Monday, November 4, 2013
Trim for the Cabin, Food for the Soul
The new over head looked great, but to really complete the project, trim was needed. Dan recommended teak but that was beyond my budget; actually, anymore work was beyond my budget. But I could not bear to leave the rough edges showing. A good friend of mine (everyone should have a friend like this!) had a mahogany board in his barn that was left over from a boat he had built years ago and he gave me this for the trim. "But how do i turn this into trim?" That's when Dan introduced me to the router. Now that's a fun tool! Dan cut strips from the mahogany board with his table saw. He then showed me how to shape them with the router. This was really fun work and was also very rewarding. As the trim pieces emerged from the router they were so beautifully curved, I could not help but smile! I then sanded them lightly and coated them with a satin varnish, 2 coats. Then I had the experts install the trim. The finished product looked great! Benefits of my work on the trim went far beyond simply saving money; I learned a new skill and also felt a deepening sense of ownership in the improvements made to make SAGA more beautiful. There's a bit more of my soul in this boat now, and that's what it's all about...
But wait, the cabin is still a little dark inside. I know a beautiful wooden boat that has white wainscoting on the bulkheads, that would look so nice in this cabin...I want that!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Easy on the eye.
Cabin Improvements , the first part.
There was a small (haha) problem of a leak in the forward hatch. I took this problem to the local boatyard (Belmont Boatworks) to be fixed. Of course when you start taking apart a 30+ year old boat, you had better be prepared to find some problems you did not anticipate. Removing the forward hatch exposed plenty of wet, rotten core in the cabin top that had been soaking up rain water for the past few years. Once all this wet stuff ( resembling contents of a hamster cage) was pulled out, there was a 3ft x3ft area needing to be filled, this area also included around the mast step- an important place to have strength (more inner beauty). The great void was filled with an epoxy mixture to give both strength and protection from moisture. The hatch was replaced and fiberglassed into place. So no more leaking. Good. But down below there was a cabin that still was dark and not very beautiful. I wanted MORE!
The day when i tore out the brown, drooping vinyl head liner was a very fine day, indeed! I gleefully tore at it and chopped it with scissors. I'm so lucky that it was not held on with glue! I had wanted to tear that thing out since I had bought the boat but was unsure how to cover the fiberglass over head. Dan Miller at Belmont said he knew just what i was looking for and he designed a traditional solution. He milled out custom v- match douglas fir boards to fit SAGA's overhead. Bryden, the primary carpenter working on SAGA, measured and cut every board perfectly to fit the curves of SAGA's overhead. I told Dan that I would like to participate whenever possible in the work, although I have little experience doing any carpentry. Dan had me do all the priming and painting of the boards; no small task. He also was clear with me that I had to " do it right." He told me all i needed to know to do the job well. This was a great opportunity for me to participate in the work and to learn some basic skills in painting and woodworking. Things as basic as using the proper paint, covering all surfaces and sanding properly between coats of paint are important in achieving the desired final product.
And so I did all that painting and sanding and more painting on every board. It was fun and it looked great when i was finished! Very satisfying!
Bryden then installed the overhead, fitting and screwing each piece into a frame of stringers that were screwed to the interior of the cabin.. The bronze screws neatly lined athwartships on the fore and aft running overhead boards.
The result was a beautiful white, traditional looking overhead. The cabin looked twice as big with the bright color and linear effect.
But you know, it really needed some nice looking trim...
There was a small (haha) problem of a leak in the forward hatch. I took this problem to the local boatyard (Belmont Boatworks) to be fixed. Of course when you start taking apart a 30+ year old boat, you had better be prepared to find some problems you did not anticipate. Removing the forward hatch exposed plenty of wet, rotten core in the cabin top that had been soaking up rain water for the past few years. Once all this wet stuff ( resembling contents of a hamster cage) was pulled out, there was a 3ft x3ft area needing to be filled, this area also included around the mast step- an important place to have strength (more inner beauty). The great void was filled with an epoxy mixture to give both strength and protection from moisture. The hatch was replaced and fiberglassed into place. So no more leaking. Good. But down below there was a cabin that still was dark and not very beautiful. I wanted MORE!
The day when i tore out the brown, drooping vinyl head liner was a very fine day, indeed! I gleefully tore at it and chopped it with scissors. I'm so lucky that it was not held on with glue! I had wanted to tear that thing out since I had bought the boat but was unsure how to cover the fiberglass over head. Dan Miller at Belmont said he knew just what i was looking for and he designed a traditional solution. He milled out custom v- match douglas fir boards to fit SAGA's overhead. Bryden, the primary carpenter working on SAGA, measured and cut every board perfectly to fit the curves of SAGA's overhead. I told Dan that I would like to participate whenever possible in the work, although I have little experience doing any carpentry. Dan had me do all the priming and painting of the boards; no small task. He also was clear with me that I had to " do it right." He told me all i needed to know to do the job well. This was a great opportunity for me to participate in the work and to learn some basic skills in painting and woodworking. Things as basic as using the proper paint, covering all surfaces and sanding properly between coats of paint are important in achieving the desired final product.
And so I did all that painting and sanding and more painting on every board. It was fun and it looked great when i was finished! Very satisfying!
Bryden then installed the overhead, fitting and screwing each piece into a frame of stringers that were screwed to the interior of the cabin.. The bronze screws neatly lined athwartships on the fore and aft running overhead boards.
The result was a beautiful white, traditional looking overhead. The cabin looked twice as big with the bright color and linear effect.
But you know, it really needed some nice looking trim...
Inner beauty
INNER BEAUTY
All boats have inner beauty. A sound hull, working bilge pump, reliable engine, seacocks that open and close. It's the stuff we don't see at first; it's the stuff that we don't think about til it doesn't work. That's the beauty that makes a boat safe.
I looked at all of SAGA's inner beauty and made some improvements. Most of these tasks were done by the boat yard. Batteries, engine hoses, seacocks and shrouds were replaced as needed in the first year. She's a simple boat, not a lot of systems like refrigeration or running water to be concerned about. For the first year or 2 she was sailed safely with all of her inner beauty. ..but i wanted more.
I wanted the boat to have beauty that please the eye, beyond the inner beauty of safety.
I really wanted to recreate, in this fiberglass boat, the cozy warm traditional beauty that i had come to love in wooden boats i had sailed over the years. The bright soft simplicity of white, wooden bulkheads, the curve of teak trim, the placement of brass lighting, the white v matched overhead. The sunlight dancing in the cabin through potholes and hatches.
Fortunately SAGA has a teak interior without any visible fiberglass in the cabin. But her interior was was all too dark and the teak had begun to show some wear and tear over her 33 years of life. She has 5 feet of headroom in the main cabin so she would benefit from anything that may give at least the illusion of additional height down below.
So my work begins...
Next I will discuss work done in the cabin.
All boats have inner beauty. A sound hull, working bilge pump, reliable engine, seacocks that open and close. It's the stuff we don't see at first; it's the stuff that we don't think about til it doesn't work. That's the beauty that makes a boat safe.
I looked at all of SAGA's inner beauty and made some improvements. Most of these tasks were done by the boat yard. Batteries, engine hoses, seacocks and shrouds were replaced as needed in the first year. She's a simple boat, not a lot of systems like refrigeration or running water to be concerned about. For the first year or 2 she was sailed safely with all of her inner beauty. ..but i wanted more.
I wanted the boat to have beauty that please the eye, beyond the inner beauty of safety.
I really wanted to recreate, in this fiberglass boat, the cozy warm traditional beauty that i had come to love in wooden boats i had sailed over the years. The bright soft simplicity of white, wooden bulkheads, the curve of teak trim, the placement of brass lighting, the white v matched overhead. The sunlight dancing in the cabin through potholes and hatches.
Fortunately SAGA has a teak interior without any visible fiberglass in the cabin. But her interior was was all too dark and the teak had begun to show some wear and tear over her 33 years of life. She has 5 feet of headroom in the main cabin so she would benefit from anything that may give at least the illusion of additional height down below.
So my work begins...
Next I will discuss work done in the cabin.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
The Beginning
This blog is about my experience of sailing and boat ownership. I hope to share some information regarding work I've done on SAGA, a pacific seacraft 25. And maybe even some adventures when the work is all done...
I grew up on the Chesapeake bay and have always had salt water in my veins. I just never had a boat. My family did not sail, but at age 12 I went to sailing school in Connecticut. At age 16 I sailed on the Pride of Baltimore as a cadet. Soon after I crewed on a Bugeye on the bay. I taught sailing at St Mary's College and was on the racing team there. I taught sailing in Maine at a summer camp. I sailed with friends a lot. I wanted more! One day I decided "I'd better get a boat, " so I did.
It would have to be a boat I could sail alone, I wanted to go sailing anytime without needing crew. I wanted a boat I could learn to maintain by myself and that would be affordable to maintain. I had dreams of living aboard and cruising so she would have to have a snug cabin, some type of galley and maybe a head. The boat would have to be beautiful. I had spent so much time on wooden boats, each with a warm, traditional, salty character that I had come to love. I wanted to somehow recreate that experience for myself in my boat.
She would have to be a boat that would handle boisterous weather; that is to say she had to be seaworthy with a bit of bluewater in her veins- I did to want to have to hide from wind, waves and rain.
Most importantly, she'd have to be a boat I could afford to purchase.
There are probably a few boats available that fit this description, but the one I found is a 1978 Pacific Seacraft 25. She had lots of potential, which is to say, she needed a bit of work... But most boats do, as you know. That's part of the fun!
I grew up on the Chesapeake bay and have always had salt water in my veins. I just never had a boat. My family did not sail, but at age 12 I went to sailing school in Connecticut. At age 16 I sailed on the Pride of Baltimore as a cadet. Soon after I crewed on a Bugeye on the bay. I taught sailing at St Mary's College and was on the racing team there. I taught sailing in Maine at a summer camp. I sailed with friends a lot. I wanted more! One day I decided "I'd better get a boat, " so I did.
It would have to be a boat I could sail alone, I wanted to go sailing anytime without needing crew. I wanted a boat I could learn to maintain by myself and that would be affordable to maintain. I had dreams of living aboard and cruising so she would have to have a snug cabin, some type of galley and maybe a head. The boat would have to be beautiful. I had spent so much time on wooden boats, each with a warm, traditional, salty character that I had come to love. I wanted to somehow recreate that experience for myself in my boat.
She would have to be a boat that would handle boisterous weather; that is to say she had to be seaworthy with a bit of bluewater in her veins- I did to want to have to hide from wind, waves and rain.
Most importantly, she'd have to be a boat I could afford to purchase.
There are probably a few boats available that fit this description, but the one I found is a 1978 Pacific Seacraft 25. She had lots of potential, which is to say, she needed a bit of work... But most boats do, as you know. That's part of the fun!
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