Wonderful story, Skip!
Wonderful story, Skip!
View of Friday Harbor Marina, 12/27/21
View from atop Mt. Dallas, highest mountain on San Juan Island 12/27/21 (photos courtesy Jim Guard.)
Howard with the beginnings of his mini-Skeeter dirt boat. He became suspicious with his fairing, found an error in the plan dimensions, and is taking that into account. The original designer and builders glossed over their error in the YouTube construction video and corrected it with a belt sander, giving no explanation. ???
Last edited by sleddog; 12-28-2021 at 12:20 PM.
16th century sailing ships were bedeviled by Teredo Navalis, warm water and hungry mollusks (not a worm) that bored into and devoured the celluose in ships' underwater planks. What did the English and Spanish navies do to combat teredos that promptly caused steering failure on almost all their ships? First with the answer, your eggnog and rum in front of the fire awaits at CBC. Extra points and another log on the fire if you can answer why teredos were not a problem until the late 15th century, causing the loss of at least one of Columbus ships that had crossed the ocean blue.
Last edited by sleddog; 12-28-2021 at 09:38 PM.
8 each Mini Skeeter Bulkheads Complete.
Epoxy saturation starts in the morning!
??Sheath bottom in copper leads to galvanic corrosion of iron??
Teredo is new world species previously w/o access to old world ships.
Um I don't recall seeing a fireplace at the CBC.Originally Posted by sleddog;
Todd wins the eggnog and rum, even though his answer is not quite correct. In order to stop Teredos, the 16th century Spanish and British navies sheathed their bottoms with lead strips. The lead strips also gave them anti-fouling against barnacles and other marine growth, increasing speed, as well as protection against leaks.
Red lead paint was used as bottom paint until the 1960's and I remember it well on the bottom of our Lapworth 36.
The problem is lead is higher (#8) on the galvanic scale than iron (#4) causing iron in proximity to disintegrate underwater. The iron pintles and gudgeons on the 16th century ships "rusted" off, causing rudders to fail and loss of steering between 3-6 months after the lead sheathing was mounted. When this result was figured out, lead sheathing for bottom protection went rapidly out of favor until 1760 when copper sheathing began to be used. Copper bottoms and copper based bottom paint continues in use to this day.
Teredos were not found in the cooler waters of the Old World or Med, and it wasn't until ships began exploring the warmer Caribbean and Pacific in the 16th century that Teredos became a problem. They even hitchhiked their way as an invasive species east across the Atlantic.
As for those with fading memories of the CBC fireplace, here we go: The painting of the boat under spinnaker in the right background is WINDWARD PASSAGE finishing first and setting a new elapsed record in the 1971 Transpac.
Last edited by sleddog; 12-29-2021 at 09:17 AM.
Oh, gosh! I stand corrected. And those stoves work very well, I know. You must be toasty warm. This drafty old house in Oakland is not toasty warm.
Last month PG&E sent me a smiley face with my bill
and a note: “Great! You used 31% less than efficient homes!”
Encouragement that reminds me of grade school, back in the day, when kids still had their test scores posted publicly and received approbation like gold, silver and red stars. Oh, those days are gone, gone.
I wonder how long it will be before Jibeset is discouraged from posting race results and season’s standings? Come to think of it, I’m already feeling stigmatized. All those faster boats, more expensive sails, better sailors. And so many men …
This month’s heating bill is on track to be higher. Much higher. Had to stay inside because of the weather and the Little Monster, er, Freya the Wonder Puppy. But the puppy, she is gone back to Colorado where someone else pays the heating bills.
Maybe I’ll go work on Dura Mater, use up one of the butane cartridges, stay warm there.
Last edited by Philpott; 12-29-2021 at 12:56 PM.