The Story of a Jib and a Balanced Lug

Minggu, 31 Januari 2016

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With Musings on a Lateen.

There was once a lonely Lug who didnt know what he was missing until he met Jib. He sailed to windward, off the beam and dead down, all with apparent equanimity.



Then one day Jib came along and spiced up his life. Now he had someone to get hung up on. Jib liked to languish on his yard and get tangled in his boom. Just the life for a Lug.
Jib had many fine qualities, but fast tacking was not one of them. More like a perpetual holiday for Jib.


Doryman has gotten used to having both of them around. Jib and Lug work well together. The occasional tangle of sheets, boom, leach and yard bother no one.


"Faerings arent suppose to have Jibs". "A balanced Lug and a Jib wont work on the same Boat.".


Let people talk. They are just jealous.

Thanks to Jamie Orr for the photos.

The inspiration for this sail combination came to me from David Oliver of the excellent blog, Lutes which celebrates the traditional fishing vessels of the Balearic Islands. The Balearic sailing rigs developed as a way to facilitate work on deck, while offering performance for navigation. David reminds us it is important to view these rigs as a tool for fishing to understand how they are used. There are types of working craft from around the world with provision for the same or similar sail combinations.


The lutes employ a lateen rig, yet by adding a jib far forward, windward performance is improved.


The addition of a mizzen on a retractable boomkin gives more sail options, not the least of which is the ability to strike that huge main, allowing more room to work. 




While the lateen can be mounted far enough forward to act as a jib and main combination, the option of a jib plus main is more versatile.


The balanced lug rig is very similar to the lateen in function. The ancient lateen is possibly the most beautiful sail in the world.


Davids blog is written in Catalan, but for those of us who have trouble with that complicated language, he offers a translator and we thank him for that! He owns a beautiful lute and its a treat to see one under sail. I recommend a long visit to Lutes.


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Our Schooner Race on Shearwater 45 Apella

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The 25th running of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race proved to be a well-run and memorable event. The weatherman came close to creating big problems but it all worked out in the end. The massive cold front that tore apart parts of USA in the previous week arrived in Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon, dumping enough rain to wash out the planned Parade of Sail through Baltimores Inner Harbor. Other than that, everything went off with the usual smoothness of a well-practiced organisation.
"Apella" alongside "America II" at the start of the 2013 race.
Behind the wind-driven soaking of Wednesday, we were handed a couple of gorgeous days to carry us down to Portsmouth. The weatherman didnt get it all correct though. The forecast light breezes from the south at the start, swinging to westerly for most of the race, held only for the biggest and fastest boats at the front of the fleet. Behind them the wind was sometimes the opposite of the forecast and then fell apart into increasingly large holes that trapped boats for hours. The further back that they were in the fleet, the larger the holes and the longer they battled to get through.

As for us on Dan Halls Shearwater 45 "Apella", we had a pretty good race, one to store in the memory banks for recall in the coming cold winter days when only professional seamen and crazy people are out on the water. We had a good crew, comprising the owner, myself and a bunch of friends who are capable sailors.
Dan Hall, Dudley Dix, Paul Schaub, Dylan Bailey, Tom Miller & Scott Page.




We had a crazy start. Dan was on the helm, labouring under advice from Paul and myself that obviously conflicted with his own thoughts and must have been comical to anyone paying attention to us on nearby boats. Complicated by current, spectator boats and a big boat fleet that started 10 minutes before us but was mostly late to the line, we were dodging boats and going the wrong way within the last minute, yet still managed to cross the start line first, within 10 seconds of the gun and right at the committee boat. As Tom said, "sometimes too many chiefs actually works".
A Class gaff schooner "Hindu", which gave us some close-quarter racing.
We worked our way through much of the big boat fleet and had mostly good sailing all the way down the bay. Most of the time we were lying between 7th and 10th on the water and thoroughly enjoying what we were doing. A highlight of the race was twice managing to get ourselves ahead of the beautiful Baltimore clipper replica "Pride of Baltimore". When the wind came through after we broke out of the hole together, she sailed away from us.
Creeping up on the beautiful "Pride of Baltimore II".
We were in B Class, with our Windmill Point finish line 40 miles short of the Thimble Shoals line for the bigger boats in Classes A and AA. We planned to sail the optional additional 40 miles to claim "bragging rights" but gave up on that idea when the winds went light and onto the nose. Mission accomplished, we whimped out and motored the rest of the way to Portsmouth.

The awards party was today and we came away with first place in B Class, ahead of "Tom Bombadil". A great end to an enjoyable few days. Thank you to the crew of "Apella", all other competitors and especially to the organisers and volunteers who together made this such a successful event.
Tom, Dudley, Paul and Dan with the silverware. Scott & Dylan missed the party.
Dylan has promised to bring his Little Creek 47 "Flutterby" north from St Augustine, Florida, for the 2015 Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race and we will race the bay together again. I look forward to it.

To see our full range of designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/.

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Ellies got wheels

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I bought Ellie a new trailer this weekend. A local boat shop had several left over trailers from a recent boat show that were on sale for $100 off.


The trailer came in handy as I needed move Ellie out to the driveway so I could make the King Plank and test fit the main mast.  The main mast has to go through a mast partner in the King plank, through a hole in the seat and down into the mast step. Locating the mast step and the mast partner in the King Plank are no problem - getting the hole in the seat to line up with them is the tricky part. I had done some careful calculations earlier and it paid off as everything aligned perfectly (whew!).


I have named my Navigator "Ellie" after the young, brave, assertive, energetic tomboy in the Pixar animated movie "Up".



"Up" is one of my favorite movies.  In it, young Ellie dreams of being a great explorer. She wants to travel to South America (its like America, but SOUTH!),  live at Paradise Falls and chronicle her adventures in her Adventure Book.  Click here to watch a video clip of Ellie.  Adventure is out there!  I love it!

This weekend I also installed the anchor well floor and the cockpit stringers




I couldnt resist hanging the rudder and tiller on, just to see how they look.  My stand is too low to get the rudder all the way down, but I like the way the transom, rudder head and rudder turned out.  I made the rudder and tiller about a year ago, long before the hull was assembled. At that time I had to guess as to the shape of the tiller, and unfortulately I was way off. I put way too much curve into it and the tiller handle is way too high. Its destined for the scrap bin and Ill have to make a new one.


All in all, a very productive weekend!
Cheers.
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Messing About with Oysters

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Yesterdays TSCA Hood Canal Oyster Messabout at Twanoh State Park was absolutely wonderful, with good friends, perfect weather, a variety of boats, and five dozen enormous, delicious oysters.





Marty Loken and Marjiann (Mojo) Moss who operate Island Boatshop, debuted their 1955 Bill Garden-designed Port Madison Pram, recently refinished and ready for its first sail in a few decades. Port Madison Prams, Marty explained, were designed by William Garden for members of the sail-only Port Madison Yacht Club, whose members wanted a sail-training boat for youngsters and a boat adults could race on weekends. The prams are 13-6" and resemble an El Toro on steroids, with tons of volume-per-foot.


Tom and Susanne Regan who operate Grapeview Point boat works brought their shellback dinghy.  This dinghy is fast!  We spent a good part of the day trying to catch up with them.


Doryman Mike Bogoger brought his Ken Basset Firefly Finesse. Finesse is a beautiful boat, but unfortunately Mike had some technical difficulty with his oarlocks (he, uh, sorta forgot em). Mike had some limited success with a borrowed set of oars and oarlocks but unfortunately we were not able to witness Finesses full potential. I pounced on the opportunity and invited Doryman to come sail Ellie with me, and he accepted much to my delight.

Randy Jones brought his Core Sound 17, which he later loaded up with a crowd of TSCA members.


Bob Hancock brought the fiberglass sloop that hes been working on over the winter.

Boats were rigged and launched by 11:00 and we all enjoyed a lively sail.

Then it was time to get down to business. Time for some serious oyster shucking.  These oysters were huge and they put up one helluva fight..

We eventually won and let me tell you, these were the most delicious raw and pan fried oysters ever!
After the oyster feed, it was time for another terrific sail.  Conditions had improved even more, if thats even possible, from the mornings sail with a bit more wind and sunshine. With Doryman at the helm, we set out to find Marty in his Port Madison pram to get some action shots.  We couldnt find them, so we tried instead to catch Tom and Suzanne in their speedy shellback.

I sure hope we can do this messabout again next year!
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Chris Morejohns history of Hells Bay Boatworks beginning till 2001

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The word technical flats skiff did not exist when we launched our first skiff. At that time the game plan and goal for Hal and Flip was to build a very simple, no extras, fishing machine that could get across the bay relatively dry and comfortable using small simple power. Something that would be able to float in very shallow water and possible for the average guy to pole along in these new untouched waters (kayaks, John boats, and other small craft already doing so) all day long and in varied wind conditions. What they wanted was a really cool, neat, trim and detailed skiff in the opposite direction of where the flats boat world had been heading and was still going. They wanted this skiff for themselves and figured their friends would want one too. They also saw an opening in a market, if done properly, that  could redefine the flats boatbuilding market and if our product did well enough then maybe one of the bigger companies would notice and buy us out. They would get their skiffs, I would get my sailboat, if I worked quickly enough, and maybe we could make some cash too. 

 Some observations from my point of view of the skiffs at this time. Remember, I am not a guide, just a guy that likes to build, design boats and be out on the water.
In 1997 Hewes, Maverick, Pathfinder, Action Craft, Egret Boats, Silverking, and a least 20 other companies were building huge, massively heavy, deep draft, hard to pole craft that they were advertising as shallow draft, light weight, fly fishing machines.
Dolphin Skiffs, the Maverick Mirage, Geenoe, Pathfinder, Mitzi skiff, Back Country Boats, and others were on the edge of what was to become our market during the next couple of years.
The typical ad would claim an 850 lb. hull weight with an 8" draft. Now you take a Hewes, Maverick, Egret at that time and weigh them and then draw a line from the transom waterline to the bottom of their Vee. These skiffs really weighed 1,500 lbs and drew 15" if lucky. I have weighed them all. All of these boats were big comfortable skiffs that did not know there was a whole other world in shallower water out there waiting. There  was nothing wrong with these skiffs, it was just that what they were claiming and actually doing/performing were 2 different worlds.
Our goal was to compete with Egrets reputation on details, but in our own style; by not having Carbon Kevlar glossy inside hatch liners that meant nothing and to compete with the Maverick Mirage, Dolphin Skiff, Mitzi Skiff, Geenoe And Pathfinder. All other skiffs were considered outdated, obsolete. Any design claiming to be a true fly fishing flats boat that had a chine coming out of the water and had to be looked at as a classic old school boat. The Pathfinder hard chine Garvey tunnel skiff was very old school but we would have to compete against them in sales too.

To do this the boat had to be very light, well engineered and have a very practical layout. I have always favored Yahmaha engines in my small boat dinghy world that I live in but the Mercury 25 hp that Flip was representing with Bass Pro at the time really put us on the map. Our first finished skiff had a Yahmaha 30 on it. The Mercury 25 is rated at the prop and was so much more powerful than the Yahmaha and other engines that we could get up to 32 mph out of our skiffs. This was fast enough to impress long time skiff owners that were used to 90 hp engines.
We wanted to show the fishing world a new way of thinking for the fly fisherman and sight caster that really wanted to pole around and stalk his prey in a skiff that was designed and built specifically for this need and market. Hal and Flip felt the Whipray was the boat.

In 1997 few existed in production; the Maverick Mirage, Mitzi skiff, Dolphin Skiff, my 5 old Dolphin skiff one-offs , Geenoes and other one-offs like Steve Huff and Harry Spears boats.
The Maverick Mirage was a remake of the Dolphin skiff. It had a reputation for structural problems, and it performed about the same as the Dolphin skiffs being so similar with my nod to the Dolphin Skiffs. They poled very well, but drew more than 10" of water, were tippy at the bow, used 90 hp engines and could use a little more space inside. Otherwise these were good skiffs. The Geenoe is a great skiff for what it represents and does.

A John boat is too but they have their limits. The Mitzi skiff is a good skiff, but has a little flatter bottom concept like the Dolphin and it is a nock-off the Mirage.
By Coast Guard standards the Whiprays transom was rated at 60 hp but we had to start out with the Mercury 25 to show and explain what could be done. It would be an up wind battle. With the 25 hp the boat would get up on plane with the trim tabs down with the bow barely rising. The Whipray would slide in a turn if the throttle was not eased off for a second to allow for the hull to lean a bit then turned back to full throttle in the turn. The design had to have trim tabs to be used to its full potential. The sliding is one of those compromises that you have in design. On the Whiprays we tried little keel tabs on the trim tabs. We ended up with the tabs having their sides turn down for little keels. Some people complained about this reducing their draft. Draft really was becoming apparent to the adventurer that was now poling a reasonable sized skiff in very shallow water in pursuit of fish. In later designs Hal and I tested many ideas on how to cure the sliding. More on this later.

The first year selling the Whipray concept was the most fun Ive had in my career. Everybody was very skeptical of an all up 550 lb skiff and motor that would not beat your brains out and fall apart at the same time. Once Hal and Flip were happy about the hulls performance I commenced to build all the plugs and molds for the first skiff. What Hal and Flip asked for was a forward locker, a large aft locker, a small bait well to port. Flip asked if I could draw a blue crab with the wording "Crustacean Crevasse"on  the lid. This I did, got a plastic sign engraver to copy and put it in the mold. The stern well is Flips idea on how to make the boat self bailing and simple. I like it. Flip wanted a leather non skid look which I did using Formica in the plugs. I made the cockpit floor sit on top of a simple hat stringer with it being glassed to two bulkheads and then faired. The bow had a small hatch that folded back with the running lights. This I did years earlier. You had the option of not having the floor to save weight but losing the self bailing part. Fishermen like Ted Jurasicsick opted for the no floor version to save weight, and get a bit less draft. The side console option was to be very simple with the Gear shift coming out of the deck. The gear shift was neat but a pain in fitting and trying to keep the water out of the stern locker. I did this with a simple tray around the hull sides. To satisfy the Coast Guard rules for flotation I have used the cubic feet of the foam in the core as enough to keep the boat from sinking. A cubic foot equals 62 lbs of water or 62 lbs of weight. In reality there is plenty in the boats but the Coast Guard wants enough in the side deck area fore and aft to keep a boat floating upright in the event of sinking. What I dont agree with is that when a boat sinks with flotation like this it normally flips over and now you are clinging to a smooth upside down boat. The Coast Guard rules are up to the builder to comply with. If any thing happens to your design then they step in and determine if the boat would comply to their standards. To me the best thing to do in a sinking boat is get rid of the engine as it is the weight that wants to flip the boat over. Sitting in a half sunk boat is better than hanging onto an upside down one with your body outside of the boat. I have been in a sinking boat of anothers design so can say this.
The Console was supported by a simple knee that was bonded and glassed to the hull and deck. What made it all work and not break, like on the Pathfinders, is that in my building designs the entire boat is completely bonded, glued and glassed together as one: a monocoque  structure. At that time nobody was doing this. I loved standing on top of the console at the boat shows making the boat bounce up and down saying to try that on the "other" skiffs. Of course our skiff was on a nice trailer which absorbed a lot of this showmanship BS. I built all these parts in St. Augustine Florida as "Chris Morejohn Boat Repair" under a plastic shed.

The first rough skiff that I made we took to our first boats show with me cringing at the rough finish to the deck. Hal wanted to get the ball rolling and to show the public what was going to be happening soon.
I drove the skiff to the Mark Castlow Shallow Water show in Huston Texas meeting my partners there as they where to fly in. Hal had his stores to deal with and Flip had his careers which being at this show was one of them. Hal along with Flip were old friends of Mark Castlow. Hal had an idea which Mark gladly said to go for it. I built a very simple pond out of 2 x 12 wood and lined it with plastic filling it up with water to about 6". This we slid our fully rigged skiff into with little rubber protectors over the trim tab edges so as to not rupture our pond. I had measuring rulers to hand out so people could measure our draft and compare to the others at the show. During the show I stood in and on our skiff and answered questions, nonstop for two days for 10 hours each. We had the busiest booth. I had a blast showing how all the big companys were not good at measuring their drafts. Of course every one could not believe this little skiff would not fall apart and kill them. We had to get the public to go for a ride. At this show we had a believer in Claude Berwick from Texas as he wrote us a check. We had some orders already from Hal and Flips friends, but to survive we had to get more people in the boats, get the boats built and keep growing. The pond did not burst.

We used this pond idea for several more shows along with a motor lift with a scale showing how much the Whipray Really weighed. My favorite ad picture of that time is the one of the three of us standing behind the Whipray in shallow water. It is still on the Hells Bay web site home page. We drove out to a dirt boat ramp at sunrise in Mims FL to do this shot. Flip set the shutter speed on his Camera and handed it to my wife Rachel to take. We stood together holding the boat still with our finger tips, probably making it look like the stern is just in the water. I am that short and not standing in a hole. This shot shows the character of who we were, are. Hal standing proud looking, saying "try this", I feeling and looking like "wow! I get to be part of this and a paycheck too." Flip has his trade mark look of "how long is this going to take?" Its a shame what goes on in this industry with my name being removed from Hells Bays letterhead after I sold out to my partners to reemerge with the present owners and now Hals name is gone. Look for that picture to disappear and reemerge with Flip, Stu and Chico in it with Chris Peterson sitting In the cockpit.

During my time a HBBWs I never did not sell a boat after a test ride. The best part for me was the look on the customers face when they first pushed the boat with the push pole. It was a happy ending look.
95% of non guide customers could not pole a skiff and 75% of guides. I believe this was a fact that most boats up to this time were not pole able for long distances. I know I will take some shit for this observation. But its true.

During the first year at HBBWs I oversaw the raising of the upper chine to my original design height after 18 skiffs built. Noise reduction was paramount. These 18 skiffs are very dry boats and fish the same, its just that if you are a big guy and stand out on the outer edge it can slap. We changed the original leather non skid as it could be slippery and made it the standard Awl Grip one. There are still lots of people out there that love this Leather deck.

Here I will try and explain how these skiffs were built at this time and in the process give my opinions on building techniques  of that time and what being bantered about today.

First off I would like to say that fiberglass resin, epoxies, Linear  paints, cloths - all this great stuff - is only as good as the engineering thought process behind it. This stuff will last and perform for a life time but not a badly designed structure. But you can rebuild one so this stuff is just great.

The first thing in Building a Whipray was to spray in the Gel coat in the molds. After this hardens then I would come in and glass over this with a skin coat of 3/4 oz. matt. This I would let harden. When it was hard to the touch you would then cut out and fit all of the core for the hull, deck, cockpit and hatches. Patterns for these parts made it a bit easier for the flat parts. The hull always needs to be fitted in place. All the hull pieces can be marked with a felt pen so as to remember how it all goes together. The core I used in the early 50 skiffs of HB was Dyvinecell core that was made up of little squares held together with a light scrim backing. With this stuff you could move it around till it layed nice and smooth within the insides of the hull. These foams come in many brands, types and density. The density is in how big the air holes are in the foam. Big air holes = low , small holes = High which means very hard to compress. In designing a skiff with all these products at your disposal it gives you lots of options. 

The standard procedure for me at this time like many other shops was to glue the foam core in by hand. This is done by laying the pre-cut core upside down and rolling resin in it trying to get some in between  the little square cuts or kerfs. With this wetted out you would then flip over and install into your mold part by hand. In the mold would be waiting the next skin layer that would have just been rolled in and wetted out. These two would then cure and bond together at the same time. 

After the first skin over the gelcoat you have the option of many types of cloth weights, types and strengths to add in. This is one part of the puzzle of how to make it strong but keep it light enough to work to the design goals. In the early HB skiffs the outer skin would then be another 3/4 oz. Matt with a 10 oz. layer of Kevlar with a 1 1/2 oz. layer of Matt on top layed simultaneously. This is what your freshly resined core would be then hand layed into by gently pressing down into this wet skin. If the core was cut properly then it will just lay down like a wet towel. This was all done by hand using buckets of catalyzed resin, rollers and brushes. When wetting out the Matt you use hard rollers that roll out all the air in this cloth and the air in the following layers. This to me. if done by well trained skilled workers, is a great way to build a boat. The skins if done right have a great resin ratio. 

Now the way to save weight, if wanted, is you can mix and match your cloths in the different parts of the boat that do not need the strength such as the upper bow area and other places. This process can also save resin weight by doing the whole skin and coring at one time after the gelcoat has cured using the wet resin the whole way through. You can eliminate the first skin this way. All the decks and parts were layed up at one time using 3/4 oz Matt , 7 oz. cloth, 11/2 oz Matt, then core. 

In designing skiffs I have always relied on a thin skin on the flat surfaces that was well rolled out and when finishing off the underside or inside layer all the high abuse areas I would build up with Matt. This would be the sheer, cockpit side edges, hatch edges, hatch channel flange edges etc. Everywhere else was very thin. The two fore and aft bulk heads would only be a layer of 7 oz. cloth. All parts glassed together with 2 layers of a 1 1/2 oz Matt tabbing at most.

Once the resin which the core is now bonded, glued to has cured you now have to check for voids. This is very easily done by scrapping a quarter across all of the cores surface. If there is a void it will make a very distinct hollow sound.  Once satisfied you then make up a resin and filler mixture to fill in any gaps in the core. Inside a hull like the Whiprays and others this filler is used in places like the little reverse spray chine to fill it out for the core to lay over. There is a lot of fairing of the edges of the core at this time. You do this with a small grinder and need to be careful not to hit the outer skin. All core needs a tapered edge for the glass skins to transition from. This is a messy job.

After this is all done and vacuumed out you are now ready for the inner skin. Again lots of things to think about for your particular design. In side the hulls of most all HBBWs designs I would lay in a 3/4 oz Matt with a 7 oz cloth on top finishing out the edges as explained . You would then glass in the bulkheads on the early boats, then the floor stringer with the floor going on top and being glassed all around. The fuel tank would go in, rod racks, stern parts, console knee, and then the inside being all finished out. Next you would bond the deck to the hull. 

At this time every body still screwed their decks on. In my early years with Back Bay Boats I bonded all my decks on with 5200 sealant glassing a lot of certain parts to the hull. I have heard from Sandy Moret that his skiff deck had problems but his son fixed it. So on these new skiffs I wanted nothing to be able to move or come apart so every thing is bonded together which is a painstaking way to go but is very strong in reality and in feel.

This is the way I built the first 30 skiffs going from a 5 gallon paint pressure pot for spraying gelcoat, to a Pressurized resin gun and gelcoat gun. I still feel you can build a fantastic boat using these simple methods with these skiffs outperforming in the long run both in price and long term durability the so called "state of the art resin infused epoxy super boats." I will discuss this later when I talk about the present market. 

At hull # 55 we would change cores and start vacuum bagging the cores in place. We also started using a bonding putty with the core. This is the next step up, it costs more and if not done well could add a bit more weight. I used this in my early foam core boats using a product called Divilett. I will get to vacuum bagging in a bit.

About mid way into 1998 I was training 12 people on how to build these boats to my way of thinking, talking to customers as I was building their boats, new customers as they wanted to see the shop, doing all the gelcoat work and helping in all the phases of construction, running around from one thing to the next. Hal and I talked by phone as he and Jamie had their Clothing stores going and were in the process of opening a new one. I kept track of all the hours, bills I had and faxed back and forth to the Chittums. 

They had this great sounding assistant that would be my link to them. She had the sexiest deep smoky bar voice and I could only picture her as a blond that had been around the block. She was great to talk to. Hal said she laughed her head off when I told him of my thoughts and about what she looked like on the phone. Hal said she had lots of guys coming in the shop to get a look. I loved it when I found out she was a very pretty black girl.

At this time we felt that I could use a secretary to field the calls now coming in to help me. My ad in the Orlando  times was basically this, "need girl to answer phones, take messages in growing boat building company, needs sense of humor." I got lots of calls for the next Monday for interviews. I had never had to do this. The Friday before was going badly with a bunch of little disasters and just dealing with a new crew that did not know boats and mainly was there for a paycheck. After noon that day I sent everyone home early. I had one thing I had to get out of the way before I could escape to my family. A friend of ours said she knew of the perfect girl for this job and could she just come by early and maybe see the place before everyone else. She was to show up at 1:00. Flip was out front doing something to his new skiff and one of my 19 year old workers Mica would just not leave the shop. Man, was I worn out. The girl shows up and getting out of her car the first thing I saw to my mystery is what was Nancy thinking? Rachel is not going have this girl in the office. She was a ginger blond red head wearing a little velour suit top and short skirt. She was a knockout. My plan was to be polite, show her the office, the shop and get her on her way, then call Nance. She was very polite and was really interested in what we were up to. I had a hard time not staring at her. She asked to see where the boats were built. The shop was all closed up so was very hot. We walked out into the shop and she says "O this is very interesting, but it is so hot in here I must take my jacket off." After she said and did this it all clicked!
It was my birthday! 

She was now wearing a short Daisy Duke top, with this impossibly short mini skirt. I put my arm around her waist and said there could be lots of over time in this job. She said meet me in the office. She was my 40th birthday present from my wife and proceeded to strip down with her boom box playing and give me a show. In the middle of my present with her sitting naked on my fully dressed lap Flip, oblivious to what was going on, opens the door to the office and pops his head in to say hes going. The girl and I say come on in and enjoy the show! Flip disappears. 

After my show present ended my wife showed up. Flip had called Hal and said Chris was going to be in such big trouble if Rachel finds out what he is up to. Mica the kid was there to make sure I would not leave early and miss my present. Flip later said Rachel was his hero. She was a great girl and Rachel and I had a good laugh together with her. On my Monday secretary appointments I kept looking for another one but Rachel said that was going to be the only one. I love her so.

During these early times at HB the workers I had were through ads in the papers. I had no experienced people except for Stan Nash who had followed me from Lures Mainship and some kids I knew but all just people that wanted a paycheck and were not at all interested in the job at hand. The fiberglass industry is a hard one to work in the work itself and the sameness it can be. Lots of people went through our doors during this time. One lady really was interested and showed lots of promise but started showing up with lots of bruises on her visibly. She just never showed up one day. It can be a hard crowd.

 During this time Hal took a million dollar key man insurance policy out on me to protect their investment. Ha, a waste of money!

 I needed help and it came in the way of Tom Gordon. Tom had been selling and servicing our gelcoat and resin guns and equipment. In dealing with him I could see that he was a straight up guy and wanted more than his job of being a traveling salesman/repairman. He knew gelcoat and I felt that he could oversee the glass department under my supervision. We were a small new company which is hard to lure people to. Stan Nash had come with me, he was my boss at Mainship and knew Tom well. I asked Tom what it would take to come and take over the glass end of HB. He came back the next day with his needs. He started two weeks later. Tom changed my life at HBBWs during this time.

I was being paid all along with my other partners waiting for the company to get going before drawing a salary. Tom at this point in the game was the highest paid person at HB.

First off Tom made it so no more me spraying gelcoat! The next thing he brought to HBBWS was because of his reputation for work ethics he was well respected by all the other fiberglass production employees at Boston Whaler and Sea Ray. Our shop lay between the two giants. Now lots of good experienced people started to come through our doors looking to work for us. When Tom started working for us he had an idea of flats boats and fishing but no experience in the way of building to my design ideas. He was a great employee in that he was always ready to make it happen for what ever I came up with in building needs. He understood the concept of what we were striving for immediately. Tom was great with the crew and understood my fanatical attention to detail. This passed down to the crew. Tom was my go to guy for research into the next glues, adhesives, etc. As we grew Tom came with us to the boat shows to help in sales and did great.

My goal was to operate HBBWS as the best place to work in production fiberglass boat building for the employees. In all the shops that I had worked in before you were always running on overtime from lack of a clear vision and too many chiefs. HBBWs was run by myself and once I had Hal and Flips OK on the idea design it was up to me from then on. 

I ran the shop on the principal of better pay, a clean shop environment and no over-time, a 40 hour work week - 7:30 to 3:30 and the crew had to do a good days work. This set up worked with Stan Nash and myself in plug building, Tom Gordon in the glass shop and eventually Scott Empson in rigging. 

Thanks to all the great people that came to work for us we were able to build a good high tech - low tech skiff in the market going from the Whipray through 6 more designs with all the plugs and molds built in house in 4 years time. 128 plugs, molds and all the corresponding thought process to go with it. Other than the hull drawings, calculations and the deck layout drawings, most everything else was in my head and conveyed to Stan, Tom and Scott in sketch form. 

I have all this information, drawings, faxes, Lines plans and copies of all the sales brochures, newsletters and ads from my time there. In 1998 we built 42 skiffs being Whiprays, the plug and mold for the ultimate dinghy and a few Skates, Mosquito Lagoons and introduced the Waterman series. 

During this time I had the pleasure of meeting Scott Flanders who owned Egret boats at the boat shows. Scott called the shop one day and  ordered a bare bones Waterman skiff . He explained he planned on towing it behind his Egret skiff to fish the flats around the Everglades as he wanted to fish shallower water and his Egret could not get into the places he wanted to go. I think this was our first sale of a mother ship setup. In later years Scott and his wife Mary cruised in company with my family in the Bahamas. Scott had sold out at about the same time as I and purchased a used 46 Nordhaven trawler power boat type. We ended up sharing anchorages in Bermuda and Horta in the Azores on our first Atlantic crossings. Scott and Mary went on to circumnavigate the world via the 5 great capes starting with Cape Horn. It takes a lot of attention to detail to do this.This same attention to detail was very evident in the Egret boats.

We also built during this time a cooler that Flip had envisioned  as a dual purpose cooler and bow casting platform. I loved it but our version was a bit heavy and it took time to build. The other ones made today are fantastic. 

Flip also designed the boat trailers for our skiffs. They are great in that they never have to get wet. We had a lot of people that would unhook the boats before they would back the boat in and then it would just launch itself off the trailer in the parking lot. 

Flip also with the help of Gil at Blue Point Welders designed a fantastic Mercury tiller extension in aluminum. We stopped selling these after someone broke off the tiller arm on his outboard.

One of the outside people that helped HBBWs grow was Gil at Blue Point Welders. Whatever idea or tower design we came up with he would build on the spot and with way more detail. Gil should get the credit for ALL the new stylish towers out there today that have been derived from our skiffs. At the time of starting HB towers were all very straight looking with big heavy hatch like tower lids on them. My idea to just add a couple of tabs to the structure and then install a very thin skinned core panel using the outer rim as your toe kick saved a lot of weight. This detail also means I can spot one of my skiffs along way away by just looking to see if the skiff has a big lid on it. Gil could always come up with a bend instead of straight. Thanks Gil.

In design, the "Skate" which became the "Mosquito Lagoon" which then became the "Waterman" were my ideas as far as boat concepts. The Wateman design name was Hals idea. These boats were my ideas to  have a very simple boat in our line to cater to the people that could not afford the Whipray. 

My reasoning was this, in a growing shop you need to keep the crew going, the cash flow going. Building high end luxury skiffs caters to a small market in the boating world. Lots of people loved our skiffs but could not afford its price. The way to get the price down is to eliminate labor costs, which in turn means taking away some of the the boat. This is done today by making the the hatch channels drain into the cockpit which is a very clean and simple way to go. Also making the locker inside a big tub incorporated to the deck mold. The problem for me is the boat has to be level at all times for for this to work, hence the extra work in draining the water overboard. I did this in the simple hatch layouts of these skiffs progressions. 

I see the East Cape doing this, Back Country Boats did this which Chico was promoting at that time. The Back Country Boats skiff had part of its hull side from the Dave Exley Dolphin Skiff in it. Another redo/remake. If the hatches are done right this is the most cost effective way to build a skiff. 

I first drew a sketch of this proposed boat and sent it out to 350 people that had asked for a brochure to be mailed. From this I sold 2 boats. Now I had to make the molds and build the boats.

People went nuts for this concept. But... what they really wanted was the Whipray, but at the Waterman price. This was to be an ongoing problem from my time, Tom Gordons time and still is. Hal did not like the idea of taking away the clout of the Whipray but understood the concept of staying afloat. The Waterman kept the the cash flowing between the sales of the Whipray. 

I still feel the open deck Waterman with a 25 is the ultimate shallow water fishing skiff for cost. This is the kind of skiff I would build or promote if catching and cost were the primary goals . This is still a very good market to get into to make a living as a small time builder. Contact me and I will give you a set of plans, ideas for free. These boats do not have the yacht looks of a Whipray but still get the job done.

At my time at HBBWs I helped build and oversaw the building of 143 Whiprays 5 Skates - Mosquitio Lagoons, 59 Watermans and 7 Ultimate Skiffs/dinghies. 

I still have one of the ultimate skiffs.  One has been across the Atlantic and back and all over. In fact I just got out of the present one a
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Lovely Wooden Blocks

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Quite a while ago I decided that I wanted Lovely Wooden Blocks on my Navigator.  I finally got around to estimating how many I would need.  The tally came to 4 single blocks and 12 double blocks (give or take). I spent many hours searching the web but couldnt find blocks that I liked.  The style of block that I really like were the ones I saw last fall at a Port Townsend chandlery.  Problem is the price was $80 & $100 each for the single and doubles.  Ill save you the trouble of doing the math. Its over $1,500.  Call me cheap if you like, but Id rather make them myself for next to nothing, thank you very much.

The photo above is that of the first two prototypes. Total cost was under $2 each. The materials are scraps of mahogany, maple, plywood, and some brass.

They are still a work in progress. I will post plans, photos, and instructions on how to make them in a future post.  NEWSFLASH:  The guide is now available. Click here.

Progress report on the hull

The hull has been turned over, fiberglassed, has the stem and skeg installed, and has three coats of epoxy applied.

 
Unfortunately I didnt take any photos of the hull turning or fiberglassing. To turn the hull, we propped the boat up on some sawhorses, disassembled and removed the building jig, and lowered the boat to the floor. We laid some foam padding under the boat amidships, rolled her onto her side, slid her over and rolled her onto her back. Then propped her up onto sawhorses again.

After a bit of filling and sanding, the chines were glassed with two strips of fiberglass tape. Then 6oz fiberglass cloth was applied up to the first lap.

All of this work went quite smoothly.  The stem, however, didnt.

The stem

I choose to use white oak for the stem, centerboard guard & skeg combo (the keel).  The plans show the keel ending at the forefoot and the stem is simply rounded off and fiberglassed over. This would have been way too easy.  No, I choose to add a stem of white oak as well.  To do this I had to bend the oak 90 degrees at the forefoot.

Attempt #1

For my first attempt, I decided to rip the oak into 1/4" strips and laminate them directly on the boat. First, I covered the boat with packing tape to prevent the stem from sticking. I read somewhere that epoxy did not stick very well to white oak and that Gorilla Glue worked better, so I used that. I was able to bend the 1/4" oak strips without steaming. So I moistened the strips (both sides), applied the glue, bent them and screwed them in place.  I allowed it to dry for a couple days. When I attempted to remove the stem I discovered that I could not get the screws out. I broke the screws trying to remove them. Even worse, after I finally got the stem off, I was shocked to discover that the Gorilla Glue did not stick to the oak at all.  I was able to pull apart the laminations with my bare hands!  The glue dried to the consistency of styrofoam and was about as strong.  Stem #1 went into the firewood bin.

Attempt #2

For my second attempt, I thought Id try building a jig and steam bending the oak in one piece so I wouldnt have to worry about the integrity of the glue laminations.  After steaming the 1x4x10 oak for an hour, I was able to bend it on the form fairly easily. I let it dry for a couple days but when I removed it from the form and fit it onto the boat, it did not fit very well. The oak was too thick and too stiff to follow the contours of the form closely enough. There were unacceptably large gaps between the stem and the hull.  I tried to re-steam and re-bend the piece twice more but it eventually broke in two.  Another stem went into the firewood bin.

Attempt #3

Having now learned three lessons the hard way I combined them. I cut the third stem into 1/4" strips for lamination, formed them on the boat, and used epoxy. Success at last!



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Reminder for OkoumeFest

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OkoumeFest is only a few days away, on May 18th. If you want to see or sail the Paper Jet and live within reach of the Annapolis area, this could be your opportunity. We will have two boats there, the prototype #001 and  #007, generously loaned to me by my friend, Howdy Bailey, for the occasion. My boat will have the turbo rig for experienced performance dinghy sailors to test and #007 will have the standard rig for those who dont feel up to the challenges of a powered-up skiff. See more info on this blog in my posts of April 21st and April 29th.
Paper Jet #007 - Billy Black photo.
Paper Jet #001 - Billy Black photo.
Paper Jet #007 is for sale and is in excellent condition. Come see and test her if you want a good boat but dont have the time to build. She is set up for the standard rig but can be easily upgraded to the turbo rig.

Visit our website at http://dixdesign.com/


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Design 2088 Bolle V

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This 6-meter racing yacht was built by the Yachtwerft Hans Wirz of Steinbach/Bodensee, Switzerland.  She is double planked of mahogany with white oak frames.  The boat was launched in 1971.  As can be seen in these images, she was later renamed Antares.  We assume she is still in Switzerland.

Here is the Lines Plan.


Principal Dimensions
LOA 32-9"
LWL 24-5"
Beam 6-2"
Draft 5-6"
Displacement 9,746 lbs
Ballast 7,326 lbs
Sail Area 488 sq ft

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WANTED

Sabtu, 30 Januari 2016

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You know how many marinas there are in the Sacramento Delta?  A lot, let me tell you.  And Ive called nearly every one in search of our elusive, inexpensive junked, but still floating, 20 foot-or-so pontoon boat.  A few leads which Im following up on.

Kai and I also hung a flier up in a few delta towns when we were up there. 

Surprisingly, we got a response within a few days from a guy named Chris in Walnut Grove.  "I live on a little harbor.  The woman who owns it is like 90 something and shes going crazy.  The marinas falling apart.  There a boat in the harbor, just sitting there for years, sounds like what you are looking for."  It took me a bit to understand Chris.  He seemed like a nice guy, a lot like the other folks we met in the area, lonely, talkative, staggeringly inarticulate.

"I dont know if its a pontoon boat, but its sinking on one side.  So its probably a pontoon boat, right?"  I had to think through this logic a little bit.  One of the reasons we are interested in a pontoon boat is that it is less likely to sink. 

"This boats got stuff in it.  A fridge, held up with a rope.  It got coats in there, like nice ones.  And other stuff."  I wondered that the locals had not already stripped this abandoned boat full of nice coats.

I asked Chris if he could send me a picture of this boat.  "You know, Im technology illiterate.  My phones got a camera, but I dont know know how to use the goddamned thing.  Technology, man, I just dont know it."

Chris went on, "To tell the truth, you dont want this boat.  Its sinking on one side.  But its just sitting here.  And frees a good price, right?  Am I right?  You know, who knows?  You could haul this thing out and do us a favor before it sinks."

As dubious as it sounds, well probably take a look at it next time we go up there.  If it hasnt already settled to the bottom of the Sacramento River.  As Chris says, who knows?
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Sail Repair

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In Webb Chiles excellent book, Storm Passage, he tells the tale of nearing the end of his first solo circumnavigation in a boat that is sinking. In addition to bailing, by hand, about four tons of water a day, the storms of the Southern Ocean have made a torn patchwork of his sails. Day after day is spent bailing and sewing. The water never stops and the sails are never completely repaired.


Sorry Webb, just the thought of all that hand sewing makes my wrists ache. In fact, spending the last few days reinforcing the seams on several old sails with a sewing machine has been slow, tedious, unglamorous work.
But on reflection, I would much rather reinforce the sails before they require it, though I have no immediate intention of rounding Cape Horn. Possibly, all of this will pay off with another season of use from an excellent old suit of tanbark cruising sails from Hasse and Petrich, the original sails designed for the Stone Horse, Belle Starr.





We have spent several years searching for a good used sewing machine that can handle sails, without having to spend big money. A lot of machines will do a decent job on the body of a sail - its when you have to work on the reinforced corners that you need some real power. The latest machine to tackle this job in the "Doryman sail loft" is a 45 year old Pfaff 230. I highly recommend it.








Please dont look too closely at the stitching, Im still learning.
Mary is much better at this and I recommend a visit to With Needle and Palm for her take on how this work is done.
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Bristol Bay Gillnetter

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This salmon fishing boat was known by several names. In San Francisco, California it was a Sacramento River salmon boat. In Astoria, Oregon they called it a Columbia River Gillnetter. From Seattle to Alaska it became the Bristol Bay Gillnetter.

The earliest of these boats were built by J.J. Griffin of San Francisco in 1868 and were used on the Sacramento River for commercial salmon fishing. Previously, gillnetting had been practiced from rowboats for subsistence fishing.

It had a crew of two, could carry three tons of salmon and was used as a sail / power fishing boat on the bays and rivers of the Pacific Coast from around 1900 to the 1960s.






The providence of this particular vessel is not known. A friend had salvaged her and though she had a gaping hole in her port side and would not float, he had great plans. He told me these old wood double-enders made great sailboat conversions.





He called it the whaleboat and so did I.




Back then, Hope Island, in the southern Salish Sea was privately owned (it is now a Washington State Park). A friend of mine had convinced the absent owners that they needed a caretaker.
This clever, enterprising young man planned to build a boat there despite the fact there was no potable water, no electricity and no access except by water to a gravel beach.



Gordon completed his task, launched his boat, and sailed off to the Marquesas.

Hope Island needed a new caretaker and another boat project.








The Gillnetter was already beached in a cove nearby, filling with sand and mud each high tide. All that was required was to float the boat over to the boatshed Gordan had built, haul it up the bank and get to work.









I was a much younger man then and often foolish enough to prove something could be done the hard way, just because.









So began months of hand tools, come-alongs, Spanish windlass and pure sweat. New planks and sistered frames cut and shaped by hand. Brace and bit, hammer and chisel, sanding with a wood block. Some oakum, a lot of corking, clamp, fasten, glue and caulk.


Go for a swim at the end of the day to wash off the dust.


Haul all repair materials, food and water over a half mile of inland sea, in a rowing dory.




I didnt really know what I wanted in this boat and it shows. The memory of the old gillnetter comes back to me often these days.

I know how shed be treated today. Forget that pilothouse, maybe no cabin at all. A low aspect schooner rig and two tons of ballast would set this little 26 footer just right.





I moved off the island and kept her on a mooring just below my new home for several years. She never did get a proper motor, just the outboard hung off her stern. For awhile she had a mast with a handkerchief for a sail and she sported a fine pair of fourteen foot long sweep oars. She and I explored every inch of the Puget Sound south of Seattle and had way too much fun.






There are a lot of great stories connected to this boat - remind me to tell you some one day.















These photos were scanned from prints over three decades old. A crummy old camera too.

I often wish Id made more effort to document these projects better, but I never in this world imagined Id live long enough to forget.


This Gillnetter was built with Port Orford cedar carvel planks on white oak frames fastened with bronze screws. She was 26 feet long and 8 feet wide and rode the waves like a canoe.

If youre not bored yet, there are more old photos on Dorymans Flickr site.
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