Life on the river

23 02 14.

I was going to unhook the dock lines and head for Waiheke on this afternoons tide.  The morning started well, and I drove over to Silverdale to see what the “Wade River Festival” was all about.  While the people were all enthusiastic and the music that the two folk musicians were pumping out was nice, four tents and a half hour of haranguing by a group of maori who where supposedly giving a welcome speech was not going to hold me for long.

I did though sign up as a potential volunteer worker for a walkway that is being built from Silverdale down about a kilometre along the northern river bank .

The "Wade" river is the river on which I am moored, and Silverdale is the town at the navigable limit of the river, it was a nice place until suburbia caught up with it, a huge, sterile town center was built and the industrial area expanded.  There are patches of publicly owned land here and there, and the walkway project is one of several attempts to preserve that public land in a form that is attractive to use.

I got back to find that the forecast SouWesterly change had arrived, the ship surging around on her lines and the estuary white and streaky with what must have been close to 40 knots of wind ( The marine nowcast said Tiri channel weather bouy not far from the rivermouth was peaking at 38 knots) and I decided that I would be more comfortable here than out in the middle.

Consequently I am fitting the garboard planks to the little dinghy, will scribe and fit the topside planks this afternoon and expect to have the thing close to done by the end of the week.

When that’s done I’ll start on SEI (named after the small Whale species) as its both capable of voyaging around the gulf and rowing quite long distances so will suit the estuary.

 I've had several enquiries about this little boat, all going well plans will be ready soon.

I'll be putting the topsides planks on this afternoon and then it can be taped up.

I’ve painted up Dennys old plywood kayak, one that I built with her help more than 20 years back, and have twice now scrambled out of bed just before dawn on the right tide and headed up the river to watch the sun come up.  I managed to get my hands on a piece of carbon fibre tube the right length and diameter so have built a nice light paddle, makes things so much easier. Dawn when afloat so close to the water and sitting in a patch of native bush with the birds waking up is a very nice way to start the day.

The other job happening today is to scrape out and re putty a couple of the ships windows, they are most of them needing attention so with the warm wind to dry things out I’m doing a bit of prep work and will paint them soon.

While setting up the boatshed as a workshop I took advantage of a sale deal at Bunnings hardware,  they have a cheapo power tool house brand called “Ozito” and I’ve bought a cordless drill, a thickness planer, a power screwdriver, an angle grinder with sanding pad and a cordless multitool. That’s a little thing with a vibrating head that can take various blades or sanding heads, and I’m finding that the sander configuration is excellent for the small work inside the ship, so am just starting to get ready for a new coat of varnish in some of the sun struck areas inside.

Those amazingly cheap tools are some of them good, one or two very good and one or two terrible.  Dont buy the cordless screwdriver, its a waste of time and the 14.4 volt cordless drill is not brilliant, but the multitool is great and the other items work fine.

  The current plan here, apart from all the other plans, is to make a grid alongside the boatshed.  I figure that if I put a ladder down from the walkway along the side, I can get down there and excavate a patch down to something firm enough to stand on.  I’d need to take the fill away, so its going to be a couple of buckets full at a time into the wheelbarrow at the top of the ladder and wheel it along to the end of the seawall to dump. It will be out of sight there so I wont get a well meaning greenie asking if I have resource consent.

I don’t think that I’d need to go to the gym for a while, but it will give me a nice secure space for “May” where she can sit between tides.

 I didn’t get this sent yesterday,  got all involved with the little dinghy and then  found that it was suddenly time to meet someone.  So, back again.

It’s a near perfect day here on the river, 82 deg, gentle breeze, so for those of you who are stuck in the northern hemisphere winter here is a preview of your summer to come.  In the meantime I"m off out in the kayak.

 The view downstream from the boatshed.

Its about 4 miles down to the rivermouth, while the channels are narrow at low tide I'm ok above half tide.

The view from the upstream side of the boatshed across the river.

Yours

John

More about the boatshed.

If you’ve read the previous post that I put up a couple of hours ago you'll know I was complaining about the weather.  Its just stopped raining so I went and pulled the card from the camera and here is the next post , with pics.  Two in one day, wonders will never cease!

 Thats the shed from outside, about 40 ft x 14, thats 12m x 4m, about.

Nearest is what used to be shower and changing sheds for those swimming in the estuary, the family who built all this were serious about their recreation.

The boatshed is a slipway boatshed, designed to have a trolley on rails and a winch to haul a boat inside for maintenance or safekeeping.  But its been disused for quite a while, and while the building is ok the slipway rails are not, the trolley is not in the best of shape and the slipway winch needs a lot of work too.

I don’t need the slipway, my ship wont fit in there so I’d asked the landlord who kindly said yes when I proposed putting a floor in over the gap so I’d have a shop to work in. 

The shed splipway area looking out toward the water end, there is about a plywood sheet length from this end of the opening to the land end of the building.  I've just fought the reluctant trolley down the ways a bit to make some space, its an old road trailer with railway wheels bolted thereon. The wheels being rusted solid makes it hard to move. I hate to think what it weights. Someone said "Give me a long enough lever, and a fulcrum and I'll move the world!" Yeah, right!

So, bearing in mind that this floor has to be both removeable and very strong, I went hunting for bargains.

18mm CCA treated construction plywood came from 3 Brothers Hamilton, its downgrade.  A lot of it is forklift damage or dinged corners but as a regular there owner Trent did not mind me sorting through to get sheets where the damage was such that the sheets still suited my purpose.

Placemakers builders yard had 100x50 (four by two ) CCA ( exterior grade preservative) “fence rails” on special, so I sorted through those to get the clear lengths that I wanted, bought some hot galvanised flooring screws, joist hangers and such from the same place at trade rate ( thanks guys) and got started.

I borrowed a big wheeled automotive trolley jack (one with wheels on) and heaved the trolley up onto the rails then used a block and tackle (the wheels are rusted solid) to slide it back to the door leaving me a clear space 14 ft wide and 28 ft long.

Yes thats water, at high tide springs the floor is about 750mm (2 ft 6in) above the water.

The new part of the floor is two and a half sheets long, thats  eight and a half sheets of 18mm plywood, 14 lengths 5.2m ( about 16 ft) of lumber under it, plus 14 jackstuds down to the concrete underneath the rails. All screwed together ( about 300 x 50mm cs screws) so in 5 years I can pull it all out when I move again.

I can tell you that this caused some serious sweat, I'm not quite right yet so had to do this in achievable bites.  But its done!

The floor structure is supported by 100x100 posts, and a grid of joists and spans at close intervals across and along. The plywood is well screwed down, does not flex noticeably under load and the place feels very nice to work in.

I’ve built some shelves, one big cupboard with another to come, and brought in the machinery.

My elderly uncle was a joiner by occupation, and his home workshop included a bandsaw, little jointer, and a table saw. He’s 83 and not very interested in using them now, so I exchanged a few bucks for same and now have those set up and running.

Bunnings hardware had an “Ozito” brand  (its their cheapo house brand, more on this later) thickness planer there for $600, but the one on display was missing its box, manual, setting gauges, adjustment handle and cord.  It was the last one in stock so after some bargaining I left with it for $475. Brand new, never been used.

I have the cord sorted, already had a set of setting gauges, and the $26 replacement winder handle will be here in a day or two .

I got several other Ozito tools, but like I said, more on those later.

Next trip into the same place, sale price again I bought a Ryobi bench grinder with a linisher (sanding belt for metal but it handles wood just fine) on the end opposite the grinding wheel.  I need that for tool sharpening but the linisher is a wonderful addition to the shop capabilities.

I’ve still got a workshop in Hamilton, it has all this stuff, but if I have it at one end of my life, it wont be at the other end when I want to use it there so I’m setting up with cheap product here at the boatshed, and will do the heavy stuff at the other shop.  Just as well I drive a pickup.

I’ve begun building, as mentioned in the previous post, have the frames all stood up, transoms on and the bottom panel has just been slathered with glue and screwed into place.   As this is to be “a plan” (available in a couple of weeks) I am doing a trial build to get the corrected offsets for the panels, found a couple of errors so far but expect more as the panel offsets came from a 1/5 scale model and I don’t think that they are as good as my customers deserve.

Looking back from the water end into the shop. SCRAPS is taking shape, all frames and the transoms up, the seat forms the brace that holds it all together until the planking is on, and you can see some of the machinery and the workbench with vice at the back. 

Its a nice feeling space, fairly good light apart from over the bench at the back. I will be hanging an industrial flouro twin tube light over there and that should about do it. 

Oh yes, there is, if you look hard you can see it, a rollup door in the land end of the shed, so even if I cant get a boat out the little side door, and dont want to fuss with opening the locked doors at the water end I can still get a boat out.

As a by the way, I’m expecting this little boat to come in at about 60 lbs.

PS, I ran a hose down through the bush yesterday.  I had 90 metres of it and was about 2m short, but got more today and now have potable water at the boatshed and across to the ship so I don’t need to motor for an hour each way to fill the tanks.  Real progress, with that done showers can be as long and as luxurious as I want.

I’m filling the 800 litre tankage up as I write. Hear that gurgling? It’s the sound of progress.

JW

Back boatbuilding again.

Just a quick post today, no pics as its raining and my camera is up in the boatshed.
 I have almost completed setting up the boatshed as a workshop, have a temporary plywood floor built over the slipway ( which is too small for my ship so I cant use it anyway) and am busy building the prototype of a little dinghy for the sloop.  The last one worked,  but the constraints of fitting it into the cockpit of the sloop meant that it was just a little too small, 5ft 6in is a very small dinghy and I'd been having issues with low blood pressure causing poor balance so needed a little more stability.  Annie Hill ( the "Voyaging on a Small Income" book lady) bought it, and she's petite to be polite, fits the little boat perfectly and can lift it up on the deck of her liveaboard junk rigged 26 footer without any trouble.
The shape worked well, and in fact in spite of its tiny size the wee thing was better than you'd expect but now I drive a pickup truck I can carry a bigger dink in the tray on the back while towing the sloop on its trailer, so the new one will be a little longer and a little wider.
Watch this space.

JW

Its almost 2014, New Years eve this evening, about 9 hours to go.
This year has been a horrorshow, with a few exceptions, just enough to keep me sane ( but thats a matter of opinion, mostly mine!).
But the next year is shaping up better, I'm in much better shape, I've two SCAMP Camps plus the Academy sailing skills courses to teach, a third one here in New Zealand, plus the chance of more teaching about design.  I'm working hard to be fit enough to cope, not like last time where I had to creep away for naps and meds to get through the day.

I'm part of the time resident on my ship Kairos, and thats working out nicely, have done a bit of cruising in her, some with family aboard and some with friends Maureen and Jamie Orr from Victoria on Vancouver Island.

It was nice cruising, and the ship is proving to be both comfortable and reliable, perhaps some work to do on damping out the clatter from the big Ford diesel, and there is quite a bit of deferred maintenance in terms of paintwork to catch up on, but its nothing major.
I've run about 400 litres of diesel through the engine so far, thats about 50 hours of running and its not smoking like it was, starts instantly now, and its initial problems seem to have simply been caused by being too often run sitting in the marina with no load on.
As a by the way, I got a 12 m marina berth in Marsden Marina as part of the deal, its got 3 years to go on the lease and I'd be please to sell it, very cheap if anyone is interested.

While out with the Orrs, Jamie got me to drop him in the dinghy way out in the middle of the passage between Rakino and Whangaparoa, and run back and forth to get some photographs of her under way.
Heres a nice shot, we're running at about 8 knots , if you could see me behind the starboard side windscreen in the main cabin you'd see a big smile.

So from me here on New Years Eve, all the very best to everyone for 2014, its going to be a good year!

John Welsford

Stillwater
Auckland
New Zealand

I had someone ask " isnt it cramped living on board a boat?"
The main cabin in my ship is about 11 ft x 10 ft wide, there is a cabin forward of that which is in the process of being converted into an office complete with drawing board ( yes there is that much space in there) and aft of the main cabin opposite the galley there is a double bunk, and aft of that again the cockpit is about 6ft longwise and 9 ft wide.
Yes its smaller than a house, but there is a very very big outside just outside and that makes the inside feel a lot bigger.

Here are some shots of the interior. Before I bought the boat, there will be some minor changes.
I have a deepfreeze and a second refrigerator powered by a compressor on the engine which is good when cruising, have pressure hot water and a proper shower too.

I've moved, well, sort of.  Have an internet connection through my cellphone, have a cellphone even!  And thats a big deal as I've not had one since the big bricks, managed to avoid them all these years.

So I'm technically up to date with a phone that is smarter than I am, a Macbook, printer and all on board the ship, and the  ship is now on her berth up in the Wade River.

Its a lovely spot, a couple of miles up a narrow but ok channel, not far away from the city by road or ferry for my three times a week commute, 15 mins walk to a decent corner shop, good cellphone reception and lots of birdsong in the trees.  I'm looking forward to being there.

Here are some pics of the little ship "at home" .

No its not as pretty when the tides out, but even the mudbanks have their appeal with the seabirds hunting on them.

The vista is ever changing with tide moving, wind and currents, and the bush all around.

I have a drawing board set up, will be building an office in the forepeak and will be fitting a bigger battery bank and inverter to make sure that I can carry on working without shore power when I travel to another quiet spot for a change of outlook.

I've got Mike Monies Footloose project on the board at the moment, one of several projects that make up a backlog that needs finishing before I get onto new ones, but some are particularly interesting and Footloose which is a semi displacement monohulled trailerable "houseboat" about 22 ft x 8 ft presented several challenges, its going to be really interesting to see how the theory behind the unusual hull works out in practice.

John

Its been a while, and I think that I've said that before. But life is on the move, I'm much improved on where I have been at for the last much too long a time healthwise and the biggest effect of that change  is that I'm much more positive in myself.  I'm getting through a lot more work although there is a big backlog so, no new design work until I'm all caught up.

I am though going to be living part time on board a boat, a dream that I'd had for a very long time but never thought that I'd have come true. My good wife Denny pushed me to make some changes, has helped finance the new boat and has been very encouraging about the whole thing.

So, I am taking my drawing board, and moving on board "Kairos" ( nee Carlotta Ann, a name that meant a lot to the old owner but not to me, the new name is a Greek word for "Seize the opportunity" which means a lot more for me).
Kairos is 40ft x 11ft x 32000 lbs , thats about 12m x 3.2m x 14000 kg.  She is powered by a marinised Ford 5.9 litre 6 cylinder diesel, will run at 10.5 knots wide open, but at that speed is using about 4 US Gals ( 15 litres) an hour.  At 8 knots though she is only using 6 litres an hour, thats about 1.5 US Gals per hour which is very cheap running considering the boats size and weight.
She does though carry up to 600 litres of fuel, and at 7 knots that gives her over 1000 miles of range, and no I'm not going to take her to Fiji.

Shes superbly comfortable in an old fashioned way, a lovely old ship which was built in 1972 and owned until 2011 by the same owner right through. She has immaculate maintenance records, a large selection of spares including a spare propellor, filters for fuel and oil, water and fuel pump parts, gaskets and fuel line fittings. The parts stock alone would have cost a pretty penny.

We bought her about 2 months ago, and to date have only had her out twice, but the second of those runs was the 80 mile run from where we bought her in Whangarei to Westpark marina in Auckland. 
She ran perfectly, did the run in 10 hours including a 30 min stop at the fuel dock at Orakei ( the diesels cheaper there)

I have signed up for a lease on a berth in the Weiti ( Wade) river just across the Whangaparoa peninsula from Red Beach. Its a pontoon berth  almost like a marina, but in the bush with songbirds and no other boats for hundreds or yards, no houses close by and a boatshed where I can store stuff and build small boats.  Its a lovely place, cheaper than the marina and peaceful.  I am looking forward to taking the pen and computer up there and spending a week at a time just drawing, catching up with the backlog

The plastic horror at the pontoon is not mine of course, and will be gone by the time I take Kairos around to her new home.  I am anticipating getting a lot more work done than I've been able to over the past while,  Denny is planning to come up to join me about every second weekend, and I'll be back at home with her alternates.
The river is easy distance from the Gulf Harbour Marina for fuel and there is a boat club with a slip maybe a mile away down stream. We're planning on cruising a lot, this is comfortable cruising, pressure hot water, shower, big comfortable bunks and a full galley with deepfreeze and fridge. There is a small RIB tender on davits, all mod cons and with her speed she is only a couple of hours away from a wide selection of safe and interesting harbours where we can hide away and relax.

So what about sailing? I can hear lots of people saying " but I thought he was a sailor"?  Yep, no problem, there is space just astern of that fiberglass monster you see above where I can drop a mooring with a running lead and leave "Spook" afloat ready to sail. If anything she'll get a lot more use than she has over the past couple of years.

I hope to have enough time to putter around building a new rowing boat, something light that will suit the river and I'll be using that to keep up my exersize program going, something that is essential if I am to get back to where I want to be physically.  ( Gyms, even with lycra clad lovelies, dont do it for me I'd much rather be out on the river, must be getting old, or sensible or something).

I'm also watching the internet trading sites for a decent second hand sailing dinghy about two adult size or so. I will be teaching sailing skills with Howard Rice ( details here ) and to accommodate overseas.  You can see what thats about "here".  http://www.smallcraftacademy.com/

The Small Craft Skills Academy website is under development right now, much more detail to come but the one that my Kiwi friends will be interested in is the Skills Academy that will be run at Lake Rotoiti Rotorua in March next. Howard is coming down to NZ to participate, and it will be be a great chance for small boat cruisers to meet him and have him mentor and teach them some of the skills that he has developed over his many years of small boat adventure cruising.
We also have several participants coming in from overseas, this will be a great social event as well as a learning one.

So there are big changes in my life,  positive ones, I've lots of work to do to catch up with the backlog which includes finishing the new edition of the book,  but then I can get on with new ideas and new designs.

John Welsford
MV Kairos.