Tea for the Tillerman

 

We had a weird Covid overshadowed Christmas that gave me some time for thinking, and I realised I have been dodging a number of jobs that need doing. I gave myself a good talking to, and started in on the tiller for the Scamp.  It's a really important part of the build, the key interface between human and boat and the magical forces that enable you to sail. 

Dale Simonson, a Canadian Scamp builder who I met on the Tawe Nunnagah earlier this year, has published a nice plan for a SCAMP tiller. John Welsford is a bit vague in the boat plans - "tiller to suit" - so nice to have something a bit more specific to work from. I ripped some Oregon and some super dense hardwood that Harald up the road gave me, and clamped the strips onto a frame made to Dale's measurements. I think it will do.

The wood in the tiller certainly looks lovely under a coat of epoxy.

Meantime, the hull is painted, looking rather like a Christmas decoration. And I sikaflexed  the hdp nose protectors onto the skegs, another one of the jobs I have been dragging the chain on. I don't know if they will work but I figure I can try something different pretty easily if they don't. 

So, a few jobs ticked off the reluctance list. Still plenty to go but getting closer. End of next month we should be pretty close with luck. Here's my to do list. Notice how often the word "Sand" appears.

Cameron, the chap I sold the Core Sound to, has just put it up for sale. Which has caused me to, once again, wonder if I actually made the right decision selling, and going down the SCAMP build path. I won't really know for sure of course till I am actually sailing, but I think I made the right call. The mast on SCAMP is about half the weight of the Core Sound, and raising it is much safer.  I never capsized the CS, but I suspect I would have had trouble getting it back and me in. By all accounts the SCAMP is less likely to capsize, and much easier to recover.  I did love the Core Sound, but it will be special to be in a boat I have built myself.

I have been sifting back through the various comments from SCAMP owners on the SCA substack. There is a common thread of agreement that the SCAMP is an easy boat to rig, launch, move around, retrieve, and generally be with.  I said to Anne today I hope I get 10 years sailing out of it.   

 Meanwhile I still enjoy the Skerry. Andrew invited me last week to head out from AYC, and Chris, after our lake wendouree adventure, very bravely agreed to come along. With luck, and if the weather holds, Anne has agreed to come out for a sail with me Friday.  Being on the water is a reminder of why I am building that boat. It is not because I love sanding.

Slacking off

 I admired Kent from Kent's Bike Blog, who, when asked his approach to the gruelling Great Divide bike race, which he completed on a fixed gear single speed bike, responded: "I start off slow, then kind of ease off." I have been emulating his approach all too well as my lack of progress shows. Summer is beginning and with it some lovely weather. I went  sailing in the Skerry, with Andrew in his Laser, on a lovely broad reach over to Williamstown and back, I 've been swimming most days, making jam, and generally pottering around. Very pleasant but my hopes that the SCAMP would somehow magically be ready for sailing this year are pretty much out the window. 

It was great to get back on the water. It was a North wind day, with flukey gusts varying in direction by up to 90 degrees. The sort of day where you could easily wind up in the water. It was a good reminder of why I am building the SCAMP: I hope it will be a bit more relaxing to sail on that sort of day than the Skerry is.

I did get the boat turned over, thanks to a gang of excellent helpers who made the operation, which I had been dreading, extremely easy. 

There is quite a bit to do once the boat is turned over, filling, fibreglassing and adding the skegs. Those darn skegs took me more than a week to laminate, fibreglass, cut gooves, attach worm shoes, epoxy onto hull and fillet. 

This week I collected a length of aluminium tube, 6060 t5 80mm 2mm wall thickness, as recommended by Dana Pike up in Canberra. I can try my hand at a birdsmouth somewhere down the track, I want to go sailing!!!!  The tube is intimidatingly big, but weighs under 5 kilos. My mast on the Core Sound weighed over 11 kilos, and I had to stand precariously on the front deck to insert it vertically into the mast box. I think the SCAMP arrangement should be much better. I've laminated some bits of Harald's Oregon to make the boom, and I will try carbon fibre wind surfer mast for the yard. So we might be able to bend on the sails soon. In between , while waiting for glue to set or just for a change, I am shaping the rudder,a few more hours rasping and sanding and that will be done too.

The SCAMP manual suggest filleting and painting interior while the boat is upside down, so that's next. A bit of a contortionist challenge to get to some areas but hey ho, we're getting there. Maybe January we might be ready to launch.

Not yoking

 I seem to be even more clutzy than normal these days. Launching at Black Rock a few weeks back was a fiasco. I put that down to a flat tyre on the trolley and launching at an unknown spot, which meant I wasn't well prepared before raising sail. Next sail last week I went down to my usual beach launching spot in front of AltonaYachtClub, took my time, and so no excuses. Low tide, onshore wind, bit of left over chop from the previous day's wind, and I managed to break the yoke on Derry’s rudder within a minute of launching.

I was trying to sail off, hit the sand bar, pulled up centreboard, dropped the tiller, boat broached starboard side on, tiller under, weight of boat on tiller acting as a lever, snap. :(

I had arranged to rendezvous with Chris who was launching at Werribee, and Andrew was launching Mars at the ramp, so I jury rigged an arrangement using the push pull tiller lashed to the head of the rudder stock. Thankfully the Skerry is well balanced and light on the tiller so it was adequate. A brisk South easterly got me over to Point Cook on one tack.

We tried rafting up, but the wind and the chop made that not such a good idea. I am afraid I bumped into Ysolde and took a chip out of that lovely transom.  We anchored separately and had a pleasant lunch then headed off back to our respective destinations, me at least somewhat sadder and hopefully wiser.

I made a beefier replacement yoke, and hopefully I have learned the lesson, row out and get some searoom before trying to sail. 

Meanwhile, progess continues on the SCAMP. Now the roof is on I have trouble keeping Maggie our of the boat, she loves it.

I am almost up to what the manual optimistically  calls "Cockpit coatings and final bits". Today's job is fibreglassing the cabin roof. 

Top that

 

I finally got the cabin roof on, which really does feel like a milestone. Very nice to have some visible progress after a lot of necessary but difficult to notice tasks like epoxying and painting inside the compartment between #2 and #3.

Maggie and Ozzie have been a huge help on this long and not too exciting stretch of the project.

Meanwhile, a much need morale boost came in the form of the Dinghy Cruising Quarterly Journal #259 which included my article on the Tawe Nunnugah.  The thrill that'll gitcha when you get your picture in the DCA journal is nice. I was hoping for the cover but never mind.

Part of my slow progress is me sloping off to do other things. Peter suggested a sail from Black Rock last week. A long drive over and a solid slog against the wind and current to get to Sandringham. Here is Ozzie at Sandringham dog beach heading off towards a nice older couple in the hope they will rescue him from the trip back.

Chris made the better call and sailed over from Altona, tho Snapper season and nice weather don't make for peaceful boat ramps. He made a very nice video of his sail over, Oz and Derry and I make a brief cameo appearance in there.

Good news is I have picked up since a few weeks back. My genial spirits are reviving. I hope.

Passing the key test

 From long experience with boats and my SO (that's "Significant Other" and/or "Sailing Officer" depending on context) I know that early impressions with new craft can be decisive. For example, the impression made by the boom of the Hartley ts16 on SO's  head on our first sailing outing in that boat pretty much doomed the Hartley's future with us. So it was with some trepidation that I welcomed Anne aboard "Anjevi", SCAMP #645, to try the boat out for size. 

The good news is, the boat was a big hit. Anne really liked the multiple comfortable sitting arrangements and the spacious cockpit. So we have passed the critical test of winning the spouse's approval.

The grate/picnic table was a hit too. 

I have managed at last to get the decks on.  Busted one bit of the puzzle joints wracking it with a mallet without a solid backing behind, but that's what epoxy is for. Decks all went on and lined up pretty well. Maggie really likes the decks, she can scoot around the boat now without having to balance precariously.

Cabin sides are next to glue on. I have been struggling a bit with energy and not feeling super the last week or so, but I dare to hope we will get this one on the water. It looks more and more solid and substantial every week.

Expect the unexpected

I went out for what I thought would be a low key sail for a couple of hours in my Skerry from the local beach yesterday. I remember looking the box I made to fit under the port thwart, which contains radio, first aid kit, and space blanket, and thinking "Nah, won't need that today." {Cue ominous music}

The forecast was for a warm sunny day, with 10 knots till much later in the afternoon. {Cue more ominous music}

Coming back, the wind suddenly kicked up round midday, 20 knot gusts recorded over at nearby weather station.  It was quite frisky out there.  The green arrows are the prediction, red line the recorded wind gusts. Oliver, who was out in his dad's Laser nearby, capsized three times.

I could see two dark shapes way out, and thought "those guys are brave, that's a long way out for a sit on top fishing kayak".

My tack back to my launch spot took me near the fishing kayaks, and as I got closer, I realised one guy was in the water. I dropped sail, and rowed over towards him. The guy on other kayak headed in front of me, and said something like "I've got this". He looked like he knew what he was doing, so I rowed round, pickingup shoes, water bottle, and paddle from the first kayak. When I turned round again, both kayakers were in the water. 

I rowed the Skerry up beside the second kayak, and tried to hold that steady while the second guy climbed in, but the kayak was too unstable thanks to the amount of water in it.  The good news was, holding that kayak next to the Skerry provided significant extra bouyancy on that side, and after a couple of failed attempts the second kayaker was able to slither into the Skerry without putting us both in the drink.

The water here is still mighty cold, and the kayaker now in my boat did not seem to be in a good way.  I had no way to warm him up. The other kayaker was still in the water.  No other boats were anywhere near. This was not a good situation.

Luckily the kayaker now in my boat had a radio, and I suggested he put out a Mayday, as I had no good plan for what to do for the other chap in the water. 

Luckily, and I don't know how, shortly after this the first kayaker managed to get himself back in his kayak, though it was swamped and he was putting all his energy into not tipping over again. 

Luckily there was a Fisheries boat not too far away who responded to the Mayday and who were on the scene in minutes.

Fisheries picked up the kayakers, took the kayaks in tow, and what could have been a serious incident had a happy ending.  I raised sail and headed on back to the beach, hopefully a wiser sailor. 

I learned a few things.  The obvious one is, always always take radio and first aid and emergency blanket.  If the kayaker had not had a radio, the situation would all have been much more fraught.   Second was that people are more important than boats - I tied a line onto the second guy's kayak after he got in the boat - it was there, and that seemed like a good idea at the time - but towing it slowed me right down and made it much harder to manoeuvre.  Let the boat go, don't worry about stuff, worry about the people. 

The good news is that you can rescue a kayaker in a Skerry if you get their kayak beside you on the side the person is going to be coming over. 

The other thing I might add to my boat gear is some sort of net for collecting stuff from the water - not that easy from a Skerry I found.

But Skerry's certainly are fantastic little boats, mine proved itself again yesterday!

Here's a rough video of the events. I was filming before the wind kicked up and forgot to turn the camera off. Footage was largely accidental. But interesting.

Meanwhile the glacial progress on the SCAMP continues. I got the deck carlins on, now trying to finish up jobs that need doing before the deck is glued down, like cleat doublers. Cut out the port holes at last and had a trial fit of front deck and cabin sides.  It is starting to look like a boat, and I am still enjoying the build. But by golly I will be glad when it is in the water! Now if I had been in the SCAMP I could have picked both kayakers up, no worries.

Be seated

 One of nice things about building your own boat is you can imagine little features and wiith luck make them happen. I thought the footwell was a good candidate for a foot grate, as is is sure to accumulate an inch or two of water somewhere along the line, and that water in your shoe does have a demoralising effect. 

I made a trial grate out of some Tasmanian Ash that Harald up the road gave me. One of this month's jobs has been adding cleats on the side seat faces, and with a bit of judicious sanding and rasping, the grate sits snugly at cockpit sole level, which will be handy for sleeping. 

And it also works as a rowing seat.  

I am ridiculously pleased with this very basic bit of carpentry. And heaven knows I need some morale boosting on the boat building front, as the build is going more slowly than I anticipated. I am about a month behind where I thought I might be a month ago. I expected to have the seats and sole down two weeks ago. Instead I just finished filleting port side seat today, starboard side and lazarette still to go.

Partly this slow progress is due to me routinely underestimating the tasks and how long they will take. Partly it is because I slope off and do other things. Like going sailing. Now the weather is getting warmer at last, I gratefully accepted Chris's suggestion to go for a sail last Tuesday.

We had an energetic sail over to Point Cook, lunch on the beach, and a lovely sail back. And then I could spend the next day fiddling round making a video of it all.  Which doesn't get the SCAMP built any faster. 

But it does remind me why I am building. I am very glad I am building this boat. I have big plans for it.