Gwendal's Coastal Meanderings

Author: Gwendal

Caledonia Yawl Project: Spar Building part VI
The boom and the yard come second only to the birds-mouth mast in complexity. The jaws required some attention to detail.

shaping the yard
The process of going from a square piece of glued up wood to a tapered cylinder is now becoming familiar. But there are still individual particularities to each piece as you have to read the wood and each facet might require planing in a different direction to avoid grain pull out.

I started to decorate the place with the draw-knife cuttings which are so much fun when they are the full length of the spar.

Careful mapping of the facets when you get from 16 sided to 32 sided is worthwhile. I found that marking the 32 edges then helped me keep track of where I was when I cut it down to 64 sides. On the yard that ends up being just one or two passes with the planer set very fine. It is in my mind the trickiest part of the process.

After sanding the yard with 36, 60, 80, 100 and 120 grit sandpaper I was onto the boom. The time spent making this spar gauge based on Harry Bryan’s design in Wooden Boat magazine 277 was worth it but it was kind of bittersweet to think this was one of the last times I’d use it for awhile. (note: I still might use it to make the oars)

The jaws require a transition from round to square which is an extra challenge when shaping the spar. In the end once marked it is relatively easy to do.

I still have some of the reclaimed Honduran mahogany that was pulled out of home demolitions by a renovation contractor who was retiring and selling off their stockpile of old window and door frames. I now wish I’d bought more for future projects. But for this project I have enough.

As per Ian Oughtred’s plans he specifies the jaws should be 22mm thick and made of two pieces. I added a 5mm marine ply to the mahogany to get to 25mm and it will do well to reduce the chances of splitting along the grain on this curved piece.

I’m also attempting to make some copper rivets according to the September 2015 Small Boats Monthly article by Christopher Cunningham for the yard and boom jaws. I was able to order #6 gauge copper wire and I’m using some leftover 1/2″ copper pipe for the roves.

spokeshave for the transition from round to square

The last ridge going from 8 sided to 16 sided on the boom. The last spar!

Marking the ridges from 32 to 64 sides on the boom and then shaving them down.

Gluing the jaws layup with the wedges so that I can do some further shaping before gluing them to the yard and the boom.

Gluing the boom jaw pieces together.

Then shaping the pieces into something that looks relatively nice. I used the Japanese rasp, the block plane, the spoke shave, the belt sander and the random orbital sander to get it into it’s desired shape.

The boom and yard jaws dry fitted.

… and then all glued up. Tomorrow I’ll do the final shaping on the yard and boom and some sanding of the epoxy. All the spars will get sanded down to 150 grit tomorrow and all set up for varnishing. I’ve also got a bunch of little fittings to make that will need to be screwed onto the spars. Most are just little thumb blocks, but I also have to make the jib fairleads. I’m getting close to being able to rig it all up.
2021-08-24
Caledonia Yawl Project: Spar Building PartV
The race to be done for my vacation is still on. But I’ve resigned myself to the reality that the first week of my vacation will be spar making and rigging the boat. The finishing line is in sight, but there is still so much to do.

I’ve tackled the main mast shaping going from 8 sided down to 16 sided, then 32 sided and 64 sided.

I used a used West Systems thickening powder container as a sanding backer and pulled out some sand paper left over from sanding my floors a couple years ago. I started with 36 grit to cut down the corners. Then 60 grit, and 100 grit sandpaper.

Sanding, sanding more sanding
This was hard work and Vancouver this summer is going from one heat wave to another. Fortunately I went out an bought a large ventilation fan that I mounted to the rafters of the shed. This has worked wonders to help me keep cooler while I work up a serious sweat sanding.

I then cut the mast head to a smaller diameter with a router. This will create a nice saddle for the shrouds to loop onto the top of the mast.

I did most of the shaping with the Japanese rasp and finished with the random orbital sander.

I think the scalloped ends of the plug and birdsmouth look really cool.

Using this portable guide I drilled the ends of the mortise for the halyard sheaves.

The tricky part was drilling the hole for the axle at 90 degrees to the mortise.

I’ve also sanded the sprit boom and the boomkin and finished the ends on those.

Then onto the mizzen mast. Where I experimented with the difference of using the power planer.

And using the drawknife to cut down from a tapered square to the 8 sided shape.

My conclusion is that with the drawknife guides it is much easier to control and likely just as fast as the power planer. If kept sharp it is almost easier and certainly quieter and less messy overall. It is way easier to pick up the shavings than vacuum up all the sprayed chips sent out by the power planer. I found it gets me quite close to where I need and then I can just finish it off with the jack plane and the block plane.

The mizzen mast is now complete. I now have three days to complete the main boom and yard. Then I will lay everything out and varnish them with 6 coats.
2021-08-18
Caledonia Yawl Project: spar building IV
This summer it is now a race to have the rigging done before we take our vacation in the second half of August. My intention is that we have the boat ready for some day trips and camp cruising. I’m setting a deadline for myself. So over the last month I’ve been regularly plugging away at the spars. I started with the most complex being getting the main mast glued up.

I cut the taper on each of the 8 staves which was tricky as they are small pieces and hard to keep square when vertical as the birdsmouth cut did not have two even ends to rest on.

I ended up resting them on their sides and planing them with the block plane at 90 degrees. it was easier to clamp and not too hard to keep things square.

The next step was to make the 8 sided top and bottom plugs for the mast. The top plug had to be long enough to cover the area needed for the halyard sheaves. So i made it 50 cm long as I will have the sheaves one on top of the other instead of side by side.

Dry fitting the top plug into the tapered mast. That was the more complex part of the exercise. Getting the inner diameter taper right. Fortunately this does not have to be perfect as a little space can be filled my thickened epoxy.

Mapping the taper of the the base plug of the mast I decided should be longer and go as high as to where the boom rests against the mast. Partly because I’m thinking of fixing the cleats for the halyards onto the mast and would like to have more material for the screws to grab onto.

Testing the diameter of the base plug with an off cut of the main mast staves. This piece was longer and the taper a little trickier to get right as it covered both a flat section and the reverse taper at the base.

Then I cut out a taper of material on the inside of the mast plug to ensure there are no hard edges that could impact the flex of the mast or create a breaking point.

Finally everything was ready for gluing. I decided to do this in two steps. gluing up the staves in two clamshells by taping two of the birdsmouth sides. This will allow me to then on the second step to glue in the plugs and the remaining two stave edges.

I put all six of the staves to be glued upright and slathered them in unthickend epoxy and then squeezed the microfiber thickened epoxy with a piping bag.

14″ Zap straps worked great to clamp it all together and a bag of 100 was way more than needed. But we have my friend’s two masts for his Penobscot 17 schooner rig to do later. I did use vice grip pliers to pull the zap straps tight. I found this really made a difference.

Once the epoxy cured overnight I was able to open up the clamshell and remove the clear packing tape I’d used. I did a little clean up of the squeeze out epoxy on the inside where the plugs would go using a heat gun and a small scraper.

But left things as the are for the rest of the mast. I also decided not to coat the inside with epoxy. my reasoning is that it might be worthwhile to let the wood breath on the inside. There should not be any water ingress or holes in the mast.

Then the final glue up of the main mast with both plugs well coated in thickened epoxy.

It was such a pleasure to get to this point and see this complex interlocking set of small pieces of wood come together into a solid monolith.

I will weigh this mast as in theory you save approximately 35-40% of the weight by building it this way. It is however a significantly longer process to make. Some advantages is that you can work form smaller stock and with a few scarfs not necessarily have to have full lengths that you need. Building a solid mast with two pieces glued to each other however would be much faster and for a boat this size with sitka spruce maybe not yet unmanagable as far as weight. I’d be a little more reticent if I had to work with douglas fir which is very strong but also heavier. I feel very fortunate to have had the time to source sitka spruce.
2021-08-09
caledonia yawl project: spar building part III
This week we brought all the spars back to the shed to free up the loaned woodshop and start gluing.
I had to set up the cradle and cut the taper

Lots of planing with the jack plane to get each stave tapered.

But with a sharp blade it is a pleasure to work with quiet hand tools. I think it is my favourite part of the build when I am able to just get in the groove with the hand tools.
2021-07-24
Caledonia Yawl Project: Spars part II
After a short hiatus in June due to a heavy workload with spar building partner, we took a couple days off to do a final big push in the workshop to cut all the staves for the hollow eight sided birdsmouth masts.

2×6 by 20′ sitka spruce we cut down to make the staves
Each stave was 15mm by 32mm for the Caledonia yawl mast. my friends’ masts are a little bit smaller and his were 14mm by 29mm.

All the Sitka Spruce stock was excellent in the pieces we used to cut the staves. Unfortunately with 15mm width, could not get eight pieces from the one good 2×6 I’d reserved for the mast. I had to scarf together the eight piece from other stock that had some knots or other imperfections. Fortunately small diameter Sitka Spruce was easy to plane into the scarfs with the long jointer plane.

The next step was to set up the router table with the birdsmouth 45 degree router bit. Since we are routing 20′ long sections we set up a feather board on each side of the router and a fence on top as well to hold it in place. Such long skinny pieces have a lot of flexibility and wobble if they are not held down against the fence.

Once we had it all set up we made quick work of it and produced quite a bit of sawdust. Fortunately the woodshop had an excellent dust collection system.

The final product looks great. The final step is to cut the taper in each one so that the mast can have it’s appropriate taper.
2021-07-24
Caledonia Yawl Project: Un-shedding the boat
This weekend was the fathers day weekend and south of the border the Junteenth. Although not planned this way it was a good weekend to get the boat out of the shed.
After more than 800 hours of building on evenings and weekends in 2-4 hour blocks. I’d been waiting since October for the COVID restrictions to be relaxed to the point where I could invite 7 or 8 friends to help me lift the boat up and onto the trailer. An extra challenge was that in the intervening 5 years a fig tree had grown to block the way a little.

Un-sheding the Caledonia Yawl
Big thanks to all my friends and family who have helped me to get to this point. It is not without their support that I have the privilege of being able to take on a project like this.

After the big effort and onto the trailer

A view from the stern for the first time

On the trailer and ready to roll

In its new home at the sailing centre
2021-06-21
Caledonia Yawl Project: Spars, Spars and more Spars
I am pleased to say that I’ve finally reached what I think is the final big project standing between making this boat ready to launch. My friend Patrice has a Penobscot 17 hull that he purchased a few years ago that had only been used for rowing and also needs spars to unlock it’s full potential. So we are teaming up to build all the spars at once. In his case it will be the schooner rig with standing lug sails. While in my case it is the Gunter Yawl rig. In the fall of 2019 I was able to have two 20′ long beams of sitka spruce milled down into rough sawn 2×12″ pieces in Maple Ridge. It is not an easy wood to procure and until I found this supply I was ready to use douglas fir or even consider using carbon fiber spars. But now that I have it I am pleased to have this beautiful wood.

lots of sitka spruce
What do we have to build? For the Caledonia Yawl:
- 1 birdsmouth construction main mast
- 1 main boom (solid)
- 1 main yard (solid)
- 1 mizzen mast (solid)
- 1 boomkin (solid)
- 1 sprit boom (solid)
For the Penobscot:
- 2 masts (birdsmouth)
- 2 yards (solid)
- 2 booms (solid)
checking for checks in the wood and mapping around the knots that exist.
Fortunately we’ve been given access to Patrice’s friends wood shop for this step. So we have access to excellent equipment in particular a skookum table saw, thickness planer/jointer and solid router table.

More to come soon as we dive into all the cuts and glue up the spar. We are starting with all the solid spars first as they are easier glue ups and smaller pieces. Once those are done, we’ll then tackle cutting all the staves for the three birdsmouth spars we are building.
2021-05-01
Caledonia Yawl Project: winter tinkering
My plan had been to un-shed the boat last October and get working on the spars through the winter. However just as I had a boat lifting party set up to carry it onto a trailer and down to the sailing centre the COVID protocols changed and in keeping with the prudence asked of us I delayed this to the spring when hopefully we will have some relaxations. Here in BC that is looking less like early spring and more like late spring now.
In my last post I shared how I’m getting all the rigging materials and systems ready in anticipation of the masts being completed. To that end I’ve also decided to try my hand at making a hybrid modern rope (dyneema) stropped blocks. I was inspired by the Robert Shetterly’s beautiful illustrations in Brion Toss’ “The Rigger’s apprentice” drawing on page 22 of the book.

I though why not do this but just a little smaller and lighter with modern ropes for a large dinghy like the Caledonia Yawl? My ambition is to do two fiddle blocks for the main sheet, a block for the jib halyard and possibly two blocks for the jib sheet leads and a block for the mizzen sheet.

My first activity was to make copper thimbles using 3/4″ copper pipe cut down to 15mm widths and then heated up with a blow torch and two ball peen hammers. Which I adapted from the blog post by Shady Island pirates http://shadyislepirates.com/?q=node/207
This technique using three successive sizes of ball bearings also looks great, it appears to be better to create a more even curve to the flare of the thimble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUTcRHYYN1I
So far it is going reasonably well.

I’ve also found a set of brass rods to use as the pivot for the delrin sheaves.

I then glued up the blocks out of 12mm thick reclaimed cherry wood I’ve been milling from pieced of a trunk I collected in the neighbourhood a few years ago.

Then drilling the 5/16 th hole for the axle.

Then cut and round out the edges of the blocks

And finally round over the edges with a 1/4 round router bit.

The final steps will be to further shape the blocks to allow the rope strop to be seated properly as well as removing a little more wood to make the block as light as possible.

I’m hopeful that once completed with the strop and thimble and all oiled up they will look really sharp and give the boat an even saltier look that is true to the hybrid nature of an epoxy plywood construction that blends the old and new of wooden boat building.
2021-04-13
caledonia yawl project: late fall tinkering
COVID has meant that the big move out of the boat is delayed. But I don’t want to lose momentum. So I’ve started to think about the rigging in anticipation of getting started on the spars in the spring.
I’ve decided that with the new Dyneema materials it is a nice way to simplify the rigging and keep it light and strong. So I ordered some materials and a splicing tool to start practising my splicing and work through what I want to do.

I started with 4mm per-stretched heat treated Marlow Dyneema line that I’ve made into a few soft shackles and a strop.

I was also inspired by the article in the latest issue of Wooden Boat magazine #277 by Harry Bryan on a more accurate spar guage.

as it turns out that is my next upcoming task. So I set to work with a few pieces of my reclaimed cherry wood and the prescribed parts for making the tool.

3/8″ machine screws that are now heavily modified

Not yet quite as pretty as Harry’s example but with a litle finish work it will get there.
I’ve also ordered a few sheaves with the idea of making a modern composite wood rope stropped fiddle blocks for the mainsheet with Dyneema for the strops. If my idea succeeds they will be light and look at home on the Caledonia Yawl. This was inspired by the illustration for rope stropped blocks in Brion Toss’ Riggers Apprentice book.

The cheeks for the moment are 1/2″ reclaimed cherry wood that is hard and easy to work with. All I’m missing at the moment is the rod for the bearing of the sheaves. The strops will be made of 6mm Dyneema.

I’ve also have to make or find some thimbles to complete the block ends.
2020-12-10
caledonia yawl project: fall projects
I was ready to push to have the boat out of the shed this fall. So September started well with the finis of the painting of the ruder, centreboard and hatches.

and the hull

I then tackled putting Deks Olje on the benches

six coats of Deks Olje
And similarly cover the floors as well with Deks Olje

Because I had it drying overnight outside I found out I had the visit of some raccoons while I was away.

Finally putting all of it back into the boat started to feel really good. Although it takes a bit longer than I imagined.

The rudder and the Norwegian tiller also looked nice all glossy with the Deks Olje.

Then as fall wore on and I felt I was getting close to being ready to transferring the boat to the trailer I started to finish the sunbrella storage cover.

I added shafing panels and instead of grommets along the periphery I used E-Z Lace Supreme Webbing which can be stitched on and is much simpler an more versatile than grommets.
I then built a frame to tent the cover and protect the boat from rain.

I also bedded the chocks and the cleats I made out of reclaimed cherry wood.

And set up all the toggles to hold down the floorboards that make them removable to access the plugs and possibly to store some water or sand balast below.

Finally I stitched together a dozen sand bags to weigh down the edges of the cover so that I don’t have to rely on straps as much to keep a constant tension when the boat is in storage.

And then just as I called a bunch of friends to help me lift the boat onto the trailer and make room for the spar making… New COVID-19 restrictions came into force and I had to call it off. I’ll have to wait a little longer to get it out closer to the water in the boat yard.
2020-12-10