WHEN I was a lad it was my
good fortune to live beside an estuary of the sea,
within a stones throw of a shipyard and several boat
builders' shops. Mr. Shuttleworth, one of the boat
builders, was famous for his ship's boats, and he
built from twenty to thirty in the course of a year.
It was his custom to allow the skippers a small amount
for each old boat he replaced, and on the beach in
front of his shop were generally to be seen several
longboats, jolly boats, and yacht's cutters in a more
or less creditable state of repair.
PLAN OF A 30-FOOT LIFEBOAT
CONVERTED INTO A KETCH-RIGGED SAILING YACHT.
One of these caught my eye, as having in her the
makings of a sound seagoing craft. She was a discarded
lifeboat that had long seen service on a West India
passenger steamer, but had been condemned for some
trifling defects as is the custom on crack liners. She
was thirty feet long, seven feet wide, and four feet
deep, with the usual pointed lifeboat stern. Built of
teak, she was copper fastened throughout. She looked
weather beaten, it is true, and sadly needed a coat or
two of paint; but when my stanch ally, Toby Page, an
apprentice at the shipyard and a most ingenious
craftsman withal, came to examine her he pronounced
her sound as a roach. He agreed with me that, by the
wise expenditure of a modest sum of money she might be
converted into an able and comfortable cruiser.
Mr. Shuttleworth, approached on the subject of the
boat, suggested terms quite within the modest limit of
my purse, and I strode around my new purchase with all
the proud airs of proprietorship.
To alter the boat into a seagoing cruiser, with the
best possible accommodations compatible with her
somewhat limited dimensions, was my next aim. She was
to be decked, a trunk cabin fitted up, and a false
keel added to give her stability and enable her to go
to windward. For general handiness, I decided to rig
her as a ketch. Thus there was plenty of work ahead,
but, with the aid of a younger brother and the
invaluable Toby Page, I felt in my bones that success
was certain. The first job was to get her shored up on
the beach with blocks under her keel and beneath her
bilges, so that before we tackled the carpenter work
we might give her hull a thorough cleaning outside and
in, and then treat any leaks we might find. Our survey
showed that although she would need a great many new
rivets, being what is called "nail sick" in many
places, her general condition was good. After
scrubbing her with soap and soda we smoothed all the
rough places with pumice stone. Then we filled her up
to the gunwale with water, and marked every place
where she leaked. Goodly streams came from many
places. This, however, was to be expected owing to the
craft's long exposure to all kinds of weather. We
stood by her all day, pouring in an occasional
bucketful to replace the water lost through leakage.
We found that the planks absorbed much moisture, the
wood swelling and the leaks perceptibly diminishing as
time went on.
After a couple of days we let the water out, and
when she was thoroughly dry, started in to make the
hull tight. Her frames were in capital condition. We
replaced all the loose rivets with new ones of a
larger size, I hardening the old ones that needed
attention with a few taps of the hammer from the
inside, while my mate "held" with another hammer from
the outside. We were mighty particular about this
process, not "scamping" the work, but tackling every
rivet in the boat conscientiously, until every faulty
nail was replaced. Then with a kettle of boiling North
Carolina tar in which pitch had been melted in the
proportion of a pound to a gallon, we painted the
inside of the boat up as high as the thwarts with this
boiling mixture, rubbing it well into every crevice
and ledge. The hot fluid, almost as thin as water,
penetrated every crack. The dry and thirsty wood
absorbed a great quantity of the penetrative compound,
which dried hard as good varnish, and yet from the
nature of its ingredients possessed a certain amount
of elasticity. All was now ready for the carpenter
work. Before taking the thwarts out we nailed several
boards across the boat from gunwale to gunwale, so as
to keep the hull in fair shape until we could get the
deck beams in position. When the thwarts were removed
we prepared for action.
We had purchased the following lumber:
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Deck beams
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60 feet by 1-1/2 by 2-inch Oak.
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Shelf to support deck beams
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Two strips of yellow pine, 33 feet long, 3
by 2 inches.
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Mast thwarts
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12 feet of oak plank, 1 foot wide and
1-1/2 inches thick.
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False keel
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One strip of yellow pine, 26 feet long, 4
by 2 inches. Another strip of yellow pine, 21
feet long, 4 by 2 inches.
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Cabin sides
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Two pieces of 1/2-inch oak plank, 10 feet
long and 14 inches wide. These for the
outside sheathing. For the inside ceiling,
two pieces of 1-inch pine, 10 feet long and
16 inches wide.
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Fore end of cabin
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One piece of 1/2-inch oak, 4 feet long, 8
inches wide. This for the outside. For the
inside, one piece of 1-inch pine, 4 feet long
by 10 inches wide.
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After end of cabin
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20 feet of 6-inch yellow pine.
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Deck
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120 feet of 3/4-inch yellow pine, 6 inches
wide, tongue and groove.
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Cabin deck beams
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40 feet of oak, 1-1/4 by 1 inch.
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Cabin deck
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45 feet of 3/4-inch pine, 6 inches wide,
tongue and groove.
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Foremast
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32 feet of spruce, 7 inches square.
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Dandy mast
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28 feet of spruce, 5 inches square.
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Fore boom
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10 feet 9 inches spruce, 3 inches
square.
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Fore gaff
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10 feet 6 inches spruce, 2-1/2 inches
square.
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Dandy boom
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12 feet 6 inches spruce, 2-1/2 inches
square.
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We were careful that these lengths of spruce should
be free from cracks and knots; this is essential if
you wish to whittle out a spar from the log with
satisfaction and credit to yourself.
A careful and intelligent study of the plan shows
every detail of the work. First, the shelf for the
support of the deck beams was cut and secured on each
side. The deck beams were cut with a slight crown, or
curve, so as to give the water no chance to remain on
deck. The mast thwarts and stringers were put in place
after the deck beams. Next the deck was laid, being
first planed perfectly smooth; galvanized wire nails
being used for securing the tongued and grooved planks
to the beams. Then we turned the boat bottom up and
bolted on the two strips of the false keel, as shown
in the plan. Then we righted her and went to work on
the cabin, details of whose construction are clearly
given in the drawings, which, it is necessary to
observe, should be exactly followed.
The canvas used for covering the house and deck was
number ten duck. The woodwork to be covered was given
a generous coat of thick white lead paint mixed with
equal parts of boiled linseed oil and spar varnish,
the duck being stretched over it while the paint was
still wet. This work required great care to make a
neat and workmanlike job. The duck had to be well
stretched and nailed down with copper tacks, for no
others are satisfactory. When nailed down, we dampened
the duck with salt water, which caused it to shrink a
little and made a tighter fit. Then we painted with
the same sort of mixture used on the woodwork before
the duck got dry again, and the result was
satisfactory.
The interior of a boat thus altered may be fitted
up to suit the taste of the owner. I should advise the
use of enamel paint inside, because it is so easily
cleaned and always looks well. In the little cabin
there is ample room for two to sleep and live
comfortably. As for the accommodation in my own little
boat, a yachting sybarite would doubtless have turned
up his nose at the plain and unpretentious
contrivances for comfort; but the interior suited me
and my shipmate exactly.
We made the cockpit floor watertight
with canvas; we did our cooking with an oil stove,
which was unsatisfactory, the wickless, gas-generating
variety not having been invented at that time.
The problems of ballast troubled me for a time. A
cast-iron shoe bolted to the keel was my first idea,
but as that would have been rather costly, and would
be a fixed weight, too heavy for me and my chums to
tackle when hauling the boat on the beach for the
winter, or for cleaning and painting, I decided on
inside ballast entirely. Pieces of old pig-iron, with
the rust scraped off and covered with several coats of
coal tar, applied boiling hot, were used; clean
gravel, in bags made of old canvas of suitable size
for compact storage, was also utilized. I do not
recall the exact weight I put in the boat, but I
remember that it took a long time to get her in trim
to sail her fastest. I never regretted having no
outside ballast, for the boat, with the weight
properly distributed inside her hull, rode the waves
as easy as an old shoe, without any laboring or
straining, as is usually the case with all the ballast
in one piece and bolted to the keel. We stowed it away
so ingeniously and snugly, in sizes to fit, that it
was neither unsightly nor inconvenient, the greater
part being beneath the cabin floor and in the run. All
of it was stowed so that it rested on the ribs of the
boat and not on the planking.
The ketch rig, being so handy, I chose in
preference to that of the yawl. I also chose to have
the dandy, or jigger, cut like a leg-of-mutton sail,
jig-headed, and thus without a gaff; let go the
halyards, and it is the easiest sail to muzzle known
to mariners. After we came to try the craft we found
she would work under mainsail alone, or with foresail
and jigger. The mainsail was very easy to reef, being
all inboard. The stump bowsprit, with a sheave in it
for the rope which held the anchor, we found a great
convenience. Two single shrouds and a forestay of
steel wire three-quarters of an inch in circumference,
each with an eye splice to go over the mast head, were
used on the fore, and shrouds of the same size
supported the dandy mast. There were eyebolts through
the foremast head for the throat and peak halyard
blocks. All the blocks used were three and one-half
inch, with patent sheaves, and all the rope for
halyards was twelve thread manila. The sails were of
light duck. The rudder was of oak, the tiller of
ash.
Such a boat, judiciously handled, will ride out a
heavy gale.
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...to
Plywood Boats or to The
Cheap Page or to The
Odd Sails
[The
original diagram is very small and fuzzy
and the scan isn't any better; the labels
follow no system I can see, so I don't
think you should try Kenealy's Long and
Short splices since I'm not sure what
strand he means when. I did my best to
place the ABCDE stuff in the proper places
-- COD]
Give
the two middle strands, G and H, a lick of
tar if, the rope is of hemp, and grease if
of manila, and knot them together with an
overhand knot, taking care that the knot
is so formed as to follow the lay of the
rope. Then halve these strands and pass
them over one strand and under two. Treat
the remaining strands in the same way,
after which stretch the rope well and cut
off the ends of the strands. A long splice
is the neatest way there is of putting two
ends of a rope together. If well made it
does not increase the diameter of the
rope, and therefore renders through blocks
as though it did not exist. If one strand
of a rope is chafed through while the
other two are sound, a new strand may be
put in to replace it, and the ends may be
finished off in the same way as in a long
splice.
To
make it, double the rope and take the
doubled end (1) in the right hand, the
standing part (2) of the rope in the left
hand. Lay the end over the standing part,
and by turning the left wrist form a loop
(3) having the end inside. Next pull up
enough of the end (1) to dip under the
bight (4), bringing the end towards the
right and dipping it under the bight, then
passing it up to the left over the loop
and hauling taut.
Pass
the end of the rope round the standing
part and bring it up through the bight.
This makes a half hitch. Repeat the
process and haul taut. If the knot is to
bear a great strain, seize the end back
with spunyarn to the standing part.
Make
a bight with the end of one rope, and pass
the end of the other through the bight
from beneath, and round both parts with
the end under its own standing part. The
greater the strain, the faster will this
bend jam.
It
is made of a single strand of rope. To
make it, lay one end over the other at the
size required, and with the long end
follow the lay round until a ring is
formed with three parts of the strand all
'round Finish by dividing the ends,
overhand knotting, and passing them over
one strand and under the other exactly as
in a long splice. To make a neat job, use
a strand from rope that has been some time
in use and is well stretched. The strand
should be about a foot more than three
times the length of the strop, to allow
for the knotting. It may be wormed and
covered with canvas or leather if intended
for a block.
Made
by unlaying the end of a rope and taking
the end A round the rope and
through its own bight, the strand B
underneath through the bight of A,
and the strand C underneath through
the bights of strands A and
B, and hauling all the strands
taut. This knot is used principally for
the ends of lanyards. In making these
knots a whipping of sailmaker's twine
should be put round the rope where the
knot is to be when formed.
