Thread: Another UK GIS (Gizzle in Hants)

Putting thoughts of the sail aside for now I need to crack on with the goat itself. I have scarfed together the thin oak strips that will be used for the gunwale capping and the starboard side was fitted today. I have to do one side at a time as there is never enough clamps!

I have also made the knees to fit at the stern and while there are a lot of angles to think about here they turned out pretty nice I think although I need to give them a sand and will round over the edges.

The pics are on my building blog (Tales of a Weekend Wood-Butcher)

It may be snowing in the UK (first decent snowfall this winter for us) but that doesn't stop the dedicated wood butcher. The knees and breasthook have been fitted and the gunwales have been planned down to size and rounded with a router. The middle seat is in the kitchen having been epoxy coated and will get another wet on tack coat before bed. Unfortunately it is far too cold to use epoxy in the garage at the moment so I need it to warm up a bit

Some nice pics and more detail here...

Tales of a Weekend Wood-Butcher

lastly, it looks like we have settled on a name, keeping it inside the family for now until launch

Great news! Keep it under wraps!

Loose Lips!

MIK

I have spoken on here before about moving from West epoxy to PEC for this project because I became fed up with the amount of amine blush and the cost of West. Having used PEC quite a bit (3-4KG) for bonding, filleting and coating I am looking again at an alternative. The PEC epoxy is easy to mix and use but is more viscous than would be ideal, heating the epoxy helps but when working in an unheated workshop on an unheated hull the epoxy soon thickens up. The biggest issue with PEC (and I have spoken to them about this) is the cure time, it just seems to take ages. I have tried using it for coating in a heated environment and that works fine but it still takes a much longer than the standard epoxy from West. When using PEC in the workshop it literally takes days to reach a full cure. Now if I was after an epoxy with a long working time and I was building during the summer or a in a heated workshop then PEC would be absolutely fine but for me as a home-user in a unheated garage in winter it just doesn’t quite stack up. Unfortunately PEC don’t make a fast or rapid version of their product but on the positive side their product did not produce amine blush, there was a small amount of blushing but significantly less than West.

So next up on the epoxy test will be Syntac EPAFD from reactive resins, having spoken to them I am going to try their “Rapid” and “Fast” hardeners. I am hopeful that the Rapid hardener will allow wet-on-tack coating of the Goat at cold temperatures (5-10 Celsius) this will hopefully allow up to three coats in a working day. I’ll report back on how I get on but so far I have been impressed with the knowledgeable staff and willingness to help.

Always great to find someone who actually provides good information.

Glad you mentioned them here.

Michael.

It has been a while since I last did an update here but I have posted a few pics on the blog.

Basically, she is done all bar the painting. The outside of the hull has had a couple of coats of a high-build epoxy primer that I started flatting down last night before I apply the International Perfection undercoat and top-coat. With a bit of luck I will get the undercoat on this weekend. All the paint has been bought (ouch) and it’s sitting in a box ready to go on

After many different thoughts about sails I have bitten the bullet and ordered a professionally built sail from a trusted local sail-maker (Sanders Sails) who I have used a number of times in the past. They have a lot of experience with building the Lymington Scow lugsails so my GIS sail is just a bigger version of the same. They are all set to go but holding off until I have finished making the yard and sent over the measured spar bend.

You have chosen well, ordering with Sanders Sails. Their Scow lug sails are superb. You may well have the finest Goat sail ever made.

Any chance you may launch in the safe waters of Keyhaven? I would love to see a Goat in the flesh and would be more than happy to help with setting up that lovely new sail if you want a second opinion on setting her up. I even have an empty dinghy space just now.

Well done,

Brian

Hi Brian,
Not decided yet where to launch but it's a possiblity, or I could bring it over one day and go for a sail. Never been to Keyhaven before as it's probably a bit shallow for my cruiser.

Cheers for the offer, G

Well, she now has some paint on the hull, two coats on the bottom and one on the sides so far. Here is a pic of the hull before I wet-sanded the hull sides ready for the second and final coat.

I have also fitted Alu flat bar (3x15mm) to the bottom runners to increase abrasion resistance but it’s not shown in the pic.

Finally I have had another crack at making the Yard. Some will remember that my first attempt ended up with a very bend yard and this was down to the Doug fir being perhaps a little more flexible than it should have been and me taking off a bit too much material. This time I have not taken as much off with the planer and measurerd the spar bend while I was doing it. Rather than recommended dimensions in the plans I have taken the back end of the spar down to 30mm round (rather than the recommended 28mm) and the front end is at 38mm (rather than the recommended 37mm). This has given me a spar bend of circa 45mm with a 10KG weight, with a bit of sanding to finish off the spar this may end up at 47mm or so which seems to be about correct as the average is around 50mm.

That’s all for now folks.

Your old yard is still valuable; I used mine for a pair of paddles (in progress). Keep up the good work!

[quote=Gizzle;1472294]

Finally I have had another crack at making the Yard. Some will remember that my first attempt ended up with a very bend yard and this was down to the Doug fir being perhaps a little more flexible than it should have been and me taking off a bit too much material. This time I have not taken as much off with the planer and measurerd the spar bend while I was doing it. Rather than recommended dimensions in the plans I have taken the back end of the spar down to 30mm round (rather than the recommended 28mm) and the front end is at 38mm (rather than the recommended 37mm). This has given me a spar bend of circa 45mm with a 10KG weight, with a bit of sanding to finish off the spar this may end up at 47mm or so which seems to be about correct as the average is around 50mm.

That’s all for now folks.

Good one George,

When you have it finally shaped and ready it would be great to get the bend figure, weight, any differences from the plan and add it to the data page for the goat island skiff.

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

When you have it finally shaped and ready it would be great to get the bend figure, weight, any differences from the plan and add it to the data page for the goat island skiff.

Sure, no problem Mik.

Wow, the boats on the trailer and the black mast looks sweet!

Quick question, on "setting up the GIS lug rig" page (Goat Island Skiff (GIS) - systems for lug sails and rigs - Michael Storer Wooden Boat Plans) there is a pic about half way down showing the ideal position of the boom. I can see that it should be 200-250 above the sheer line, but there is also a figure of 400mm. Is that 400mm from mast to the luff or 400mm to the front of the boom? I'm guessing that must me the luff? and we are measuring from the front of the mast?

I know this is all a bit hypothetical and will need tuning but it will give me a starting point for the first time on the water (that is hopefully not too far off).

Just in the process of ordering all the blocks for the boat, really impressed with the quality of the kit from Selden so I will probably go in that direction.

I really need to paint those rusty trailer wheels!