Teak Lady, Che Hon splash

The beautiful little yacht that is Che Hon has hit the water this summer with a complete work-over. It's been two years since we had this fine diminutive vessel in the water and back then, she still had no rigging. She had been out of the water for twenty years and it was a milestone just to have her take-up and float.

At that time, her decks were in pretty poor condition - no rot, but they leaked so much we were concerned lest she sink over the winter. Well, now her decks are in much better condition, her broken mast has been repaired and she has been refinished from stem to stern.

Che Hon was donated to the Port of Toledo (Oregon) by Bob and Claire MacDonald of Spokane, Washington. Until recently, it has not been clear what a jewel she is. She has brand-new sails and all the standing rigging necessary, plus a lot of gear required for extensive use. (Thank you, Claire and Bob!)

Here we see her sitting proudly beside her sister ship, Ma Zu. (Che Hon has her mast painted light tan.) As you can see, the differences between the two are slight. The Teak Lady is a racing class, so all the boats are very similar. As a boatbuilder, I can see the boats are not identical - a slightly different stem shape, more camber in one deck over the other, so they are not twins, but you might need to either know them well, or see them side by side to tell the difference.

In a couple weeks, we will see them both under sail at the Toledo Wooden Boat Show. Then their characteristics will shine. Che Hon has a set of white sails and Ma Zu is rigged in tanbark. Having had a hand in the restoration of these wonderful little yachts, I'm very excited to see them with their wings spread.

Kudos to the volunteers of the local Teak Lady Society for their commitment to bringing these two boats back to life and insuring they live for many more years! Thanks a lot, fellas, it's been a pleasure working with all of you.

A local painting class uses Che Hon as a subject as she hangs in the sling, getting her sea-legs.

Nice likeness.

Doryman in his element, making beautiful boats even more lovely.

The last four photos courtesy of Curt Warner (volunteer extraordinaire). Thanks Curt!

Doryman's Melonseed

You thought I'd forgotten the melonseed?

We've had a very mild fall with little rain, which is a bonus if your livelihood is maintaining and building wood boats. Recently, however, the weather has not been so nice and Doryman wishes he'd spent more time on his woodpile.

When weather threatens around here, we retreat to the back porch for boat work, which is at least dry, if not heated. Then, each day is gauged by the barometer and the dewpoint. It's a little known fact that epoxy is not nearly as sensitive to temperature, as moisture. I don't mean to be confusing here, epoxy does not give a fig about moisture. But wood does. It's this simple - if the wood is saturated with moisture, it will not accept epoxy. But if there are ten degrees (F) of separation between the current temperature and the dewpoint, and your wood is not actually wet or green, the epoxy will penetrate and adhere to the wood. The shop-vac is useful for "air-drying" wood surfaces, though a hair-dryer works wonders. If last night was cold and today it will rain, try blowing your wood surfaces with a fan or a shop-vac exhaust before applying epoxy.




If the conditions are wetter still, which might seem extreme, though we spend four to five months a year around here with 100% humidity - so we understand - a very good substitute for epoxy is a polyurethane glue that is formulated to cure in the presence of moisture. Which is why you see a black adhesive in some applications, in the construction photos. Another excuse for using polyurethane glue is probable movement. Epoxy has much more tensile strength than wood, so will fracture and de-laminate where wood flexes, swells or shrinks. In those cases, a more flexible bond is required. I bond all my plank laps with polyurethane glue, because my boats are built to be outside, in use, all year-round.

To date, the Doryman melonseed has been planked and framed for decking. The most recent step has been the installation of anti-skid strips milled from Oregon white oak. Aside from helping to keep traction, they act as stringers which add stiffness to the wide garboard plank.

Photos of this build can be found on Doryman's Flickr site.

One day we may take some time to talk about the design process. This particular design is informed by Howard Chapelle, William Atkins and Uffa Fox.

In other Doryman Boatyard news, the mast for the Teak Lady, Che Hon is being repaired. This 73-year-old old Douglas fir mast was cut off at one time, just above deck level, with the intention of installing a tabernacle, but we've decided to restore the boat to as-built condition. A foot above the old cut, the mast was hollow so in order to scarph three feet onto the existing mast, a plug was fashioned to fill the void.

The mast is 3 1/2" in diameter and the scarph is 12/1.

As a result, the mast will be much stiffer, higher up from the deck, which will affect it's bending characteristics. This might promote failure, if the boat were sailed to it's potential, but it's not likely Che Hon will ever campaign another race, she's retired.

Sounds a lot like the tired old sailor typing this missive...