Tiller Arm Installed

While waiting for my rigging to arrive, I installed the tiller arm in Shackleton.  This was a really fun step to complete.  After climbing in and checking the position, I believe the arm will work well for sitting or standing.   Time will tell.I left a slight protrusion of the tiller out the back of the rudder head for visual effect.  The pin is 3/8″ x 2 3/4″ and fits beautifully. John Welsford designed the tiller cut out through the transom perfectly.  Check out the 1/8″ clearance when the tiller arm is thrown fully to port.And to starboard.The arm comes through the cut out with a good safety margin above and below as well.Finally, with the rudder completely to port, it still clears the outboard motor bracket.  How did I get this lucky?

Now if that rigging would arrive

Outboard Motor Bracket with Motor

This was my day of reckoning.  Would the outboard motor bracket really work the way it was designed?  Well, in the shop, it appears that it will work out just as planned.   Notice the room for the tiller handle…with the handle at a 45 degree angle.   Plenty of clearance here to run the controls. This photo better shows the relationship between the outboard bracket and the rudder.  I didn’t want the motor to cavitate in wave action.  Looking at the depth of the prop, I don’t force it coming out of the water.   This photo shows the clearance of the tiller arm in the horizontal position.  I’m happy.Notice how the rudder, fully deployed toward the port side, still misses the motor bracket.  This is at the end of it’s swing.

Summary:

Love the bracket.  I’ll post an update once I have had the boat in the water under motor power, but this is exactly how I designed it to fit and function.  

Center Board Trailer Support

I didn’t want the center board to be hanging on the uphaul line as I bounced down the road trailering Shackleton.  So, I looked things over and decided to build a center board support to take the weight off the uphaul line.I took a left over piece of 3/4″ okoume plywood and made a few notch outs to better fit the trailer.Then I found some old leather I had laying around.  I made a 6″ x 8″ cut out.This is approximately where I want the leather to fit over the wood.I used stainless bolts to secure the support to the back trailer cross member.  I used fender washers for a good purchase.  The notch outs allows to board to fit flat and rest on the trailer side member.  I then screwed the leather to the top of the plywood support with smooth pan head screws.This photo shows the center board in the down, unweighted position, resting on the leather pad (I could have positioned the pad even further forward, but it picks up the center board just fine).

Summary:

I plan to drop the center board down onto this pad when trailering with Shackleton.  Note that even if I forget to raise the center board when launching Shackleton, the boat will still slide right off the trailer, as the board rest on top of the trailer cross member and butts up to the roller.  Not a hard modification and makes me feel a lot better about the highway miles I’ll be traveling.

Odds n Ends

Striving for daily progress, I had a goal to install the drain plugs, motor mount and attach CB uphaul lines by sun down.  I got it done.

The first order of business was to remove the drain plug keepers.  I plan to screw in the drain plugs from inside of Shackleton, so the keepers would extend out the back of my boat.  I see two problems with this:  1- I don’t want to be dragging seaweed off the back of my boat and 2- I don’t want water inside my boat, trying to escape through the drain holes, to be forcing the plugs against the drain holes.  So, the keepers had to go.  I plan to simply unscrew and remove the plugs for faster draining.  But, might I now loose them?  Possibly, but I plan to have a few extras with me in my repair kit.

Here’s how it looks from inside the boat. This is about as low as you can install them without getting in the way of the scupper fillet.

(Looking at the outside of the transom)  I rounded over and epoxied all edges of the drain holes.  I then ran a bead of silicon around the outside edges to fill the slight gap.  This will allow for easy replacement down the road if needed.

Next up was the CB uphaul lines.   The blocks allow remarkably easy uphauling of the center board.  I’m really impressed with this system.  I angled the cam cleat to better match the angle of the line.  The blocks and cleat are screwed into the solid stock of the CB case.

Now for the outboard motor bracket.  I mounted the bracket 2 1/2″ up from the bottom of the transom.  Holes in the bracket and transom were drilled oversized and then filled with thickened epoxy.  I drilled out the center areas of these holes and inserted  a 3 1/2″ x 1/4″ stainless bolt.  I used fender washers to better secure the bracket.  You could easily stand on this bracket.  I doesn’t budge.  This photo shows the bolts coming through the motor mount doubler (right side of photo).  I epoxied the doubler in place between the seat longitudinal and the transom doubler.  It was made from one of the soul hatch cut outs.  It consists of two layers of 3/8″ plywood epoxied together creating a 3/4″ plate.  The upper right fender washer needed to be cut in order to fit.  I also had to take a wood chisel to the under side of the seat extension to get the washer and nut to fit onto the bolt.  Notice the bolt pattern was moved off center (bolts were moved toward the starboard side of the motor bracket and toward the port side of the doubler to miss the seat longitudinal…it all worked out).

While I wait for my rigging to arrive, I will continue to get as many small tasks accomplished as possible.  Tomorrow morning I’m applying varnish to the spars and newly built mast crutch.  

Mast Support Crutch & Tiller Arm

When you live in Idaho, traveling with a sailboat is a necessity.   I like my gear neat and secure.  I hate disorganization…I knew I needed a system for all this to come off right.  I also wanted it simple, fast and convenient.  Here’s what I came up with.

Meet my mast support crutch.  I’m using 3/4″ baltic birch.  It’s strong, has no voids and works up beautifully.

I cut out the center area to reduce weight and provide a convenient attachment point to tie down to spars.I notched out the back of the transom cap to allow the crutch to mount tightly against the transom.  The blue tape helped protect the painted surface. Mocked up here to check for rudder head interference.  None.  Also, I needed to check and make sure I could still remove the rudder.  No problem.  Notice the length of the lower support arms (8″ – 9″) which stabilize the crutch in the fore and aft direction.  This thing feels very secure.  Notice the shape of the upper support arms.  They looked OK to me…but this is all about to change.  (First Generation Ham n Egger Enters Stage Left)  Pops was not fully satisfied with the shape of the upper crutch arms.  Before I could say a word, he was reshaping the arms on my band saw.  I quickly snapped this photo as proof of him tampering with my build.  I was forced to give a pass to this unauthorized procedure.  No doubt the upper shapes of the crutches benefited from his eye.  The front support will be bolted to the forward face of the mast box.  It was curved slightly to match the shape of the cabin top.  I kept it low so it wouldn’t interfere with the boom (which will extend forward of the support when sailing).

Summary:

I designed the mast crutch with one spar support cutout as opposed to two.  This will reduce the time and effort required to secure the spars.  I plan to wrap something around all the spars and simply tie them down to the supports.  This design provides about 3″ of clearance between the bottom of the horizontally secured spars and the top of the veranda.  I needed clearance to accommodate the bundle of sail, spars, lines and sail cover.  

Now for the tiller arm.  

I had this piece of red oak laying around (left over from my skegs).  It looked like it might just work as a tiller handle.  After drawing a design that fit the stick, I decided to proceed with the cutout.  Rough cutout waiting patiently for the refinements of life to follow.  2 minutes with the venerable Shinto rasp cleaned up the ends.

Now for the refinement of the tiller arm.

 I made this cutout on the underside of the arm where the arm passes through the rudder head assembly.  It provides clearance for my rudder up/down haul lines.  

Now I’m ready to clean up and do something else for the rest of my Saturday.  

BH #3 Hatches and Traveler Line Hole

I’m striving for daily progress on my Scamp build.  Today, I installed the BH#3 hatches.I had previously epoxied and clamped backer pieces around the perimeter to add thickness to the hatch openings to receive the screws.I used 3/4″ SS screws to secure the hatches.  I also applied a liberal amount of clear silicon around the hatch openings.  This shot shows all the hatches I have installed on Shackleton.  In addition to what is shown, I have wet storage between BH7 & BH8 on both sides of my boat.Next, I drilled a 7/16″ hole for the transom traveler.  I first used the largest counter sink I own to flair the hole opening just a bit.  I then followed up with a standard 7/16″ drill bit.This flared the hole for a smooth opening.  I will epoxy this hole during my next epoxy step.  The hole goes through (from top to bottom) the transom cap, then a solid epoxy layer and finally through the decking.  It should provide a very strong area for the transom traveler line.

Hoping to test step the mast tomorrow.

Building Mast Support Blocks

Back from vacation, I launched into finishing the mast, boom and yard.  I needed to build the mast support blocks to hold the mast within the mast trunk.

I hand a few chunks of red oak left over from building the skegs.  I decided to use these to build the mast support blocks.

I set my drill press 2.5 degrees off level.

I then purchased a 3 1/4″ hole saw.  My mast is a little larger in diameter than others.  I left it a bit rough for a hand hewn look.

I clamped the block to the drill press fence for good support.  Happy with the offsets, I continued to drill.This piece will just slid over the mast and be glued into position as the upper mast support block.    I worked thickened epoxy into the mast/support block junction using my finger.  I then cleaned up the excess epoxy with a flattened wooden stick. I plan to place a fillet around this joint during the next epoxy coating step.

This is the bottom mast support block.  I will be adding the 3/8″ plywood to the bottom to:  1-strengthen the block and 2-evenly distribute of the weight of the mast to the bottom of the mast trunk.  I will simply place the block in the bottom of the mast trunk.

Glued together but still pretty ugly.  I globded extra epoxy near the thin section.  I plan to cut the edges flush with the block and cut a groove into the bottom for water drainage once the epoxy has cured.

While I was at it, I also rolled the first coat of epoxy on all the spars.

Summary:

I’m not sure it’s entirely necessary to drill the holes at 2.5 degrees off vertical.  It seemed to make very little difference.  If you don’t have the tools to do this, I wouldn’t worry about it.  I think there would be enough movement in the mast to accommodate blocks drilled out vertically.  This is one of those steps that I was dreading, but it really wasn’t hard and seemed to go off without a hitch.

Coaming Cap and Rub Rail

With epoxy cured, I began shaping the coaming cap.I cut it close, then filed until flush. A block plane brought the oak down to the top of the plywood. I then filed the top to remove plane marks and gouges. All edges were rounded with a 1/4″ round over bit and then filed for final shape. I then screwed on my rub rail.  I choose Sapelle dimensioned to 3/8″ x 1 7/8″.  I decided to only screw this in place for easy repair or replacement.  I used 1 1/4″ SS screws placed 6″ apart.  I held the rub rail 1/8″ proud of the deck for my desired look.  I wasn’t sure it was going to bend OK, but it went on just fine.  This is a really fun stage to be at here folks…really fun stage.

Summary:

Things are starting to come together for Shackleton.  I’ll be away for a while, so expect delays in my blog posts and progress.  I’m very glad I began this project.  For me, it has been a great experience.  Should you build one?  That’s entirely up to you…but for me, it’s been an awesome experience.

Cockpit Coaming Cap

I looked around the shop for any noble scraps of wood to become the honorary coaming cap.  The red oak left over from the skegs kept calling to me from across the dusty shop floor.  After a proper interview to determine worthiness, the oak got the job.

This is 2 pieces of 3/8″ x 1 1/8″ red oak.  I epoxied them one at a time for easy bending. I ran the oak long to provide the material for the gusset cap.  This should be enough extra to allow me a few shots at the compound cut needed for the gusset cap.

I used small wooden blocks to prevent the clamps from denting the inside of the cockpit coaming.

The aft end was cut short to transition into the coaming prior to the curve.  Hard to see, but I rounded the bottom inside edges of the oak for a smooth fit between the 2 boards.

I then used the Shinto rasp and sandpaper to shape the aft end.

The forward end was cut with a Japanese draw saw.  I left it a touch proud of the gusset.

Then I fine tuned the cut with the Shinto rasp to achieve a flush surface with the gusset.

I then took the left over glued up material and began cutting/shaping the compound angle needed to fit against the cabin sides.

Clamped in place with a small fillet around the junction.  Once cured, I’ll work all the top edges flush and round over all exposed edges.

Summary:

It’s impossible to get all the top edges exactly flush, so I ran both oak pieces a touch proud of the cockpit coaming on the top side.  Then, once all is cured, I’ll file/sand the top oak edges down to match the plywood edge for a nice flush top surface.

Installing Transom Cap Doubler

Before installing the transom cap doubler, I placed a fillet on the inside edge between the transom and transom cap.  This is much easier to reach before you install the doubler.This is another step where you’ll need a bucket full of clamps.  It’s important to ensure the doubler is up tight against the cap.  I placed small wooden support pieces under each clamp to prevent denting the cap.   Originally, I planned to fill the gap between the doubler and the cap shown above, but after thinking it through, I decided to leave it open to prevent water from getting trapped behind this area.  I rounded all the exposed edges with 1/8″ round over bit before installing.  I can’t stand a sharp edge.  These backer pieces will be glued behind the hatch openings in BH3 for additional support.  I rolled them with the excess epoxy.  Summary:

I’m happy with how this turned out.  I have enough room to drill the holes for the rear traveler line (through solid epoxy) and created a nice area for proper water drainage.