I am sad to say that I have become almost entirely
a sofa sailor as of late. Luckily for me, my library is overflowing
with good reads and how-to books that I feel I’m not just wasting away,
away from the sea. I still feel the draw, dwell on my memories of sailing and
the dream of being out on the water again, but we can’t always be messing about
on boats.
I have many other hobbies though too,
and more recently I have been spending a bunch of time on the other big one,
board gaming. I take gaming seriously (to my wife’s distaste) and I probably
enjoy playing board games too much. I have dabbled in game design for years,
but have never had any designs I liked enough to try and progress it much past
a first prototype. Don’t worry; this is where sailing comes in. Over the last
few months I have been reading Hornblower, learning and practicing celestial
navigation, and trying to design a new game. I have always thought a celestial
navigation game would be awesome, so I had been playing around with random
ideas of that sort for some time. Anyway, I’d been dreaming about Stars, taking
sights, and gaming when it hit me one morning. I woke up, sketched out a design
and eureka! Within a few hours I had made a constellation recognition game. It
really stunk… well, sort of stunk, but I kept with it, combining game mechanics
I liked with the British Navy theme I was so inspired by. And after many months
of playing and handfuls of revisions, I finally have a game I am proud of. So
proud in fact, that I am releasing my idea into the world for the rest of you
to see.
The name of the game is As Seen in
the Sky, which was my original codename (I give all my games temporary codenames when I start them), and I have a fantastic team of artists helping me
out. I don’t talk about this to too many people, but the internet feels like a
safe place, so here you are readers! If you are into gaming and sailing, I’d
love to hear your thoughts. There is a little bit of information on Board GameGeek (a great site for Game Addicts) that will continue to trickle in as we
talk to manufacturers and finish all the art. And since you are here, I’ll give
you a little taste of the art development over-time. It has been a project of
love and I’m hoping you enjoy it as much as I have.
My initial design for the tiles
Initial Examples for tiles from the artists
Artists' first example of player board cards, box cover design, and constellation cards based on my description to them.
Second round player board card from the artists
I'll add more posts with game development content as time goes on, but I don't want to spoil anything. The art here is not final and many of the pieces have changed since we started, but it's a nice taste of what is to come!
Saddly, this is not the type of sail setting that I might hope to be doing on this fine summer day, but it is one more project off my list. I have been playing with my sail for the Passagemaker Dinghy for the last few months, doing an hours work here and there, and it is finally complete. The "set sail" I'm talking about is lacing the sail to the booms that I built a few months back.
I was lucky enough that the kit was available from Sailrite already, and with a couple extra bits for some fun, it came in at a bit under $250. The laying out and sewing of the sail took something around 15-16 hours, including all my mess-ups. Add to that another hour or two to grommet and an hour to hand sew on the leather corners. So for say, 20 hours of work, I saved myself $350 over buying a new sail. Money well saved I say! Plus, my sail (when truly complete) will have some nice custom detailing!!
Kit pieces ready to go.
The instructions provided by Sailrite were pretty fantastic, and the fact that everything is in there less the sewing machine and grommeting tools made the project seem less daunting. Using the material sparingly as I am prone to do, I even have a ton of extra double sided tape and some unopened thread.
To start out, I built the reef and corner patches with double sided tape, making sure to minimize the amount of bubbling that occurs (my later ones looked best). I sewed those in place and then sewed the hem and edge tape on the luff and leach panel. It asked for both 2" and 3" tape, which I added simultaneously. After those were finished, I cut and sewed the diamond intermediate reef patches. With all the little bits on, it was time to sew the panels together.
Sewing patches onto the sail panels.
The starting panels were pretty straight forward, and I taped and sewed pairs of panels together. To finish things off, I started on the longest panels and worked my way toward the luff, adding each pair sequentially and sewing in a manner as to always rolling up the pair of panels being added. This kept the largest portion flat and moving outside of the machine. I felt like a lion tamer trying to keep the sail edging forward in my all-but-too-small of a living room sail loft. Worse still was taping the head and foot. I used the tube the material came wrapped around, with a half inch slit cut the whole length of one side, as a clamp around the sail roll to help tame the beast, but it did not stop the sail from slipping and sliding in a not-so-straight fashion.
One panel finished with all patches attached.
The final taping and sewing was hard on the machine. At some spots, particularly on the corner patches, there were up to 12 layers of cloth or more, and I ended up bending a needle. I hand-turned the machine afterwards over all of the reinforced areas. There was some issue with tension on one of the runs, but I left the unflattering zig-less-zag at the head of the sail rather than pulling all the stitches and redoing that section. It looks strong enough not to be an issue and if it ever is, it's in an easy enough position to fix in the future.
Blurry as heck, but one pair of panels sewn together.
The kit came with leather for the corners, and though I have never seen this on a sail, who am I to say what is and isn't normal for a lug rig. I was able to make 1 hole with the needle provided, but it took me 30 mins, and figuring that I had at least 20 per corner, I decided to find a better way. Using a board and some regular medium sized nails, I tacked the sewing pattern I wanted through all layers of the material. I ended up rounding over the leather (since they provided plenty) making 2 layers per side, but also giving a cleaner finish to the edge. I was able to nail out my sewing pattern and sewing up the work on three edges before I broke the first leather needle. So I waited a week for some new needles to come in (in addition to a sewing awl, and extra grommets for my 2nd reef point setup) before finishing the last corner. The sewing awl, a Speedy Stitcher, worked very well, though it was hard to push 2 layers of thread through with it. Anyway, though this was time consuming, it does give a nice finish to the corners.
Ready to grommet... the corners have been covered in leather.
The last pieces of the puzzle was adding in the #0 and #3 grommets. The #3s went in with a cheap 7/16" grommet anvil kit from Walmart, which did a very nice job, but their 1/4" kit was junk and just pancaked the heck out of the two grommets I tried. I purchased the appropriate kit size #0 kit and was again disappointed with how poorly it worked on the small grommets. at least 2 of the grommets cut out a small section of the cloth between it, and none of the nickel sail grommets look fully punched as I seem to get with the junk grommets that come with the kit. Alas, the task is done.
I googled sail lacing to figure out how it is to be done, and settled on a method that looked cool and "will produce less drag aloft." To be honest, I can't see me trying to race this rig, I just thought it looked pretty cool. I used 325 paracord, about 1/8" line, to lace the sail to the booms. I added reefing nettles (the line in the reef patches) made of glow in the dark 550 parachute cord (3/16"), with the hope that it will make them easier to see if the need arises after dark. I'm not sure if I tied the corners correct, but one is connected through the lacing, the other is independent so that I can adjust the tension. We will see how it works out.
Different lacing patterns, I tried the one on the far right to start.
The last thing to do is raise sail.... or I guess I could go grab the dinghy and install the mast.
I finally have time again for projects and one that I have had sitting for a while was my safety tether. I looked at grabbing some for a long trip last summer and they were crazy expensive.... I mean around $100-$200 for clips and nylon webbing. I don't know about you, but that's just crazy in my book. If I can trust my own splicing to hold my boat at anchor in a 30 knot blow on an open river, I think I'd trust my sewing machine and it's sail thread. Plus, why not make a cool custom tether that fits me?
Well, I did just that. Components wise, I bought my webbing from Strapworks (I like their site, and if they want to pay me to advertise for them, I'd do it! [but they don't]), using 1" tubular polyester, which is stronger and more abrasion resistant than nylon, and 3/8" elastic. I also bought fancy ribbon on webbing for the quick release handles, 1ft each. I bought a lot... like 9ft of webbing in both colors (I built a pair of tethers) and 12ft of elastic. Then I found some climbing carabiners that had a permanent webbing loop, they are called "quick draws". I picked mine up from an english company and amazon and were $12-$14 shipped for each set (DMM is the manufacturer). I also saw a different brand at REI yesterday for $16, so they are easy enough to come by. Lastly, I picked up two quick release clip with rings on Ebay in an auction for $6 shipped, and I think they may have been used to airdrop tanks... but I'm ok with overkill. The total for supplies for two tethers came to just under $50.
5ft and 3ft hook
The original design was to have 2 independent tethers coming off the central quick release clip, that would hook into your harness. This is what most of the 2-hook tethers have. I decided against that once I got everything situated, because I didn't want to be whacked with the second tether or have to have 2 hooked up all the time. So instead, I placed one hook at about 3ft and one at about 5ft. The 3ft tether is what I would use on the foredeck and the 5ft lets me go from the cockpit to the foredeck without ever being disconnected. I saw a video of folks testing tethers and decided shorter was better. The length will keep my on the boat even if I fall, not dragging in the water, which looks like a safe bet to me.
Red with Jolly Roger
Pink "Smoke" and Paw Prints
As far as sewing is concerned, I just made sure to have 3 vertical and 3 horizontal zigzags securing every hook minimum. I also put some fun patterns in after the fact... because I could. First, I pulled the elastic through the webbing using a marker with the elastic trapped on one end in the cap. Then, I secured the elastic with a 2" zigzag stitch down the center, after pulling it tight so as to have it fully extended when initially sewn. Finally, I sewed both clips at their desired length and cleaned up with the quick release. And that was about it, it took less then 30 mins a piece for each tether and the weakest part is the webbing, which is rated to 1800lbs... and I don't expect to survive anything that does that to my body anyway, so I'd say we are good to go.
Feeding the elastic
As a side note now that I've completed the project, I think that using regular 1" polyester webbing without elastic is well worth it... the stretch vs non-stretch is less that 4" over the 5 foot length of my finished product (though the wobbly webbing does look cool).
I said I'd show some boat photos from last weekends visit to Keith's shop, and here they are. Keith is about 6 months into his build, with all of the bulkheads up, and he put on the top plank (I'm not sure the official name of it) the week I visited. He plans on putting the bottom two planks on the boat, then finish the interior from outside the vessel, before finishing the planking. If you ask me, it looks like one hell of a boat!
Starboard overhead view, my new mast on the floor.
The Passagemaker Dinghy I bought was not designed for the lug rig that I want to install on her, but luckily the modifications should not be to rough. I still have not collected the vessel from my friend, but some parts of this project will be do-able without ever seeing the vessel. Since I have a bit more free time now, I decided to get another piece of the project completed, the rig.
I have never built anything out of wood before that I expected to survive at sea. Luckily enough, I know an amazing carpenter, Keith, who has a love for sailing and has built his own vessel (and is currently building another). With his instructions in hand, I ran over to my local building supply store to find myself a board that would do the trick. They had what looked like a good selection, plus they were the only place within an hours drive that sold wood.
The Instructions
"Look for a board that has straight grain running the length of the board, not diagonally across, with tight grain. Also, if you can find one that is cut out of the middle of the tree with the pith in it instead of the edge of the tree, (look at the grain on the end of the board for the rings to go the short way across the end of the board, instead of from edge to edge or diagonally.) We don’t need the whole thing, so some wane or a couple of small knots are ok if the rest of the board is good. Don’t get anything that is cupped or twisted or really crooked. Stand at the end of the board and sight down one edge and you will be able to see if it is straight and flat, or curvy and twisted. Get Red Fir (Douglas Fir), they will call it Fir / Larch at the lumber store. Also, if you have a choice get a lighter board over a heavier board, you don’t need any extra weight aloft. Larch is very heavy. You will probably have to look at a dozen or two boards before you find a really good one, but it is well worth the trouble."
Well, it was no easy feat finding something that fell close to his description and I am sure I looked a fool to the folks working at the store. I was hoping to get a 2" by 12" by 12' board, so I had plenty of extra wiggle room, but there was nothing close to acceptable in that range of board. We looked at the 14' and 16' boards, but the only boards that looked good were on the bottom of the pile and I didn't want to move the 20 boards on top to check them. Amanda picked out a nice 2" by 10" by 12' and it happened to be the best piece we found. It didn't give us much room for error, but for $11.70 I figured I could go back for another one (preferably from another store) if we needed more.
This past weekend I popped over to Keith's shop, took the tour (I'll post pictures of his current vessel project soon) and then we got down to business. The booms were easy, cutting the best straight sections out of the 12' board, 1.5" wide. The mast was a little trickier, as boards are not actually cut to the size they claim (the board is less than 2" thick), so we took the best 2" wide sections out of what was left.
Cutting out the boom, gaff, and both sections of the mast from the raw board.
The two mast sections had the least attractive side planed to prepare them for gluing. We then used a quick-drying glue and put two directions worth of clamps every few inches to keep the seam tight the whole length and the beam straight. Once it was glued up, we had plenty of time to take care of the boom and gaff while we waited for the glue to set.
Planing both halves of the mast.
The mast all glued up and clamped.
Next, we found the best 8' section on each of the spares and made quick work of shortening them with a reciprocal saw. The plans call for a bevel of both of the spares (boom and gaff are identical in this lug rig), decreasing from 1.5" to 1" on the bottom of each boom, over the last 20" of both ends. Easy enough, we marked the line with a square edge (big "L" shaped ruler) and cut off the material with a band saw. We hand planed the cut sections to smooth out the transition and then took a router to all four long edges. After that all that was left was installing the holes at each end with a drill press, two rounds of the electric sander (at 80 grit and 120 grit), and finally hand sanding with 220 grit (to remove the electric sander marks and finish the surface).
Hand planing the gaff and boom
Planing the gaff and boom.
Testing the router for depth and size.
The mast was cut down to size, removing material from only one side (to maximize strength should the glue ever fail at sea), and then we used the router to round all four long edges. Sadly, the first time we gave this a go, the beam separated along the seam (it wasn't warm enough for the glue to set). We reglued and parts that came loose and filled in the slight openings in the seam with wood glue, then clamped the mast for the night. In the morning, all that was left to do was round the remaining edges, drill a hole at the peak for the halyard, and sand.
All in all the project probably only took 3 hours, of which 50% of that time was sanding. I must say though, they do look pretty! I still need to varnish them, but I'm currently trying to figure out what product the dinghy was varnished with, in hopes of matching the color. I'll add the finished photos as soon as I get the varnishing complete. All I have to say is that it was far easier than I expected and it was really fun! So what are you waiting for? Go out and start building a boat!
