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.

The Winter of Our Discontent... Well... Sorta

Sunrise at a decent hour.

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that low'r'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. 
-- William Shakespeare from Richard The Third


The Winter of Our Discontent... Well... Sorta

Still waiting on 'glorious summer'. But gotta admit that winter has its own pleasures.

Our project has come a ways since last you heard from us (posting on that, soon), but we're slogging against low temps and wet. Meanwhile, many of the winter chores are coming due on the caretaker side of our arrangement (sawing wood in freezing weather). Construction personnel come and go, with varying degrees of unforeseen social and site-related interactions. The holidays sapped our will with temptations and gratifications.

In short, we're 'slow as molasses in January'.

But we're in a gorgeous spot, overlooking two of the shoal, intricate waterways we love. To the southwest is unlimited line-of-sight to the horizon. To the west and south snow enshrouded peaks and ridges soar over the dark conifers of our foreshore. The animals of winter delight in the paradise we all inhabit, feasting, socializing and playing in sheltered nooks.

So we're picking away, as we can. The bottom is complete and coppered, and the boat lowered off the jigs. The mid-deck is soon to be completed. We've started upholstery projects near the fire. Even managed one coat of clear on the salon and bunk overheads.

Meanwhile, a batch of spruce wine turned out tasty. Our fire is warm and our hearts joyous.

Tipping a cup o' kindness your way, dear Readers, and wishing you well for the New Year!

Love,

Dave and Anke


PS. This just in... a head-to-head of the Split Junk Rig we're planning vs Bermudian. Thanks to RWL at volkscruiser.blogspot.com for the heads up!

Getting aHead

By Jo Hudson
from the SEARUNNER Construction Manual by Jim Brown

Viewed objectively there is nothing more absurd than the usual sea-going toilet of the modern production yacht. What expense and engineering, what a profligate use of space and materials, what a baroque concoction of pipes and valves and pumps and skin fittings, what a sop to over-developed human sensitivities, all for the purpose of transferring a small amount of matter a distance of about twelve inches, from here on the inside of the hull, to there on the outside of the hull.

-- From Mingming and the Art of Minimal Ocean Sailing by Roger D. Taylor


Getting aHead

To date, Anke and I have never built an enclosed Head into one of our boats.

Our boats are small to begin with. Partitioning a chunk off for a room that's in use for a few scant albeit imperative minutes a day seems to needlessly cramp our style. The walls block the view (high crime, in our book) and crowd the remaining space.

Anke and I are mostly alone together, and quite comfortable with our nitty gritty. When friends come along... let's just say things are 'up close and personal'.

So a little more privacy would accommodate the sensitivities of our guests, not all of whom are as... um... earthy as others.

On the other hand, the one thing we've always longed for but never had was a Wet Locker; a place to let our raingear drip dry. Heads are traditionally not too bad for that purpose, though their ventilation is often wanting.

To that end we came up with the following:

Note the Head/Wet Locker at the lower, right (port, aft),
outboard of Companionway steps.

What we're looking at is a row of coat hooks along the wall, outboard of a section of flip up counter. This allows space for hanging outdoor gear, especially raingear, where it can drip harmlessly to a well-sealed floor.

The counter, when horizontal, extends the galley counter by (about) 3ft. It also doubles as the port, pilothouse seat, from which we can steer the boat under cover (workbench shares the same role, opposite).

When flipped vertical - hinged along its forward edge, it locks into position to form a partial wall. A curtain may be drawn across the inboard face, and voila! A semi-enclosed head!

It's not as isolated as the typical Head, but visual privacy is ensured. It's positioned under a pilothouse window, so ventilation is better than most. It's still a bucket affair, but a two bucket compost system isn't out-of-the-question. (Here's a great resource on DIY composting toilets from one of our readers).

Set-up and -down take but a matter of seconds, for those in haste.

So this has been a paper possibility for a couple of years, now, and I've been drawing them into Triloboat StudyPLANS. But if anyone's built one, I haven't heard... until now.

So here's a sneak preview of the as yet untried system, at the roughed-in stage. Stay tuned for trial and error to come!

Looking aft into to the portside Galley.
Head/Wet Locker aft.

Looking kitty-corner at Head/Wet Locker

Anke holding counter vertical...
will eventually have a barrel bolt into a small, partial wall outboard
(Mirror on the underside?)

Oh God!

  

Scrounged hinges...
installed 'upside down' to reduce gluteal hang-up
(the pronounced hinge curl could otherwise bite us in the A**
while sitting on counter)

Sitting Pretty
(and able to look out,, 360deg)

Search Keywords: head marine head nautical head head alcove tiny house bathroom compact bathroom

Building on Edge

 

Murder Cove Steam Punk
Photo by David and Pearl

I knew, even then, that to love the world, you have to get away from it.
-- Priest from the movie, The King of Hearts


Building on Edge

Huzzah! The shopping is DONE. 

All the fiddly bits that go into a vessel should - if we've planned well - be wending their way toward a Seattle barge line. They'll be stuffed into a container for shipping to Petersburg, Alaska. All fairly normal stuff, to this point.

We're building at a remote site at the southwestern end of Admiralty Island called Tyee (aka Murder Cove), about 15 miles from where we are now. A lodge is being built there, which we caretook in 2012/13 and will again, this winter (2014/15).

Points in its favor:

• Good people involved.
• Remote and beautiful, the kind of place we love to hang.
• Good protection for SLACKTIDE, handy to the build.
• Work/rent/trade/tools/materials situation, simplifies, reduces and enables finances.
• Our container can be delivered by the site owner on the same run that supplies our current lodge.
• Come winter, we'll have indoor spaces for sailmaking, cushion work, details.
• Time is no object! We won't be building 'under the gun'.

Before now, building in town has been a mixed bag.  

We've been very fortunate, people-wise, in past building situations... friends who tolerate our funky ways and time overruns. BUT...

On the one hand, supplies are just down the street. On the other, supplies are just down the street! Because we don't have to plan ahead, we tend to wing it much more than we should. That means more time commuting to and fro the store, with maybe a treat or two along the way. 

On the one hand, lots of great people stop by to see what's going on and talk shop. On the other hand, lots of great people stop by to see what's going on and talk shop! I'm not the kind of fella who can talk and work at the same time (or much of anything else, for that matter), so maybe a third of our time on site goes to social pleasantry.

On the one hand, there are lots of special occasions. On the other hand, there are lots of special occasions! Picnics and parties and barn raisin's and barn burnin's. Good times all, but they don't get a boat built.

So we like it in town. We love our friends. We love the good times.

But this time, we're going to take a step back...

...and over the Edge.

Small is Beautiful vs Bigger is Better

Small is Beautiful vs Bigger is Better

So we're looking at our T32x8 LUNA. Small(ish). Beautiful.

In Inner Space: Some Thoughts on Interior Design, I wrote about this interior layout we favor for a furnished cruiser:

Our favorite layout on 8ft beam

This diagram shows no linear dimensions. From forward, the linear allotments run:

4ft Foredeck / 6.5ft Bunk / 6.5ft Salon / 7ft Galley / 8ft Cockpit = 32ft Total

This was the layout from LUNA (AS31x8), with a bonus foot thrown into the galley. Its 20ft interior was snug and comfortable for the two of us.

But our wishlist makes it feel a little cramped...

Anke's brother (who comes sailing with us every few years, for a month or two at a time) is just a little to long to fit comfortably on the made-up dinette (6.5ft). So he likes to sleep diagonally. Which means squeezing past him on our way fore or aft. An extra 6in in the salon would straighten him out.

 The galley would benefit from yet another foot. It would allow...

• Anke's garden on the workbench (1ft x 3ft).
• Extended wood storage under the workbench.
• Extended galley storage and counter space. 

None of these are critical... but an extra, extra foot would relieve the squeeze of ambition. Especially, our goal of doing more foraging / hunting / processing is more easily met with the extra counter space and elbow room. The wood storage lets us be less miserly with heat, a factor as we age. The garden will be there in any case, but it squeezes the workbench without that extra foot.

Outside, we've been happy with a (nominal) 8ft cockpit for years. But. If the yuloh is going, the other person has to squeeze around its forward end. An eight foot project (such as an oar) won't quite lie flat, so we have to fudge around. Can't carry plywood, either.

The end curves of a 32ft TriloBoat are also 8ft, which scrunches just a bit abrupt. Nothing serious, but an easier curve makes an easier driven hull.

Meanwhile, LUNA maxed out our sail plan for junk rig on masts of a comfortable height. Yet we're upping displacement over 20%. If we want to keep our SA/D ratio high, we have to go with taller masts and higher aspect ratio sails (problems with that we'll discuss later), or we have to increase boom, battens and yard. Since we don't like to overhang the hull, for handling reasons, that means we're inclined to lengthen the hull under the sail.

The T32x8 LUNA displaces about 10.5Klbs @ 1ft to 14.25Klbs @ 1.3ft. That's plenty of room to grow, but at a cost of about 1in / 1Klbs.

Soooo... lets add it up:

4ft Foredeck + 7ft Bunk + 7ft Salon + 8ft Galley = 36ft

That's a 22ft interior, slightly eased in each of its sections.

The T36x8 LUNA displaces about 12Klbs @ 1ft, with 15% ballast. This is as much as we ever hope to use, without giving up an inch of draft. And it's still a light boat, for length. If we ever need to, we could sink her down to about 16Klbs @ 1.3ft.

Just to compare, a Benford 36ft Dory displaces about 13.5Klbs @ 3.5ft (shoal option), 40% ballast. A Hess 28ft Bristol Channel Cutter displaces 14Klbs @ 5.5ft with 33% ballast.

Mmm. Waffle, waffle, waffle.

In the end, the pluses won out. The minuses don't add up to that much on such a shoal boat, and some are one-time costs. Handling is very close to comparable, and pays its way with added performance. Maintenance will be the equivalent of an extra, 4ftx8ft space. Not a happy thing, but doable. It's possible the extra elbow room will make it easier across a wider area (don't have to crawl into such tight spaces to clean or paint).

So, a T36x8 LUNA it is... we have a winner!

T36x8... We have a Winner!

Baseline: The design against which all others compete

 

This is the one to beat.
(Imagine a rectangle, imposed on her extreme dimensions.)

For this reason non-rigid reference bodies are used, which are as a whole not only moving in any way whatsoever, but which also suffer alterations in form ad lib... . This non-rigid reference body... might appropriately be termed a "reference mollusc"... .

From Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein


BASELINE: The Design against which All Others Compete

All along, the design to beat has been some close variant of LUNA, the Bolger inspired Advanced Sharpie that was our home for a dozen years.

Any prospective candidate has to improve on her gestalt: footprint, roominess, carrying capacity, ability, ease of construction, operation and maintenance, large windows, social continuity, thermal dynamics, storage, rig possibilities, deck layouts... all of these, mushed together, embody a single, quasi-morphous reference mollusc. A baseline.

Otherwise, we'd just build her again, with the benefit of hindsight.

As I considered earlier, Curvier Dogs spike some of these qualities, vis a vis square boats, but dip in others. For the mollusc that is Anke and myself, square boats won out. Here, I want to take a closer look at why we're choosing a box barge over the equivalent Advanced Sharpie.

We believe that LUNA's design is 'improved', for the gestalt of our needs, by translating the AS to a TriloBoat. We came to this conclusion by mulling the comparisons across a number of headings:


Capacity  - Profile and plan view curves are formed by cutting away from the slab formed by maxLength x maxBeam x maxDraft. These cuts remove large amounts of interior volume, squeezing interior spaces and dropping almost a third(!) of potential displacement. The only way to get it back is to go deeper, wider or longer.

The barge, on the other hand, maintains full value in plan view, and merely cuts a wedge from the underside at each end. This maximizes volume and displacement on given dimensions over any competitor!

For both displacement and volume, the box barge wins by a wide margin.


Ability - LUNA was nimble (spins on a dime), and fast as her rig allows. Her only vice was rounding up in heavy winds (partially the schooner rig, but also the downside of nimble). The barge is slightly less nimble (but is harder for gusts to force into the wind).

 In short, steep chop I expected the AS to sail better, but I couldn't tell the diff in practice.

The slow-but-steady form of junk rig we favor evens the playing field. Off the wind, we're not seeing any differences, and that's how we prefer to make tracks. Into the wind, AS any advantage is small.

I'd give a slim edge to LUNA.

NOTE: If better performance under our (slow) rig were a high priority, a Curvy Dog might possibly smoke 'em. But not by as much as one would suppose!


Ease of Construction - TriloBoats dominate on this score, being as near optimal as possible. Their large deadflat and preponderance of parallel lines and whole or even-fraction-of-sheet-materials radically simplifies construction. Good thing, as they've bartered away some other qualities to achieve it!

Of particular note is that AS, plan view curvature cuts across a section-of-cylinder deck, climbing its crown as the sides curve inboard. This complicates lofting/layout and requires more side material to accomodate the upward sweep of sheer. TriloBoats, with parallel sides, sidestep entirely. We'll revisit this when looking at TAB options.

The barge has a slight advantage in that flat pane glass (the real stuff, as opposed to flexy plastic) installs easily along the planar hull. An AS hull must be faired out to a flat landing. Ditto the guards.

After building, the AS generates a mountain of wasted material; the TriloBoat a very small pile. That's just money and effort down the drain.


Ease of Operation  - The big, rectangular decks ease operations, big-time, and the foredeck has ample room for a high-power winch. The deadflat simplifies many on-the-beach operations.

Advantage, barge, by a wide margin.


Ease of Maintanence - Box barges, tend to have larger, interior spaces which ease access for cleaning. With more surface area, however, they take proportionally more elbow grease and paint, inside and out.

This one goes to LUNA by a nose.


Everything else is a wash between LUNA and translation. Their rigging, layout, gear and hardware are identical.

Tot it all up, and, for us, the box barge version (I'll call TLUNA from here on out) wins hands down. LUNA's advantages are slim margin; TLUNA's are wide. Curvier Dogs would certainly gain ground if we had offshore aspirations, but we don't.

For our inshore cruising needs, sharpie beats Curvier Dogs, and barge beats sharpie.

TLUNA is the one to beat.

T32x8 LUNA aka TLUNA

*****

In a previous post, we mulled over the FANCY STANDARD (FS) option, but without reference to our baseline. In fact, the baseline was always holding the fort, and I should have presented it from the git go.

Let's backtrack a bit, then, and compare TLUNA with the FANCY STANDARD (FS). Hulls are identical, so we're mainly looking at interior and superstructure considerations.


Ease of Construction - Close to a wash. Choice of window materials might sway it one way or the other, but it won't be decisive, either way.


Windows - As you may recall, those huge, glorious FS windows were ever so tempting! But with windows comes doing windows. That takes lots of water and very clean, soft rags if polycarbonate is involved (no squeegee, either). Plus, do I sound like a the kinda guy who does windows?

TLUNA has ample windows - nearly contiguous - in salon and bunk. SLACKTIDE's view is purty durn good; TLUNA's windows are the same length albeit a little less tall. But, in the PH/galley, we double down with 360deg view and again as much window length... better, even,  from the counter sitting position than the FS.
 
Still, TLUNA is ample, but the FS gains an almost unassailable lead.


Thermal dynamics - TLUNA's galley cabin is a heat chimney. Heat rises and dissapates relatively quickly. Its windows are harder to insulate; the companionway is unclosable, ruling out accidental asphyxiation, but venting heat. 

The cabin of FS has more volume (more to heat), but is a single space. Heat can circulate freely within that space, without crowding a small region of it.

I'd give the edge to FS.



The Bunk - As discussed in a previous post, the low foredeck and forward position of the FS bunk cramps its style. There are solutions, but they're not pretty.

TLUNA's bunk is positioned further aft, so is not clipped by the bow bottom curve. It has considerably better headroom, with a large hatch with good placement that doesn't interfere with deck traffic. It is fully integrated with the salon, so extends the social space and open sense of inboard spaciousness.


Solid gain for TLUNA.


Windage (related to ability) - This one is tricky. My intuition is that the FS has more. But TLUNA's decks are broken up, so turbulence may eliminate any gains. TLUNA can carry a dinghy on deck, which pretty much fills her profile in to as-much-or-more than the FS.

Being ignorant of the facts, I'd flip a coin. My guess is that it's a wash, anyway.


Rig possibilities - I'll go into these in a later post. The main point is TLUNA's shorter foredeck makes better use of the airspace above the boat... she can set more working sail than the FS.


Lateral Resistence - TLUNA can go skegs or boards, FS can ONLY go skegs (deeper draft). Of course, skegs have some advantages of their own, but at the end of the day, we prefer ultra-shoal draft.

NOTE:  I did figure out a working board system for FS, with no clunking when stowed. But it's somewhat complex to construct, in comparison to the other two, and requires antifouling inside an outboard trunk. We decided, given its novelty and remote building realities, that it was a no-go.


*****

So TLUNA, our new baseline - our mollusc. It wins out against all comers. We've narrowed the field to the point that, from here on, we'll only be considering variations within this single design framework.

Stay tuned!

Decisions, Decisions

SLACKTIDE (T26x7), our current home, sweet home

Decisions, Decisions


Keep a clean mind... change it often!
  -- Cap'n Billy's Whizbag

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds!
  -- Ralph Waldo Emerson 


Anke and I have been living aboard for about 25 years. We've learned a lot in these years about ourselves, life on the water and how we like to live.

So you'd think this would be easy!

By this, I mean deciding on what form our final boat should take. But no. We waffle; we back-track; we renege; we head off down blind leads at full trot.

Here, I'll be writing about as much of the process as seems worth sharing. It's pretty individual, but many potential builders go through similar throes. Maybe sharing will help?

One thing; the process of finding out what one wants, needs and can manage is time-consuming. It is generally a lot of fun, but can be frustrating. Everything in design is trade-off and compromise. If we don't accept that, frustration will outweigh the joy.

My advice is to stick with it. Work it and polish it until all the jagged edges are worn smooth; until each bit pulls together as a single, integrated whole. When the whole finally emerges, it will be worth it!

*****

Why a final boat?

Well, we're not getting any younger. The physical and economic resources we can muster to build are likely to dwindle in the coming years. If we have a shot, there's no time like the present.


What's wrong with the boat you've got?

We built SLACKTIDE (T26x7) about six years ago as a proof-of-concept for a liveaboard, sailing box barge... something we could live aboard indefinitely, if we had to, but limited in size in case she didn't work out. 

As such, she's small, and laid out as a camper-cruiser, like sitting/kneeling in a luxurious tent. We figured we had roughly a decade before the lack of furniture became a challenge. And her small capacity means we can't carry some of the field kitchen gear or liquid goods we'd like (more on that later).

Her box barge hullform exceeded all our expectations. 

The box barge, in our opinion is a truly viable option for liveaboard sailors. Not for everyone, mind you, nor all waters. But they get us where we're going in comfort and a certain, rugged style.

It made the list!


Why your own design? Why build your own?

We grow through DIY, in knowledge and skill. DIY empowers us.

In design, we know ourselves better than any other, no matter how able and willing... one size fits us - not all, or most. And in finding our way through the myriad options, we come to know ourselves better, yet.

 In construction, we acquire skills that will last a lifetime, and see us and our vessel through thick and thin. On that far and perilous shore, we have a fighting chance.

We partner and understand our own creations in ways that cannot be bought. We shape ourselves, as much as we shape them. In that shaping, we and the entities we bring to life are joined.

Our boat is shelter. Transportation. A Tool. A partner. Pretty fundamental stuff. She (or he, as the case may be) watches over us as we sleep, saves our lives by 'living through the gale'. Every moment, she enfolds us within her hull, separating us from the cold abyss.

DIY is the first act of love, in all that follows.
 

So what are you going to build?

Ah. 




[As it turns out, we've got a pretty good idea (stable this last week)... but patience, my friends!]