Fitting Out for Smallish Boat Cruising

[Bruce Bateau]

So, despite having two perfectly good boats, my First Mate and I decided we needed one more.

My friends Doug and Michael fixed up the rotting hull of this beauty, but were ready to move on to other projects. Last weekend I became the boat's steward.

While I can run a table saw and mix epoxy, my forte is more in the realm of adventure, so I was glad that they could fix her up and leave me only to work out the operating systems. Although she is now structurally sound, she's only been on the water a few times and for all intents and purposes is a new, empty boat.

Over the winter I'm going to fit her out for cruising for two and will post a few pictures of what I'm doing, where I'm stumped, and what I'm excited about.

-Bruce

[cstevens]

A great beginning! I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[Dryfeet]

That there 2 foot-itis can be debilitating….

Glad the First Mate is ‘IN” and looking forward to seeing what choices you make.

[Max F]

Cute boat.
I´ll be following.

Cheers
Max

[pcford]

Check with Messrs. Yeadon, Graybill and Thorne. If you have been around these parts at all, you will know that they are all full of the droppings of the gentleman bovine. Nonetheless, if you proceed carefully they may be of some help.

[Toxophilite]

That's a handsome boat. What is it?

[WI-Tom]

That's a handsome boat. What is it?

Bolger Chebacco, lapstrake version. A real beauty!

Tom

[stromborg]

This will be fun to watch. Thanks in advance for taking us along.

[Hugh MacD]

Beauty, Bruce! Looking forward to watching your fitout and future adventures! Love the Chewbacco design!

[csmead]

Finally! I've been waiting for this thread. Boat looks great, Bruce! I'll be fitting out my Chebacco this winter too - when I finish building it...

[The Jeff]

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

[Ober27]

I'd love to see a few more "before" photos.

[Bruce Bateau]

I'd love to see a few more "before" photos.

OK, well let's start from the start. My friend Michael, who some of you might know from his blog DoryMan, knew a guy who liked to buy boats, but he didn't really use them.

We'll call him The Collector.

The Collector decided it was time to part with some of his treasures. Michael connected us, and I went to take a look.

When I showed up at his spread, this is what I found:



And from the outside, the boat looked pretty good:

[Hugh MacD]

She does ​look good! And from the inside....??

[Mike1902]

Cool boat. I like the low profile cabin and the jaunty sheer.

[Woxbox]

I'm on board with this thread. And the interior....

[John hartmann]

Subscribed, and following with interest!

[Ben Fuller]

Trying to remember the name of the Canadian NW gent who has put hundreds of miles cruising his Chebacco. I helped on a capsize demo at Port Townsend some years back. It was very very hard to capsize. He stripped out the cruising kit for the demo, but it would have been well sorted out. He chimes in on the forum; I'm sure some forumites know his name.

[Yeadon]

Jamie Orr owns a Chebacco. He’s in Victoria.

Nice boat, Bruce.

[Bruce Bateau]

Thanks Tim. Jamie has been feeding me advice by e-mail, some of which I'll share later.

The poly tarps on top were the nice kind. The silver kind. But still, a tarp is a tarp. Even the nicest tarp is still junky.

And when I looked inside, I found that water and leaves and dark things had gotten inside. It looked more like a bog than a cockpit.

I bucketed the whole thing out, hoping the puddles were recent. After removing a lot of leaves, mouse nests, and muck, I realized that it had been wet in there for a LONG TIME.

There was a floor panel beneath the muck, but it didn’t look like the actual planking of the boat. I was too involved to get a picture of any of this.

When I noticed there were bits of putty dabbed on, I realized it was a piece of plywood over the log or some kind of ribs. It was too stuck to remove, but soft enough that I pried a lot of it apart.



The hull looked ok, but I could not figure out how far the rot went.

[AJZimm]

Trying to remember the name of the Canadian NW gent who has put hundreds of miles cruising his Chebacco. I helped on a capsize demo at Port Townsend some years back. It was very very hard to capsize. He stripped out the cruising kit for the demo, but it would have been well sorted out. He chimes in on the forum; I'm sure some forumites know his name.

That would be the aforementioned Jamie Orr.

I remember that demo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wizbang 13]

zat devil sperm?

[Bruce Bateau]

So the rot was confined to the cockpit- the hull was sound. I won't get into the details but as a result of the ripped up cockpit, there were some adjustments made to better access storage under the benches.

Here's the before (and note the weird thing on the mast by the cabin- that's the remains of some rotten mast hoops):


Here's during deconstruction:

Thanks to Michael for this picture.

The benches now have better storage access, but they aren't sealed, rain and such drips into them, which is pretty annoying to me. The design brief from Phil Bolger specifically says this was intentional...

[Bruce Bateau]

And here's the final cockpit (during loading of boat- messy I know) which has storage access from the top of the bench and the sides.

[Bruce Bateau]

With my first boats, I always had them covered in poly tarps. They always seemed to trap water in all the wrong places, were kinda scratchy, and always seemed sort of clammy, except in the summer when they felt dusty.

Once I discovered Sunbrella, despite its high cost, I was hooked.

If you live near a sail loft, they may sell remnants for a pretty good price compared to the internet or their over the counter price. This was great for making smaller items, even if it required a little creative work.



Here's Row Bird's cover which is pretty good shape after being outside for nearly 10 years.

[Bruce Bateau]

Here's what Chewy looks like right now:



Damp and a little embarrassing to me and for my neighbors. Such a nice boat under so many tarps. And yes, they're wet and drippy.

This time around I was unable to find Sunbrella remnants and I certainly didn't want to keep tarps on such a beautiful boat, especially after what the Collector did to her.

A friend with a commercial connection was kind enough to order me some Sunbrella at the wholesale price, which ended up being jaw dropping in a bad way. Still, it was cheaper than building a shed (which I didn't have room for) and I knew in the long run it would protect the brightwork and let the boat breathe. Next weekend, the sewing will commence.

[Jamie Orr]

FWIW, I have been using tarps for over 20 years. At first it wasn't very satisfactory, but since I made a ridgepole, I have had no problems. The Chebacco has a mast near each end, so I made posts that fit the holes, with side pieces to grip the 2x6 ridgepole (a bit heavy, 2x4 might be better, certainly lighter). The forward post holds the ridgepole about 3 feet above the deck, and the rear one is long enough for the pole to be horizontal. The pole is 24 feet long, overhanging the ends of the boat by 2 feet each end. The tarp is nominally 24x18, because I couldn't find one 24x16.

I centred it on the pole, then tacked down each end. Next I laid 1x2s along the top, screwing them down through the tarp every 3 feet or so. Finally I ran lines from edge to edge of the tarp, under the boat/trailer. At the front the tarp ends touch, at the rear there's a bit of a gap - good for ventilation I tell myself.

There are other ways to keep a boat dry, but this one has been totally satisfactory for me. BC just suffered an "atmospheric river", with torrential rain and strong winds. I checked the boat after and it's bone dry in there. Admittedly, this is the first year for a new tarp, but I buy the best quality ($85 Cdn for the 24x18) I can find locally and the last one lasted more than 5 years. Even in its last winter it was doing a good job.

Once it's all set up, it only takes 5 minutes to take off or put on, without hurrying. Also, the boat and trailer can be moved around with the cover on.

Anyway. Not trying to boast here, but wanted to share my method for making tarps work.

Cheers,

Jamie

[Jamie Orr]

Trying to remember the name of the Canadian NW gent who has put hundreds of miles cruising his Chebacco. I helped on a capsize demo at Port Townsend some years back. It was very very hard to capsize. He stripped out the cruising kit for the demo, but it would have been well sorted out. He chimes in on the forum; I'm sure some forumites know his name.

Hi Ben! Still hobbling around, but at least the herniated disk that made me so useless in the capsizes is fixed. I plan to call on you sometime, maybe in 2023 when we plan to travel to Nova Scotia. I also want to go to the MASCF again, I found the folks extremely friendly there, and some great boats too!

Jamie

[Bruce Bateau]

Jamie, it doesn't sound like boasting at all. It sounds like you have a good system. Please share a picture so we can imitate!

[Wagemaker]

Beautiful boat!

[Bruce Bateau]

So the boat moves around... at least on the land to another friend's driveway which we transformed into an outdoor workshop. We had to sweep and vacuum a lot to get all the grit off- don't want that in the sewing machine.



We cut long strips to cover the boat, using the mast as a ridgepole.


Then we clamped them together, leaving about 3" overlap with each seam, stapled along the seams to hold together, and ran each section through a sewing machine to bind, then folded the seams over again to make them flat. Then with a colorful sunset, we ran out of time for outdoor work. Next up is to hem up the edges, and put grommets at the bottom and tie on some line or straps...

[Hugh MacD]

Really nice Bruce. I like that color. Are you going to put in any vents? You might look at the vent technique used in the Soul Pad tents...they breathe well, but we've never had rain blow in. This is someone's "afterthought" addition that doesn't have the geometry quite right, but it gives you an idea:
Vent.jpg

[Bruce Bateau]

Vents are an excellent idea if the ends are closed. I'm going to use the mast as a ridge pole that keeps the cover overhanging either end of the boat. (The mast is not really that long, but we'll add a piece of something on there to support the cover.)

We'll sew in some pockets at either end of the cover like the blue triangles in this drawing:

We'll add a dowel (green) in to push the cover out to let air flow through. During a storm, there will be grommets on the ends to keep rain out.

It's been too rainy to do any sewing lately.

[Bruce Bateau]

Another friend is going to help me make a sculling oar! He had a very specific formula in mind that took into account my height, the height above waterline, and depth of oar.



Here I am making measurements for the right length.

For those of you with sculling oars, how long is yours? What is the blade like? How well does it work?

-Bruce

[Ben Fuller]

I've done some articles about these along with the late Sam Manning. My go to oar is hardwood, I think maple, cut down from an old lifeboat oar. It has a 4' blade on a 10' oar. cambered on top. Shaft has been thinned to match the size of the grip, ovaled in the plane of the blade. It has some curve down made by weighting the shaft. Long blade and blade heavy, cambered on top which helps it change pitch. and you will be fine.