then glued the rest of the panels to finish the remaining panels. I also found the panels that would have been kerfed to form the foredeck planking, I did have them, I just mistook them for flat deck panels that sit behind the strip planking because I didn't read the plans properly. I guess calling them flat decks on the plans didn't help un confuse me either. Not to worry, it will actually work out well because I think I still have enough duracore to finish the roof and dagger cases and I can use the duflex as furniture panels in the cockpit to fill in gaps I have because I have the walk through transom kit that I am not going to build.

Today I vacuumed the inside of the boat and did some more planning, including some dry fitting of some panels. It is amazing how much dust accumulates inside the boat. The rest of the time was spent in yet more planning. Planning is important because many tasks must be done in specific order or at least thought given to what might need to be done later. For example I am not using the walk through transom kit I have but I will be able to utilise most of the material, adapt it and add to it to add back the spaces that the walk throughs need but I don't want and get the results I do want, but that all has to be planned. I dry fitted the start of the furniture and realised through the planning process that I have to be careful to make space for the twin sliding doors on each side to slide into when open. If I just went ahead and glued the furniture in without planning I might come to the doors later and find there was nowhere for them to slide and be forced to change plans. We are going to narrow the doorway down a little (by around 300mm to 900mm) to give more bench space in the galley and also so that we can use sliding doors that don't slide in front of the open windows. We figure the doors will be open most of each day but it is a bit silly to have sliding (down) windows if the opening is just blocked by the open doors, we don't like folding doors or hinged doors because they always seem to be in the way when open, so 2 450mm sliding doors and insect screens is the best solution all around.

On the other side of the cockpit, the helm seating is something I need to fabricate from scratch using materials I have but not cut in kit form and also give a lot of thought to, as it is critical that I am comfortable with the helm position and I am designing it. We have no experience with a boat this big so we need to be confident we can see all of the boat from the helm when needed, especially when docking. One of the biggest advantages of building your own boat is that you get to personalise your boat and make it fit your needs. I have been on about 10 different Schionning boats over the years at the musters and boat shows and no 2 have been the same, at the different boat shows I also go on the production boats and they are always the same, so their owners don't have the satisfaction of knowing that no-one else has that layout. If you plan to live on your boat for a long time like we do, it is worth getting things exactly how you want them. Or at least as close as you can, because every change has a trade off somewhere else.

With the helm position, we have decided to have just the helm on the Starboard side, we almost switched to the port side (because the likelihood of being in close proximity to other boats is likely to be under power in channels and you need to cross port to port so we thought it better to helm that side) but stuck with starboard in the end because of how we want to layout the galley now and it must be on the port side to get full advantage of what it does to the hull below (it means a much larger bathroom). Starboard helming under sail has its safety advantage too in that a boat approaching on your starboard side under sail has right of way so better to helm that side and see it better, a boat on your port side should be giving way to you so whilst important to see him its not as important as you seeing the boat to starboard. So now that we have established that we will helm on the starboard side I need to be sure that we can see the 4 corners of the boat from that position. The hardest is the port bow. In order to see it I need to stand on a raised helm seat, through the scallop I will cut in the cockpit roof (or sliding hatch) so in the picture below you can see the ladder scaffold in place to replicate the height the helm seat will need to be. I will build a box that shape, size and position with the front of it between the bulkhead lowered back to normal seat height for your legs to go when seated forward and you can see through the window forward when limited vision is enough, then when a little more vision is needed you can stand on that normal seat height panel in front of the helm seat and see over the cabin top forward but not fully over the cabin and then finally when full 4 corner vision is required you stand on the top level. There will be a hinged stainless seat back with round cushion over it that can be moved forward to sit backwards or back to sit forward and the seat itself can have a cushion on it. It fulfils all of our requirements but is out of place a little aesthetically. If I build it properly it should look ok and be extremely functional and inside it I can utilise the space for an icebox (esky) or other items.

Another thing I played around a little more is the raised dash and another side benefit will be the wrap around windows will extend down to where they would have been with the normal dash height and show in the berths also giving a lot of light to the small bed boxes which should make them feel less claustrophobic. I played around with a cardboard cut out of the hatch opening and it should work really well, I will be able to stand up fully in bed and look around and get up onto deck through it if needed.

I am also building up the height of the duckboard to normal seat top height so that is is the same height either side of the rear bulkhead. Below the raised section I plan a long single hatch to store long items such as fishing rods, gaff, net, boat hooks, oars etc) and I also figure it would be very easy to put a plug in the bottom so that I can fill it with water so Jo can have a bath, I could even fit a spa kit which is basically just a water pump and piping with a breather for bubbles and we could have a jacuzzi. It sounds silly but it doesn't take up any space or weight, I am making the hatch anyway and is very cheap to add. The aeration could also double as an oversize live bait tank should I ever decide to fish in that way and having a jacuzzi on board will impress the hell out of people, and again Jo would love it. I spent a bit of time working out how the steering might work and if I can use a rudder tie rod and how that would work and fit also.

So all that thinking and planning and measuring and putting things temporarily in place to see how they might fit or interact or interfere with other plans took a lot of time, on otherwise hot days that would have resulted in slow work so it was time well spent. Planning for a day or 2 can save hundred of hours later if you change your mind after you have built something in or not made provision for something you really wanted, or it can lead to an idea that you otherwise might have missed that really enhances the boat or adds value. Hopefully I will have some actual construction to show soon, but unfortunately it wont be for a while, I need to be in Melbourne for a week including next weekend at my parents for a late Christmas New Year get together as we opted for the on harbour NY instead of the usual quiet night at mum's.

Jan 20 Wasting time

January is not working out to be too good for me for boat building. I always think to myself I should get a lot done each January but it never seems to pan out that way. Unfortunately I am my own worst enemy at times. I have spent a lot of time away from home this year (in Melbourne), but that is no different to any other year, but to make matters worse recently I seem to be wasting a lot of time doing nothing when I am at the shed. Well it isn't nothing but it does not result in tangible work I can take pictures of and show as achievement. I know part of the problem is the heat and the laziness that creeps in with it, and with nice weather comes other activities that distract me, like spending time on other peoples boats (today) but yesterday I spent 6 hours at the boat, it rained all day, was not too hot, and still I got next to nothing done.

Part of it is the feeling of being overwhelmed with so many different tasks that need to be done and not feeling particularly excited by some of them, such as fairing the forebeam (hard work), glassing the insides of the strip planked sections (not so hard but not particularly exciting) or glassing the bulkheads. Another part of it is procrastination. When I cant decide what to do next or I know what I have to do but for whatever reason I don't want to yet, I usually find other necessary but not critical work like cleaning up which is what I did yesterday. I cut the last of big cockpit furniture panels out (which I wont be using anyway) to get them off the floor under the boat so I could start to lay out the cabin top.

I have been setting out the cockpit furniture and I am ready to start gluing it in but fear of getting it wrong make me find excuses to delay gluing panels in. It is a problem I have had to overcome on many of the tasks in the past and each time I do I think to myself the delay had no basis in logic because the jobs invariably turn out to be easy.  Having said all of this, I am now working without pre cut parts, or even a plan as I design and fabricate the parts myself so care and planning (daydreaming of how practical the end result might be) is important and also there are 2 sides of every idea, external and internal so each has to be thought through carefully and this takes mocking up and setting out, measuring, thinking, re doing to see if an alternative is better, etc and all of this takes time. Better to waste a bit of time now than be disappointed with the practicality of a poorly laid out design.

I have been particularly keen to make the cabin top even though logic is telling me to wait a few months when I get a heap more space. I decided to ignore that logic and just start on it only to find that strip planking the foredeck has used up more duracore than I thought and I now don't have enough to finish a full length roof as planned, so I will need to buy more, but not for a while (when finances allow!). So I think I might start on the daggerboards to inspire me again to work harder.

So all the wasted time lead me to feeling guilty that I have not progressed the boat much over the last few weeks and a little concern at the length of time still to go started to creep in. But I guess these rollercoaster's of emotion and progress are to be expected on a job this big. I spoke to Warren about these frustrations and delays and he told me you have to roll with them. It is my build and it takes me as long as it does, I don't have to justify it to anyone but myself and I should not be hard on myself because if I am not enjoying it I don't have to do it, sooner or later the joy returns and on it goes, we met a guy that took 17 years to finish a 43ft cat and he loved it so instead of worrying that some people get theirs built in 2 years, think of the guys that take 10! I write this stuff down because I think it is important to understand all that you go through on a build like this, there will be ups and downs and I don't want to just write about the good stuff, there will be times of self doubt, lack of motivation and times of inaction as well as exciting interesting full speed ahead building. The lows generally don't last long and there is enough variety to keep the work interesting most of the time.

Now the reason I got nothing done today is I volunteered to help Warren (40ft Crowther cat) lower his mast to get under a bridge. His mast is half a meter too tall to get under the Rip Bridge at Ettalong at the entrance to Brisbane Waters. This took us about 4 hours using ropes to replace the stays and to slowly winch it forward a few inches at a time until we had it at about 60 degrees and down low enough to get under the bridge. We had to be sure no fast boats were passing as the mast is vulnerable to side movement without taught stays so wake would be a problem. I went out in the dingy to slow any passing boats as we passed under the bridge. Once we had it winched back up and the stays back on, which took about an hour, we were good as new. Of course I don't need much persuading to get me onto anyone's 40ft cat these days especially Warren's who I would count among my best friends and one of my sources of inspiration.

Jan 21 Nine Lives update

Jan 22 Johanna's page update

No more work on the boat yet. I am very keen to get something done though. We have a long weekend coming up and maybe I can get something done this weekend. I hope the weather is a bit cooler. It has been cooler this week but you know Murphy and his laws! Jo has been writing, click here to read.

Jan 28 Cockpit Furniture started

Despite a good burst while I was strip planking the bows, I have been in a bit of a funk for the last month or so. Part of this is the heat of Summer that makes working in this new shed unpleasant, it is far hotter for a given temperature than the old shed. Anyway, as part of that lack of motivation, I have also been feeling guilty at the lack of progress. Having said that, I did spend a lot of time, setting out and planning so it wasn't a total waste of time. This setting out was important as I am setting out the cockpit furniture myself and cutting it from other bits (the walk through parts) and this not only takes a lot of time it is also critical. For example, you would want the cockpit to be a symmetrical as possible and centred, so if I am setting out the cockpit seating a particular position on the port side, and bearing in mind that the cockpit set out outside affects that hull on the inside, so I had to be sure that if I set it out at that point on the starboard side the internal fit out would still work. So after all that checking I am finally confident that I know what I want.

So, despite the heat I finally got started on the cockpit furniture today. I glued the first 2 seat spacers in, and set them out wide enough to fit 2 24 litre outboard petrol tanks in. I glued, coved and glassed them in. I also ran a glass tape along the butt join of the top half of the bulkhead to the bottom half before I glued the seat parts in. I am a little rusty at coving so the first one I did is a little messy, fortunately it would only be visible inside the hatch, no big deal and once painted probably not noticeable. At the end of the day, I started to feel angry at myself at wasting so much time over the past few weeks. Setting out and gluing the cockpit parts in reminded me of how much fun this boat building can be when there is something tangible to work on. One other thing I thought of, despite it being fun and satisfying to make a part of the boat from scratch without a kit, it is a lot more time consuming, so if you can get a kit made of what you want, it will save you a lot of setting out and fabrication and in turn a lot of time. The downside is you may not get exactly what you want and you may not have a truly unique boat, so others may have the same layout.

I have cut down the height of the seat top so that it is level from the deck across the top under the window. So the seat backs will also have to be cut down when I curve it around (this part is pre-cut for the walkthrough but I will use it to save having to work out the angles) and glue it in. The seat front (and the recline angle) and seat itself will be as per the walkthrough in terms of height and depth but will continue along and then bend around at the same curve rate at the back as the front along the rear bulkhead to form a full width slightly curved rear seat. I will make the centre of the rear seat a little deeper and have a little more recline (along its full length so it doesn't change angle along its length) so it will be a more comfortable seat than normal.

I have decided that I don't need the space internally where the cockpit seating is set out, so I have placed the seats as wide as I can to make the cockpit as wide as it can be. The bottom of the seat is out as far as it can be (which is also where the standard walkthrough would have them) and forms a vertical wall in the shower, then 500mm higher it cuts in as the seat itself cuts in, by 400mm then rises again as the seat back rises but slightly angled because of the seat recline. From inside the shower I will put a wall down to cover the chamfer from the angle of the seat to back turn down. I can use this as a cupboard inside or a hatch from the outside under the seat. I have decided that yet. But if I put the seat at the same position on the starboard side I needed to be sure that the internal implications on the rear bunk worked and it does, I can fit a double mattress in there and have 200mm to spare. Again the wall will rise from the top of the chamfer, vertically then come in 400mm then rise again to the ceiling of the bunk (the side deck), and again I can use the space under the seats either as bunk lockers or under seat hatches. Again I will decide on that once I have it all glassing in. The set out above right pic shows the shapes I have just described and illustrates the importance of setting things out to get a better idea of how they work.

Further set out working out was how I would helm the boat and how I would set out the cockpit roof so that I could see effectively from the helm. On the port side I will be able to stand on the seat and see over the cabin top, Jo will be able to stand on the edge of the breakfast table that will go into that side, to see over the cabin top. At the helm on the Starboard side there will be a raised helm position with a seat that can be stood on for all corner vision (for me) or sat on to see just over the cabin top or if I look down slightly I will be able to see through the saloon windows. I was contemplating a raised cockpit floor and double level roof or even a soft bimini but in the end I decided on scallops in the cabin top (or a sliding hatch (still to decide). It was important that I set out or even finish the cockpit seating before I started on the cabin top because the rear seat line will be mirrored by the cockpit roof so that you can stand on the seats and hold onto the cockpit roof and see over it. Everything has implications somewhere else so be sure and set it all out and try to think of everything before you build it.

There was more progress on Nine Lives over the last week. The boys should be ready to start fairing the outside soon.

Next weekend I will try to get the seat front on as far as I can, including around the corners and along the back of the boat. I hope it is a bit cooler next month because I need to make up for the pitiful 34 hours I have put in this month.