Build of my 34' Venus Ketch

[wizbang 13]

LouLous' boat Pluto. alaska cedar/bronze/epoxy built in1979 photo from 2009this is the boat I helped PEJ,the designer, to build when I was 25.

[skaraborgcraft]

launching a boat with guiness.....what a waste! Thanks for sharing. After a hairy atlantic cruise in a 2 ton 26 footer, the venus 28 was my dreamboat,i even got as far as getting the plans and enquiring about the timber,but when i was quoted ten thousand sterling just for the oak for deadwood and frames (in 1990),i realised this boat would remain a dream. A foam core version built in Falmouth came up at around the same time,if i remember she was called "blue moon",and at the time was for sale at fiftenn thousand sterling,she was a little rough,but solid .and had a saab inboard.......at the time finding the finance was impossible. I still see the Venus as a long term liveaboard capable of going anywhere. As a side note,my uncle was part of a team who built a few in ferro around Essex/Kent. I know one was called "stonechat",i think its still around and owned by the sea scouts. Cheers.

[wizbang 13]

Here she is recently.60,000 miles later.Damn topsl, is twisted at the truck again!

[Paul Pless]

Here she is recently.60,000 miles later.

Very cool thread wizzer!

[Yeadon]

To get her sailing, $12,000 and 1500 hours. We weren't ready to go cruising yet, but in a few years time,we did. With my 18 month old son.

That's pretty impressive. What year did you launch? 2004? I'm sort of surprised you got her sailing for $12,000. A project of this scope suddenly seems somewhat doable.

You really ought to bring her to Home Built Boats Weekend at CWB ... July 24-25. More here.

[wizbang 13]

Yes ,We launched in Dec 1984. (15 months) Went cruising,full time for 7 years,88-95.My wife, son and me.
Seattle to New England. 24 days beating Panama to St Maarten.
38 days Acapulco to Neah Bay. Slow but safe .
In 2006 we took her back to the Eastern Caribbean,where she is now.
I only have my Kutter and the Evil,stinky,noisy,2 cycle, Wizbang here!!

[Yeadon]

... that's right! You're bringing Wizbang to the show. I spaced that. I included her on the website here.

[Sailor]

WOW Talk about impressive.

[stewart711]

Not to take away from your boat building or the enormity of the undertaking, but the most impressive thing in your pictures was the fact that at times the boat was supported by maybe 8 2 x 4s.

[wizbang 13]

8 would be twice what is needed.

[amish rob]

Just read this. Neato.
Wiz,
How did you bolt the concrete ballast? I only know of casting the bolts in the 'crete, but you used PVC to make holes for bolts. What do the nuts snug up against?
Just for curiosity, as I don't plan on casting a ballast anytime soon. Both of my ballasts are on summer vacation right now

[Reef_Kringle]

The Venus is a fine boat. Still, it is the Tahiti Ketch that inspires young men to forget family and home and sail off to the Orient in search of long time happiness. It is a boat that will cause grown men to weep and women to scream and pull out their own hair when it sails by. The blood of first born sons has been used in the christening of such boats. Legends.

[Hwyl]

Still, it is the Tahiti Ketch that inspires young men to forget family and home and sail off to the Orient in search of long time happiness. It is a boat that will cause grown men to weep and women to scream and pull out their own hair when it sails by. The blood of first born sons has been used in the christening of such boats. Legends.

Tahiti ketches are so slow your hair could fall out of it's own accord while one sails by.


Venus are not slow, at least the couple I've seen sailing, they're rather slippery and handy.

[wizbang 13]

One inch galv bolts go into the pvc, it's a perfect fit. Wood blocks,later chislled out, were set in the bottom of the ballast keel mold to take the bolt heads.My inspiration for the 34' venus was Pauls original 28'er. She was wrecked 4 years ago. Been a bad coupl' of years for Venus boats. My boat is no speed demon, but she sails circles around Tahiti ketch!! She is in the BVI here. I took the jib boom off recently. Since putting in the 40 hp , we used it less and less. But I carried it for over 20 years.

[amish rob]

Wood blocks in the mud! Brilliant. She looks pretty with all her clothes on.

[chuckt]

I totally missed this thread. Nice work!

[yesiam]

Metoo--very nice.

[potomac]

I was just asking about this build in another thread. I'm glad to have found it. Did you sell her Wiz or does she just summer without you? Now that I ask that, summers in Washington, winters in the Caribbean, years spent cruising (with a family, no less)- you've got a lot more figured out than I do.

[wizbang 13]

These few years , last, this and next, We are mostly in WA ,that my wife can finish her career. Later, We will do six and six.
The boat is 7-10 months a year hauled out in the BVI or Antigua. A carvel boat could not do it. Well, they try.
I am going back down in a month, Jah Willing.
It is too big a distance to go back n forth to the west coast annually, 70 days under way(plus that pesky canal) , opposed to 15-20 days to commute the east coast.
Visiting Bermuda is more pleasant than transiting Panama Canal.
I don't have anything figured out. I started when I was young,and I have always been lucky
.http://www.flickr.com/photos/wizbang...n/photostream/

[potomac]

Turning 40 tomorrow. I guess I'm getting started pretty late. I'll take lucky. The alternative blows.

[Duncan Gibbs]

Wiz iz cool!

Thank's Bruce! Such a nice thread, and I'm sorry I hadn't found it, or been directed to it in this instance, sooner.

[MiddleAgesMan]

I missed it too! Thanks for getting this back up! Cool thread and boat and builder and designer.

[wizbang 13]

Me so cool.

[wizbang 13]

Woodwind's Heiney Dole assisted prop aperture. FG tube permanently set in the sternpost. The little holes go directly in the tube for water cooling the bearing. I have a max-prop, but it is too "un simple" for my taste.The dungeons and pigeons are galv steel, they have been slathered /faired with epoxy from the git go. Very little corrosion. I have always kept the zinc to a minimum, but hardly ever was in a marina.

[wizbang 13]

I discked off 25 years of bottom paint about 3 years ago. Boatyard in Virgin Gorda, no environmental mentalness. After being stored in the boatyard for 6 months, the old bottom paint looked like a dried mud lakebed. I asked the yard what was theie "policy" regarding dust. They looked at me sideways and said, " dis a boatyard mon". Spun it in 2 days, a dozen 16 grits.She was "painted" with system three, so I did not "wood" her. I rebuilt with various epoxy "coatings" not resin.

[Dan St Gean]

Great thread Wiz!

[Thad Van Gilder]

I love the green mizzen... what cloth is that made from?

[wizbang 13]

Oh That old thing.
It is 3.8 oz white dacron that I painted with thinned out alkyd enamel.
When new, I built the mizzen(s) heavy, from heavy cloth, as the designer recommends. Eventually I came to prefer a light weight one.
Being anchored most of the time, I usually leave the mizzen up. The light weight burns up quick in the sun, so by painting it , it lasted a bit longer.
Yes, It got stiffer. It is gone now, my old main is about to become my new mizzen.
This kind of business , rotating sails, re cutting, using cast off sails, was supposed to be a theoretical/romantic advantage of a gaff ketch, and ,to a point it is.
The biggest sail, the main, is only 250 sq ft. All the others are easy to make, cut, salvage, cobble.
Over the years, decades, I have saved a bundle on sails and gotten better at making them.

[wizbang 13]

In the Sea of Cortez about 1990. 7 sails.Still had a vivatex mizzen and inner main staysl.

[wizbang 13]

Moonlight, I wonder if this could be "Bluemoon" from post 56?
Edit,, Hey, wtf happened to half of these photos???

[wizbang 13]

Heading South in2006, just the 2 of us. We had just left San Diego bound for Panama , hopefully non stop, but on the 18th day out, we got hit by Hurricane Sergio, 200 miles west of Cabo san Lucas. We went into port after we got hit for a few days. 10 days later, we recieved a sat nav call from our son at home that Jans Dad had died, so we went intp Costa Rica so she could fly home. It was while there alone I turned on a computer for the first time and sent my first e mail. Lotta detail in this pic. My mini fluro masthead light, homemade radar gimbal, good look at my dingy frapped down. Had a fairly new set of sails then, I made them all cept for the main.

[wizbang 13]

A junk rig venus

[euro]

Thanks for this thread... hadn't spotted it. That boat has attitude. P

[gilberj]

I am interested in your keel . I have have had one boat with a concrete and metal keel and some to do with another. My boat was definitely tender. There was little form stability and the lack of effective weight (SG perhaps 2.5 to 3) meant the buoyancy of the keel severely reduced the effectiveness of the weight. The other was a larger Colin Archer type. Again she was a little tender, for the same reasons though less so.
How stiff is you boat??

[wizbang 13]

Here she is in a squall.Oh ,Venus 34 is not stiff. She has slack bilges, very deep V. When sitting upright, there is NO flat area.
But that is not the fault of the ballast keel. Or the 1000 pound mast.
Her natural position , as any monohull, is when the V part is flat in the water, either side. Deep V heels over more.
Sitting upright is very UN natural for her.
The stiffest boat afloat is a Cape Cod Catboat, and she has NO ballast!

[gilberj]

I know about that. Form stability of the cat is different from the ballast stability of a deeper bodied hull. Rozinante and Folk-boat are designed with a high ballast ratio and are stiff and weatherly. Both heel easily and develop the righting lever as they go. Anyway thanks for the reply.

[floatingkiwi]

The video of the windy reach. That is LIVIN man.
I just fitted my gimballed alcohol stove into the port side galley I just designed on the folkboat, because of a comment I read from you about how it is easier to make a cuppa tea and have right of way at the same time that way.
Thanks mate.
What is "pesky" about the Panama Canal?

[wizbang 13]

Glad to help FK, It is something I learned, i didn't invent it!
I went through the canal in 88, 95 and 06. , with Woodwind.
Each time was more expensive, but that is not a complaint and is to be expected.
In 88, I passed through just months before the invasion and tensions were high.
All three times we were warned not to be victims of crime. Even inside the supermarkets one can get mugged. Off "campus" it is very dangerous.
But then there is the pre choreography of the actual transit. Taxiing to many offices, buttloads of paperwork and time consuming fees.
At the last minute, if your line handlers do not show up at 6am, the whole transit can fall apart. It is a FULL day of motoring full speed, 40 miles!
In 95 the transition was happening (US to Panama control) , and things were looking a bit funky.Oil dripping down the lock walls ,broken stuff all over.
In 06, We saw tension between the people (pilots) at both sides. Hispanic Panamanians in the South and West Indian Panamanians in the North.
If you get through without incident, and when the experience is behind you, it is amazing.
And, I just like to sail from A to B without stopping.

[GWB]

http://mark_boden.tripod.com/id36.html

[floatingkiwi]

I recognized PEJs foul weather viewing dome , in two different photos.If thats what it is?
Quite a character by the look of him. Is he still about mate?
Makes me sad I offed the dome I was gonna put on my boat.

[wizbang 13]

Yes Kiwi, He is up and running. He sailed into Carriacou last winter from the Azores with a 17 YO breasted thing.

[James McMullen]

Bruce, yer a total badass! I would do almost nothing the same way, but I think yer awesome!

[wizbang 13]

Thanks James.
Remember I was 29 when I built her.
If you do NOTwant a boat that takes one third the time, one third the money and one third the maintenance, DO NOT build like this.
Stick with a Larrynlin boat for that!

[James McMullen]

Yeah, trad. carvel is how I'd go today. Is that what you'd do if you had a time machine? Seems to me that in the long road, nothing is more repairable than carvel.

[wizbang 13]

The only thing I would do differently is save up for Alaska Yellow rather than use the Mt St Helens fir for the planking. Maybe a few layers of dynel.Start with a 30hp, might have never changed 3 times.

I feel the repairability of carvel is a self fulfilling prophesy.
A carvel boat could not be left alone in a boatyard down there.If one tried, there would be repairs.Good luck getting good wood in a hurry .

The perceived difficulty of repairing strip plank is a myth. Granted, cold molding over one will add a bunch more steps. Mine is one layer .Inch n a half square.
Granted, I have not actually repaired my boat.
Edit, in the spring of 2012, I cut out a few black fir areas.

[Potter]

Man, This thread makes me feel like I've missed something in life. Wizbang, as always, Truly an inspiration, I hope that someday I too can build something to explore "my" world with.

[sailboy3]

80 gal epoxy, Hamilton marine sells 50 gal drums for $3000. Phewww. Boats iz expensive. Do you have more down below pictures?

[wizbang 13]

The Sys Three Resin was about $35 a gal in 84. I bought the 403 in bulk.
Still, It was expensive.
But the epoxy let me rationalise using Galv. fastenings and the Mt St Helens fir. Both of which would have been suffering by now if I had built carvel.
(I was not about to build my own carvel boat, I am a glueworker, not a shipwright)
Of course the keel, frames, and the lowest planks were AYC, but the fir to plank the boat was only$600. All the fastenings about$300.
The epoxy was almost half the cost.
An epoxy boat is a system. It is not like buying some resorcinol and gluing a few pieces here and there.
Every piece of wood on the boat is 100% covered with epoxy resin.
Woodwind's interior is very basic. A sawzall job. I gutted her after 3 of us lived aboard for 7 years, it was getting funky. There is no fancy joinerwork. And I do not hesitate to modify anythingwhen the mood hits.

[wizbang 13]

Pilot Bunk, underway. Yes, I always carry the tenor pan(steel drum) there. Egg timer.Solid board, no lame ass lee cloth

[wizbang 13]

Underway here too.Port side, opposite of pilot bunk. 2 burner primus. All my water is in 5 gal jugs, no tanks.Sink drains into 5 gal bucket to be emptied by hand.The small "bug sprayer" has sweet water, for showering, it is HOT sailing below in the Caribbean. Only a small ventilator(4") .Small wood door on the left is for the galley, it closes.Chart on my engine box.