First Splash

First Splash

Monday 29 January 2018

I don't know if I'm Arthur or Martha?


January 20-21 

The issue with taking something out is that we have to replace it. The easy part was taking the planks out now the real stress test begins. When Ted and I put ourselves in these situations we show our true colours. Ted's mind is the optimist's mind. Everything is going to work out in the fullness of time. My mind, the pessimist, sets out to tell me every possible detail that could go wrong and I make plans for everything to go wrong and eventually come up with a plan to fix it, or break down and sit for hours staring at the boat. I like to think that the two of us make up the perfect realist and thats why we are able to complete the task at hand. Ted and I are also much different in the way we set out to work. Ted thinks about it and makes lists and I need action. Ted's aim is perfection and my goal is completion! 

The plan for the weekend was to start to fit the new plank, but before we could do that Ted needed to find the perfect plank! On Saturday morning (okay maybe it was closer to noon) we spent some time digging through the boards at our local specialty wood supplier. We were armed with a piece of sand paper looking for quarter-sawn mahogany. We got some strange looks as we were sanding of the paint on the end of the planks, but it was worth it in the end! 

I think we spent about 20 minutes at the boat on Saturday. We spent what was left of the afternoon at my father's work shop agonizing over cutting the first plank. 


The one problem with having different minds is that it can take forever to talk the other into going along with one's scheme. We are normally saying the same thing but the other is so caught up with trying to prove their own point that it can be challenging to get anything done! 


Ted, being the lawyer, thinks he can talk me into his idea, but I was a high school debater! That is not a nice smile on my face. That is the smile of I will win this one! 

As you can see from the photo we were not lying about the rot! We didn't realize just how bad it was until we took it out. Where it tapers to a point is the worst of it. We actually didn't think it was rotten at the tip. It was hard to get at from the inside so we didn't know how bad it was. We had just agreed to take it all the way out and thankfully it was a good call. 

We only cut out one of the new planks on Saturday and it wasn't either of us that did it. I am not normally one to shy away from using a power tool but I was a chicken that day! My father went through the process of cutting it out, but I guess he saw the terror on my face and took pity and cut the plank out for us. That was enough excitement for the two of us. Sometimes it is good that we don't spend all our time at the boat. I should also point out that we just got a kitten! Aptly named Slocum, she is our excuse to have short days of boat work. 


She requires all our attention when we are home


Day Two 

To make up for our laziness on Saturday we were determined to make visible progress on Sunday. The second plank that we took out was very damaged where the plank began to taper and we knew that we would be fools to try and use it as a template. As Ted was doing something else I made a spiling template. It doesn't look like much, but it is like a treasure map and gives us a detailed reproduction of the plank. 





I then checked my template and cut out a dummy plank



This was the something else that Ted was doing. He was planning down the board in various places so that it would fit perfectly. 

Slowly slowly... Careful careful! 



Almost



By the end of the day we managed to get it to fit properly. We still need to round the inside and plane  the caulking bevel. But it is nearly ready.




This is the photo I sent my mother

And this is what she sent back 
Support can come in many different forms! 

Thursday 18 January 2018

One Plank, Two Plank, Blue Plank... No Plank

January 13th-14th


Removing the Forward plank with the help of the indomitable Jamie Blunden!  


There was a plan when we began this project. The plan was one step at a time, making sure we did not get too far ahead, so if we got stuck we would have plenty of time to solve the the issue before the summer. But, like rules, plans are meant to be broken! 

On Saturday, we stuck to the plan. We drove down to the South Shore with the boat's new best friend! Ted's friend, Patrick Knee, who is a carpenter and bravely joined us to see what the racket was all about. Leaving at the crisp hour of 10am we set out for a day of boat work. It should be noted that it was rather windy that morning. As we got closer to the boat shop someone said, 'I wonder if the power might be out'. 

In winter there normally isn't anyone around on the weekend at the shop doing work on their boats and for this reason the power is turned off at two different fuse boxes. We have been shown the ropes and know to turn them on and off every time. But when we arrived we could not get the lights to turn on. Dread. Did we actually just drive 40 minutes to try and work on a boat in the dark without any power? What are we going to do? We can't just waste the day like this... it was a warm weekend and we wanted to get work done before we met the frozen weekends. 

For some reason my sister was messaging me using a WIFI system. And I was answering her telling her that there was no power and that it was unlikely that we were going to get work done and we probably should all just meet at the pub and workout our livers. But then I thought, if the power is out why is the WIFI working...? Then I went into the heated section of the shop and the furnace was turing on. Slowly the wheels starting turning in my head. I went to the fuse boxes and started flicking some of the switches with labels. And sure enough lights started coming on. Now at this point I had a devil on one shoulder and an angle grinder on the other. Do I tell the guys that the power is on (they were looking at the boat with flashlights, or do I not and go to the pub?). 

Maybe the mirrors at the shop are more truthful then I originally believed. We appreciate the spelling!

Anyone reading this knows me and they know that I am a horrible liar and my conscience would eat me alive! I would make a horrible spy. Of course I turned on all the lights, I did feel a bit like a god. 



Patrick Knee! The man, the myth, the legend!

After the lights came back on, we figured we needed to make a template for the new plank. My dad, again the wise counsel, advised that we make a 'dummy plank'. He had some pine that he wasn't planing on using anytime soon and gave it to us to see if we could make it fit before we attempted the real plank. Restless is planked with African Mahogany and we don't want to destroy a potential new plank! 

We had to clean out the area where the new plank would go. Earlier I had grinded off old bolts and screw ends from ribs that we screwed from the inside as well as out. I don't think fastening frames that way that is common practice...

Trying out the fit! 

Nearly the perfect fit. The water you can see on the hull is from rain. Remember when I said it was windy? Well it was so windy that a fine spray was making it through the building! All I can say is that at least the planks are not drying out! In the background you can see the bow of the IOD La Diva

Until we are able to cut out the Mahogany we are at a stand still. So as we were nearly at the end of our day, we decided to start cutting out the other plank! PLAN RUINED. Now we are not allowed to have any issues. 




So far I am the only one brave enough to cut into the boat, with Roger the router. My second time using the router went a lot better than the first!


Our reward. There is a piece of seaweed on it because we needed to cool the beers down, we got a bucket of icy sea water and sat them in there for awhile.  


Day 2

What else were we suppose to do but finish what we started; out with the second plank! On Sunday we had Jamie with us and we were able to remove the second plank. This time in one piece. We learnt a lot from the first plank; mainly, if it is stuck, there is a screw that we have missed. 




Ted and Jamie counting screws


Instead of sanding down the paint to find the plugs we use a paint stripper. This is me slathering it on and scraping it off. I loathe sanding bottoms, I'm pretty sure you would be hard pressed to find someone that actually enjoys it! The stripper also means that we do not make a mess on the boats that surround us by creating dust from the sanding. 

The inspection. Leonard the light comes in very handy when we are looking for those hard to find plugs. 

The hardest working team member: Leonard in the background doing his thing. Shine on you crazy diamond!


Jamie looks a little bit too happy to be pulling out the cotton caulking! I should also note that this boat seems to attract tall dark bearded men. She must have a type! 


Removing the cotton caulking is a slow process. We try to be very careful not to break it. First you have to dig out the seam compound and slowly start to pull at the cotton. If it breaks you have to start again and dig out the compound. I am always there gently whispering behind them as they dig with chisels, 'be careful not to damage the other planks!'. If I see one of them getting a bit frustrated, I am there reminding them to be gentle. Sometimes there are murmurs that I can't hear but I am sure they are only positive, thoughtful words directed at me.


Where once there was a plank, now there is not! Are we a little ahead of ourselves? Yes. Is there a foreboding doom that fills the air when we look at what we have done? Yes. Does a certain three letter phrase ring in our ears, WTF? Yes. We know that if we get lazy, overwhelmed, or make a catastrophic mistake we will not be sailing  Restless this summer. But our other options were slowly watch the boat rot to death or pay a professional to do this work. We love this boat to much to let it die and we need to save our money for regattas!

My father gave me some wise words once as he was working on my mothers wooden folkboat Rondo, nicknamed Rotto. His advice was never own a wooden boat if you cannot do the work on it yourself. He also told me that if you think it's stupid, it's stupid. Well, you can take from that what you will, I myself am slightly confused! 


Jamie and I left him up there. We couldn't let him take out another plank! 



Saturday 13 January 2018

Planks and Butts

Overheard January 7, 2018

Dayna: Are you sure you want to do this?
Ted: Yes.
Dayna: Once I do this there is no going back. 
Ted: I know. We are ready. 
Dayna: Last chance to stop. 
Ted: DO IT! 

That was an actual conversation Ted and I had last weekend. No, he did not get face tattoo, we removed our first plank from Restless. After a month of reading and buying all the necessary tools, we managed to remove the rotten section of the plank! 

Last year, when we replaced one of the rotten frames, we discovered that the plank beneath the frame had a bit of rot. No one ever wants to find that on their boat. We wanted to take it out right away, but after some wise counsel from my father we decided to tackle one issue at a time. So we spent the summer with the looming task ahead of us. That said, when we were sailing in the breeze we were very happy we prioritized fixing all the frames!    

Between the summer and our fall haul we had forgotten exactly which planks were rotten, so we had to do a bit of prodding and poking. Once we found the two that have to be done this year, we made sure to mark them on the inside and out, knowing that we were not going to be able to get to the boat again in December. Why you may ask... Well, Ted and I are social butterflies and we enjoy a good Christmas party, we also were away during New Years weekend. Woe is us!

When we made it back to the boat last weekend, we knew that if we didn't cut the plank out that weekend we would be pushing our luck in the Spring. This wouldn't be such a big issue, but I am away the entire month of March, so we lose a whole month before we want to launch in May. It may sound strange that Ted doesn't want to do this without me, but, it is hard trying to work towards a goal without the task master (me)! And I understand, that though we normally have other people that help us, sometimes we don't, and believe it or not, even if we might get a little hot headed with one another, we are also one another's cheerleaders, and constantly reassure one another. 

So last weekend was it! My dad had directed us to this amazing book , The Boatwright's Companion; Repairs Below the Water Line by Allen Taube. It goes through repairing nearly everything that we have to do. It even has a section on a good working attitude! For this project, we have read, studied, and photocopied the entire chapter on replacing a plank. It is one thing to read, it is another thing to do. So we needed to psych one another up before we removed the plank. 

Another important part, beside just understanding what you need to do, is having the right tools. And we have tried to do things in the past without the proper tools and hated our lives and spent much more time trying to complete a task. So this, being a very important project, and knowing that already we will be taking more time than a skilled boat builder would need to do what we are going to do, we made sure we did not leave a tool out! 

And to give a bigger appreciation to the tools, I have decided to name them. Which might sound strange... But! It also makes our lives slightly more interested when you ask for a tool by a human name. The new tools that we have bought are as follows! Leonard, the light; Cecil, the saw; Roger, the router; Harry, the heater; Henrietta, the other heater; and Django, the drill.

Leonard the light hard at work 

So there we were, Roger in hand and Leonard lighting the way. We made a template for cutting through the plank and there was nothing left to do but cut a large slit in our boat. Success! That was the easy part... We spent the better part of 3 hours digging out every plug to find the screws and bolts beneath. I was not allowed to remove any of the slot heads. Ted doesn't think I have the patience for it, I think he is wrong. After we got the easy ones, i.e the square heads, we set about screaming at the slot heads until they budged. Some just spun in place, so we had to hole saw around them and attack them with the vice grips. The worst part was when we realized that the reason some of them were not coming out was because they were bolts. We had completely forgotten about the bolts! They had been in there for some long, that we could not get the nuts to move. I had to tell Ted to break all the heads of the bolts and punch them through. There we were alone in  boat shed with me telling Ted, 'Yeah you're going to have to break its head off". I can only imagine that if someone happened upon us they would be terrified!



Our fence for Roger the Router. I should note that Ted and I have to maturity of 12 year olds. and snickered every time we said 'butt block'. 


The final result. No going back. Ted made me cut it. I am not sure if it was because he wasn't confident enough to do it or if he could not bring himself to do this to the boat. 



Once we removed all the fasteners we could find we then set about pulling out all the caulking cotton. I was so cold at this point all I could do was hold Leonard and cheer Ted on. 

Once there was a plank

Now there is not




There it is. We thought we would be able to get it out in one piece. But, there were screws that went from the inside frames out, we were not expecting this. So we ended up with one break in the middle. But we thought we did a pretty good job for our first time.

As I write this we are onto the harder part of the planking. Replacing the plank. Luckily we had some outside help from Ted's good friend Patrick! Stay tuned for more tales and pictures. 

Wednesday 10 January 2018

The Beginning


To begin with, I should introduce myself. My name is Dayna and I am the one that got us into this mess. Both Ted and I grew up sailing and come from sailing families, so really, I suppose we could blame our families, and also the friend that introduced us.

Ted started sailing IODs the year before he purchased Restless. He loved the design and he was made an offer he could not refuse. He may have also been been prone to suggestion by a very shady character, who promised to help him repair an old wooden boat. That shady character's name may have begun with a D and ended in an A, but that is besides the point!

When we first saw Restless, her name was O2, she was white with a black and yellow waterline and had baby blue decks. She was pretty in her own way, but we wanted to make her our own and ensure she stood out in our local IOD fleet in Chester. So the first decision to be made was the colour of the hull, and I have to give full credit to Ted. He chose the green and really went out on a limb. He was not sure if the colour was going to come out as he imagined. He was thinking of the Chester C, Whim, that resides in Halifax. He knew he wanted a similar type of colour but not a copy. After Restless was sanded, primed, sanded again, and the first coat of green went on we knew she was going to look good.


After we sanded the hull down (I only started taking photos after we sanded her down)

Putting on the primer. In the background you can see the IOD La Diva. We had a rib race with her owner the next year!

That face! I was so tired and only had a tiny roller!

Ted acquired Restless in the winter and we were not able to work on her until the Spring. We have been very fortunate to work on her in an indoor shed. I think after every weekend the yard owner comes in and shakes his head thinking, 'what have they gotten themselves into this time!' What we are doing would not be possible without this help.

That spring was not just a new paint job. Buying the boat we knew there was some rot in the transom. But we did not know at the time that the entire transom would have to be replaced. We also replaced the two top starboard planks adjoining the stern. (These are just small issues in our 33' boat). Ted's friend Peter came down and helped out with those.

This was the moment of truth. Ted did not speak when I painted the first side. It was only after he saw the entire side and we both stepped back that we knew the colour was right



I would receive these cryptic texts from Ted during work. I would normally just tell him to stop what he was doing and wait till I got there. Typically he did not listen. 



Ted graduated law school in April and lucky for him he had an entire month off between graduating and starting his articles. Also lucky for him, my father is a boat builder and has been a fountain of knowledge and has been there to hold our hands throughout this project...every year... also shaking his head... knowing exactly what we have gotten ourselves into

Jamie and Ted had removed the transom to use as a template for the new one. They decided that it also deserved a beer at our local pub! 

I would be remiss if I do not mention our good friend Jamie that comes down to help out, brings his drills, and if he is in a really good mood brings us timbits! Jamie and Ted worked very hard to replace that Transom. He is a regular fixture on the boat, not just fixing but also sailing. With his fun and lighthearted outlook, he also helps bring us perspective when the boat gets frustrating.

Working on Restless in the winter is a battle, both physically and mentally. Every year we take on new and more challenging projects. Last year, we replaced and sistered 12 frames, and also reshaped one mast floor and built a new one. Now we are onto the planks. We are not in a heated building and it is a battle to stay warm in the winter. We usually have two space heaters running (which I will talk about in a later blog). Whenever Ted and I disagree on the best approach to a boat project, Jamie will talk sense into one of us or come up with an entirely new idea!



The new plywood transom that my dad taught us how to do. It is laminated plywood with slits in it because we need bigger curve then the old transom told us. 


Meanwhile, I was working. I like my job - but I start early in the morning and when I was having to go to the boat in the evenings to sand and paint... and answer various about questions boat plugs and glue... (my dad is a boat builder, I have worked on boats pretty much my whole life, but only recently started working in the trade, so I have some knowledge about somethings). I eventually reached a breaking point - the first of many! I swear sometimes Restless hates when Ted and I work on her; demon boat. Maybe it is just me, I am the only one that cries, as far as I know. But my mother always told me that boat building is mainly blood and tears.



 The first year we worked on the boat Ted took some photos. I think this one is my favourite. I can't remember what I was writing/drawing but I am sure it was important. We had also just painted the first coat of bottom paint and it is hard to see but the waterline is also on. We worked from the bottom up because of time restrictions. 



I should mention that this transom, if anyone buys the boat sometime in the future, will never come out. I think we emptied an entire tube of 5200 back there. If you see black you have found it! 

So I think I may have fallen asleep. Did I mention how tired I was! 


 I was doing a lot of boat work at this time and turned into Hercules Unchained. If you want to have killer arms like First Lady Michelle Obama, I suggest painting boats for a living. It was also getting very hot, it was May, and we were watching the planks dry out. 

Just before we took the painters tape off. I think we launched the boat for the first time a day or two later. 





 I cannot lie. I don't think last years paint job was as good as this one. The paint was newer and there was less humidity and I think the tears mixed with the paint and thinner made it shine like this.



When we finally went to sail her home, Ted forgot to bring the tiller with him so we had to improvise! As most of the people who sail with him know it is not the first time something like this has happened. For everyone else I am sure you are wondering where the tiller was. It was 40 minutes away safely sitting in our apartment. 
This photo is very special. The white boat in the background is the original IOD Aileen built in 1936. The owner of the boat is also the reason we were able to get Restless and it seems fitting that they get to spend the majority of their summers moored next to one another. However, I think one does not have half a plank missing out of the side of her at the moment. 

Stay tuned for the plank blog! 


The Dark Harbor 17.5

When I am not slaving away in a cold shed on Restless  I am helping build beautiful custom wooden boats. Last winters project was a Dark Ha...