How the heck do you make the Moana spiral on a real sail??!!?? #mojossawdustfactory https://t.co/lltAzBI821

How the heck do you make the Moana spiral on a real sail??!!?? #mojossawdustfactory http://pic.twitter.com/lltAzBI821

— Jon Van Vuren (@JonVanVuren) April 15, 2017

from Twitter https://twitter.com/JonVanVuren

April 15, 2017 at 09:38AM
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Feeling Swamped

Life is pretty grand, but with the little ones, work and life commitments not getting out as much as I'd like. I've been out a few times and still am blown away by how much fun it is to sail this boat. Last weekend I was able to get out during nap time for a bit. Light wind and having to get the feel of the steering paddle and sensitivity to weight trim.

Feeling optimistic I decided to leave Pineapple Express in the water for the week, hoping to get out in the evenings. Didn't happen.

There was, however, plenty of rain and I got a chance to see how water tight my hatches are! It was so full the safety ama was floating!

Ulua is sailing!

I finally got the Pineapple Express on the water with a working sail rig. So much fun! Sails great using the sunfish rig and steering with my rough carved steering paddle. This pics show a rudder, but I have to redo the hinge. 

Overdue Islands 17 Update

Before I could enjoy this view of St Joseph's Sound back in November I had to do some work on my trailer before I felt comfortable hauling it across the state. New hubs, new springs and a new trailer jack. New winch is on the list. Not shown - I converted from bolt rope to slugs for $50 at JSI. Now with my topping lift I can just drop the sail and tidy things up on my boom.

Windy night but lots of fun!

Ulua Launch and up next:Wooden Surfboards

The Ulua was launched over the holidays, and has been great fun to paddle. I still need to finish the mast step and rudder, but it is finally out of the garage!

Next up after some honey do items are checked off the list is a couple of these:

"Free" Sunfish found a new home

Craigslist and days off don't mix. Normally when I see a post for a free boat, I can safely ignore it due to workday responsibilities. Not this time. The "free" Sunfish is all there, I've even had it out for a sail. In my oh-so-abundant spare time I just need to patch a bunch of holes, re-do the foam inside, paint it and patch the sails. No problem! 

Taking Honeypot and baby girl for a quick paddle this morning #mojossawdustfactory #lovefl http://t.co/2tOWL0Bkmn

Taking Honeypot and baby girl for a quick paddle this morning #mojossawdustfactory #lovefl http://pic.twitter.com/2tOWL0Bkmn

— Jon Van Vuren (@JonVanVuren) August 15, 2015

from Twitter https://twitter.com/JonVanVuren

August 15, 2015 at 08:42AM
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Helped Father-in-law with his Lumber Yard Skiff build this weekend #mojossawdustfactory #lys http://t.co/jC68D0EiGE

Helped Father-in-law with his Lumber Yard Skiff build this weekend #mojossawdustfactory #lys http://pic.twitter.com/jC68D0EiGE

— Jon Van Vuren (@JonVanVuren) July 26, 2015

from Twitter https://twitter.com/JonVanVuren

July 26, 2015 at 08:29AM
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A riveting project

I have been making a few changes to the running rigging of the Islands 17 to make it a bit easier to handle coming in and out of the canal. 3 recent projects have been adding slugs to the sail, a fair lead for the jib halyard, and a topping lift. 

I had to try out the rivet gun for the first time, it was rather anti climatic. Figure out where I wanted the hardware, drill pilot hole, instsall rivet. But the results were clean! Now I can raise and lower the job without the block getting jammed.

With the topping lift and sail slugs dropping the main no longer means a mess of sail, and boom to deal with in the cockpit while bringing her in or out of the canal!

Hui Wharram

We snuck down to the Keys last weekend for a little family getaway. Timing worked out perfectly that we were there at the same time as the Hui Wharram, or Wharram meetup. I have been a fan of Wharram designs for years, and this is one of the first times I got to see so many up close.  It was so cool to see even the big 36' cat pulled up in knee deep water at the beach at Lorelei cafe.

I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. It was great to see the 3 boats I'm keenly interested in: Tahiti Wayfarer, Hitia 17, and Tiki 21.

Beautiful boats and great group of people!

Ulua leeboard guard

I had the day to myself with mommy and baby gone to Mommycon. She said there was no one dressed as a super hero so I'm not sure how good of a Con it was. 

I had noticed in the trial run that the leeboard really bent a lot in the mount, and needed to figure out a light way to stiffen it used before I could finally varnish the hull and get it outside to clear the shop for the last few sailing bits.

My original mounting location was above the seat bracket, just below the gunnel. I was never happy with the hole placement, and wanted to use aluminum angle as described in Gary's book, but already had my seat brackets and couldn't fit the angle above it. I decided to mount the new bracket under the seat and fill the old hole. I also wanted 3 mounting whiles so I could move the board around to mess CLR but ended up with just 2. 

Once I had the bracket I drilled the 1/2" holes then mounted it under the seat bracket. I used those holes to mark centers, then drilled over size to 1" so I could fill with thickened epoxy and re drill to 1/2" to help seal the hole and prevent rot. Every step at this point is 3-4 little things, each prepping for the next. This is why sailing bits take so long! 

It was my first time working with aluminum, and it wasn't so bad! I misaligned the second mounting hole for the leeboard bolt, but I decided to move froward anyway as it is really only ascetic and both are covered by the board in use. Learning each time I work on something, and getting better. I strive to do my best, but I kinda like the little flaws too because I remember what was going on when I worked on that piece, kinda like a tattoo I guess.

I cut down a couple cutting boards to use as wear guards and to shim the leeboard even with the gunnel. This was a lot of fun and will add a bit more wearing surface to keep the board from twisting on its mount while on the trimaran tack. The boards cut easily and formed to the shape of the hull giving me a nice 1/2" plate. Still need to do finish trimming (you can see my marks to round the bottom corners) and counter sink the mounting bolts. I drilled all those oversize too in the hull to fill and redrill later.

Then I sanded. And sanded. And sanded. I've used the boat a few times already even though I hadn't sealed some of the mahogany. I had to clean all that up. My final fill coat outside was very rough on the port side, lots of orange peel. I've recently thought it may be better to paint the hull so I can use fairing compound on the outside. I still may because sanding the Orange peel took me down to the weave in a few places I wasn't careful with.

Rainbow Bridge - initial layout

Not the path to Midgaurd, but a pretty cool project from pintrest.

I got a deal on some nice ash 1/2 " ply at Woodcraft. A paint an made a good template to start the rounded ended with.

I used a few nails and tried a couple battens but needed to adjust to get a curve I was happy with. After tracing it, I eyeball measured about 4" in and reset my nails and batten to get the insid curve. Boat building skills starting to pay off!

Next to cut out the shape from both pieces of ply.