WAYWARD at Last

WAYWARD under sail...Photo by Peter Frost

Spring is sprung,
The grass is riz.
I wonder where
My paintbrush is?


WAYWARD at Last

Finally a picture of WAYWARD sailing!

The Lion of March (2018) has turned sheepish away up here in Warmsprings Bay (Alaska). Unseasonable warmth and light winds make for pleasant turns around the bay.

In this pic, we're approaching the dock.

The mains'l (forward) is close-hauled and the mizzen (aft) is eased in anticipation of a 270deg turn in probably fluky breezes. When the wind is forward, the main is trimmed to drive us, and we can haul the mizzen in with a hand on the boom. When the wind is aft, it's the eased mizzen which drives us with the fores'l blanketed. Either way, we have good control and a range of options without the distraction of over-hauling or -easing line.

Since it's a tight corner, we'll send one of us ashore in the dory to catch a line. Sail in, round up, tack and dock (in steady, onshore wind). Or, if it flukes us, we'll settle for sail in, round up, nose the dock and warp alongside (cranking the stern in with the sculling oar against the bow line if practical). If it had been woofy, we might drop an anchor, row a line to the dock and warp in.

The rig (split junk mizzen) is in prototype, right now. The draft is set via 'Thai Style' lacings between individual panels at 8%. This worked out perfectly, so we should have just built the full sail from the git-go without all those inefficient gaps. Oh well. Eventually, we'll change the sheeting geometry to flatten the mains'l leech... all required curvature is cut into the sail, so (unlike a flat cut sail) twist is detrimental.

Adding the curvy shape to the sail is considerably more work than flat cut, and it doesn't look its best in very light to no wind (sags). But it points considerably higher, or alternatively, draws more powerfully at any given windward point. Since the mizzen is flat, it doesn't point as high, and the main is accordingly drawing powerfully at a wider angle. The net effect, however, moves us along noticeably better.

Real sea-trials are quite a ways off, however. We'll have something substantial to report a year from now-ish, from a longer boat with a bigger, split junk mizzen.

Stay tuned!


*****

PS. The photographer, an experienced blue water sailor and delivery skipper came out with us the next day, and we turned command over to him.

His comment... this is the Cat's Ass!

This means a lot, to me... for all my years on the water, I've only once or twice sailed aboard another's vessel. Our boats are limited to a lifeboat conversion and a series of square boats, under-rigged by choice. So I don't have a lot to compare with.

Pete says the boat feels and handles well in the five or so knots of wind we had. I can vouch for the rest.

Not winning races, but hearts?

Kiss o' the Sea

Dippin' a Toe

All beginnings are delightful;
The threshold is the place to pause.
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Kiss o' the Sea

We made it to the tideline!

Our host passed through between fishing trips, built a hospital grade muffler from scratch(!), repaired his excavator (a mighty beast... sorry, no pics), remodeled the approach to the beach and hauled us to within spitting distance of the water. Very humbling!

Tides are dropping for a few days, before springing back... we should be floating - skids and all - by the end of the week.

Our view - for so long congested to port and starboard - has opened into sweeping vistas. Our windows are now  full of beauty.

It's... it's... like reawakening!

Sailing is still a ways off. We've got sails sewn but no rig. Rudder (not installed) but no offcenter-boards. Galley but no stowage.

But we can almost taste it!

WooHoo!

Latest on WAYWARD

Sitting on Log Sled, awaiting Launch

OCB guards have been added since these photos

Latest on WAYWARD

Again, my apologies. Updates have been pretty scarce, this year, as internet hasn't been readily available.

We got back to Tyee in early May, and moved aboard. I know, I know. We swore on a stack of Kama Sutras that we'd never do that again. Slow learners = slow builders.

After a winter in the open, the exterior looked fine, aside from bleed-through the latex house paint. This is good news on the TiteBond III we used to lay our acrylic deck sheathing... still looking good as of this writing in spite of heavy, gravel tread traffic.

Aside from a spot or two, the cabin was dry and mildew free, including the new cushions, for which we were very thankful.

The holds were another matter.

Neither had been painted nor insulated. Water got in via the unfinished vent holes (thanks to a mis-communication on their temporary raingear), and the walls and panels were pretty much solid mold.

After elbow greasing ithe joint, we tried out an ozone generator.Ozone (O3) breaks down to O2 + O. That free oxygen atom, in large numbers lethally oxidizes living beings, including fungal spores. It's used to sterilize hospital operating rooms. I can't swear that it killed our mildew, but  the musty smell disappeared at once, and we've seen no spread.

Just for good measure, we stomped on its grave with a liberal coat of borates in glycol.

Only downside was, the borates react with TBIII (the glue we'd been using for insulation), curdling it on contact. So we switched to tar, and soldiered on. It is all successfully contained behind the inboard face of 1/4in plywood, but is a pain to apply.

Overall, we doubt we'd choose ply-foam-ply to insulate the hull walls (decks, yes; walls, no). Inch and a quarter, double ply walls were cozy on Andy Stoner's MARY ELISABETH, even without double pane windows, and built in a tenth the time. No internal framing necessary where fastening through (as at bulkheads) or mounting cleats or hardware. Ply-foam-ply - after our second try - counters a fair bit of the Triloboat quick-and-dirty advantage. Sigh.

We got our wood range in, recently, and are loving the warmth and cooking on a fire.

We're ready to launch when our host is available to do so. All that's left is last spring's final paint job, rigging and odds and ends. With luck, we'll be sailing in two months. Without luck? Well...

At this point, we figure we've got nine solid months in the build (albeit stretched over three seasons). That gives us three to go on our 'probable case scenario' of one year. Surprisingly, that puts us ahead, in project time. In fact - given that much more of the interior is finished than we'd initially planned for this year - we're a long ways ahead.

But, y'know, looking out at that water every day...

...It feels kinda draggy.

Not the best shot. But lovin it!

Fire on the beach every dry evening...
How we suffer!
New dory in the foreground.

Update on WAYWARD

WAYWARD's first day under open sky

 

Update on WAYWARD

I've got to apologize for the abrupt break in this narrative. And just as things were getting exciting!

Our primary internet access went down, and we've only now cobbled together a work-around. Alas, it's still far from optimal for a number of reasons. Further posts will remain catch-as-catch-can.

So, an update for now, and I'll back-fill to catch up as I'm able.

WAYWARD has been made weather-tight (decks sheathed, hatches, paint and windows). The copper bottom plate is complete, with only the chine angle to go (more about a SNAFU re the angles, later).

In October, we were obligated to switch over from Tyee to Warmsprings Bay (about 12nm distant) for winter caretaking at the latter. Complicating the matter was a hydro power washout that leaves us with intermittent electrical and much compensatory wood-processing over the winter.

After much waffling, we decided not to launch and bring WAYWARD with us. Since she's yet unrigged, wed need a tow both directions, imposing on others for the favor. Given our duties, there's very little chance of working on the boat over the winter. Finally, WSB is a wet hole compared to Tyee, and mold and mildew of much greater concern.

So it's a seven month break from building, for us. We brought sailmaking tools and material, and hope to complete them by our return in May.

Meanwhile, we hear from Tyee that WAYWARD's decks appear to be looking fine after a very wet few months in the open. This is good early news for the experimental sheathing – acrylic cloth set in TiteBond III. It was inexpensive, easy on our health, easy to apply, even under marginal conditions (persistently high humidity) and water clean up. But more on that, later.

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Hand/Toe Rails from 2x Stock

Flash forward to the finished rail.

And when I eat bananas,

I won't peel them with my feet,

'Cuz I will be a man-cub, too,

And learn some et-i-keet!

- King Louis, from Disney's Jungle Book

Hand/Toe Rails from 2x Stock

A tall, solid toerail is a fine thing on a plunging deck. when you like deck crown as high as we do, it's a positive must!

And, we figure, if we're building such a thing, why not shape it like a handrail?

Handrails give a place to get a good positive grip from anywhere along the sides. If we go swimming - intentionally or not, this is handy. If we stand on the guard for any reason (and there are many), it's handy. If we wish to tie a line anywhere along its length, it's handy. AND they drain water just fine.

They're just plain handy!

2x stock works just great. It's thick enough for good strength, and (carriage) bolt holes don't take too big a bite. It's a wide enough base for good stability without further ado. For reasons unclear to me, a couple of 2x4s have been cheaper than a single 2x8, which is why you'll see us working around the clamps.

We like to cut stock to 3in, with half grip/half hole. That's enough to fit mittened hands with a comfortable grip. Being a bit shorter than 2x4, it doesn't stress the bolts with as much leverage, and we've felt 1/4in galvanized (hot dip) has been plenty. They could easily take up to 1/2in, however, if you prefer beefier.

We prefer to mount ours perpendicular to the deck, so our offcut is square edged... makes a good early cut from CVG for use as batten stock. Later it can be recycled as shelf railing, lattice stock and the like.

NOTE: We splurge on CVG with good grain since it may have to bear a heavy load, and is our 'window dressing trim'. We usually leave it unfinished, letting the red cedar silver out. But any solid lumber would do.

We like 6in minimum ends and give them two or more bolts. We use a 9in opening, which we think of as 'paired' with a 3in post for 12in/pair. Only consideration is that that last post is part of an end.

To figure layout, we use the following approach:

Let LENGTH be the total length of rail.
Let N be the number of open/post pairs (feet) 
    [Or total length of open/post pairs if using other numbers.]
Let P be the post width.

END.LENGTH = (LENGTH - N - P) / 2

Start layout at one end.

For the rest, I'll let pictures do the talking.

Each rectangle borders two, mirrored openings.
We find the rectangle helps keep us oriented, since the holes space evenly...
Otherwise easy to lose track in the middle.

Here we've started holes from one side...
will flip to finish.

This 'armbuster' half inch drill lives up to its name...
We quickly learned to do most of the cutting with it,
but finish off with a more docile 3/8in drill.

Here we're beginning the plunge-cut/handsaw pass
connecting the half-hole at each end of an opening
(we see full holes since the pieces are mirrored).

Edges routed with round-over bit and hand sanded.
A bit of rasp-work, here and there, to clean up any rough bits.

Clamps off and done.

S/V WAYWARD... A Name for the Way

wayward  
     adjective

           1. Toward the Way.
           2. Questions authority; insubordinate. 
           3. Difficult to control or predict.
           4. Neither entirely conventional nor respectable.

      Technically from ME away-ward


S/V WAYWARD... A Name for the Way

A long time ago, before I first set foot on board a sailing vessel, before Anke, I drew a picture of a Curvy Dog and wrote: I shall build a boat and name her WAYWARD, and we shall sail away.

Yeah, yeah. Sappy, I know. But it was a promise to myself that helped see me through a dark time.

As we built our various homes, I kept that name in the running, though it didn't appeal to Anke.

But one day, as the new boat began taking on enough shape to really feel her spirit, Anke idled over the list of names scrawled in the margins of the plan, and this time WAYWARD caught her eye, prompting What a great name!

We gave it a month of fair trial to be sure. And now we are.

Looking it up, one finds some less-than-complimentary meanings. But they all pretty much paraphrase as the meanings listed above. These much better match resonances to which we attune.

All but the first, we like to think, are secondary descriptors of ourselves. We question authority at many's the turn, and evade it where we can. We can be hard to pin down, and can't predict our own path from one day to the next. We're dots toward the thin end of any bell curve. We're no paragon of propriety.

But our favorite meaning indicates the WAY... the Road, the Tao, the Watercourse Way. Toward the Way.

WAYWARD.

Finished with Finish... For a While

Starting to feel like home...
Walls will fill, eventually, with artwork, pictures and maps
to break up that stark, raving white.

Anke on the settee... sitting room and bunk form an open, social space.

Dinette makes down into a snug double bunk or generous single.
Table was prep-o torched before finish, a technique shown us by friend JC Thomas.

Finished with Finish... For a While

One of the things you should never, never do is move into a construction site. Dust gets everywhere, tools mingle with the cutlery, stuff gets moved again and again, and, and, and...

So of course we did.

Not our first time, either. LUNA was only roughed in when we moved aboard at launch at the end of one November... neither paint nor heat as winter came on.

Now, it's summer coming on. Boat only partially decked and coppered. Plenty of sawdust yet to permeate our belongings.

Slow learners.

But ya do the necessary, and roll with the world as it surprises you. And it ain't so bad, after all. Mostly.

Last night we spent our first night in our new bunk. Lit a candle and sipped a little wine in celebration. Slept like babes and woke to that lovely feeling of being in our own home.

We can only imagine the movement of water beneath and around us. The darkling world silhouetted beyond our windows. The promise of a woodfire to blunt the morning's chill. But our imagination is alive and well...

And, now, we need a little bit less of it.




A quick video tour of the interior, to date