About boats and feets. Moe Joe has misunderstood me. It is not a good idea to put in a 5 feet middle piece in my present boat to convert her to my next. Not for me. I always like to start with a clean white paper. But it is true sometime boats are successfully made bigger by putting in a middle piece, but that is mostly for cargo carrying boats.
Thing is I do not want a bigger boat. In fact I am consider a smaller one after this voyage is done. Why this present ten-footer is so big is because it is so slow and has to go such a long distance and has to stay at sea such a long time. Among other things I hope to show that measure boats by length is a bad idea.
It is not only ridiculous to have a ten feet role. It is ridicules in general to measure boats by length. Boats are three-dimensional objects in the real world objects have volume and weight. Only if such objects are similar shaped can one dimension be used as a measure, even then it will be not right because different properties scale differently like surfaces speed volume and stability.
There was once open a time a man selling whisky in all measures. A customer trying to be smart asked for one foot of whisky. The bright seller took a paper, wetted his finger in a bottle and draw a one-foot line on the paper, wrapped it up and handed it to the customer.
I like small boats. I am not going to get a bigger boat but I am going to get a smaller one, however it is going to be longer and narrower. The exact size of the next boat is not yet worked out. That is going to be one of the many pleasant occupations during the coming voyage. The designed displacement of the present boat is 1.5 tons. For the next I aim for less displacement, hopefully not more than 1.2 tons – I mean the total weight ready for an extended ocean passage of several months including me maybee a girl food and water and books. She certainly will be narrower and not so high. Captain Voss Tilikum has always inspired me. My next boat might be 8.4 meter long with a beam of 1.4 meter, a bit like some of the old whale-boats, but not a double ender. I like the advantages of doble rudders. Lenght in itself is not heavy or expensiv like one feet of whisky. My mind certainly will change many times before I make the final plans and start to build her.
If a shape is scaled up by 1.25 or more exact by the third root of 2 the volume doubles. For example comparing two similar shaped boats 4.75 meter and 6 meter, the 6 meter is twice as big.
Why do I build this ten feet boat if I think it is so ridicules? Answer it creates some very iteresting problems and nothing is as fun as solving problems. It also gives me a pensioner an opportunity to steer out to a better, cleaner, more natural world, a world were the talents I am born with comes to better use.
I like this world too, but the ocean – that is my habitat.
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A dry run of the port bronze sole is now succesfully done. It has given me some trouble and taken time. The picture below is showing the keelbolts in place from the inside of the up-side-down turned boat.
The keel boalt are so long because when the bronze is put on top of the elastic NM-epoxi the 53 kilo weight is not enough to squise it out. the mating surfaces are to big. the six bolts will give enough force.
The core were the bolts penetrate the hull is replaced with solid glass reenforced epoxy. It is 5 cm thick, 2 inches. It dulls drillbits. Carbide tipped drills for composite use is expensive and I am thrifty -I like to spend my money vere they do the most good. I therefore bought cheapconcrete hammer drills, those used in the house building. I got a cheap ten dollar diamond file and rechaped the tips. Now it cuts like through butter. The file work only took 5 minutes. The below pictures are not very clear.
Abouve the drill before is started work on its tip.
Abouve the drill in the wise and the diamond files.
To be continued…
Regards Yrvind.