holdfast4

Spencer Yacht Owners Group

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Also view Building Your Own

Part 1

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        A recent article in a sailing magazine pointed out that designing one’s own boat was "…a dream, a fantasy, a nightmare." I’m in total agreement. A boat is after all, especially one which is built and designed almost from scratch, filled with ones own personal likes and dislikes. What one person may be enamoured of, another might well detest with a passion. I’ve always thought therefore, that to write about building your own boat is a slightly masturbatory experience. Certainly there are going to be generalities, a good seaberth, adequate ventilation, a strong, safe and seakindly hull etc. etc. etc., but at the end of the day it is a limited set of criteria that one puts into one’s own boat. All the same, the fact that there are a number of boats out there that have none of these, clearly establish that my ideas certainly aren’t the final word, a fact my lovely wife reminds me of lest I assume too much.

        In the modern fashion, I suppose I should begin by issuing a disclaimer, to wit – the following aspects of this endeavour, the ideas and execution thereof are the ideas of said previously mentioned wife and myself. I shall attempt to supply my reasons for choosing them but some will no doubt swoon at the prodigious amounts of thought that have brought them forth while others will weep with dismay at the hollowness of its lack thereof. So be it. As long as everyone is happy with their boat then I remain content as the crux of enjoyment for me is to be out on the water. I love looking at boats, all types of them. I marvel at the Whitbread (now Volvo Ocean race) boats screaming along at 30 kts plus and I drool over the breathtaking beauty of a Fife built gaff cutter. I’ll even enjoy a nice riesling on a power boat, so understand that I am shameless.

        My name is Doug McLeod. My wife Jobina and I are the proud owners of Hold fast IV, Hull number four of the "new" Spencer 46s. Or at least we will be when she is finished. I should also point out that, despite the fact that one will see a myriad of changes to the stock boat, (our surveyor now calls it a "custom" Spencer 46) I like the basic boat, design, pedigree and glasswork. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have bought her. That said, Hold fast is our fourth (keel) boat and, while I did little to the first, the second got modified rather extensively, the third was built from the fiberglass cave stage and the forth? Well it too started as a fiberglass cave but you’ll be able to follow along if you wish.

        For those not familiar with the new Spencer 46, let me elaborate. Inherently she is the Spencer 1330 with some modifications and retooling to the molds. The stern, which in the 1330 version. Had an almost plumb line down to the waterline has undergone a revision incorporating a reverse transom which adds about 18 inches to her overall length. Her bow has also been modified/modernized to reflect less of the spoon shape and a smaller radius.

        The largest benefit in my opinion however is what has been done with the deck. The upgrades here now provide a coaming for the attachment of a dodger and just forward of that, and area for the mainsheet track with two small castles for the traveler blocks. All lines can be led aft through holes in the coaming to three winch pads located on the coachroof just forward of the STBD side of the cockpit. The cockpit itself has been enlarged and made into a "T" shape to make an excellent outdoor living room. The glasswork is done by Independent Shipwrights of Coombs, B.C. and it would be hard to find a more experienced and pleasant bunch of people to do it. An offset companion way allows a wonderful quarter cabin with privacy if one so desires. (We did.)

        For us, this project started just shortly after finishing our last boat, a 35 foot cutter. At first we feared that this may have indicated some inherent masochism in that we had really not even had time to forget the trials of one before plunging into the next. In fact, we actually had no intent of selling her having just gotten her to the standard we wanted her in. Just the same, by a rather strange set of circumstances a very nice and willing couple showed up with both the interest and the funding. A long discourse later, my wife and I decided that since we wanted to move up once more anyway and we needed some time prior to retiring to complete another, we would let her go. My understanding is that the new owners love her and treat her well. But we of course are again starting from scratch. It is said the second child is usually born only after the woman has forgotten the pain of the first childbirth so given that we have no excuse of memory, perhaps we just don’t learn. Oh well.

        The reason we were looking at something larger was that we had established certain criteria that we would have liked to have on a boat that we would probably take offshore. We needed, we thought, a good sea berth either a pilot or quarterberth - Hold fast has a pilot berth. We also wanted two completely enclosed cabins complete with double bunks as we didn’t always plan to be at sea. Hold fast has one cabin in the Stbd quarter and one forward with a pullman vice the V-berth one finds so often. Once we established the primary requirements then we had to move into the design phase – an intriguing period.

        Because we were not particularly partial to the interiors according to the drawings supplied by the Malcolm Wilkinson, owner of the molds, we understandably wanted our own. After much discussion I, as the engineer in the family, sat down with a set of blank drawings, a scale rule and drafting tools and industriously spent a few long nights incorporating our desires into a masterpiece of a blueprint to give to the esteemed folks up at Independent Shipwrights. Once done I triumphantly walked into the living room and announced to my loving wife that voila, it was complete! They were spread out in all their glory on the dining room table and perhaps, I allowed proudly, she would like to take a look. Task finished, I took over the remote, checking out what was on TV and waiting for her compliments and salutations reflecting the sheer quality of the work. Unfortunately, I sat down when something or other piqued my interest. It must have really piqued it too as it was a good 45 minutes before I stopped to think that it was damned quite out there in the dining room and what had happened to the kudos for my artistry? A brief moment later, I discovered Jobina sitting at the table, an eraser in one hand, my mechanical pencil in the other, rapidly transferring a scaled blueprint back into a sketch. There would be few more versions before we arrived at the final draft – and we’ve only changed that a bit, really.


    Double Boot Stripe        Deck Mold & Stern Area
- Click to Enlarge Photos -

[Caption]
Two shots of the boat in the builders shed showing (1.) the hull with the double boot stripe which I required due to visually break up the height of the hull, and (2.) the deck mold with the coaming and area for the (almost end boom) mainsheet track/traveler and the offset companionway.

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Part 2

Testing ones mettle….

Like most people I have a list of pet peeves that I wished to avoid in a new boat. One of these is the repeated appearance of cleats installed so as best to tear off unsuspecting toes in the middle of the night when one rushes on deck to do something. Just as common are cleats that are installed on foredecks with less than adequate backing plates (if any). So on Holdfast, I designed and had made solid stainless steel bollard type cleats and mounted them on the bulwark – I wanted them in this area, as this area, where the hull and deck join establishes a double thickness and the strongest structural segment of the hull. While on the subject of stainless steel I should point out that I enjoy working in this medium. It allows me to not only design my own requirements but, when finished, is great to look at and never has to be re-chromed. Polish well with chrome polish and give it a good coat of Pledge (yup, the furniture polish) on you’re off to the races.

The stem piece was another aspect of construction that I preferred to do myself. For some reason I often manage to be bringing up that anchor just as the bow begins to pitch. And given the lasting impressions that a swinging anchor leaves on a fibreglass bow, I decided to add an anchor rack on the front of the boat to hold it well off as it is recovered. I once saw the stem fitting on a Hinckley that was an artwork of gleaming curves and functionality – I bought some steel and warmed up my trusty grinder. A note of caution here; the material that I used for the stempiece was 316 grade stainless. While this works wonderfully in cooler climes, and has for years as the preferred metal of choice for chainplates etc. The better choice would actually be 2205 Grade – a much newer alloy with a higher molybdenum content designed to prevent crevice corrosion. Not only does it do a far better job of this, but the yield strength of 2205 is approximately twice that of 316. It is not a cost saving however as the cost of it is more than twice the cost of 316 grade. One place that cost can be recovered though is the building of these items by oneself. As previously mentioned I enjoy working with steel however the quote given by a local manufacturer was in the range of $5000 to fabricate one. Total cost by doing my own designing, grinding and cutting? Just over $1000 including the polishing and welding. As well if the designer has estimated the weight for chainplates at a specific number based on the weight of 3416 grade stainless, this is one area where weight gains can be made by using the stronger (and therefore thinner) plate. Still, there is an old adage that the pessimist thinks the glass is half empty, the optimist thinks it is half full and the engineer thinks it is twice a big as it has to be. While I used ½ inch 2205 for capshroud chainplates, I stayed with 316 grade for the stempiece due to the welding required to fabricate it. Here I used 3/8 of an inch for the horizontal plate which forms the base of the bow plate and side webs which support the anchor rollers and ½ inch for the chainplates proper and longitudinal vertical support for the hull/bottlescrew attachment.

As seen above, it looks rather large when held up for viewing but once installed as below it’s actually sized appropriately. Why did I go to these lengths? The word "overbuilt" I’ve found, is heard far more in a clubhouse that they are offshore in a storm. In the tragic Sydney Hobart race of a few years ago, one account related the surprise of a crewmember as a chainplate, suddenly let go and came up through the deck. At the time it was still connected to its anchoring bulkhead so he could be excused his surprise as they both blew though the deck and disappeared over the side. Given a choice, I’d sooner lose the mast than rather large chunks of the hull so the failure points should, in my opinion be designed accordingly. Call me a coward. In retrospect I would have also raised the side pieces which cover the hull/deck join an additional 1 ½ inches or so to form a better looking assembly from the foredeck but this arrangement, when the final pieces of toerail are put in place is not displeasing.

The next aspect of re-design I turned my attention to was the backstay attachments. I had decided on a split backstay for a number of reasons. One, I prefer to have the ability to use a passerelle or stern gangway if med-moored, something that is becoming increasingly common in some areas. Two, it splits the load at where the metal attaches to the fibreglass hull and three, it allowed me to design a plate at the juncture point of the stay in order to which I could attach a gimballed radar antenna as well as stern light and GPS/VHF antennas well above deck level.

To do the backstay plates I experimented with different patterns until I found one that I (and my wife) liked and again got busy with my grinder. It took some time but the finished product is, I think worth it. One further note I should make here. For all my chainplates I have standardized the bolts used. In each case they are ½ inch diameter 316 stainless bolts with a recessed, hexagonal tool access. These are pricey items running almost $10.00 per bolt and in some cases, particularly on the plates for a split backstay substantially in excess of what is required but it means that I can carry a reduced number of spares which will fit all chainplates. These too look great with the heads polished but there is a premium to be paid for the looks in this case.

Part of the "dream" part of building ones own boat is, in my opinion, that aspect which allows the creative juices to flow. There should be some fun in it. I’d suggest any craftsman show take pleasure in creating a work of art, even if the overall creation is destined to be a functional one as opposed to purely esthetic. So where I’ve done a good deal of the steelwork, I’m not above purchasing it if the overall effect compliments my own work. So it is with the dorades. In this case the cost of trying to cast them myself was not worth the time and effort when I could buy them. I didn’t want the white vinyl dorades seen on so many boats as we had had them on our last boat and I found they turned colour and deteriorated too quickly. The choice we made therefore was again to go with stainless steel. In our case, I got them from Mariners Hardware which can be found at http://www.marinershardware.com/. The picture at right is from their website, the sole difference in ours is that the interior colour is painted a more traditional red. Were they more expensive than the vinyl ones? Yup, at $400 CDN apiece they were, but then they look a lot better and I won’t have to replace them every few years either.

In keeping with the idea that we want the boat as maintenance free as we can get her the coachroof handrails are stainless too. We went a bit overboard as I wanted the welds to be properly radiused and then polished so as to give a high quality and well finished appearance. Next will come the rope guards for the dorades and then granny bars at the mast leaving a fair amount of stainless on the upper deck. The exception of course is the teak we will have installed in the cockpit not just because it holds warmth far better than fibreglass but because it’s kind to bare feet and a great nonskid as well as looking great too. Breaking up the bright gelcoat colours that reflect sun and are so hard on the eyes is just one more benefit.

The next things to be worked on will be the stern plate with its rollers on each quarter as well as the rope guards for the dorades. It’ll be interesting….

                                                   Submitted by Doug McLeod - Owner
                                                                with the support of family - Jobina and Matt

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