Please visit our home site at www.TRILOBOATS.com.

Anke and I live aboard WAYWARD, and wrote about it's design and construction at ABargeInTheMaking.blogspot.com.

Access to the net comes and goes, so I'll be writing in fits and spurts.Please feel free to browse the archives, leave comments where you will and write... I'll respond as I can.

Fair winds!

Dave and Anke
triloboats swirly gmail daughter com

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Plywood Construction for Less

 

Popeye Character by E.C. Segar

A vessel should be built as cheaply as possible. 
But no cheaper.

-- Adapted from Albert Einstein


Plywood Construction for Less

If we choose to build in plywood, before long you'll hear the statement: You'll be building with marine plywood and epoxy, of course. Both are fine materials and considered to be state-of-the-art.

But... here's where I find myself after three decades of boatbuilding for full-tie living aboard / cruising in the Pacific NorthWest (rainforest).


Marine Ply vs ACX

Marine plywood (MP) is AA (meaning both sides are nearly flawless), should be free of voids, have plies of equal thickness and relative more plies for any given thickness. It's a available in a number of species, each of which have a suite of virtues. The result is a stronger panel for its thickness when compared to plywoods of lower standard along any of these vectors.

The curious thing is that MP has mostly enabled boats to be built which are adequately strong, but lighter - using thinner marine plywood than if using lesser plywoods. Lighter means easier to drive toward a vessel's hull speed for a 'faster' boat. Except when using extreme methods the weight savings are slight for most cruisers.

In other words, the high price tag for marine ply buys 'speed' within a very narrow range (let's say from 0 to 4 - 8 knots). This is important for racers, but not nearly as much for the rest of us. 

ACX (one near flawless side, one OK side and eXterior glues) of decent species (fir, various pines, spruce and cedars) should last about as well as all but the most specialized MPs).

From ACX, we can build a strong, potentially long-lived vessel for far less cash outlay.

If we can personally pick through piles of ACX and have located a vendor with generally decent stacks, we can:

  • Check for voids. Use a wire to assess edge gap depths... shallow knots are easy to fill, deep voids may be injected with glue.

  • Check for an odd number of plies. Even numbers double interior veneers... in case of outer veneer failure, these are transverse and weak. Most 1/2in house sheathing plywood is 4 ply.

  • Check for even ply thickness. Reject outer veneers which have been over-sanded.

  • Check for general damage and irregularities. Reject as needed. If you know how much of a sheet you'll be using, damage can be allowed in offcut areas.
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NOTE: When going through stacks, consider being scrupulous about re-stacking. You'll not only be welcome back, but you'll get a lot more help from appreciative, unpissed-off staff.


Epoxy vs PolyUrethane

Epoxy Resin is amazing stuff. Water-proof and solvent resistant once cured. Small molecules penetrate well and make the most of micro-surface areas. Various additives alter its properties for a wide range of uses. Its application is well understood and documented... although winging it is not recommended, with a little research and discipline, even beginners can get good results.

But it's expensive, toxic (mainly skin contact while wet), generates a small mountain of waste, requires special, hazmat disposal. 

While plastic (bendy), epoxy is not elastomeric (stretchy). 

Here's the rub: while most modern construction adhesives exceed wood fiber strength by a large margin, that wood fiber strength is the limiting factor. Merely plastic adhesives can point- and edge-load wood fiber until it gives, loading the next fiber in line. Elastomeric adhesives spread the load over a (small) region, allowing wood fibers to act together for much elevated failure thresholds.

We do continue to use epoxy in small amounts, mostly for minor repair. But it's down to a trickle.

PolyUrethane (PU) and Liquid PolyUrethane (LPU) are moisture activated, waterproof and solvent resistant when cured. 

LPU expands as foam to fill gaps. This is handy so long as we recall that expanded foam is considerably weaker than the unexpanded, non-elastomeric glue film. LPUs have a quick turn-over time that can be freaky, but helps move the project along.

PU is gap filling but does not expand but is highly elastomeric. Not all are created equal, however, so check the specifications of your candidates! Before cure, it can be thinned with mineral spirits, turpentine and various oils. This makes it more compatible than epoxy with oil / pine tar finishes (we've found that it has considerable adhesion over oiled wood, especially when thinned a bit... fasteners are primary in these cases, however, on a schedule to take the full, expected load). PUs tend to have long working times (varies with brand, temperature and humidity)... this is a mixed blessing, depending on the task.

Encapsulation vs Breathable

Encapsulation means sealing the hull completely with a waterproof, usually composite barrier (fabric, resin, primer, paint). Great system. But waterproof isn't proof against hard knocks. Dings let water in, and it can't easily get out. A season of haul-out for thorough drying is advised, with solid springtime maintenance on its heels. For full-time liveaboards in a wet environment, it's a long-shot.

The old, reliable method is oil and pine tar. It wipes on in the minutes of dry between days of rain and can be done piecemeal. It's water resistant from the moment of application. It breathes and moves with the wood.

It's not only cheap, but can be made DIY.


Conclusions

Here's our current thinking for less expensive construction. We've tried most of this on one scale or another, and find ourselves returning and doubling down.

  • Select ACX plywood - Fir if available. If laminating, A sides out.

  • LPU Glue for lamination - LPU has good adhesion in close contact and foams up with less of adhesion to fill voids, but even this lesser bond is considerable. We don't use LPU for small area jobs, however, as it has frequently failed in these cases (non-elastomeric). Consider its use for some bulkhead framing (which can be wider area), backed up by fasteners.

    Brands include Gorilla Glue and less expensive AkFix.

  • PU Glue for high-stress bonds - Chines, bulkhead / transom edges, deck-hull-joins can be made with chine-log construction and/or tape-and-glue methods (similar to epoxy, with PU thinned for tape saturation).

    Brands include 3M5200 (the gold standard, but expensive) and DAP PU Construction Adhesive (much cheaper and seems indistinguishable in practical performance on wood).

    NOTE: One advantage of PU is that it acts as a gasket, even with near-zero adhesion (contact using fasteners, say). Being elastomeric, it is compressible to create a water barrier. In these cases, any adhesion is gravy.

    NOTE: We haven't tried it, but think that PU in tape-and-glue should be a good match for copper bottoms with mechanical fasteners. Epoxy and tape doesn't seem like it would be as resistant to water penetration as it wouldn't likely form a happy gasket around fastenings for copper. Could be wrong on this, but it's an expensive experiment.

  • TiteBond III for sheathing - Especially with a fabric matrix, this is relatively inexpensive and easy to apply while producing a durable, waterproof barrier that is easy to maintain and repair. Topcoat with primer and paint.

    NOTE: We're about to try concrete slurry with a fabric matrix for deck sheathing. Hoping for low cost, longevity and good footing while avoiding paint topcoat. Will keep you posted with results! Might even work for the hull above and below the waterline (though we won't be trying that).

  • Oil / Pine Tar for sealing - Without a fabric matrix, these (in various Boat Soup proportions and recipes) are inexpensive, can be applied in a wide range of conditions and results in a breathable finish (moisture can come and, importantly, go!).

    We're trying a primer coat of tung oil (we've read that it's more resistant to mildew than linseed oil... so far so good) with  10-20% pine tar (can be purchase inexpensively at agricultural supply stores as treatment for animal wounds) and thinned by turpentine as conditions require (We're building in winter. Again.).

    The top coat can range from 50-100% pine tar. In the interior, we'll try furniture wax over the primer coat for the interior for a wipe-down finish.

Last Thoughts

One conjecture from George Beuhler that rolls around my head is the use of asphalt roofing tar for lamination. He noted that it's very adhesive once set (most volatiles evaporated). It would be far less messy between sheets of ply!

We've used it with success for various small jobs around the boat. Once set, it can be painted with latex paint without bleeding. White paint helps keep it cool and solid in (at least our PNW) sunny weather. On decks it can be topcoated with aluminamized trailer paint with a slight stipple for good footing.

A last possibility we toy with is using trunnels (wood 'nails') rather than metal. They're time / labor intensive, but superior in almost every other respect. Maybe in our next youth.

Lots of savings possible if building out-of-the-box!

Sunday, October 27, 2024

Perfect vs. Good

 

From Adam Bager's post The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good
 


Perfect is the enemy of good.

- Voltaire


Perfect is the enemy of done.

- Catherine Carrigan


Perfect vs. Good


Scant on wherewithal, experience, knowledge and wisdom. Rich in dreams and hope. Foolish youth embarked into a sun yet on the rise.

We sailed off the charts and beaten paths, beyond the lights and markers. Back ways through reef and slough. Up nameless rivers. Between scattered towns.

*****

It all began with a set of chisels…

They've arrived!!

We’d have flipped for it, but Anke loves opening packages, so she always wins.

A cut here, a snip there. Some eager shucking of wrapper, and a well-made cardboard box was revealed to our greedy eyes. We could smell the cherry blossoms brushed over an industrial green background. They framed a spare script writen in bold, black strokes and arranged in vertical columns.

Kanji… Japanese.

Flushed with anticipation, we canted the lid slowly back on its paper hinge, with each a hand on one corner to share this moment of discovery. 

There! Lying in eight parallel compartments, each aglow with a rainbow sheen of oil. There they lay. Our beautiful set of temple builders’ chisels lying side by side.

Their lemony, heart centered, box-wood handles were steel ringed and socketed. We could see the darker line of steel edge we knew to be hardened, bonded to a laminate of polished metal visible as a sinuous line across the just-so bevel .

Trembling, Anke reached out her hand to lift one, turning it over to expose the underside hollows… Hollows! …that had been ground into their lower face. An ancient method, we had read, to reduce friction while paring.

These chisels were no ordinary tools. They were fit to build homes for the gods! 

Nor were they cheap. For us, they represented a significant investment in our future afloat. As sailors and masters of our own vessels, we would see to their needs as they would see to ours. 

BRAMBLE, a clinker-built British life-boat, was our first home together. She had been converted to a sailing cruiser sometime in the dim past. We had bought her as-is, hoping to learn, through her, initial sailing and boatwright skills. A strategic stepping stone on the way to a proper yacht.

She was in need of serious work. Now we had serious tools. 

Reverently, we took up the chisel appropriate to the task. A gentle, forward pressure and a feather of larch curled upward and back upon itself. Devoid of effort, this magical tool glided forth to do its work. 

Straight and true and clean and — TINK. 

Hmm… that sounded like we hit something. It sure felt like we hit something. And… a gnat-sized chip now marred our previously perfect edge!

We glared accusingly into the cut and a tiny, metallic glint sneered back. It was the jaundiced yellow of a coppery wire strand, souvenir of some long-ago brushing.

Many hours with a stone (finest waterstone, of course) elapsed. Many timorous taps with the special mallet backed the hollows away from the edge, proportional to the material we’d removed. The edge was restored!

Well. To spare you agonizing repetition, our very next efforts met with the same INSUFFERABLE results.

We traded our beautiful chisels to an overjoyed boatwright (who dealt in new construction with only the highest grades of wood) for a plain set of framing chisels. Cheap, robust and easy to maintain the edge.

*****

In hindsight this trade was our first entrance into 'the real world' where perfection isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's not bad in itself, but more like a guideline, really.

Perfect is elusive, fragile and an end-in-itself. Good is at-hand, rough-and-ready and gits 'er did.

It's a choice.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Learning to Trust Myself

Kyūzō from Seven Samurai
by Akira Kurusawa


I wish someone would give me a whole box of those sharpening guides and gizmos... so I could have the pleasure of dumping them overboard!

-- Dynamite Payson (as remembered)

Learning to Trust Myself

I'm one of those guys who spends an inordinate amount of time trying to find the easy way forward. Sometimes, this effort pays handsomely. Other times, I waste my effort in attempting to fix what ain't broke.

At present, we're building a boat in at least semi-traditional style. That is to say, it's plywood, but fastened  and bedded -- rather than glued -- together. Mostly. The critical joinery must be carefully and correctly shaped without reliance on modern, gap-filling adhesives. This calls on skills which are rusty at best and at worst heretofore unacquired.

Two cases in point...

Rolling Bevels

Rolling bevels are a cut along an edge where the bevel is not constant, but rather rolls along a gradient between known angles. This kind of loosey-goosey process is terrifying to my ordered mind, and I have successfully eliminated them from TriloBoat construction.

We once were drafted into a professional effort to roll a bevel along a long, thick, expensive plank. One pro ran the plank through a bandsaw while another called out angles marked at intervals along the plank. The angle of cut was changed by angling the plate with a protractor/handle arrangement. Our job was to shift the handle "slowly" and "smoothly", transitioning between the angles being called out.

I mean, c'mon! I can call out numbers as they slide by me with one eye covered. But to make the correct transition? THAT is a pro job foisted upon us amateurs.

But now, we're faced with rolling bevels in our own build, on our own petard.

Back to first principles: We basically have two, parallel faces. A fair curve along one edge is known from the plans. We know the edge angle at several points along that curve and also that they are increasing -- slowly and smoothly -- at known points along its length. Hmm. So if we figure out (by a simple lofting) the offset each angle makes across the thickness of the piece and plot those points on their stations, we can draw a second fair curve on the second face. Plane the edge to meet the two curves and voila! The perfect curve, de-terrified.


Ply Scarfs

For various (probably trivial) reasons, we chose to scarf the ply sides together rather than use our usual butt-straps. Conditions dictated 8in scarfs for 3/4in plywood.

Now there are an endless number of jigs possible for this, but they take time, materials and brainpower likely exceeding the job itself (in our one-off case).

First we tried the method we used on SLACKTIDE... step each sheet back 8in, fix a 2x4 runner to our circular saw to bridge the 'steps' and, with the salient depth set to 3/4in, have at.

Having at means scoring along at about 1/8in intervals, knocking that thin wall out with the blade and, using intact steps to support the 2x4 and saw, side-sweeping the flat with the tangent of the blade.

This works, but is strenuous going. I took it in stride 16 years ago, but am huffing and a-puffing, now! Worse, unlike in SLACKTIDE, our present ply finished rough with this method.

Oh well, score the steps less frequently and use the planer to the depth they indicated. But, hmm... that turned out rough, too. What's more, I did 99% of the job with the planer by eye, then carefully removed the last smidgeon guided by the scoring.

Conclusion? Try it by eye as the sole means. Result? Better results in half the time with only a quarter the effort.

In short, I'd have save myself a lot of time and trouble, wear and tear if I'd trusted myself from the beginning. Sure, there's a learning curve, but no worse than more involved methods.

NOTE: We use LPU (Liquid PolyUrethane), a modern, gap-filling adhesive, for ply scarfs, so the matching planes don't have to be utterly perfect... just good enough.

*****

We d0 need to be clear on the principles and constraints involved. I'm not talking Blind-Man's Bluff, here. There is a certain amount of letting go and winging it, but that lies in our increasing control of our bodies first, and of our tools as extensions. 

We have the luxury to inform ourselves from past masters and present. We have the luxury to practice on scrap. We can Assess, Address and Appraise.

So... ready, set, practice, go and get 'er did!


Friday, August 30, 2024

Lofting Low

 



Everything should be made as simple as possible.
But not simpler.

Albert Einstein


Lofting Low

Being naturally lazy, I've spent an inordinate amount of mental energy on making boat-building easier. Over the years, whole swathes of the process have been successfully dumbed-down toward small enough bites for Anke and me to chew. Economical in time, space, money and materials.

One such swathe is is the process of lofting a vessel. 

'Lofting' is laying down the lines which define the shape of the vessel and some its components. All the individual lines need to agree with each other, meaning extensive cross-referencing and nudgings until they do. This is a finicky process, involving patience, focus and good spatial visualization.

Generally, this is done full-size or at some large fraction thereof. The resulting vessel is 3D (three-dimensional), but the lofting is generally laid down in 2D... done on a flat expanse called the lofting floor. Often, it was located in a loft under the roof of the building shed... hence the name.

Still with me?

Okay, let's take a survey of things we need:

  • A lofting space - This is generally in addition to the construction space and preferably stays available throughout the build. The lofting floor should be out-of-the-way, amply sized, smooth, sheltered and hopefully warm.

  • Esoteric skills - Lofting isn't rocket science, but neither is it run-of-the-mill. We need to understand the specification of points and lines as they relate to the plans, the techniques for laying them down, fairing, correcting and coordinating and further techniques for taking them up again to apply to our growing vessel and its parts.

  • Special tools - The more complex the lofting, the more tools we will need. Splines, ducks, tacks, pencils (of various colors?), spiling (taking the pattern of a curved or otherwise complex shape) plus related tools... and so on.

  • Time - A fair amount of it, especially if this is our first rodeo. Especially if the vessel's shape is complex. Especially if the loft itself must be built.

I can't count the number of times I've bemoaned this list, only to have someone tell me how simple and easy it all is. Only problem is that I've done it and it isn't.

Let's see what can be done to ease our way...


Simple Vessels in Sheet Materials

The first step is to simplify the problem.

Sheet materials generally lie flat or follow a section-of-cylinder or section-of-cone. Vessels built from them are a subset of shapes which - as a class - are generally much easier to loft and build.

NOTE: Sheet materials may also be tortured into compound curves but that ain't entirely simple, neither!

Simple vessels with fewer and simpler curves are easier to loft and build. In this post and lead image, I attempt a rough hierarchy of vessel shape complexity.



Lofting Space

Clearly, if we can take the loft out of lofting, we're ahead of the game.

Phil Bolger with Dynamite Payson popularized Instant Boats in their book(s) of the same name. A key feature is that the lines are laid down (lofted) directly on flat panels (e.g., bottoms, sides, decks and components) before bending into shape. Such lines are said to be expanded.

Following this practice, one eliminates the separate lofting floor. Time and potential errors are saved as most lines are directly cut to shape the panels (no transfer from loft to materials).

In our (flat and rockered bottom) builds, we've taken to building the bottom first, in sections which are finished, flipped and joined. While still flat, we use this structure as a building platform for bulkheads, sides and other components. Once ready, we assemble the structure building upwards from the bottom. This saves flipping a vessel that has been built inverted.


Esoteric Skills

By this point, the 3D shape of the vessel has been chosen and designed for low complexity. Required skills are accordingly much reduced. 

Spatial visualization is far less taxed. Cross-references are minimal and straight-forward. Curves are simple and simply faired. Corrections are mostly limited to point control (vs the correction and coordination of interrelated lines).

Design can go a long way toward easing or eliminating spiling. Box-Barge/Scows, for example are self-rectifying (if the edges meet, they pull themselves into square). Their parallel sides and dead-flat bottom sections mean 'house-carpentry' for most of the hull (no spiling at all!).

In TriloBoats, the use of whole and simple fractions of sheets mean laying out and cutting are held to the minimum, with attendant reductions in waste.


Special Tools

While a few special tools will likely be necessary in any hull shape more complex than the simple box, simplifying holds them to a handful.

In particular, simple curves allow stiffer splines that are generally three point curves (two control points - one toward each end - plus one somewhere in the middle. Unlike the more sophisticated tools for fairing complex curves, simple weights over a sharp corner suffice (of a plank, say, or paperback book).

Design can often help here, too - employing simple rectangles and arcs of a circle - to eliminate splines and rolling bevels.


Time

Everything discussed here has saved time. Time, time, time, time.

Lofting space comes 'free' with the vessel being built. This is (infra)structure right at hand (no round-trip to the loft, looking for a clue).

Simpler lines are laid down once with straight edge, simple spline and radius, and rarely 'taken up'. Cuts are made directly along these lines. Spiling is reduced.

At the extreme end (box-barge/scows) much time is saved in layout, cutting and squaring up the hull. Spiling, most bevels and all rolling bevels are reduced or eliminated.

Bolger never liked the term instant boat, but we can sure edge closer!


*****

Nothing I've written here is in disparagement of lofting or the complex end of vessel space. I love those Curvy Dogs! I respect those who lavish their skill, time, energy and passion in every aspect of their construction.

But like I said, I'm lazy. What's more...

I'd rather be sailing!







Thursday, July 18, 2024

Sailing in Place

 





Book Release!

Sailing in Place has gone live at Amazon (yeah, I know, but it's a start 😖 ). Both a Kindle version and paperback are available, and I'm working toward .epub and PDF versions to be made available at TriloBoats.com.

This is our first book and serves as introduction and background to our planned series, Sailing Simple: Means and Mindset, to which we'll be adding as time rolls on. Each new title will be a themed collection of updated posts from this blog (we've learned a lot over the years) extended with new writing.

Sailing in Place revolves around our life on the water; how we think about it and approach its challenges. It's not a memoir, though we spin some yarns. No nuts-and-bolts how-to, though the hardware shows. We hope, rather, to convey a taste of the flavor and flair that goes with sailing engine-free in a place of overwhelming beauty.

The blog has been a great place to share much of what we've learned over the years. But it has organizational limitations... it's not been easy to tie related posts together into larger themes.

Thanks to you all for reading along with us since... what?... 2011! We've enjoyed sharing what we've been given and meeting many of you online and a few in person. 

Here's hoping that you're enjoying the cruise as much as we are!




*****

For those of you who read Sailing in Place and feel inspired to do so, your honest rating and/or review at Amazon is most appreciated! 

Monday, July 8, 2024

Wood Heat for the Lazy

Spike in the Log 


Pulled from the Log


EROEI – Energy Return On Energy Invested


Wood Heat for the Lazy

It’s often said that wood is the fuel that warms us twice. But that’s understated!

Lessee…


  1. Locate, fall and limb tree (standing dead and dry).

  2. Buck into stove-length rounds.

  3. Split to various sizes..

  4. Transport to home.

  5. Stack (store) handy to stove.

  6. COOK and/or HEAT.

  7. Clean stove (periodically).

By my count, it warms us seven times! On our waterborne home, this omits fetching wood in from the woodshed. And I didn’t even mention greenwood seasoning (drying 2 to 3 years)!.

All this represents a considerable amount of energy invested in the energy returned for desired cooking and heating.

Similar to cost/benefit analysis, EROEI is the ratio of the amount of energy we get from a given energy expenditure; the bang for our energetic buck. Without doing any math, it urges us to think about our energy inputs, outputs and benefits in relation to costs. It’s an orienting concept. High EROEI is good; Low EROEI is less good. EROEI = 1 is pointless; EROEI < 1 is a downward spiral.

For fuels such as diesel, gas or electric, our personal EROEI may appear lesser, but money must be made and spent with all the energy investments that requires of us. The equation is more complex, perhaps, but pertains, nonetheless.

From our point of view, a few hours passed weekly in beautiful woods and useful exertion  in return for energy independance has been a good bargain. It has gotten us off our lazy butts and into the wider world. Our blood flowing and our backs strong. But as we age and our store of individual energy diminishes we’re looking ahead. 

What follows are a handful of approaches, resources and tactics aimed at increasing our return and reducing our investment for higher EROEI.



Smaller Volume plus Insulation

Insulation is a lesson we learned better late than never. Higher R-value hull and overheads with double-paned windows have become our standard practice. 

Now we’re looking to reduce volume. The smaller a space to heat, the less energy return is required, which in turn lowers our necessary energy investment (for heating, but also for row/sailing and maintenance).

In WAYWARD (our present boat), the living space is 20ft x 8ft x 5ft in the main, plus a trunk cabin and hatch that end up totalling about 1000ft3. The boat we’re now building for our dotage will be 12ft x 4ft x 4ft plus a small galley extension to total about 250ft3. 

We’ll have only a quarter the volume to heat!


Rocket Stoves

It’s said that the energy lost in woodsmoke is nearly half the total of unburnt wood. Rocket Stoves burn that smoke, reducing wood demand accordingly. With a quarter the volume to heat and (about) half the wood per unit of heat, we’re already talking around 1/8th the required energy investment for the desired outcome.


Furthermore, they reduce or eliminate energy invested in points 1-4 from our list above.


  1. Target small dead limbs – Thumb to wrist size covers cooking to heating. This eliminates whole tree felling and brings the dead limbs of many otherwise living trees online. In our forests, there is a super-abundance of limbs in this range, both among lower branches and windfallen. As a bonus, our coniferous limbs are sap rich near the bole for extra energy density.

  2. Process to length – All methods (see below) are much easier with small diameters than bucking sound wood. Since there is no stove box, we can use longer pieces, reducing the number of cuts.

  3. No splitting! – This is especially helpful as long-fibered spruce, generally our most practical firewood, resists splitting (which make it great for spars).

  4. Transport – Because gathering is such light duty, we can typically keep up by gathering a small amount on our daily ventures on shore, spreading effort over longer time. In our case, the heavy packs we’ve been using over treacherous footing constantly threaten strain or sprain… smaller loads are fail-safer.

These points are hard to quantify, but further increase our EROEI to a substantial degree.


Alternatives to Sawing

Sawing wood is hard work, even with a blade that is well sharpened and set (a process of considerable energy investment!). Nevertheless, it’s the least effort for bucking up rounds which are sound and of larger diameter, and/or of a tough species. For small diameters, however, other methods are faster and take less effort. As a bonus, since small stuff is less stable for sawing, the saw can skitter dangerously… other methods, while not carefree, are generally a degree fail-safer.


  • Lop – A good set of ratcheting anvil loppers (for dry wood) makes quick and easy work of any limb within its range.

  • Chop - With an ax, hatchet or hatchet/maul and a hardspot (stump or log) chop down perpendicular with a single strike on opposing sides (two, four or more according to difficulty) of a limb to create a weak spot (we’re not generally chopping through). Pull the end back to bridge between hardspot and ground and smack it with the back of the tool to break or use any of the following methods. It’s generally more efficient to first chop along the whole log, then break along in one go.

  • Break - Depending on diameter, species, soundness and dryness wood can be directly broken by hand or across a knee, tree, limb, rock, etc.. Holding to either side and striking at the breakpoint impact loads that point for usually good results (use caution to preserve your wrists against that same impact!).

  • Leverage - Leverage multiplies our power, greatly reducing energy invested. Look for a hard point and a fulcrum a little less than the desired length apart. Closely spaced trees or limbs work well, as do rock neighbors, crevasses and overhangs. Insert the stick with its end on the (further) hardspot and break point on the (nearer) fulcrum. Pry until broken. Sometimes it helps to break halfway, turn the stick 180deg and finish the other way.

  • Whack Job - This one only works with punky wood, but is fastest and very easy. Find a hardspot, preferably with a sharpish edge (rock, say). Swing the wood like a bat to impact at your desired break point. Momentum snaps the stick on contact. As with an axe, use effort to accelerate the swing but relax before impact (ride the end of the swing) to reduce shock to your joints.

  • Cudgeling - Again, pretty much for punkwood. Find a soundwood cudgel (usually about the size of a baseball bat), bridge the victim, and whop it in the middle to break. Watch out for flying ends!

All these methods can be mixed and matched as convenient. The ‘tool-less’ methods are especially helpful in the field for impromptu picnics, and help reduce long wood for a smaller, safer fire.

As you can see, the more brittle the wood, the easier it all gets. Which brings us to…



Punky Wood

Punky (rotting) wood has lost a portion of its energy content to oxidation… in effect, it is pre-burnt to a degree. But a goodly amount of energy remains. 

The benefit is that fermentation has weakened the longitudinal fibers, leaving it easy to break by any of the manual means or with ‘found’ tools. In minutes of light effort, armloads of firewood can be gathered with neither lop, chop nor saw. No tools to sharpen, transport or lose!!

While gathering, we look for the rather broad ‘Goldilocks’ point: not too firm, not too far gone. Light and dry. Well-aired in place or partially elevated above the ground, they dry quickly. The woods are rife with low-hanging dead- and fallen limbs in this state. Close to our fire, boat or dory is a plus.

Punkwood is consumed quicker than sound wood. Thicker diameters can be used to slow and cool combustion (which is proportional to engaged surface area). Where sound wood thin enough to break by hand burns away quick and hot, we can go for larger diameters in punky woods that burn cooler and last far longer. This is especially useful for even heat of a cool evening. Thick ‘uns also take up less storage volume than the equivalent mass in small stuff.

In our parts alders line much of the coast. This quick-growing ‘hardwood’ produces many dead limbs which go punky in short order. Other species such as poplars, aspens and birch are similar.

A couple of cons with this approach…

Compared to sound wood, punkwood requires more volume to transport, tend and store for any given amount of heat. Greater throughput means more ash and its clean-out. These energy investments weigh against its other gains.

While punkwood dries quickly, it absorbs water just as readily. In wet weather (which includes most of winter), it’s often too wet to use.

Still and all, for much of the year, it requires substantially less energy invested for energy returned. So low, in fact, that ‘bouquets’ of punkwood from our daily walks generally supply us with all the summertime wood we need.



‘Spikes’

Spikes are the pitchy roots of limbs from a rotten conifer trunk of pitch rich species (e.g., some pines, spruce, fir?). The pitch is energy dense AND preserves the spike AND waterproofs it… spikes are only ever surface-wet and dry quickly. The rest of the limb has usually rotted away leaving stove-length pieces.

Once the trunk of a fallen tree is fully soft, one can walk along it and harvest the limbs, pulling the spikes like carrots. Or walk along many creeks and beaches and simply pick up spikes (which don’t float) from trees long gone. A few days in the sun or behind the stove and good to go.



Bark

Beachcombed fir bark is a windfall, as fir only grows far to the south of us. Ranging from 1 1/2in to 6in thick and up to 6ft long, it is easily broken to length. Quite resinous, it resists absorbing water and dries quickly in any case. It charcoals quickly but lasts long, perfect for warming on a rainy day.

Alan and Sharie Farrell used mostly fir bark, especially in their later years. It became scarce as British Columbia logging receded, and this became quite a problem for them as time went on.

Fir bark works great in a fire-box. We haven’t yet tried it in our Rocket Stove, and I have my doubts. Too smoky? And the Rocket principle is a hot burn. 

But there are other applications…


Coppicing

Coppicing is the practice of cutting a swift-growing species (such as alders, willows, poplars and many fruit trees!) back to a stump trunk. New limbs spring up in their hundreds for sustainable harvest. It was commonly used for prolific woodlot fuel production on farms and commercial stands.

This approach looks to be a promising option for favorite spots…an arboreal guerrilla garden!


*****

There are many things we’ll miss about our current wood-range with oven. But I gotta say, its low EROEI won’t be one of them.


We’ll just have to find other ways to get our exercise!

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Wall Hangin'

 

A Wall-Flower's View


I was pretty far gone, but not so far gone that I thought anyone with half a toehold in reality would think what we were doing was a good idea.

-- Meg Rosoff


Wall Hangin'

For years we would scurry for shelter at day's end. Weather can come up from flat calm no matter the forecast, and we were afraid of the dark.

Over the years, though, we slowly got used to night sailing. Getting caught out gave us plenty of opportunities. With experience, anxieties ebbed. We learned that we could almost always see silhouettes and learned to navigate by them, the lead and echolocation. Anxiety slipped away.

We began to notice that exposed anchorings -- we call them wall hangs -- have their own attractions.

First of all, they're at hand. When the wind dies, we can most often get a hook or two down within fifty yards of shoreline. Often while it's still light and we can enjoy sunset and the last of the day.

And the view! One-eighty degrees of vistas open far and wide, unveiled by the close embrace of  cove or creek. 

The full palette of the boreal maritime rain-country waxes and wanes in intensity from distance muted greens, grays and blues to sunshot opalescences of vermilion and golds against bands of brilliant azures. Illuminated gulls like white fire against the sky, or their fuligin counterparts -- the crows and ravens -- like animated rents in the tapestry to the black, underlying void. Then dimming back to the more somber and twilit purples, perforated by stars uncounted as full dark descends.

Most nights the moon, crescent or gibbous, sails above us, illuminating cloud and fog to shades of ghostly pearl. 

And around us, the wider seaways come alive with bioluminescent script, eloquent of all that move within it; fish and kelp and wave and stone. Porpoise surging along in sprays of light, or the great whales fluking dazzlement in their wake.

We're not yet to the point that we sleep as well while wall hangin'. We doze with one ear cocked for the first ripple of wind. Best to be anchors-up and sailing before the wind comes on to blow.

But we're well compensated for these wakeful nights!


*****


A couple of observations...

  • Much of our coastline is steep-to, falling quickly off to unreachable depths. But for reasons unknown to me, there is often a ledge running along before the drop-off at around 2 to 10 fathoms. Kelp fringes tend to holdfast, along here, giving some indication of a spot to prospect at our preferred depths (about 7ftm max). Where the lead finds decent bottom, we have a contender.

  • Beware of rocks and reefs in this stretch, which are poorly charted, if at all... consider tapping around with the lead from the tender after getting a toe-hold, to confirm a clear spot.

  • Because this ledge is most often narrow, we often put out two anchors to limit swing inshore and along the ledge.

  • Consider setting a loose watch to check position occasionally... holding is unreported and likely to be marginal. We prepare to sail at the first breeze, though once awake and ready, may pause for breakfast at anchor if conditions stay light.