One Step Forward

One step forward, two steps back – not quite but it sometimes feels like that. I was at the boatyard

yesterday feeling pleased that I now have the boat under cover, that I now have a twelve Volt circuit and that I’m now working on the final sanding of the gel coat (P 3000) more like a rub down with chamois leather than a sand paper. That was before I got into conversation with the owner of the boatyard – he’s a great guy, always there with helpful advice and support. Well today he pointed out something I had not noticed.

This boat has been modified. Originally she would have had either an inboard engine or an outboard hung off the stern. A previous owner had moved the rudder further aft and hung it off the transom in order to create space for an outboard well. To my eyes and those of others more expert than me, this was a good idea. The greater distance between rudder and keel should make for better manoeuvrability, and an outboard in a well gives you all the benefits of an inboard engine with the advantages of being able to lift her out and take her away for storage, maintenance or repair.

The boatyard owner had been intrigued by the arrangement and he had clambered around the boat to get a better look. In particular he wondered how the cockpit had been modified to keep her self-draining.

In his search he discovered an over-complicated arrangement whereby water landing in the cockpit was drained either side of the well to the stern of the boat to drain out through the drains which had existed before the well had been constructed. So far so good, unfortunately the well had been constructed of wood and fibre-glassed over and the cockpit water was able to run either side of the well by means of holes drilled through the well walls. It would have been better simply to drain the water into the well.  As it stands however, the arrangement has enabled moisture to penetrate the fibreglass shell and there is evidence of rotten wood around these holes.

It’s not the end of the world but at some point the well walls will have to be rebuilt. The situation isn’t critical, the current arrangement is still good for a few years and I could launch and enjoy her this season at least. Problem is – I don’t want to launch anything but an excellent sea boat. It is as if, we have come to a point where I no-longer own this boat – there is so much of me tied up to her that  she now calls the shots - she owns me. So, it seems I have another job to add to my list.

Maybe I should feel down and despondent but no. For some reason, I feel fine about it. The more you work on a boat, the more problems and challenges you overcome, the more confident you feel. Ok it’s a piece of work and an expense I hadn’t expected but  its part of the adventure so – bring it on! At times like this its good to remember that Joshua Slocum (the first man to sail around the world single handed) pointed out that when he had re-built ‘Spray’ for his voyage there were probably only two planks he didn’t have to replace. Well, if its good enough for him…… At the end of the day I'll get there even if I have to drag her to the water single handed!

Meanwhile for more news from this neck of the woods please visit my other blog at Frugal Living in France

Seaward

Cracks and Blisters on GRP Boats

GRP gel-coat can be brittle and it gets more brittle with age. It also gains a ‘patina’ over the years and unlike

antique furniture, most of us boatowners don’t appreciate it. We like white – pristine white (on the white bits at least) hence the need to sand, compound and generally cut back to a layer of gel that hasn’t been exposed to the elements. It’s a pain to do but the rewards are obvious. There is a useful bi-product of all this effort too! When you’ve finished you can truly say that you know this boat, inch for inch better than anyone – better even that the builder who pulled her from the mold all those years ago.

Now, I started this project by saying that I didn't mind if the result of my efforts was less than pristine new show-room condition. She’s a old boat after all and I can live with the notion that she will show signs of her age here and there so long as she looks ‘cared for’ and seaworthy. The  problems is that the sanding and polishing process brings you within thirty inches of the hull and you soon develop an eye for those little blemishes that could be sorted with just another twenty minutes elbow grease.

There are some imperfections that have to be dealt with however. I’m talking here about cracks. Scratches I

can live with, providing I can understand how they happened and be sure that they aren't likely to compromise the integrity of the gel-coat – cracks however are another matter.

How do I define the difference? Well, for me, scratches are what you get on gel coat when, for example, people climb aboard and bring a few grains of sand with them on their shoes. They climb from the cockpit onto the deck in a certain way and over the years the gel coat takes a bit of a hammering. I sand back as far as I can and live with what I can’t eradicate. The scratches are old and reflect the life this old tub has enjoyed.

Cracks however, are deeper; they go through the gel coat and might be large enough to allow water ingress. They have to be sorted and the solution is a bit frightening because in order to fill the cracks with GRP putty you have to widen them with a chisel. In effect, initially at lease the ‘cure’ can look worse than the problem. Once the crack is widened and V shaped you have a chance of squeezing in the putty. Problem is it shrinks as it cures therefore you always have to apply it so that it is slightly proud of its surroundings and then when cured you have to sand it back – all the time hoping that you have a half decent colour match. You have to be careful in mixing the putty with the hardener also. The mixing has to be thorough; otherwise you can get an uneven set and, with a proportion of putty to hardener sometimes as little as 100 to 1,  it is very easy to add too much hardener – then the putty overheats and hardens off too quickly.

Crazing is a different matter. Some boats have it so bad they look like broken eggs! Personally, I’d stay away from them and seek another boat to work on. In localised areas however, the trick is to attack the problem while it is ‘cosmetic’, before it can begin to affect the integrity of the vessel.  The best advice on a repair seems to be to sand the surface heavily and roll on two coats of epoxy primer followed by two coats of two-part linear polyurethane. The epoxy fills and seals the cracks, and the polyurethane restores the colour and gloss. A paint free solution would be to grind away most of the crazed gelcoat and replace it with a fresh application of colour-matching gel coat paste.

Before you attempt any repair on cracked or crazed gel-coat however, you have to understand the root cause of the problem and fix it. No amount of filling, sanding, painting and polishing will provide a sustainable solution if the underlying cause has not been dealt with. Look at each problem area carefully with new eyes and try to work out what has happened and why.

Localized crazing is almost always due to flexing of the underlying laminate. So before  pasting over the cracks, you must stiffen the affected area before you can successfully repair the crazing.  Star shaped cracks around a fitting often suggest that the fitting itself has put too much strain on the fibreglass in that location. The strain may have been caused by a fastening being over tightened thus crushing the fibreglass core and cracking the gelcoat around the object. Alternatively, the star shaped crack may have been caused by too much pressure being put on the fitting itself, in which case you may need to fit a larger backing pad to distribute the strain over a larger area.

Star crazed cracks in elsewhere – the side of the hull or the fore-deck for example may have been caused by impact, a hard knock against a pontoon or lock wall, maybe someone dropping the anchor on deck. These are less worrisome as hopefully the cause was a one-off event not to be repeated.

Finally you may find little dings, blisters or holes in the gel coat here and there. Nine times out of ten they are a manufacturing fault. A void or small space in the core which was originally gel-coated over. There is little strength in gel coat and so over time, the gel coat will fall off to reveal the ‘bubble’ underneath. Fill it, sand it and forget it. It shouldn't be too important.

To date I've been lucky – on this project I have encountered nothing worse than blisters and scratches. So far so good!

Finally, for those who like information presented in a simple,concise way with plenty of illustrations - here is an excellent book I have come across.

Sailboat Refinishing (International Marine Sailboat Library) (USA)
Sailboat Refinishing (International Marine Sailboat Library) (UK)

Seaward

Channel Islands 22

There are times when renovating an old boat can be a lonely business. Too few take on the challenge and

too few succeed. So to cheer myself up I spent some time with Davy and Natalie on their boat recently.

They live on the Island of Jersey but frequently visit my home port in France to stock up on wine, calvados etc – and also to gain a respite from the hustle of an Island only 45 square miles (at high tide) with 90,000+ inhabitants.

A few years ago Davy wanted to purchase a boat and spent a good deal of time looking at vessels he simply couldn't afford. A Channel Islands 22 would be ideal. Designed by Alan Buchannan specifically for these waters, she is a safe semi-displacement motor vessel, capable of some speed, with enough cabin and cockpit accommodation to make two people very comfortable. With, her cockpit tent she becomes almost luxurious.

Davy visited several but even the oldest were beyond his price – until he was invited to see one that had been for sale for several years. Problem with her, according to the broker, was that she was ridiculously slow.  Normally a CI22 will lift onto a plane at 7 knots but no-one had been able to get her to that speed so there had to be something seriously wrong.

Davy looked her over. She was dirty but sound. He also though he had discovered why she wouldn't lift and fly so he took a chance and made a very low offer – which was accepted.

First thing Davy did was to cut away two bilge keels that had been molded onto her hull by a previous owner. They were not part of the original design and Davy estimated that the drag they caused was the reason for the poor performance. He was right. Without those additional keels she flew!

Similar vessels

Next job was to attend to her cosmetically. Davy estimates that he spent 1000 hours sanding, polishing,

painting and varnishing. Natalie also contributed most of her out- of- work hours to the project. The boat is now in better condition that when she was new. There are hot and cold domestic water systems. The heads is now a ‘wet-room’ and the cabin is lined in thin exterior ply, routed, filled and varnished to look like individual planks. There is a 24 volt circuits for use in port where hook-ups are available and a 12Volt system for other times. Floors are carpeted and every window has an individual blind (bought from Mothercare rather than expensive Chandleries). At sea there is stowage for two folding bicycles and on the river, they sit on the cabin top ready for use. This isn't sailing as I know it – this is luxury.

Davy and Nat married last year and spent their honeymoon cruising Jersey, Guernsey, Sark and Herm islands. Initially they had a slight problem getting up to speed. Some guests had tied lines of cans to the stern of the boat (as is the custom in the UK with the bride and groom’s car ) – never seen it done on a boat before though).

Seaward

Westerly Nomad

Checkout new Quiz and get the answers to December questions on Seaward's Quiz Page

New mouthwatering cruising recipe on Susan's Page 

For the past week, whenever I have had the chance, I’ve been sanding the wooden bits of the boat that are detachable and it’s a pretty boring occupation I must say. It’s an opportune time however, because regular readers will know that I am also heavily involved in renovating an old fisherman’s cottage on the Rance Estuary near St Malo in France. Now that work has got to the point where underfloor heating has been installed and the ground floor is being tiled. So, there is a lot of dust from the tile cutting and my contribution of sanding dust hardly makes any difference to the general chaos. It means I can work inside with warm feet thanks to the new under-floor heating, and the mess I make gets swept up occasionally along with the builder’s dust and rubble.

It also means that I can plug in music to alleviate the boredom – thank goodness for BB King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightning Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt, The Doors, Janice Joplin, Chris Rea and a whole host of others!

I mentioned the purchase of a Bosch detail sander which cost me about E50, because I burned out two others in as many months working on the floorboards of the house – to date it hasn’t let me down – maybe this is a real example of getting what you pay for. I certainly won’t be buying Black and Decker again.

In an earlier post I mentioned that despite her GRP hull and topsides, much of the boat seems to have been traditionally built – fittings are screwed-on rather than moulded-in and this has proved very helpful because I can take gear and furniture off to replace or restore. Now in doing this, I came across a number handwritten in pencil on the underside of one of the companion way steps. Westerly Nomads were not built in huge numbers and the production run was only about two years so I wonder what the number could tell me – were the steps made specifically for this boat? If so, does the number indicate an early or late model? Maybe someone out there can solve the mystery – Oh the number, by the way, WN 8653. Presumably WN stands for Westerly Nomad. It’s silly really, but I couldn’t bring myself to sand it away, so one small part of the boat will be left practically untouched in memory of the builder who scribbled that part number on the wood back in 1967, 1968 or 1969.

Now – here is a brief article from Brian Turner (brian.turner752@gmail.com) He has a blog himself and is very concerned about DIYers who come into contact with old asbestos. I undertook a boat surveying course myself before embarking on this project and great emphasis was placed there on the dangers of asbestos in old boats – especially as lagging for engine pipes and compartments – his short article below therefore is especially welcome. You can find Brian’s profile on Google blogger.

Take Precautions When Renovating Your Home in 2013

Home renovations are growing in popularity this winter season. People are replacing their windows, replacing their rooftops and replacing insulation in the walls. Any of these tasks can expose renovators to asbestos. This is a dangerous and deadly mineral that can be deadly if inhaled. Once the mineral lodges into the tissue lining of the lungs or other organs, it can develop into mesothelioma, which is a cancer that lies dormant for a period of 10 to 50 years. Here are some ways that you can avoid being exposed to asbestos.

1.  Do Not Disturb Asbestos If Discovered
Asbestos should not be drilled, sawed, broken, or hammered through to prevent inhalation. If floor tiles are made of asbestos, the tiles should not be sanded or buffed. The buffing process should include low abrasion pads, and the buffer speeds should be below 300 rpm.

2. Solicit the Help of Professionals
Professionals should be hired to check the home for asbestos and remove it if necessary. Professionals have the appropriate equipment to prevent being exposed to asbestos. The service may be costly, but it is worth the effort and cost if no one is exposed to asbestos. Make the investment to prevent an untimely death due to exposure.

3. Wear Protective Gear
If you must remove the asbestos yourself, wear protective gear. Protective gear may include an aspirator, goggles, gloves, hat or hairnet and a full body suit. This will protect the renovators from asbestos exposure. Protective gear is of utmost importance during renovations and should not be an option but a requirement.

4. Remove All Clothing and Shower Before Coming in Contact With Your Family
You should remove all your clothing and shower to remove any asbestos before leaving the home site during renovations. You should avoid hugging your family or friends before changing clothes and showering also.  If you are diligent about this process, you will lower the risk of asbestos exposure.

Consider These Tips Before Performing Home Renovations
Home renovations are important, but you do not have to sacrifice your health for home renovations. Always wear protective clothing and take precautions to avoid exposing family and friends to asbestos. Consider these tips and take precautions before performing home renovations.

Thanks Brian

Seaward

Westerly Nomad (2)

Rig and Rudder

Well there seems to be quite a bit of support for the idea of purchasing a Westerly Nomad and this one seems to tick a significant number of boxes (although a few boxes remain unticked and there are still a few unanswered questions) Maybe someone can offer suggestions.

Firstly, the boat is ‘sound’ to the best of my knowledge. I undertook a boat surveying course last year organised by the International Institute of Marine Surveyors and seriously considered taking it up as a part-time retirement activity. Unfortunately, the cost of professional indemnity insurance for a rookie surveyor is such that I would have had to work full time to cover the fees, and that would have put me back to the 9-5 routine I was trying to avoid – so it didn’t happen. I do feel qualified to survey a small boat however, so I’m satisfied she is sound and, if I get it wrong, well, I can blame the surveyor but I can’t sue him.

She certainly fits the bill for shallow draft and as a triple keeled vessel, she’ll take the ground without falling over – so she’s good for estuary and canal. Previous Nomad owners have crossed the Atlantic and everyone tells me she is a good sea boat although she is slow. Cabin accommodation is likened to that of a 26 or 27footer, so she’ll be comfortable for two.

The Nomad is essentially a modified Westerly 22 and the Westerly 22 was Günter rigged – so maybe (and this needs further research) just maybe I could rig this Nomad as a Günter. The question is whether in developing the Nomad  from the 22, the designer moved the chain plates for the shrouds - I don’t know. Why does this matter?  Well, there can be no backstays with a Gunter rig so the responsibility for stopping the mast falling forward rests with the shrouds, attaching them as far aft as possible. The Nomad was always produced as a Bermudan sloop with backstays – so did Rayner move the shroud fitments forward when he added the chain plates on the transom? Interestingly enough, the Nomad has twin forestays, one of which sits inboard and attaches to the mast at two thirds the height of the mast – pretty much where the forestay on a Günter rigged vessel would have been. This seems a little like over-egging the pudding (as we say in Yorkshire) So, did Rayner simply add a mast headed forestay and backstays to the existing Gunter rig arrangement to accommodate Bermudan, or did he alter the location of the lateral stays as well? If the answer is the former, then I could perhaps consider conversion to Gunter. Either way this isn’t top of my list of priorities – it would be nice to do – if and when all the other issues have been dealt with.

At the moment I am more concerned with another modification which has been made to this particular Nomad. The rudder has been changed and moved to the transom and the space saved in the cockpit has been used to create an outboard well. Now this is both exciting and worrying. The new rudder looks strong enough and her fittings seem robust. The outboard well seems to be well-made and strong. If this modification works it frees up inboard engine space and makes for a cheaper and easier to maintain power source. The rudder however, is in a new location and is more exposed. Allain, a professional boat builder and sailor suggests that the new location for the rudder should improve performance over the original design and that if I am worried I can protect it and strengthen it by fitting an iron bar between from the bottom of the rudder and the bottom of the keel. A job, I might consider after a season’s use when I have got the measure of how she performs. 

With these modifications there is no question of bringing the boat back to her 'factory setting' so I certainly won't be 'restoring' a Westerly Nomad, instead I will be 'renewing and updating' a modified version. This isn't a problem for me, in that I always wanted to end up with something more comfortable that the rather austere vessels typical of 1960's GRP. 

So, you can guess my interest in this Nomad is more than casual. I know this boat will be in my price range (because they all are) but a price has to be negotiated and my concern is to achieve a fair settlement neither feeling ripped-off nor feeling that I have ripped anyone else off. I’m into Simple Sailing and Low Cost Cruising but I don’t want to achieve this at anyone else’s expense (unless they are a banker of course – they seem to be able to look after themselves well enough!). Now, these boats are old and so relatively cheap in the UK but rare in France so lets see what happens.

Seaward

Flat Bottomed Boats

Flat Bottomed Boats

New Quiz for September - Check out Quiz Page

Since the Fete des Doris (Doris = French, Dory = English) took place on the estuary here, I have been giving considerable thought to flat bottomed boats of all types, mainly because they may offer a real ‘low cost cruising’ option. Like many, I had assumed that flat bottomed boats would be unseaworthy in some way – and yet the history of the Dory suggests this simply isn’t true, they were used in open seas and seemed to gain stability as weight of caught fish increased.

Further research suggests it was the dory which opened up North America. There is an excellent Book written by John Gardiner ‘The Dory Book’. I simply haven’t been able to put it down.

Now add a dory design to a sailing rig and you have a potentially safe shallow draft low cost cruiser. These photos, taken at the fete, give an idea of what I mean. Obviously with a sailing rig you need something to bite the water and produce forward movement rather than sideways slippage - but Dories were not the only flat bottomed boats around, and I came across an old Dutch sailing barge moored up on the river the other day. She had ‘leeboards’, retractable keels attached to the sides of the boat, each of which could be raised and lowered to provide the necessary ‘bite’ depending which tack you were on.

I’m not a boat builder but the construction of a Dory seems simple enough (although this one seems more complicated than most). There is another book (mentioned on my essential reading page), The A-Z of Cheaper Boating, which suggests that flat bottomed cruising dories have been built in the past and sailed long distances very successfully, it’s food for thought for any impoverished enterprising would be sailor.

If you'd like ro understand more about dory's this book Dory Book  is the definitive work on the subject

Seaward

Out in La Passagere

Out in La Passagere

I mentioned before that a good friend of mine has bought an old open two masted lugger, previously used as a ferry, to renovate and use as a pleasure boat for tourists who want to get a taste of the sea (or the estuary) on a traditional vessel. The boat is called La Passegere and his name is Allain. Well, by the time the purchase was completed and the vessel had been brought up to his exacting standards, the tourist season was  all but over. Still she’ll be ready for next season and there is still a chance that one or two late season tourists might take the bait. Allain is offering morning, afternoon or evening cruises to suit requirements and the tourist group can be as small as three and as large as six. Guests on board can help work the boat or simply enjoy the ride. The evening cruises are known as appero-cruises, in that aperitifs and wine are included in the experience.

Anyway, by way of turning a threat (lack of bookings) into an opportunity (a bit of marketing) Allain decided to use downtime to encourage the local mayor and regional representatives to support his new business venture by inviting them for a sail last weekend. So, with the local dignitaries on board Allain explained the concept of the venture while Jean Luc and I acted as crew. Who had most fun, Jean Luc and I or the passengers? Probably Jean Luc and I.

We began the voyage in bright sunshine with the outgoing tide and a light north westerly wind and reached five or six miles down the estuary to a village on the left bank, Langrolay. From there we tacked back across the estuary to Port St Hubert where we anchored for coffee and took stock of the morning. There had been significant rain during the pervious night and so the air was remarkably clear and polished, also, being a Sunday, there were lots of other boats to see and quite a bit of fishing activity along the shoreline. One or two guys were actually involved using a traditional net which seems to be spread across a giant pair of wooden scissors which fit around the waist. The trick seems to be to walk along the shoreline with the net in the water to scoop up prawns and shrimps.

Towards mid-day, the wine bottle was opened and we moored up by the village of Mondriec (an ancient settlement reputed to have been a place of druids). This is a particularly beautiful village which looks out across the water to a beautiful old chateau ‘La Chene Vert’ (the green oak).  Le Chene Vert is still inhabited and it often provokes a somewhat philosophical discussion between Susan and me as to who is the most fortunate, the obviously rich owner of the castle with his view of the boats, but with all the responsibility that such a building must place or him, or the freer spirited sailors, with less responsibility and probably less money who get to look at his castle for free? I think I know where my inclinations lie.

Mondreic also has one more claim to fame. There is a seal that has lived alone in these waters for the past five years. He’s well fed and healthy and he seems to genuinely enjoy human contact. He can be quite elusive, but when the mood takes him, he’ll pop out of the water and put on a display for passing boaters. True to form, and right on schedule, he put on such a display for La Passagere, her crew and guests as we left the port and headed for Plouer Sur Rance our home port. Sometimes sailing just doesn’t get any better.

OK, so I've finlly managed to hook up with my new internet provider and haver broadband again. Wuthin the next few days I'll be updating Susan's view from the galley and the quizz page. Also, I'll be reporting on why the offer of a Westerly Nomad is drawing my attention AND, I'll be listing reviews of a few books I've been reading - so after a lull - watch out of a lot more activity in this corner of webspace.

Seaward

Lloyds Standards

A story in the boating press and another in my local newspaper caught my eye recently.  One concerned someone who had purchased a boat on ebay and decided to take a couple of day’s vacation to sail her from the seller's boatyard to his own moorings a few hundred miles away along the south coast of Britain. Engine heating troubles delayed the start of the voyage, batteries failed to hold their charge and in the end the trip became a nonstop 36 hour marathon to meet work schedules, with new problems encountered almost hourly. OK, the boat was inexpensive but it seems to me the skipper took a huge risk in buying a boat unseen and then assuming her to be faultless. A less experienced skipper could easily have become a lifeboat or coastguard statistic.

The other story relates to someone more locally, who sailed his internet bought boat for approximately 20 minutes before significant bits of her fell apart (actually, the keel dropped off!). She drifted onto the rocks and became a ‘total loss’ on the next tide. The boat had only cost him something in the region of £2,000 but the embarrassment was intense.

The two stories serve to reinforce my belief that you have to see, smell and touch the boat yourself before you sign anything, and then buy-in a professional surveyor only when you yourself are convinced that she is sound.

One comment I found particularly interesting in the press report though, was a statement of surprise by one of the unlucky new owners.

‘She came with a Lloyds Certificate, surely that should have meant something, you know, that she was a good boat’.

So that set me thinking about certificates such as these. What do they tell you?

OK, here’s what I discovered. 

Lloyd's is a UK organisation, one of several on the international scene, known as ‘Classification Societies’. As well as Lloyds there is Det Norske Veritas, and the American Bureau of Shipping. Their role is often misunderstood.

Each society sets the minimum standards that it requires for a vessel to be included on their lists. The standards however only apply to certain aspects of a vessel. Most major classifications have standards for yachts and small craft but it is not compulsory for a builder to comply with any or all of the standards.

 

Even when builders choose to comply, with published standards of construction for example, it does not mean that every aspect of the boat has been considered and evaluated by the classification society. The only way to know what the society has approved is to refer to the standards published by the society for that particular type of boat at the time of construction.

So, Lloyds, for example may publish certain standards that they believe are important for the construction of a GRP boat hull. The standards refer to GRP quality, thickness, type of mat and resin used, the environment, temperature and humidity of the boatshed etc. Some builders may go the whole way and invite inspection to verify the attention to such details. Others may simply state that they themselves built the vessel in accordance with published standards.

But then, standards can change over time as more is understood of the building material. It’s a bit like health and safety regulations, they change and become stricter as more silly people do silly things (or as more governments and organisations feel they have to control our lives for our own good). So, your Lloyds construction certificate at best only confirms that the boat was built according to the best knowledge available at the time. A well looked-after vessel may still be in good condition but an old certificate issued for a craft which has been neglected and misused for twenty years is hardly likely to be sound simply because the builder claims she was built to Lloyds standards.

 

So, for me this is all interesting but pretty academic. For my money I will have to asume that the vessel I buy will not be in a seaworthy condition on purchase. My task will be to develop 'Seaward Standards' and bring her up to expectation. In some strange way that is a liberating thought. It means that my prime concern should be the shell of the boat, her mast and sails. The rest will have to be rebuilt or refitted and if I discover anything else actually works - well that's a bonus isn't it?

Seaward

Gelcoat Cracks In GRP Boats

It seems as if the more I look into this, the more convinced I am that I’ll end up with a GRP boat – even though I am also convinced that the prettiest and most diverse range of boats available are probably wood. I also feel that a compromise on my notion of the ideal cruising boat will be required. As John Almberg (The Unlikely boatbuilder blog) commented here recently – a list of shallow draft, bilged keeled GRP boats with gunter rigs may actually have no entries on it! Still, ever optimistic I’ve been reading more about GRP and the issues I am likely to encounter with an old second (or third) hand one. 

Compared with metal, GRP is a relatively brittle material. Whereas steel, might bend or dent under an impact, GRP is most likely to crack.

In themselves cracks in a GRP gelcoat are relatively easy to repair. If it is a simple matter of damage caused by a collision with the pontoon, grinding out and refilling is probably all that is required. But cracks can appear for several reasons and unless you know what caused them, you may be only dealing with the symptoms – not the cause.

Cracks often occur due to stress in the material, and boats can be exposed to many stresses. 'Panting', is a term used to describe the movement in a hull when it moves in and out like bellows. The cause is usually changes in the water pressure on the hull as a boat is moving through water in sever weather. At times, she’ll be low in the water as a wave rolls past, and then moments later a large portion of her hull may be out of the water as she breaks through the top of a wave. Pounding, can create huge local stresses on the bottom of a hull as it leaps out of the water and slaps down hard. Boats also suffer from twisting forces as they take waves on the quarter, and sailing boats can be subject to great stress where the mast meets the hull or on decks where shrouds take enormous strain.

It would not be cost effective or practical to construct a GRP craft with a hull thick enough over its entire length and breadth to resist every force applied to it. Generally therefore, a designer will draw plans for a boat with a hull skin strong enough to cope with the external pressure of water expected and then add strengtheners to cope with all the additional pressures that will occur in a seaway. Strengtheners are both longitudinal and transverse and designers have applied a great deal of ingenuity in building them in to the structure, in some cases as cabin furniture and bulkheads. The purpose is to break up the hull skin into panels so that the load on any particular part of the hull is ‘transferred’ into the stiffeners and then diffused and shared by the rest of the hull structure. If the panel is too small it will make the hull stiff and brittle in that area. If it is too large the panel may be too flexible, in which case, cracking may occur.

The essential message is that, you can fill cracks, but unless you know what caused them, and unless you address the root cause of the problem, you may have to fill them again fairly soon.

Seaward

Sailing The Old Fashioned Way

Reasons to be cheerful, a thought on how to ensure low cost cruising. Can you sail without radar, GPS, electronic plotters, electronic compasses, wind-speed indicators, fish finders, computers and weather stations? Yes you can! Twenty or thirty years ago most of this technology hadn't been invented but we still put out to sea in small boats. Did we enjoy our sailing? You bet! Did we get to our destinations safely? Certainly, in fact you could argue that safety has been compromised since we became ever more reliant upon new technology. So,those old guys who taught me to sail  knew a thing or two.  One thing is for sure, we’d all be a lot better off if every pound, euro or dollar spent on electronic gizmos stayed in our pockets. 

A guy I know recently jumped on board his powerboat in St Helier harbour, opened a can of coke, turned on his electronic plotter and selected the route for St Peter Port Guernsey, another Island 25 miles distant. Ten minutes later he was outside the harbour, in clear water and the automatic pilot was engaged. He didn’t touch the wheel again until he was ten minutes from his destination. An effortless cruise he called it, but if that is his idea of sailing, why didn’t he just take the regular ferry? He has never plotted the course on paper and wouldn’t know what to do if the electronics went down. Boat owner he may be – sailor certainly not! The basic elements of seamanship are missing, along with the romance and the satisfaction of voyaging under your own steam, reading the tides, the weather, the wind and the waves. Not only does he lose all that but he also pays big money for a rack of electronic equipment and a boat he barely understands.

Perhaps at this point I should explain that I am not a Luddite and I am not looking back on the past with spectacles of a certain rosy hue. Some technological aids are a godsend. I won’t put to sea outside the bay without a VHF radio. In fact on my previous boat I carried two, the second one being a small handheld for use ‘just in case’, likewise, an echo sounder. As for the rest, well I have GPS but I use it as a back-up to traditional navigation – and quite frankly I don’t feel the need to upgrade. So on this simple sailing low cost cruising project I’ll consider how the old timers did it and think twice before buying that ‘all singing all dancing’ piece of electronic kit.

Paper charts used to be the key to all navigation. They were valued, cared for and always updated. Compasses were checked for accuracy and all seamen knew about deviation and variation. They understood the difference between true north and magnetic north and they knew how to apply the arithmetic. The only other bits of kit needed were a couple of pencils, a plotter and an eraser.

Pilotage and coastal navigation was done by eye using ‘marks’ to constantly update the position. On the east coast of Jersey, for example, you can sail a straight course along the coast between some horrendous rocks and sandbars to or from Gorey harbour for about two and a half miles in perfect safety, providing you keep a particular house on top of the hill directly over the pier head as you sail towards or away from it. Breast marks (two conspicuous objects in line off to port or starboard) can often be used to indicate places on a route where a change of course should be made.

Buoys can be used as sea marks and ‘buoy hopping’ is a legitimate way of making the voyage. Tide tables can often be obtained from local chandlers free of charge and the old ‘rule of twelfths’ to calculate the depth of water and strength of tide for any given time between high and low is still a valid procedure.

The old guys knew how to calculate speed and for them it was a fairly simple affair. If you knew your boat well you’d make a fairly reasonable estimate but if you were unsure then it was simply a matter of putting a crew member in the bows of the boat to throw a piece of wood well ahead. He would then call out as the stem of the boat passed it. Another crew member called out as it passed the stern. Armed with this information, the boat speed can be obtained by thinking of the length of the boat in meters, doubling it, and then dividing this number by the number of seconds it took the boat to pass the piece of wood. There you had the boat’s speed through the water! In truth though, with a boat which has a maximum hull speed of 5 knots, how wrong can you get? Will an error of one knot of speed through the water make a huge difference to your calculations?

Leeway? An estimation of the number of degrees the wake is curving away from the boat indicates how much compensation you need to give the helm.

Ah, but what about fog, how do you handle that without radar? Well, you try to avoid it but if you are caught out it is often possible to ‘feel your way’ to a place of relative safety by using the echo sounder to run along an underwater contour line marked on the chart.

Navigation in the old way was not an exact science but the more you sailed the better refined your skills became. We always used to ‘aim’ a little up-tide or up-wind of our intended destination so that if adjustments had to be made as we closed the coast, it was a relatively easy matter to fall down onto the target.

Despite its apparent lack of precision though, there are some who would say it was safer. In the pre-electronic days, you had to watch the elements and know your boat. Chart work had to be done carefully and the log had to be maintained. You made your own plans and ploughed your own furrow. Two incidents in recent years make me question the wisdom of an over reliance on electronics. The first one involved a skipper who hit a large buoy he had used as a waypoint. The electronics were a bit too accurate and he was concentrating on the electronic screen rather than keeping a good lookout. The second was a comment made by a skipper only a few weeks ago on his return from Cherbourg.  ‘Everyone wants to get from A to B by the shortest most logical route. They all use the same waypoints and plot the same course there and back. Every vessel is running along the same line at different speeds often in opposite directions. There’s a lot of water out there but for most of the time we’re all trying to use the same bit!’

If you're interested in Marlinspike sailing as its is sometimes known. Here is a good book on the subject
The Marlinspike Sailor  (USA Readers)
The Marlinspike Sailor (UK Readers)

Seaward

Long Keel, Short Keel Bilge Keel – Which One Is Best?

Keels can be heaven or hell – to the owner of a high speed power boat a keel is the last thing you would want. Keels make your boat heavy, they increase the wetted area of the hull, they cause friction and slow you down. On the other hand boats without a keel pay a different price, they have no grip on the water so when engine power is reduced they are difficult to control slipping and sliding in any direction at the merest hint of a breeze. From a more traditional boat owner’s point of view keels are necessary because they bite the water, reduce leeway and help keep the boat upright. A sailing boat without some form of keel would only be good for down wind sailing. Given their importance it is hardly surprising that they get a significant amount of attention from designers.

A traditional long keel can be ideal if you rate an easy motion and directional stability above speed. Long keeled boats look after their crew, they are ‘sea kindly’. A long keeled sailing boat will often follow a set course for hours without needing attention at the helm. She may be the ideal choice for long distance, blue water, short handed sailing but she’ll be slow.

Modern racing yachts tend to have a short fixed keel or a retractable dagger board, deep in the water when fighting to get upwind and raised to reduce friction when running downwind.  These are fast highly manoeuvrable craft. They win races but they buck and heel to every gust of wind or slap of the wave. Boats such as these are exciting but they keep their helmsmen busy.

Bilge keeled boats have two keels, side by side. They were developed not so much to improve performance but rather to reduce the cost of boat ownership. A bilge keeler is able to sit upright on the mud so it makes cheaper, half-tide moorings a more attractive prospect. Many early bilge keelers were poorly designed so they were neither fast nor sea kindly. They have improved over the years – but they are still considered to be a compromise solution.  So, which type of keel is best? for. It all depends on what you want your boat to do, how far you want to go and how much you’re prepared to pay.

From my point of view, bilge keels will give shallow draft, so they would be good for getting through the canal. They’ll also give me a chance of staying upright if I accidentally ground on a mud bank in the estuary. A long keel is attractive for directional stability and a steady predictable movement in a seaway. I’d rather do without a retractable keel if it means giving up cabin space to its housing and anyway, it might be a bit too sporty – I want a boat that will look after herself while I pop below to put the kettle on, fin keelers have the reputation of doing their own thing the minute you take your hand off the tiller.  A recent comment from Michael (yesterday) however, set me thinking about triple keels, or at least two bilge plates and a skeg, and he mentioned one boat ( too staid for him) but possibly quite promising for me!

Seaward

David Greenwood

Knot, Bend or Hitch, What’s The Difference?

I posted a couple of pieces about rope recently which led me to wonder about the terms used for rope work – in particular the differences between a Knot, a Bend and a Hitch. Am I becoming an ‘anorak’ or some kind of ‘geek’?  I mean, does it really matter – so long as you know what to do with the blessed thing? Ok, well yes, maybe I am becoming a bit of a nerd, a bit academic maybe. And, this distraction certainly isn’t moving me towards finding that elusive low cost ideal cruising boat that I’m seeking. Still, when questions like this spring to mind, I usually reach for the most thumbed pages of any book in my library the 'Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea'. As usual, it didn’t let me down. If you’re interested here is the answer.

In truth the terms are pretty much interchangeable. These days the word ‘knot’ is often the preferred word. Some argue that in days gone by the terms had much more defined usage but this may not be true either because many of the names originally given to methods of fastening ropes were technically inaccurate. A reef 'knot', for example might be better described as a Bend or a Hitch.

Strictly speaking a Knot only refers to a ‘tucking knot’ in which the strands of a rope are unravelled and then tucked over and under each other to form a ‘stopper knot’, a knob or enlargement in the rope so that the end of a rope could not be pulled through an eye. The most common stopper knot in use today would be the ‘Figure of Eight Knot’ used by sailing boat crews to stop the end of the jib sheets flying free, but even this doesn’t meet the strict definition because the ends of the rope are not unravelled to create it. The most famous true knot therefore is probably the Matthew Walker knot, in which unravelled rope ends are used to put an elaborate knob on the end.

Figure of Eight

Another important aspect of the term however, relates to whether the fastening is regarded as permanent or temporary. A Knot implies a permanent fastening whereas a Bend or a Hitch is used as a temporary measure.

A Bend, is a term originally used to join one rope to another or to an object. When sails were fastened by ropes they were ‘bent to’ masts, yards and booms. The anchor cable is said to be ‘bent’ to the anchor.

Now this is where it becomes really complicated because according to the Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea a ‘Hitch’ has an identical definition ‘the name given to a series of fastenings by which a rope is joined to another rope or object’.

So Hitches are the saitches areme as Bends? Well yes, they come within the overall genus of Bends but they are Hitch’s if the name says so – as in ‘half-hitch’, ‘rolling hitch’, ‘clove-hitch’.

Confusing? You bet!

Seaward

Osmosis in Sailing Boats

Have been reading up more about osmosis in GRP boats. I need to be able to diagnose it if I am to avoid buying a boat that has it. The more I read the more reassured I am.

Blisters? yes one or two but is it Osmosis?

Essentially, (let’s not get too scientific here), Osmosis is like a piece of string with one end in a saucer of water, the string acts as a wick and although most of the string is out of the water, it still gets wet along its whole length. As far as GRP boats are concerned the standard gelcoat is not 100% waterproof, and unless a great deal of care and attention goes into the manufacture of the hull, there may be hollows (voids) within the layup. So, water can get in. But that’s not all. There are certain chemicals binding agents and release agents used in GRP hull manufacture which can also end up within the layup, filling some of these voids. The result is that if you have fluids either side of a membrane, i.e. water on one side of a gelcoat, and other less dense fluids on the other side, there is a tendency for the denser water to pass through the membrane and mix with the lighter, less dense fluid on the other side. Over time, the water inside the hull reacts with the chemicals and causes blisters. If the blisters break, more water is admitted into the GRP layup, causing more blisters, admitting more water … well you get the picture.

So, over time GRP can soak up a considerable amount of water making the hull heavier and weaker. The cure, depending on how badly the boat is affected, can be to peal off the gelcoat, dry the core and then reapply a new gelcoat. A small repair might be within the skill set of an amateur. A bigger job might require professional expertise. A preventative measure might be to coat the existing underwater aspects of the hull with a more water resistant material such as epoxy.

Some GRP boats never suffer from Osmosis

The good news seems to be that despite the panic which ensued when it was realised that GRP was not the ‘no-maintenance’ material it was originally thought to be, there have been few (if any) reports of boats coming to grief because of it.

The other good news is that, although it is wise to inspect any blistering on a GRP boat hull, not all blisters are caused by Osmosis and some blistering is relatively easy to cure. So how to tell the difference?

Osmotic Blistering

Blisters caused by Osmosis will be found around or under the waterline. They may be small pin pricks or large swellings as big as the palm of your hand. It would be unusual to find osmotic blisters on a boat until she had been immersed for several seasons. Puncture an osmotic blister and there will be fluid behind it. Fluid in itself is cause enough for concern but if the fluid has a pungent vinegary smell, the indications are towards osmosis. The smell comes from acetic acid, due to the hydrolysation of the emulsion used as a binding agent in the manufacture of chopped strand mat.

You can confirm your diagnosis by using PH paper. A pH value of less than 7 indicates acid. Readings of between 5.5 and 3.0 are typical when water and binding emulsion have joined forces. This would be indication enough to call in the experts or consider whether you really want to pursue this purchase.

Non Osmotic Blistering

This can be found in the same areas as osmotic blisters, in clusters along or under the waterline. They tend to be small pin pricks – rarely large. They tend also to be much tougher than osmosis blisters. They can be very hard and difficult to break. Most importantly though, when you do break into them they are dry and there is no smell.

They can occur for two reasons, either:

air was trapped between the gelcoat and the inner mat during manufacture – and the voids have enlarged due to temperature changes;

there is a fault in the gelcoat due to the absorption of  water into the pigment or extenders used in the gelcoat when it was manufactured.

Unlike Osmosis, this problem is more likely to surface within a few months of launching. The cure? Strip off the antifouling, degrease and sand the gelcoat, fill the holes with epoxy and then apply an epoxy paint and re-antifoul. A serious job – but not a disaster. – something a DIYer could probably cope with

Seaward