and more scows

http://www.rockingtheboat.org/whatsnew/index2010.php#v

San Francisco, Mission Creek, hay scow unloading:

Scows in my blood

I've been a closet Scow fan since I nailed together a sailing toy in my grandfather's basement workshop when I was 12.   "Alma" in the San Francisco Maritime Museum's collection is a living example of what were essentially the Semi Trailers of the late 1800's on S.F. Bay.

I'm always looking for more examples.  Here are my latest finds:

http://www.maineboats.com/print/issue-110/letters-to-the-editor-110



on a Woodenboat posting:

On the water with the Gloucester Gull

The "Gull" out on Spring Lake, Santa Rosa CA.  A beautiful early summer day.  These boats are quite fast.  The genius in the design is that it only weighs 70-80 lbs.  To quote the great automotive designer, Colin Chapman: "To add speed, add lightness".  So true.

After all the 'burrowing' was done, I mixed up epoxy with fillers and used this "putty" 'and fiberglass fabric to both fill in and reinforce the missing plywood areas.  As you can see, a huge chunk of the stem was gone.  The area where the plywood was fastened seemed to be in good shape, so total stem replacement was not necessary.  Honestly, if this boat needed a new stem, I'd sooner have a nice "beach bonfire" with her and send her minerals back to earth, then start from scratch.  New construction is quite a bit easier than this type of repair.. but we perserver.....

Here is it all prepped.  The areas of bare wood have been treated with epoxy which really hardens things up, and waterproofs them.  I had to trim the stem back to good wood before shaping a replacement patch.

This is the "patch", ready to go in:



Monterey Cypress stem patch;
very decay resistant and lightweight



Scrape then Sand the whole interior, then primed.

Here's what we started with:

My Kids are ready and willing to help.  We discover that what lies beneath are a few problem areas with significant rot.  Adjacent to the forwardmost and rearmost thwarts (seats), rainwater probably sat and saturated the wood.  Over time, paint is no protection, and rot kicks in.  Some areas had no more wood and all that was left was the thin fiberglass skin.

We dug and vaccuumed away, but it started to get discouraging.

My helper finally straightened me out "it's not the end of the world dad!"...

Good Kid!

A quick run around the harbor.  Like all Bank Dorys, this one is quite "tender" at first (a tendency to tip easily and very quickly when center of gravity is high).

Lightweight Dory (or Pepe's old boat)

Back in 1978-80, I was a kid in the Sea Scouts, ship #128 "Flying Cloud".  Our skipper owned and lent to the unit, a variety of his personal "smallboats".  A beautiful Lap Straked "Wherry" was by far the best boat we had access to.  The Wherry "Cirrus" was unfortunately, stolen from the pier in Aquatic Park, a devastating blow by far.  It was replaced with a lapstraked "Banks Dory" (named after the "Grand Banks", Nova Scotia).  While the Dory was no where as beautiful as the Wherry, it was simple to build, and I decided at that point, it was the boat for me.

Years later, I run into Pepe again, and he has an old boat for me he has no space for anymore.  This "Lightweight" dory is a simplified version of the Banks Dory, tailored for rowing.

Here is our first trial after an overhaul in the last 4 weeks.

It's a lightweight boat, I suspect along the lines of the "Gloucester Gull", a Phil Bolger/Dynamite Payson design, but I don't have the lines handy. Anyhow, it can easily car-top on my small car and I think I can get away without having to buy a trailer.

I built a 16' Bank Dory from John Gardner's 'Dory Book' when I was 12 (well, it took me 6 years to complete, so really 18).

This was "Rosa", rigged for sail with steel plate centerboard:

This dory was built of 3/4" Phillipine Mahogany and she was very very heavy. Not a great sailboat due to the Bank Dory lines, but solid pulling boat. This boat definitely needed a trailer! I sold her off a few years ago as I just had too many toys to deal with, and very limited storage space.

The kids have always loved small boats, much more than our "big" boat "Spray". The opportunity to relate to the water is probably at the root of it.. they love to lean over the side and drag their hands along. Also, dad isn't occupied with ship traffic, engines, sails, etc.. a small pulling boat on a backwater or lake is just the ticket. I'm glad to have another smallboat.

I've decided to be much more serious about using "Blogger.Com" as a journal for my wooden-boat hobby. I have found that writing helps me organize my thoughts and problem solve much more effectively, and in the end, I have some sort of record of what I've been doing with all my time (so that's what you've been doing in the garage.....) ;)

A friend from long ago, in fact a friend who introduced me to wooden-boats presented me with a 16' lightweight dory he had owned and used for years:

Here the kids are checking it out. The lovely and supportive wife gazes upon our next endeavor.. ;)

Rebuild of a Matthews Power Cruiser

The Matthews Company, in Port Clinton, Ohio started business in 1906 building high quality yachts.

Their range of watercraft built over the years included sailboats, mid-range cruisers, and what today we'd call 100+' "Mega Yachts".


A series of Matthews 42's were at the yard within a couple months of each other. Unfortunately, one met the "Knacker" and was destroyed. Like again, so many boats of the era (1950's), these hulls were made of Mahogany Planking over Oak frames, but fastened with Galvanized Iron Screws. This one had very bad damage below the water line, especially up in the bow. A significant rebuild was in order here.





The man executing the repairs was a young German BoatWright who was employed by North Bay Boatworks. http://northbayboatworks.com/

"Anton" had quite a task ahead of him:

Here the stem has already been replaced with a new one (nicely made). All the black you see is evidence the Oak Frames have reacted with the Iron Screws, mutually destroying each other. There was not much holding this boat together and the water out. Long past due for rebuild and very dangerous if not repaired.












Anton had an additional restriction beyond the complexity of the repairs in that the owner had a very limited budget. Getting an accurate estimate of "how much it will cost" is almost impossible without ripping the boat completely open.



While the boat sorely needs a complete rebuild, this go-around was limited just to the bow. But this is the nature of Traditionally built wooden boats, they are repairable. In a few years, with more money saved up, hopefully the owner can get all the major work done and button the boat up for another 50 years.
















Here she is all planked up and faired, ready for corking, caulking, and paint.
















Here is an example of this series of hulls in a better day:

Tule Lady Refresh

"Tule Lady" has been in the San Rafael Yacht Harbor's boatyard now for a couple months (as of 02-27-09). What the skinny is from the yard rabble is that she's been a regular award winner at variour boat shows through the years. I don't know who her designer is, nor where she was built at this time, but she clearly is a pre-war boat, very 1920's and quite a beaut.

She has been completely wooded down which is to say all paint has been removed both from the topsides and the bottom. This is periodically done on a wooden boat to inspect the condition of the hull and the fasteners that hold it all together.


Like so many boats of this era, Galvanized Iron Screws or Iron Boat Nails where used to build the boat. Over time, they attack and destroy the wood immediately surrounding them as they corrode. "Tule Lady" was refastened i.e. new Galvanized Steel Screws where installed adjacent to the existing nails/screws. Above the waterline, Stainless Steel screws where used.










Now, to the casual observer, one might ask "why not use Stainless Steel below the waterline?.. aren't they more corrosion resistant than Galvanized Steel?"... a very fair question. This boat was originally fastened with Iron. Iron can't be found today anymore, so Steel is the next closest on the "Galvanic Series Index". Basically, the Galvanic Series is a list of metals laid out in the order of their corrosion resistance (or lack thereof).
An example of such a list is shown on the left. Metals that corrode easily are at the bottom, and those that don't at the top. Wouldn't it be nice to have fasteners made from Gold or Platinum? :) Now, as stated above, Iron is no longer available, so Steel was used instead (Galvanized). We all know Steel and Iron rust, so why use those inferior fasteners when Stainless Steel or Bronze are readily available. Well, it boils down to this. Put two dissimilar metals into salt water, and make electrical contact between them (like a salt water soaked wooden plank!), and you will actually be able to measure a voltage between the two! This is the core science behind how your Lead/Acid battery works in your car. In a boat, two different metals used below the waterline produce a weak battery circuit. So cool, now I have "free electricity" right?... Well, actually what happens, is the "weaker" metal (as found on the Galvanic Series Index" will corrode at an ACCELERATED rate.

The old Iron fasteners cannot be removed without tearing out all the wood they are sunk into (they swell as they corrode). The only way to get all the Iron out of the boat is to rip out all the wood (planks and frames). Once you've done that, you basically are building a new boat.


Anyhow, "Tule Lady" was completely refastened, which is a pretty conventional thing to do to an aging wooden boat. But the next step the owner decided to pursue was pretty UN-traditional. The hull above the water was coated in Epoxy. This is a "putty" that effectively and permanently seals out all water transgression. What the owner is trying to do is prevent the wood from swelling and contracting with the changes in humidity in the air around the boat. This can prevent the paint from being stretched and contracted with the wood movement. Eventually the paint will crack if the wood under it moves enough.



Here is the boat in the "paint booth", after all the epoxy putty/fairing compound has been sanded and primed. Once completed, the hull will be so smooth, one wouln't necessarily know it was made from wood! Some traditionalists get all hot and bothered by this, and you'll hear much grumbling. If it means a boat that lasts longer, I don't much mind personally.

Mast Overhaul

I've got loads of photos from my mast overhaul. Goal is to get up and running by April to practice for the Master Mariners Memorial Day Regatta.

New Masthead Light, needed a bracket to hold it. I need to also affix my new wind "telltail" or Windvane, so I designed and built these parts on my lathe.

Couldn't resist the urge to polish it all up...

Matthews Destruction October, '08

This power boat is a Matthews. I don't know the model, but it is of a series of 35'. Here's what is would have looked like in better days:

Beautifully built, and the hull was in pretty good shape. Frames were still solid. Another Matthews of the same lineage was at the yard being rebuilt, too bad the owner couldn't just "swap" boats and put his money into this one (more on that one in the next posting).

I didn't get a chance to take any photos before this one was already chainsawed. Literally tons of Old Growth Honduras Mahogany (the good stuff). Boat was built in the 1950's when this material was still in plentiful supply. Salvaged what I could get my hands on but really not much, just some interior drawers and miscl. Mahogany lumber. I'll use them in my boat "Sprays" interor.

Pacific Northwest Fishing Vessel at the Knacker

Old woodenboats eventually must disappear. The "lucky" ones sink at sea joining maritime lore with 100,000's of ships over the millenia. Others experience a somewhat less dignified end when they are chopped to pieces. My local boat yard is a place where slaughtering goes on almost weekly. A beautiful Pacific Northwest Fishing Boat was on the chopping block in July '08.


With the failing economy, the frequency with which the local "knacker" is wrecking old boats seems to have moved up a notch. At least one a week now, where it was about half that rate 2 years ago. I've witnessed the beheading and gutting of 4 different boats in 4 different visits to the yard over the last 6 weeks. The last is a real beauty, a double ended trawler about 50' long, canoe stern, "tugboat" bow and rubrails. All doug fir, stoutly built in the 20's. A real fishboat, she was still working 'til the end according to one of the 'yard rats' who once crewed her fishing... I'll try and snap some photos tomorrow morning if there is anything left of her.. I'm sure there will be as her hull is clad in 1 1/2" Fir. The story is the owner climbed aboard her where she was impounded, and made a run for it... ramming a pursuing police boat.. I'm guessing he may be a local San Rafael resident now adays, over in the "San Quentin" neighborhood. Sad Stuff..

What I've been up to since 2003

I only recently decided to start blogging about woodenboats, but have been logging my "project" in a dedicated website. My Google page on "Spray" is pretty graphically intensive, but it gives you come background on who you are "dealing" with.