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!

First Cuts

I made the first cuts on the new boat today, finally.  After too many days of hemming and hawing I pulled out the saw and ripped it right down the middle of a sheet of plywood.  Nothing like reckless abandon to get you going on a project.  Now I get to finish lofting and make the precision cuts to follow the drawn lines.

The new boat is a Duckskiff, another Steven Lewis design.  I'm not some kind of Steven Lewis Fanatic, and went through a lot of models before picking that one.  Looked at the Brockaway skiff, lumberyard skiff, a couple Bolger Clam skiff variations, and a ton more off duckworks.  Ended up with the duckskiff because: it's free, I understand the documentation Steven creates, and it's just the right size.  That, and I can email him any time with questions.  And then he gets to see it at the messabout -- this time he gets a ride in the boat.  Kept forgetting to get him in the After You.

Lily and I had discussed a Puddle Duck Racer or a kayak or the pedal boat, but since I've taken the reigns of the Pepin Messabout, I felt like I needed a boat I could get together quick in order to show up with an actual boat.  Since that's what it's all about.

My take on it is inspired by boats like the following:

But knowing how things work out I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't end up more like this:

(because it'll have an outboard)

Which is still passable, but to be honest what I really and truly want is either a Disney Jungle Cruise boat or the African Queen.

The boat will be an "almost 16 foot" skiff, a little beamier than the After You, but certainly more conventional.  The whole point of this boat is to be able to ferry the whole family around on a lake for a nice slow cruise in the evening light.  Or across Pepin for the messabout brunch.  Or maybe even down a river as long as it's not too rocky.  Powered with the After You's 9.9 hp motor it'll be able to play in Pepin for the messabout, or just hum along Bear Lake nicely.  I also have the electric "big trolling motor" for use on the lakes in Minneapolis, which is going to be crazy good fun.  We may have to swap out the pith helmet for a straw boater while cruising Lake of the Isles...

I'm very excited to get this one done.  If you recall, I had a secret project last year than never really took off.  It's an eight foot pedal boat with a treadle drive.  Yeah, hard to imagine, but I intend to come back to it some day.  I think I finally figured out the mechanism and it tested ok, it just needs a lot of tinkering and finishing that I didn't have the energy for last year.  Lily and I dismantled the hull this week and I have to admit taking a boat apart is so much easier than putting it together.  But I saved the plans and hardware, so I'll be able to reproduce it .. some day.  :)

After You - Lake Garvais

A photo album from the inaugural voyage of the "new" motor, since replaced.  But it was one of the first times the boat felt really "together."

Heading Downriver again...

If the weather holds (I don't care about cold, just rain/snow at this time of year), and it looks like it will, I'll be taking another quick trip on the Mississippi.  Going from Minneapolis to Red Wing, roughly 70 miles.  At the pace of my boat and the lesser currents of autumn, I'm banking on 7 miles per hour for a ten hour trip.   Spreading it over two days I'll find a nice slough to drop anchor for the night and have a nice little wavy night's sleep.  Jill and the kids will meet me in Red Wing -- or any other landing before that point if something doesn't work out according to plan.

I had been saying I didn't do as much boat camping as I'd wanted to this year, and Jill was so supportive of a last little jaunt.  She's awesome!

I'll be boating alone, but filing a travel plan as well as reporting in via social networks.  And the GPS will be on the whole time, I'm sure.  Really looking forward to it!  Me and my boat..

The River

Mine is a small boat. Ok, a Tiny Boat. But I feel like this when I'm on any river:

View Larger Map

You can see that the towboat is pushing hard, but sliding a bit to port (left) so that he can overcompensate on the turn.

The science museum of Minnesota has a towboat/barge simulator that looks like a fun video game. I mean, it's just driving a slow boat down a river right? The moment a kid steps up to it they're excited, but by the first river bend they're shoving those barges up on the beach.

So I step up, never having played, and simply apply my "slow boat, takes a long time to respond, think about the *next* bend" logic and I took the barge and boat through downtown and on to the end of the simulation. I was quite proud of myself.

It would be months later that I would apply these rules in the real world with my boat on the river in some more "technical" (read: crazy wind, currents, and waves) waters and I really understood the intensity of the river.

So now when I see this picture in google maps of this tow pushing sideways up a bend, it just makes me really appreciate what's going on so much more. And makes me want to make another voyage...

After You - Pepin Messabout

Another fun filled day, with lots of boating and talking about boating and even some kite flying.  You wish you were here.  Although the afternoon produced the Lake Pepin that I had imagined, with whitecaps and waves over the transom.  Need an electric pump.. :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/robert.craig/AfterYouPepinMessabout?feat=directlink

After You - Pepin!

Early to rise, headed downriver in a grind that would involve 12 hours, multiple rainstorms, waves to crash over her bow, two lock passages, and a few hours of beautiful scenery and river.  Met up with the wonderful folks of the messabout and had a great evening sitting around the fire telling lies, er, stories about many things.

https://picasaweb.google.com/robert.craig/AfterYouPepinBound?feat=directlink