DonorBoat is Done Like Dinner

                          "Yeah, I'm gonna tear it up, gonna trash it up..."
                                                                             -Don Henley




      WARNING:
       The following post contains images that may be offensive to some viewers.  Viewer discretion is advised.

        DonorBoat, a Buccaneer 25, has given up all that she has to offer to the catamaran project. After getting a letter from the county informing me that stately Jones manor's front yard cannot also double as a boat yard,  it's time to get rid of the evidence.


       Donorboat has more than fulfilled her role.  She has provided: 2 mainsails, 5 jibs, a spinnaker, all with lots of life left, a spinnaker pole, spars, serviceable standing rigging, running rigging (some reusuable, some good only for determining dimensions), 5 winches, three winch handles, decent chainplates, myriad cleats, turning blocks, cheek blocks, deck organizer, mast plate, traveller, sail tracks, cars, outboard mount, rebuildable 9.9 hp outboard with alternator and electric start, cockpit controls for O/B, pulpit, stern rail, lifelines, stanchions, dozens of feet of teak trim, opening ports, lights, compass, radio, icebox, head, holding tank, (Unfun to remove,) a cradle... and a 1000 lb. lead keel, which goes to Mars Metal next week, for about $.70/lb.  Her rudder will live on, going onto another Buccaneer 25 that otherwise wouldn't see the water next season.  So, even though DonorBoat's day is over, she helps other boats live.

   Conventional wisdom shared by those who have committed this sort of heresy before me is that the tool of choice is a chainsaw.  We ain't doing surgery here; this is all about high-speed, wholesale, quick and dirty destruction-  that spells chainsaw.  However, a couple of obstacles soon loom before me.

  Obstacle #1:  I do not own a chainsaw.

   Obstacle #1 is easily overcome with a phone call, producing the loan of a chainsaw.  Which brings me to...

   Obstacle #2:  The chainsaw itself.
No tool is more frustrating than a borrowed chainsaw.  To be effective, a chainsaw must a) start, and b) run, and c) both of the above, consistently.

    The tool I have borrowed will perform, occasionally, either a) or b) but not c).
It went something like this:

 *flick ignition switch to “On”*
*prime*
 *pull starting cord"
*pbbbtth*
*prime again*
*pull starting cord again*
*pbbbttthhh*
*pull starting cord again and again and again and again and again and again and*
*pbbbthh pbbbthh pbbbthh pbbbttthhh ppppbbbbttthhh...*
*pant, pant, pant*
*Open Choke*
 *pull starting co-*
*pppbbbtthhhh...ring. RING-DING-DING-DINGGGGGG!!!!!!!*
*Close choke*
*DINGGGGGG!!!!!!...ack.*
*optimistically pull starting cord*
*pbbbbthh*

  Repeat until exhausted or chainsaw gets punted across driveway or you run out of creative curse words.

 Then I did what I should have done in the first place- called up the Holy Trinity of  Electric Powered Destruction.   I scampered into the workshop and grabbed the reciprocating saw, circular saw and jigsaw.  In minutes, progress was being made.

                                                                                                       

     I had been dreading removing the head and half-full holding tank.  Here's why:

  Best Case scenario:   Unbolting the sloshing tank, gingerly shuffling through the cabin with this box of waste cradled in my arms, then climbing up through the companionway, carefully stepping across the cockpit, climbing  up onto the coaming, and then successfully descending the extension ladder 10 feet to the ground.

    Worst Case Scenario:  Do I have to spell it out?

    Based on past experience, what do you think the odds are that I will enjoy the benefits of the Best Case Scenario?

   Luckily, one of the upsides of boat destruction is that it allows a liberating amount of latitude when it comes to component removal.  I simply cut a hole in the side of the hull and yanked all of the head apparatus out through the side of the boat.

    

  Note safety gear and insulated coveralls.  Even though there's no snow on the ground, it was chilly.

   

          Some part of DonorBoat will  live on, memorialized on the catamaran.  Pieces of uncored fiberglass will be reborn as backing plates for hardware, and the prow will be preserved and mounted in the saloon of the new boat.

     Total labour to date, including sorting hardware, stripping the keel back to clean lead, stripping and clipping the hull is about 12 hours.  Having all of the hardware, rigging, sails, etc., on hand has put me days ahead of schedule, and thousands of dollars ahead of budget.

     Anybody need a cradle?



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Catamaran Character Compromise Conundrum

     "She's a combination- Anita Ekberg, Mamie Van Doren..."
                                                            -Rough Trade




      In my dreams,  I draw a Venn diagram where the intersection of "Brian's design skills" and "Brian's boatbuilding skills"  is a nice big fat ellipse of  "Beautiful catamaran, a design tour de force, comfortable, seakindly,  swift and a joy to sail."

     In my nightmares there are screams, snickers, some vomiting and only a few feet of mast above the surface.

    As always, reality will hover somewhere in the big void in the middle.

    With some input from the WLYDO I am redesigning the redesign of my latest redesigned redesign.

    Here's the challenge- controlling the compromises.

     If money, time, skill and space were infinite, I could, and likely would build something like this:



Alas, money, time, space and skill are NOT  infinite;  in my case, more often infinitesimal.  My workspace is small, my budget is small, and my self-imposed schedule for this build is small.
SWMBO and I keep refining our needs and wants as regards this new boat,  clarifying what is a non-compromise point and what aspects are open to new ideas.

  Needs:
  A head with elbowroom.
  A galley with an oven.
  A master berth big enough for two.
  A cockpit two can stretch out in.
  Enough cabin  space for two to lounge with two dogs out of the weather.
  Easy passage forward.
  Hard bimini.
  Wheel steering.
   5'10" + headroom. At least in the hulls.
    Dock Six size  25'-ish LOA max.
    Reasonably handsome.
     500-600 hours build time to sailability.
    Sails as well as, or better than, Whiskeyjack.

   Wants:
    Shower, or provisions for shower to be added.
    Hot water.
    Autopilot.
    Spinnaker.
    Accomodations for 4.
    80 watts of solar power.
    Stunning magazine cover beauty.
    No slamming, 12 knot cruise, excellent performance to windward.
 
   Fears:
   This.

  It may very well be  a perfectly fine sailing boat, but with the slabsided construction and the colour scheme, it looks like it should be commanded by Rommel.




  The challenge of the designs I have crafted to date is the curves.  The bendy- swoopy roofline and cabin sides and the curve of the hull all add up to one thing- hours and hours of fairing.  For mom those unfamiliar with the jargon,  "fairing " is the black art of filling all the dents, dings, gouges, bruises, pits, joints, imperfections and other unsightlies to create a smooth flowing shape which is both pleasing to the eye and travels easily through the water.
  This is one big advantage to fiberglass as a commercial boatbuilding material, fewer man-hours invested in finish.  Once you get your mold perfect, every piece that comes out needs minimal clean-up and fairing.

  Another advantage of fiberglass is that it is much easier to form complex shapes.  Working with plywood and dimensional lumber, one CAN make the nice bendy- swoopy shapes seen on this fiberglass catamaran:


 (Image courtesy of yachtworld.com)
... by cutting the lumber into strips and moulding it into shape, then planing and filling and sanding and fairing and...
... it will be a very beautiful boat that will take the rest of my life to build.

   So, how do we end up with a boat that won't be a floating embarrassment?

   Accept that we (er, I,) don't have the skillset and the patience and the budget required to build a bendy, swoopy, fiberglassy looking boat out of wood. Further accept that we (er, I,) do not have the budget, space and time to build in fiberglass.
 
   But that doesn't mean I have to build a floating Panzer.


Let's celebrate and showcase the material instead of trying to make it something it's not.

   I'm content with the dory hulls. Seems like a good hullform for this purpose,  and  relatively straightforward to construct.  It is everything above and between the hulls that I am constantly rethinking.

   Looking for design inspiration, I found this:





(images courtesy of Woodwind Yachts  www.woodwindyachts.com)

Yes, I know it is not a catamaran, humour me for a second, willya?

Ignore the hull and look at the house.  Clean, handsome,  looks like it might still be handsome if widened to 10-12' in width. Simple curves, simple ports.   Maybe break up the big expanse of overhead with a pair of butterfly hatches, outboard and aft of the mast on port and starboard.

Finish the transoms and the rudders bright. Yeah, it means more maintenance, but not much.  Besides, when was the last time you saw a catamaran with a varnished rear end?

    Round and oval ports instead of more complex sliding windows for ventilation.

 Rather than attempt to slit my wrists on the cutting edge of design, I'm gonna embrace my inner curmudgeon and go retro.

   A TRADITIONAL catamaran, rather than the traditional contemporary catamaran.


    THIS, I can build.

 

  I'll post some drawings soon.  Meanwhile, it's back to stripping DonorBoat.  The clock is now ticking, but that's another post.





 

     Thanks for taking the time to check us out.  Please feel free to "Talk the Dock!"  Link us, follow us or just tell your friends.



 

Wheels for Keels- A Bittersweet Swap

    




    "I don't write songs about girls anymore, I have to write songs about women."
                                                                   -The Pursuit of Happiness








     In February of 2002, I acquired an old VW Thing, the 47th VW I had owned.  It was a project, in need of an engine, some bodywork (a tree had fallen on it), paint and reassembly.  My plan at the time was to do a quick and dirty rebuild and get it on the road by the summer.  Shouldn't take more than 6 months, tops, I figured.

     Last week it finally left the garage.  On the back of somebody else's trailer.

 


       It wasn't as hard to see the car go as I thought it would be.  In fact, as I watched the trailer and it's cargo head out of the driveway, the hardest part was coming to grips with the fact that I was now, officially an old fart.

   I could ignore the receding hairline.
   I could ignore the greying beard.
   I could ignore the expanding waistline.
   I could ignore the fact that I listen to talk radio.

   I could no longer ignore the fact that I preferred standing and sitting while working with wood and fiberglass in a warm house to lying on my back on a cold floor in a cold garage clutching cold tools, under two tons of old rust trying to remove a cold , seized, 40 year old bolt, nut or screw that is going to snap right...about...* ...now.   I prefer the scent of fresh cut cedar and mahogany to the stink of  PB Blaster and overheated gear oil.  I prefer the growl of a table saw cutting ply to the sound of a cut off wheel shrieking through sheetmetal.  I prefer to shake sawdust out of my hair to trying to excavate rust and filings out of my ears.

  Hey!  You kids!  Get off my damn lawn!

   While I was disappointed in myself for not finishing what I had started with this project, I was eager to move on.  It was time.

   Cleaning out the garage was the last hurdle to clear before I could start the catamaran build.  Now, with the garage empty, I could begin to refill it.

   Monday, the donor boat was delivered to Stately Jones Manor.  Time to strip it down, and get to getting.

    Thanks for taking the time to check us out.  Please feel free to "Talk the Dock!"  Link us, follow us, or just tell your friends.