Howdy, gang. Today’s project was to cut out the cracked caprail on the port bow, bring it on home, and duplicate it from my big teak stick. First order of business left over from yesterday, you may recall, was to make a jagged scarf cut (finite depth, not straight, etc.) deeper than my rotary cutting wheel could reach, but stop short of biting into the top edge of the fiberglass hull beneath the rail.

Solution? A nipped off skill saw blade, tilt the saw forward mightily until she digs in without jumping out, and exercise a strong grip to resist “chattering” as the damn thing tries to bounce around. Maybe not the exactly right tool, but got her done! Well almost… 

After getting the two scarf cuts almost all the way through (approaching the solid fiberglass beneath the rail), I needed to use one of my wood carving chisels and mallet to finish the job:

This is the type of edge on the chisel starting out:

and this is what the poor fellow looked like after two scarf cuts (not designed to chisel into glass!). But fret not, my Arkansas stone will bring that edge back…

I learned a nice little labor-saving trick today. After drilling out the bungs (wood plugs) that concealed the screws securing the rail to the hull, I needed to back out eight or nine large screws. Three just wouldn’t cooperate.

So out comes the hole saw with no mandrel (drill bit in the center), and drill through the old rail around the guilty screw and lift the rail up around the stubborn screws! Cool, huh? Since this is the “throw away rail”, I didn’t care about chewing it up a bit. Now it’s an impressive piece of scrap teak…

and off she comes… notice the goobs of black caulk/adhesive at the forward end of the remove section of rail…

Splintered at the aft end below. Had to tape that triangular piece back onto the main piece so it could function as a part of the pattern for the new one…

Note the lack of black goobers at this end of the rail piece. Coincidentally, this is just below the abyssal cracks in the rail and above the port stateroom bulkhead where we’ve had a persistent leak. Hmmmm… Think I’ll be able to declare victory over that longstanding leak? Hope so!

 

Meanwhile, the green goblin fungus continues to spread (yes, they’re covering anything that is to be spared paint:

 

Here’s the old chunka rail off the boat. This is one of three pieces I need to dupicate in new teak (this piece and two lengths of hullside rub rail):

Shapes of old pieces now laid out on new teak lumber (8′ x 8″ x 5/4). Notice the jagged scarf joint toward the bottom. One day I’m gonna research why we use this God-awful shape for rail cuts. For now, I blindly follow tradition…

Makin’ sawdust! Man, this is some tough wood! Had to go to the coarsest tooth blade in my arsenal. Still mighty slow goin’…

Old pieces to the left of each new rough cut that now need require further shaping, but just outa gas for today. Whew! now THAT was a full day’s shipwright work. Note the yardstick in the middle below as a reference.  these are not trivial pieces of teak! And the gentle curve in the rail piece took more width of the new lumber than I would have liked… oh well:

Finished old (in more ways than one), and rough cut new… can you tell which is which?

Edges before rough planing (this is the raw jig saw cut):

After using my hand power plane…

Here’s the battery operated planer used to gain the edge above, and it does use the 18V battery up pretty quickly! Good thing I have more than one, but they’re getting old (lotsa use). ‘Bout time to spring for a couple new ones. Strangely, the battery that our mechanic while in Kentucky knocked into the bilge water and sat down there overnight before we found it just doesn’t seem to hold a charge like the others. Go figure… The light it was attached to was never really the same either… huh!

Although I still prefer old fashioned hand tools (chisels, hand plane, draw knife, etc.). I like to feel the wood being shaped, and part of the ritual is bringing up the edge with oil, stone, leather strop, jeweler’s rouge, rhythmic body motion. Oh yeah. They’re up next…

A little digression… a couple of years ago I carved two Greenland kayak paddles with some of the same hand tools above. Thought you might fine this interesting. They’re custom made to each paddler’s body dimensions, just like the old Inuit (sorta “Eskimo”) days when they measured stuff in cubits (length from elbow to tip of fingers).

These paddles are wonderfully efficient and a delight to use. Also makes (Eskimo) rolls easier because they are so buoyant. Great for outriggers if needed too.

My dimensions are permanently recorded on each paddle, illustrated in the pics below, so I can duplicate them (for my body dimensions) at will. The longer paddle is for everyday use. The shorter paddle is a storm paddle which also serves as a spare in case numero uno breaks.

These are made of very light and strong white cedar, and finished with (only) several coats of a good linseed oil rubbed on by hand with a rag. If you’re interested in making such a paddle, see plans and how to use them here.

By the way, Doug & Marti are now in Marathon, waiting for a weather window for their next overnight passage to Marco Island. While in Marathon, they found this wonderful post card and sent it to us:

This is very special to us for at least three reasons.

First, they were the ones to send it to us.

Second, does the motorsailer in the picture look familiar? Yup, its one of Sojourn’s sisterships! Note this particular one has the original shorter wooden mast, where Sojourn has a much taller aluminum mast. Sure changes the look of the vessel, doesn’t it?

And finally, we’ve had a wonderful time creating some terrific memories scuba diving under and around the reefs that spread out around Sombrero Light in Marathon like spokes on a wheel. Ain’t that great?

Lator, ‘gators.