Preview: How to Build a Caledonia Yawl, Part 19 – Turning the Hull Over

13 Responses So Far to “How to Build a Caledonia Yawl, Part 19 – Turning the Hull Over”

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  Genaro HERNANDEZ says:

  Great video! However, it seems you may have skipped the part where the hull has been ‘prepped’ with some type of varnish, since that is how it appears at the start of this segment.
  I’m a complete newbie at this and would appreciate it if it was covered or at least explained in words what was done to the hull for it to appear with a sheen to it.
  I have already watched all 42 segments and there was no mention of having a coat of fiberglass over the hull to make it waterproof or help with its structural strength. Is that something that may help it that way?

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    Geoff Kerr says:

    See the comment below: The hull was cleaned up. sanded and sealed with two coats of unthickened epoxy. No fiberglass. The epoxy seals and stabilizes the wood surface, enhances the life of the paint/varnish.

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  Jim Resek says:

  Did I miss something or was somebody working on this boat while the video camera was not operating? It looks like at some point after Part 18 ended and before Part 19 started, a coat of epoxy was put on the outside of the hull.

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    Steve Stone says:

    After filling screw holes and fairing scarfs and booboos and sanding the exterior, we rolled on and tipped out two coats of UNthickened epoxy. Sorry it wasn’t documented, as we did it late one night with no extra clean hands for the camera. Use the yellow foam roller covers supplied by your epoxy source — anything else will dissolve. Tip with a disposable bristle brush. You should be able to start the second coat upon finishing the first coat if you work your way around the boat. Good to have a helper, one to roll and one to tip, and keep the epoxy fresh in smaller batches so it doesn’t get sticky.

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  Dave Johnson says:

  Since there isn’t any outside ballast is it wise to add some interior ballast along the kellson?

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    Geoff Kerr says:

    Iain offers the option of 200# of ballast fastened in under the floorboards. I counsel clients to sail the boat for a season before deciding. None have ever come back for the lead. The unballasted boat is what I call lively, not tippy. Once you have some familiarity with how she feels you’ll most likely be comfortable. The weight of one passenger is noticeable, so you can experiment without committing to ballast. I’d suggest trying some alternative temporary and adjustable ballast strategies like water bags or beach rocks that don’t complicate trailering or rowing. Keep in mind that ballast, live or dead, does not excuse you from reefing when necessary. A broken mast is a terrible thing to waste.

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      Steve Stone says:

      This is good advice. Just saying that after a couple seasons of sailing her in all kinds of conditions, I wouldn’t put ballast in her. She’s very stable and stands up to a breeze, even when soloing. Yes, there’s no doubt the skipper could be out to lunch and a gust hit with the wrong motion and wave action and she’d go over, but that’d be human error that ballast may not help. Also can’t imagine wondering what damage that weight is doing while trailering her either if it’s stuck under the floor boards and not accessible. And do reef early as Geoff suggests. I had a boat full of people and didn’t reef in 15 kts and paid the price of snapping the mast. One reef gets the boom out of the way of everyone and makes the motion of the boat easier for a crowd too. We’ve had up to 10 in her so far… big times. She’s very social.

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  William Boulden says:

  Wow!!! It is such a sexy boat. Makes you want to put on a horned helm and drink beer while grunting approval. ;D

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  Larry Cheek says:

  Jeez, Geoff, don’t you have a friend? I know Oughtred hulls are light, but I would have enlisted a second pair of hands for this.

  Designer/builder Sam Devlin has developed a mathematical formula for the number of neighbors to be recruited for a hull roll: Take the length of the boat, subtract 8, divide the remainder by 3, and round up to the nearest whole number. Thus, for a 19-foot boat:

  19 – 8 = 11

  11/3 = 3.6, round up to 4.

  Devlin’s stitch-and-glue hulls are much heavier than Oughtred’s, so this formula is more appropriate for the former. The 18′ 8″ x 7′ 0″ hull of my Winter Wren probably weighed 400 pounds at rollover. I convened a party of four, and we managed it very well. One less body would have made it dicey.

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    Steve Stone says:

    Thanks for that calculation Larry. I must confess… as the filmmaker I’m always pushing for a (visual) story, so when Geoff suggested that he could flip it on his own, I jumped on that because it amplifies how we (or maybe it’s just me) fuss and think and delay and ponder and seek advice… and it could have been done already. Geoff and I thought the solo-roll would highlight that tendency, in a very visual way.

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      Steve Stone says:

      Update. We rolled it over for bottom paint this year, and then back over, with just two people. Quite easy. After seeing Geoff roll it solo, and after rolling it twice with two people, I felt I could have done it myself with some Mainer ingenuity and a rope. I’m not quite that level of Mainer yet, so will stick with two unless I get in a pinch.

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      David Robbie says:

      I am really glad you showed it in the solo-roll.

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  Tom Bolko says:

  Fantastic, I share your thoughts. A well done build and understandable for the novice. Thank You