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Lengthen Your Catamaran HullsSunday April 1, 2007 In the spring of 2007 we decided to extend the transoms on our crusing catamaran, Light Wave. The following is the excerpt form our May and June 2007 Adventure Logs where we detail the work we did in the boatyard in Guaymas. It took 24 days to lengthen the hulls and then another 27 days to raise the center bridgedeck cabin 6 inches. We hope it inspires you to make your catamaran into a better one. We started with this:
And ended with this:
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 After a surprisingly quiet night anchored off El Centro (downtown) Guaymas, we upped anchor first thing in the morning and motored the short distance across the harbor to the little cove off our boatyard. Motoring ashore in our dinghy, we had to tie up next to some Mexican workers building a new ramp for the boatyard. It has no beach and is deeply dredged so landing was a bit tricky and a bit mucky. Anyway, we tied up and then wandered around in Marina Seca Guaymas for awhile, checking out the boats already on the hard, and looking for Gabriel, the manager with whom Garett had exchanged emails and spoken on the phone. NB: the Mexican or Spanish name for boatyard is "marina seca" which means "dry marina".
Eventually, we found Gabriel Larios Rizo, a very friendly expressive young fellow, who manages the dry marina (boatyard) for his father who owns the place. We soon realized we had chosen wisely. (Another interesting aside re the names of the Mexican people: when you ask someone his/her name, "Como te llama?" he will say his first name. But if you ask the name of his wife or daughter, he automatically says, "Maria Dolores", or "Nicole Esmeralda". And in signing their names or on business cards, these middle names are used.) Marina Seca Guaymas is very boatbuilder friendly, and Gabriel is very helpful and accommodating. We arranged to be hauled out the next day, and confirmed that we will be staying in the yard until we return to Mexico in September. After I applied a little feminine wheedling and pleas (accompanied by prescribed batting of the eyes), Gabriel gave us the code for the secured wireless network. Edgar, one of the boaters whose boat has been on the hard here for a few months got Gabriel to set up the wireless internet in the yard, on the understanding he pays for it. Each visiting boater then pays Edgar a small monthly contribution to his costs. It's a good arrangement and gives us excellent Skype and Internet connections for phone calls, emails and researching the Net, as well as very good connection to our Ares Ultra website from which we download movies and TV shows. This is a great way to relax after a hard and long day's work in the hot sun. We also scoped out locations of stores where we could get hardware, fibreglass and epoxy materials, lumber and groceries. Gabriel had no knowledge of laundry facilities, but in response to our query did tell us that there is a small hotel just down the road. When we visited it a few days later, I talked to the little old lady who was cleaning and asked her if she would do some laundry for us. She said she would, and when I returned a couple of days later with my big load of a month's laundry, a young guy directed me to a little casa behind the motel on the beach. There I found Rosaria's husband Chris (pronounced Krees), who was happy to take my laundry and said Rosaria would have it ready the next day. For 140 pesos ($14) I got two huge bags of laundry done. For the benefit of other residents or visitors at Marina Seca Guaymas, I printed up an information sheet advising folks how to find Rosario to ge their laundry done. I am sure she and Chris appreciate the extra income. We caught another basic Mexican bus to town, joining a throng of Mexicans sitting on rickety seats, gears grinding as the driver raced pell-mell along, stopping wherever someone wanted to get off ("Bajan!") or waved him down. It is great fun to ride the city buses in Mexico. We hear the long-distance buses are very posh, however, and include air conditioning, television screens at each seat, and washrooms, and look forward to experiencing them for our 300-mile road trip up to Phoenix Arizona in June. Wednesday, April 25, 2006
The boat is out of the water now and sitting 75 feet from the office and showers. This is the plan for our two modification projects in the boatyard over the next six weeks: Part 1 ==> Extending the hulls 4
feet, to give more buoyancy, but mostly to improve the boat's movement
through the water--the increased length will help to eliminate the "hobby-horsing"
our short little 28-foot cat had been doing in bigger weather. Plus, as
a boat's speed increases concurrently with its water length (length of
the hulls in the water), our speed should improve. Plus, the aft of the
hulls (as of writing this) are now curved up through that additional 4
feet, so the very end of our hulls (transoms) will be out of the water
instead of dragging in it--this will result in much less noise, meaning
less stress for the crew as noise always causes concern, and less drag
thus more speed.
Part 2 ==>. Raising the whole cuddy cabin and cockpit sections 6 inches. Again, this will give our cat more clearance under the cuddy cabin, and so we will get less slamming by the waves: less noise and less stress on the crew and on the boat itself. [Full Story] Thursday, April 26, 2006 Friday, April 27, 2006 - Work starts!
Saturday, April 28, 2006
Sunday, April 29, 2006
I finished cleaning out another sail locker (isn't this interesting for you folks?), and again swept up all the dust and washed the floors in our living areas. Continuing my role as chief cook and assistant boatbuilder, I made a few batches of fibreglass resin for Garett, and also made breakfast and lunch. We had our afternoon siesta after lunch, and a bit later I made a huge potato carrot salad as well as a quasi-Greek salad. Quasi because the Mexican lady at the big Ley's supermarket who sold me a big hunk of what she said was queso feta (feta cheese) in fact sold me the regular boring white Mexican cheese. And we all know that Greek salad is totally dependant on the tangy flavor of good feta cheese. Anyway, the reason for all this preparation was the regular Sunday night group barbecue in the boatyard. We all bring a contribution, some bring their portable barbecues plus fish and meat, and then we share and celebrate life on the hard.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 Garett: We really tried to wake up at 5:30 am attempting to beat the heat, but instead slept into 6:30 am. Sunrise is at 5:45 am. We started work at 8:30 am and completed the forms for the hull extensions. I then spent a couple hours cutting out all the pieces of mat and bi-axial. As we approached lunchtime and in the heat of the day (90 F) I realized we need some more fibreglass material, so we decided to go into town after our siesta. We caught the Paraje bus but this own was even older than the other ones we had been on. We sat in the back and were bouncing up and down on every revolution of the back wheels. I don’t think the wheels were round any more.
When we reached downtown we realized it was deserted as it was the May 1st holiday. We still got some fruit at the super mercado but the Plastico y Resina store was closed. We got back to the boatyard at 6 pm and did out first combo fiberglass job of the first hull side.
Saturday May 5, 2007 Garett: Today is the day of the monthly Boaters Swap Meet at the San Carlos Marina. Carllie though it might be an opportunity to find a home for our new calico boat kitty. We woke up at 7 am and Carllie got the cat carrier that our friend Jason had given to us, bag of cat litter, 4 cans of Whisker cat food, and the leftover flea removal drops and dewormer pills, and of course little Maggie and got a lift with Ted from the boatyard.
After they left I sure missed that cute little kitty. It had only been four days and that kitten had become part of our boat team. I could still see her perched on the aft beam quietly sitting and looking at us fiberglassing for two hours in the dark.
I would periodically break from my work and meow at her and she would always meow back. I sure miss her… But it would have been harder if we waited another five weeks until June 18 when we leave. May 2 to May 4, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007 Carllie: Life in a boatyard is fun, whether it is at home or here in Mexico. It's a little more fun here because we have befriended the Mexican workers in the yard, and the young Mexican Gabriel fellow who manages the place for his father and lives on the property with his wife and son. Temperatures when we arrived, April 22nd, were about 85 degrees F during the day. Now the temperatures have gone as high as 103 degrees, though for the last several days it's been "cool" at between 90 and 96 degrees. It's amazing what you get used to. Thankfully, temperature drops in the evening so far, allowing us to get a good night's rest.
As of today, after about 8-9 days of buying supplies and Garett’s almost non-stop work with my assistance with decisions along the way, all ‘glassing, and of course feeding the workers, these extensions are really taking shape. You will see when we update our website the progressive stages of the project and how at first the additions looked pretty awkward and weird. Now they fit right into the natural lines of the hulls. We think Light Wave will look much better with these extended hulls.
Monday May 7, 2007 to Friday May 11, 2007
Wednesday May 9, 2007 Today was an open market downtown, and so we bussed there in search of a used reciprocal saw (commonly known as a "Sawsall"). We did find a really good Milwaukee sawsall for only $70; it would have cost over $200 new.
Saturday May 12, 2007 - Typical Builder's Log by Garett for Day 16 Garett: Today's jobs done:
Midnight update I just woke up from a little nap after falling asleep in the middle of a video which we tried to watch after eating another one of Carllie’s great dinners. Today was another day of progress even though it is getting very very hot.. We woke up early at 6 am so we could get and early start to glue in all the pieces that make up the frame for the floors. Carllie was mixing the epoxy and then adding the special 406 filler (glass bubbles) in small batches with the slow hardener and then I coated the glue edges of each piece (32 of them which I cut and fitted yesterday). We are seeing some visible progress and we think that the boat will actually look better, as well as have the real benefits of less hobby horsing, better speed and less noise. Our usual daily routine is to work from 8 to 2 pm and then take 2 hour siesta break in the heat of the day and then work from 4 to 8 of 9 pm. The temperature hit 101 F by noon and it is too getting hot to sleep in the afternoon. My new strategy to deal with the heat is to soak my shirt, shorts, and hat in the sink every hour and this keeps me cool as the water quickly evaporates in the super dry air (only 20 % relative humidity).
We have now been out of the water 17 days and we have another 36 days left. This gives us 8 days to finish the transom modification, then 3 weeks to the lifting of the cuddy cabin and cockpit, and then 1 week to prep the boat for the 3 months left alone in the summer. I think we will still make it. This modification of the transoms is a significant modification as it turn out we are adding 4 feet to the boat which is 13% increase. Though all this has been a lot of work Carllie and I both agree it is far less work than building a bigger boat. We just don’t think we have the energy in us to it. Life is too short. The meter is ticking down in life. Well I am going to spend a half hour working on my article for Multihulls Magazine on adding the hardtop and arch that Carllie is after me to finish by our May 15th deadline and then it is off to bed and see if I can wake up at my ambitious 5 am wake up. Goodnight everyone! Another long day. Tuesday, May 15, 2006 Carllie: A whole week has passed, and Garett has almost finished his incredible job of extending the hulls. He has done a fantastic job. The extensions are very sturdy and of course the lines of the extensions continue on naturally from the original hull lines. We have included two bulkheads in each extension, one being the original transom of the hull, and the second being in the middle of the new section. These bulkheads, in addition to the stringers Garett glued in along the centreline of the hull sections and along the sides, considerably reinforced the plywood reinforced fibreglass extensions. Garett spent two days building the deck tops for the new sections and 'glassing them on both sides, and two nights ago we attached them to the stringers on the hull tops with epoxy glue. The extensions were now very strong indeed, no flexing whatsoever. Then last night, after Garett had again shaped the sharp edges of the new hull tops with his grinder, we wrapped the joins with biaxial roving cloth and epoxy. At this very moment, Garett is grinding again, in this Tyvek coverall in the 88 degree F. heat, continuing the fairing process smoothing the epoxy fairing compound he has been applying to the new sections. The object is to get the new sections as fair as possible, then make diagonal lines between the original hulls and the new sections and paint the new sections with whatever yellow paint we can find in the local paint stores here. Here we cannot get our high-quality System Three yellow paint that will exactly match our existing paint, so this will be stop gap until we get Light Wave home. Next time we haul out in Vancouver, Garett will use his big professional sanding block (2 feet long) to fair the extensions perfectly, and we will repaint them with the right type and color of yellow paint.
Carllie: Light Wave looks noticeably more streamlined with the additional length already, even though the extensions haven't been painted, as you will see in the pictures. So once we get them painted a close shade of yellow, she will be looking pretty good. Already this is feeling like one of those many improvements we have made on Light Wave where we will be saying, "Why didn't we do this earlier?" Of course, we didn't even think about extending the hulls until we were in Mazatlan in January visiting with our friends Joe and Kathy aboard their lovely Seawind 34 cat, Katty Kat. Joe told us that the Seawind company is now doing extensions to the Seawind 34's, extending the hulls by 3 feet to make the ride more comfortable. At that point the light went on, and over the next couple of months it brewed in Garett's mind until ultimately it percolated into the defined vision of extending Light Wave's hulls 3 feet (in reality closer to 4) in addition to raising the cuddy cabin and cockpit when we are on the hard in Guaymas. It seems an extreme modification, but Garett visualized it all step-by-step very quickly and, just like "cutting out the cuddy cabin and cockpit", he was confident we could do it in a short period of time on a small budget (muchos smaller than the $10 or $20,000 the Seawind Company likely charges Seawind 34 owners to do 3-foot hull extensions!). Garett's capability and tenacity amazes me daily. He created a detailed list 3 pages long of all the steps involved in building these extensions, about 70 steps in all I think, and we are now down to the last 3 or 4 steps. He works every single day, getting out of bed very early and inspecting his work from the day before, and working almost all day long with a lunch-siesta midday. I usually work with him once the sun goes down doing GRP resin or Epoxy resin mixing, brushing and rolling with him at a very very fast rate. There we are, out there in the dark with our trouble light, the cockpit light and a headlight (like the Borg!) that I wear so I can see what I am mixing, brushing and rolling. The two friendly boatyard dogs, Sassy and Lobo, meander over nearby and we talk to them a bit. Then we chat with the night watchman, Isaac, in Spanish of course as the only Mexicans here who speak English are the manager Gabriel and his wife Maria Dolores. Almost all the other "Norte Americanos y Canadienses" have left now, but still one or two will come by and comment on our industrious work so late at night. It is far easier to work in the evenings, however. The great thing about our situation is that at our request Gabriel positioned the boat right between two other catamarans (we did not want to be around any monohulls that can topple over in a hurricane), and we happen to within eyesight of the night watchman's little building, directly across from the washrooms and showers, and also right across from the office. So security is very very good, and the accessibility to the showers makes it that much easier keep cool during the day with two or three showers, and one final shower after our late night 'glassing sessions. Then we retire to our cuddy cabin to watch some movie or TV show we have downloaded with the great wireless Internet connection we very fortunately have here. We contribute a measly $10/month towards its expense, and feel it is well worth it as we can also enjoy making long Skype phone calls to our friends, and receiving and send emails and completed articles easily. Last night we just finished polishing up Garett's next great "how to" article for the July-August issue of Multihulls Magazine, entitled "A Hardtop for the Working Cat", and sent it out with 14 photos via email lickety-split. Ahhh! The joys of technology. As long as you don't have to be physically a part of the world that creates it, that is! It is now 12:09 p.m., and Garett has spent about an hour grinding while I've been writing. He is into the tostadas and wonderful Herdez salsa sauce, so it's time for me to make lunch! My chief roles in this boat modification process are to keep the boat swept of dust as much as possible; gradually clean out the interior of the boat readying her for our absence while she is alone on the hard; mix GRP resin or epoxy resin, brush and roll onto matting and roving; and most importantly buy groceries and feed the designer builder! What a guy! You folks won't believe the difference in Light Wave when we sail down the Fraser River to our home marina next July! Will any of you be on a boat to meet us in the Gulf Islands, we wonder? It is possible to charter boats, you know! Wouldn't that be great??? There's a seed planted.
Thursday May 17, 2007 Garett: It has now been 21 days into our "little" project and the last three days has been the hard work of fairing the hull extensions. This means applying dozens of small batches of filler and then sanding it off with a combination of power sander, board sander, and hand sanding, getting hull additions progressively more level and fair. Hard work. By the time we have dinner at 8 pm I am really tired. It looks like we will do some painting in next few days.
Saturday May 19, 2007 Garett: The fairing is almost done. My arms can't take much more. (C: His hands were so sore last night that while we watched a video I spent about an hour massaging them with a special cream.) Just a little more this morning and then we can put some primer which will at least change the color to something else other than fibreglass and fairing brown.
We are now down to 29 working days before we take the bus to Phoenix on Monday June 18. I hope we make it. Sunday May 20, 2007 The fairing is now done and we finally put on some primer.
Though it would have been nice to have been out for the three last weeks cruising to some of the anchorages in the northern Sea of Cortez, we both agree that it has been better to do the boat work now while it is still is reasonably cool. We will then be able to relax over the summer and be all keen and ready to go in September when the water is even warmer than it is now. On the Water Testing We now have sailed for two months on our longer hulls and all we can say is that it feels it like a different boat! The longer hulls dampen the pitching going upwind, downwind, and, surprisingly, at anchor. Not only is their less pitching but with less pitching you also get less acceleration and deceleration with each pitching eprisode. The upgrade project was a lot of work but we are very happy with the changes. We may even add a few more feet when we get back to Vancouver in 2008.
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