Pixinguinha

This blog is starving for some music!!!

A lovely song by our great composer Pixinguinha, from the start of the XX century, sung by the lovely voice of Marisa Monte in company of our elegant master of samba Paulinho da Viola. I might have posted this video before. But I'm too lazy to check. Enjoy it anyway.

Pra você Dri....

Harriette

Here is a new, modern interpretation of a proa. It is called "Harriette", and it is designed by Rob Denney, maybe the most prolific proa designer of these days, beside Gary Dierking. This one was built by Doug Haines, in Australia. Just launched - Looks good to me.

Image by Doug

Mulatas do Gois

Carnival is approaching....

Carnival in Rio has many faces. There are the little bands in the streets, the so called "blocos de rua", there are the parties in traditinal clubs or hotels and there is the samba school contest in the Sambodromo with the great samba schools.

The samba schools are composed of many integrants, and each one has his moment of glory. I have reported already about the rainha da bateria. The are also the "porta bandeira", or flag holder, the "baianas", and the passistas. And there are the mulatas. Mulata is a generic word for a woman of coloured skin. The moment of glory of all mulatas is carnival, and one of the episodes is the election of the "Mulata do Gois", sponsored by the main Media channel in Brasil, O Globo. It speaks for itself if you're curious enough to go and see.

But I warn you: Despite the generous display of naked skin, this is not a maliciouos post. The carnival dress gives these gracious ladies a protection, much like the "flippers" of a mermaid.

So,... behave! Treat the cultural expressions of Brazil with respect. And I'm serious about that!!!

http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/ancelmo/vote/

Rainha do Mar

As I have reported, the New Years' Eve is one of the preferred evente to make an offering to Iemanjá, the Godess of the Sea.

But in Salvador, Bahia, the offerings occur on the 2nd of February. On this date a big celebration takes place, during which hundreds of people, all wearing white clothes, honour the "Rainha do Mar", or "Queen of the Sea".

This event will happen next week. I'll see if I can prepare a little vessel myself... seems I'm already busy enough, but,... where would we get, if a seaman doesn't have time anymore to worship the queen of the sea?

Preparing the Keel

Today I started preparing the keel to be mounted and glued to the hull. First I had to give it a little love from the plane, since the shape given by the boatbuilder was a little crooked. So, I first fixed that, and then coated it with epoxi. Once mounted and glued it will receive one layer of cloth. ... now, that I think about it... maybe it should be two? Just to make it more abrasion resistant? What if I sit up on the beach? Something to think about.

I also sanded the complete hull. After putting the keel, I'll start fairing with thikened epoxi. Thankfully, the hull is pretty fair already. I'll have to decide to what degree of "fairness" I'll want to bring the hull. A question of time and money.

Mercado de São Pedro

Since I'm not driving regularly to Niteroi anymore, to go boatbuilding, I do not have good source for fresh fish. And that is what I miss most about that time. So, this weekend we went to the Mercado de São Pedro, in Niteroi, the main fish market in our region. You get all sorts of fish there. And so we did!

Laminating - revised

Finally I got to add something to the boat!

On Sunday I managed to laminate both lateral extrusions, as planned. Experience is everything. Knowing what to do, how to do it and when, and being comfortable to handle all eventualities is something that comes only with repetition. Mentally going through all steps helps, but there is no substitute for own experience.

The epoxy resin has a gel-time of 30 minutes, which means, that you need to spread the resin evenly over the glassfiber-cloth within this timeframe. Still being inexperienced, and working on a complex surface with various planes made this a demanding task - which was accentuated by an exceptionally hot day, with an inclement sun burning on the roof over the lamination area. The radiation heat speeds up the gel-time of the epoxy.

I was not willing to give up another day of work and loose more time, so I went on with it. It was bit of a stressful operation. The first batch of epoxy heated up amazingly, and “gel-ed” within about 10 minutes! Now it happens that when you start laminating, you have to go all the way, there is no “PAUSE” button…

I was using the “wet layup” method, which I had learned with the boatbuilder. That means, that I roll epoxy onto the surface, then place the cloth over it, then roll epoxy over this again, and then squeegee it. This is a bit time-demanding, but works well on the almost vertical surfaces I had to do. Another drawback of this method is that the epoxy stays for longer time in the mixing bowl. Which means it heats up more, therefore cures faster…

Luckily I kept a cool head, and I had read the Gudgeon Brothers Book, lent by Gustavo, and learned there, that I could also use the “dry-method”, by which I just spread the epoxy over the layed-out cloth and then squeegee it. This goes faster and spreads the epoxy into smaller batches which keeps it cooler, extending the gel-time. But it doesn’t work on the vertical planes, because you can’t pour the epoxi.

Since the epoxy was gel-ing doubletime-quick, I adapted my methods and used both. The dry-method over the horizontal planes and wet-method over the vertical planes. This might have looked a bit hasty and clumsy, but worked well. And most important, the result was good. I managed to get a good lamination, and lost just a little bit of the first batch of epoxy.

I also marked the resin containers... just in case, you know...

Equilibre

Jeremie Fisher has built his pacific proa, Equilibre, in Martinique, in the Caribean. I very much admire his creativity of solutions and no frills approach. Due to the similar size of his boat to my Arpex project, I am very much interested in the results and learnings of his developments. He cares more about getting to the water and sail, than about perfect finishing. I'll follow the same route.

Queen of Carnival 2009

As you know, this blog likes to report not only about the progress of my boatbuilding project, but also some curiosities about my country and it's habits. Specially if it relates to my lovely city of Rio de Janeiro, and the beauties of its landscapes, fauna and flora.

And strictly in this sence, I'm happy to let all know, that carnival time is approaching! Rio de Janeiro is already heating the drums for the happiest days of the year. Between the 20 - 24th. of February, Rio will dance to the rhythms of percussion. Specially during the samba school parade, in the sambodromo, when hundreds of integrants of a samba-school present all their creativity, enthusiasm and musicality.

And the magic kingdom of percussion is the so called "bateria". It is a the division of the parade with hundreds of percussion musicians. They are the heart of the samba-school.

There can be no kingdom without a queen, therefore a bateria has also a "rainha da bateria". It is her task to keep the musicians motivated and to fire up the audience. She needs to be a skillfull samba dancer (allthough celebrities have now and then taken this part, with questionable dancing skills), and be able make a gracefull and exhuberant presentation.

After the parades the whole country discusses who was the queen of the queens... Last years winner Raissa can be seen on the picture above. Let's see who wins this year... You just need a little more patience.

Best Job in the World

The Tourism Office of Queensland/Australia is offering the "Best Job in the World".

What would you think about being caretaker of a small island on the barrier reef, with comfortable housing and few responsibilities like cleaning the pool, walking the bush and feeding the fish? And be paid a lot of money, if you care to stand up to the task?

But be aware of the old and wise saying: "There is no free lunch!"

No nobody can say you weren't warned. What comes along as a well remunerated holiday, could turn out to be a demanding and laborious task. From the website: "Your schedule could include sampling a new luxury spa treatment at qualia on Hamilton Island, trying out new snorkelling gear on Heron Island, or bushwalking on Hinchinbrook Island."

You see? Nothing for the faint hearted! But if you think you're man or woman enough for it, give it a go, and do you application, in form of a 60 sec. video, at: http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/home

As you see from the pictures, your workplace would look phantastic!

I think I have plenty of qualifications for the job, and make a good candidate myself... maybe I should...?

Images taken from the Islandreefjob website. Top: Lizard Island, Bottom: Whitehaven Beach

Mishap cleaned up

Got the goo off my boat!

I was worried about letting it rest, and maybe dry out during the week. So I woke up early (earlier, I mean - my routine is already early enough) and got the job done. An advantage of having the building site on the way to work.

It was actually less painful than I had anticipated. The goo was pretty fluid, so I just squeegeed most of it off. Then I took epoxy solvent and wiped the rest off with rugs. I then washed the solvent off the surface off, with water. Looked nice and clean to me.

Actually the most time consuming activity was getting the rubber gloves on. The gloves kept rupturing because of the solvent. And I didn’t want to have the solvent on my skin. So I kept on changing the gloves, as they ruptured.

Since I didn’t want to lose the solvent drenched rugs, I packed them together and stuffed them underneath my wood piles, in the box. It heats up nicely in there, and I guess they will dry out nicely until the week end.

Oooops!
Just kidding… enough bonehead moves. Solvent drenched rugs can auto-ignite!

PS: Thanks to all for the hints, on how to get it off.

"Good and Bad" or "A Major Fuck-up"

Yesterday I did a good thing and a bad thing:

The good thing was to laminate only one side of the boat. I intended to do both, but thought; "Well, let's see how it goes..." That was good and wise...

The bad thing was to get mixed up with the prettty equal looking jerrycans of the epoxi. One reads "resin", the other "hardener". You're supposed to use 3 parts resin, and 1 part hardener. And if you do it the other way round you might ruin an otherwise pretty fine looking day of work (an the next day too). ...

Nothing better than a major fuck-up to remind you to shut the fuck up and pay attention!!!

And I certainly don't want to read no funny comments to this post!!!
But if someone knows how to get the sticky stuff off of my boat, I'd appreciate a hint...
Ah! the learning curve!

Laminating

Work has begun. The plan was to laminate the hull extrusions and get some sanding done. And I did. I've sanded the complete bow section. The sanding is just to rough the surface up, and fair it a little, for posterior covering with thinkened epoxi (epoxi + microspheres). Few blisters had to be eliminated - which I did by sanding and chiseling. Additionally I managed to laminate the port extrusion, or leepod. It was an important step, since it was the first time I did it all by myself.

Preparing everything, specially cutting the glassfiber textile took longer than I thought. Since it was my first experience, I decided to try the lamination on one side only. After checking the result I'll do the other side. It is not the time to rush and mess it up, and loose material, due to inexperience. I'll have to see the cured result, but from what I saw today, I can say that I was pretty satisfied. The lamination looked good. Hopefully tomorrow I'll see how the epoxi cured.

Another positive outcome of the day was that I could talk the nautical manager, Sr. Palma, into despaching a team to clean the shed I'm working in. The floor was covered with dust from a long time of little use. I had cleaned the area around my boat, but there was still lots of litter and dust around. He also agreed in letting me use a workbench which was unused. He likes me, so it didn't take long convincing him. He loves to see the place being used properly.

Paraty-Mirim - Mamanguá - Trindade 2

Paraty-Mirim

Paraty-Mirim

Saco de Mamanguá

Saco de Mamanguá

Saco de Mamanguá

Praia de Trindade

Praia de Trindade - Approaching Cachadaço by boat

Praia de Trindade - Cachadaço

Trindade vs. Trindade

David has asked whether the Trindade Beach, where I spent an agreeable day during Christmas break, is the same as Trindade Island. The answer is no.

As indicated quite correctly by David, Trindade Island is a very isolated island, lying approximately 1000 miles offshore, in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a rugged island of volcanic origin, which is inhabited only by a military station. Visitation by passing vessels or as an ordinary tourist destination is not possible nor allowed. Visits are only allowed for research purposes with military permission.

The only way to visit Trindade Island is by participating on a yearly offshore regatta, organized by the Iate Clube do Espírito Santo and sponsored by Radio Eldorado, which starts from the city of Vitória, in the State of Espirito Santo. It is a fairly simple offshore passage, with winds from the beam. I have once tried to crew on a boat to get there, but it didn’t work out. Only few boats participate, and they usually have their own crew. The 8th. edition, held between the 19th. to the 31st. January 2008 had only 18 boats participating.

Even if you participate on the regatta, actually setting foot on the island is not so simple. Anchorage is exposed and dangerous and to land you have to go through open surf. But the brazilian Navy also supports the event and gives logistic support, sometime facilitating short visits.

Visiting Trindade Beach is much easier. Access is by a small, steep and winding, but nowadays paved, road. And in contrast to the Island, you’ll be greeted by masses of visitors if you go there during holidays. The beach is situated about 25 kilometers from the small Paraty Village.


Images from: top - www.abvc.com, bottom - www.veleiro.net

Books to keep me busy

Gustavo Pacheco has lent me a couple of books that will give me some further background on boatbuilding. This will be of great help, and will make me feel more comfortable with the construction in many aspects.

Now Creed O’Hanlon doesn’t need worry any more about the direction of my focus… ;-) I‘ve got lot’s to read now to keep me busy while I can’t be on the building site. Creed has expressed some worries concerning my going back to art production, and said I should concentrate on the boat. And he has a good point there.

But there should be no mistake. My focus IS on the boat. The recent slowdown was never caused by a lack of motivation or focus, but only circumstantial. The fooling around of my boatbuilder with subsequent moving of buildingsite and reorganization of resources was the cause. By now I am eager to get back into action!!!

Comments

I am quite happy about the fact that this blog has been receiving a number of comments from readers. It is very gratifying to receive feedback of any sort. But I have also received a number of messages that make me believe that there seems to be a problem with the setup of my comment function. It seems that many do not manage to post a comment, or have such a hassle doing it, that they give up.

I apologize for that frustrating experience, but I don’t seem to be able to fix it.

David Nabors, from the Never Sea Land Blog was the first to make me aware of the problem. After his alerting message, I went to the setup page and set the comment functionality on “Free for all comments”. But it doesn’t seem to have worked.

If someone has had a similar experience and has a hint of how I could fix it, I’d be very grateful for a comment. (!)

Work in progress

My artwork... it has been very quiet around it in 2008. I did an exhibition, allright, but

there has been virtually no new production.

I am determined to change that in 2009. So I made good use of a rainy day, and started. I'm not quite sure I'm done with this 80 x 60cm piece. But I like it. I don't have a name for it yet.

New Year Resolutions

My main new year resolution refers to the construction of Arpex. Since I am, for the while, planning on working on the boat myself, I need to put a serious amount of manhours into the project. And since I only have weekends available for that, it means, that I need to wake up early to drive out to the Club and work on the boat...

This first weekend of the year I succeeded only partially. After some heavy partying on Friday until 5 o'clock in the morning, waking up early, ... errr... working .... was a though order.

But I can proudly report, that I did wake up at some point. I did drive out, and yes! I did give my new orbital sander some workout!!! And, I have to say, it was quite a workout for me too. Due to my slightly allergic nature, protective equipment is required for epoxi work. And sanding epoxi, I guess, falls into that category. So, there I went, in full Tyvek armor, in eggbaking, humid heat. It was hot!!! I've sweated bucketsfull. After 2 and a half hours I called it a day. It was quite enough. I managed to sand the side "wings", which need to be laminated in a next step. Short but productive day. Surprisingly, or not, I felt "jolly well" after a cold shower.

A am happy that my sander has a compartment where the dust is collected. This reduces the exposure to epoxi dust. The negative side is, that one does not see how much one works. Just a motivational drawback...

Note below, that I need to improve the protection on my feet... But, having shoes on was just too much for me. I didn't bring them anyway.

It does look slighty ridiculous, doesn't it?... I mean; the suit. I must have received a number of funny looks. But, I couldn't have noticed them. I was busy.

Offerings to Iemanjá

The beginning of the year is a time choosen by many, here in Brazil, to give offerings to Iemanjá, the Godess of the Sea. The intention of the offerings is to please the rather moody Godess. Iemanjá is quite mundane in her likings, and, as any female, she likes to receive many flowers, perfume, and sometimes a stiff drink.

The offerings are delivered by giving them into the sea, the godess'es home. Sometimes the offerings are washed back to shore, indicating that the Godess rejected them, and is, therefore, not so very pleased. Bad sign! Bad, bad sign...

To increase chances of a positive reception, the offerings might be posted by shipping them in small delivery-boats. The small boats often go with small candle lights in nightly cerimonies, making for a beautifull spectacle, when dozens of lights drift out to the sea.

Our friend Gustavo Pacheco does also give an annual offering, and, of course, chooses an appropriate vehicle for the purpose. The vehicle itself is the offering in this case. Just look at the pictures of the nice little trimaran he just sent me. I am sure that Iemanjá loves to receive that cute little boat! I can imagine she loves to carreen through her home seas in the lovely sailboat.

I think it is a lovely ritual, and consider picking it up myself. It reminds me of many afternoons I spent in the Yachtclub, as a kid, producing makeshift sailboats out of floatsome. Putting them out to sail into the sea, allways gave me a great feeling. I imagined where they would sail to, for how long, who would pick them up... It really fired up my imagination in a great way!

As a kid, of course, stories of Iemanjá were unknown to me. So, little did I know, that it was her who would receive all those little rafts and boats! I guess she was pleased, because none ever came back. So, I have a positive record. And, well, since I have a bigger boat in production, and plan on spending time on the sea with it myself, a little divine goodwill would be welcome.

2009 beginning

The sun rises behind the Sugar Loaf as seen from Morro Dona Marta, the prime postcard location.

Image taken in 2006, by myself. I was on a (image) production assignment for Condé Nast Traveller Magazine, the main reason for getting me up early enough to catch this moment. The effort was well worth it.

For 2009 I plan on maintaining the perseverance of getting up early, to go build my boat!