Glass Half Full - the tweedlesail!

 The boat shown above was the tweedledum.  I built it back in 2009 as an experiment.  Like so many people the idea of building a boat seemed incredible.  Me?  Build an actual float on water BOAT?  And not drown?  I obsessed for years on the idea but was having trouble locating marine grade plywood.  Marine grade is a higher quality, has no "voids" (spaces in the plywood layers) and is more waterproof than typical "Menards" plywood.  It's also much more expensive and if you live in flyover country, it can be difficult to obtain.

Never being afraid to cut corners, I ended up going with some super flimsy ply from Home Depot and threw together a fun little rowboat.  It's a dinghy styled after the traditional Portuguese fishing boats.  It is one of the great boats from Hannu's boatyard.  It is a scant seven feet long, and when I got in it and rowed it, appeared even smaller:

 That was then, this is now.  The photo below is a fair representation of how it's weathered over the years.  Spending its time up at the cabin for an occasional yearly rowing, it aged about as gracefully as you could expect.  As long as you weren't expecting much.  She had no obvious dry rot, but some delamination on the gunwales and more than a few dings.

After sanding, beginning new Rustoleum layer(s)

I had always thought of putting a sail rig on her, but never thought I could do it properly.  After seeing enough puddle duck racers I thought "why not?"  After all, it was just languishing in the northern woods, and if it fails at least it died trying something interesting.  So we threw it on the boat trailer I'd been using on my chugger, and took her home.

Does this boat make my trailer look fat?

After we got the hull repainted (a light blue chosen by my daughter) it was staged in the garage for rigging and such.  I didn't take a lot of build photos, but this is a good summary of our garage situation.  Since I'd already built a duckskiff this year my wife mentioned that it was interesting I had a second boat in the works.  I took that as a hint that I should think about building another boat this year.  She's patient, but not insane.  I normally displace a car from the two car garage for my boat works/storage during the summer, and now I was taking both sides.  Oops!

The mast was a pared-down puddle duck racer inspired built (two by four, rip it and add some stiffener on the bottom.  The mast step is a big PVC pipe and flange connected to the old "seats."  Leeboard was originally a "slip on" style that I was going to move from side to side as needed.  And the tiller/rudder was a crazy combination of many instructions found on the web, but it ended up being a flip up that fit "just so" so that when you wanted to flip it up all you had to do was raise the tiller and let the blade flip out.  Pull a rope to bring the blade back in and drop the tiller to horizontal and it's locked in place.  Wish I had planned it that was -- it was just a lucky dimension.  Finally, the sail and rig is a Leg O Mutton made out of a Menard's polytarp.  It's all of 30 square feet, so it's pretty small.

And here's what I ended up with:

Tada!

We took her out on a fairly calm day and found a few interesting points:

• The leeboard wasn't deep enough, so it slid sideways a lot.
• The rudder may not be deep enough but I'm still not convinced
• She doesn't sail into the wind to save your life (see above)
• Tiny, pretty, and lots of fun!
• Our dock is upwind.  There's a calm zone along the shore, so you have to float out, but getting back in wasn't going to be as easy.

The sail,, rigging and everything else was just great!  For that first day it was a matter of tacking back and forth while the wind pushes you to the other side of the lake and then getting towed back upwind to the dock.  Just not going into the wind at all.  For the second day I clamped a board on the side the leeboard wasn't on and it stick a lot harder to the wind, but still wouldn't go upwind well.  I thought if I had four or more hours I might have been able to get back to the dock.

I have since decided that the "Craig Challenge" is to take the boat out, sail for a proper amount of time, and then get back to the dock unaided.  Jury is still out on using oars or sculling.  I carry the oars onboard so I can row in if need be, but so far there has been no shortage of family members coming out to meet me on the motorboat and tow me home if I want.

Happy guy in a little boat..

Since that first weekend I had made some changes.  I mounted two leeboards, one on each side.  They pivot from straight down, to angled, to up for shallows or trailering.  There is a pin that holds the angle, and they're much more forward than the last leeboard.  I think that was the trick.

The rudder may still be shallow, but it works fairly well.  I think the small sail limits me in light wind, as she really felt like I could steer her upwind better when there was a good breeze.  Light floppy wind was amusing, but not very productive.  I don't think I'm going to increase the sail size any time soon, as it's a really small boat anyway, and it feel a lot safer/easier/more bulletfproof this way.

In a fit of discomfort (after three hours and then two more hours the same day) being a six foot tall guy folded into a seven foot boat I threw one oar through both oarlocks as a backrest, rigged up a simple rope to control the tiller, and tucked the mainsheet under my armpit.  Instant lounge chair sailboat!  I now intend to come up with a more formal/stronger method of being able to sit comfortably in the boat for long periods of time.  (I guess this build will never really end, will it?)

Sometimes it's hard to find the tiny sail on the lake

Sadly, a common sight at the end of a day

So, the name?  My daughter wanted to name it "Glass Half Full" - you know, like an Optimist!  Thus the paint job.  It's not a bad name, and it's been christened (twice now) and looks like it will be a lot of fun for as long as it holds together!