Replacement Garvey
my recollection of discussion
Tom Gibson
I have distributed John Franchi's notes that summarize the end result (consensus?) of our Tuesday meeting. I took no notes, but from memory I thought I would add a bit about the discussion leading up to the consensus. (Yes, I think it was a consensus.) John's notes are on the next page.
Present were
Joellen Lundy, NJFC president
Charles Ladoulis, NMHA president
Marshall Wright, Naval Architecture student who did the initial plan
Adam Guttenplan, MBC member who is a Naval Architect helping us
Jim and John Franchi, clearwater garvey crew
Shannon Gilvary, clearwater garvey crew
Tom Gibson, cleawater garvey crew
which suggests to me there is a LOT of interest in this project.
I opened the meeting by reviewing my goals memo. Marshall then shared his drawings with us.
FOLDING
The first question as I recall was about the "folding" characteristic. How heavy a lift are the two ends. After some description and discussion the feeling was that it was a dangerous operation. With an 8 foot width we needed to raise the bunks on the trailer, and would need a crane to launch. MBC's crane would not handle the weight, so we were stuck with commercial trailering/launching, so why fold it in the first place.
SIZE
That led to the size. Marshall pointed out it was now 38' to meet other constraints. Still 8' wide at the chines. All agreed quite quickly this was way too big. Later in the evening we converged on 26', just like the garvey. Reasoning included:
- boat needs to be of a size for training new crew. 38' can get into trouble. 26' is managable with one skipper and all new crew.
- don't need to hold 19 folks for our programs. 8 is fine for now.
- new construction technique is a big enough change. Don't compromise success with a huge size until we master this construction.
WHOSE BOAT?
Jim asked whose boat is this. Charles answered it was a clearwater boat, but NMHA and Sea Scouts would have a roll just like todays garvey. Very little discussion on this. Needs more.
WHAT TO DO WITH EXISTING GARVEY
Very brief only 2 or so comments/questions. The feeling is donate to Tuckerton. We don't know if they would be interested. RESEARCH NEEDED.
CONSTRUCTION: WHAT IS TACK & TAPE?
I am reading a book on this, and described it briefly. I plan to write a more thorough description. [Written: tack_and_tape.pdf]
RIG: SPRIT VS GAFF?
Everybody liked the advantage of gaff. We discussed the cost, the more difficult setup, and easier and safer raising/lowering of sail. We would need sail covers which adds a few hundred $ to our cost.
Setup: at launch raise the mast just as we do now. Two halyards, throat and peak. Rig the boom on a boom-table and boom-crutch. Rig the sail. Rig the gaff and lash the sail head to it. Put on the sail cover. All of this takes maybe an hour per mast, as compared to the 3 or 4 minutes for our sprit masts. BUT YOU NEVER DO IT AGAIN all summer. Just remove the sail cover and hoist away.
RIG: SCHOONER VS KETCH?
Mostly existing crew discussed this, and favored our familiar ketch rig. One advantage is we can reuse our existing spars, lines, and sails, but that means a sprit rigged boat. But the real issue was familiar handling. (I personally think that issue was overrated, and hope we can discuss it further.)
DESIGN:
Lots of discussion. Although we converged on garvey lines, we wanted a bunch of the improvements in Marshall's design...
- flat bottom? YES because of stability and simpler construction
- pointy bow? Some discussion. The leaning is use our existing garvey lines.
- lee boards? YES. Everyone like the improvement on cockpit mobility.
- fiberglass? NO its not a fiberglass boat. Its a wooden boat. YES it has a fiberglass outer cover and fiberglass tape on all seams. Double tape internal. Single tape plus the cover on outside is effective double there, too. Smith's everywhere.
- chine logs? YES for strength in this size of boat.
- bench seating? YES to improve passenger seating and cockpit mobility. But not too deep lest it compromise mobility. Experiments needed.
- frames? YES, placement to be decided.
- side decks? 4" or 5" instead of current 7". That adds 6" width to cockpit.
- thole pins? Integrated into the coaming rails
- slooped bow deck? To shed rain
- birdbeak main mast? To lighten it with very little strength reductions.
- kickup rudder? YES High aspect ratio, for better control while still safe to enter shoal waters.
MATERIALS: WHAT KIND OF WOOD?
Other than "plywood" very little discussion. We need to work on this issue. Do we follow Dynamite Payten's recommendation (exterior fir)? Or move up to marine fir? Or up more to imported marine (okume)? What weights. More discussion needed.
OTHER DETAILS: weight, cost TO BE DETERMINED
FUND RAISING: Future discussion.
On to Meeting Consensus, Aug 24, 2012
Back to Building a new Garvey