Coming Together

The Dart 16' design has a round bottom unlike the 14' single kayak, which is a shallow 'V'. To achieve this roundness it has a hog in the bottom, a sort of flat keelson that only runs from about one quarter from the stem to one-quarter to the transom. It caused much consternation because I couldn't decide whether I needed it and how to accommodate it with my previous building experience.

I'd made the hog out of 10mm pine. It is supposed to be half-inch (approx. 12mm) but I couldn't find that size of timber ready cut so decided to go lighter in the interests of keeping overall weight down. To compensate, I covered one side (that is now the bottom) with glass tape to help strengthen the wood and also prevent it from splitting as it is screwed in place under considerable stress.

As always, I should have just trusted my instincts and got on with the job. A tip from an experienced builder in Melbourne, Australia who knows the Dart 16' design clarified the process and as usual, once into the job, although strenuous, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. The tip came from the Selway Fisher Designs Builders and Sailors Yahoo Group, a valuable resource. Other such groups exist for many other designers that market to amateur home builders.

It's been a long weekend and I've also managed to make much progress in the landscaping of the garden and I've almost made an adjustable foot rest for the Dart 14' kayak. Photos to follow.

North Shore Heritage Festival

The local council is throwing a Heritage Festival throughout October. A flyer in the free paper this evening includes details of an event to be hosted by the Devonport Yacht Club from the 4th to the 11th: Boat Designers of the North Shore. The club will be mounting a display of plans, models, photographs and half-hulls.

My only concern is that when I tried to find a link to the event, there was no mention of it in the online material on the council's web site. I'll call the number tomorrow, and if it's on, hopefully I'll be able to post a report on my blog.

UPDATE: I've just spoken to Colin Tubbs at the Devonport Yacht Club, and the exhibition is definitely on, featuring the work of Des Townsend, Bruce Farr and others. The club is located at 25 King Edward Parade in Devonport and the doors will be open daily from 10am to 4pm starting Sunday 4th October until Suntay 10th October; admission is free.

Hot News: The First Island Bay Dory is Built!

I've just logged into the blog for the first time in a little while to find a message from Rob Buchanan of
Greenport, Long Island, USA. He is the first to inform me that he and his family have built a version of my Island Bay Dory design. Hopefully he'll mail me some pictures soon, and with help from the comment he made on his build, I'll be building an Island Bay Dory with my son in the coming weeks.

Building on a small scale

While I get some other jobs out of the way (mainly restoring the Mini that is lurking in the background in all the garage shots of the kayak build) I am building on a smaller scale in the house during the dark winter evenings.

I'm trying out the Selway-Fisher Rhum plans at 1:10 scale before trying it for real. The reason for this is I want to change the internal layout, moving bulkheads and fitting permanent side seats, and I want to make sure it all fits. Even small boats are fairly complex 3D shapes an it helps to make sure the visualisation I have in my mind will actually work for real.

Last night I swapped around the bulkheads and made the forward one, the one the mast step and partner are against, full height. This will allow a small foredeck to be fitted, with storage underneath.

I think this will be a really usable little dinghy and I'm quite excited about the build. I just nee to keep the end in site and make sure I don't add so much unnecessary stuff that I can no longer walk the boat down to the ramp. Pictures will follow once I've got the deck fitted on the model.

Oh, and I've pretty much decided that the boat will be named Hope, after this amazing instrumental by Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson.

Blowing away the midwinter blues...

I went round to see a neighbour on Saturday. I took my Rhum dinghy plans and the 1:10 model that I've made of the hull. He has a Sunburst dinghy and I wanted to check dimensions of his side seats to see if a similar layout was possible in the Rhum. It turns out that the slightly stretched version I intend to build will be identical in length and beam to the Sunburst. Not only is this good news for the layout of seats, it also means that I can potentially buy of-the-shelf spars and sails for the Rhum rather than get a custom set made, possible saving a few dollars along the way.

While I was round, Daniel invited me out on his big boat for a race the next day. So Mid-winter's day I was on a 33' racing/cruising yacht reaching at 8.5 knots in a 20 knot southerly blow around Auckland's harbour. There were only 2 boats in our none-spinnaker class, but we won on the line and on handicap. We also beat 3 spinnaker boats over the line, and they had a 5 minute advantage at the start. It was a beautiful clear and crisp day, and putting up with the cold was well worth it for a great day out on the water.

The Island Bay Dory

So here it is, my one sheet dory design. I've only made a model of this boat so far, but I hope to make a life-sized version with my son in a couple of month's time. I'll probably use chine logs and glue and screw technique, rather than stitch and tape as documented here in the instructions. I'll document that technique as I build the boat.

If you want to have a go, please read the disclaimer and be realistic about this boat's ability. It's very small and has little load carrying capacity. The flare can be experimented with, more will add stability and buoyancy, but at the expense of freeboard, so its a smooth water only boat. Also, the flare adds rocker, so this boat will probably nod around. Perhaps a small amount of ballast in either end will help overcome this. If you weigh much more than 75Kg then be very careful getting in, I estimate that with that much of a load, the boat will sit around 150mm deep, leaving less than 150mm of freeboard amidships.

I had to post the instructions as JPGs because unfortunately the blogspot software does not allow such pleasant attachment types as PDF or DXF. If you build an Island Bay Dory, real or model, please let me know via the comments box.

More Projects

I've not got much further with the proa plans, the basics are laid out in a CAD drawing but I need to refine my ideas before I can publish anything there.

Meanwhile, I read a book on DIY projects for the owners of cruising boats and saw a nice little 1-sheet dory style dinghy. I like the idea of trying something like this with my son, since he is light enough to float in it. I wasn't too keen on the shape of the boat in the book, but I liked the concept. I've worked on it some more and my second attempt came out nearly right. A little more refining and I'll have the plans available for the plywood part. It's not a true one-sheet boat because it will also require some wood for the seats and gunwales. And in fact to avoid exposing my lad to epoxy, I'll probably try making it with gluing batons planed to the right angles, polyeurathane glue and stainless screws.

Finally, I've also sent off to Selway-Fisher for plans to build the Rhum 11'6" dinghy in which I hope to learn to sail.

Proa Model

OK, so here's the model proa I made.  Its made in 1:10 scale, the real boat would be 4.8m long and 2.7m wide overall.

  

Not so amazing in itself, but there are a couple of things I was trying to prove.  Firstly, I wanted the hull form and rig to closely mimic the White Heron, a Kiribati sailing canoe that is on display a the New Zealand National Maritime Museum in Auckland.  Secondly, I wanted the design to be a modern translation, in plywood, with very simple shapes to minimize the need for complex lofting and also to use the fewest possible number of sheets.

I have a CAD drawing of the panels required to make the waka or main hull.  It is possible to fit them all on 3 standard 1200x2400mm sheets of plywood, and I think 6mm ply would be sufficient for the job.  The outrigger (ama) could be fashioned from a 100mm square fence post, 2400mm long by sawing crude point and then refining the shape with a coarse sanding wheel on an angle grinder.  The spars could be akas (beams holding the ama) could be bamboo and the same possibly for the mast, but the spars I'm not sure on at the moment.  To scale they are 4.5m long, sop probably scarfed and laminated softwood is looking the most likley.  Softwood stock would also be required for gunwales, gluing battens and the mast and spar steps.  The sail would be poly tarp.

Now the only problem is, I can't attach the PDF file I created from the CAD drawing, its a limitation of blogspot that I can't post attachments that aren't photo or video file types.  This means I'll have to add more dimensional information before publishing them as jpegs, to allow others to lay out the panels.  The great thing is, the shapes are so simple that I could almost manage a written description of each piece instead.

I'm not sure I'll ever build the real thing though.  I've gone through the shunting process in miniature and its easy to imagine a disaster trying it for real at sea.  I think the next step will be to develop a smaller version of the hull, 4 metres length at most, and equip it with a tipping Gibbon's rig.

Tow Point Reinforcement

Here's the tow point reinforcing with the bracing still on while the epoxy cures. The brace is a strip of wood running along from the centre of the deck beam to the centre of the aft bulkhead to ensure the top of the reinforcement stays at the level of the underside of the deck. The main piece is screwed to the brace and the 'knee' is taped to both to stop it sliding during the cure.


And this is it without the tape and bracing. The top needs a little cleaning where some epoxy that squeezed out of the joint ended up along the sides of the brace. I covered the brace with brown, plastic parcel tape to prevent any bonding between the temporary brace and the permanent reinforcement. This part isn't in the design, but I'm keen that the kayaks should be able to two one-another, and background reading suggests that a tow point is best mounted immediately behind the cockpit.

Finally, all the sanding of the cockpit is taking its toll on the rest of the garage contents. I'll try to do the exterior sanding outside I think, otherwise the camping gear may get wrecked.

Dart14

The plans I decided upon were the Dart14 single seat and Dart16 two seat kayaks from Selway Fisher.

These are relatively simple designs, although the 14' version looks somewhat more basic in its construction than the 16' variant, so it is the singlekayak that I shall make first.

I ordered the plans online and the arrived a week later. I read over them a few times and then got on with a few jobs around the house to clear the way for the kayak project. I also rang around for a few quotes. I'll post links to the suppliers as I actually purchase materials.

First off is the plywood, which I bought yesterday. I went to the PlyMan in Albany. It seemed an obvious choice because the stock is good, they comes recommended by John Welsford, the designer of the Rogue, my ultimate boat building goal, and they advertise on the radio, so I'd already heard of them.

I bought 6 sheets of 1220x2440x4mm Meranti Marine Bond B/BB ply, and 1 shhet of 1220x2440x9mm. Its beautiful looking stuff and a shame I will have to paint it, but I don't think my first-timer skills will be up to producing a bright finished work of art. Besides, I've already decided that orange will look best to compliment the Land Rover's shade of green and also look suitably safe and nautical.

Talking of the Land Rover, here it is, complete with roof bars after picking up the ply. I had to unload in a hurry because it was starting to rain.



















There's enough space to store the ply in the garage, but I think most of the build will have to take place outside. Roll on spring.