Pomar Cat

Yesterday I visited Miguel Pomar, who builds a small sailing cat, which reminded me the Slider design, by Ray Aldridge. It is a short catamaran with good buoyancy and a generous open deck.

He showed me his boat in the Marina da Glória, where a gentle breeze refreshed us, and made for an agreeable conversation on the generous deck area. There is something good to say about beach chairs on open boat decks. I could almost feel like sitting on Arpex already.

Miguel Pomar is a sucessfull boat designer and builder. He also showed me his monohull designs from the 80'ies, the Pomar 19 and 26. One of each whas moored close by in the Marina. They looked like simple and charming little cruisers. But I guess his greatest hit was the Dingue class, which sold hundreds of units in Brazil. It is something like the Brazilian Family-Laser. I have often sailed on a Dingue myself, on the Represa de Guarapiranga, in São Paulo.

New Zealand Proa Congress 2009

A proa congress has been organized this weekend in Arkle's Beach, New Zealand, by participants of the Proa-file discussion group. Eight outrigger sailing canoes have gathered for a day of sailing and meeting other sailors and builders of these unique water craft.

Gary Dierking has taken nice video images and has posted them on Youtube. One of his nice Uluas can also be seen on the footage.

Squid attack!

In the end, the squid got me yesterday. It's long and strechy arms travelled all the way out from Ramos, to find me lazily relaxing on the couch. The squid allways finds me, wherever I am. It reached me in form of a phone call by Ricco. He offered welcome help and company. Therefore, I did get up, and out to Ramos, despite my low motivation yesterday.

The heat was already intense, at 35 degrees. We had little time only to glue one side of the roof-top. The was no way of working between 1 pm and 5 pm. In the end of the afternoon we glued the second half. The cabin is now fully enclosed. We will now begin opening it up again. The entrance and windows will be cut out so that I can work on the inside.

My boat is a gigant squid!!!

I have just learned, that Google converts anything you type into its search field. If you type "550 kilograms in pounds", Google will readily give you the result for that question.

To my surprise, the search engine also informed me that 550 kilograms was the weight of a gigant squid, found off Tasmania. It measured 26 feet in lenght. Arpex is 30 feet, therefore slightly longer. But in general the squid had the same size and weight as my boat...

I hope my boat will look and smell bether than this brother! And I also hope these fine animals don't migrate into the South Atlantic coast of Brazil.

Power Boats

I am not much of a fan of powerboats.

Allthough I recognize their usefullness, once in a while. But in general, I think they disturb. From outside they are loud, stinky, and cause major wakes and general hawoc in anchorages. From inside, when using one, they are loud, stinky and shaky. Not much fun to drive, in my opinion.

But I admit, that when I was invited asked to join for a 50 knot joyride, on a Cigarette type powerboat, I did, without hesitiation. And it was a great experience. Fifty knots is REALLY FAST!!!! And that how fast Le Hydroptere has now just sailed in France. But that is another story. Anyway, driving fifty knots on a powerboat is very expensive too. You'll run out of fuel in no time, if you do it for a long period. And the damage caused to the environment is unjustifyable. I stepped out of the Cigarette with dark shades and a large hat, hoping nobody would see me.

And aesteticly... really... I think powerboat designers have lost the grip on the lines of most current models, a few years ago. A much longer while ago, though, they still made beautiful power craft, modelled in wood and leather. Those shells looked good, and alive. They had a certain flair, which invited for a short power drive through the sea.

Rivas produce boats that still recreate the same line of thinking the old powerboat fathers seemed to follow. They seem to be executed in prime finish and execution. I have seen Rivas, but I've never been on one. There aren't much around here in Rio. That is a pitty.

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I am low on motivation today. It is 9:30am and I should leave for the boatshed. Maybe these are effects of a very active week on the job. The heat that is already building, doesn't help much either...

Be careful with instructions...

Yesterday we had a blackout in 10 States of Brazil. Rio was most affected. The problem was caused in Itaipu, the great hydroeletric powerplant on the border between Brazil - Argentina and Paraguai. It shows how carefull you have got to be with instructions you give to trainees.

When the manager left the powerplant, he told the new trainee: "Please shut the lights down when you leave..."

Brazilians are quick to create new jokes...

Urca

Nothing like a hike up the Morro da Urca hill, to end the day...

Melting heat

Yesterday Rio woke up to a blazing hot day. The heat was so intense, that it was impossible to work after 1pm under the roof of my boatshed. It had at least 40 degrees Celsius (+/-100F.).

Fortunatly I woke up early, and took to the gluing job a bit earlyer than usual. So I could do my main tasks until 1pm. After that I had to stop, and, I confess, I made an organized retreat from the Club altogether. It was just too hot.

But I still didn't manage to close the roof. One of the reasons was that I had a surprise with a batch of resin. I had kept it for a while, a couple of months, and I think it went bad. I thought bad epoxi wouldn't cure, but this, surprisingly, started to dissolve my polyestirene foam! Very bad! Of course this messed up my schedule and concentration.

Knowing that the resin was a few months old, I tested it first, to see whether it was still kicking, geling and curing (Barracuda Resin). Given the hot day, I thought using it would be good, since it had a higher indicated geling time than the resin I was using before (Skuna). On the test, to my contempt, it was heating, kicking and geling all right, and solidified nicely. What great surprise I had, when it started eating up my foam when I applied it!!! I had to use thinkened epoxi bog to fill up some cavities it caused.

I made some tests on foam with less katalysator, but in all spots it just ate up the foam. But I don't think it was due to the heat it produced. Anyway, by that time it was 1pm, I was sweating buckets, radiation under the roof was intense, and I had to abort the job.

Tools

I sometimes ask myself whether the shape of my boat would be significantly different if I had more sofisticated design tools available, and the ability to use them effectively.

Arpex was designed basicly with paper, pencil, ... and Power Point. Of course the means for designing that Power Point offers are ridiculous when comparing to DelftShip and CAD. However, Power Point is a tool I use extensively at my job. Therefore, it falls into my hand comfortably. Using it was not a decision, it was just lying in front of me. I've used it very much like a pencil itself. One could say Arpex was designed free-handed.

Of, course, I had drawings designed on CAD later. But the engineer basically followed my instuctions. As a matter of fact, the lines are so close to my own drawings that sometimes I ask myself whether he had these weights and volumes calculated properly.


The image on top is a collage with pictures of the hull construction and PowerPoint additions. Lines are somewhat distorted, of course.
the image below is a CAD rendering from the engineer.


Now I need to run to the boatshed. It is 8am, and it is going to be a terribly hot day. No work possible between 11am and 2pm.

Gary sailing his tacking outrigger in Fiji

Night out

No matter what modern trends say about wraparound windows. I still like the traditional look best. Daytime and nighttime.

It has been raining constantly these days, and I haven't been on the best of my days. So, I can report no advance on the cabin roof. I've been using the time for tinking, and... well,... resting.

Wrap around

Here is another take at what the boat could look like. This time with wrap-around windows. Just anotehr trendy option, which I think looks cool too. But I still need to meditate over what I really prefer.

Arpex cost evolution

Here is something for those interested in the financial aspects of managing a boatbuilding project. The graph below shows the cost evolution of my project, from the beginning in January 2008, until today. The main events are commented. Click on the image for better reading.

In need of some rework...

This is how it all is looking right now. The cabin top needs some re-work, though. I'll need to inject some epoxi into the sandwich. Bummer... I'm already scheming out how to do it.

Javari - The Lost World

The vast forests of the Amazon bassin still hide stories unknown to the worldwide village, which our world has become.

In November an expedition will penetrate into the forest, to find the way to the forgotten edge of the world. The objective is to "contact" the still unknown populations of indigenous people who live apart of our "civilised" world. Which sounds very vague, for an objective, in my opinion.

The governmental foundation to protection of the indigenous people, FUNAI, says there might be 19 groups, totalling about 4.000 individuals who still live in the backyard, on bounderies of the global village.

Stories like these one allways inoculate me with longings for adventures, in places where nature rules, and not men. I had my fair share yet, but, the "call of the wild" is still tempting and fascinating. It is where we can slip out of our confortable cocoons and get to our selves while keeping an wide open eye on our surroundings. Where animals, insects, fungus, plants, birds, water and soil seem one living thing - colorful, smelly, hot, and full of noise and music.
One might ask; what is in the deal for the indians, who are peacefully minding their own business, and keeping their garden? Looks a little bit like the loud and smelly neighbour, who, after years of annoying expansionism, decides to come over, and ring the bell for a chat. How welcome would you be? Probabely like the guy on the top picture.

But some arguments are convincing. These populations are generally not totally untouched. Bandits, drug dealers, goldwashers and animal traffic operators, have generaly found their way to these far reaches and made sparse "contact". Of the worst kind. To make matters worse, we bring them politicians! ... Well, I'm kidding. The idea is to "protect" them from these bad influences.

Animal traffic is a big business. Lonely individuals, sometimes in groups of 4 people, go out in canoes or tiny decked boats and search for parrots, turtoises, and fish. Ornamental fish are the main target. The mainly small, bright colorful fish make their way into the home aquariums of the United States and Europe.

I remember, when I went to the Rio Negro. It is common to see them tucked up in side creecks, cathing the fish and storing them in plastic bags or big plastic barrels.

Try to imagine what images have already touched the deep of the eyes of your aquarium fish, next time you look into them. Maybe they have seen the big forests mirroring on the water surface. Looking up from below, whithin their endless waters and labyrints of roots and rotting matter. Maybe they have already seen the shaddow of one of those untouched indians swimming by? Maybe one of the red kids has tried catching it, once, when playing on the sandbank? The wild is closer to you than you might think.

Torture

The construction of the cabin is now beginning to torture me. It is taking longer than I had expected. Partly due to the two rain-weekends, where I couldn't glue with epoxi. Sure. But also, because producing the ply / polyestirene sandwich is just time consuming. Sand the foam, glue the base ply, glue the foam, glue the ply again.... and so on, until all is laminated with a cover of glass. Hardly something for someone who likes to see things evolve quickly.

And then I had a bad idea. Of course, lack of experience led me that way. I thought the cover ply should end on the bottom ply. Otherwise I would have to close the open foam ends with glass. I'll cover the top in glass anyway, but I thought the oped foam edge would result in a weak edge.

So I shaped the foam, a quite entertaining job, actually. I felt like shaping a surfboard. The edges were sanded, until they came gently down to zero. You can actually see that, if you click on the picture above. I'd glue the top ply with a fillet to the bottom ply, compressing the foam in between. Smart and strong. So I thought.

Sure; to make the intended shape, I'd have to torture the ply a little. No big deal. Four milimeter ply is obedient, and succeptible to torture. So I thought. I didn't expect resistance. Anb that was my mistake.

Resist it did. The little ply buckled and took pride in torturing the torturer. Me, to be exact. I hammered nails around the edges (on little wooden tablets, so I can take them out later). I weighted the cover ply down to apply pressure in the center... I ran through the shed looking for heavy items, and carried them to the top of the boat. Remember, I was working against the epoxi clock! But whenever I pressed one part of the ply down to touch the foam, another spot would buckle up and ruine the bond to the foam. No matter what weight was holding it down. Nothing seemed to be enough. I sweated in buckets, and sweared under the bloody mask, until I just ripped it off, and uncerimouniously sat on top of the cover ply!

Good damned! Now I was handcuffed! I mean; I'd have to sit there until the epoxi cured? 2 hours? Minimum. That was not a good solution. But I took the chance to take a breath and think. Did I think about what a stupid thing I was doing? Yes. Still; after gathering some breath, I looked for the heaviest stuff I could find in the shed, including a fire-estinguisher cylinder from the 50'ies (must have weighted around 30kg), dumped it on the boat roof, and hoped for the best.

"Alea jacta est". Dice have fallen. Maybe I can remedy it by injecting epoxi later.

From a practical perspective, I can say; Well, it supported my weight, didn't it?

Getting more color into the analysis

Playing with Excel sometimes brings up surprising results...

Rig choice

I like gunter rigs. They seem to adapt well to the concept of my boat, and they look nice. If what they say is right, they perform well too.

The first sketch for Arpex, included a gunter rig. But I found difficulties in finding drawings, specifications and such things, that come in handy if you want to build them.

After a little incentive from Erik, I have contacted Bernd Koehler, who designs multihulls and gunter rigs. Unfortunately he is not able to design a specific gunter rig for my boat at the moment. For the sake of it, I have ordered drawings for his KD650 design. But of course I can't put a rig for a 6,5meter boat on my 9meter boat. It is 20m2 sail-area, where I need 30m2. Too bad.

To put things on a more rational perspective into the rig question, I have defined some criteria and ranked them for the options I have. The criteria have been ranked form my personal, subjective perspective, of course, and in the light of this very project. But I have used as many objective data as I could. It came out that the Softwing sail option is the best anyway.

Therefore, I'm going to stick with it. Happily.