Preview: How to Build a Caledonia Yawl, Part 33 – Solid Spar Making with the Mizzen Mast

18 Responses So Far to “How to Build a Caledonia Yawl, Part 33 – Solid Spar Making with the Mizzen Mast”

• 

  Andy Jarman says:

  I coated my mostly finished spar with a light coat of epoxy. Then using a plastic drain pipe with a rolled up 40 grit sanding belt inside went up and down the spar sanding off the epoxy. This process highlighted where there were still flat areas on the surface of the spar.

• 

  Andy Jarman says:

  I coated my mostly finished spar with a light coat of epoxy. Then using a plastic drain pipe with a rolled up 40 grit sanding belt inside went up and down the spare sanding off the epoxy. This process highlighted where there were still flat areas on the surface of the spar.

• 

  Andy Jarman says:

  I found a long 40grit sanding belt rolled up inside a short length of drain pipe was a great way of knocking the corners off. You need to have it at an angle and just lightly grip the corner sticking out the end of the drainpipe to with a pinky finger. I used three different sizes.

• 

  Jeffrey Bursic says:

  I really enjoy all of the videos on this site ,It is such a great resource for boat building minded enthusiasts, but I cannot understand why you still use the Imperial system of measurements the metric is so much easier to work with.

  • 

    Geoff Kerr says:

    I build with metric when the boat was designed in metric, and Imperial as otherwise designed. Please yourself as your own boss, and beware of inconsistent conversions!

• 

  Dana Russell says:

  I made a set of new spars for my old 11′ dory by following the solid spar building episodes in the Caledonia series. I plan to finish them with pine tar. Most recipes that I’ve found online call for boiled linseed oil, pine tar, and turpentine. I live in CA where turpentine is no longer available. What can I use for a substitute? Mineral spirits? Brushing liquid? Paint thinner? Does it matter? Thanks.

  • 

    Geoff Kerr says:

    I’ve outgrown the romance of pine tar, although i keep a cake of George Kirby’s Pine Tar Soap on my desk just so the shop smells right. The traditional boat soup pine tar mix is just that… traditional It is appropriate for the rare, truly workboat finish. One must be aware that it will show off the beauty of the wood for a bit (a week, a season?), but as it greedily attracts every available particle of soot, dirt and offal your spar with soon turn dark grey and furry. That may be the look you are after, and if so go for it.

    I can’t help with a turps substitute…but I’d probably experiment with mineral spirits to start. If a quick and easy finish is what you are after I like Watco Teak Oil. Makes a quick job, shows the wood and dries to a flat, non-sticky, cleaner for longer finish. I often use it on floorboards, tillers and non-yachty things.

• 

  John Brame says:

  I have been using the power planer on my birdsmouth mast and yard, then finish off with a long plane.

• 

  William Bernard says:

  I had a devil of a time trying to mimic Geoff’s skill with a table saw. After stressing my saw and ruining several pieces of expensive wood, I realized why not use a power planner to remove the excess wood down to the marked lines. Its safer and doesn’t take that much longer.

• 

  Larry Cheek says:

  Every one of these episodes has been interesting and illuminating; in this one Geoff’s spar gauge and mailing-tube sander are worth the price of admission by themselves.

  After we complete the Caledonia Yawl, could I suggest a 100-part series on building a Grey Seal?

  Two items re this episode: First, Chris Cunningham wrote a piece published in WoodenBoat #176 on cobbling together a homemade spar lathe. I made one with a ¾ hp motor from a scrapped bandsaw and about $30 worth of other parts. OSHA would have had a cow, but It worked very well for the sanding phase (on a larger mast than the CY’s mizzen).

  Second, does Iain supply alternate plans in metric dimensions? I would cheerfully buy them and make the small investment in metric measuring implements. It would be a delicious and useful irony if wooden boat builders were to finally lead the the U.S. out of the medieval tangle of imperial measurements.

  • 

    Geoff Kerr says:

    Iain’s plans generally include metric dimensions alongside the imperial measurements. This makes such things as offsets a bit busy, but once you have worked with them a bit the layout is logical and useful. He is prone to enumerate in millimeters rather than using decimals, making a sheet of plywood 2500×1250. That will only make your brain ache for the first day or two.

    By the way, the medieval tangle of feet-inches-eighths (as in 2-4-7, is one of the great mystical secrets of the boatbuilder’s guild, and should be preserved…or anyone will be able to build a boat!

    • 

      Larry Cheek says:

      I’ve used and sort of mastered the feet-inches-eighths system. But it doesn’t relieve the headaches (and potential for mistakes) of having to add or subtract dimensions, as in 2-4-7 + 1-11-6. So much easier to add 245 mm + 188 mm.

      I’m making an expedition to a woodworkers’ emporium in Seattle today, and I’m going to see if I can obtain those metric measuring implements today—and simply convert my shop. I build my furniture without reference to plans, and any future boat plans will be purchased in metric, so there’s no downside. I can fabricate my own little island of rationality.

• 

  Bill Rutherford says:

  Excellent video! Beautiful wood. Eastern spruce?
  Regarding the dimensions for the spar gauge, Walter Simmons has a neat graphical method to determine the pencil spacing in his boatbuilding book by drawing a circle inside a square. The circle is your largest mast diameter with the square just touching the sides of the circle. He then clips the corners of the square, slicing the circle from the center points of the sides at the points Geoff shows. Walter does this for both 8 & 16 sides. Elegant in its simplicity and no fractions math. I am away at Camp, but Walter may have described this,m far better than I, in an issue of WoodenBoat.
  Wonderful series; look forward to every new video. Regards to all.

  • 

    Geoff Kerr says:

    We reached a bit deeper and bought Sitka spruce for this set of spars.

• 

  Stewart Lee says:

  If you go onto YouTube and type in “traditional marine”, there’s an entire series on how to build a clinker dinghy, beginning with how to select the rough lumber. The boatbuilder is Marcus Lewis, and his videos are well worth watching. (Although there are a lot of long pauses while he stares at the boat and thinks.) Give them a try and see what you think.
  http://m.youtube.com/?#/results?q=traditional%20maritime%20skills&sm=1

  I admit nother one of Goff’s videos is posted.

  • 

    Stewart Lee says:

    Ahem. I admit that I’m very eager whenever another one of Geoff’s videos is posted. I immediately unroll my set of yawl plans and try to cement the new information into my brain.

• 

  David Corey says:

  The spar marking gauge is really clever. The ratio Geoff remembered, seven 24ths, is for the outer segments. The center segment is ten 24ths, for a ratio of 7:10:7 for the positions of the pencils. Then when he’s measuring across a 3-inch length, the segments should be 7/8ths, 10/8ths, and 7/8ths, which they are if you look closely.

• 

  Capt. Peter Reich says:

  Very informative. Investigated more info on spar gauges and young this. http://www.boat-building.org/learn-skills/index.php/en/wood/using-a-spar-gauge/
  Geoff’s shop much nicer than this guy’s on side of road!