Kaimusailing

Webb Chiles has posted his log of the voyage from Bundaberg to Darwin, Australia. He asks for help proofreading the log and there are a lot of typos in it. It is at inthepresentsea at blogspot.com. You can find out more about his little boat at http://moore24.org/.
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A forecast for cooler weather also included rain which almost shut us down. I did a lot of reading and cut scarf bevels on the remaining planks in the woodshop. The next layer of planks was prefinished before the rain hit. I was concerned that the wood would get wet and I’d have to wait a couple of days before continuing.
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There was a brief pause in the rain and I ran around covering things as best I could, then it poured down again.
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The next day was cooler and cloudy with it spitting a little now and then. I prepared the beam for its top two layers of planks and made sure the planks had their excess epoxy sanded off.
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The first of the top two layers of the beam went on one plank at a time. I was calculating 1 oz of epoxy per 100 sq inches of surface to be primed and covered with thickened epoxy. I found I had to add more, maybe 1 1/2 oz. per 100 sq inches. About a third of the epoxy is used raw to prime the wood, brushing it on with a thin coat, almost dry brush. Then the remainder is thickened with about twice the volume of the remaining epoxy of silica/milled fibers. I use 4:1 ratio, the experts say to use just a bit of the milled fibers, about 17:1.
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I could have planked the whole length of the beam and done a layer of planks in one day, however the clamps prevented doing it that way. I had to slide some of the planks through the beam brackets to fit them into position while trying not to scrape off the epoxy glue mix. I ended up planking most of one layer, then finishing it the next day, then working on the next layer the following day and needing an extra day for that one too.
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The end of the top layer, the last plank, wouldn’t fit at all, it needed to be cut in half and pieced into place. I cut a long scarf joint across the face of the board. It was 5 inches wide, so the scarf cut was 50 inches long. After the pieces were glued into place, they fit perfectly. Ron the woodworker said it was a “Naval Scarf Joint”. This is the way shipwrights repaired ships in the old days, at sea and at war. Planks had to be repaired in place, so scarf joints were cut across the face of the plank instead of across the width.
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At this point I had used up the wood allotted for the beams. I guess there was no allotment for the pyramids or wedges on top of the beams. I measured the bevel, it was about 9:1. I will have to make another scarf jig to make the pyramids. For now we have run out of reasonable weather to work in, so it’s time to wrap things up for the summer, stow away, cover and secure, and take a midsummer break.
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After closing up the boat and making sure that nothing would be affected by rain or wind, I packed up the Miata and hit the road north. The trip up to Annapolis is about 750 miles and the Miata runs a little over 250 miles on a tank of gas, so I had stops at Florence, SC and Petersburg, VA on the way up. I had one of the most disgusting sandwiches ever at the Arby’s in Florence. They had a beef brisket sandwich, which is something I really like, but theirs was very greasy, like over burned bacon. But I was hungry and ate it.
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The picture is a painting by Teimuraz Gagnidze, of Georgia, not Georgia, USA, called “Summer” and is available at saatchiart.com.