Thread: New Goat Island Skiff in Brooklyn, NY

Your first sail sounds like a real blast, Al, and your Goat is very very pretty--much more so than a REAL goat.

MIK--Please tell us more about the bungee cord in place of reef nettles.

What is the bungee cord secured to when you reef?

Wow, all these Goats hitting the water is so wonderful! Awesome!

Congratulations, she looks wonderful. Don't worry about the leech. Reefed like that is not the best, but you'll get it right. I note your yard is bending a lot too so is a bit like mine and needs to be stiffer. Not to worry about it now though, just enjoy sailing her. She's so pretty on the water.

Originally Posted by alzuger

Here is a choice parting shot.

Choice shot indeed. Yes folks, that IS the fabled Empire State Building in the background.

Al, you should make it a goal to sail past the tip of Manhattan and get a photo of your Goat and the Statue of Liberty. ""Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... Your home-built, Australian-designed, Global Internet supported, tempest tossed Skiffs..." etc. etc.

Congrats!

When I stayed with Al in New York last year - a lightning visit of 2 days .... I wondered where the Empire State and the Chrysler building were. I, pushed for time, went into the city to see MoMA and get a little bit of the "smelly essence of New York"

That is as Lou Reed put it once - he actually lives there - he does too and we both love the city, so lets call it poetic license - not a slur.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik...7622549598535/

But I was in the concrete canyons and using hte subway. However on the morning I left Al took me to see his workshop and his PDRacer - you should see the height of the wall he drops the boat down!

Then Al kindly walked me over to the subway. When we were walking across the bridge ... this was close to the view in hte pic above.

"there they are" I said to myself.

Which goes to show ... when you travel ... you can't see everything. I think the Polish sector of Brooklyn where Al lives and works is a good swap - the feeling is so different from anywhere in OZ. Great feeling- really different dynamic in that community.

Great Thai Restaurant just up the road too.

MIK

MIK

BTW I have tried to find the eBay seller who sold the dacron byy the yard. I lucked out.

sail cloth dacron items - Get great deals on Crafts, Collectibles items on eBay.com!
the 5.5oz is a bit heavy, but would be ok.

In Oz
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f34/sa...ppliers-81871/

Also most sailmakers sell cloth - yellow pages.

I don't know why that didn't come up for me when i searched. Thanks Mik

John used a 4.9 oz and had a tough time sewing through it...it my not be too heavy to use sailing, but may be too heavy for some of our sewing machines.

--Clint

Thanks MIK,
It was a real treat to put you up last year, I'm glad I could share my little corner of the world with you for a while.

I just want to say again how much fun and satisfying this process has been. Every time I look at that boat I think about how much fun the building and learning process had been. Also all the input from everyone on the forum has made for quite an education about something I am very much a novice in. This is a great community full of spirited and interesting people who have a great deal of knowledge and constructive advice to offer. Seeing everyone else's builds and reading about their how they did everything allowed me learn a great deal more than if it had been just me and a set of plans. All of the friendly advice and easy consultation with the designer has been invaluable. I have a number of kinks to work out, I think I might have a pin hole leak or too, but all of that will get figured out when i finish out the interior next week. I have a very close friend's wedding to attend in Nova Scotia this weekend so I have had to put boat stuff aside for a bit because I am finishing up making their wedding rings! When I get back next week though, I'm going to try to push through the home stretch and try to get some real sailing under my belt.

Also about the Dacron, it is tough stuff, and I pretty much burned out the drive belt on my sewing machine doing my sail, but the price is right. I really had fun sewing up the sail, and considering to materials cost, even if it isn't totally perfect i cant complain too much.

Anyway everyone, thanks for all the great advice and guidance.
I'll put up some more pics soon.
-Al

Aw Shucks.

Actually it is real plus sum game here - so much to be learned from everyone ... I promise you that it is no chore for me either.

MIK

So I just got home from epoxy coating my gunwales and was checking Christophe's blog and thinking about something MIK said about there only being 6 screws in the GIS and I realized I screwed something up. I dont know how, and I feel pretty stupid about it, but there it is, I did a dumb thing!


Check out Christophe's forward bulkhead. . .


Now check out mine


Something missing?

Now look at the aft bulkhead. . .


And mine,


Did I mention I'm pretty much done? I think I'm missing some sticks! Crap!

So MIK, what is the word? On my test sail she was fine, how much strength am I compromising? Should I shoehorn some wood in there, or just see how the spartan framing system works? Did I mention I have nice fat fillets on all the interior joints?

Oh boy! how did i end up doing this? Guess I should cut some more wood this weekend.

(holding my head low) -Al

If it makes you feel any better, I never put in the 6 screws... and I don't think Bruce did either, or others... You can save $ on the screws.

This is not a deal killer, you can do this. You have the technology and the skills. It's only a little bit of wood. The BH2 side arms are important, I made mine skinny and Mik and Clint made me go back and recut them to spec since the boat could take an impact here.

You're gonna be OK man! You're gonna be OK!



yay boatbuilding! Now go make us proud!

EDIT: Don't take out the nice fillets, just groove or trim the new BH side arms to fit around them with a plane. Scratch up the area where the arms will be placed to increase gluing area with your sander/dremel tool/whatever. Glue in place.

Yes Al, the side arms must go in. However, no problem, you can install them now as Christophe described.

As for the screws, I inadvertantly left mine out, but MIK has explained why they are in the design, so make sure you install them, OK?

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/g...ml#post1208563

Howdy Chaps,

I am thinking about this one ...

The purpose of the side arms was mostly to make sure the gunwale didn't distort the side of the boat as everything was bent together.

Al has got past that point. Now the gunwale is completely built up it is hugely strong.

At least for most imaginable uses.

In a way, the most likely type of failure is if the sides get a really big hit - REALLY big - the corner of the buoyancy tank might punch through the ply. The side arm, if present would be broken, but it would probably distribute the load past the corner so the ply wouldn't break.

What I was saying about fracture modes. The side arm would probably only really become effective in a big hit.

The other possibility is the boat might tend to twist a bit when sailing. If that happened I would be pretty keen that they went in.

Best wishes
Michael