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Hello Everybody,
It was great to see some of you at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival last September. We hope to come again, but not this year.
Having sold my Eun na Mara Islesburgh (the red one) in 2014, and built a Sooty Tern, I was feeling an urge to build a “Kotik”, inspired by the photo Stromborg put on the “Oughtred Kotik” thread of 2011. Andrewpatrol has it on his “Oughtred - Grey Seal” thread* too. Bert put some more on “Gartside double-ended cutter #106”, page 5, later. There is some interest in Kotik on this forum but not much real information, so I will try to keep you informed of my progress. The building method is standard Oughtred. My favourite threads are “Oughtred - Grey Seal”, “Building a Wee Seal (very slowly)” and “The Cape Henry 21 building thread”. Thanks, all of you. I must like building boats, or something.
Kotik is a Wee Seal Mk II, stretched from 18’6” to 21’ 7” long, and 7’3”wide. The word “kotik” is Russian for seal pup, or “wee seal”, as it was a Russian, Mikhael Markov, who instigated it. It is basically a lighter version of the Grey Seal. A brief description is on the Classic Marine (UK) website. I bought the plans last year, which are for the Wee Seal Mk II with three extra sheets for the lines plan, construction plan and sloop sail plan of the Kotik. Later I received the Kotik yawl sail plan, the alternative 3-berth interior, and off-sets for the planking laps on the moulds and stems. The yawl has a jib-headed mizzen sheeted to the rudder, and a Norwegian tiller. You have to loft the hull, as it has a new lines drawing which does not fit the Wee Seal moulds, and the stems have more rake.
There is a standard 2-berth (double or twin) interior, with space for either a navigation station or an enclosed “head”, opposite the galley, just inside the companionway. I am planning to build the 3-berth version, which has quarter berths and a separate forward cabin with a third berth and space for a toilet (e.g., Porta Potti). The forward cabin can also be used as a double, in which case the toilet could be put in the main cabin just below the companion hatch, which is where we had it in our Eun na Mara, with a plywood lid as a step in from the cockpit, and a bottle of hand sanitiser. (Taking a trowel for a walk was the usual way to go.)
You can see my Eun na Mara Islesburgh (the red one) and Sooty Tern Trondra, on www.alistego.com, www.geoss.co.au/Eun_Mara and the thread here “Southern Sooty Tern”. There have been some unforeseen delays in starting the Kotik, but I’m onto it now.
On 29th April 2016 I got my Sooty Tern building frame down from the rafters and converted it to a lofting table with three sheets of 16mm construction plywood, as specified for the moulds. I covered them with three sheets of 3mm MDF which I have used as the lofting surface. I did not paint them first, as I thought my lines would show up well enough, but the rubbed out lines still show up pretty well too. You do have to change a lot of them as you go along.
The four-foot width of the boards was sufficient to loft the hull without the keel, forepeak and rudder-head, so I added bits on later to include those. I drew the body plan on a fourth sheet, (scrive board, pronounced “screeve board”, as all the books say) lined up with the middle one of the three, so the nails I used to mark the off-sets marked both sheets at the same time. Later I filled in the body plan on the lower sheet as well.
After I had lofted and faired the lines, I drew the bulkheads, bunk tops, centre case, cockpit sole and seats, and floors onto the lofting to see how they all fitted. You can put as many parts as you like into the lofting. You just have to decide when to stop. As others have said, it really does help you to think about what you have to do, before you build it.
Yesterday I removed the 3mm drawing boards from the table-top, cut the scrive board in half, cut out the three biggest mould halves from it and drew around them onto the 16mm plywood, to make the complete moulds. I had to be careful to get the two halves centred and lined up correctly, to match the off-sets. I will be able to get some of the smaller moulds out of the middles of them.
Watch this space for photos. I have to brush up my technique for posting them.
Cheers,
Ian
*Edit 30/10/19: The "Oughtred - Grey Seal" thread is now "Re: "Margaret" Grey Seal by Iain Oughtred" by Andrew Donald.
It was great to see some of you at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival last September. We hope to come again, but not this year.
Having sold my Eun na Mara Islesburgh (the red one) in 2014, and built a Sooty Tern, I was feeling an urge to build a “Kotik”, inspired by the photo Stromborg put on the “Oughtred Kotik” thread of 2011. Andrewpatrol has it on his “Oughtred - Grey Seal” thread* too. Bert put some more on “Gartside double-ended cutter #106”, page 5, later. There is some interest in Kotik on this forum but not much real information, so I will try to keep you informed of my progress. The building method is standard Oughtred. My favourite threads are “Oughtred - Grey Seal”, “Building a Wee Seal (very slowly)” and “The Cape Henry 21 building thread”. Thanks, all of you. I must like building boats, or something.
Kotik is a Wee Seal Mk II, stretched from 18’6” to 21’ 7” long, and 7’3”wide. The word “kotik” is Russian for seal pup, or “wee seal”, as it was a Russian, Mikhael Markov, who instigated it. It is basically a lighter version of the Grey Seal. A brief description is on the Classic Marine (UK) website. I bought the plans last year, which are for the Wee Seal Mk II with three extra sheets for the lines plan, construction plan and sloop sail plan of the Kotik. Later I received the Kotik yawl sail plan, the alternative 3-berth interior, and off-sets for the planking laps on the moulds and stems. The yawl has a jib-headed mizzen sheeted to the rudder, and a Norwegian tiller. You have to loft the hull, as it has a new lines drawing which does not fit the Wee Seal moulds, and the stems have more rake.
There is a standard 2-berth (double or twin) interior, with space for either a navigation station or an enclosed “head”, opposite the galley, just inside the companionway. I am planning to build the 3-berth version, which has quarter berths and a separate forward cabin with a third berth and space for a toilet (e.g., Porta Potti). The forward cabin can also be used as a double, in which case the toilet could be put in the main cabin just below the companion hatch, which is where we had it in our Eun na Mara, with a plywood lid as a step in from the cockpit, and a bottle of hand sanitiser. (Taking a trowel for a walk was the usual way to go.)
You can see my Eun na Mara Islesburgh (the red one) and Sooty Tern Trondra, on www.alistego.com, www.geoss.co.au/Eun_Mara and the thread here “Southern Sooty Tern”. There have been some unforeseen delays in starting the Kotik, but I’m onto it now.
On 29th April 2016 I got my Sooty Tern building frame down from the rafters and converted it to a lofting table with three sheets of 16mm construction plywood, as specified for the moulds. I covered them with three sheets of 3mm MDF which I have used as the lofting surface. I did not paint them first, as I thought my lines would show up well enough, but the rubbed out lines still show up pretty well too. You do have to change a lot of them as you go along.
The four-foot width of the boards was sufficient to loft the hull without the keel, forepeak and rudder-head, so I added bits on later to include those. I drew the body plan on a fourth sheet, (scrive board, pronounced “screeve board”, as all the books say) lined up with the middle one of the three, so the nails I used to mark the off-sets marked both sheets at the same time. Later I filled in the body plan on the lower sheet as well.
After I had lofted and faired the lines, I drew the bulkheads, bunk tops, centre case, cockpit sole and seats, and floors onto the lofting to see how they all fitted. You can put as many parts as you like into the lofting. You just have to decide when to stop. As others have said, it really does help you to think about what you have to do, before you build it.
Yesterday I removed the 3mm drawing boards from the table-top, cut the scrive board in half, cut out the three biggest mould halves from it and drew around them onto the 16mm plywood, to make the complete moulds. I had to be careful to get the two halves centred and lined up correctly, to match the off-sets. I will be able to get some of the smaller moulds out of the middles of them.
Watch this space for photos. I have to brush up my technique for posting them.
Cheers,
Ian
*Edit 30/10/19: The "Oughtred - Grey Seal" thread is now "Re: "Margaret" Grey Seal by Iain Oughtred" by Andrew Donald.
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