Skip to main content

Out Straight

Image
By
Good morning everyone. I will not apologize for my lack of blog last week... we have literally been out straight trying to get the schooner ready. I don't even have pictures of the glorious paint work that has been applied to the cabin houses. Rob, Katie, Sarah and Johanne have been busting their butts and the elbow grease really makes things shine. We will be headed for the railway this next week so the cover will be coming off Monday or Tuesday. Our new cook Ina arrives Tuesday and comes to us with several years of experience cooking aboard other schooners.
I should get you up to date on our project that is yet undercover at this time. The spruce boards and wood chips tell a good chunk of the story. Take a very old spruce tree... cut it into small pieces... and mill those pieces so that we can glue them back together. Seems kind of silly but it will be strong. To make a long (really long!) board we join several shorter borads end to end using glued scarfs. The glued scarfs are 18 inches long using a 12:1 taper, more than the 8:1 taper recommended by the epoxy manufacturer. OK Ed and Alton... how thick are the pieces being joined together? And how many clamps does one need to own to do this successfully. That is actually a trick question because as we all know you can never have enough clamps!
It looks like a porcupine as we look down the row of clamps. Why have all the clamps pointing up like that? Because this whole glue process is happening 34"off the barn floor and I need to be able to get to both sides without getting skewered. I am ready for the limbo contest.

Have a great day. Be well. Do Good.
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
Any engineer worth his salt enjoys a challenge.

The challenge here boils down to simple trigonometry. The scarf viewed from the side forms a right triangle with the hypotenuse 18", one side 1 unit, and the remaining side 12 units.

At this point in my dissertation being an engineer has its downside because as engineers we can't talk about these things without making a drawing. I can't draw here so I'll take a chance with just words.

We calculate the angle between the hypotenuse and the height by looking up the arc-tangent of 12/1 which is approximately 85.23 degrees. Then we calculate the height (or thickness of the boards being scarfed together) as 18" times the cosine of 85.23 degrees. Resulting in 1.4948186373673194389124713003229 or by my tape measure an inch and a half.

I could not help the inner engineer in me from making a drawing so if the kind reader will click on this link the drawing can be viewed.
April 24, 2010 at 5:36 AM
Unknown said…
Recently I have read several articles, including one in the most recent issue of Wooden Boat, about building hollow spars. The technique involves some careful woodwork and joinery.

Is it possible you and Bruce are constructing a new spar? Perhaps destined to become a topmast?
April 24, 2010 at 8:27 AM
Tinker said…
And here I thought that Chips went over to the barn to work!
April 24, 2010 at 2:55 PM
Dudley said…
For a second 'clue' this one is pretty skimpy; Rip Van Winkle excepted. First we have a big box that could contain anything from a new refrigerator to an armoire for Rob's outfits. Now we get meticulously scarfed joints (they are a vision of precision)on long planks that could be a new mizzen mast or the start of a new steam launch. The third clue has to be a doozy to keep up with the first two. At the end the 'secret' will probably be the world's longest steambox.

Dudley
April 27, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Janet said…
I can no longer resist the puzzle:

It's a brilliantly and beautifully constructed spruce box for an unusually long brass telescope that will allow us to view the moon in enormous detail while aboard ship.
May 5, 2010 at 4:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hail Mary

By
My heart is heavy with sadness as I write this particular blog. Since the beginning of August our dear friend and cook for the last 12 years, Mary Barney, had been struggling with cancer. I have intentionally respected Mary’s privacy and I apologize to you for not sharing any news about Mary’s health sooner. On Monday afternoon Mary passed away very peacefully at home, surrounded by friends and “family”. Her departure was as graceful as the rest of her life. Many people, including Jen, have been doing heroic work to support Mary these last few weeks. Oddly enough Mary was never very excited about transitions though this was about the fastest transition she ever made. And as I struggle to let go of Mary I realize I am terrible with transitions as well. We used to joke about how we liked things just the way they are, thank you very much, so why change what is working already even if it might be less labor intensive. Hard works is its own reward. I used to joke about getting Mary a Cui
28 comments
Read more

Fall Maintenance

By
Good morning everyone. The sun has been kind to us these past few days and the crew has been spending much time aloft prepping and painting the mast heads and tarring the rig as part of our annual fall maintenance schedule. They were a little silly on tar fumes by the end of the day hence the rat board dance moves. Am I the only one who is reminded of Willy Wonka's little friends at the sight of the crew in their tyvek suits? Schoona-loompas? The smell of tar, after all, is what we sailors live for. Extracted from the stumps and roots of pine trees through dry distillation pine tar will cure what ails you especially some skin conditions and any emotional maladies from being too long away from the sea. All we know for sure is that Mary Day’s rigging is kept hail and hearty by coats of tar mixed with boiled linseed oil. Notice that I specified boiled linseed oil and not raw linseed oil. Tar mix with raw linseed oil will not “kick”. Don’t ask me how I know this… just take my wo
5 comments
Read more

Oh Captain, Oh Captain, Please Don't Rumba!

By
Good morning everyone. Another 6” of snow fell this weekend and we took a few hours to enjoy the wonders of winter here in New England skiing in the woods. The full Wolf Moon on Saturday causing astronomical high tides plus a 1’ tidal surge brought by the low pressure system meant we had tides over the bulkhead in Camden. At low tide just the opposite happens and the tides dip well below normal. I was able to step to the docks from the beach and get aboard the schooner on Friday after work and all was well. I had an interesting email this morning from a wonderful gentleman looking for a vacation to replace a now defunct “windjammer” sailing experience that formerly sailed in the Caribbean. He sent us a very humorous swashbuckling note, complete with colorful pirate party images, wondering if we might be able to fill the void, complete with canons and limbo parties and would the captain be leading the rumba line? I regretted to tell him that we probably did not offer the booty he was
10 comments
Read more