Pakesizzer at the helm

At last the real pakesizzer, my grandson Taeke (3), took the helm of the Pakesizzer while his father was rowing.  A memorable moment.  The wind was to gusty to go sailing with him.

Apologies for the fender hanging out...

Maiden voyage

Last two days with winds of Bft 4+  were not suited for the maiden voyage.  

This morning there was almost no wind at all.  Time to put the Pakesizzer in the water for the first time.

As it was the Maiden Voyage it was appropriate that my wife had the honor of a first row.

The rowing was very light and quick responding.

After that we set the sail but due to the very light wind we could not really test the sailing capabilities. 


It was not possible to use the side benches.  Assumingly the Peapod needs more wind for stable sailing.

Due to bad planning there are no sailing pictures. Yours truly ran out of battery power for the camera  :-(

Later in the day the builder took to the oars for the heavy load test.  He survived.

Rigging

We went up north for a couple of days.  So time to start rigging the Pakesizzer.

The weather was sunny so the boat was moved outside.

First thing to do was stepping the mast.

The mast fitted OK and the cleats that I had made back home out of oak could be fitted on the mast for the halyard and on the frontdeck for the downhaul.

Next step was to seize and lace the sail to the boom and yard.  My wife was very helpful in tying the various knots. 



I am not a good knot maker. Thick fingers and lack of coordination I presume.

After a bit of experimenting with the exact location of the halyard on the yard the sail could be set. 

The present downhaul is not thick enough so in the near future a larger diameter line will be used.

The planned maiden sail was cancelled due to the wind of 7 m/s (14 knots).  Sailable weather but not for a shakedown sail.

Forecast for tomorrow is not much better but wait and see.  It is anyhow nice to look at the boat you have built. Pretty as a picture....

Test fit of mast

A week ago I was up North to bring the spars.  The mast did not really fit in the car and had to stick a little bit out of the front passenger window.
A police car stopped me but the top was not sticking out beyond the mirror so I could go ahead.  Lucky me....

This weekend my wife and I were up North.  Good friends from South Africa were visiting what was more important than working on the Peapod.

We did a test fit of the mast.  Due to several layers of epoxy and PU varnish on the hole in the front seat and on the mast it was a mis fit.








The corrective action was to increase the hole with a rasp. 

After several tries the mast did fit through the mast hole but the dowel in the heel of the mast did not yet fit into the mast step.

Later I did also remove some wood from the dowel but could not do a test fit anymore due to the rain.




What could be done was fitting a copper rubbing strip on the keel.

Also I fitted a swivel block on the keel for the sheet and put epoxy primer  on the rasped mast hole.

Next time maybe it is possible to have the first sail although the inside of the boat still needs a final coat of satin gloss PU varnish.

Hanging the Rudder

We are for a few days up North.  Time to hang the rudder.

First issue was to select the necessary hardware.  As the Peapod is not a "classic" I don't want to use bronze but will stick to stainless steel.  Much cheaper.

The Peapod is a double ender and most available hardware is for the use on transoms. 

After some research and thinking I bought two sets of rudder hardware for the Optimist dinghy. 

For two of the gudgeons the pintles had to be removed.
A kind of gender change from male to female.......
Yesterday I visited my brother who has the equipment and the skills to perform this surgery.  He is more the metal type of guy.

All gudgeons had to be bend to fit the rudder and the stem.

As the stem is curved it takes some thinking to aline the pins.  If they would follow the line of the stem the rudder could not turn.

I used a 6 mm beech rod to aline the gudgeons at the stem. In the end this method turned out quite well.


After that the hanging of the rudder itself was relatively easy. 

The tiller is a bit close to the top of the stem  but it turns well.  If necessary a few millimeters can be removed from the stem.


In the upper pintle a hole is drilled to put in a cotter ring to block the rudder.

Today I also bought the lines for rigging the boat.

The spars are fully in Deks2 but are still back home. On the next trip up north I will try to get them in or on top of the car. The big question will be: does the mast fit in the masthole in the fore deck. I could not do a test fit so let's wait and see.

The continuing spar stock story

Again sometime since the last blog entry. 

The Easter days were to cold to launch the Pilot.  Two days ago the weather forecast showed no serious nightly freezing temps anymore so we went up North to launch the boat.  After attaching some muffling material on the underside, the engine hatch was put on the boat with a nice snug fit. We did not yet made a test run to see whether the noise insulation had improved.

Back home I continued with the spars. 

First I made a test fit of the sail on mast, boom and yard. With my previous built Fearing the upper part of the sail was larger than the yard.

Somebody not being me had screwed up in communicating dimensions with the sail maker...


Also this test fit was necessary to locate the holes for the various holes for rigging.

Next I continued sanding the mast with a reversed belt from my stationary band sander.
The mast is not exactly round but sufficiently fit for use.






Next I fitted a 38mm round dowel at the bottom of the mast to fit in the mast step.

Arch Davis uses spar varnish for coating.

After some thoughts I am going to use
Deks Olje.  Officially Deks is for use on hardwoods but I have used Deks on the Oregon Pine spars of my Fearing without any problems so on these White Pine spars I do not expect any problems.

To be honest I hate applying varnish with all these layers....

Spar stock continued again...

The weather has been far from ideal the last week.  Around freezing point and strong winds fro m the east.  That weather will continue for the coming days.  You almost want to have global warming this way.

The third layer of the mast is glued at last and I cut the corners of mast on the table saw with the blade at a 45 deg angle.

After cutting the mast as far as possible to a 58 mm square I started to drill a few holes to make room for the halyard sheave.  It is better to do it now before the mast is round.

I have the feeling the sheave I bought ages ago is a bit large but that's what I have so that's what I will use.

 I also made the jaws for the boom that will go around the mast.  As I had no white pine left I used larch. The grain looks quite straight and just let's hope it is not to brittle.

Now a lot of planing with a hand plane to get mast and yard round.

Next is sanding using an inversed sanding belt from my stationary band sander.

The off topic motor hatch is almost ready.

I filled the groves with blackened epoxy.  The epoxy was a bit thick viscous so not all groves are filled to the same level. 

After a lot of sanding the hatch looks nice from a distance.
Eastern will be spend up North. Usually my Pilot will go into the water at the Friday before Eastern. Looking at the weather that will be a few days later.  No sense to start the season with frozen water valves.