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We drove “Barely A Wake”, my newly-built Eastport Pram, to the local reservoir today. Lakes being a rare thing in Utah, it was all we had to choose from less than a day’s drive away. As it was, this one, Rockport Reservoir, was close to an hour’s drive on the freeway.
We arrived at about 10:30 AM. We scoped out the boat launch to see how we could safely get this thing in the water without having to put our feet into water that, according to the Rockport Reservoir web site, wasn’t much warmer than 40 degrees.
 Luckily, there was a dock. And, luckily, the boat only weighs about 65 pounds which means we were able to carry it onto the dock and simply slide it into the water.
We spent about 10 minutes ferrying equipment required for the maiden voyage: personal flotation devices, oars, camera, plastic cups, and, of course, champagne.
As Pat poured a liberal amount of champagne across the bow, I recited some official words. It went something like this: “I christen thee Barely A Wake. May she bring fair winds and good fortune to all who sail on her.”
  After that, we each had a glass of champagne and then I rowed away from the dock, paying special attention to the interior of the boat to see if water was pooling anywhere inside which would mean a leak and a short day of boating.
 It took a bit to get the hang of the oars and it didn’t help that the leather collars I had installed, which were supposed to prevent the oar from slipping all the way through the oarlock and then drifting away, weren’t large enough to do the job. I guess I understand now why the leather strips they shipped along with the oars were so long — I was supposed wrap it around the oars twice and not just once. Twice around would make them large enough to not slip through the oarlocks. You can see the oars and their leather protective collars in the photo to the right. The leather strip I’m referring to is at the left side of the part covered with leather.
  I took a spin around the bay and then came back for Pat. We went out into the center of the bay and finished the ceremonies of the day. We poured another liberal helping of champagne into the water to appease whatever nautical gods might be in the neighborhood. Hey, I know it’s probably meaningless and at best it’s superstitious, but who wants to take a chance with these things? It’s a very small boat and it’s a pretty damn big pool of water!
   After finishing the champagne, we returned, once again, to the dock. This time it was to get the rest of the sailing gear: centerboard, rudder, mast, and sail. We put all the parts in their appropriate places and we tried to figure out how we were going to both get into the boat, row out into the center of the bay and then hoist the mainsail. It was getting complicated so we decided it would be best to hoist the sail at the dock. There was barely any wind, so it seemed safe enough. We also decided it would be best for me to take a solo spin first and Pat took photos to document it:
     
After my solo trip around the bay, I came back to pick up Pat. She carefully settled into the area between the front and center seats (you can’t sit on the front seat because the mast is in the way and you can’t sit on the center seat because the centerboard is there). Then, we were off again. This time we sailed out beyond the “No Wake Zone” buoys, but not much beyond. The return to the dock was upwind, so it took us quite a while to work our way back. After mooring the boat, we went to a picnic area for some lunch.
After lunch, we went out for one more sail, this time venturing even further beyond the “No Wake” zone. It seemed that the further we got beyond the buoys, the stronger and more consistent the wind became. Pat even noticed that she was getting splashed by some spray. I took that as a sign that we should turn around. We returned to the dock and within an hour, we were headed back to Salt Lake City. All in all, a very nice day sailing.
This morning at 9:14 AM, I finished lacing the sail to the boom and yard and that marked the official completion of my eight and a half month long, ill-advised and epoxy-drenched journey into boat-building craziness.
To mark the occasion, I hauled everything into the front yard and hoisted the mainsail for the first time. Here are some photos from that occasion:
And, in the interest of full disclosure, here’s a photo of the very first time I hoisted the sail. I quickly realized that the sail was on backwards! Oops! Better here in the front yard than out on the water, I suppose.
So, now it’s time to go sailing!
Tomorrow is the earliest we can go. We wanted to launch it on Little Dell Reservoir, but it is still closed. The next closest body of water is East Canyon Reservoir, but the road through the mountains to it is still closed. The next closest body of water after that is Rockport Reservoir. The Rockport Reservoir State Park web site says it is open year-round, but the water is only 40 degrees. I guess we won’t plan on doing any swimming. The boat is on the top of the car and all ready to go (and the car still fits in the garage with the boat on it, much to our relief).
 
It’s done! I’ve put four, and on some parts five, coats of varnish on Barely A Wake, the Eastport Pram I started building in August of 2009.
Last weekend, I put leather collars on the oars to protect them from the bronze oarlocks. I plan to sail, not row, this boat, so it was more of a decorative step.
Another thing I’ve accomplished in the last week or so is to purchase wider crossbars for the Yakima roof-top rack. The ones I had were not wide enough for the boat (not to mention the amount of rust that had accumulated on them since I purchased them 20 years ago).
All that remains is:
- Attach pintles to the rudder. Pintles are pieces of hardware which provide a pivot point so the rudder can turn.
- Attach gudgeons to the rear transoms. Gudgeons provide the circular fitting in which the rudder’s pintle hardware can pivot.
- Attach cleats to the mast. The cleats are used to tie off the mainsail halyard and the downhaul which keeps a downward force on the boom to keep it from riding up the mast while underway.
- Attach the oarlock base to the gunwale
As much as I try to think of these things as “details,” it is important to do them right. The positioning of the pintles and gudgeons, in particular. If ever there was a time to “measure twice, cut once” it’s in the alignment of the gudgeons so the pintles can pivot freely.
Some of this work I probably should have done before the finish work. The holes in the rudder for fastening pintles is a good example. Oh well. I’ll have to remember that for next time I do some boat-building.
Oh yes, there’s one more step. A very important step too:
It’s supposed to be good luck to put a coin at the mast step of a new ship. I learned about this early in the construction of my boat, Barely A Wake. I told myself I wasn’t going to do it. But, now that the launch date is getting pretty close, I’m rethinking that decision. What’s the harm? Besides, that’s one of the things I really like about sailing: its traditions. Some of them, like this one, have been around a long time.
I couldn’t help but do some research. One theory about the practice is that it originated in ancient Rome when going to sea aboard a ship was a life-threatening endeavor. At the time, it was common to place coins in the mouths of the dead before they were buried. This was done as payment to Charon, who in Greek mythology was the ferryman who ferried the dead to the underworld. Thus, in the same way, the coin would serve to allow the crew to pass into the afterlife. Another theory is the coin would serve as a sacrifice to the gods, thanking them for a successful construction or asking them for divine protection, or maybe both.
A more modern interpretation of the tradition is that you place the coin(s) at the mast step to show your new vessel that you love it dearly and are willing to spend money on it, even if it’s money for silly traditions like this one. One person said they placed a credit card on the mast step. How’s that for a modern interpretation?
Appeasing the gods, nautical and otherwise, seems to be a more common explanation for the tradition though. Some variations say the coin must be a silver coin. The gods would be offended with a gold coin because it is such an obvious attempt to bribe them. A coin made from some alloy of copper or bronze or whatever would be too cheap and thus equally offensive to the gods. So, silver is just right. Sounds like a fairy tale I heard once.
There are other variations that make it even more confusing to know what is right to do. Most people say the coin(s) should be placed heads up; others say heads down so whoever is on the heads side can help keep a watch for rocks and shoals and so forth. Sounds like a good thing.
So, the problem I’m having is that there isn’t really a place underneath the mast step of Barely A Wake at which to place a coin. The mast isn’t even fixed on the boat. When it is in place, it rests right on the bottom of the boat and that’s a place where it’s going to be difficult to keep anything attached. Over time, movement of mast would work it loose. As a result, I have decided to place a coin as close to the mast step as possible and that doing so would serve the spirit of the superstition if not the letter of it.
I’m still undecided as to what kind of coin though. I’ve got three favorites (none of them are silver). The first is a 2005 U.S. nickel, the back side of which has a scene of the Oregon coast and the following text: “Ocean in view! O! The Joy!” This is a quote from the journal of Captain William Clark (of Lewis and Clark) on November 7, 1805. The second is a 2004 U.S. nickel, the back side of which has an image of the 55-foot keelboat used by Lewis and Clark in their journey in search of a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean. My final favorite is a coin I found a couple years ago on the University of Utah campus. It’s a South African coin with a woman’s profile and the text “Elizabeth II Regina” (that must be who the woman is) and a square-rigged ship on the obverse side.
  
(By the way, none of these images show the coins in their actual size. The nickel is about three-quarters of an inch and the South Africa coin is 1.25 inches in diameter.)
Once I decide on a coin, I have to figure out how to attach it. Do I bother to cut a shallow circular hole so it can be a true inlay or do I simply epoxy it in place and put as many coats of epoxy over it as necessary to make it look good.
But, first things first. Which coin is the best choice to appease the sailing gods?
Over the weekend, Pat and I crewed on the Exodus again. This time it was in the Dealers Cup, one of several “offshore” races held on the Great Salt Lake.
Winds were very light all day and especially at the start. We miscalculated how light and were to windward of the starting area when the horn blew. We were trying to get through the start line, but winds were so light we were drifting. In an attempt to gain steerage, Dennis (the captain) told us to furl the genoa and hoist his “drifter”, a smaller, but lighter weight jib. That didn’t help. We drifted very slowly to the north and in circles for the next hour. We finally got underway at 1-2 knots as the winds filled in. By then we were about quarter mile from the start and from the competition. Dennis figured it might take us an hour to get back to the start to cross the line officially, so he decided to skip the start and just sail as much of the 13 nautical mile route as time would allow.
In the end, time allowed us to run the entire route although it took us from 10:30 AM to 7:15 PM to do it. That’s an average speed of just over 1.5 knots which isn’t even a walking pace. Welcome to sailing! It was slow, but oh so relaxing. At about four miles into the course, we were far enough away from shore that we no longer heard the sounds of traffic on I-80 that passes to the south of the lake or trains or aircraft landing at the Salt Lake International Airport. All we could hear was the gentle noise of water against the hull.
Here are some photos:
    
This morning I put the fourth coat of varnish on the hull exterior. I don’t think four coats looks any better than three coats, so I think I’ll stop there. The boom and yard, on the other hand, keep looking better with additional coats so I’m going to proceed to a fifth coat on those parts. I also have plenty of other parts to varnish and, of course, the entire interior.
I don’t have much time for a post right now, so I’m going to just post some photos and get back with more details later. Here are today’s photos:
  
Pat and I spent another day sailing yesterday. We were crew members on a boat in the Spring Regatta on the Great Salt Lake.
Light winds were the order of the day. Just before the start of the first of three races, there was a 45 minute period when the winds dropped to nothing. We were left “bobbing and baking” in the sun. At one time it was so bad we even lost steerageway and we drifted aimlessly despite which direction I pointed the helm. As fast as the winds disappeared, they picked up again and the racing got underway.
We finished last in all the races although Dennis (the skipper) informed us that because the B fleet consists of boats in a variety of classes, each boat is handicapped. The Yankee 28 has a pretty large handicap compared to the other boats in the race so the race was quite a bit closer than it appeared. In the third race we got a good position at the start and at the first mark and Dennis said we might have scraped out a second place. In any case, Dennis didn’t seem too concerned about how we did. He said he mostly enjoyed just getting out on the water and sailing. I like that attitude and I couldn’t agree more.
Here are some photos from the day:
     
The first photo is an interesting comment on the water level in the Great Salt Lake. It’s low enough that the only way for this Pinnacle 29 (with a 5.8 foot draft) to get out of the marina safely is for the entire crew to get on one side so as to tilt the keel to one side and make the draft a few inches shallower.
Sounds like a euphemism for having a bit too much fun and too much to drink at a wild party, doesn’t it? In this case though, it’s just what is happening with my boat, Barely A Wake, now: getting varnished. Before I’m done, it’ll get varnished three to five times. Boy, talk about having too much fun! Yeah, right. By the fifth coat, I might just decide to go and get varnished myself.
This morning, before a going out for a bike ride and after I purged the garage of leftover dust that might settle on a freshly varnished boat, I put a first coat of varnish on the exterior top panels. I decided to varnish all the parts too before I flip the boat over to work on the interior, so I also varnished the boom and yard.
The rudder assembly, mast, daggerboard, and tiller I didn’t varnish because I noticed some small spots that looked suspiciously like bare wood. I must have sanded through the epoxy in those spots. So, instead of varnishing these parts, I got out the epoxy and gear to apply another layer of epoxy to the bare spots. That, of course, means another round of sanding during which you can be sure I’ll be very careful not to sand through the new epoxy.
After I was done with the first coat, I took some pictures. I have to say I’m impressed with the result so far.
  
The instructions say it takes 12 hours to dry completely. So by tomorrow morning at 5 AM, it will be ready for another coat. Believe it or not, I do plan to get up at that time so I can sand (very lightly!) and put on a second coat before I head out to the Great Salt Lake Marina for the Spring Regatta. I’m crewing on Exodus, the Yankee 28 of a friend here in Salt Lake City. Tomorrow, I should have another post, this time of fully-constructed boats actually sailing on the water instead of just half-done boats getting varnished.
I put the third, and last, coat of paint on the bottom of my Eastport Pram last night.
These photos are taken the next morning. It needs to cure for another 6-8 hours and then I’ll remove the painter’s tape around the edge (I’m very curious to know what the edges look like) and then move on to varnishing.
  
It took me five days to complete the priming and painting of the bottom. I did one coat of primer/paint each day which is about all the quicker you can go. I have SO much more varnishing to do: mast, rudder, tiller, daggerboard, boom, yard, and the remainder of the hull (interior and the top panel on the exterior). As nice as it is to have the painting done, I still have a long way to go.
The great results from the first coat of paint have given me motivation to keep pushing on towards completion of my Eastport Pram.
Last night, after my very first experience wet sanding, I put a second coat of paint on. Sanding in between coats is done to remove any bumps, imperfections, or contaminants that might have been introduced in the previous coat. Wet sanding is the preferred method to do this because the it comes in very fine grits (up to 3000) to prevent removing of the very thin coat of polyurethane that was just applied. The “wet” part of it means water is applied while sanding is done to prevent raising a cloud of dust which would later settle back onto the freshly painted surface.
The instructions for the paint I’m using (Interlux Brightsides) say to wet sand with 320 grit. I chose 400 because I tend to get a bit overzealous with my sanding and I wanted to be extra cautious about not sanding through into the primer. Of course, even trying to be careful, I did sand through in one small spot on the rear transom. I wasn’t sure what to do to fix it other than to be sure I covered it well in the next coat.
Other than that one spot, the only trouble I had was being able to tell which parts of the exterior hull I had already put on a second coat and which parts I hadn’t. Painting white onto a white surface is like that, I guess. On the next coat, I’ll have to remember to be much more organized about how I paint. Maybe I need to work strictly front to rear or do an entire single panel before moving on. I’m not sure which is best.
Once again, here are some photos. These are taken just after I finished applying the second coat.
   
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Luckily, there was a dock. And, luckily, the boat only weighs about 65 pounds which means we were able to carry it onto the dock and simply slide it into the water.
After that, we each had a glass of champagne and then I rowed away from the dock, paying special attention to the interior of the boat to see if water was pooling anywhere inside which would mean a leak and a short day of boating.
It took a bit to get the hang of the oars and it didn’t help that the leather collars I had installed, which were supposed to prevent the oar from slipping all the way through the oarlock and then drifting away, weren’t large enough to do the job. I guess I understand now why the leather strips they shipped along with the oars were so long — I was supposed wrap it around the oars twice and not just once. Twice around would make them large enough to not slip through the oarlocks. You can see the oars and their leather protective collars in the photo to the right. The leather strip I’m referring to is at the left side of the part covered with leather. 
I took a spin around the bay and then came back for Pat. We went out into the center of the bay and finished the ceremonies of the day. We poured another liberal helping of champagne into the water to appease whatever nautical gods might be in the neighborhood. Hey, I know it’s probably meaningless and at best it’s superstitious, but who wants to take a chance with these things? It’s a very small boat and it’s a pretty damn big pool of water!
After finishing the champagne, we returned, once again, to the dock. This time it was to get the rest of the sailing gear: centerboard, rudder, mast, and sail. We put all the parts in their appropriate places and we tried to figure out how we were going to both get into the boat, row out into the center of the bay and then hoist the mainsail. It was getting complicated so we decided it would be best to hoist the sail at the dock. There was barely any wind, so it seemed safe enough. We also decided it would be best for me to take a solo spin first and Pat took photos to document it:
