Hard Dodgers, Another Option
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Very experienced live aboard voyagers Lane and Kay Finlay sent along a detailed description of their hard dodger, complete with photographs. The advantage of theirs over ours is that it is all hard with glass windows; much stronger and pretty much maintenance free. On the other hand, I like the larger expanse of window, fewer blind spots and curved shape of ours. Just goes to show that everything on a boat is a compromise.
Many thanks to the Finlays for sharing the information below:
"In the end, we designed and built our own hard top, using foam-cored fiberglass construction to achieve strength and lightness. The finished project is strong, safe to stand on, gives excellent visibility through GLASS, doesn’t ruin the lines of the boat and provides amazing protection from the weather.
Our navigation electronics now live under the hard top where they are protected from the elements and much more user friendly. We have also noticed that we get less ‘salt air’ inside the cabin.
Before undertaking this project, we took pictures of dozens of hard tops on boats that we saw sailing in New Zealand waters. The New Zealanders are well aware of the benefits of hard tops and you can see all sorts of creative designs in every port.
Since we consider our Annapolis 44 to have fairly elegant lines we were very cautious to adhere to a complementary design. After many drafts, we finally drew the final design to scale and then lofted the plans on our garage floor. We built the mould out of MDF plywood with inserts for the windows so that the 10mm safety glass would end up being set-in against a solid fiberglass lip and be flush with the exterior surface of the hard top.
This was a ‘female’ mould, so the interior surface was sanded smooth and then waxed to prevent the fiberglass resins from sticking to the mould. We laid up the required layers of fiberglass cloth and resin in the mould, and then placed the foam core (30mm medium density) over the fiberglass layers. At this point we laid up more fiberglass to the design specifications and ‘sandwiched’ the foam in place.
High Modulus, a composite engineering company in Auckland, made some recommendations for the engineering specifications.
The finished product, which also includes a dome light and reading lights in the ceiling, was fibreglassed in place and we re-painted the deck to finish it off. It has proven to be an excellent addition to the boat and cost approximately US$3000 in materials to build. Of course that does not count our labour. However, it was an interesting winter project and one that we are very proud of.
Check out Lane and Kay’s web site and their new video on cruising New Zealand due out in August.
Labels: Maintenance and Refit
Our Hard Dodger, Third Time Is The Charm
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Question: [edited for brevity] I notice from pictures that you have a hard top dodger and bimini on Morgan’s Cloud. Who designed and built those? Was it expensive? Any pit falls to avoid? Also, I am thinking of trying to be environmentally friendly and loading mine with solar panels, what do you think?
Answer: What you see is our third crack at creating the "ideal" dodger and bimini top, at least for us. I can’t say that “design” is the word that I would use, more like "evolution".
When we bought Morgan’s Cloud she came with a fabric dodger set on heavy duty (1-1/4”) stainless steel bows. When that came to the end of its life we decided to stay with the basic shape and design, since it had worked well, but make the dodger top hard. We also decided to add a bimini top to try to reduce the crop of growing things that dermatologists delight in burning off my (John) skin.
In designing the bimini our first concern was that we not compromise access to winches or other sail handling equipment and to preserve good visibility. To us, turning a boat’s cockpit into a completely enclosed sunroom with curtains all the way around is a bad idea. And unnecessary: even in the Arctic with temperatures hovering around freezing we have not had a problem staying warm as long as we are protected from the wind and dressed properly.
We also decided to end the bimini forward of the wheel since we rarely steer and when we do we like to be able to look up at the mainsail. We do have a cloth addition that attaches to the aft end of the bimini and goes to the boom gallows to provide shade when the sun is aft.
Since the existing dodger bows were so substantial, we used them for the basic structure, although with a modification: The curve of the old fabric dodger had required us to keep our heads bent slightly forward when sitting under it. It is truly amazing how uncomfortable this can be on a long watch. To solve this problem we had a short piece of tube welded into the middle of each bow to move the curve outboard by 2 inches. This has had a miraculous effect on our comfort.
Before making this change we made sure that we would still be able to see the oncoming waves and the headsails, while sitting in a comfortable steering position and looking along the side of the dodger.
Ideally, we would have liked to make the whole dodger rigid including the windows. However this would have necessitated going to glass or plastic windows without curves, which would have compromised the boat’s looks to a level we could not tolerate. We did enquire about a custom curved laminated glass windshield; however, when the $10,000 figure was mentioned by the manufacturer, that was the end of that discussion.
We have no window material between the dodger and the bimini since if we can’t see properly through the dodger glass due to spray or condensation we want an unimpeded view when we stand to look over the dodger.
For our first hard dodger and bimini top we went to a mass producer of fiberglass tops for both. This was not a success. The fiberglass laminate was too thin, resulting in alarming flexing underfoot. Since being able to stand on the dodger to furl the mainsail or tie in reef points was a lot of the reason for going with a hard top in the first place, this was not acceptable, although it did last 4 years before developing cracks.
The other problem was that the extrusions provided to attach the fabric sides and front were really chintzy and poorly designed so it was impossible to keep the joint between the hard top and fabric sides waterproof. Aside from the discomfort of having constant drips, we navigate on deck under the dodger so leaks resulted in soggy charts and publications—very irritating.
For our third iteration we stayed with the same design but had a custom glass shop build the hard dodger top using a balsa core sandwiched with fiberglass. This resulted in a very stiff and relatively light structure, albeit at vast expense. After the custom shop finished their part, we covered it with Treadmaster, painted it with Allgrip and added good quality plastic extrusions, glued with Plexus adhesive, tucked well under the edge to prevent leaks.
At the same time we laminated a piece of ¼” plywood to the underside of the bimini, to stiffen and strengthen it, as well as adding Treadmaster to the top.
Finally, we had the new dodger front and sides fabricated in one piece with no zippers. We think that zippered windows in dodgers are a mistake since they result in blind spots and they will inevitably leak. Of course, those in hot climates may disagree, but we have never found the heat under the dodger excessive, even in the Caribbean. For fabric we went with Stamoid rather than the Sunbrella that we had used on previous versions.
These have proved to be good changes and combined with the well recessed tracks have made the dodger completely waterproof, even when punching to windward with the spray flying.
We have considered solar panels but are loath to add them since the clutter would make the bimini much less functional to stand on when sail handling.
The devil is in the details. Note how the hard top overlaps the fabric top edge, which slides into a plastic extrusion on the front. To attach the sides, there is a light fiberglass batten in a pocket that is through bolted to a rabbited-out lip, to clear the bows, on the underside of the hard top.
Labels: Maintenance and Refit
New Attainable Adventure Cruising Web Site
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
After three months of evening work (it made a nice change after a day of boat work) we have just uploaded a complete new design for our Attainable Adventure Cruising web site.
Our goal in designing the new site was to make it easier for you to find both specific information of interest to you, as well as content added since your last visit.
You can now access pages in two ways: from the topical menus on the left side (anchoring, mechanical, rigging & sails, Greenland, Newfoundland, etc) and from the menu across the top by information type (questions & answers, stuff that works, rants & musings, etc).
To make it easy for you to find pages you have not yet read, links to these pages are in dark blue and change to red when moused over. Links to pages you have read change to light blue in all menus, regardless of where you accessed them from. Note that if you clear your browser history between visits (some browsers do this automatically after a set number of days) all links will revert to dark blue.
We will continue to post all new information to the “What’s New” area powered by Blogger and then on a regular basis move it to the main site. To assist you in keeping track at a glance, our three most recent posts are listed in the top left corner of the site together with the last date that posts were archived.
We are also providing three ways for you to be automatically notified when we post new content.
Let us know how well we have achieved these goals by adding a comment to this post or contacting us directly. We welcome any and all suggestions for improvements to our web site.
The Gulf Stream
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
A friend of ours, who is a cruise ship captain, sent along the following list of links to everything, and I do mean everything, you have always wanted to know about the Gulf Stream. Some interesting stuff.
Our friend is on the New York to Caribbean round trip run. Apparently the pay off for him for getting the Gulf Stream right is a few more precious hours to effect the change over in New York of several thousand leaving and incoming passengers. Who knew? I guess the company is pretty happy about any fuel savings too.
It seems like a good day to post this list since a whole bunch of ocean race navigators, who will have been studying this stuff, and much more, for weeks, will be starting the Thrash to The Onion Patch tomorrow, each with his or her own theory of how to get to Bermuda the fastest.
I guess I kind of miss the race, judging from the amount of time I spent flicking through this stuff.
http://rads.tudelft.nl/gulfstream/
http://marine.rutgers.edu/mrs/dcs.data.html
http://marine.rutgers.edu/mrs/sat_data/?product=sst®ion=gulfstream¬humbs=0
http://argo.colorado.edu/~realtime/welcome/
http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/avhrr/gs/index.html
http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/oceancolor/classic_scenes/06_classics_boundary.shtml
http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/oceancolor/classic_scenes/07_classics_rings.shtml
http://www.whoi.edu/75th/book/whoi-richardson.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream
http://oceanmotion.org/html/background/western-boundary-currents.htm
http://spray.ucsd.edu/
http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/gulfstream/index.shtml
Labels: Passage Planning
On Being a Newbie
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Question [edited for brevity]: Phyllis, I understand that you had little or no sailing experience before you started cruising in 1996. While I grew up as a live aboard cruiser, two of my crew have limited sailing experience. We have cruised the Chesapeake Bay extensively together and both are becoming good seamen but neither has been on a blue water passage—do you have any personal advice for them (or for me and how to coach them) about acquiring sound blue water seamanship for our planned five-year circumnavigation?
Answer: Things we’ve learned over the past 12 years, in no particular order:
- Most people can gain basic sailing skills relatively easily, but what really counts on a long ocean passage are expedition manners: e.g. getting along with others in a small space, dealing with discomfort and fear without taking it out on those around you, and treating others with respect.
- Because I came to sailing as an adult, I will never have the same level of ease around the water and boats that John has, who has been sailing since he was a young boy. When I start comparing my abilities to his, followed by my inevitable frustration, John reminds me that it isn’t necessary to be as skilled as he is; much more important is that I have common sense, which will hopefully prevent me from hurting myself, anyone else or the boat. It may make it less frustrating for your crew if they know that you don’t expect them to be as proficient as you are and that they will do fine out there as long as they have and use common sense.
- When we did our first Trans-Atlantic, which was very early in my sailing career, my lack of confidence in my ability to react quickly to a change in the weather or to an approaching ship, meant that I didn’t catnap during my watches. So while John found the trade-winds passage quite relaxing, I was exhausted by the end of the 17-day trip. You may wish to take this into account when planning the length of your initial offshore passages.
- I find I learn better and feel more confident when I do the same part of a task each time, rather than rotating through the various aspects of each task. By becoming proficient at one part of a task, I’m much more likely to notice if something is going wrong than if I am only slightly competent at the entire task. Your crew may have different learning styles—something to talk about when deciding how to work things out.
- By going cruising before I was an accomplished sailor, we went against the prevailing wisdom that you have to know what you are doing before you leave. Make sure your crew knows that they aren’t alone—no one knows everything before they go cruising, no matter how much sailing they’ve done or how many lessons they’ve taken. In fact, the great thing about cruising is that there is always more to learn.
- Heavy weather offshore is a much more intense experience than someone who has only been sailing inshore, even in big winds, can imagine. The thing I try to remember in these (thankfully rare) situations, and that you may wish to communicate to your crew, is that discomfort and danger are not necessarily the same thing. If your boat is well-found and you have a strategy worked out to deal with heavy weather, things can be thoroughly uncomfortable without approaching dangerous. Conversely, just because you are comfortable inside your air-conditioned car, doesn’t mean you aren’t in danger on a busy highway.
- I remember how euphoric I was during my first ocean passage (from Bermuda to Maine), when I didn’t know anything about sailing and so could just soak in the whole experience with complete child’s mind, without having to take on any responsibility other than to call John if something changed. John says he had that same feeling when he was crew on other peoples’ boats; once he became skipper on his own boat, the burden of responsibility interfered with that sense of freedom. We have determined that in our future cruising we want to get back in touch with that feeling of euphoria and sense of freedom by taking our responsibilities a little lighter and being more in the moment. So, to all of you, fair winds, following seas, and don’t lose touch with that child’s mind!
Ted, our friend and crew on two extended voyages to the Arctic, had almost no sailing experience before joining us but he was a great crew. An accomplished back country skier, he was able to teach us a little about mountains and has the added advantage for a crew of having a really quick and deeply sick sense of humour.
The Real Hard Men
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Two weeks ago Phyllis and I went lobstering with some friends out of Clarks Harbour on Nova Scotia’s Cape Sable Island. (Not to be confused with Sable Island, which lies to the northeast and further offshore.)
Over the last 20 years I have spent a good deal of time in fishing ports from Nova Scotia across the northern North Atlantic to Norway. I have met and talked with a lot of fishermen. Intellectually I know that fishing is a hard way to make a living. Intellectual understanding is one thing, seeing is another.
We met captain Lenwood; brother, mate and partner, Cleon; and crew Eric, at 3:45 aboard Sexy Lady—yes, that would be in the AM. By 4:00 we were heading out to gear laid 15 miles offshore.
This is not just any fishing area but one of the most challenging and dangerous pieces of water in the North Atlantic. The cold Labrador current meets the warm (relatively) moist gulf stream air and creates impenetrable fog about 50% of the time in summer—more than anywhere else in the Atlantic.
But that’s just the beginning. Billions of cubic meters of water flow round Cape Sable each day, as the Bay of Fundy flushes and fills from the Atlantic, generating four knot tides over the sharply shelving bottom contours, which can raise 20-foot standing waves in a heartbeat.
Wait, there’s more. Forecasting for this area is notoriously difficult. Just a week before we went out, a forecast breeze of 20 knots turned into un-forecast storm force winds of well over 50 knots in just an hour, catching many lobster boats offshore. Just think about what the sea looked like with that much wind against the tide. Most boats ran for home and some sheltered in the lee of Seal Island. Thankfully no one was lost. But some crews didn’t quit. To quote Lenwood, “well we were out there and so figured we might as well haul the gear.” Most recreational sailors would have been praying for survival and these guys are still fishing.
Oh yes, one other thing, their lobster season runs from the end of November to the end of May—Winter North Atlantic*.
Our carefully chosen day was sunny and calm with a balmy air temperature of 12C. “An easy day” as Cleon said. An “easy” 12 hour day in which three guys hauled, cleared, baited and reset 400 traps set in 25 strings of 15. An “easy” day in which Cleon and Eric each lifted and carried 200 80lb traps (they take turns), that I could barely drag, to set up for launching over the open stern. An “easy” day in which one moment’s inattention could mean a hand jammed in a winch, or worse still, a line round a foot during a reset—a one way trip to the bottom.
Phyllis filled bait bags. I took photographs. At the end of the day we were both shattered. Our three friends were still bright and there was no letup in the banter and laughs that had filled the day. To men who had set all 400 traps on opening day of the season and then hauled the whole works again starting at midnight on day two, I guess it was an easy day.
The season closed a few days ago. After landing all their lobster gear, the crew of Sexy Lady will gear her up for a summer of 10 to 12 day offshore sword fishing trips. Think The Perfect Storm and The Hungry Ocean. Except Sexy Lady is just 40-feet long.
So if you pass Cape Sable and see a straight stemmed high bowed Cape Island Boat heading out, tip your hat to the professionals, the real hard men; I know I will.
* The Winter North Atlantic load line is used by vessels not exceeding 100 metres in length when in certain areas of the North Atlantic Ocean during the winter period.
Labels: Rants and Musings
Treadmaster: Diamonds ARE a Woman’s Best Friend!
posted by John & Phyllis
Web Site
Question [Edited for brevity]: Three friends and I are outfitting my Skye 51' for a five-year circumnavigation and we are replacing the old teak decks…I have heard many more pros than cons to the Treadmaster and I would like to know your honest opinion on installation, upkeep, durability and general contentment with the product. Any input that you care to supply would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: Morgan’s Cloud had teak decks when we bought her in 1991; however, when they started leaking, we replaced the teak with an aggressive nonskid paint. We were happy with the nonskid until we spent two winters living aboard the boat in arctic Norway, when we found that the snow would compact under our weight and turn into mini ice rinks under each foot. So four years ago, as part of a major refit on the boat and in the interests of not having one of us inadvertently skate right off the deck some snowy day, we removed the nonskid paint and installed Treadmaster diamond traction sheets.
We highly recommend Treadmaster: Your shoes grip it like blazes even in the snow, it dampens the crash below when hard things hit the aluminum deck, it’s durable, and it’s easy to clean using a long-handled brush and boat soap. In fact, we like Treadmaster so much we have used smooth traction sheets on the cockpit seats to hold the cushions in place and on the floor of the shower and head.
However, we need to add some caveats:
- Installing Treadmaster is a huge amount of work. It took us 3 person months of intense labour. A rough outline of the proceedings are as follows:
- sanding the deck
- determining the centre line and cross lines on the boat (not an easy task on a multiply curved surface)
- designing a layout
- templating the whole deck (absolutely necessary, along with making sure all fittings can run freely and be removed if necessary with the Treadmaster in place)
- cutting out the Treadmaster sheets
- painting the seams between the sheets
- gluing the sheets down, etc. (more on installation)
- It’s not a cheap solution. The sheets are 4’ by 3’ and retail for about $100.00 each. We used somewhat over 20 sheets for our boat. (Because of the size of our order, we were able to negotiate a discount with Defender Industries, the US supplier.)
- It definitely gives the boat an industrial look but, in our opinion, beauty is as beauty does.
- Sitting on it will give you a bad case of waffle butt.
In summary, unless you can pay someone else to do the work or you have a lot of extra time and energy, we only recommend installing Treadmaster if you are going to be living on and/or sailing the boat in snow. Otherwise, non-skid paint, if applied properly with sufficient grit, will do the trick for significantly less time and money.
But, then again, after using it for four years now, we wouldn’t give it up!
Labels: Equipment
This was a ‘female’ mould, so the interior surface was sanded smooth and then waxed to prevent the fiberglass resins from sticking to the mould. We laid up the required layers of fiberglass cloth and resin in the mould, and then placed the foam core (30mm medium density) over the fiberglass layers. At this point we laid up more fiberglass to the design specifications and ‘sandwiched’ the foam in place.
