The versatile grate

It has been a very busy few months. Between riding out a hurricane (which fortunately for many of us, turned out to be less dramatic than forecast), a tropical storm a week later, then the delivery cruise to southern Maine, September sailing, and lastly pulling the boat for the season, I have not added much to this site lately. However, the creative stuff has still been lurking in the background. One example that I have been meaning to write about is wooden gratings.

Now if you are puzzled and wondering what a grating is, you have not seen enough old sailing movies. A grating is a wooden lattice made to create a deck, or place to stand while allowing air to circulate. Typically seen on old sailing ships and occasionally on fancy yachts, the wooden grating seems to have fallen out of favor. I suspect that this is the result of the perception that they are hard to make, or at least very labor intensive.

While I will admit that they do take some work to put together, they are actually quite simple to fabricate, rewarding to make, are a very efficient use of expensive woods, and I think, quite elegant looking.

As is the case on this site, I am not going to write specific how-to instructions, but I will say that the basic idea is to make strips of wood, square in cross section, that are identical to one another and that are notched on one side. The notches are the exact width of the thickness of the wooden strip, and a depth exactly half that dimension. Additionally, the notches are placed that same width apart, that is to say, the width of the wood strip’s thickness.

section of grating

Once you have enough of these strips, they interlock into one another to make a wooden grating. You can glue the strips together; frictions fit them, or back up the joints with fasteners if you so choose, but in my opinion, this last option is both unnecessary, and can actually weaken the grating. Anyway, you get the idea. On to the good stuff…

What I really want to write about is the usefulness and versatility of gratings. To begin with I have used them as shelf stock where air circulation would be halted by solid shelves.

gratings for shelves

Another place that gratings presented a perfect solution is in the bottoms of the cockpit storage. This is a place where the bilge of the boat sweeps in down towards the keel. Even fairly large object stowed incautiously in these spaces tended to end up down in the bilges. Anything stowed in this space was lying directly on the planking not allowing for air circulation, which in a wooden boat is a bad thing. By making and placing a grating into these spaces, we were able to increase air circulation in these spaces and make storage much simpler.

cockpit storage

Another example of a place where a grating was a perfect solution for us is the boarding step we made to make getting aboard easier from the tender.

landing step

step seen from the water

If you would like the actual dimensions go to this article: Coming Aboard

And did I mention that gratings look good? So much so in fact that I took some left over stock from making shelves and made this trivet.

trivet

Another decorative use was the coffee table that I just made for the porch at the cottage where I live.

coffee table

So there you have it, the adaptable, functional, and beautiful wooden grate.

Friendships Under Sail

There is something joyous in seeing another friendship sloop under sail. Because the rig and size can vary so much from vessel to vessel, it is often easy to recognize a specific boat from quite a distance. The last three or four weekends we have been out we have seen other friendships, below are some random photos of boats underway…

"Anna R"

"Banshee" and either "Echo" or "Eden" in the background

"Banshee"

"Black Star" under main and staysail, photo by Sara Beck

"Black Star" under full sail

"Flying Jib" under main and staysail

"Flying Jib"

Another shot of "Flying Jib"

"Independence"

"Mary Anne" with "Phoenix" in the background

"Peregrine"

Distractions #2

Back in March, I wrote about making Ukuleles (see “Distractions”)The first three Ukuleles mentioned in that post, have actually been complete for a while. In fact, one has gone to Africa and back, and another to Nicaragua and back, which may be insightful of how much SOLO staff travel and less to do with the ukuleles. The tenor ukulele that I built has traveled the least but has at least been to the boat a number of times.

The tenor Ukulele, built from plans bought from Stewart MacDonald Music, is the one destined to live on the boat. It turned out well and has a nice tone. I would note that if you work from these plans, double check the measurements everywhere. In particular, if you are new to this kind of project, take the measurements for the fret placement off the tables provided on the sheet of drawings and do not measure from from the drawing itself. This is a 17” Ukulele, which means that the string length from bridge to nut is 17”.

The model that I made has mahogany sides, a back made of rock maple, the neck is a combination of cherry and maple with an ebony inlay, and the face is made from Douglas fir.  Much of the wood used in this instrument came from pieces left over from the restoration of our Friendship Sloop, so it is fitting that it will live mostly on the boat. The nut and bridge on this instrument are made of bone and the sound quality is pretty good.

the tenor ukulele

The soprano shown below was built directly from a kit bought through Lark in the Morning. The main problem after completing the kit “as is” is that the action is so very high that it is impossible to play. We tinkered with it though and got it to sound acceptable.

kit ukulele

another shot of the kit ukulele

The next soprano used the neck and fret board that came from the Lark in The Morning kit, but had a custom body. The body has sides and back made of Rock Maple and a face made of Douglas fir. The sound hole is unusual and does not seem to affect the sound one way or the other. We had the same difficulty with the action on this one that we had on the other kit. In both cases the bridge had to be lowered and the nut filed down in order to make playing the instrument possible.

custom soprano ukulele

In summary; we bought the kits for the two sopranos because we wanted to save the hassle and time of making up fret boards and the matching nut, saddle, and bridge. I think in the end, we spent just as much time fussing with the kit version of these as we would have had we made them from scratch.

The next two Ukuleles will be concert sized and built from plans from Hana Lima Ia.

Boat Table

The inside layout of a boat is about as complex a design problem as you can take on, especially on a cruising boat. Every boat owner will have certain design issues that are based on their own sailing experiences.

One of mine is cabin tables. I love them and hate them.  After a long day, especially one of rough weather, I really like being able to sit down to a solid table to eat. Trying to balance your plate on your lap after a long day of trying to balance on deck may sound like a small thing but having your supper end up in your lap is not the best way that I have found to relax. On the other hand, trying to get a sail through the cabin while getting hung up on or tossed against a fixed table is something I have too much experience with. Therefore, one of the items on our wish list when we rebuilt the interior of our Friendship Sloop was a table that we could either strike or ship easily. This is what we came up with:

cabin table

The actual table is a three leaf folding design. The top of the table slides onto an oak post that can be easily shipped through a rectangular opening in the cabin sole.

Without the table the cabin is open and it is easy to get forward.

cabin without the table

Shipping the table:

Step One: pull out the plug in the cabin sole.

pull the plug

Step Two: Ship the oak stanchion that supports the table.

ship the stanchion

Step Three: the underside of the table has a support framework that fits over the top of the stanchion.

underside of the table

Slide this framework over the top of the stanchion.

slide the table framework down onto the stanchion

Step Four: fold up the leaves of the table.

the table shipped with the leaves in the up position

The design is very simple, it both ships and strikes very quickly, but as with many very simple designs it took a lot of tinkering to get everything right. A larger table would fit in the cabin and seat more people, but would be too unwieldy to strike easily. The height and with of the table are also critical if the table is to be easy to sit at, while making it possible to seat yourself without making the process a tight squeeze. As with most projects below, we made a mock up first and lived with it. In fact, the mockup worked so well we lived with it for seven seasons before making the finished version in cherry.

Bon appetit!

Friendship Sloop Races 2009

This year the Friendship Sloop Homecoming and regatta in Rockland, Maine had twenty two boats in attendance. In addition on the second day of the races, a number of schooners formed a parade past the breakwater. The combined effect on this hazy afternoon of light air was a stately dance of traditional sail. I have put together four clips below. If you are so inclined, spend a few minutes watching a sight that used to be common on the Maine coast, and is now all too rare.

New Children’s Book

There has been a lot going on here of late, enough so that I have not been able to contribute to this site in a while. Coming soon: some photographs and notes on the Ukuleles that were described in the last post, and some updates on the boat page, but for now; let me plug a new children’s book. Cat In the Clouds.

 

                This is the fifth book I have illustrated and the second children’s book. The book is about Nin, a lost cat who finds a home at the Mt Washington observatory, on the summit of Mt Washington. Nin is a real cat, he lived on the summit for twelve years, and the book’s author, Eric Pinder knows Nin well.  Nin is quite a local celebrity, so much so that when he retired from the summit, the news made CNN!

               I like the challenges presented by illustration work. I like trying to create images that catch the eye but that do not necessarily give away what is in the text. I also like trying to find a style that compliments the writing. Cat in the Clouds is, essentially, a true story, so I tried to make the watercolors true to the setting, while keeping the focus on Nin. This presented a constant balancing act between those images that were more panoramic and those that were more about Nin.

                I have worked, and do work, in a number of mediums. Watercolor has become one of my favorites. I like the spontaneity and the immediacy of watercolor, but I also like the challenges. For example, unless you are just trying to get beautiful big splotches of color (and some painters just want that) it is an extremely difficult medium to master. I think part of the reason for this is that there is a continual tension for the painter between a well thought out approach to a subject, knowing what areas to leave light and where to apply darker colors to the composition, and an ability to take advantage of those moments when the combination of paint paper and water does something unexpected. Another way to look at this is that if you just want to be surprised, watercolor is easy. If you are actually trying to achieve a specific look, it is much harder.

 

Front piece from Cat in The Clouds

From Page 11, Cat In The Clouds

 

 

In case you were wondering each watercolor took on average four hours.

 

            So now you know what happened to at least one month of my winter. The book is available here through Amazon.com, or you can go direct to the Publisher, The History Press.

Gaffers under sail

Dylan from the UK sent along some great video footage of old gaffers under sail.

Thanks for the inspiration Dylan.

If you are looking for some inspiration to get out on the water you might want to check out morre of his videos. youtube.com/user/dylanwinter1

Distractions

One of the downsides of being addicted to the creative process is that sometimes-innocent investigation of a new craft or skill can unexpectedly take over your life. This happened to me recently. After a January, which I spent cranking out 42 watercolors for a new children’s book to come out in May, several younger staff at SOLO asked me if I could help them build ukuleles.

       Now I know next to nothing about ukuleles, or I should say I did know next to nothing about ukuleles, but I have built guitars and lutes, as well as the odd fiddle and dulcimer. So I thought sure, no problem—we order a couple of cheap kits—replace the cheaper pieces with better ones we make ourselves, and we’ll be all set. So kits were ordered, and them I made a fateful mistake; I started reading about Ukuleles. I also went to “you Tube” (almost always a mistake) and started watching videos about ukulele tunings, and ukulele songs, and building ukuleles. Well before you know it I was ordering some detailed plans—you know—just to check up on the kits.

       Things spiraled out of control, and I am still not even sure how. Anyway, there are now one ukulele being built from a kit, two being built partly with kits, and I have pieces for two more, one a concert size and one a tenor ukulele, scattered all over the shop. In other words two ukulele projects turned into five (there are rumors of a sixth).

       The nearest thing I have to a rationalization for the two ukuleles that I am building is that they are for the boat…because…um…oh, never mind.

 

plans for the tenor ukulele

 

bindings being glued into ukulele body

 

tenor ukulele ready for the back

 

soprano ukulele body ready to be glued to the sound board

 

one tenor and two soprano ukuleles in the varnishing room

 

 

 

 

 

 

       If you are inspired to make Ukulele yourself, here are some resources:

       Lark in the Morning has a basic ukulele kit for $40. The body comes-pre assembled so you can be up and playing soon. One note: the instructions for this kit were clearly translated from another language, so you may have to do some pondering.

       Stewart MacDonald has a ukulele kit for about $100. This is one where you have to build the body, but the sides are pre-bent, which eliminates one step that can be intimidating. Stewart Macdonald also has scale plans for a tenor ukulele and a how-to book. The plans are not quite as exact as I might expect for a musical instrument, but they are certainly workable. If you have never built musical instruments of this kind before, you will need a book to guide you. More importantly, Stewart MacDonald is the best source for parts and supplies that I know of, and that goes for almost any string instrument that you might want to build. Their shipping is prompt and their service is excellent.

       If you want authenticity, you can’t go wrong with Hana Lima ‘Ia, as you might have guessed they are in Hawaii. Excellent, detailed, plans, building materials, kits, and hardware, their service is also excellent, but be aware that since they are in Hawaii you will pay more for shipping unless you are in Hawaii.

       For Ukulele strings my recommendation is Just Strings; fast service and simple site to navigate make this an easy one-stop shopping experience.

Tree house

I have not written about my friend Peter’s tree house in a while so I thought I would add a post here. One of the best things about writing a book about the tree house while building it is: rationalization. That’s right rationalization.

Tree House in Winter

The whole process of building a tree house as an adult is not practical and not rational. Kids never asked why we were building a tree house; it was obvious. But adults would start right away with the questions of doom and gloom: what if the tree dies? What if it gets struck by lightning? How much time is this going to take? How much is this going to cost? All questions that no self-respecting child would concern themselves with. In this kind of questioning environment it became difficult to pursue the kind of neat, and pointless, extravagances that, in essence, define a tree house. That is where the book comes in. There were many instances, the folding staircase, and the custom chess set, to name only two, that would have been a difficult sell to most adults except: “It will add so much to the book”.

Yes “the book” became the rationalization for all kinds of excess: the water-clock, the retractable desk, windows that look out only on the tree-trunk, an elaborate door locking mechanism concealed in….well I am not at liberty to divulge that. These elements, which were in many ways some of the most fun parts of building the tree house, would most likely not have been included in the project had it not been that we could rationalize them; “for the book”.

The truth is, this was about doing something fun that had been a life-long dream of Peter’s. Wouldn’t it have been nice to not have to find rationality for it? Anyway, it got me thinking, maybe someone should write a beautifully illustrated book on renewable energy, or affordable heath-care, or holding government accountable. Then when people whine and ask; why we have to do this, we can just tell them. It’s for the book.

So many people have found this site by searching the word treehouse or the words tree house that I wanted to create a page for tree house stuff.

If you click Tree House Page at the right, you will go to a new page with some older posts on tree houses and some new material as well. Enjoy!

Wooden Tank Toy

In line with the last few posts, here is  another wooden toy; the “Grizzly” tank. Wooden treads glued to cloth backing rotate on eight sets of wheels. The tank commander is removable. This was a Christmas gift for an eight-year-old boy.