Thursday, December 02, 2010
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Halloween 2010
The brothers after the Halloween Parade at Liam's school.
Our boys with their buddies Colin and Darby before we set out for trick-or-treating.
Little Red and a rather scruffy looking Mad Scientist.
Ghost chain!
Lochlan's Jack o'lantern
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Daily Cards #1
An Australian fairy wren.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Boat Restoration Part III: Back on the water!
Amy and I also raced in the Take Your Time Fridays series out of Shilshole on our friend Jamie's 40' Centurion Lucidity, and man was that ever fun! I managed to crew for 5 races, and Jamie even put me on the foredeck for the last race. That was exciting, scary at times, and extremely educational.
Despite our crummy weather this sailing season, we managed to have a fantastic time on the water!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Boat Restoration Part II: During, AKA "It is Easier to Destroy than Create"
In retrospect, cutting/grinding/destroying/ all the rotten stuff was the easy part. Unfortunately, because the boat had no internal super-structure, it was sagging over the sides of the trailer, which is not the 'designed' shape of the hull. Before I could start replacing the stringers and bulkheads, I first had to return the hull to its true shape. My boat has what are called 'hard chines'--which means the sides go more or less straight down to the waterline, then the hull curves gently to the centerline, and curves gently at the same arc to the other side. In order to recreate this, I had to figure out some way of hoisting the entire boat off the trailer to return it to the true shape, then build a cradle to match that true shape. This would ensure that the hull would follow the proper arc, then I could cut out the stringers and bulkheads and epoxy them into place.
Of course, boats do not have any right angles, so in order to do this, I had to learn the subtle art of 'spiling' which is the term for tracing an arc from one object onto another using an offset. I had to build a separate rig for the cradle and each individual stringer and bulkhead, to keep the piece of plywood onto which I was tracing the arc from moving. There are three different directions in which the plywood can move (pitch, roll, and yaw, like an airplane) so the rig had to account for all three of these. Then to keep the marker itself at a constant offset height I cut an old broom handle to size, and to keep it from moving side to side, I drilled a Sharpie-sized hole at the top. This all seemed to work fairly well, but took a lot of trial and error.
Once I had all of the wood bits cut to the proper shape, it was time to epoxy them into place. Epoxy is an amazing adhesive. It comes in two parts, neither of which are super-sticky on their own, but when you mix them they combine in an exothermic reaction that results in a virtually bomb-proof material. When fillers are added, such as sawdust or colloidal silica, the epoxy becomes goopy and almost peanut-buttery, and when this version of the epoxy dries it is so strong it can actually be considered a structural part of the boat. Fortunately, I did not blow anything up as I made my way up the epoxy learning curve.
My standard outfit for grinding fiberglass and epoxy.
After many, many hours of work I had a bare hull to work with.
Unfortunately, to repair the boat properly, I had to determine the proper hull shape. To maintain the proper hull shape, I had to build a cradle. To build a cradle, I had to trace the hull shape, which means I had to hoist the entire aft end of the boat off the trailer, by using a 3:1 block-and-tackle system attached to the rafters. This was a very educational process.
Here is the cradle I built, after spiling the transverse curve of the hull. The padding is composed of old cloth diapers.
Once the boat was safely lowered down onto the cradle, I could start spiling the stringers and bulkehads. This picture shows the rig I contrived for the port-side stringer.
Another view of the spiling rig. I moved a variation of this setup around the boat until I had traced all of the stringers and bulkheads.
The super-duper high-tech device I contrived to hold the marker steady as I traced the shape of the hull onto the plywood.
One of the bulkheads, before I cut out the opening for the deck.
All of the stingers and bulkheads, cut out, sanded and epoxied in place.
After the undercoater was applied.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Boat Restoration Part I: The Gut Wrenching Realization (aka "Before")
Fortunately, my friend and neighbor Chris is a long-time sailor and boat builder, and his current project was at a stage where he could easily move everything over to the side of his boat shop. He very generously offered the use of his shop to me for two months, including the use of all of his tools. He lives right across the street, and given the helaciously wet and cold spring we experienced, I was extremely grateful to have access to his shop.
Apparently our boat was filled with compost in places (hard to believe this mess used to be wood!)
The base of the cap at the aft end of the centerboard trunk was so rotten I could jam a screwdriver about 1" deep.
More rotten stringers.
After using the sawzall on some of the structural members, I had a much better (and far more horrifying view) of just how rotten the wooden insides were of this fiberglass boat.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Toy Schooner Project
We saw some amazing model yachts at the Seattle Boat Show and Liam asked if we could make one. I asked him what kind of boat he would like, and he said "Schooner!" It sounded like a fun project, and I was (OK still am) jonesing to go sailing. So we made one, and I think it turned out pretty well (but there is still some work left to do--keel, rudder, etc).
Winter Part III
We signed Liam up for cross-country ski lessons this winter, and he absolutely loved it. Amy and I took turns accompanying him to the lessons then went skiing ourselves. Fortunately our friends and neighbors the Moores had both of their kids enrolled in ski school too, so we car pooled.
The final weekend we brought Lochlan, and rented some of the tiniest skis I have ever seen. He had fun for awhile, but (perhaps predictably) was far more entertained by building snow mice and little caves.
The winter snows weren't great here in Washington this year, but there was certainly enough to get some skiing in, and I think we'll be back next year.
Friday, March 26, 2010
The Schooner ZODIAC
Biking home from a meeting in Kirkland this afternoon, saw the unmistakable masts & rigging of a schooner in the Northlake boat yard. Hopped off the BG, talked to one of the crew, and they let me sneak in for a peak. She is the Zodiac, a beautiful ship, on the hard for some new bottom paint and a Coast Guard inspection.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Winter Part II
In Part II of Winter we rode the Santa Train. After four years this has become a family tradition and we wouldn't miss it. The trip begins in North Bend and ends in Snoqualmie, where Santa, home-made cookies and hot chocolate await. Carols are sung en route, and this year there was a bluegrass band performing at the museum. It was great fun, and such a delight to watch the boys telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas.
Winter Part I
Much to catch up on. This has been a fun but exceedingly busy winter, primarily because 1) both boys are now in school 2) Liam is taking a day-long X-Country skiing class every Saturday 3) work did not deign to provide me with the customary holiday lull (for which I am grateful, but sheesh, it would have been nice) and 4) we drove to Phoenix and spent nearly two weeks there.
In Part 1 of winter, we took a trip downtown with the boys, went ice skating, took the Monorail from Seattle Center downtown to ride the carousel, then toured the amazing ginger bread houses on display at the Sheraton.