The Sailing Rig

The ' Ashley Grey' with her new mast being prepared and fitted. No varnish on it yet, in this photo,

The boat shown fromthe stern. The transom looks dark because of the shade

The mast being fitted , mast partner not seen as I was in process of making it and had to have mast postitioned perfectly before I could make the partner, which is the structure inside the boate that hods the mast up. The base of he mast has a 1'
square tenon thaat fits in a 1" square hole I carved out of the inner part of the stem. It's hrd to see it, because it is so slight, but there is about a 5 degree rake to the mast, meaning it tilts backwards ever so slightly.

Am now getting the components of the sailing rig finished. I chose a Lug rig because of it's simplicity and ease of set up and take down when out in the water. I am using a tung oil based varnish for the mast, boom and spar and will put on 4 or 5 coats, well buffed between coats. This will give these components a lasting, shiny translucent amber colored finish. Then I'll spread out the sail on the floor and begin lacing it to the spar and mast . The halliard will run through a slot at the top of the mast, inside of which is a sheave. The halliard will be attached to the spar at both ends and then wrapped around the mast aided by a thimble . The spar can then be raised or lowered to set or take down the sail. Pictures of this, once complete will make this easier to understand, but it really is quite simple. The rest of the running rigging is just the main sheet system which I'll describe in my next post. Enjoy these latest photos!

Masts, Booms, Spars, the fitting out begins!

I can almost feel the shift of the breeze and hear the snap of the sail as I tack through the Chesapeake during Indian Summer, 2011. I am that close  to putting  the P14 into the water for her maiden voyage.I am currently working on the mast partner, a wooden brace, that will be placed across the front of the boat. It fits just underneath the sheer rail, crossing the boat at a point where the mast will go tthrough a hole in the middle of this structure which I am  fashioning out of red oak. The mast partner  will be screwed, but NOT glued to ledgers made of  1" thick mahogany, left over from the thwarts .  2.5" carriage screws are used for this, so the partner can be taken off, when not sailing, making more room for people to sit towards the front.

The mast is a 12 ' long structure made ut of spruce. I did not make the mast boom or spar. The mast and spar are rounded and long and rqire a high quaax

Rigging her for a sail!

The manual that Arch Davis supplies to help guide you in the building of the Penobscot 14 does a nice job of describing how to make the mast, boom, and spar for the three rigging choices for this boat. The Gunter rig, which gives you more sail area as there is a jib, looked tempting to me but a bit more complicated to do and, given that I am interested in just relaxing, easygoing sailing, not required for my needs. So I chose the Gunter rig which has a single trapezoidal shaped sail. The beauty of this rig is that the mast does not require wire stays, as does the Gunter, so it is easy to set up quickly and take down quickly, even in open water. In reading how to construct the wooden 12' mast, the boom and spar,I  became convinced that I did not have the right equipment to make these parts adequately, in particular, a quality table saw. So I commissioned Arch to make them for me which turned out to be a wise choice as, for a very fair price, I got the mast(with sheave slot cut out already and sheave hardware to install, as well as hand made wooden halliard cleat attached)), the squared off boom complete with jaws, the spar,. This came perfectly packed by truck with all pieces in perfect and beautiful condition, along with a bag of hardware. I have already done a light sanding on the mast, boom, and spar and next have to remove and glue and screw on the cleat, the jaws, and various other attachments. Once this is done I'll varnish all thre pieces. Seperate to these I received a box from Pope Sails containing the Lug sail, the lacing to attach the sail to the spar, the various ropes to attach the sail to the boom and the haliard. Also, a single block and double block to rig the boom to the main sheet. More on this later with photos, once I get it done.

The Painted 'Ashley Grey' Gets Turned Right Side Up!

The Ashley Grey gets Color!

Boat is still upside down for the painting process. The paint is made by Pettit,a company specializing in marine paints. The boat was first primed with Pettit undercoat and then lightly sanded. The hull, except for the molding, top strake  and rail, is painted a polyurethane topcoat color with the imaginative name 'Off White'.

The molding strip and front and rear badges are painted Interlux polyurethane color called 'Sunburst Yellow. I have always liked the contrast of yellow against blue, and think it really suits a boat. I also wanted a color theme that was similar to the HMS Bounty(see first entry in this BLOG).

Towards the stern, the painted hull is seen, centerboard slot at the top.

You can see the top strake(plank) which is painted a Pettit topcoat polyurethane called 'Ocean Blue'. The photos don't do this color justice. This blue was made for this boat.

The bottom of the boat shown towards the bow, again, the centerboard slot is  seen. There are two coats of paint at this point.

Painting the boat was something I had thought about since it's inception. It seemed that most Penobscots I saw on the internet, including the P14 owned by the designer, Arch Davis, had a white hull. The white does it justice by accenting, through more easily seen shadowing effect on the overlapping planks. I thought long and hard as to whether to use color or just keep it simple and paint everything white. But after much thinking and imagining and playing with colored pencil drawings, I decided on some type of blue for the top strake and bright yellow for the molding and badges. I picked colors off the Pettit color chart on their website, but used Interlux brand for the yellow since the West Marine store had it in stock. It took about 3 weeks to complete the paint job. Incidentally, the transom was not painted, just clear coated and varnished, which gives a nice contrast. The part of the stem that emerges above the breasthook is not yet painted, just primed. I think I will keep it simple and paint that 'Off White' to match the lower hull.

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Cap Rails installed and shaped, sandin, and getting ready to varnish

The Gaff Rig Handbook: History, Design, Techniques, DevelopmentsThe cap rails are all permanently installed withe the inboard edge jutting out by about 1/4' and rounded over. The outboard edges where sanded flat anf flush with rubrail. The screw holes were plugged with maple which I used throughout the boat. These plugs match the ash wood pretty well and the contrast against the mahogany in the seats looks awesome.I have spent considerable time sanding the seats , caprails and smoothing out previously clear coated inboard surfaces so that I can add a total of 2 coats of clear coat epoxy inside the boat. I am going to use System 3 brand polyurethane high gloss spar varnish on the inboard surfaces...total of maybe 5 to 8 coats with light 000 steel wooling after each coat. Hopefully I'll get a nice glossy surface to all of  this beuatiful mahogany, ash, fir, and oak that comprise the inside of the boat.I really want it to shine and have depth to it. We'll see how it goes.

I did finally find long strips of thin trim pine to use as the molding on  the lower edge of the sheer (uppermost planks). I have dry installed them on the port side already, predrilling holes in the trip to prevent splitting and using 1.25" brads to attach to the lower edge of the sheer plank. I only had to make one scarf joint, which was easy and the molding has a simple , but pleasing, look with flat outer edges and a rounded domed middle. When I get the starboard side dry fitted, I'll proceed on to gluing the molding on and using bronze 1 ' nails which will be inset , then covered with epoxy putty. Also found some nice 1/8" thick birch plywood to make the badges with.

The front oarlock station, starboard side complete with cap rail in ash. 3/4'' thick ash was used for the  cap rail on the oar lock chocks. To make it blend into the 1/4" thick caprail a concave slope was created on both sides. The inboard portion of the oarlock cover was  carved out to blend with the slope but the inboard edge was kept intact so that water that gets on the chock will flow outboard.  This was tricky to do because ash is very hard wood. I used a Dremel rotary tool with a drum shaped sander bit. The outboard edge of the chock cover is flush with the rub rail. The front of the centerboard case is shown in the background, as is the front thwart.

Here is the back of the boat with the side and middle thwarts. The caprail is thoroughly installed now, sanded and shaped and with epoxy clearcoat on it. The hole in the rear bulkhead will soon have a removable porthole style cover installed. This will render the rear bulkhead watertight so that the boat has adequate flotation in case of a capsize.

The front thwart is shown with it's port brace. At this point I was in the process of sanding the epoxy clear coat to get it ready for the first coat of varnish. In the background you can see the middle thwart and to the left you can see part of the centerboard case.

Front of boat showing how upper stringers emerge from front bulkhead. Also note the slight convex-up camber of the breast hook.This  gives a nice curved look to the top of the breasthook. The cap rail is made of 1/4" ash wood, while the thicker middle part of the breasthook is mahogany, the bottom most piece of wood is the same okoume mahogany plywood used in the boat planking.The inner stem is seen as well.

The hull's full length is shown here, bow to the left. The thin strip of moulding on the bottom of the  uppermost plank is not yet installed. Arch Davis stresses the importance of fair, smooth curves to the lines of the planking. This is well shown here and is what makes the lapstrake method so pleasing to the eye. Most of the hull will be painted white or off white. This allows the shadows of the over lapping planks to be seen best so that the beauty of the lapstrake method can be appreciated. The top most plank will have color, not sure what that will be yet. Also decorative badges front and back, not yet installed, but soon to be.

Here is the molding that blends the front bulkhead into the hull planking. White oak was used for this. The port hole in the bow bulkhead will have a removable screw-in cover like the rear bulkhead , thus creating two airtight flotation chambers, front and back.  Because the central part of the porthole cover is easily removed, small items that need to stay dry and safe, like wallets, keys, cellphones, could be stored in the bulk  head but the  boat designer stresses that this is technically not there for storage. A few small items, as mentioned should, I think, will be OK though. You can see the bottom of the stem emerging and then ending on the false keel. If the boat is Lug rigged, which is the plan for now, a small squared area will be cut out of  the top of this part of the stem to serve as a slot for the tenon on the bottom of the mast.

Once the inside varnishing is done, I'll move her outside and , with the hull upside down on some tarp, paint the outside of the hull. I am going with Pettit polyurethane topcoat, as recommended by Arch Davis. Most likely I'll paint all but the sheer planks white. I am thinking of painting the sheer planks a medium blue and the rubrails and badges yellow. Not sure yet.
       I have included  a couple of links to books that I have found helpful and interesting.

The Hull is completed and ready to be dressed up

With installation ofth