sailboat building in the garage....

[zeyang]

hi guys.
Im building/welding an alloy sail-.boat in the garage, ehh actually in a plastic tent next to the garage since the garage got too small... Its pretty cold in winter since its just a plastic tent, but at least it keeps the snow away. The garage is heated mostly by propane.

At the moment im working on casting portholes for the boat but dont possess much skills in foundry work so its a little trial and error process.

The Harrison L5 lathe is a little small (11 inch) for the portholes so im trying to stretch its limit by casting a faceplate to grab the outside rim of the porthole.

anyway, any other sailboat garage guys here?

Here are some pics..

Regards,
Ze

 

[nine4gmc]

That's pretty serious!!

 

[NASTYZEN]

Welcome to GJ!
I am very impressed by your Gigantic project. By all means, keep posting!
There's a lot of talented members here that could help you out with any questions on fabricating and welding.
Looks more to me like you could teach US, a thing or two though.

 

[Red Goat]

Holy **** Batman...thats cool!!!

 

[Haywood]

Wow, Noah would be proud!

How many months/years do you have into that so far?

 

[FunkyfullWidth]

That's not the sailboat I thought I'd be seeing... I pictured the sail boat from Tommy Boy...

 

[rsanter]

Now that is a sail boat
Way too cool

Let's see some pics from setting the keel and starting the framework

Bob

 

[zeyang]

Now that is a sail boat
Way too cool

Let's see some pics from setting the keel and starting the framework

Bob

Hi Bob
First, thanks for response guys.
Here is some technical info.
Its based on a 100 year old rescue boat. I found the drawings in the nautical museum, made by Mr. Archer in 1907. Of course he didnt have alloy back then, but he had ample amount of old forest, which i dont have, so i more or less duplicate everything in alloy instead, hence the lapstrake. Boat is 12 meter by 4.20 meter. deplacement around 20 tonns. (i hope) ballast (5 tonns) is inside lead bricks. (more or less melted into ingots already)

Here is a drawing of how it looks like:

 

[zeyang]

hi,
here are some pics during the planking steps. Boat is built upside down (welding down is easier) Then turn boat and weld down inside.
Tackwelding was done with a Lincoln Tig-welder, continous welding was a esab mig-welder.
Its plenty of welding, to get a nice wineglass shape.

ze

 

[zeyang]

Wow, Noah would be proud!

How many months/years do you have into that so far?

I started welding in 2009 in my sparetime, so its quite a few hours of work sofar .From around 2010 I got the splendid idea of getting help from wwoffers (im living on an organic farm, then i had to built even more infrastcture for volunteers also) Lots of good work have been done by unskilled volunteers.

ive been collecting tools and building infrastructure as I go. Still miss some tools. Would love to get a vertical mill now. It would have been quite helpful during the portlight casting project.

ze

 

[toyotadriver]

Wow!! VERY impressive!!

Would love to see more!

 

[zeyang]

Then some picture inside.
She will have 3 bulkheads. The far forward 1.5 meter is just storage for ropes etc. Then its the bathroom. which is more or less a wetroom where you can store raingear etc. Its a hatch on the port side. This room will have 2 portholes.
Further back is main cabin with a galley, chart-table and bunks for 4 people.
Far back is the captains cabin. with bunkbed for 2.

ze

 

[aps63]

All I can say is WOW!!!!
Looks amazing, are you building it for someone else or for yourself?

 

[geotek]

Wow that might be the most impressive build i've seen to-date on this site!

 

[zeyang]

All I can say is WOW!!!!
Looks amazing, are you building it for someone else or for yourself?

The boat is for own use. Or better, these days its more like a community project - travelling the world with those volunteers to help other organic farms and communities, hence SAILING-THE-FARM

z

 

[zeyang]

a few more pictures. mostly wannabe sea-gypsies
Tremendous help even if they dont have no boatbuilding skills whatsoever.

ze

 

[Brian R]

Go big or go home! Fantastic!

Where will you sail it? I've got a little place on the Chesapeake - stop by when you need a break from the Sea.

 

[lametec]

I have a moose sign like that in the garage.

 

[Professur]

What else have you sailed?

 

[zeyang]

What else have you sailed?

hi,

for my part Ive been mostly sailed smaller bermuda rigged sailboats. never been sailing a gaff-rigged sailboat before though..

Others who have been here, have been sailing everything from small mono hulls to big square riggers.
Plan is easy, get a core group of skilled captains who will be in charge of running the boat for x-amount of months each, so the boat is not so dependent on just one person to be in charge. hopefully then, these boat can be run as a community project around the world.
anyway. we'll see. first finish the boat...

ze

 

[rsanter]

I am impressed, anyone that can take that kind of project on and be getting it done is A-ok in my book

Go get em

Bob

 

[zeyang]

I have a moose sign like that in the garage.

The dept. of roads complain about loosing too many of those moose-signs
these 2 french girls got at least 2 of them.

ze

 

[zeyang]

Go big or go home! Fantastic!

Where will you sail it? I've got a little place on the Chesapeake - stop by when you need a break from the Sea.

Thanks, who knows Im pretty sure we have the maps of chesapeake already.

ze

 

[pfctblu]

Looks like a cross between a Bristol Channel Cutter and an Alajuela 38. Archer was probably way before them however. Also looks like a whole lot of sail up front. Is it just my eye or are you already planning on ways to handle the weather helm.

 

[Professur]

hi,

for my part Ive been mostly sailed smaller bermuda rigged sailboats. never been sailing a gaff-rigged sailboat before though..


ze

Same here. I was going to get a small Opti for the kids but the deal fell through. What alloy are you working with? I can't help but think that it's going to ring like a bell with each wave strike.

 

[zeyang]

Same here. I was going to get a small Opti for the kids but the deal fell through. What alloy are you working with? I can't help but think that it's going to ring like a bell with each wave strike.

its true. its just like a bell. so ive started to stuff the sidew with 10 cm noise insulation then a layer of plywood as inner lining.
(same stuff they use on offshore rigs in the north sea) hopefully it will be enough to keep noise and cold/heat out.
ze

 

[zeyang]

Looks like a cross between a Bristol Channel Cutter and an Alajuela 38. Archer was probably way before them however. Also looks like a whole lot of sail up front. Is it just my eye or are you already planning on ways to handle the weather helm.

colin archer probably got some ideas from others also. he won a drawing contest for rescue boats in 1880's.
when it comes to weather helm. i really dont have experience sailing these boats but there are a few sister ships out there. one thing i know is: these boats was meant to go out in all kind of bad weather so most of them are under-rigged. they probably sail best in bad weather also. those winter storm in northern norway is no joke. ( the coast of widows)
they were crewed by professional fishermen - ******** guys. This is long before they installed engine in these rescueboats so its pure sailing crafts.

the rescue service during that time was backed by by the same widows knitting socks for charity.
.. a hard life.

ze

 

[BoostAddiction]

I've never seen aluminum used in a lapstrake design before. Fascinating approach in terms of technology for an old design.

That's a lot of welding. At least you are using a MIG for that- I assume you are using s spool gun? TIG would be too slow for the miles of weld you probably have in that boat.

 

[MG30]

Simply amazing...!!!!

Jorge

 

[CreekWV]

Sweet build.

 

[kyle@hcb]

Neat!