After work relaxation

A really nice place to relax.

Like most of us I spend a few minutes browsing the net after checking my emails each evening, looking for something entertaining and relaxing to end the day so I can leave the work part of my life with its annoyances and aggravations behind and enjoy the evening in a reasonable state of mind.

Some of the things I find are anything but relaxing, some really make my hackles stand up,  and generally I’ll avoid those “places” in future so I have a little list of regular “favourites” that I know will work.

Right at the top of that list is Dylan Winters site http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/

Now Dylan is a gent of a certain age with a pleasantly crumpled visage, clothing the same, and both boat and car not so rich that it’s hard for me to identify with him.  He’s undertaking a voyage around the British Islands,  not the biggest or the longest in terms of boat or distance, no Cape Horn in midwinter type adventures, no palm trees or dusky maidens, not even encounters with smugglers or rum runners.

But I don’t get to have those sort of adventures, they are generally wet and uncomfortable, way out of my budget and don’t leave enough time for me to live the other parts of my life so its creeping up creeks, hopping from harbour to harbour and finding new crinkly bits of coastline to explore that interests me.

Dylans voyage is a whole lot of that, he sailed his little sloop out of his home port, turned left, and will keep doing that until he gets back to where he started from. It’s going to take years, he’s exploring the myriad tiny ports along the way, putting his boats bow into every river, sailing up each of the estuaries he comes across and stopping at the towns at the head of each.

There is a great deal to be seen in these places, and Dylan is an exceptional maker of video documentaries, applying his skills to this endeavour so we can share his observations on the history, the wildlife, the other boats and ships he comes across and the scenery.  I must say too that his choice of background music adds greatly to the imagery.

Dylan Winter, in "crumpled" mode.  I feel like that a lot of the time.

He uses Google Earth to show you the bigger picture, his camera for close-ups, and music for background and his commentary for flavour, it’s a combination well worked and it works well.

There has been commercial shipping on the English coast for over two thousand years, way prior to the settlement of the “New World”. Many of us have roots there and for me as a New Zealander of UK ancestry its like a home I’ve only briefly visited, these tiny documentaries with their exquisite camerawork, dry humour and piquant  observation  are a real treat.  Yes I can identify with them, the budget is similar to my own, the age of the presenter similar, he likes the same things that I do, he grumbles about the same things that I would  and it all feels very much like home.  Yes there is a small subscription, but it’s really worth it.

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/

The view over the bow of Sea Slug,there is a perfect anchorage up that river.

John Welsford

This is what keeps a designer going.

Gone Walkabout.

A couple of years ago I had an email from one Osbert Lancaster who lived on the shores of the Forth of Firth in the South East of Scotland.  For many of us here in New Zealand that’s a place of ancestral connection, there are an awful lot of us with Scots forefathers, but its also a place that is much colder than we’re used to. 

However, it has very long evenings, long periods of calm weather and an incredible coastline dotted with ancient, and I mean many hundreds of years or in some cases over a thousand years  old.  Its an area that cries out for exploration by a boat small enough to creep in close to the edges of the water as well as tough enough should the weather blow up. This is the edge of the notorious North Sea after all.

Now this is how to enjoy sailing, Osbert surfing his Walkabout with a solid tail wind,  the wake of the boat suggests that he's moving slightly faster than the wave train, I bet that was a thrilling ride

Photo by John Mac Pherson

Osbert wanted to go our and enjoy this northern small boat paradise and chose to build my Walkabout design, http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/walkabout/index.htm   , a boat that could almost have been custom designed for what he wanted to do, a boat that was more than capable of the job at hand.  Osbert bought plans, had a part kit cut by Fyne Boat Kits over in Cumbria not that very far from his home  http://www.fyneboatkits.com/  and got on with the build.

*

I heard from Osbert fairly regularly over the next while, he was a beginner builder when he began (An expert is but a beginner with experience, and experience begins when you begin)  He’s documented the build “here”   http://forthsailoar.osbert.org/archive/1/2009 

I don’t mind hearing from builders, and sure sometimes I get the same question several times a day but I manage, its getting to know the people and following their frustrations and their joys, and then hearing about the adventures when the boats complete that really makes my day. A couple of good photos and a story about how much fun they had pays for the myriad emails and the chore of explaining for the nth time, how not to do something that I learned about years back.

Osbert though seems not one to do things by halves, I’ve been getting reports from him on a regular basis, racing as a rowing boat, racing with the local dinghy club, cruising the waters of the Firth, and getting involved with the Dinghy Cruising Assn   http://dinghycruising.org.uk/  .

Today though, he topped them all,  I spotted a reference on a boating forum to Osbert and Sail Caledonia, a “raid” type event that runs from Loch Ness ( yes, the place with the monster)  on Scotlands West Coast, reknowned for fast currents and wild weather, through the Caledonia canal with Lochs, Locks and rivers, estuaries and sandbanks, through to his home waters on the Firth of Forth.

Here she is at the finish.  This event is a real test of man and machine, and I'm pleased to say that Osbert and Scratch both seem to have finished in good order and condition.  Congratulations both.

Chris Perkins photo.

He’s collected some wonderful photos of his  very nicely built Walkabout  “Scratch” ( Number 6 on her bow in these photos) taken during the event, and I don’t think I need to elaborate other than to say he had a very good time, and for a beginner sailor in a home built boat has done extremely well.

http://forthsailoar.osbert.org/sail-caledonia 

I loved the pic of Scratch surfing, but the one that really captures the spirit of dinghy cruising is the one with the tent up, a tiny but comfortable little home among all the other boats.

Well done indeed.  You’re an inspiration sir!

John  Welsford

Just a nice day out

It was a nice looking day,  slightly cloudy and very calm.  Our family does not get together as often as we’d like, two of us work shifts at the hospital, one is a fulltime student who will gain her nursing qualification in about another year, she’s a mother of a 2 yr old as well, and sometimes I’m not able to get away so its rare for all of us to be able to go out together.

This day though, even though it was wintertime it was warm, mild and gentle so we packed a picnic lunch, the  boat of course has a cooker to produce hot drinks so the thermos stayed home.  We hooked the boat on and  drove off to Lake Ngaroto where there is a lovely picnic grounds with all the trimmings, two superb boatramps and just enough of a lake to introduce the two year old to sailing.

The boat is not really big enough for all of us, so the plan was to take two or three at a time and do a lap of the lake while the others enjoyed the peaceful park grounds and bush walks. 

It was nice to have help to rig the boat, it’s a goodly lift to get the mast up and sometimes that’s more of a heave than I want to do, and there are things where two sets of hands make it a lot easier and saves time, so it was not long before the big tarp was spread out with lunch organised, the boat rigged and in the water, and the puppy convinced that he was not to eat the sandwiches while we weren’t looking.

Little Aysha is 2 years and four months old, a good age to introduce to new things as long as they are gentle,  so we cast off with the small one, her mother Sarina and my Denny on board.  There was just enough wind to move the boat at a very quiet walking pace, perhaps 3 knots in the puffs, and the puffs were close enough for us to coast from one to the next.  All good, two laps, then in for a cuppatea and a crew change, out with son in law and daughter Sarina, Denny staying with the small ones, that’s granddaughter and pup, and in an hour we’re back for another crew change.

It was like that until about 4 pm, nothing exciting, the little one showed a marked liking for going below and sleeping on a bunk, Sarina showed that she has not forgotten how to helm, son in lay was interested in sail trim, and Denny so enjoyed the day that she is talking about us renting a mooring over in Tauranga next summer so we don’t have to launch and rig, drag the boat out and un, each time we want to sail.  Lovely day though, no excitement, just a nice day out with the family.

A marina berth is about $350 a month which is a bit rich to my way of thinking, but we can get a swinging mooring for about a quarter of that, perhaps less. If it works out maybe we’ll buy one.  Have a look on Google Maps at Omokoroa,  Bay of Plenty, New Zealand .  There are several moorings for sale here and a couple to rent by the month.  The boatramp is at the end of “The Esplanade”.  Good secure car parking, nice jetty with  floating pontoons, and we’d hope to get a mooring up the river a bit in the sheltered part of the area.

My little boat does not have a self draining cockpit, that’s a big job to fix as it would involve cutting the present cockpit sole out and rebuilding it about 100mm higher and fitting drains so its going to be a fitted cover until that can be done.  I need a dinghy too and a roof rack on the car so I can carry it.  I’d buy a dinghy, except being a designer of boats am much more inclined to build one. 

Another job, I’m not getting all the outstanding ones done as it is,  maybe I should just swim out and back.

John Welsford

Making holes in things.

Making holes in things.

I use my two cordless drills a lot when boatbuilding, one for pilot holes and the other as a powered screwdriver.  I have a friend who was an electrical engineer in the Merchant Navy and he tells me that if these had been around he’d still be at sea instead of teaching kids who don’t want to learn and rueing his occupational overuse sore wrists and forearms.

But drilling wood, especially small sized holes, tends to clog the drill bit which if one is not careful can break the bit off which then requires some work with a chisel ( which then requires grinding and sharpening to get the nick out of the edge after digging the broken drill bit end out ) to retrieve it.

The ordinary engineering twist drill is not intended for use in wood, they work, and like everyone else I use them most of the time, but the above problem is only one of the issues in using the wrong tool. 

Years ago I came across specialist brad pointed woodworking drill bits on boring machines, they had special chucks which is just as well or I’d have been collecting them for my own use,  but at that time I could not buy them to suit my own drills for love nor money.

Recently though, while they are uncommon  I’ve seen them about, even managed to buy the occasional one.  I use 1/8in (3.2mm) bits a lot, and had been working away using the last one in my collection and it was getting desperately blunt, when I was in a local hardware store looking for other things.  Thought I’d look at the drill stocks in the tool section just in case, and while asking the lovely young lady there if they had any of these things, then explaining in detail what it was that I wanted ( be polite! ) , and looking over the display with her we were interrupted by a gent who was obviously a trade rep restocking.

Turned out that Neil Palmer was the local Territory Manager for Robt Bosch, and like some of the other better power tool manufacturers Bosch are supplying an increasingly wide range of tooling and accessories for their tools.

Neil had heard my request, said he had samples in his car and went out to get same. He came back with a set of seven drill bits from 3 to 10 mm in 1mm steps, ( no 9mm one). We discussed the use, he noted that I was boatbuilding and showed me the new tooling range for their oscillating Multi Cutter tool.  He was keen to show me the titanium nitride coated saw blade which will cut wood infested with nails and screws, fiberglass, plastics, copper tubing and just about anything you’re likely to hit when doing repair and restoration work on an old boat.  If you’re like me of course you manage to do this when building something new as well.

Heres a link to the multitool itself. They do a cordless one as well.

http://www.boschpt.co.nz/papocsnz/Trade+and+Industry/Tools/NZ/en/gw/New%21/131399/GOP+250+CE/105404/index.htm

He mentioned too that these fit Fein multi cutters as well!  Nice gear. I want one, but it has to wait until I’ve bought one of their new 14.4 volt cordless drills.

Back to drills, on asking how much, I was presented with the sample pack and told to go and try them.  Wow!  So I did.

These drill bits have a steeper flute than the engineering ones, the outside of the spiral being relief ground to reduce binding and lessen the chance of breaking the bit in a deep hole.  The point in the middle is longer (higher?  Something like that) than the usual ones which makes it easy to target, just put the point where you want the hole,  press and you’re on your way, no wandering.

They drill quickly and cleanly, much less breakout than the usual twist drills, and seem to hold their edge very well even when pushing through reinforced glue and plywood.

Nice work Robt Bosch, and thanks Neil.  Ten out of Ten.

http://www.bosch-pt.co.nz/accboptocs2-nz/Category.jsp?country=NZ&lang=en&ccat_id=171663

I’m sure that your local Bosch stockist will be able to get these .

Yes I sound as though they are paying me, but I have several Bosch tools, their random orbital sanders in particular have had a terrible amount of abuse as had the angle grinder and they both do a good job and survive very well. These specialised woodworking drill bits are superb,  I’m a fan.

John Welsford

Saturday Night Special, a day or so later.

Out in the shed,

I’m not doing well today, dog tired in spite of a sleep in, off to the Doc today for my monthly visit  so I’m taking it quietly and am sitting here annoying you instead of working.

Its been a long time since I built a boat, I’ve got started on several projects but life seems to be something that happens in spite of your best planning, and with issues such as house building, health, employment and such those projects never got much beyond a tentative start.

But the house is, after several years of building, pretty much done.  There are always more things to do but it should be signed off by the building inspectors within a week or three, employment is still an issue, I’ve been made redundant from my last three full time jobs and have given up on that so as the health issue improves I’m working more on design and selling more boat plans.  That’s not easy in the current economic climate but there seem to be signs that things are coming right in some parts of the world, and hopefully that will continue.

Sailing my little gaff sloop has given me a real taste for being back out on the water, the issues that stopped boatbuilding had kept me away from sailing for some years but now that things are on the improve and I’m getting some time afloat the passion is returning, its like an awakening, and about time too.

So, the workshop tidy is coming along, I can get at all the machinery, the bench is tidy enough to work on, I spent a whole afternoon just reorganising the screws and fastenings, and while the floor is not properly clear I can at least walk about without tripping over things all the time.

My wee boat which I don’t refer to by her given name of “May” which is a bit dainty for what is really a pretty tough little adventurer and I’m going to rename her when inspiration strikes, is a bit heavy and a bit time consuming to take out on the lake for a quick sail of an evening so I am building a boat with that in mind.

Now, in the past every boat I’ve built (I’m up to 24 so far) has been an opportunity to try out a bunch of ideas and this one is no different.  Last year my friend Blair and I pumped out the hull of a light planing sailboat called “Saturday Night Special”.  It was a 3.9m (13 ft) stitch and tape balance lug rigged boat, designed so that the builder could make up the rudder, centreboard, frames and transom, put all the bits plus sail into a mountain bike transporter bag along with some basic tools and fly into an event like the Texas 200 (http://www.texas200.com/ do read the photos and accounts,  both entertaining and fascinating ) and build the boat before participating.

The vision was that a team of two or three would arrive at a venue where some shelter would be available, rent a van, go to the local big box hardware for cheap plywood and lumber, have the very few fittings required plus epoxy and some glass cloth shipped in beforehand from www.duckworksmagazine.com or similar, and for spars buy some alloy pipe from the likes of  http://www.onlinemetals.com/index.cfm.

Blair and I proved that with some organisation that a boat can be hung together in four or five days, and three couples could easily have three boats sailing inside a week.  Rough, but watertight, painted and sailing.

At the end of the event, the expensive parts can go back in the bike bag and back on the plane while some lucky soul would get a free boat, or it could have a Viking funeral on the beach.

The issue we were trying to solve was how to participate in the event when it’s not practical to transport a boat from somewhere far away (Blair and I are in New Zealand, or at least I am and he’ll be back in a few months).  Quick and dirty was the aim, but fast, easily handled, quick to rig, stable, safe in difficult conditions, and in this case designed for sustained high speeds off the wind while retaining good windward performance so the boat can be sailed upwind away from lee shore traps.

The prevailing wind on the Texas 200 course at that time of year is a strong quartering tailwind which often sets up a short steep chop in the shallow waters inside the banks that shield the course from the Gulf of Mexico,  so S.N.S was drawn up to suit those specific conditions.

Blair and I got the hull done, stitch and tape is not my favourite way of building and the cheap plywood did not bend as fairly as I’d like but the boat will work ok all the same.  Blair has had “life” happen to him, and the project is sitting while he is away out of the country working so we’ve not seen her in the water as yet. But I had all the frame templates, my tidy up revealed that I had half a dozen sheets of plywood, a heap of various bits of wood, and a whole lot of epoxy.

So, I’m started.  Here is “Sunday Night Special”, that’s what you get when you begin with a Saturday Night Special and think about it for a bit longer.

The piece of plywood I have for the bottom is longer than the original so I’ve stretched the boat a bit and its now 4450 long,  1700 wide, 9.8 sq m of sail about 70 kg in weight   ( 14ft 6in x 6ft 6in 105 sq ft  154 lbs )

I’m building “Sunday”  stringers over frames, but the frames are further apart than is usual as I’m trying to see where the limits are in that respect, and there are a few other experiments happening as well.

There will be a big buoyancy tank each end, wide side decks to sit on but no seats, balance lugsail on free standing mast, on halyard, one downhaul, one sheet, daggerboard and rudder.  As simple as its possible to be, note no seats, that’s weight and complication that costs time and materials to build and is weight to lug around.  If you want to be comfortable in this boat, go and buy a pool bean bag and tie it in with a lanyard so it can’t blow away.

This is a rough build, quick and dirty, uses leftover and scrap materials. It’s a proof of concept boat, not intended to be an outstanding example of classical boatbuilding, as long as it doesn’t break and the water doesn’t come in that’s fine by me.  (no comments about the build quality from the cheap seats please)

If it works, there will be plans.

Watch this space!

John W

From the drawing I built this planking model, its 1/10 scale so is about 1.3m ( 4ft 4in ) long, planked up with doorskin MDF its accurate to about 2mm or so and the panel shapes were taken off and scaled up.

The bottom and chines laid out, stem up, and Blair is just beginning to lace the panels together before pulling the chine panels up to the stem.  Cable ties proved to be inadequate, ok for handcuffing terrorists but not for keeping plywood panels in line.

Here is "Saturday" all planked up, the centercase goes ahead of the frame up there  just forward of midships.  There are a few wedges and fillets of filler to put in yet as this cheap plywood is not very co-operative.

Half the deck on, the idea is that the crew will sit on the side decks or in the bottom of the boat, no seats, no frills, cheap fares, peanuts and coke for inflight meals.

The beginning of "Sunday".  I'm building on a jig this time, the cross members hold her bottom in the right fore and aft curve and level across, the stringers are very roughly ( you'll hear  that phrase a lot on this project) pre bevelled to take the chine panel and the stem will be the next thing to be added to the structure.

A couple of weeks later, had the time and energy to go out and do some more.  I said that the workshop was tidier, you should have seen the mess before!

Here I have the transom, after frame, midships and bow frame, stem, king plank and lower mast step in place.

View from forward, that vertical wedge shape is the stem, there will be a rounded capping fitted after the plywood is all on.  

Mast step, seriously well fastened in, this is possibly the most highly stressed item in the boat so I made very sure it was not going to move.

The vertical member is the centercase brace, I'm building from a drawing which shows the shape of the hull and the position of the centercase and rig, and the rest I'm making up as I go.

I've got the centercase sides cut from scrap ply salvaged from a freinds bathroom rebuild, and thats the next thing to be fitted.

Oh yes, years back a freind,  ( have more than one!) gave me a set of foils from a decent sized sailing dinghy so I already have the centerboard for this one.  Less to build! Sooner sailing!

School days with a difference.

Back to school.

Photos by  Justine Leigh.

A couple of years back I had the great privilege of teaching part time at Massey University, Auckland New Zealand. At first I was just there for the occasional presentation on a given subject, then I got a 6 week paper to run, and then at the beginning of the next year Course Leader Bruce Woods paid me the huge compliment of giving me two days a week ongoing.

 The subject was “Transport design” and my students were  specializing in automotive and marine design, my brief was to teach and supervise the design and building of  model and full sized projects as well as some which involved “paper projects” . I had classes in years two and three plus mentored some year four students in their grad year projects,  they were a wonderful bunch of young people, almost all of whom worked hard and did well. 

Teaching these classes taught me a great deal, I had to stay a lot more than one page of the book  ahead of them as they were all of them pretty bright, and I spent a lot of time researching and swotting up ( cramming!) on each subject before standing up in front of them in the classroom, but even so I think that they taught me at least as much as I taught them, it was a really great experience and I’m hugely pleased that I got the chance.

I was surprised and pleased to come across a Trade Me ad for one of the year three projects that I supervised,  in this case a group of students were given the use of three 8 hp Yamaha outboard motors with remotes, and sent off to design, build and race three boats. 

Remember that these had to be designed, materials sourced, built from scratch, tested and run within one semester while the participants were also taking other papers!  There were some very late nights in the  Schools well equipped workshop!

We did a “car” one as well, each team getting a little 1 ¾ hp Honda stationary motor and sent off to design and build a vehicle to travel as far as possible on 100ml of petrol, that’s about 45 mins on the motors most economical speed and the winning vehicle which was a prone ridden motorcycle with hub center steering ( built by the students with the tools and machinery in the College workshop remember ) and a mountain bicycle gear train worked well hewever we didn’t manage to get a really good venue. But the testing we did do gave us an estimate of fuel consumption in the high 800  miles per imperial gallon at about 20 miles  per hour which was pretty good, and I am sure that with a longer track and some fine tuning we'd have done even better.

For the boats teams were selected, three in two and two in the third team.  All three opted for triple hull configurations, the winning one with a comparatively wide and short central hull,  the boat being got up stylewise to suggest a stealth bomber. The other two had long slender hulls, one semi displacement with foil stabilizers and the other a very graceful boat with conventional but very slender stabilizing hulls.

Alistair Thompson, Sophie  Amesbury and Tom Bryan built “Tri Ski”,  a very smooth looking boat built to a high standard and which performed well in the tests.  I’d say that the wetted area was just a little high for the 8 hp motor, but that’s ok, this was to be a learning exercise and the boat was still a lot quicker than you’d expect from the power plant, the handling near perfect and the concept very well executed.

Above are some photos copied from the Trade Me on line auction site where Tri Ski was recently up for sale.

Well done all that class, I hope you look back on that year as fondly as I do.

John Welsford

( Very proud) Senior Visiting Tutor

Transport Design,

College of Creative Arts

Massey University.   2006 / 2008

The Hobbit, Coming to a movie theatre near you

Not far away from where I live is a village called Hobbiton.  Some of you will know of it, I read the book when I was about 10 or so, every few years read it again and it never pales.
Its the outdoor set for the movie, the inn, the stone bridge, the Hobbitt holes, the lake and the river, all there and eerily alive, a window into a fantasy.

Kiwi film director Peter Jackson did an incredible job of translating the three books of "Lord of the Rings" into visual form, and I had several encouters with the production at various times, A neighbour was one of the founding members of the special effects company whos work was so effective, I did some technical work for a company who made many of the weapons, went on the Great New Zealand Trail Ride, a 6 day cross country ride that my wife and daughter went on and I taggged along as crew and baggage truck driver.  The catering company was fresh from the movie set, and several of those horses which starred as mounts for the Nazghul were there in a much less dark role.
It was a huge production, and in a country as small as ours there will be few New Zealanders who do not know someone who has had a direct involvement with the production. Its almost a part of our national psyche.
Over the years I have been in the many areas where most of the outdoor sets were so the when the movies showed off New Zealand scenery like no other movie before,I really felt "at home" as I watched the big screen, that added enormously to the veracity of the story for me.  Now there will be another.
Here is an introduction.

http://www.wimp.com/thehobbit/

John Welsford