Double digits

After several outings of 'close but no cigar', finally got the tracker to give up a 10+ knot confession.

Closer inspection of the track even shows peak speeds of 11 and 12 knots. Though those were only lasted for a brief couple seconds so doesn't really count I guess, but good fun!

Getting salty

Over the weekend we took the boat out to gulf and got him salty for the first time. We launched from the Dunedin Causeway and sailed up to the northern end of Honeymoon Island where we stopped for a bit, had a nice lunch, and chilled out for a while. We then spent some time sailing about and visiting some other little beaches before heading back when the tide and sun were starting to fall.

In all we had a really great time, was awesome to get out there and be able tot do it after so long dreaming about it. Winds were pretty good, 10-15 mph or so and steady. I think full sail probably would've been fine, but decided to tuck in a reef to be safe, have more headroom (in hindsight I should've made the mast a couple of feet taller), and have less risk of dunking the wife (want her to enjoy sailing as much as me).

Anyway, I made the sail fairly large at ~90 sqft for light winds and fun, and with one reef it's ~60 sqft (close to size of rig spec'd for the boat) and quite enough to drive the boat quickly with any decent wind and feels pretty docile and safe, making for a quick, fairly dry, and relaxing sail.

Taking her slow...

A nice relaxing day on the lake with the wife (on her SUP) and mostly light winds. Made some adjustments to the halyard and downhaul position as well slackening the outhaul some to get more depth in the foot and felt a definite improvement all around.

So little wind by this time, might of worked better if she towed me instead...but we managed to ghost on back to shore slowly...

Second sail...

Some video of my second sailing day with Groot. Not the greatest quality but...

Sailing at last!

At long last Groot is finally sailing!

Winds were mostly light, 10 mph or less (mostly less). Balance felt good and there were no real issues at all, it just sailed well all day in light winds and really accelerated and got moving when the wind would kick up a bit. Was a nice sunny and warm day and a perfect day on the water for a first shake down..I had a blast.

I did manage to (embarrassingly) do two unintentional capsize recoveries. Not because of the wind, which only got strong enough a couple times to really get on it and have the ama fly, but rather from the dumb ballast that is me not moving off the starboard, non ama, hiking seat quick enough when I should have...and comically tipping the canoe over. On the plus side it was no trouble to get the canoe righted and get going again quickly..and no bailing thanks to the self bailing cockpit. The hatches did seem to leak a small amount though, not a ton, but I'll have to try and figure out where and why and seal them up better.

My only real mistake, and one I hopefully will never make again, is on the second capsize in my haste to get righted quickly I didn't make sure it was pointed into the wind and the sheet wasn't stuck on anything. So when the canoe came up, the sail came round and grabbed the wind and would've sailed away without me if I hadn't had managed to scramble on quickly. I was on a lake, near shore, with warmish waters, in a pfd..so I would have been fine...but hate to think what might have happened if the boat got away unmanned on a fairly busy lake...

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Wa'apa Build - Part 38 (leeboard and rudder part 2)

Continuing leeboard and rudder construction...

The foil template used for shaping the boards

I cut the blank into pieces for rudder and leeboard so I could work on each individually...easier.

Lots of planing and sanding carefully to get to shape...

All shaped it gets a layer of glass for strength...then repeat for the rudder

In between glassing and fill coats of epoxy work on the aluminum plate which attaches to outside of leeboard.

Leeboard attaches to hull with a 1/2 inch / 12mm bolt. I used a 1 inch bit to drill the hole oversized first.

Sealed one side with packing tape..

And poured in some lightly thickened epoxy. When cured I scrape/sand it flush, then drill the 1/2 inch / 12mm hole through that. This keeps the wood safe from wear and water ingress..

Boards after fill coats of epoxy..awaiting sanding and several coats of spar urethane..or paint.

Also received my rudder pintles/gudgeons...

Along with lots of line and other hardware I've been collecting to get the boat rigged....

That's about it for now...to be continued....

Wa'apa Build - Part 37 (leeboard and rudder part 1)

The last big piece of the construction puzzle...the leeboard and rudder. I'm using the foil shape that Michael Storer specifies on his boats which requires me to create a very large blank exactly 22mm thick for shaping. With only my circular saw jig for ripping and hand planes for the dimensioning...I've been somewhat dreading this task knowing it will be a lot of labor and needs to be accurate. 

Luckily it seems I have gotten fairly good at dimensioning stock with hand tools, having done a fair amount of it now. Certainly saves a trip to the gym...

First step, prep the boards. Planing them smooth, mostly removing machine marks for good gluing surface.

And then ripping them all down to this. I need 22mm final thickness, but ripped staves to 30mm to give myself lots of wiggle room just in case things don't go smoothly at first. After arranging the staves how I thought best, was glued up to form the blank.

Once glue is cured out come the hand planes.

One face flattened, edges jointed, marking my 22mm thickness.

Then lots of work with and the hand planes and several piles of shavings later..

And all finished up at 22mm. A major workout but it worked out perfectly without any drama. Just keep the planes sharp and try to remember you (mostly) enjoy this..and at least you won't need a gym membership anytime soon!

Work space cleanup and a new workbench..

Not strictly boat related..but necessary..

After several months of boat construction my home work space (my small porch/patio) was an absolute disaster area and time for a major cleanup. Several hours of major cleanup and organization got things looking respectable again.

Next up was attacking the issue of not having a proper work bench to work on so I could attack the next major piece of boat construction. So I took a break from the boat for a while and built this...

Big, heavy, flat, and very sturdy....makes life so much easier!

Wa'apa Build - Part 36 (spars & mast continued)

Ok..so a whole new year now and a long long time since an update here. Work has continued slowly when possible, but been lazy to update the blog...so here comes several posts to catch up...

Left off with mast staves being scarfed so...

With mast staves scarfed..taper was marked on the narrow ones

And planed down

Large plug for bottom of mast was constructed

And glued to narrow staves then cleaned up

Spacer blocks were fit and glued in

Using center line along wide stave to help align and keep things straight.

Then the wide staves glue on to close it up

All glued up in the rough...

Many shavings later mast cleaned up and looking better

Edges rounded over and bottom section of mast gets a wrap of fiberglass reinforcment. Spars and mast tip also receive wrap of glass on ends to prevent splitting.

Holes drilled into spar ends for attaching the sail, and pad eye fitted to top of mast for the halyard

Then several coats of epoxy to seal up and fill weaves and mast and spars are complete...awaiting sanding and several coats of spar urethane.