Calendar Islands Yawl Modeling Continued

Fleshing out the Calendar Islands Yawl

Modeling the Interior

While I am actually breaking out the geometry of the final 3D computer model, the interior of the "in-the-flesh" model was glued in yesterday and Ill prime it today.

Cutting out quarter scale bulkheads for Calendar Islands Yawl interior.

It never ceases to amaze me how everything just fits. Paper patterns are Spray77 tacked to 1/8" plywood and cut to the line on the bandsaw. Then the parts are glued into place with little to no refinement and they fit well. It makes this method of proving out the hull design quite efficient.

After hull turnover in actual full-size construction, this is what the boat interior will look like.

The beauty of kit construction, is that we set up stem, bulkheads, and transom on a CNC cut, self-jigging strongback. And after planking, we turn over the hull and the interior structure is already complete. In traditional construction, the molds would be removed and bulkheads fit in their place. Kit construction allows the professional and home-builder to skip the time consuming steps of making patterns and scribing in bulkheads.

After turn over, the tank tops are put in place. They play an important structural role in stiffening this very light boat.

Stay up to date with me as next Ill prime the hull and make paint choices. Furthermore, the cutting files will be ready for CNC cutting of the first kit. 

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Yawl should know the conundrum of getting a tiller round the mizzen mast

The details of how to design a yawl so that the tiller gets around the mizzen is an interesting topic. There are a number of tricks:

Using a line steering system: Here you can see Michael Storers Beth Sailing Canoe with the tiller forward of the mizzen and the lines connecting to the rudder, which is out of the picture.


Ill add that there are a number of ways to do line steering. My Deblois Street Dory has line steering coming into the boat from a rudder yoke but there is not a remote tiller as in Beth. The Coquina is another example of line steering in which lines are attached directly to the rudder and pass through the transom, via a pulley system, and the steering line goes around the perimeter of the boat.

Using a long push-pull tiller: Here you can see James McMullens Oughtreds double ender.


Using a curved, laminated tiller or split tiller


Using a normal tiller with an offset mizzen




For the Goat Island Skiff, we go with an offset tiller as in this model by a customer:




The other methods I mentioned just wont fit the situation we have in the Goat Island Skiff, mainly because there is not room for a split tiller and we want to keep the solution simple. We are deciding about just how much to offset the tiller. You can see above that the tiller will hit the mizzen before 45-degrees. The big question is how much room do we want to give the tiller to swing. In the pictures, we decided to test a 45-degree swing. That puts the mizzen a little further off the centerline than Id like. This boat is very light and pushing a tiller than hard over makes the rudder act like a brake and the risk of losing so much speed that you cant get through the tack is something to consider. Then again, we dont need it so close that things feel claustrophobic. In the picture above of the offset mizzen, notice how little offset the mast is...the tiller must touch the mizzen pretty early. Does that give enough steerage for the helmsman when the push the tiller in the mizzen direction?

Well have a solution soon after a full-scale mock up. The way we are doing this, collaboratively, is something I do on many projects. It always gets a better result because many thoughts and ideas can be sifted through. The more the merrier. Whatever the solution I draw up, the mizzen can always be moved a little more or less off the centerline according to the skippers preference. The important thing is to maintain the rake of the mizzen, which has been determined. My point is, that collaboration with designers, customers, and other folks with experience through the forums and boat shows can be an advantage in getting many thoughts onto the table and generating the best solution.

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HMS Victory Yawl Boat

Will Sterling from Tavistock in Devon, kindly sent details of this ships boat which his company built for Nelsons flagship HMS Victory. Victory although kept in dry dock in Portsmouth naval base is still a serving ship in the British Navy.



Will explains "Having studying the ships documents the Curator of HMS Victory realised that a 26 yawl had been part of the 1805 ships complement of boats. In 2008 he determined to have a yawl built."



"Stirling and Son won the tender and built a yawl under MOD contract. The boat was built to a draught of 1797 from Greenwich Maritime Museum."



"She is built of full length planking copper and bronze fastened and is now on display in Portsmouth, alongside HMS Victory, the flagship of the Royal Navy."

If youre visiting England then its really worthwhile to take the time to see HMS Victory (and her neighbouring historic ships Warrior and Mary Rose), and not least Wills fantastic yawl.

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Free Goat Island Skiff Yawl Plan

Drake and family at the beach

Drake is getting built in the shop to test the fitting of the kit before they get shipped off to first customers in WA and PA. Kent Fosnes in WA will be exhibiting Drake next year at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. All kits are tested more than once to ensure everything goes together properly. Many of these CAD drawn, computer numerically controlled (CNC) parts are cut to the thousandth of an inch! Accuracy and precision are among a number of value added benefits to a kit. More info about CNC cutting and those benefits is forthcoming.

The first GIS Yawl doing the Texas 200 endurance event.

After the busy summer, I am back in action. Just finished are some plans for my GIS yawl that I am making available for free on my GIS page. Enjoy looking at the yawl and the other tidbits of info I include. Our GIS will be going together in October.

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How to Sail the Lug Yawl REPOSTED

My friend and fellow boatbuilder in the Northwest, James McMullen, created a very useful set of drawings to help people learn how to use our favorite sailing rig, the Lug-Yawl. For sail & oar boats you cannot have a more versatile and fun rig for your boat. Clint draws these rigs into most of his designs, such as the Calendar Islands Yawl or the Goat Island Skiff with a mizzen. Please look at these drawings and imagine how this rig could fit into your own sailing.

Now that you have seen these diagrams you can also see how useful the mizzen would be for switching from sailing to rowing and vice versa. While the mizzen is hauled in, the boat will keep herself pointing into the wind so the sail can be raised and lowered without filling and causing the boat to fall off one way or the other. I have found the mizzen useful for stopping and taking a break or for restowing gear or for dealing with safety matters. In these cases, it is best to learn to "heave-to" so that your boat doesnt lose too much ground. That is one drawback of lying head-to-wind under mizzen: you need to have plenty of leeway...no boats, rocks or land to get blown down upon. The advantage of heaving-to is that you dont lose too much ground at all. We make light, strong Birdsmouth masts and spars and have intimate knowledge of the Lug-Yawl.

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New Francois Vivier designed Yawl with Clint Chase

Francois Vivier and Clint Chase are busy designing a new dayboat/weekender. This has been a fun collaboration and we have a lot more work to do. By this time next year, it is planned that we will be building this boat in our shop for our family use and for showing in 2012. Francoiss boats are designed with a CAD-CAM approach, meaning the drawings are done in the computer, files are generated, and these files can be used to do CNC cutting of all the drawn boat parts, such as bulkheads, molds, and planking. Some of the design requirements were:

· To be trailerable by an ordinary car, and therefore light, and be able to beach temporarily for loading/unloading.

· To have a large, wide and deep cockpit, comfortable, allowing for fishing and a place where children could be safe.

· To have a stable hull for family sailing but give excellent performance for weekend sails “with the guys”.

· To have a cuddy cabin, with a toilet for women and children, a small galley to heat some meals and two berths to spend a night or two on board, or for napping.

What I am most excited about is getting my kids out sailing again.

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A new rig for a Goat Island Skiff Spruce for Roger Longs Yawl Dory and more Birdsmouth Masts and Spars

The finished mast and spars delivered and stepped into John Goodmans Goat Island Skiff Yawl #1 in Houston, TX. John does the Texas 200 in a few weeks!

To find good spruce you need to go right to the source. I enjoyed some wonderful walking with a customer who is having a Yawldory by Roger Long, N.A., built and wanted the Spruce for the spars, masts, and oars (my job) to come from her friends land. We walked (i.e., bushwacked) and tagged a few nice Spruce trees.

 

Birdsmouth Masts under construction for a Michael Storer Goat Island Skiff. With Michaels blessing, Clint drew a yawl rig for the boat.

 

Varnishing the Sitka Spruce/Northern White Spruce Birdsmouth mast allows the grain of the Sitka to deepen and develop the contrasting lighter-colored Northern White Spruce. You get some of the benefits of Sitka for half the cost by mixing it with the local spruce we get hear in Maine and Canada.

The two masts are for the Goat Island Skiff, a birdsmouth on the left and a hollow-rectangular mast on the right. The mast on right is a customers that I took in to check for chafing and leathered the chafed areas to prevent more.

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Calendar Islands Yawl Update

The CIY is becoming Reality

A father son team builds CIY #1 in Duluth, MN.

The last update had me quarter scale modeling the CIY hull. That work has completed and Ive even put some paint on the model so it looks presentable. The model is also a great opportunity to use up left over paint and to test colors. I consider the color scheme -- and lack of varnish I might add -- to be an important part of the overall feel of my boats. I am not settled on the scheme, but still looking for the right brown for gunwales. I like the sand interior. The dark blue is the only boat I have ever used it and it works OK, but I am not in love with it.

My little guy helped me paint the interior of the CIY model. He said the interior color "looks really good, Daddy". So Ill go with that!

CNC Cutting in Maine

The parts for the kit were cut at Hewes & Co in Blue Hill, Maine. They also cut the Vivier boats now and all the Oughtred kits and I am so glad to be doing business with them. Here is their work:

The CNC cut Advantech chipboard supports for bulkheads with some patterns, too.

The CIY planks being CNC cut with the NC Scarf.

While the cutting was going on in Maine, the builders in Duluth were starting the birdsmouth masts and spars. They are great, hard working guys and have built several boats.

CIY Builders fabricating hollow-birdsmouth mast.

The kit arrives in snowy Minnesota. You can see the Advantech strongback components here.

The parts making begins. Here they glue up the NC stem.

My way of giving

In the meantime, in my studio overlooking the Saco River I work on more CAD files for people who want to build my boats. It is the highest honor and I will work hard to make it happen for them. They always give back and make the design better than I could have made it alone. The revised KDI kit is about to be cut again on the West coast, the new Drake 19 is shaping up for a few interested rowers, and the Deblois Street Dory is getting a revision based on the Compass Project build and plans and kits will be sent out this spring. I have views like this to keep me going.

I live in the North Dam Mill there on the left bank if the Saco River. The ice is almost out on the river!

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Following the Canoe Yawl Track

Ive written before about Canoe Yawls here and here . There is something about the elegant simplicity and sense of independence which exerts a very powerful grip, although Im beginning to wonder whether pure romanticism is the real driver

A George Holmes sketch of Ethel and Nan in Denmark in 1886. (Sail and Oar) John Leather

My brain seems to be particularly subject to distractions, and I find myself repeatedly going off on boat-related tangents which follow a predictable, if meandering, course. My latest one was started when I re-read some sections of L. Francis Herreshoffs superb book, The Common Sense of Yacht Design, in search of a particular bit of technical data. Something in the book about the optimum forefoot shape for a sailing boat lead me eventually back to Albert Stranges beautiful Wenda design, a longtime favourite of mine

Albert Strange Wenda (forum.woodenboat.com)

A photo of Wenda s beautiful stern. This example was built for Dick Wynne by boatbuilder Fabian Bush. 

Another view of Wenda.  www.fabianbush.com

Being on a roll (once again) about canoe yawls, I got talking with my boating friend, Ian Hamilton, in the hope that he would get swept up in the process also. Ian had for years been smitten by another of Albert Stranges designs - in this case the designers own favourite, Cherub II, so I expected his full support. Strangely he was ambivalent, saying that he had come to realise over the years, that the canoe yawls which appealed to us so much were "...cold water boats...".

Albert Stranges personal favourite, Cherub II  (Sail and Oar by John Leather)

Cherub II - Lines and General Arrangement (Sail and Oar by John Leather)

Over the last week or so Ive been pondering Ians comment about the canoe yawls being "...cold water boats..." and Im not sure I agree with him. However, it did stop me from marching off blindly on another enthusiasm, and gave me pause for thought.

What it comes down to is that the activity and the boats change depending on geographical location, but the philosophy remains unchanged.

A William Garden-designed Eel, complete with hinged cuddy-cabin top just like the canoe yawls of the late 1800s. This particular example was built glued-lapstrake, with epoxy-bonded marine plywood planking. She is a very "open" sort of boat, but I think she would look at home on just about any coastal waterway.

Two pictures of my Little Egret design, which would make an excellent  "warm and shallow water"  canoe yawl.  Remember, canoe yawls are not necessarily canoes, and arent always rigged as yawls. The name relates to boats which evolved from canoes, some of which resembled ships yawl boats. 

Around the time that I was in full canoe yawl swing, one of my sons was beginning to make repeated comments about setting up a syndicate and having me build a Phil Bolger-designed Black Skimmer for use on Moreton Bay and the Great Sandy Straits (Queensland, Australia). Black Skimmer is a 25ft 3in x 7ft x 10in cat yawl-rigged leeboard sharpie built from plywood and epoxy.

Tashtego, a beautiful example of Phil Bolgers Black Skimmer-design, built around 1980 by Walter Baron of Old Wharf Dory Co.   www.oldwharf.com

I had been putting son David off about a Black Skimmer, on the basis that we couldnt justify a boat of that size. But with my new attitude towards the sorts of boats suited to the canoe yawl function in our part of the word (hot, and lots of shallow water), and given the possibility of a family syndicate to spread costs and maybe keep the boat in the one family for generations, excitement started to build.

Black Skimmer (plans here) has been my dreamboat (along with Rozinante) for the last 33 years. But in the last decade or so, Ive been preaching the "small boats get used more" line so strongly that I had just about convinced myself that my dreamboats were off the agenda. I hadnt considered the enthusiasm, optimism, and idealism of youth ever coming back to me, but I hadnt counted on the advantage of having kids!

So, what is special about Black Skimmer? Here is a partial list: -

• shoal draft - 10 or 11 inches/ 279mm;
• free-standing rig with masts which do not pierce the watertight volume and can be raised and lowered without a crane;
• self-vanging sails (due to the sprit booms);
• self-righting with a self-draining cockpit;
• effective watertight ventilation arrangement;
• leeboards and the resultant open interior and strong bottom;
• simple, but well engineered, structure;
• self-draining well forward (for anchor, chain, mud, and sail handling;
• self-draining well aft for outboard, fuel, anchor, mud, and crabs;
• wonderful sprawling space in a cabin arranged with a raised deck. This is a strong, easily-built cabin-structure, and it provides important reserve buoyancy in the event of a knock-down;
• sitting headroom in the cabin;
• proven performance.

Having said all that, I am still haunted by the vision of a beautiful double-ended canoe yawl like Wenda or Rozinante.  Just today I was contacted by an exceptionally knowledgable and experienced friend who told me that I had only one life, and that if I didnt build a Rozinante  I would go to my grave a lesser man.

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Concordia Yawl

While we are talking about Waldo Howlands Concordia Company, we might take a look at the most famous design to come out of that shop in Massachusetts.

The Concordia yawl was designed in 1938 by naval architect C. Raymond Hunt for Llewellyn Howland and built by Llewellyns son Waldo.

I found this Concordia yawl preparing to hoist anchor while cruising in the San Juan Islands near the western extreme of the Canadian border with the US.


Concordia Yawl Design Specifications:
Length Over All 39-10"
Length Waterline 28-6"
Beam (Extreme) 10-3"
Draft 5-8"
Ballast (Iron Keel) 7700 Lbs.
Displacement 18000 Lbs.
Sail Area 690 Sq. Ft.
(Fore Triangle, Mainsail and Mizzen)

Construction - Oak keel, steam bent laminated oak frames, African mahogany planking, bright mahogany deck trim, canvas covered main deck and house top, bronze plank fastenings, galvanized iron keel bolts.

Rig - Hollow spars, including spinnaker pole, stainless steel rigging, galvanized tangs, bronze fittings and winches.

The Concordia yawl has won numerous prestigious races including the Newport/Bermuda Race (1954 & 1978), the Annapolis Race (1955), Cowes Week (1955) and the Marblehead-to-Halifax Race (1955 & 1997); Proving that a cruising boat can also be competitive.

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Canoe yawl plans

Canoe yawl plans Mik's sailing canoe yawl, beth - duckworks boat builders, A caveat. i have decided to make plans for my sailing canoe "beth" available through duckworks, but there is a serious caveat: this boat is only suitable for people Dayboat double enders - selway fisher, We have 11 designs ranging from traditional canoe yawls to polish fishing

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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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