Continued Work on Dighy Dance

We have made slow progress on the Dinghy due to good weather.  It has been really warm so we have to decide if we go sailing or stay at home and work on the dinghy.  We manage to do both and have made a few modifications that I hope will add functionality.

We have completed the foredeck construction and once again Russell (owner of PTW) has done an excellent job with the instructions in the manual.  As you can see there is an extra hole in the deck.

There is a space forward of the mast step bulkhead that once the deck is installed will be impossible to inspect.without cutting out some of the deck.  This bothered me a little.  I decided to add a small waterproof hatch and create a small anchor locker i the bow for a folding anchor.

When I cut out the opening for the large hatch I did not follow the directions exactly.  I know shame on me, but I used a vibratory saw on the strait sections and a jig saw in the corners.  In this way I was able to save the cutout plug entirely.  I used the cutout wood plug as a doubler for the small hatch.  In between the deck and the doubler is a layer of 4 oz. glass cloth for additional strength.  The edges were beveled because the top of the foredeck get a glass cloth cover.

The next step was the aft seats and again the instructions were thorough.  The seats constituted another area that could not be inspected so we did some thinking. 



We decided to add small hatches there as well and used the piece of oakum cut out of the aft bulk head as doubler material.  We debated whether to put the hatches (2 or 1 port and starboard) on the side or top.  While aesthetics voted for the side the top seemed to have more functionality.  Functionality won out.

 

 

Hatch top with doubler.  I taped the hole to keep from gluing the top to the table.  The holes for mounting the hatch hardware are drilled out oversized and will be filled with epoxy.

 

I had been thinking about strengthening the stern bulkhead around the rudder attachment but because the Stern is curve I had to be careful.  I used a piece of the scrap plywood supplied with the kit ad made a small doubler.  The edges were beveled because this area gets a layer of glass cloth later on in the manual. 

I used the existing tab holes for the seats and Russell's trick of small block of wood to draw the doubler down.  This will mean the fastening hardware supplied with the kit will not be long enough but a quick stop into the hardware store will fix that.  I wrapped the blocks of wood in tape to keep them from getting stuck to the doubler and I cleaned out the tab holes for the seat when the block were removed.

 

The weather is suppose to be bad this weekend so I predict some good progress on the dinghy. 

 

Later y'all



Clear Lake Boat Parade

So on November 27th Scott comes home with an entry form for the Clear Lake Boat Parade and announces he would like to participate in the parade this year on December 8 (less than two weeks away).  Me being the very supportive wife replied "oh crap....."  - Scott invited at least 20 people to help decorate and ride the boat with us.  Me being the very supportive wife agreed to buy KFC for lunch and Subway sandwiches for dinner.  We spent all day Saturday Dec 1st creating a sail made of blue lights.

Saturday December 8th - friends show up to help install the lights:  Bert Wagster, James Williams, Patience Allison, Henry and Diana Dubois donated lights and sweat.

Bert

Diana

Patience

Henry

James

 

The rest of the crew arrived later in the day......

 

 

And we were off......Here we are in the parade

 

 

 

We went to the awards presentation and were happy to see the third and second place winners and thought WOW THOSE REALLY LOOK GOOD - WELL AT LEAST WE HAD FUN.  Figuring we had no chance of winning we cut up and had fun..

The presenter then said "The 1st place winner is boat #97 - Kooky Dance"  - being the very supportive wife I started laughing and looked at Scott said "we won" and he looked shocked like I have never seen him shocked before.    Being the very supportive wife I laughed all the way up to the stage and Scott followed me stating "you gotta be kidding me"

Now they are smiling.....

 

 

WE WON 1st PLACE - Sailboat 40 foot + division - Me being the supportive wife am very proud of the vision and effort of Scott Buckley!!!  Way to go Scott !!!!!!!


A big thank you to our decorating crew and our riding crew.....you all made it a very memorable event and could not have done it without you.

Work on the PT11 "Dinghy Dance" continues:

At the last post the dinghy was starting to take shape and the hull was stitched together with wire.  Since that time a great deal has been done. 

·         The hull seams were glued together and faired.

·         The bow was shaped and hardened.

·         The mast step bulkhead was fabricated and installed

·         The main separation bulkhead was fabricated and installed.

·         The dagger board trunk was fabricated and installed.

·         And recently the inboard chine grooves were strengthened and taped.

This is the first time I have use peel-n-ply with fiberglass.  The final product looks pretty good and it eliminateds the need for excessive sanding that would weaken the hull.  In ever case the step taken by the boat designeer are to make this boat as tough as it can be and still be this light.

Gluing up the seams with a tiny syringe.

The bow is shaped and hardened.



The mast step on the left is installed and aligned.



The main separation bulkhead is ready for installation. 



Dagger boad log in in the center of the photograph and attached to the main separation bulkhead.



The chine is taped for strength and appearance using pee-n-ply.

SV Kooky Dance still needs a dinghy.

We are still in need of a dinghy for our Caliber 40 "KOOKY DANCE" and decided we would build a hard one and have a roll up inflatable as well.

We did some research and found the Chesapeake Light Craft nesting dinghy called the Passagemaker.  The Passagemaker is a 12' LOA pram style rowboat with an available sailing rig. The available space on the foredeck forward of the mast on the Caliber 40 was 8' 4" and the CLC Passagemaker (when nest) was 7' 9" but stood about 24" high when nest and was going to prove a tight fit. 

My wife with the new owner during the maiden voyage.

Not detered we ordered and built the CLC Passagemaker.  It took us about 2 1/2 months but the results were worth the effort.  It is a great little boat that rowed like a dream.

The new owner has already run aground in my front yard.

 We even rigged it up with some sails and gave the new owner some basic sailing instructions which will be augmented with on the water instructions.

Then we learned of the Port Townsen PT11 nesting dinghy from an article in Cruising World written by Fatty Goodlander.  Again I did some research and found the reviews great on the PT11 and from the construction detail available on there website (http://ptwatercraft.com/ptwatercraft/Welcome.html) it appear to be a pretty rugged little boat.  Add to the fact it would nest down to 6' and was not as tall when nested, made it a combination of PT11 characteristics that made it a much better fit for the foredeck on the Caliber 40.  I had not even finished the Passagemaker when I started talking about this other boat that may be a better fit. Fortunately I found an excited buyer for Passagemaker where I work who wanted regular updates on his boat as it was constructed.  The new one even participated in cutting the boat in-two.   On the maiden voyage with the new owner I nearly handed him back his check with my apologies.

We ordered the PT11 and waited.

It started off with the crate and reading the manual a couple of times.  All 286 pages of it.  A very good manual by the way.

There was alot of prepping and we had to build a big ole table to boot but last weekend the PT11 started looking like a boat.  We also got the foil kit and worked thru those steps as well.

We had a little problems with bubbles in the epoxy that had to do with temperature.  I was wiping down the rudder and dagger board with denatured alcohol before coating to get rid of all the finger prints.  This had the effect of cooling down the wood and in Houston Texas the ambient temperature was in the 90's.  If the coated piece heats up after the coating is applied it can outgas.  I actually started using a heater in the garage that I would use to heat up the wood and table.  I would shut the heater off before I started epoxying.  that decrease the formation of bubble alot but not completely.  It also made the work miserably hot.

Anyway as we (my wife and I) worked thru this we got to the point in the manual (about page 24 of 286) that we could start making it look like a boat.  This weekend things really moved along compared to previous weeks.  Mosting because it did not involve very much epoxy.  What needed gluing was done Friday night and the rest of the weekend was left for drilling and stitching.

We are pleased with the results and the alignment looks pretty straight.  Some of the scribe marks on the panels as well as some of the tongues are also missing which makes checking the alignment a little more challenging but the quality of tha materials and design made it come together pretty good.

More on the next post.

The dingy gets a set of sails

 Here is the dingy with sails...the next step...in the water for a test sail.

 If you are wondering who is sitting in our boat..well...it's Brian the new owner.  We sold this dingy to him because we found one that better fits on our Caliber....so we will be building ANOTHER dingy starting next week.  Stay tuned for the more pics.

 The first sail going up....

Brian added these cool wheels so one person can move the dingy.  Great idea !!

The Dingy is done !!!

Close......

We are so close to being finished with this dingy.  We only have to paint the bottom white and run the rigging for the sails.