Building the CoPogy 18

[timo4352]

Found that combination slide bolt on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Combination-V...ustomerReviews

[AJZimm]

Found that combination slide bolt on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Combination-V...ustomerReviews

That's the one. Thanks Timo.

I had intended to dig out the receipt but hadn't got to it yet.

[Andrew Donald]

Thanks Timo

[AJZimm]

Fixes, Mods & Upgrades

For increased ventilation, I added a mushroom vent to the foredeck port side just ahead of the pilothouse. As the deck is curved athwartship, I shaped a plywood mounting ring to match and glued it on. I discovered you can in fact sand off KiwiGrip anti-skid if you work at it.


Some caulking goop, some screws, and it is fastened down.


It comes with a trim ring to finish off deckhead inside:


And it’s done. Low profile enough that I shouldn’t trip over it too much:

[AJZimm]

Fixes, Mods & Upgrades

I’m not a leather worker except by necessity. The necessity this time was to leather the oars that I bought last summer.

Some time with the leather punch to make the holes. Straightforward but time consuming:


Doubled-up waxed twine for the lacing:


Strips cut, glued and nailed on for the stops:


The leathers are long enough that I can move them outboard for additional temporary thrust and inboard to cross the handles to reduce the load at the handles.

Next up for the oars is to make some holders in the cabin to stow them, something a little more elegant than the temporary F-clamps and lashing I used on the shake-down cruise. Probably the same location, though. They serve as good clothes and towel racks where I had them.

[stromborg]

I've been pondering oar storage as well. There is a a half formed picture in my head of a slotted bracket forward to hold the blades and a simple bit of line with a toggle aft to hold them against the underside of the deck. Whether they live together or on opposite sides of the cabin has yet to be decided.

I'm doing a lot of sanding right now so there is plenty of time to ponder things. One of which is can I fit the Portage Pram on deck instead of dragging it behind? I did enjoy having the use of it last summer but there are definitely complications involved in having her tag along.

[AJZimm]

I've been pondering oar storage as well. There is a a half formed picture in my head of a slotted bracket forward to hold the blades and a simple bit of line with a toggle aft to hold them against the underside of the deck. Whether they live together or on opposite sides of the cabin has yet to be decided.

I'm doing a lot of sanding right now so there is plenty of time to ponder things. One of which is can I fit the Portage Pram on deck instead of dragging it behind? I did enjoy having the use of it last summer but there are definitely complications involved in having her tag along.

It seems ludicrous to need a dinghy with boats as small as ours, but we can't always beach them. Towing a useful sized dinghy looks disproportionate but stowing it on deck might be even more problematic. I was happy enough with my packraft on my shakedown cruise but it feels to me more like a get-ashore conveyance than something you'd take out for a recreational paddle once anchored. I'll be very interested to see if you can come up with something that works for Marianita, after which I'll shamelessly steal the idea.

[stromborg]

Marianita draws 1'-5" according to her designer though I think she sits a bit deeper than that in cruising trim. I think Camas Moon draws 10"? With the gently shelving beaches we have in abundance down here the boat could end up a long way from both shore and surf at a mid-point in the tide cycle. Having beached Marianita twice it isn't something I'd like to try making a habit of. Our boats are a touch too big for that sort of thing. Ian Milne used to snuggle Islesburgh up to the beach but I don't think they have nearly the tide range we do. Lake sailing would be a whole different experience. I have fond memories of sailing on Lake Tahoe in my Sabot, closer to home we've got Lake Pend Oreille...off on a tangent now, sorry.

Maybe I've been reading too much Maurice Griffiths but "back in the day" I think towing a dinghy was the norm, before the invention of the modern marina anchoring out was your only option.

[Woxbox]

I'll toss in my 2 cents on these questions.

On Terrapin - 18' and one ton - I have the oars to port hanging in a bracket aft on resting on foam on a shelf forward. They're 1/2" shorter than the cabin, so they can't move around much. At first, I was always putting them on deck overnight, but I've since found that they don't get in the way much even if I leave them in the cabin.

91 Oar stowage.jpg

On the dinghy question, I use a packraft and live with its limitations. Having a solid boat to deal with is just too much hassle on a super compact cruiser like this. One limitation, of course, is that the typical packraft is a one-person affair. On a bigger, previous boat I used a 10' tandem inflatable.

[AJZimm]

Thanks Dave.

That oar storage is a little different than what I had in mind but very simple and easy to work with, it appears.

[Woxbox]

Thanks Dave.

That oar storage is a little different than what I had in mind but very simple and easy to work with, it appears.

Right, sometimes you need an oar quickly! I can reach in and pull one out with one hand.

[AJZimm]

Homework for learn-to-draw class:

[amish rob]

That’s lovely. Drawing boats and water is hard!

[AJZimm]

That’s lovely. Drawing boats and water is hard!

Thanks Rob. High praise, coming from you!

It is tricky. Even though I used a reference photo (taken by Galen Piehl at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival) that sketch took about 5-6 hours.

[Dave Lesser]

Homework for learn-to-draw class

Beautiful work, Alex

[AJZimm]

Beautiful work, Alex

Thanks Dave.

[amish rob]

Thanks Rob. High praise, coming from you!

It is tricky. Even though I used a reference photo (taken by Galen Piehl at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival) that sketch took about 5-6 hours.

Boy, don’t I know how the time can add up on a drawing. Keep at it. Your work is very nice.

[stromborg]

I'll toss in my 2 cents on these questions.

On Terrapin - 18' and one ton - I have the oars to port hanging in a bracket aft on resting on foam on a shelf forward. They're 1/2" shorter than the cabin, so they can't move around much. At first, I was always putting them on deck overnight, but I've since found that they don't get in the way much even if I leave them in the cabin.

91 Oar stowage.jpg

I spent some time laying in my cabin yesterday holding the oars in various attitudes trying to figure out which way worked best. At this point I've decided to punt and ignore the issue, at least for now. My berth area is big enough that the oars can simply lay on the cushions against the hull and be more out of the way than they would be suspended somewhere. Problem solved!

[Woxbox]

I spent some time laying in my cabin yesterday holding the oars in various attitudes trying to figure out which way worked best. At this point I've decided to punt and ignore the issue, at least for now. My berth area is big enough that the oars can simply lay on the cushions against the hull and be more out of the way than they would be suspended somewhere. Problem solved!

Isn't it great when you can solve a problem by doing nothing!

[AJZimm]

I spent some time laying in my cabin yesterday holding the oars in various attitudes trying to figure out which way worked best. At this point I've decided to punt and ignore the issue, at least for now. My berth area is big enough that the oars can simply lay on the cushions against the hull and be more out of the way than they would be suspended somewhere. Problem solved!

While I have the room on the berth to do that, I find I need the space for other stuff that I want to store there – e.g. the folding bicycle that I carried on the shakedown cruise.

Isn't it great when you can solve a problem by doing nothing!

At one point in my career, I found myself writing briefing notes on various unforeseen issues for the Board of directors of the company I worked for. You always had to succinctly summarize the issue, why they needed to pay attention to it and what options they had for dealing with it. One of the options you always had to include was the option of doing nothing and what the consequences of that might be. It was always interesting to figure out the impacts and costs of doing nothing (i.e. business as usual), as most people are used to thinking that is the least costly alternative. In the environmental sphere I worked in, doing nothing was often the most expensive alternative.

[AJZimm]

More drawing homework. This one is done with brush and india ink, a medium I clearly need more practice with. The subject is a section of a well-known picture of the Garthsnaid rounding the Horn in heavy weather in 1919 or 1920

[AJZimm]

At the request of Andrew Donald, 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.

[Andrew Donald]

Thanks Alex, something to work on.

[jpatrick]

Alex, thank you. I've filed that photo away for a later day.

Jeff

[BBSebens]

Alex, could you give a report on your anchoring set up? I didn’t find what ground tackle you chose, or how you deployed it.

[AJZimm]

Alex, could you give a report on your anchoring set up? I didn’t find what ground tackle you chose, or how you deployed it.

Ben,
Ground tackle consists of a 6 kg /13 lb Rocna anchor, about 8 m / 25 ft of ¼” chain and about 150 ft of ½” 3-strand rope. It lives in a locker right aft on the starboard side. I also have another length of line that can be added on if I need extra length. About 100 additional feet as I recall.

I deploy the anchor from the cockpit. Once set, I run a tag line (more ½” line) forward through the bow chock to the bow cleat, hitch the tag line to the anchor line, then let out the anchor line until the strain is on the tag line and the boat is streaming from the bow.

I found in my shakedown cruise that the tag line bears on the bowsprit side stay. It wasn’t a problem in the light conditions I encountered last fall, but I have since put pelican hooks on the aft ends of the side stays so as to be able to easily undo the stays when anchoring to get them out of the way

I also have a very small Bruce anchor and line that live in a bag stowed below, as an emergency back-up anchor. I’ve never had to use it and don’t know how effective it would be. Better than no anchor at all, is my presumption.

[AJZimm]

Fixes, Mods & Upgrades

After sufficient crawling about at the forward end of the cabin with oars, clamps and tape in hand for temporary fitting, I found the most out-of-the way-place for the oars. Up tight against the bulkheads and under the deck.

I made a ply bracket for the forward blade end, leathered so they won’t rattle.


Aft a couple of frames, a leather strap with sticky velcro pads screwed to the frame web to hold the handle end:


And here it is in its final stowed position, starboard side. Same thing on port side for the other oar:


The whole set up is nice and snug, easy to get at and won't rattle

[Hugh MacD]

And you can hang stuff from 'em at anchor Nice!

[Woxbox]

Very tidy. I like the velcro-hidden-by-leather touch. That has never occurred to me.

[AJZimm]

Very tidy. I like the velcro-hidden-by-leather touch. That has never occurred to me.

We'll see how well it stays stuck to the leather over time. It's certainly very stuck at the moment. Plan B if it comes unstuck is to take the straps off, punch holes and sew it on.

[AJZimm]

Fixes, Mods & Upgrades

These are a couple of gadget shelves I just finished building and installing. One each port and starboard, and some slats below them to store things like the window covers, chart case, tide tables and so on.

Port side



Starboard side


That’s one more project struck off the list, which started out numbering two dozen after I got back from my shakedown cruise, and had grown to thirty-two items, even as I completed a bunch of them. Still have eight or nine left. Don’t know whether I’ll get them all done before summer cruising starts.

[Mike.Higgins.94301]

It sure looks good Alex.

[AJZimm]

Fixes, Mods & Upgrades

Today was the first decent, sunny, warmish, moderate-wind day that we’ve had this spring, so I figured it was a good opportunity to drag the boat out from under its cover and test out my single-handed mast-raising rig.

Took longer to figure out the right order to do things and get it all set up the first time than it did to raise the mast. Once I had it rigged and adjusted properly, the mast went up and in, in less than two minutes.



Removing the mast was just as simple. Very glad that it all worked as I intended. So much easier than the brute force and ignorance method I originally used.

The legs of the rig are basically extensions of the oars. I figure if I ever embark on a long trip somewhere remote, the rig is short enough that I could take it with me, just in case I ever needed to pull the mast. The likelihood of needing it is low, but I have the option.

[Mike.Higgins.94301]

That is clever and much more portable than what I use. As you know, my tripod is part of the trailer. Good job!

[Woxbox]

Slick.