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| Floating high! |
LUTRA - Genus name of river and sea otters of the family Mustelidae.
LUTRA Launched!
You'd think it would be getting easier with experience. Not sure it's gotten any harder, but it takes longer than we think and leaves us elated, but whupped each time.
Building one's own vessel - DIY - is a mixed bag.
On the one hand, it's a long sequence of tasks presenting varying degrees of challenge. Learning curves, supply chain foibles and material quirks, domestic and social duties and distractions... even - or especially - weather all conspire to prolong the ordeal.
On the other, we get exactly what we've dreamed and crafted into being, with a tailored fit no production vessel can match, and the care and attention no professional can afford.
A dream, a plan, a few tools, a pile of materials, skills acquired along the way, and stubborn persistence are all that are required.
And time. LUTRA has about 4 months of work in her for the two of us amateurs. Extend to about 6 1/2 months accounting for the copper plate - including stripping it off WAYWARD and some wasted time learning to translate 2D angle to 3D. Extend to 21 months accounting for all those detours I mentioned on the one hand.
We took a bit longer than necessary to launch her. Each boat is different, and when possible, we like to launch her by ourselves using tools we carry and materials that can be found anywhere in our cruising grounds. This time, we were mostly successful on both counts, but kind friends had to be dissuaded from lending their time and heavy machinery. We look kinda Luddite to most, but we have to be able to handle a potential move out there, and on our own. So we grunted and groaned our way to the water in only three days.
There's work left to go.
We'll spend the next month finishing out the interior, building a rocket stove and moving aboard. Then off to find spars a few miles from Tenakee. Then a few more miles to rig her. But it's now on our own time, and afloat.
The archipelago awaits!
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| First kiss o' the Sea |
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| Tender time Photo by Beret Barnes |
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| Towed by Friends Photo by Darcie Ziel |
Good looking boat Dave. Look forward to seeing her sail!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! Have spent months checking for updates, even started to worry the project had been abandoned. Now, there it is, sitting pretty.
ReplyDeleteAnd, finally, we get to see the transom.
Well done Dave and Anke. Lutra just looks right! Size and proportions are easy on the eye. Simple, elegant and boaty.
ReplyDeleteCheers, James
Hi Dave, I bought your plans for the 32ft cargo boat but couldn’t get hold of you via email. Is there another way? Cheers
ReplyDeleteHi,
DeleteEmail's still the best way. As I regain my breath, I should be better at keeping up.
Try me at triloboats swirly gmail daughter com?
I'm trying to check in every day going forward.
Dave Z
Beautiful design and build Dave. I think you've gone way past square boats and into just plain pretty lines designs. Its been a progression to perfection. Congratulations from the Hogfish and her crew.
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you would comment on how you and Anka moved LUTRA from land to sea? I regret not asking this question when you first published this blog, as I suspect far fewer of your faithful readers will read your response. Maybe the topic is worth its own article?
John
Hi John,
DeleteWe moved LUTRA up a small slope, a short ways (maybe 50ft) down a level road, turned her and then down a short (another 50-ish) access road and beach to the water. Took us about 12 hours of moving, then some waiting for the tide to come in on us.
We laid out planks and used about 3in rollers cut from the shed rafters and used a come-along and levers to move it along.
We wanted to do it by ourselves since we need to see how for if and when we need it 'out there'. This lets us refine techniques for a particular boat and check that we have all the necessary tools on board.
As it turns out, it's durn hard to turn down help. Three people couldn't be put off. One of them - our high-spirited friend - told a passerby, "I didn't really give them a choice." But it was clear that we could have handled it ourselves, so nothing lost to their generosity. 8)
Biggest point we learned was how to move the boat uphill, away from the shed which was preventing us from rotating the hull. We put a pole at one end to keep it from rotating toward the shed. We jacked the bow up and braced steeply angled planks reaching under the chine. When we let down, LUTRA's weight sliding down the incline gave a mighty shove away from the shed... about 8in per set. Three of those and we were on enough level to continue by lever. Once rotated, we lined up with come-along purchase and off we went.
That lesson would have been of great help when we were pinned against logs in LUNA, one winter episode!
Dave Z
Dave,
ReplyDeleteA photo caption from a previous post about LUTRA states "Rowing Cockpit from Forward
Longitudinal Seat/Lockers between Self-Bailing Decks". Could you explain "Self-Bailing Decks?" I don't see any scuppers?
How do you exit and (especially) enter the cabin while it's raining without getting the interior wet? What do you do with your wet rain gear?
Also, I wonder how you bent the chine angle irons (angle coppers?).
John
Hi John,
DeleteRE self-bailing: The scuppers are there, but small... they're one inch holes sized to fit skiff plugs (li'l expanding rubber thingies).
The self-bailing decks are sloped outboard and sit with about 15in under them at about 3in above the DWL. When sailing, we'll keep them closed. We need to install the emergency quick-dump scuppers against swamping. Probably come spring?
RE Dry Doings: Heh. We DON'T avoid getting some rain in. Just try to make it quick. The entryway areas have a weather-resistant carpet to take any that gets in. Our umbrellas are in handy reach from the companionway, so we can pop up some protection in a downpour, and stow them with the hatch drawn closed.
Wet rain gear goes on hooks at the extreme end of the cabin after a good shake. If really coming down, we can hang 'em at the Tabernacle (bungeed against wind) and wait for better times. On MUSTELID, it went way better than we'd feared... in fact, very little problem at all. No worse than on any other boat we've had (all had similar overhead hatch arrangements), and better than some.
RE Chine bending: Ha! We bent it to profile in about 15 minutes levering it under a log and thought, "Ain't we cool?!" Then spend a month trying to lever in 3D curves. Each threw the others out.
Finally, we wen't looking for inspiration and, at the local construction guy's shop, spotted a hydraulic pipe bender! A little fiddling and we got it working with angle. The ability to focus a controlled bend in a 2ft arc was a game-changer, and, by the end of the day had it shaped.
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So... livin' and learnin'!
Dave Z