Galley Net

When I bought Wisdom, she had a pressurized alcohol stove and oven in the galley. This is the equivalent to having a time bomb with no visible countdown. At some point, you know the thing will blow up in flames but you don't know when.

To alleviate my concern about burning Wisdom to the waterline, I quickly removed the stove and oven and replaced it with a simple alcohol and electric stove top. The space underneath the stove, where the oven used to be, is now available to be used as storage! More storage is always welcome, but there is one caveat: no fiddle.

When the boat heels over while sailing, anything in this space is liable to slide out of the storage area and onto the cabin sole. The space is lined with stainless steel, so the surface is pretty slick! I found myself using non-skid pads under particular items that lived in this space, such as the toaster, while other items were simply relocated to a safer place before sailing.

This quickly grew old until I found that the woven basket from IKEA didn't seem to slide too easily on the stainless steel. This opened up a whole new world of storage, as I could put galley and grilling items in this basket; this kept them close to where they were needed without the risk of them flying across the cabin when I heeled over.

For four years, life was simple. The toaster and the basket lived under the stove where the oven used to be. The basket was not the most efficient use of space for this area, and it also limited the size of what could be kept under there. Maddie got tired of us storing the pots and pans in the salon, when we had all that space available under the stove. She asked me to make a way to store these items below the stove where they are needed and to free up storage space in the salon. Her wish is my command!

I screwed small padeyes to the sides of the box, through the stainless steel plate (drilling through stainless steel is a real pain) and then attached an upper and lower section of rope. One end of the rope was spliced into an eye splice while the other end had a simple back splice. The line is tied to a bronze pelican hook, affording us the ability to open the netting in a hurry without much fuss yet still being able to adjust the tension of the net to fit the contents that we cram into it.

With the upper and lower lines set in place, it was time to begin making the net. I tied long lengths of line to the upper line with double constrictor knots. These knots will hold the lines in place without slipping while allowing me to ability to easily position them wherever I desire.

The lines were then hanging from the upper line, looking like a giant mess! I took the lines and tied zeppelin bend knots in them, forming the netting. Zeppelin bend knots are wonderful bend knots because the tails will exit the knot 90 degrees from where they entered. This means that when you tie the knot, the result will be an X. Having many X's set close together will form the net that will keep all our stored items in this area and not flying around the cabin.

A net is technically formed, though it looks like a real mess with all the tails hanging around. Maddie poked her head in to see how it was coming along at this point and she asked: "Can you make it look nice?" It did look like a mess at this point. Making quick work with a rigging knife, it quickly transformed into this:

Now that the net was in place and installed, it was time to get rid of that basket and stuff all our pots and pans into this space.

When we want to pull out a pot, all we need to do is unclip the net and retrieve what we need. Since it is all open and stainless steel, we also have to ability to store pots and pans after washing them before they dry completely without fear of wood rotting inside the cabinetry.

Like anything on a boat, it is all a work in progress. It will be interesting how this space beneath the stove evolves in its use as we sail and cruise.

Sailing is a Dream

Some days, everything works perfectly and sailing feels like a dream come true. Here we were returning to Baltimore after a 10 day cruise through the Chesapeake. The wind was strong and steady, allowing us to broad reach our way into the harbor while making good time without much work involved.

Storing the Cans

Maddie and I have chosen to use rice, beans, and canned meat as our emergency provisions. We will carry fresh foods that have a short shelf life on board. If we find ourselves at sea without land and running low on perishables, we will not need to worry as we have plenty of canned foods to keep us going.

We currently have 97 cans of beans, 24 cans of Vienna Sausages, and 16 cans of lentil soup stowed in this one locker. As you can see, there is still space for more cans, and we will continue to collect canned food through the winter. 

A less obvious but equally important choice when organizing the cans is to orient them vertically or horizontally. We chose horizontal for this locker because it is a more stable orientation that allows easier recovery of the desired can. If the cans were oriented vertically, the labels would be harder to read and removing the wanted can would be an complicated task. 

In a vertical orientation, the can needs to be lifted clear of all other cans, making it difficult to locate and retrieve a lower level can if they are stacked. With one can missing, the other cans will begin to tip and shift as they try to fill the void. This can cause the cans to bang into each other and dent, as well as make small holes which can lead to botulism poisoning.

In a horizontal orientation, the cans can be easily removed from any where in the locker because they are laying flat and won't need to be lifted as far. I can also stack the cans closer to the top of the locker as less space is needed in the removal. As cans are removed, other cans will roll into the space and settle, but they will be stable and organized once there. Best of all, the labels are easier to read in this orientation, making it easy to find the right can.

Right now, we are not moving much, so it is safe to stack the cans in tall columns next to empty sections. While cruising, we will not organize the cans in such a method. The cans will be re-organized to keep them all level with one another and minimize any risk of damaging our precious food stores.

This is only one of many lockers on board Wisdom that we plan to fill to the top with canned goods, allowing us to worry less about food and focus more on our destinations while cruising.

On another note, the choice of lockers for these massive can stores is based on the boats list. Our yacht tends to list a bit to starboard, so we are loading all the cans into the port lockers in an attempt to help level the vessel and correct this trim discrepancy.  The cans are being located as far to the port side as possible and their weight will help balance things out.

Propeller Nuts

The propeller fits onto the tapered shaft tip and is tightened into place by two nuts that thread onto the end of the propeller shaft. One nut is small, the other nut is big. This brings up the question of which order should the nuts be placed?

You could either place the big one on first, tighten it all the way, and then place and tighten the smaller one. Or you could place the smaller one first and tighten it all the way, and then place and tighten the bigger one. So many options on such a tiny part of the boat that is instantly forgotten the moment the boat goes into the water.

The proper order is the small nut first and the big nut second.

When you tighten the small nut against the propeller, the force of the propeller is then pushed onto the threads of the nut and shaft. When you tighten the big nut, the lateral pressure from the small nut is transferred to the big nut which has more threads and transmits the force more evenly to the threads of the shaft tip.

The reason to have two nuts is simple, when they are tightened against each other, they will apply lateral pressure away from each other and seize to the threads that they are pushing against. When the two nuts are tightened into each other, they will not come loose as the entire assembly spins furiously without any inspection. As a safety precaution, the end of the shaft will have a cotter pin just in case the nuts come loose. A loose propeller is a problem that can quickly be remedied. A lost propeller is an expensive problem that is not easy to fix when out at sea!

Next time you are on the hard, take a look at the nuts at the end of the propeller shaft and make sure that the small one is next to the propeller, followed by the big one. 

Cutting Planks Around a Knot

When resawing lumber to make planking stock, you have a few goals in mind:

• You want to create clear planks with no flaws or knots
• You want to convert as much wood into planks
• You want to minimize waste

When you buy a massive 2x12, there will be flaws scattered throughout the piece. This is the price you pay when the price you are paying is low. If you opt to splurg, you can easily purchase perfect clear grain wood for an astronomical fee. If you are budget conscious, you will find yourself picking up your Douglass Fir at Home Depot or Lowes, where a 16 foot board only costs $25!

This flatsawn board has a few checks and a few knots, but the majority of the board is clear with very tight rings. Ripping the board into three will yeild one flatsawn section and two quarter sawn sections with tight and close annual rings.

After the board was ripped and cut, it was time to resaw the smaller boards to create the 1/4 inch thick planking stock for the dinghy. It is easy to discard boards that have major flaws such as knots or checks, but this would be wasteful. Yes, a flaw will always be a flaw, but it can be worked around!

Remember, when planking the hull, there is always a section of the plank that overhangs and will be cut off. If the flaw is towards an end, placing it in the cutoff section will make the flaw disappear while making that plank usable!

What if the flaw is smack in the center of the board? Is that whole piece lost? Nonsense! We just need to work around that problem to extract as much usable wood as we can.

This gorgeous quarter sawn board had a big old knot right in the middle! To get as much clear stock out of this board as I could, I selectively resawed this board, carefully taking planks out of the board without involving the knot.

The top cut moves the knot over a bit, allowing the bandsaw blade to glide by in clear wood. This means that the first plank will be full height while no involving the only flaw in the board.

The process of cutting the top off to expose more clear wood on the side continues as you move across the board. The result is similar to the cut pattern when a log is quartersawn, where you form an alternating step pattern in the boards. The planks aligned vertically are all the planks that I was able to extract from this board without any sign of the flaw while the planks aligned horizontally are the scrap pieces that include the flaw.

Here, the board is reassembled, showing all the cut wood that came from it. You can see the off cuts that are flawed or not fair as they rest on top or on the side of the stack.

The good planking material extracted from this board will serve us very well as it is without flaws. If this board had been discarded, all of this material would have been lost! If the knotted section were to have been cut off, all the wood higher than the front plank would also have been lost. It is a bit more time consuming to orient the board in such a way as to extract as much clear wood as possible, but the cost savings are substantial and should not be overlooked.