Eun Mara Gaff Yawl

[Bruce Bateau]

I'm envious of the space and the boat. Nice work. My "shop" is a friend's borrowed garage, just big enough for a portage pram!



The bottom paint job on my boat gets done by rallying neighbors to lift and flip, then hoping for a calm, warm day!

Tales from the land and sea: http://terrapintales.wordpress.com/

Edit Post Reply Reply With Quote

[stromborg]

Off with the old, time to fit the new.

New rudderhead will go just above the waterline and the NACA 0012 rudder will hang vertically. I know, it isn't a fun knife-shape but in my head I'm going for maximum lift.
Also paring down the vestigial keel, it was a bit over 2" thick and just squared off, lots of drag.

[stromborg]

I cast a new gudgeon yesterday, the old one was badly worn out of round. A little less refined than it could be but it will do.



I also decided to build a "raised bed" for the solar panel to live on. Last year it was simply lashed to the handrails, which worked but was clearly a temporary solution. Scratching my head a bit about getting the power cables through the deck and not simply down the forward hatch. The handrails really took a beating, lots of sanding to get them looking reasonable and ready for varnish.

[AJZimm]

I also decided to build a "raised bed" for the solar panel to live on. Last year it was simply lashed to the handrails, which worked but was clearly a temporary solution. Scratching my head a bit about getting the power cables through the deck and not simply down the forward hatch. The handrails really took a beating, lots of sanding to get them looking reasonable and ready for varnish.

Looking good Steve.

You might want to consider the solution I used on Camas Moon. Post #607 in my CoPogy 18 build thread shows it, although not too clearly. I find I don't have any better pictures of it.

Essentially, I drilled a round hole through the deck big enough to comfortably allow the cables to pass through at an angle without kinking. I then made a sort of wedge-shaped cover piece out of hardwood, with a couple of slots cut into the underside to match the diameter and angle of the cables. The cover piece is then fastened over the cables/hole/deck with bedding compound, which serves to both stick it down and waterproof the hole. Seems to work but can't speak to longevity as the boat is so new. I figure it should be easy to replace the bedding compound if I have to.

[jpatrick]

Alex, I will also be checking out those photos. I suspect that I'll have a similar need for cable access into my new Ninigret build.

Jeff

[Andrew Donald]

Alex, would you be able to photograph those cable-entries a bit better please. Bit hard to see but I think I know what you mean from your description.

[AJZimm]

Alex, would you be able to photograph those cable-entries a bit better please. Bit hard to see but I think I know what you mean from your description.

Will do. Might be a day or two before I get out there to take the picture. I'll post it on my CoPogy build thread so as not to hijack this one.

[rgthom]

Scratching my head a bit about getting the power cables through the deck and not simply down the forward hatch.

I thought about something like a sealed or gasketed hole, but just went with a standard deck pipe fitting. Advantages are easy to put in, keeps out rain and spray, and big enough opening to easily pass the big solar connectors.

[AJZimm]

Alex, would you be able to photograph those cable-entries a bit better please. Bit hard to see but I think I know what you mean from your description.

OK, I got out sooner than I thought.

Here is a couple of pictures that show what I did to make an unobtrusive fitting to lead the cable from the flexible solar panels through the cabin roof.

Wedge-shaped piece of hardwood with two angled grooves on the underside to match the cables. With bedding goop, stuck on and over a round hole in the roof, with cables led through at a shallow angle to prevent kinks. The black fitting is the one that comes attached to the solar panel.


Bedding acts as both glue and waterproofing. Here is what it looks like on the underside:


Could have added more goop to the underside but it doesn't seem to need it.

[John Meachen]

Cable glands have been around for a long time,why not use them?

[BBSebens]

Cable glands have been around for a long time,why not use them?

Can’t fit the connectors through them.

[AJZimm]

What Ben said.

My solar panels came with dire warnings about not cutting the attached cables with their factory connectors. Not sure what would happen if you did.

Besides, all the cable glands I looked at were 90 degrees to the surfaces they passed through, which I thought would look ugly in my situation.

[stromborg]

I have a couple of ideas similar to this that I'll be working on this week. The decks have been watertight so far and I'd like to keep them that way.

[stromborg]

Things are starting to come together though with the current weather we are having (very cold with rain/scattered snow) I'm not exactly missing out on many sailing opportunities.


Solar panel wiring no longer feeds through the forward hatch. 1/4" copper threaded rods embedded in epoxy jumper the plywood barrier between outside and inside. The two empty spots are for the LED tri-color/anchor light on the mast. Next up is building a plywood cover that will get Dolfinited and screwed to the piece you see here.



Mounted a piece of trim along the cabin side/roof line. The boat cover I made uses fiberglass poles to give the thing some shape and the high spots on the trim piece will keep them from chafing through the fiberglass on the corners. I'm hoping it also proves to be a good spot for the fenders to hang, the line used to run through the limberhole at deck level but it messed with drainage.



When sailing I flip the fender into it's garage, very handy and once the length is set on the line easy to retrieve and deploy.



Last minute decision to fill in a leaky hatch in one of the stern buoyancy (funny looking word) tanks. There is another one to allow access but this was also under the gas tank and I want to create a more secure holding area, flat floor will help.

Sunday March 5th already...I'm pushing to get all the epoxy work done in the next couple of days so it can cure and be ready for paint and there is some work I need to do on the mast...sure would be nice to be back in the water by April.

In the background I'm working on a mold to cast some fairleads for my ground tackle. I'd like to be able to run the rode from the bow roller to the cockpit and it needs to turn a couple of corners around the cabin to get there.


Waiting on Armstrong Hatch to get back to me on some dimension questions. It would be nice to put one of their 10"x20" models in the vertical faces of the cockpit lockers and seal up the horizontal openings. The Rocna anchor I use will fit through the hole and then be out of the way but accessible. Part of me says just cut a hole and trim it out, in 7 years of sailing I have yet to get anything but rainwater in the cockpit...but visions of getting pooped linger on. Anybody know how much wall thickness the clamps can handle?

[Woxbox]

Steve, I have a round Armstrong in a 5/8" thick deck on a kayak (the reinforcement ring, not the entire deck!) and it goes in easily enough but there's not a lot of extra play to work with.

[stromborg]

Thanks Dave.

As I've been pondering this while at work today going with a classic surgical tubing hatch might be a good way to go.





(Pictures borrowed from Christine's Scamp thread)

Trickiest part might be coming up with a good jig and cutting the hatch-to-be out of the existing panel. Rotozip might be up to it, though i do have pretty small router...

[Woxbox]

For a vertical bulkhead, I agree that a simple home-brew solution would work fine. To do that, I simply mark out a pencil line for the hatch shape, cut it out with a jig/saber saw, and then fasten a lip on the back of the bulkhead. The cutout - now cover can be secured with dogs, hinges, or whatever depending on how often it will be opened. You could rout a groove for the tubing into the lip sections before installing them. I've just gone with the stick-on weather seal for this sort of thing and haven't had a problem.

[stromborg]

With the placement of the hole I need to cut swinging a jigsaw might be an issue. I'll have to take a look when I'm home tomorrow.

[The Jeff]

Thanks for documenting these projects, it helps give people like me ideas. I don't think I would have thought about threaded copper rod to get through the hull.

[Scott de M]

Regarding Armstong hatches, I love them as they work great but I will never use them again as they refuse to sell replacement parts. Duckworks sold parts but their inventory sold out and they are no longer stocking any (as of 2022 summer). The T-handles are a weak point but are easily replaced by removing a retaining clip but Armstrong says that it is too much liability to let people replace them on their own.

[stromborg]

An email from Armstrong:

"The bar on Armstrong Deck Plates can be reversed (remove the e-clip, unscrew the bar, turn it over, screw it back and secure with the e-clip). This will give you a distance between the bar ends when it is reversed and the deck plate of 1.25”."

In the long run I think simple plywood/surgical tubing hatches are going to be the smart move. Certainly would have been easier back when I was building the boat...but there are things you only figure in use.

[Woxbox]

"The bar on Armstrong Deck Plates can be reversed (remove the e-clip, unscrew the bar, turn it over, screw it back and secure with the e-clip). This will give you a distance between the bar ends when it is reversed and the deck plate of 1.25”."

Good to know. I'm wondering if I could do this in order to reduce the amount of space that bar takes up. Every cubic inch counts in a kayak.

[skuthorp]

A brand new build Eon Mara made an appearance in our estuary last Sunday, complete with balloon spinnaker and gaff topsail hoist onn it's own yard. No pics as I was sailing my own dinghy, but I think I know where it came from. It can only get to our end at high tide.

[stromborg]

That's a lot of sail! There is a picture of Minna (the first Eun Mara) in an old Watercraft magazine running a spinnaker. A little more complexity than this singlehander wants to add.

[stromborg]

After a fair bit of moaning chair time I opted to skip cutting hatches into the cockpit lockers and focus on making the current tops more watertight and the cockpit cover shed water better. The lockers are big enough that it is far too easy to overload them with stuff, sinking the rear of the boat well below her intended lines.

I did decide to put a lid on the open box between the tabernacle and cabin


Historically the anchor and rode have lived in there, along with leaves, dirt and whatever random bits of detritus wafted in.



For now the rode lives in there but I suspect the Rocna and rode will end up as sole occupants of one the cockpit lockers.

I had to spend a chunk of this afternoon down below with a vacuum cleaning up the ridiculous amount of dust that had collected. First lesson here is remove the berth cushions, second is close up the boat before you start sanding the exterior. The end of this refit is drawing closer, there are still some small things left to do. A bit of varnish and/or paint on a few fittings and maybe some bronze casting...though the casting can wait until after the launch so that mold is sitting on a shelf waiting a day in the sun. Next to last big thing will be a round of fresh paint on the deck. The actual last big thing will be bottom paint. Or maybe touching up the mast...oh wait there is a new masthead tri-color/anchor light to wire up there too...it never ends

Ah well, the 50 degrees with constant drizzling rain for the past several days wouldn't have been very conducive to sailing anyway.

[IanMilne]

I've just been catching up here, Steve. Lots of good work going on there. I used to sling EM Islesburgh up in a similar way to your method. We haven't got as far as a solar panel yet.
I keep both Kotik's anchors in the cockpit locker. If I am anchoring out I drop the Rocna from there and when it s snubbed I walk the rode to the bow and fasten it there, so she swings around to face it. Cheers,
Ian.

[stromborg]

I've been running the rode from cockpit to a bow roller, passing the anchor and chain outboard of the shrouds and keeping them either in the cockpit or just inside the companionway safely gathered up in a big plastic bucket. When it comes time to drop the hook I just hand it overboard and pay out the rode through the roller, once set I go forward and tie off to the sampson post. I'd like to add a couple of fairleads that would let me run the whole operation from the cockpit, they would need to be pretty big to pass the chain, hence my casting project.

As a singlehander getting the anchor back up and stowed has been the most awkward part, especially with the bowsprit and bobstay in the way. If I can get it out of the water and let it dangle while I get clear of any other boats anchored near me that might be enough. My other thought was to use a buoy on a tripline, if it is the right length maybe I can come up on it, snatch it out of the water and get the whole mess (anchor and chain) back onboard in the cockpit, ready for next time. I have some experimenting to do once we're back in the water.

[AJZimm]

Steve, on my shake-down cruise in Camas Moon, I deployed and set the anchor from its starboard cockpit locker, then used a tag line cleated at the bow, led aft and tied to the rode with a running hitch. Once that is fastened, I let out more rode and let the strain be taken on the tag line. Retrieving it I just reverse the procedure. It worked well except that the tag line rubbed on the bowsprit side stay.

Over the winter, I have added a pelican hook to the bowsprit side stay, aft end, to be able to unhook the stay while anchored so that the tag line doesn't bear on the stay. Haven't actually tried that out yet but should work.

[stromborg]

Bottom paint going on, one more big item scratched off the checklist. When buying paint online be sure to double check your color choice before hitting the "submit order" button. Historically (can you use the word "historically" when referring to a boat launched in 2015?) I've used black bottom paint but ended up with red this year. I guess we're celebrating Xmas and Mexico this year. I'm using Sea Hawk AF33, an ablative paint that has worked fairly well here on the Salish. It will be interesting to see if the black undercoat is showing through by the end of the season. Maybe that should be a goal, sail enough miles to ablate the paint off. For the sharp-eyed, I'll be picking up my 2024 registration stickers this afternoon.

I also got two coats of deck paint down. This is the first topcoat I've put on since using GacoGrip walnut shells to add texture to much of the deck a few years back, still feels fairly grippy but I'll be watching my step.

Between rain showers I've been slowly grinding away at the 3/4" plate steel bilgeboards in an effort to give them a hint of foil-like shape, or at least not simply have drag-inducing square leading and trailing edges. There is only so much one can do with 3/4" to work with but every little bit helps, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

[IanMilne]

Hi Steve and Alex,
I had pelican hooks on the whisker stays of Islesburgh's bowsprit, copied from the photos of Minna in the early Watercraft magazines. When I anchored Islesburgh (usually off the port bow) I unhooked the whisker stay and parked it somewhere out of the way. I also triced up the chain bobstay so that it didn't rub and grind on the anchor rode all night.
Little Glory (29).jpg
Stewart Island, January 2011

Cheers,
Ian

[stromborg]

All rigged up. I fixed a few good "temporary" bodges and was planning on replacing the lazyjacks and topping lifts, mostly because they have been out in the weather for 7 years and are looking a bit gray/green now as opposed to bright white. My regular supplier (Fisheries Supply) says it could be 8 to 10 weeks before they get more in stock so we're scratching that off the list for now. Looking forward to trying out my new NACA foil rudder, it looks big but I based it off a bunch of similar sized boats so we'll see how it goes. Worst case I can always cut it down, though it currently draws just a bit less than the bilgeboards do. Still have to grind the other bilgeboard to shape and coat them but we are making good progress.

I've got a new jib kit coming in the mail (see my thread about sticky adhesive residue) I'm looking forward to getting it rigged up. The old one was designed to hank on the forestay, I flew it from a vintage WM roller furler that looked super cool but suspect it didn't fare all that well. It never set as nicely as it did once I ditched the roller for hanks.

Solar panel hooked up and battery charged so I will leave my new LED anchor light on overnight just to see what kind of draw it has.

[Mike1902]

Such a cool looking boat you have, Steve.
That rudder will make a difference I'm sure.
Look forward to reading the results of it's performance.

Cheers,
Mike.

[AJZimm]

Looking good, Steve.

How much time do spend / have you spent on varnish maintenance?

[Steamboat]

Beautiful! I've been following along quietly for a while. Great work and choice of boat.

[stromborg]

Looking good, Steve.

How much time do spend / have you spent on varnish maintenance?

Too much and not enough.

The cabin sides were once varnished but whatever I used didn't have enough UV protection the plywood started to check and the epoxy "seal" coat failed so most of that got sanded off to be replaced with paint. The spars were only varnished and have held up really well. At this point the cockpit and interior are varnished, being under cover most of the time they have held up very well. The few exposed bits still in varnish, hand and rubrail, bowsprit and boomkin are hopefully manageable enough. The boat was built to use, not be a showpiece, while I do like to keep her in a relative "Bristol" fashion I also want to be able to let the anchor chain hit the deck without freaking out.