First Launch!

After seven months of working on Life Goal #9, I started working on Life Goal #10 this afternoon. This goal is to learn to sail, and it was a great day for it in Southern NH.


Until today, I have only been an armchair sailor, reading books, magazines, and Internet sites about the sport and art of sailing. I was very happy that I did at least have an 'academic' understanding of what to do, and what to expect. I have to say that the 'physical' experience of moving over the water, under the power of wind in my sail was MUCH more fun!!!


I chose to launch my recently completed Jimmy Skiff™ in a tidal river which flows into Great Bay, and then joins the Piscatequa River, and flows seven more miles to the Atlantic Ocean. The reason I chose this location for the 'shake-down' cruise was that this is where I was a year or two ago when I was kayaking with a friend, and an older couple raised the sail on a similar size boat and silently, and nearly effortlessly, glided away. This was the catalyst for the ambition which brought me to today. For anyone reading this, if you have never sailed in a small wooden boat, I highly recommend it!


When the wind tapered off, I gave the oars a try. This was great fun too! My son took a turn and rowed himself around a bit, then I gave my daughter a ride, while I rowed from the forward seat. Then my wife joined me, relaxing in the aft seat while I happily rowed along. I think that the Jimmy Skiff™ is even easier to row from the forward rowing station, with a passenger in the aft seat. What a pleasure! I think this little boat will get a LOT of use from me and my family, hopefully for a very, very, long time to come.

Since this was a boat building blog to document the construction of the CLC Jimmy Skiff™, it is appropriate that today's post will be the final chapter. I will still reply to comments or questions posted by readers of this blog. Please note the index links below to help you to navigate through this blog site.

Just add water (and a nice breeze)

I finished making the sail today, then just before it began to rain, I rigged the sail onto my boat for the first time. It looks like the initial launch will be this coming weekend, if the weather cooperates.

I'll post launch pictures and first impressions soon after Life Goal #9's inaugural launching. If you want to see more detailed photos of the boat, go to my prior post.

Rigging, registration and a name

This is really getting exciting for me now! I have finished the construction of my CLC Jimmy Skiff ™. So, this past Monday, I took a vacation day off from work to finish the final coat of varnish, and to go to the NH Department of Motor Vehicles to register my little sailing vessel. In the state of NH, sailboats over 12' in length are required to be registered, but only need to display the stickers, and not the registration numbers as is required for motor boats. Since this is a new 'home-built' boat, the DMV issued a hull ID as well. I think I will have a small bronze plate engraved with the pertinent data, including the hull ID, and then attach it in a non-conspicuous location.

One thing that helped to keep me from rushing during the final stages is that I have been able to enjoy getting out on the water in my sea kayak. My son and I started our paddling season with an eight mile trip down the NH coast from New Castle headed south to Rye and back. It was a pretty windy day, and as much as I was having a good time, I couldn't help but think that it would be even better with a sail.

Next, I will get back to completing the sail. I still need to add the grommets, luff tape, boltrope, shackles and leech hem. In the meantime, here are some more pictures for your enjoyment...

Finishing touches (oooh shiny!)

Here is part two of my attempt to catch the blog up with the progress of my Jimmy Skiff ™ project. The picture above shows the current state of my boat. I have painted and varnished, but have more coats of varnish to apply and a little more painting to do where the tape is on the deck. This will be the same Jade Green color as the hull. I had tried the Grand Banks Beige on the deck, but did not like the way it was so close to the interior Sandtone color. So, I sanded it off and decided on the Jade Green and to varnish most of the deck surface.

There where a couple of lingering tasks which required that I mix up some more epoxy, but since the work needed to be done on the bottom of the hull, I left this until I had finished painting the interior, so that I wouldn't have to turn the boat over more than necessary. The photo on the right shows how I used silica thickened epoxy to fill in over the counter-sunk stainless steel screws going through the hull, and into the bottom of the mast step.

I added more fiberglass and epoxy to reinforce / protect the skeg and the area around the dagger slot. I figured that these areas will likely take the most abuse, and wrapping the inner edges of the dagger slot seemed like cheap insurance against springing a leak there.



This is what it looked like after a few coats of unthickened epoxy and a little scraping in between. It blended pretty well considering the thickness of the fiberglass tape.





After the epoxy cured, I moved the hull outdoors and washed it down with water and household ammonia to ensure that there would not be any problems with the amine blush that can occur with epoxy cures. I had run out of the slow cure epoxy which does not blush, so I used the fast cure hardener that I had on-hand. This hardener can leave a residue on the surface as a result of the curing process, known as amine blush. The residue will interfere with proper paint and varnish adhesion. Fortunately, it is water soluble, and can be washed off prior to painting.


The images below show additional work completed. Hover your cursor over each one to see a description. Clicking on an image will open the picture in a larger size. I have added an index at the bottom of the page for easy access to the prior posts by title.

Yard Sailing, fresh paint, and new wheels for Jimmy

I have found that being flexible with my goals is required for avoiding frustration, and keeping my Jimmy Skiff ™ project moving forward. When I closed my last post (almost a month ago), I said that I would finish the sail and write about that process next. I also hoped to have this update within a few days of my last post. What is it they say about, "The best laid plans..."?

So, here is what I did accomplish during the past month: Sand, paint, sand, paint, sand, paint, sand, varnish, sand, varnish, sand... You get the idea. Oh yeah, I also found a boat dolly that I really like, and bought it from the Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine. This makes moving the boat much easier, and now I don't have to wait until an unsuspecting passerby can be called upon.

The boat dolly is marketed by Pacific Outdoors, a division of Pacific Cycle (the company that now owns Schwinn). It is rated for 300 pounds, which is more than double the weight of the Jimmy Skiff ™. It easily rolls over uneven terrain, and is quick to set-up and take-down. It attaches to the hull with a single nylon strap.

After sanding the primer, I painted the interior with two coats of Pettit Easypoxy Sandtone 3518, and then added Interlux Intergrip texture material to the paint for a third coat on the floor of the hull.

I actually did get more done than I am showing here, but we will save that for the next post. I will add more posts soon, so check back for more details and pictures.