John Storrow

Three masted Schooner, 18 x 24

Last Sunday afternoon, I decided to sail in a different place for a change, you know, mix it up a bit. I took my "James J Storrow" on the green line subway to Arlington Station, and walked over the foot bridge to a dock on the Charles river to sail from. Its the dock that's right between Community Boating, and the famous hatch shell. I think it has something to do with somebodies rowing club, there's a building right there that has lots of rowing shells in it. I thought maybe I might meet some like minded sailing enthusiasts coming and going from Community Boating. It was a perfect day, the first weekend that wasn't crazy hot. My objective was to get pictures of my "James J Storrow" from just above water level, using my flip up camera screen, with real boats in the background to give the illusion that she's a real thirty two footer or something. Also I think I finally figured out how to do the ISO or whatever its called, so the pictures don't t...

 Its been a long time since I've posted here four months ago. The catboat is now finished, has sailed many times, and is quite a success. Let me see if I can figure out where I left off and try to fill the gap up to the present. I figured if I cover the whole deck first with 1/8 basswood, I could then remove the cockpit and cabin area, leaving behind the sides, bow, and stern deck, glued permanently. I used a printed template to get the right curve. That way it would have the right crown shape (Cross section curve) with deck beams under, as well as an edge to glue the cabin sides. Voila! cabin and cockpit curve cut. Cabin sides Starting to build the cabin top. The Radio board, which fits between the two main frames down in the cabin, is easily removable, except for the small battery box. Mahogany Rub rails, toe rails, hand rails, Hatch slides. (So many memories of varnishing the hand rails on the "Clam"our real family cat boat every sp...

Progress- Interior waterproofing with Shellac (because I like to), servo tray with battery box and much thought on how to lead the loop from the winch up to the bow. The challenge is how to design the servo tray in such a way that it will fit into and out of the cabin along with its long arm that holds the other end of the winch loop. I'm rather glad that I'm thinking it through in the right order. It's much easier to plan and de-bug the servo tray before building the cabin over it. The week before I spent all afternoon fitting the cockpit floor inside the hull. Sand a little, test fit, repeat, sand a little, test fit, repeat. Eventually it fit right. Before that, I spent a good deal of time debating in my mind about weather to even have a cockpit floor, or just continue the deck all the way across to keep out water when she heels. In the end I decided she would have enough buoyancy to keep sailing after a knock-down, and the water could just drain out some scupper holes ...

Progress- All hollowed, fared, shellacked, test floated, keel installed in correct alignment, mast step tube support, display stand. The dots that look like dimples are the pegs for securing the lifts. They turn dark when you zap them with CA. Her keel is a solid steel bulb and fin that I made while in Art school back in 1984. I was making a lot of welded steel sculptures at the time. This one, on the catboat, has been on at least two other boats. I make so many boats, and keels are so hard to make or come by, that sometimes I cannibalize keels from old boats that have been collecting dust. I test floated her a few times with a CR-914 bulb, (too heavy) a DF-65 bulb, (slightly too light), steel keel-perfect. When I drew the plan, I calculated the center of buoyancy. After testing, the keel ended up farther aft than where the plan wanted it to go. This I attribute to extra weight in the high bow.

I've had that gouge with the orange handle since I was a kid.

Progress on carving the hull. This is the fun part, I get to pretend I’m MichaelAngelo

Progress on the gluing up of Lifts. I'm glad I have enough bar clamps. The first stage of the gluing I attempted to keep the lifts from slipping just by gluing blocks at the seams. Being impatient to get going with the gluing, (should a used CA) I didn't wait long enough for the glue that was holding the blocks to set long enough. Murphy's law, what can happen will happen: they popped off during the glue up, resulting in a slightly miss-aligned glue job. This is easily corrected during the carving, and I only think of the original lines as a departure point, as long as the end result is lump-free, sturdy, and water-tight. The human eye is capable of detecting the slightest defect in the shape of the boat, which can then be sculpted away.

I made one or two mistakes, but managed to get the lifts cut out. I think it will be rather tricky to line them all up accurately before gluing because if you make a small mistake between the alignment of two of them, the alignment of the next one after that will be potentially even farther off. I did try something new. I marked not only the vertical section lines, but also the horizontal water line to help line things up in all directions. For one of the lifts I cut the cut-away all the way aft past the stern, instead of up to the sheer. I'm going to have to fill that in with an additional little block of wood. I cant wait to get it carved up so I can test float it with a CR-914 keel bulb. She's pretty short ended but definitely wide, so the 3 1/2 pound bulb might work which would be great. The conservative sail plan I drew is about 440 square inches, and the CR-914 is about 580 square inches, so maybe something in the range of 500 square inches would work pretty good. That ...

Okay, so after much head scratching, I decided to nix the idea of making it (her) a planked model. I've drawn up the lifts to carve the hull. Here's the lines plan. I've traced the lifts (not shown) onto the wood.   I really like the character of this boat. I wanted to make something unique. Its fun to visualize that High straight bow, plowing into the waves.