Love Him or Not Book Review

 

Capt. Larry Simns has probably had some effect on your life if you are in any part of the seafood industry, if you like to fish, if you are concerned with water quality, if you love to eat seafood, if you live or work near the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed, are a politician in the Maryland State House, or for a variety of other reasons. If you dont know his name, or the only thing that you do know about him is his name, then you should read this book.

In the newly released The Best of Times on The Chesapeake Bay, An Account of a Rock Hall Waterman, Capt. Larry Simns (the n is silent), and co-author Robert L. Rich, Jr. tell the story of how he grew up in the small harbor town of Rock Hall on Marylands Eastern Shore. He began his education in seafood harvesting at six years old, he went through brutal but valuable apprenticeship with seasoned and unforgiving Captains in his teens and he grew to become a respected Captain and seafood business owner in young adulthood. He recounts how he reluctantly found his voice as he began his rise within local groups of watermen to become a legendary advocate for them and the Chesapeake Bay in response to critical declines in seafood populations in the early 1970s. In his 40 years as President of the Maryland Watermens Association, he was not only recognized for his work by professionals with interests in the fisheries from Maine to Alaska and the Gulf Coast, he also worked with Senators, Governors and U.S. Presidents.

If you spend any time with a waterman,it would be difficult not to notice that theirs are very tough jobs. Many of our neighbors start their day at 3:00am. They work when its 20 degrees outside. They work when its 100 degrees outside. The brutal apprenticeship that Capt. Larry went through was important for learning to live in an environment that might be idyllic one moment and potentially deadly the next. There are some very exciting moments in the book. In fact, Capt. Larry went through more than one situation where he almost didnt survive.

 

He clearly explains how various finfish, oysters and crabs were harvested, having experience with pretty much every method used. He explains how "The Bay" changed after Hurricane Agnes. A resulting drop in seafood harvests coincided. Other factors including pollution from other sources led him to the chain of events that made him the powerful advocate he is. He discusses how he worked with others from various disciplines including biologists, environmentalists, and others to create policies that were not always popular. An amazing journey for a waterman from Rock Hall, Maryland.

 

Theres a whole lot more here and I highly recommend this book. Most of the chapters are brief, but full of information. It provides an education about the Chesapeake Bay, Eastern Shore life, the history of its watermen, issues surrounding its protection and much more. One gets the sense that, knowing he wont be around forever, he would like for this book to help pass critical information to those for whom stewardship of the Chesapeake and the life within it will pass. We should pay attention.

 

For more information go to: 

http://www.thebestoftimesonthechesapeakebay.com/

Book Details

The Best of Times on The Chesapeake Bay, An Account of a Rock Hall Waterman

Lived by Captain Lawrence William Simns
Written by Robert L. Rich, Jr.
Illustrated by Ann Crane Harlan.

ISBN: 9780764342776Soft Cover 288 Pages 42 illustrations

 

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Joining Plywood Jigsaw or Puzzle Joints

I apologise for my long gap between posts, life has been very full for awhile.

Jigsaw joints have become a popular method for joining 8ft plywood lengths into the long panels needed for building most boats. It is an easy process for those who are building from a kit but it is impractical for most people building from scratch. If building from plans or from patterns then you will have to make every cut by hand using a jigsaw and the accuracy necessary for a close-fitting jigsaw joint is just not possible to achieve.

For those who have not seen a jigsaw joint, the form is exactly the same as the interlocking curves of a jigsaw puzzle, except that the interlocking curves are laid out in a straight line rather than in a grid pattern. This forms a very accurate and secure junction between the two parts, unable to slide apart and needing no clamps, while the glue sets.

Jigsaw joint configuration.

The two parts have glue applied to the bonding surfaces, then they are laid on waxed paper or plastic to prevent adhesion to the surface below, aligned properly then a rubber mallet is used to force the fingers of the upper part down into those of the lower part. Care must, of course, be taken to ensure that the surfaces of the assembled joint are perfectly flush or there will be a permanent deflection at that point. The photos below, courtesy of Chesapeake Light Craft, show the joint before and after joining.

Applying glue to the bonding surfaces

Cleaning up the completed jigsaw joint

Tight joints as described above assume that you will assemble them on a large table or a workshop floor before moving the panel to the boat. This is OK for dinghies or for professional builders who have enough space and the staff to manhandle large panels from the shop to the boat and to position and clamp them accurately, all after applying glue to the framing of the hull and to the panel, trying to get it into exactly the right position first go so that it doesnt slide on that slippery glue and spread it everywhere except in the joint where it is needed, then clamp it accurately so that it can finally be fastened. You get the picture, of enormous potential for disaster.

For amateurs building bigger boats it is just not practical to assemble the panels before installation. Panels 8ft long are very convenient for one person to handle, without having to call on the wife, kids and neighbours to help with the task. I built the structures and interior of my Didi 38 "Black Cat" entirely single-handed. There was not a single piece of timber in that boat that I was not able to carry and set up without any assistance. But I made scarph joints by hand and I glued them in position.

Building with jigsaw joints and gluing the joints in position requires a slightly different approach. It is not practical to hammer a tight joint into place with a rubber mallet. The stringers and other supporting timbers are springy and will bounce away when hit, making it difficult to get the fingers properly flush. Another factor is that of longitudinal alignment accuracy. If the first piece is slightly out of longitudinal alignment on the framing then the accuracy of the jigsaw joint will force the other pieces to continue that misalignment. An error of 1mm on the first of 4 panels will grow to an error of 4mm by the end of the 4th piece.

The way to get around this is to machine in some tolerance into the joint. When the jigsaw joint curves are added to the CAD drawing of the panel, the curves are used to break the panels into the pieces that will fit onto 8ft sheets of plywood. Then the jigsaw curves must be offset into each panel by 50% of the tolerance that is decided upon. This means that each piece is minutely shorter than the designed length and the fingers of the joints are minutely slimmer. The result is a joint that can be easily pushed into place without hammering and which also has a small amount of wiggle room to allow for correction of minor installation misalignments.

This more loose joint may need a temporary doubler on the back between stringers so that small screws can be used to pull the fingers flush if the panel is curved at that point. Dont forget to use a waxed paper or plastic bond-breaker to prevent adhesion of the doubler to the panel.

After the glue has set you can use a belt sander to clean up the surface for a nice finish and a joint that will disappear in the painted boat.

For info on our boat designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/ and http://dudleydix.blogspot.com/.

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To Paint or Not to Paint

Last week the builder of one of my boats asked me about painting the interior of his boat, what should he paint and what shouldnt he paint? I had not really thought of it before, that there are different thoughts about what to paint and why. Before I answer, I will tell you of my experiences on a wide range of boats, those built by me and those built by others.

On all of the big boats that I have built (they were all for my own use), people who visited the boats or sailed with us often commented about how fresh they were down below compared with their own boats or others on which they had sailed. I had observed this as well. There was never any diesel smell, never any dank, damp odour and never any need for air fresheners on my own boats. In contrast, many of the other boats were oppressive as soon as I went below, with some rather bad smells.

Most of these boats had been owner-built or owner-completed and they all had large areas of plywood that were unpainted, left as raw timber, under berths, in the bilges etc. My own boats had no exposed timber, not inside lockers, under cabin soles, inside the lazarette, under berths, not anywhere.

So, how does this make such a difference? A boat lives in a wet environment and most are closed up the majority of the time. When the sun is shining, the inside of a boat is much warmer than outside and that warm air soaks up moisture from any water that is in the bilge or elsewhere. Humidity builds up and creates an ideal atmosphere for mould to grow. Mould spores are in the air all around us and waiting to proliferate.

When the air cools in the evening the moisture is wrung out of the air again. It settles as condensation on hull, deck and joinery surfaces throughout the boat. It doesnt care whether they are exposed surfaces that you see whenever you are on the boat or hidden ones that you seldom see. The humidity is everywhere in the boat when it is hot, so condensation settles everywhere when it cools.

The unpainted wood surfaces absorb some of this moisture and hold onto it. It becomes that ideal environment for the mould spores to settle and grow. Once it starts, if left unchecked, the mould will spread throughout the boat and can also be the start of rot problems.

Mould inside the boat can be difficult to kill off. It needs to be killed everywhere and the surfaces must be thoroughly dried then sealed with epoxy or paint so that the cycle doesnt start again. It would have been so much easier to have just painted everywhere when the boat was being built. Sure, painting everything will have added a few weeks to the build time but it will have been worth the extra effort to save the hassles of the future.

The same principle applies to preventing diesel smells. Every big boat has a diesel or oil spill or two in its life.That liquid will soak into any raw timber that it contacts. Once into the surface it is impossible to remove and it will result in diesel or oil smells inside the boat for the rest of its life. If those surfaces had been painted then the problem would never have arisen.

So, what coatings should you use? All surfaces of the hull and deck skins, as well as all associated timber framing (stringers, backbone, beams, sheer clamps etc) must be protected by three coats of epoxy. This should include the perimeter of bulkheads against hull and deck but you may prefer to coat all bulkhead surfaces as well. The epoxy needs to be protected from the attack of UV (even below decks) so I recommend painting over the epoxy with a prime coat, followed by undercoat and finishing coat of paint.

Elsewhere, coat with primer, undercoat and finish coat. That means every timber surface, whether you will see it again or not. If it is a sealed compartment, e.g. inside a swim platform, dont leave it unpainted either. These sealed compartments must be coated inside with three coats of epoxy but you dont need to paint them.

Aside from mould, smell and rot prevention, there are other reasons to paint everywhere. 

• Painted surfaces are very easy to clean. You can throw a bucket of water in the bilge or a locker, swill it around and then pump it out, no harm done. Or you can wipe it down with a damp cloth or sponge rinsed in a bucket, very easy.
• Light-coloured paint reflects light, unlike raw timber that absorbs it. The painted compartments are bright and make it easier to find things that have gone astray. A fully painted lazarette is not a dungeon that swallows up tools and other things that will not be seen again until you build up the courage to dive into that dark place in search of lost treasures. That also applies to cabins in the ends of the boat, which are much more bright and habitable if painted in light colours. Clear-finished okoume plywood becomes quite dark, has uninteresting grain patterns and is not as attractive as you might imagine, not by a long way.

This problem is not limited to owner-built plywood boats either. I have seen this regularly when poking around inside boats displayed on boat shows in London, Annapolis and other places. Many production builders dont bother to protect the timber surfaces inside lockers, lazarettes, berths or the bilge. It costs them labour and materials to do so and it costs the owner down the line to sort it out or live with the results.

So, dont bother to argue with yourself over which surfaces to paint and which to leave raw, just get down to it and paint them all. You can thank yourself later when you reap the benefits.

Allied to this is the need for good ventilation. Strategically positioned ventilators will help to keep the air fresh inside your boat, removing excess moisture and making it a much more pleasant environment for people instead of mould.

Dudley Dix
Dudley Dix Yacht Design
http://dixdesign.com/

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Across Atlantic Ice or people came to America by boat

In their book Across Atlantic Ice, the authors posit the theory that people of the Clovis culture came to America along the edge of the ice sheet that went from the northern coast of Spain to the northern Atlantic coast of America.  The idea is that they traveled by boat, skinboat supposedly along the ice edge and ate sea mammals that they killed along the way.
You can read the book if you are interested in the details.  The main reason the authors posited their theory of migration by sea was that the mainstream theory which had people walking to America lacked any evidence to back it up.  Had the Clovis people walked to America, there should be some trace of their presence in the form of spear points found in Alaska or Siberia, but there wasnt.  Instead, the authors claim that the Clovis trail of artifacts leads back to the coast of Spain.
Critics of this theory say that there is no evidence of the boats that the Clovis people supposedly used to make their crossing.  Of course there wouldnt be after all this time because the organic materials that made up the boats would long have disappeared.
But the main thing that interests me about this dispute is the inability of modern people to imagine the ability of earlier humans to build boats.  It is also something that the authors accuse their critics of. In any case, there are other migrations that were made thousands of years ago, like the migration to Australia that left no evidence of boats although they could not have been made in any other way given that even at lowest sea levels there was water between their starting point and their destination.
Michael Collins, the author of the foreword to the book calls this inability to imagine that ancient people were as imaginative as contemporary humans paleoracism. I dont know that I would call that shortage of imagination racism, but it springs out of the same place that racism does, out of the inability to give others full credit for human abilities.

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Knud Reimers Tumlare or Tumlaren

unattributed

Gokstad Faering


courtesy Vikingskip og norske trebåter

Knud Reimers

courtesy Swedesail

An original Reimers drawing of Tumlare

unattributed

unattributed

unattributed

At 10,000 pounds of Nordic pitchpine and steam bent oak frames, Egret shows some power in a breeze. This photo was taken on Clear Lake in Northern California where she served as the testing boat for Penofins Marine Oil Finish.

courtesy Penofin

Courtesy Knockabout Sloops

A great photo of her unique double cockpit arrangement that puts the helmsman aft at the tiller, the two jib winches are the only winches on the boat as sails were hauled aloft on their halyards by hand. Beside the winches are the running back stays. See the original compass on the strong back between the two cockpits. A single-cylinder diesel was added in the 1980s. Hidden appropriately under the cockpit and which greatly improved her handiness in tight docking situations.

courtesy Penofin

Courtesy Knockabout Sloops

History: Built over a five year period beginning in 1947 by Bob Stevens in his backyard ZEFIR (Swedish for Zephyr) was built as Knud Reimers designed with hot zinc galvanised frames and floors, with well seasoned Jarrah garboards and Queensland Kauri topsides. Three years later after Bob returned from Europe and the USA he found the hull structure in perfect condition to continue ribbing with hot steamed bent intermediate laminated Karri timbers, Spruce deck-beams and cabin and cockpit structures.

courtesy Classic Yacht Association of Austrailia

She was raced successfully in Port Adelaide by Bob until the early sixties and one other Adelaide owner then sold to Howard Fox in Melbourne in 1975 when her name was changed to ZEPHYR. As a “cruising” Tumlaren, much heavier than the majority of Tumlaren built in Melbourne and raced from Royal St Kilda Yacht Club (now Royal Victorian Yacht Squadron) Zephyr didn’t feature on the winners list in the very active racing regime of the Tumlaren Association. She was purchased by Kevin Read in 1993 after coming ashore at St Kilda and had two major restorations that replaced the galvanised ribs and floors and completely refurbished the hull and cabin and finished with a laid teak deck. She is now owned and raced by Anne and Karen Batson and is penned at the RYCV Williamstown.

courtesy Classic Yacht Association of Austrailia

A Tumlaren at the Hobart Wooden boat Festival

courtesy Dan Gadd

Arguably Knud Reimers Tumlare falls into the very narrowest selection of the most beautiful objects ever designed by the hand of man. Certainly she is the equal of the little Gokstad Faering pictured above (and of which she is undoubtedly a descendant), at least in elegance and seaworthiness, if not in simplicity. Reimers designed her in 1934 as a 20 square meter sloop for racing and cruising. Below are some thoughts on the boat from a couple of admirers.

From the sadly now defunct weblog Knockabout Sloops:

I have been rereading Lin and Larry Pardeys "Seraffyns European Adventure" and I came across this description of one of Larrys early boats, a Knud Reimers Tumlaren, that he raced and cruised when he lived in Vancouver.
When Larry was nineteen hed fallen in love with a twenty-seven foot Tumlaren class sloop designed by Knud Reimers and called Annalisa. Shed been built by the Kungsor yard near Stockholm in 1948 for the crown prince of Denmark. By taking a bank loan, countersigned by his father, Larry had been able to buy the completely varnished sloop and for five years he raced and cruised her around Vancouver. From the time I met him, two years after he sold Annalisa, Larry had raved about his magnificent sloop. Id almost grown jealous for Seraffyn as he described the extreme lightweight, scientific construction of the narrow, delicate Tumlaren. Seraffyn is twenty four feet four inches long with a beam of nine feet, and weighs close to eleven thousand pounds. Annalisa, at twenty seven feet on deck, was only six feet and displaced only thirty eight hundred pounds. As we cruised north through Swedens multitude of islands I came to appreciate the ideas behind the Tumlarens design. She, like the much better know Folkboat class, had been created for families who had protected waters to sail in. From a hundred fifty miles south of Stockolm north to Finland and east to Helsinki, a stretch of over six hundred miles, there are so many islands and anchorages that there is never a need to be more than four or five miles from land. The islands keep the seas flat with only occasional chop. Tiny villages dot the archipelagos so a family cruiser need carry only a few days worth of supplies. But the intricate passages around the rocks and islands require boats that are handy to tack and close winded, boats that accelerate quickly to use each puff of wind that whispers around the points and trees. These boats are built light to save money since they can only be used three or four months out of the year. We saw hundreds of them throughout Sweden and Denmark, and many are sailed without engines.

From Classic Yachting:
Tumlaren was once called “The most advanced type of cruiser in the world” by another famous yacht designer, Uffa Fox!
Tumlaren was designed by Knud H Reimers in an attempt to marry the characteristics of a “koster”, longish and narrow, with those of the faster Square Meter Yachts that where very popular in Scandinavia at the time.
Tumlarens characteristics are very easy for, aft and water lines. And the yacht was like so many of Reimers designs designed on diagonals, all on diagonals, all of which cut the sections squarely a technique that makes it easier for the boat builder to do the laying down and fairing up.
The yacht has a sharp bow and a rounded stern that founded the British expression “Tumlaren stern” and other similar nautical expressions.
Tumlaren has an aft cockpit with just enough room to hold a helmsman. The main sheet is attached to a traveler on a wooden strong-back that separates the aft cockpit from the main cockpit. The interior accommodations are very Spartan with full length settee berths port and starboard and a v-berth forward the mast. In total allowing her to sleep four but this is very cramped with today’s measurements of yachts. Aft the port settee is normally equipped with a small alcohol stove and storage lockers. Additional storage lockers are found to starboard.
Tumlaren was also designed and built in a bigger version, the Stor Tumlaren (meaning “Large Tumlaren”) and in total there where more then 600 Tumlaren built.
Knud Reimers Tumlaren can today be found on all the worlds’ continents and in at least 24 countries. In Australia it early became a one design racing class and the building and measurement where adopted to locally availble wood types.
Today Tumlaren are very sought after classic yachts and prices vary from a couple of 100 USD for renovation projects to 30 000USD+ for nice examples.
New built Tumlaren are still available and among others a there is a Finish company named “M-Yachts” who still build them in wood.

More on Knud Reimers here.

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the A or FAIL conundrum

This is just so seriously fucked up, some interesting reading, and a historical synopsis you might find intriguing.

I just finished "Knights Cross" by Cristine Kling which is a pretty good book this morning and, as usual, my Kindle asked me to rate it and I gave it four stars. I sorta/kinda feel a little guilty about that and it got me thinking...

For me, if you have a scale of one to five stars, one star is going to be an awful book and, by contrast, a five star book is going to have to be awesome work of art and life changing. So in my view of four stars for a genre adventure novel is actually very high praise.

So, why do I feel guilty?

I think part of it is that, for what seems like the majority, there seems to be no middle ground anymore. Something is either AWESOME or its CRAP and there is simply no real middle ground any longer.

You see it a lot in the way people talk about boats and gear. People need to have the BEST and it would seem that if it is not THE BEST it must be THE WORST which is very flawed thinking process and tends to give me a headache when I encounter it. I bet this has a lot to do with the reason I seem to eat aspirin like they were peanuts.

It gets worse though. A few weeks ago I bought something on eBay which I almost did not because in the description of the product and suchlike the seller pretty much demanded/threatened that there would be hell to pay if you did not leave positive feedback and give him five stars if you were to buy from him. Which, to my mind, calls into question all that glowing feedback since they could simply be in preemptive self-defense as leaving a less than awesome feedback just might be answered by a negative review of you the buyer in return.

Personally, I read reviews to get an idea of whether something is worthwhile or not but of late with no apparent benchmarks in place its nigh on impossible to make sense of things. Made even worse by the fact that, for instance, the Amazon five star rating system is not so much good or bad but good or better. "Stars" were always an attaboy back in my elementary school days when we were were rewarded with gold and silver stars (not that I recall ever getting a whole bunch of gold stars for my penmanship or good work habits). Maybe what they should do is add some negative ratings (one to five piles of crap?) to the mix to make for a more reality based scenario.

So, about "Knights Cross" in my personal scale Ill give it an eight as it had a good beat, kept me turning pages, and was easy to dance to...

Need I say more?

Listening to Brooke Waggoner

So it goes...

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The Perfect Rowboat Sailboat or Both

Do you like the idea of a boat that can row and sail but they often dont like the idea of compromising on one or the other? It is a trade-off. A good sailboats lines are not good for rowing and a rowboats lines are not good for sailing. The latter is true mainly because the hull is quite narrow and fine on the waterline, especially at the ends. A fast rowboats lines just dont provide the stability, often, for sailing and the addition of a slot for the board introduces drag and makes the boat slow for rowing. Wooden Boats long time manager of their boathouse often cites the Joel White Shearwater as an example. Reluctantly, listening to customer demand, Joel White added the centerboard and it really made a difference in the sailing ability: it made it possible. But it also introduced noticeable drag when rowing: the boat was slower under oars. Drake is very similar to Shearwater, only narrower and longer on the waterline, no daggerboard, and therefore faster under oars. Drake sails downwind fabulously because of the moderate keel to provide some lateral resistance and enable excellent tracking for rowing. We dont have a centerboard, so there is no drag induced (though a tight fitting plug for a daggerboard trunk can fair the slot to the hull reasonably well). Ive been asked a number of times, and I just will not add a daggerboard to Drake. She is just a blast to sail downwind and can sail as high as a beam reach quite fast. The sail adds tremendous range when you consider the sail as auxiliary power.

But if you want to sail upwind, and row well, you need a boat with a lot of flare in the hull and a shape that provides excellent secondary stability. Joel Whites Shearwater and his 18 version of the boat are good examples. Another ideal example is the dory. What I love about the dory is that it is narrow at the waterline and flares out to a generous width, for a rowboat, at the rail, usually 48-5. The Deblois Street Dry is nearly 5 at the rail. The stability this shape produces lends itself to sailing (see photo of me sitting on D St Ds gunwale), but the narrow width at the waterline when the boat is not heeled means that it will row well. The double ended shape of the waterline on a dory keeps the ends fine for rowing ability. Drake shows a similar shape (see photo): narrow waterline, 41" at the gunwales provides secondary stability.

The Marblehead Gunning Dory is, to me, perhaps the perfect boat. If I could have only one boat (lets not think about that...what a shame that would be!), I would have a gunning dory or a Swampscott Dory. Come to my annual Shop Talk & Messabout to see both of these dory types in the flesh and meet two experts on dories: Sam Manning and Walter Wales.

Thank you to Chris Partridge, blogger in the UK: Rowing for Pleasure for bringing up the subject of rowing vs sailing characteristics in a boat

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In pre production or something like it

Some very depressing news, R.E.M. making a point, and and in the "profitability trumps right" department...

So, in the "a bit of warning" department because most folks dont really like surprises.

For a long time Ive been thinking about doing  a somewhat out-of-the-box documentary film on various aspects of boat design, boat construction, and how we actually use boats in the real world. Or in other words, to simply scratch my curiousity on a subject quite dear to my heart and, to steal a phrase from Ratty, continue "just messing around in boats".

Of course, there always a downside, which will mean a bit less time for Boat Bits, VolksCruiser, and Fishing Under Sail but, hopefully, there will be enough spinoff from the film project (outtakes, production diary, and shameless pimping) to keep readers reading and some of it might actually be interesting...

Since we seem to be coming up to the fairly round if somewhat magical number of 2222 posts you might find Boat Bits doing a bit of morphing come 2223 or so.

Listening to Leo Kottke

So it goes...

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Not about boat design or boatbuilding

Just another depressing water story, policing for profit, and Badtux has a solution...

I just listened to a great podcast about cooking and suchlike. I expect, if you have a spare hour to kick back and listen, you will enjoy it as well. That said, it really has no boat content whatsoever.

Well, actually, it sorta/kinda does in a sorta kinda way...

Listening to the Scandals

So it goes...

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Why the Yawl Rig for the Goat Island Skiff or for any boat

I am asked this a lot and wanted to put something together to answer this and other questions. I added the mizzen to the GIS because I wanted a boat for myself that would be easier to singlehand on longer excursions and for use in sail-and-oar events such as the Small Reach Regatta, the Texas 200, and other RAID events like the Shipyard School Raid and Sail Caledonia. Many, many of the boats you see in these events have a mizzen.

For my own use of the GIS, a mizzen is needed for a variety of reasons:

1) to hold the boat into the wind while the sail is raised, lowered, or reefed while singlehanding or sailing with my kids.
2) to hold the boat into the wind while rig is unstepped and stowed and oars are rigged for rowing
3) to be able to hold the boat to windward or to heave-to while underway for taking short breaks to move people, re-stow gear, or go to the bathroom with out getting blown off course.
4) to be able to back off docks and beaches and control steering in tight spaces
5) to be able to tune the weather helm felt by the helmsman by trimming the mizzen

Other FAQs

Is the designer aware of your changes to the Goat Island Skiff?
Yes, I have a great working relationship with Michael Storer whom I consider a friend. He and I correspond often and he has OK-ed the addition of the mizzen and trusts that I will design and build the new rig so that it fits in with the concept of the GIS. For example, all pains will be taken so that this addition adds very little weight to the boat. The mizzen mast will be a lightweight, birdsmouth mast.

Is the lug sail the same and is it stepped in the same place or how has the lugs position been adjusted for the new mizzen?
I have designed new sail rigs for boats before, for dories actually. After drawing the new rig, finding the new center of effort (CE) of the added sail area, and moving things around, the new CE and old CE are in the same place such that the centerboard does not need to be changed. In the GIS, the lug is the same standard sail (105 SF) and it will step in a secondary partner/step forward of bulkhead #1. It turned out that the lug needs to be moved forward only 9" keeping things tied into the bulkheads for structural integrity and simplicity. The original mast step is retained so the boat can be sailed with or without the mizzen. The GIS Yawl is is still the usual standard GIS, but with an added mizzen. You can take the boat out with more flexibility in rig choice.

Has one been built and how well does it work?
I expect to have a GIS Yawl on the water this summer, my personal boat, but orders for sail rigs and boat kits may prevent that from happening. However, one kit is going to a customer who will be doing the yawl and plans to be sailing this summer in the Texas 200. I have no doubt that the boat will go as well as the standard, upwind and downwind, but with the added benefits of the mizzen for RAIDs and sail0and-oar type of use. If the mizzen is not needed, leave it ashore and use the Goat as the standard lug-only arrangement.

You can learn more about How to Use the Yawl Rig in my blog post.

or the Goat Island Skiff page on my website.

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My boat plans free download

My boat plans free download Model Boat Plans Free PDF Dinghy Boat Plans Free Free Plywood Boat Plans Plans for Model Steam Traction Engines Aluminum Jon Boat Plans Free

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