New Suzuki outboard

I broke down and bought the new Suzuki 2.5 four stroke. Seems to be a fine engine for the Caledonia Yawl that is if you want to stray from the path of righteousness. It is clean. It sounds not too bad and it was able to push our boat against a 20 knot wind and four foot seas. My spouse was quite pleased not to be sailing in those conditions. I will add a picture later.

Lake Laberge Kite Aerial Photos of Caledonia Yawl

Here are a few photos taken yesterday on Lake Laberge. Things didn't work out perfectly, but you do get a bit of a feel for sailing on Lake Laberge

Arctic Trip Update

I guess I better update things on the Artic Trip to the North Yukon Coast.
I am safely back in Whitehorse after quite a few adventures. For the most part the boat performed well.
I never made it all the way to Hershel Island.
The whole story, pictures, videos are at this webpage I created.

https://sites.google.com/site/caledoniayawl/home/boris-arctic-trip

Check it out.

Outboard Motor Well

It is a bit of a dilemma, " to cut a hole in your boat or not? " After stewing over it for a while I decided to plough ahead.

My hundred dollar noise and smoke machine.

A rough model

There she be, Almost finished.

The prop sticks down about 6 inches below the keel.

Any ways I am sure I will appreciate the motor when I am making my way back up the Mackenzie Delta to Inuvik.

Just slapped a coat of paint on it. Just have to seal the bottom with a sheet of rubber and make a box to fit it.

New Oars

The oars given to me last fall worked all right but they were the wrong size and were different weights. My first project was to build a new set. It is not an easy task when the selection of wood up here is so expensive and substandard. Basically the process is to laminate 3 one by six planks together then cut and shape them.

Here they are glued together.

Here they are cut out.

And finished product

Ready for some dry land rowing.

Spring is here.

Just a short update. I eventually bought a SS mast traveller and that has solved all the lugsail difficulties.
Am looking at two or three projects in the immediate future.

• making a set of new oars.
• installing an ouboard engine well
• maybe making a bowed tiller to get around the mizzen mast.

We have had an unusually cold prolonged spring. There is still tons of snow on the ground and the temperatures have been sub zero for most of the time.

I did take one crack at making the tiller. It was not successful and I will revisit it.

Come June 7 or so I will be heading up the Dempster Highway enroute to Inuvik in the Mackenzie River Delta. From there I hope to traverse the Yukon Arctic Coast. The trip will take about four weeks.

There is a lot to be done between now and then. This includes the task of learning to sail this boat competently.

I hope to take the boat out, fully loaded, for a test cruise sometime in late May.

Winter is here.

There she is looking pretty forlorn. Tomorrow off to SE Asia until March. Looking forward to getting back and watching the snow melt off. Two projects to tackle first thing in the spring is building the outboard well and making a new set of oars. I have bought an ancient 2hp outboard and got it going despite the fact that it was -20 C outside. First open water I will be learning to sail this thing. I am convinced when I am sailing by myself that I need a considerable amount of ballast. I will also be working on that.

Happy winter everyone!

Nothing Much

Have been scared off sailing by the strong winds we have been having for the last few days. What I want is a calm breeze so that I can go out and experiment with my new parel bead arrangement. Have discovered that the mast is raked to far aft. Hope to move it forward a bit in the next couple of days.

Here is a photo Glenn took in almost no wind on Launch Day #1

Another minor set back

So Doug and I take it for it's second launch. The new mast fits fine and everything is fine until we try to put the centerboard down. It takes a lot of effort to get it down and subsequently becomes jammed. Back to the beach where I jump out and drag it in despite the centerboard being down.
Any ways the next day I brought the boat back home, popped it off the trailer and was able to extract the centerboard by removing the top of the centerboard case.
As it turns out the centerboard had swelled up some and had developed a bit of nasty bow. With the help of a variety of power tools I did my best to make it look straight and remove some material. Then I saturated the whole thing with epoxy and one layer of cloth.
Yesterday I launched for third time in some nasty gusty winds on Lake Laberge.
I quickly realized I was over canvassed and undermanned. The main obstacle this time was the parel bead arrangement in lieu of a proper mast traveller which by the way I have ordered but don't expect to arrive any time soon. Any ways I finally gave up after having the triple reefed lug sail get hung up on the mast acting like a square spinnaker, with the boat going sideways on the brink of broaching.
Here are a few pictures.

Ever an optimist I will be heading out again as soon as conditions permit. We are supposed to have a week of pretty good weather.

Some small set backs

So along with Glenn and Doug we launch the boat. Tied up to the dock, I notice the boat is filling with water.

Well it wasn't the end of the world. I raced back home for epoxy and supplies. About four hours later Glenn and I took it for it's inaugural sail. By this time the wind had died down but we got a taste of it. Another thing was that the boat rowed pretty well despite my set of unbalanced oars.

The next day Doug and I sailed downwind out of Jackfish Bay and shot off to the other side of Lake Laberge. We beached the boat for a while and admired what a great day it was.

Anyways to make the painful story short and sweet. We were tacking back and forth outside the entrance to  Jackfish Bay when the wind came up. I am guessing 15 knots. I was trying to haul up the yard after putting a reef in the sail. The mainmast broke at at the partners. There was no time to start tearing out my hair as we had to row like mad to get into Jackfish Bay.

Here is the sad story. It seems the glue failed. Makes me wonder about the Mizzen Mast, Yard and Boom which were all constructed the same way. 

Today I just finished constructing a new solid mast glued with epoxy. My next post will have some pics. Took me two and a half days to build. It is heavier but what the hell. Should be back on the water by Sunday.

Getting Ready to Launch touch wood.

My strategy is to get the boat in the water despite some unfinished business. I absolutely have to get the boat sailing before I loose heart and approach another long winter.
These pictures suck because I am shooting into the sun and the boat is wedged between the house and the shed.
Stay tuned. There will be sailing pictures within the next few days. That is unless something horrible happens on launch day.

bilge keels and centerboard

The bilge keels were a fair bit of work.
I was worried that the centerboard wouldn't fit and it didn't. Had to make some minor modifications. I still have to work on sealing the pin ( bolt that goes through the centerboard case).

As soon as the epoxy dries I will slap a coat of paint on things then flip it over and see what the masts look like when they are installed.
Feels like a launch party is iminent

Knees,Gunwales, Floorboards

 

As you can see I have the floorboards roughly finished.
You can also see the knees that tie the thwarts to the gunwales.
 

Here is a detail showing the finished gunwales. 

 

 

 

Now I am working on the centerboard, rudder and Norwegian tiller arrangement.
Things are getting close. Unfortunately I will not be finished before I go on my month long sailing trip.

Time to start work again. Knees

Today I finally got back to work.
Today I shaped the knee pieces that go from the thwarts to the gunnels.
Tomorrow I will epoxy the laminations together.
Stay tuned for some pictures.

Christmas at the boat shed

Things look a little abandoned. Now that the days are getting longer I think I will try and jump start a few small projects.

A bit of progress

Not much has been getting done. I have put together the yard and boom for the mainmast.
I have been working on the main mast step and partners.
The epoxy situation has been resolved. I am using their med hardener and it seems to be working fine. Of course heat becomes an issue now that we are almost at the end of Sept.

I will try and post some pictures soon.

Epoxy set back

Seems like the epoxy they sent me had two types of hardener and no resin and I was to stupid to notice.
This is a bit of a set back. Cold weather is coming on and I was hoping to finish all the epoxy jobs before the onset of the deep freeze. If there is any consolation in this it is that I didn't try to assemble the mast using epoxy.
Gorilla glue gets a good review from me, so far. It is fairly easy to apply and sets up fast. The mast can be moved after 2-4 hours though I left the clamps on overnight.
Screw it. I am off to Skagway to work on my other boat project.

Working on masts continued

Here are the mizzen mast and main mast roughly planed to shape.

I filled some of the cracks with this new ecopoxy that I just bought. So far it hasn't set up. Granted the weather has been cold and wet. It will be a real mess if for some reason the epoxy doesn't set up.

I think I will continue to make the main yard and boom hollow and make the two spars for the mizzen mast out of solid wood.