Spindrift Photos

[Howard]

Getting closer to completion. In these photos, she is just placed together....not bolted up. Paint needs some touch up and the bright wood finished. She might be ready for a test float in a few weeks.

Will do the full photo spread when she is completed. If there is interest, I may do a narrative of what I learned building her...the good, the bad and the ugly.

[Gordy Hill]

Beautiful work Howard!

[Dale Niemann]

She looks great Howard.

What is her name?

Give us the Good, Bad and Ugly.

Dale

[rlchenry]

Gorgeous!!!

[Howard]

No name selected as of yet. I'm thinking Hijinks.

An alternative is Peacock. She will have as many as 5 different types of varnished wood. Either hideous or attractive, depending on your point of view.

A quick rundown of my thoughts, as a summary to help other builders (but consider the source and take it with a grain of salt):

First on the issue of nesting vs. non-nesting, unless you really need to break it down to haul or stow it on deck, I'd suggest the non-nesting version. This boat is to be a tender for a larger cruising boat, so when in actual use, I have two loose seats to deal with, the oars don't break down, so they don't stow easily; when it rains or when being towed, there are two separate sections to bail out (self bailers are expensive and you need 2 of them.....and they apparently let water in except when you are moving). I also think the one piece boat is an easier build. I don't know if anyone has ever done it, but I've wondered if for a cruising tender, a CB is not the better option, again, to avoid having the loose daggerboard to deal with.

Materials: I'd suggest using ONLY Okume plywood. It handles the bends in the front bow section the best. It's light in weight, yet plenty strong, and finishes well. I used Western Red Cedar for all my internal cleats and transom stiffeners. Light weight, glues well and rot resistant. Other hard cleats, mast step, etc. are Doug Fir. External wood is swamp Cypress for the gunnels (would suggest you follow Grahams advice and rip these from plane sawn CCA....maybe not the new pressure treated stuff. Epoxy may NOT work with it). Seats are white ash. Knees and breast hook were red oak, but after having coated it three times with epoxy and still getting bubbles, I realized it was a rotting mess waiting to happen, so I bit the bullet, hacked that out and replaced it with black locust. Very hard, very durable, impervious to rot and looks remarkably good finished bright.

Consider Tom Lathrop's rope trick for a protective bumper on the keel.

Get your hardware from Graham. I intended to use Beckson inspection ports. They are higher quality, but I had a SeaFit and used that to pre-drill the holes, thinking they would match. They don't. SeaFit it is.

Building:

For marking things out, the first thing you do is make or find yourself a good clear batten so you can mark things out fair. For the bottom and side panels, mark and cut both halves at the same time so they are exact twins and cut outside the lines and plane the edges to the line. I used butt joints but after having to deal with fairing the tape and epoxy high spot, I'd try a scarfed joint next time. On the whole, probably no more work is involved. Measure 3 times and cut once. Repeat that several times.

Stitch together with the cheap, rebar tie wire. When unfolding the "books" and stitching together, give those taped bow sections plenty of time to cure. Several days at least. They will be under enormous stress and if the epoxy is a bit green, they can pull apart. Don't ask me how I know.

Gluing on the gunnels, dry fit blocks under them on both sides to the point where you want the bottoms to be. Leave the tops a bit proud so you can plane them flush later on. When I glued mine together, there was considerable twist in the bow sections between the front bulkhead and the seat sections. They wanted to slide everywhere but where I put them. With blocks beneath them, you have something to clamp down to. There is not only a curve, but also a twist and getting them pulled together takes considerable clamping pressure. Enough to squeeze out all your epoxy. I'd mix in some finely ground walnut shell (30:100 grade) or the System 3 non-skid granuals (plastic) to act as "spacers" to keep from squeezing out the epoxy. You can clamp that as hard as you want and it won't matter. And of course you work from front to back, side to side as you go, so the boat stays symetrical and doesn't rack to one side as it would if you only glued one side, then the other.

When taping the seams, be very careful to get out any air bubbles, either in the fillet joint or at the selved edge of the tape. Any air bubbles left will be there forever. In fact, be very careful in how well you do your fillets and taping. It will save you hours later on.

You need to get good at epoxy work in general, and you will. You develop an instinct on which hardener or mix of hardeners to use, how much to mix, how long you have to work, etc. My climate varies from zero in the winter to 100 plus in the summer and everything in between. Yet very few times was I able to mix more than 100 ml of fillet mix that it didn't go off before I could use it. More often than not, the fast hardener will be heating up before I can finish mixing it. I used Raka and had good luck with it, except for the speed. It would help to work up a fillet "receipe"...knowing just how much fumed silica and wood flour is needed for a standard mix of a glue up, bonding mix, or a fillet mix, so you don't waste time playing with it.

The jury may still be out on the topic of primary vs. secondary bonds and pre-coating, but I'd be tempted to pre-coat everything, when you have it laying flat. If you are worried about bonding, tape off the edges and just pre-coat the middle sections. You will get a better finish.

I put down non-skid. A very fine sand. Much finer than walnut shell or even the model RR ballast Charlie suggested. With 5 or 6 coats of paint on it, it's still plenty rough to give some grip, but you could stand or kneel on it without grinding your skin up. After one use, will probably never ever be able to get it clean again, but I won't be sliding around either.

I used System 3 LPU paint. Do thin it as Ray has suggested and make sure it's dry between coats. It's durable, doable and looks good.

One last thing....a trick I learned from a trade carpenter...a guy who does it for a living, that is to quit staring at it, and do it. You need to think things through, but you can't stare at it frozen by indecision forever. Get on with it. There are very few mistakes that can't be resolved by plywood and epoxy.

I've run out of gas and time.....may add to it later as discussion heats up.

[ChrisObee]

quit staring at it, and do it. You need to think things through, but you can't stare at it frozen by indecision forever. Get on with it. There are very few mistakes that can't be resolved by plywood and epoxy.

Aint that the truth!! Mr Belt sander is your friend.

[RHCherry]

Way-To-Go!!!

You have to post more photos and keep us updated on what you've learned. I just ordered the plans for the Spindrift11 a couple of days from Graham and Carla. Can't wait to get started.

Thanks for the beautiful photos. Nice Job

Rick Cherry

[Howard]

A closed bailer probably doesn't leak, or not enough to matter. I probably didn't explain what I was thinking about them.

Again, this is intended to be a tender for a cruising boat. If it's on the water, it's going to get wet, either by rain or if towed, spray or waves. If you are using the self-bailers, at rest, it's my understanding that they have to be closed or water comes in. So at anchor, if those are left open, the boat will fill up with water. When you start to move (boat is being towed), you would go open them (both of them for a nester) or leave them shut and let the spray/waves collect. If they are shut and it rains, the boat will collect it all. So the self bailers are really only bailing when the boat is moving. A handy feature to have if you are sailing and getting wet. If this were a one piece boat, I would have put one on. I might still.

You could put a transom drain plug in (slightly above the waterline at rest), so any rain water/ collected tow water will drain out, and pop the plug in and bail out the remaining collected water when you want to use the boat. But again, with a nesting boat, that is all X2 (front half and back half). If you don't drain the front half, you still have to bail that out. Perhaps the best of both worlds is a transom plug with a check valve in it. But I suspect that really does leak and again, unless you put in two of them, you are only draining half the boat.

Again, my only point about all of this is that unless you need the nesting features of the two piece boat, I'd suggest you stick with the one piece design....for a whole variety of reasons. And part of this is anticipation of problems. She has not been on the water yet, so what do I know?

[kmrmike]

Howard, The pictures of your boat are Awsum, a great job! I'm not that far in the building of my Spindrift 11, but your photos boost the incentive to keep going.

      Again, Congratulations on a great looking boat!

[Steve Day]

I have to add one to the bailer conversation. I have two bailers in my Spindrift 10N and I love them! ;D

I was coming down the Mobile River after hurricane Dennis in 2005 towing my dinghy behind the 40 footer. I had both of the bailers open and the boat was towing very well. There was A LOT of floating debris in the river that day. It was there after the high water of the hurricane The dinghy hit a piece that almost immediately filled the bow section with water from spray as the branch hung up in the towline at the bow of the boat. At that same time it had kicked the self-bailer closed so that the water could not get out of the boat.

I stopped and brought the dinghy alongside. The boat was pretty sad looking with the bow section floating really low on the built-in flotation and the stern section floating as it should. I got the branch un-fouled and off the boat and opened the self-bailer and got underway slowly to let the boat self-bail. As soon as it started moving, the boat started to float higher and by the time I got up to speed, she was floating high just like she should.

Those self-bailers work, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Steve

[Greg Luckett]

WOW, I cannot believe I missed this thread until now, and only found it because I was looking for advice about self bailers.  When you posted I was dealing with a couple of family emergencies.  Now I am wondering what else I missed. :-[

Howard, your Spindrift is awesome and looks professionally built and your advice here is going to be very helpful to me on my Spindrift.  Thank you!!!

Greg.

[Howard]

I think she is now ready for a test float. Greg.....I was careful to take those pictures from a distance. Like all boats, and especially one built by a first timer, there are goofs......you just can't see them from that distance.

The shot of the breast hook is to show what black locust looks like finished bright. I like the looks of it and not much chance it will ever rot, break or do anything but just sit there and take it.

The other thing that is apparent when you put the sail up is the complication of all the rigging. This is a reefing sail.....I don't have a line long enough for it right now......but the tail end of the boom gets awfully busy. But all those sail controls should make her a good sailer and trainer to teach a guy how to tweak sails for best speed.

Boom is currently hem-fir.....a mock up to see if I have things in the right place. It will be replaced with a boom made of Doug Fir. Mast is a birdsmouth, made of Doug Fir. I should weight it to see how it compares to the aluminum ones. It needs to be cut down a foot and I notice it is bendy at the top. Cutting it down with take some of that out.

[kmrmike]

Absolutely beautiful! I love the bright wood...Love the whole boat!!

[JeffM]

Howard, she's gorgeous!  (And you call yourself a first-time builder!)  Your close-ups are wonderful.  Keep us up-to-date on your launch.

[P Doug (WA)]

That is such a beautiful boat!  Maybe I should add the plans for one to my collection of plans, no wait, my new years resolution was,"no new plans until I finish the first boat I started!"  I'm working on it, I'm working on it!

[Hirilonde]

Looking great Howard!  I really like traditional colors combined with bright details.

Locust is a great choice tor trim and details.  Abeking and Rasmussen used it a lot, and all of the Concordias have at least some.  Some have a lot.  We save chunks of it at work just for making cleats (the hardware) and such.

[Howard]

She survived the tank test. Took her to a friend's pond.......if something bad happened, I figured I wouldn't have so far to swim.

Being sailed by an intrepid skipper......being rowed by David.....his parent's pond.

A couple observations.....the daggerboard didn't want to stay down. Floated about 6 inches out of the case. Either needs to be weighted or held down by the bungee that is not installed yet. She is very stable. I've been in dinghies so jumpy you could hardly stand up in them. This one is not. You can stand up and walk around....stand up to step off to a dock, etc. And with one person, very easy to row. She really steps out.

Under sail, in almost no wind at all, she would scoot right along. I never did have enough wind to heel her over, but she would move right along anyway. At speed, she responded so fast to the tiller you could throw somebody overboard from the sudden change in direction. Like power steering...point her where you want her to go and she goes. Almost zero leeway. In a good breeze, sitting on the aft bench, you could probably her to plane easily. In this light air, it would have been nice to move forward. Again, a one piece hull gives you a continuous bench down the side to sit where you can best balance her out. With the nester, there is no place to put a seat that you can leave in. I think Steve added some cleats and a temp seat.

Loaded her up and an hour after bringing her home, a front blew through and we had gusts bending the trees way over......probably 50 MPH plus for a few moments. Had a person been caught out in that, I don't know what you would do. I don't see how you could get that sail down quickly and easily while on the water. Since she has a boom, perhaps a sail that is laced on? With a topping lift, you could let go the halyard and let it drop on you. A mess for a moment, but at least an upright mess.

[P Doug (WA)]

Even prettier on the water.  You have every right to be proud!

[Norman Colter]

I agree! Very nice job on a very nice boat.

Norm

[Howard]

This is more about sailing than photographs....another tank test and no camera this time.

Took her out to a larger lake....my regular sailing lake for a day sail. Light and variable wind, so no definitive report on how high she will point. Could almost never get on a consistent tack on one side, let one able to compare one tack to another. But....in any kind of wind at all, she would do 1 knot. With ripples approaching cats paws....2 knots. In a breeze that might have been pushing 4 to 6 inches of chop, the GPS briefly pegged out at 3.6 knots....sailing flat. Often times there wasn't even enough wind to cause the mainsheet to go tight and she was still moving. Off the wind, with the mainsheet hanging in a curve.....2 knots. Beats rowing.

I also started out sitting in the stern......tacking out of a cove. With the bow up like that, she wasn't pointing very high. So I moved to the middle seat to balance the weight and she took off on a tack that took me clear out of the cove. A reminder of the importance of balance...fore and aft and it's affect on center of effort and pointing ability. In a breeze, the middle seat would be too far forward, but for now, I had no other place to sit. Perhaps a short, plastic bucket as a  temp movable seat?

Don't know how far you can sheet the boom in before she stalls. I mostly kept it centered over the oarlocks when pointing. Also have about a foot of distance between the transom top and the block on the traveler for the mainsheet. Don't know if that is too much play or too little in that traveler line. Vang worked well to shape the twist and to keep the boom from rising when sailing off the wind.

The reefing mechanism works well. let go the mainsheet, pull on the reefing line, tighten up the now reefed main. Very simple to operate the way it is rigged, very easy to work. Wish my Montgomery worked that well. Don't know if the regular masts have a lot of bend in them, but my one piece birdsmouth mast does. It seems stiff when handling it, but you can really see it bending under sail. Mostly in the top 5 feet or so.

It could be because I stayed upright, and only sailing in light wind, but I never took in a drop of water over the sides all day long, and I was out for over 4 hours. Rides the waves and boat chop like a duck.

Lastly, gave the rowing option a spin....without the sail rigging. Once in the groove, I was able to easily get her up to 2 knots with 7' oars. I covered a few hundred yards in less time that it took to type this.

I still marvel at how stable this boat is compared to other dinghys I've been in. You can actually stand up and walk around and step out at the dock, vs. crouching and waiting for it to jump out from beneath you like those others want to do.

Lastly, I even had a few powerboats go by and honk and wave (and left me rocking in their wake.....they don't understand). Anyway, honking and waving normally doesn't happen much.