Hooked on Wooden Boats Podcast

Photo Courtesy of Hooked on Wooden Boats

Dan Mattson interviews Andy Stewart

A Lovely Short Documentary Featuring Wooden Boats

Last summer our friend, Kat Gardiner, approached Andy asking if he'd be interested in providing material for a short documentary highlighting traditional craft. I am please to share the result.  Enjoy!

 



The process included a couple of visits to the shop for stills and video, a blustery sailing afternoon, a voice recording session in Portland, and the final filming with the title art back at the shop. Early on, Kat and her husband Nathan Walker,  took it a step further and spent one night aboard Windsong to have an even more intimate experience with a wooden boat. The video's dreamy background music is provided by Dana Falconberry, Sea of Bees and Your Heart Breaks.  It is very exciting to see how all these elements come together.  Of course there is so much more I have no idea about. Clearly, Kat's talent, care and creativity come through.

For some background. Kat and Nathan, currently residing in Portland, used to live in Anacortes and ran the Back Porch Cafe at The Music Business. Kat co-ownes New Canada, does freelance work, and writes for Vice magazine. Nathan used to work here at Emerald Marine and now keeps us up to date in exciting independent music.  His promotional company is Riot Act Media.  The appropriately nautical title art is created by Jessica Lynch of Slow Loris Shirts. The boat featured in the caulking sequence is Pescawa featured in an earlier Emerald Marine blog post.

It is an honor to be included it this project!

Swansong's New Teak Decks

Vacuum Bagging Teak Decks on a Swan 46.

 Part One

In our continuing adventures with teak decks, this was the most complicated yet for Emerald Marine. Like the swan migration in Skagit Valley, this job has taken us from winter into spring.

As the solstice began, we welcomed Swansong, a Swan 46 into the fold.  The painstaking task of removing all the deck hardware was carried out by our partners in this job, Northwest Rigging. To get access to the many thru-fastenings, the headliner  below decks and some of the interior joinery had to be removed. Each section of deck was patterned for the fittings and wood pattern before the noisy air-powered chisel chipped up  the old, failing teak.  The sub-deck was in good condition. All the old  holes made by the deck screws and fittings were filled with epoxy and the deck was given a good sanding.

The front tent is essentially an out doors working area for the lack of heat.  This is somewhat counterbalanced by the new front tent door letting in more ambient light naturally white, rather than the previous orange hue.  But no doubt, winter did not disappoint with the usual north winds, south-westerlies and easterlies blowing by, but we were snug enough.

Above, the hammer chisels rat-a-tat away the old teak.  

Cabin top prepped for installation

Below, the teak strakes are fit, screwed down and spaced on fiberglass mesh that is impregnated with epoxy.

The main large pieces are built by pattern on a table but each fit requires other pieces to be installed in place.

A compressor run caulking gun applies the miles of black goo between miles of tape.

The Swan's deck plans lay out on the pile of teak.

Teak boards were cut into strips to be epoxied to a mesh on the building table. The shape was determined from patterns taken from the old decks.  After the epoxy cures, the seams are sanded, cleaned and taped on the bottom.  The edges are taped off and the Teak Deck System caulk is applied, when it's cured the tape is removed the extra caulk is cut off and the deck is sanded right side up.

Team work sets the deck piece into place.

The whole piece is turned over and the bottom epoxy is sanded so it adhears to the epoxy that will bond it to the deck.  When it's put in place, the vacuum bag aparatus is applied, sealed to the sub-deck with special tape, and then the pump sucks out all the air, pulling everything tight together.  There are pictures of this down the page.

After the vacuum bagging is removed

Starboard side-deck is laid up and epoxied.  Lead weights and the screw-pads help it stick to mesh.

Port side-deck is carefully moved for installation.

This is the vacuum pump orifice pulling the air out of the sealed "bag".  The yellow is the special sealing tape/putty.

It's a series of tubes, but it's not the internet!

Post vacuum bagging

The margin boards are carefully cut,  shapped with hand tools and fit on the edges and around deck hardware and fittings.

So Spring has arrived with somewhat warmer temperatures, the last pieces are fit and the hardware is being reinstalled.  Swansong will soon return to her summer home.

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for Part 2.  Finishing the deck hardware installation, sail track pads, and interior work.

The Beer Tender

The scale is difficult to gauge here!  

Combining traditional craftsmanship, with whimsy, sailing, and malted beverages, James McMullen has put smiles on many people's faces and beer in their bellies.  Debuting at The Port Townsend Wooden boat Festival the newest incarnation of this rocking baby cradle now soothes sailers from port to port, carrying mini kegs of golden elixir.  Once a model, holding boat building merchandise, the petite vessel became the perhaps the most photographed boat in the festival, her photograph published in 38 Degrees North and featured in a few Youtube videos.

At the 2012 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival
Photo by Michael Bogoger

In James' Words

"The little keg tender did amazingly well towing across Admiralty Inlet. I put it in the water soon after leaving Keystone just to see how it would fare, and it totally exceeded my expectations so well, that I simply left it in. Through tide rip and tugboat wake, it didn't ship a drop! As this little boat is purely a scaled down version of the round-bottomed lapstrake prams I have grown to prefer above all others for a towed tender, this was a gratifying confirmation of the type.

On the way out of the festival on Sunday, though, I managed to slip the painter right out in front of the beach where people were starting to gather to watch the schooners sail by. How embarrassing! I had to heave to and wear around and chase it down off a rapidly approaching lee shore with a fair amount of chop in the full view of a whole bunch of critical eyes. . .yikes! I was mortified. . .but the only thing worse would have been to lose it to shipwreck, and I just barely pulled it off without running us both aground. It did work out okay in the end though, and I even got a facebook message from a guy I had talked to in the festival saying, "Thanks for that great tacking and gybing demo you did right there off the stands." Cripes! "

Movie snipit of this little boat in action --> A very nice tack!

Snugged up tight, ready for refreshing action

Finishing the bow

You can see the boat nails shining a bit!

In her early days she was in advertising!  Photo by David Best

We can clearly see where the party is!

Mini kegs securely lashed in!  Photo by Michael Bogoger

Proper and Salty!  Photo by Michael Bogoger

Marionette gets a beautiful new cockpit and more

Each new job that comes from the shop has it's own particular challenges and changes the atmosphere and feeling of the shop.  It may seem simple but with the coming and going of each boat we adapt to the particular needs of each job.  We arrange and rearrange equipment, set up new staging and adapt our surroundings to the task at hand.  With Marionette in the shop, I felt much smaller in stature than normal. She draws 7 feet and her spacious interior was almost overwhelming and the amount of light inside the cabin was startling.

This Kettenburg 50 lived for many years in Los Angeles near where she was built. During this time she was attacked by termites who made a mash out of the cockpit area.  Work completed during this phase of her time in the shop included new teak cockpit deck, new sepelle coamings,  repair of a rotten house side, and the removal and replacement of the cockpit sides and rotten hatches.  The termites had eaten across the under the cockpit and had compromised the framing that supports the rudder!


                                                 

All  5 Photos above by David Whitaker

We were lucky and happy to have David Whitaker as guest carpenter on this job.  He worked away steadily and took some very nice process pictures.  The Maritime Northwest climate gave him a cool respite from the drought of the central states.

Marionette is  the largest sailboat we've had in the covered area.  She stuck out of the tent with mast still stepped although with the rig slackened. This set up is in the lee of the prevailing wind but with gusts over 50 knots  occurring during this work period, we were glad for the large section of the mast and the extra boat stands in place below the hull.

               

Pattern of the cockpit perimeter

Teak all laid out

Vacuum Pump in action

Deck Complete

Every once in a while a job brings the opportunity to be awed by the magnificence of a special piece of wood.  This time it was a live edged 2"x 24'x 22' boule, 142 board feet of sepelle!  All I could think was magnificent dining room table in a grand hall or my own small dining area!  The depth of figure in this wood is mesmerizing when finished.

Ping Pong paddle for scale

                                           

Detail of coamings, sappelle resawn and matched, each side.

Marionette was purchased in California and came up the coast on her own power.  She was sailed around the San Juan Islands this summer and finished that part of her trip at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival before coming to Anacortes for the cock pit work.  When the work was completed,  James, Pat, and Andy returned her home to Port Ludlow by way of Port Townsend.                            

Example of the improvement.  Photo, David Whitaker

We expect to see Marionette again this year for further work including painting, sistering a few cracked frames,  etc.... All part of the vessel's maintenance and up grade program.

Pescawa's Re-launch

Pescawa hit the water on September 12, 2012 after being on land for 4 years or more.  The day was auspiciously pleasant with much excitement and anticipation.  As one might imagine, extra attention was paid to having two important pieces of equipment in good working order.  Jim Rovang of  Rovang Marine made sure that the two bilge pumps were powered up to go, as water was expected to steadily seep into the seams due to the boats extended dry period.  Owner David Waterman was mostly smiles the whole time, if he was nervous he wasn't showing it!

David Waterman preparing the hull for paint

After sitting in the sling for couple hours Pescawa was towed to slip where she sat overnight, her seams adjusting and swelling as the pumps gradually slowed their duty.

Shiny new prop and fresh paint

Caulking and filling seams with putty

Pescawa's original cabin and doorway

Beside the cabin extension, this latest slate of work included: caulking in the stern, bumping the cotton and repaying it,  phase one of the interior remodel, hull paint, all new wiring, new instrument panel, and new Yanmar 120 hp engine, shaft, propeller, and 4-1 reduction gear.

To see previous work and a good picture of how she looked before the work began, please visit  Pescawa 2011.

Preparing to rebuild and extend cabin

Frames and purple heart sill of  house extension dry fit

The posts, knees, braces, cabin top beams lain out and painted before final installation

First trip to Fuel Dock with new engine

Helm station with new electrical panel to the left