New tarp, new start....

Just when I decided that I had to take a break from "working" on the boat, the tarp that had worked so well for a while, disintegrated. This was on a really windy day just before the first big winter storm of the year.

Its hard to tell from the picture but the wind was really blowing and it was COLD....


I had to fix this fast because the forecast was calling for weather like this...


Instead of buying another cheap blue tarp that would need to be replaced again in a few months, I decided to get one of these HEAVY duty canvas ones that the old timers seem to have on their boats. The only one they had left was 40 by 25 ft (so maybe I need to get a bigger boat). The tarp felt as if it weighed 200 + pounds and it took a while to get it up there but it would be worth it if the boat was dry in the spring. This was what the next day looked like..


I went out to the boat this morning for the first time after 4 weeks of snow storms and lots of freezing rain. Except for some very slight condensation the boat was bone dry one the inside. I opened the tarp up today to allow some of the moisture to escape.

The good news is that over the last week my work has calmed down some (I cut back on one of my jobs, which in its own way is pretty stressful). Since then, I have been finding my self thinking more and more about the boat.....I think it may be time time to start working on Jack A Roe again.

Temporary work stoppage...

It doesn't seem as if work is going to slow down anytime soon so I don't know when I'll be able to get back to work on Jack-a-roe.

Unfortunately, I got what I was asking for which was to have a job which was satisfying, fulfilling and whenever possible, profitable. Now I have satisfying, fulfilling and occasionally profitable up to my eye balls and find myself putting in 12 hour days during the week and way too much on the weekends. As a result the boat just sits and waits.

The one project I will have to make time for is redoing the tarp set-up before the snow flies. This needs to be soon because it was kind of snowing on and off today. Hopefully I can come up with a design that allows me to work out there day or night in comfort, ie... with plenty of space around the boat to work and so that can safely use a heater to work in the cold of the NH winter.

I will occasionally still post pictures from our last sail last week, Cicada's haul out, progress on Charlie's new boat barn (wish it was mine) and Justin's new boat (when ever he gets one) and of course pictures of the kid...

but unfortunately, it may be a while until there is any satisfying pictures of progress on Jack-a-roe.

Life starting to get in the way of the boat project...

A few months back I left a job I had for several years. It was a great job but I was burnt out. After quitting, I had a lot of free time. I was starting a new very flexible part time job and trying to create (from the ground up) a full time job as well. For a couple months things were great, I was working on the boat constantly and the "real life"-work to boat-work ratio was perfect for me. I wasn't bringing in much money but the boat was coming along nicely. Well, now the part time job has become full time and the new endeavor is taking off and is also full time. So now here I am with two full time jobs, working on a nice fall Saturday inside, in front of the fire, when I should be out working on the decks.

I know that there is still a really long winter ahead of us and I still have plenty of time to work of the boat between now and the spring, but for the first time, I'm getting concerned that this boat may not be ready to launch if I stay this busy with work.

The kid better start working overtime.

Deck progress...

The storm wasn't really that bad. There was some rain and strong gusts but all boats made it through fine and no real damage to speak of. I think it takes a lot more than that to impress most NE Yankees. We have more than a few friends who like to go out for drinks and dinner in Portsmouth when the weather gets bad because it keeps the tourists and the otherwise meek at home which leaves the town to the rest of us. They tend to think of blizzards, 6 foot snow drifts, strong Nor' Easters and crumbling sea walls as good drinking weather. This storm didn't come close to qualifying and we ended up just going to family and friends for a few beverages. Jack a Roe made it through with no problem. A few months back the trap made it through 50+ MPH gusts and was fine. This storm supposedly had 65 MPH gusts, but it didn't seem to be a problem for the tarp which is saying something because it sits 6 feet off of the "deck" of the boat and acts like a sail in the wind.

Speaking of the decks, there was a really nice day after the storm on Sunday and I had enough time to lay out templates on the deck and then carried them over to the marine ply to cut matching pieces out that will eventually be the new deck. The templates were made using drawing paper that the kid had in her play room.


Maya's old drawings taped together to make template


traced and cut


Perfect fit.

It seems that even when the kid is in Puerto Rico and unavailable to help out I'm still able to find a way to involve her in the project. The next step will be to seal the edges of the cut pieces with epoxy, screw them down into the existing deck, fill any and all voids with epoxy, sand/fair this surface out and prep for the fiberglass. At least one layer over all and at least two layers where the hardware and stanchions are placed. Then sand and fair that out before painting.

With the weather staring to get cold and my work (real work, the kind that pays the mortgage) getting busier and busier, I having my first real concerns that the boat wont be ready for the spring. As much as I want to see it in the water, I don't want to rush any project and sacrifice the quality of the work (ie, get it wet before it's really done and done right).

NH weather...

So the kid is in PR for 10 days to help her grandparents install a generator in their boat down there. The plan was that I would use the time to finish the deck on jack a roe. For the first few days neither Maki or I finished work until 7, 8 and 9 pm, so there wasn't much of a chance to get much done. Then the plan was to do the work on Thursday which had a fair forecast. The day came and the forecast changed so again not much was done. Then the plan was to work on the deck on Saturday (today) because the weather was supposed to be nice. Unfortunately, now the remnants of a hurricane are rolling through the coast and the forecast is calling for steady hard rains, coastal flooding with wind blowing 25 with gusts up to 65 mph. Now not only cant I get the work done, I'm also worried about the boat cover being blown off.

I have the marine ply and gallons of epoxy just waiting for good weather. The weather is supposed to be sunny and 60 tomorrow.

We'll see.

Small Regatta...

I was able to get some work some work done on the shelves and planned on finishing them at the end the day when I had some free time when I got a call asking if I wanted to go for a quick sail. I met the guys down at the club and after a quick dinghy ride out to Cicada we were off. It was about 330pm and the wind was up. That would have been nice enough but I then got a call telling me to stay on the boat because the kid was going to play with her friends (the real owners of Cicada) and to just show up later for dinner. Sounded great and we headed back out to sea where we were met by a Concordia yawl looking for an unplanned wooden boat regatta. The Concordia came out of the starboard quarter and we turned to greet it. She passed us on our port side and that went by (literally) with little comment from us, other than to say “that’s a good looking boat”. She then came about to pass us on the starboard side. The details of who was faster then who etc is being debated but needless to say, after it tried to round us again, she had our full attention. We sat up, put our drinks down, cleaned up the lines and sheeted in the main. Steve even put the center board down, which I can’t remember being used in the last five years or so.

Some photos of the "regatta"….

First pass..


Commenting...

Pass on the starboard side...


Heading home....

Companion way part 1...

I had every intention on sanding the hull to finish the prep for painting but ended up staring at the bare, open hole that is supposed to be the companion way. I grabbed some teak I had and started making a mock up for the trim pieces and "threshold" Not sure if that is what Its supposed to be called but its the bottom piece. I've been using a number of books on this boat project but the one that I am modeling the companionway after is "How to build a wooden boat" . Its a simple design which he took from Sam Crocker, I think and I've seen essentially the same design on other boats including my friend's Sparkman and Stevens (Cicada). The one thing that my friends S & S has is a stainless rail embedded in the slot that the boards drop into. It gives it a real strong feeling and seems built to last, so I may copy this on Jack-a Roe.

So I cut the pieces to fit and didn't have piece of teak big enough for the "threshold" so I used red oak. I wont use this in the end but used it because it was the only piece I had in the shop at the time that would fit. Trying to hold all the pieces in place while attempting to slide the drop boards in is a real pain. I had a bunch of clamps holding everything and eventually all of it would come crashing down when I tried to slide the boards in. Finally, it worked and amazingly it fit with almost no room to spare.

Until this boat project, I struggled with cutting things to fit well. Every home project seemed to be cut too long and was pounded into place or was cut too short and the difference was filled with putty or caulk. I seem to have finally have the knack for it. Or maybe I just care a lot more about this boat than home projects. Anyways, the pieces are cut and I still have to go out and buy one more piece of teak before gluing it all in place.

I didn't take photos of the companion project so far but this is a picture of Cicada's and its basically what I expect mine to look like. I took this shot the other afternoon when we went out for a quick after work sail. (See Small Regatta post)

Hull (above the bootstripe)...

I didn't have the camera with me so there's no pictures of the work, it's not that exciting anyways. I went out to work on the shelves and ended up working on the hull because the weather was nice.

The hull has a variety of scratches, crazing, spider cracks from stresses inside and outside the hull, nicks and holes that needed to be repaired before painting. The faint scratches, I did nothing to excpt wipe them clean with solvent and applied a thin skim coat of two part Interlux epoxy filler/fairing compound. Deeper scratches and cracks, I opened up/cleaned up and filled with the two part epoxy. The nicks and holes, I cleaned the opening with a grinder, then used the sander to create a smooth taper from surface to hole and filled with the epoxy.

Next step is to sand everything smooth, then fair the hull building up any low spots and sand some more.

Then it's on to the hull below the waterline.

CL Circumnavigation...

Its not a Frisco Flyer but it is an old '69 Cheoy Lee sailing around the world so I thought it was worth keeping an eye on it. Looks like the owner has made a lot of repairs in preparation for the trip. I'll add a link to the site in the margin.

"In September, 2007 Glenn Wakefield will attempt a solo, non-stop circumnavigation west about from Victoria, British Columbia, making him the first sailor to attempt the voyage from North America. Glenn will sail Kim Chow, his Phil Rhodes designed Offshore 40' sloop built by Cheoy Lee in Hong Kong in 1969. For more than 4 years, Glenn has been making extensive modifications to Kim Chow, preparing her for the rigors of sailing offshore for approximately 10 months. "

See it here...http://www.kimchowaroundtheworld.com/public/index.html

Frisco Flyer On Craigslist

Here's a Flyer that was just posted on Craigslist. The seller believes the boat to be a 63 0r 64. Unfortunately, the ad only has two pictures. One of the port side and another shot of the Dragon carving. The seller doesn't have any additional photos (I asked). I would have really liked to have seen the oarlocks mentioned in the ad....

Any ways, here it is...

http://monterey.craigslist.org/boa/431657365.html

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Reply to: sale-431657365@craigslist.org


25' Cheoy Lee Pacific Clipper/Frisco Flyer Fiberglass hull, full keel, wooden mast, originally came with inboard diesel but is now setup with oarlocks and oars. New bottom paint last year. Boat is in Berkeley. If you are capable of sailing her from Berkeley to Monterey, a transferable mooring in a great location in Monterey Bay is a possibility.

Shelves, part one...

I've been putting off the shelves for one reason or another but finally got started on them tonight. The shelves are simple enough to make, just a couple of narrow pieces of Ply squeezed between the knees and bulkheads. One side cut to fit the curve/profile of the hull, the outside edge left straight to fit the teak trim rail I had varnished last winter. The shelves then sit on small blocks on the knees/bulkheads.

I cut them to fit tonight (which at 900pm made my neighbors happy), next time I'll sand and paint them white like the rest of the inside. Then cut the blocks, sand them and attach to the knees/bulkheads. Attach the trim pieces and their done.


Aft Port side. These are the Port and Strbd side pieces of ply. The piece across is the rail that will make up the edge of the shelf hold in the books, food and assorted junk.


Forward port side shelf in place. The piece on the cushion is the trim.


Forward Strbd shelf. Cut to fit the old knees, new knees and a place for the head plumbing. The piece on the shelf is the trim and the wood on the cushion are a bunch of 1/1 pieces of teak cut to make the braces/supports for the shelves. They will be cut with some kind of nice finish to any exposed edges and then varnished.

This what they should look like when done...

Cant wait to start filling them up.

Sanding...

After making her first french toast breakfast (by herself) the kid and I went out to the boat early this morning.


She was doing her workbooks while I tried to find something useful to do. I knew I had to do some sanding/prep work on the deck, the main bulkhead and the hull, but because the kid was around and the boat looks so nice and clean now I didn't want the dust to go everywhere. So I made my self a poor mans Festool sander by connecting my orbital to the shop-vac thats been on top of the boat for the last 6 months. Now I can sand away with out worrying about any dust bothering me, the kid or making a mess in the boat.

I started with the bulkhead which looked so bad that when I first got the boat that I was thinking about putting a veneer over the bulkhead or even painting it. After a little elbow grease today though it looks great inside and out.




Then it was on to the hull. It looks so much better/cleaner and now I can start fairing/filling any scratches or nicks before painting.



The other thing I was going to day was cleaning up the ports. The caulking comes off easily but it takes patience to do a good job of it so I'll do a little at a time.

Another CL Flyer restoration project...

I found this today...

See it here.....

http://www.boatartgallery.net/gallery/CheoyLee

Thoughts on the new decking...

With most of the port lights finished I'm on to thinking about the next step which will be the Deck.

The first step in prepping the area for work was to tackle the apparently dangerous** task of removing the rub rail from the sides of the boat. The reason to remove it is because there are some bolts which were loose anyways and that created some space in places between the rub rail and the boat, which allowed some water and "stuff" to work it way in there. The other reason is because in an effort to make the deck to hull joint as strong as possible I want the fiberglass of the deck to extend past the edge of the deck down over the outside of the deck to hull joint. I'll use the bulwark/toe rail to cover the edge of the fiberglass as well as the new rub rail. It should make for a really strong and stiff boat.

With this piece off now, its onto sanding grinding the existing deck to a surface that will adhere well to the new epoxy/decking/glass. This means purchasing more epoxy, marine ply and glass which is made complicated because of the recent household order that calls for a temporary stoppage on all boat related purchases.

The deck currently has a 1/4 inch of ply down and I want to at least double that. The PO didn't finish the decking job and kind of left it , like the rest of the boat to weather. I want to at least double the thickness of the deck and bring it up to the right height. Then I'll attach new deck to the old deck with carriage bolts and large washers. This will hold it down flush and tight. Once this is on, I'll start the glassing. One, maybe two layers in the main field and and extra layer or two where the hardware/stanchions, winches etc will go.

I would like to get started on the deck this weekend. We'll see if there is a creative way around the fiscal freeze.


**In removing the rail last night, I ended up whacking my self in the bridge of my nose with the board which was under a lot of pressure and resulted in a lot of pressure being put upon my nose.

Portlight Progress....

FINALLY BACK TO WORK ON THE BOAT!!!!!

After a busy month of visiting friends and lots friends visiting us, I am back to work on the boat.

I got started with the portlights. This morning I scraped any left over/old caulking off of the portlight openings with a chisel, then I "primed" any areas of bare wood with Epoxy. The Boat life caulk I was using to bed the glass cautions against using it on bare teak because of the oils in the wood and recommends sealing it/priming it with something first. Since I had used West System on the rest of the cabin house as a base coat for the varnish, I decide to keep things consistent and kept on using it. A couple of the glass pieces were slightly off from the templates I sent to have cut. I had to chisel out any high ares to make room for the glass. **

The next thing was to apply generous amounts of caulk on into the openings, put the glass in place, push it in place, squeezing out the excess caulk, then apply more caulk to cover any possible gaps, next I put the trim pieces on over that and screwed them down tight to again squeeze out the excess caulk and sealing the glass in.



A shot of the trim pieces, caulk, the new glass (wrapped in paper) and a jar full of bronze screws
a few weeks back I had stripped, sanded and put a couple thick coats of epoxy on the trim pieces on both sides turning them into rock hard pieces of plastic that look like wood.

1. empty opening


2. dry fit and shaping the opening to fit the new glass


3. applying plenty of caulk probably alot more than I need


4. adding the trim pieces then screwing them down tight



Plenty of caulk here too


This is an inside shot of opening portlight

Just about finished with this project. Only one more to go. I need to let them cure for a few days before trimming off the excess caulk, bung all the screw holes, clean up any mess and move on to the deck

**I think if the glass were to ever break, it would be from not having enough room to move in between the cabin house and the trim pieces. the glass fits so snug in the groove in the cabinhouse that if the wood were to swell much, it could out a lot of pressure on the glass. This is the way its been for decades with this boat and I know that the wood has expanded plenty over the years with out breaking the glass so it will probably be fine.

Green 68 Flyer...

There is a great looking Type III Flyer on the Yachtword website. Its a 68, all fiberglass and probably a really strong boat. Except for the color of the cabin house, the boat looks to be as original down to the Volvo MD1. Still has teak decks too. The seller's add has a lot of great pictures for me to use in the restoration of Jack a Roe**.


I notice that on this Flyer the Back stays are attached to the deck rather than to chainplate-like straps on the earlier ones.


Nice shot of the cabinet side. They made the opening for the plates etc larger too, probably to make it easier to get the stuff in and out of there. The shelves are deeper than I've seen on the 65-67s. you need to make the best use of every inch of space on boats this small. I like the way these cabinet tops fold out over the swinging arm extension. I have a couple of these arm and want to work them into the new design for the counter tops....we'll see.


Nice stove. Something I've thought about but probably not a design like this one and no time soon. The table is different, I wonder where they stow it when not in use.

See the add and lots of pictures here...
https://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatFullDetails.jsp?boat_id=1746802&ybw=&units=Feet&currency=USD&access=Public&listing_id=1438&url=


** I dont post these pictures of other Flyers to sell or promote but to use only as a visual resource for my own and maybe other people's projects on building/rebuilding these boats. Because there isnt many left its always good to see what others have done. I seem to post these other Flyers when I dont have much of my own to post.

Too busy for the boat...

The boat is only 10 feet from the house and somehow I still haven't managed to work in there in almost two weeks. Well, I've been in there, but to just stare at it, admire the progress and to picture whats to come next...For example, I have to try and come up with a nice way of finishing the counter tops using the old teak decking and I'll also need to make a couple of small things in the dry locker, like shelves etc. Basically though, none of the projects left to do on the inside are that big of a deal and none of them need to happen anytime soon. What I really want to get done before the weather gets too cold is to put a new deck on, get the port lights back in (I ended up having them all remade now while their out instead of doing it later. Should be interesting when that bill come in [have I mention lately how great Maki is?] ) and to refinish the outside of the hull. All of these things will take the better part of a day and I just haven't had any great length of time to work on the boat except for a couple of hours here and there at night, in the dark. So while I'm out there once and while admiring what been accomplished so far, I'm not doing much of anything new these days.

What we have been doing is traveling and seeing friends and family...

Last weekend we went to NYC to see Maya's Uncle Dan , Aunt Priscilla and Cousin Lucas. They live right in Manhattan and there's never a shortage of things to do and see. The kids had a great time visiting the natural history museum, playing in the parks, shooting hoops at Dan's building, playing with the largest collection of trains owned by anyone under the age of 3, visiting Rockefeller center and going to the "Top of the Rock"Maya went to bed each night exhausted with a smile on her face and is still talking about what a great time she had.

Playing with the dinosaurs

Playing in Central park

Rockefeller Center

I'll get some more pictures from the NY weekend up in a little bit....

This weekend were not going anywhere but we do have some old friends coming in from out of town for a long over due visit. The good thing is that because they really know this area well, there no need to feel like we have to entertain/show them a good time. They'll just do what they want to do... sort of. Maki's going climbing up north and will get Brooke to go along too. I have to make up for lost time, so I'll enlist Brandon to get those port lights back in, finish the deck etc...

Maya's looking forward to seeing them She remembers Brooke (it took a while for her to warm up last time she was here but now their tight) and Maya only remembers Brandon as the guy who made her favorite pillow. (it's got boats on it...good job Brandon)

These are this weekend's visitors...

Brandon (in the middle) and us down in the islands. (Brooke took this picture)

Brooke, The one on the right, with her Mate, Paul. Kind of a crazy look in her eye.

We'll make sure to take plenty of new photos when their here.