KMN designs - Dead Boat Cove

Barge's last stand

6/26/2014

The barge remnants are pretty well all gone except for this small rocky mountain, it's the concrete ballast from the barge. It's contaminated with creosote a now verboten product which we used to spread around with abandon on anything that might be exposed to water and thus rot. Because it's contaminated nobody will touch it and so it remains quietly leaching into the soil, which is contaminated anyway this being an old industrial site. I suppose a little more can't do any harm.. Rabbits have taken up residence and the dog likes to go caving after them.

The other thing that was left behind is this. It was behind the barge leaning up against it but was owned by someone else and so it remains.

Vole - a fatter mouse

6/8/2014

I decided to build a small boat for my grandson for his birthday, I had given him a sampan dinghy last year but that got stolen so he was boatless for the coming summer. I liked the Gavin Atkin design Mouse boat but I thought in little bit more beam and flare at the midships section would be more suited so I designed Vole, a fatter mouse. from design to delivery was four weeks. I don't know why I do these things to myself. Anyway the palns aref ree and should be in the store and also on Duckw

Resurrection denied

1/11/2014

This ancient trimaran hung around the cove for ages mostly half sunk as you can see from the sludge mark on the ama. After it ended up on the beach some enterprising soul stripped it of all the bits that could be sold and then left it on the beach. Some one else decided it had to go but the previous owner had stuffed the amas with styrofoam in an attempt to keep it afloat. As a result it wouldn't sink and join the Belle in deeper water. So they towed it around to the weather side of the point and left it in shallow water next to the rocks hoping it would be broken up in a storm.

It survived pretty well for a long time then the starboard ama was broken off and the flock of lesser IQs began throwing rocks at it and in it.

When I took this photo there was a couple passing by, the female member took one look and said "I think not", Succinct and accurate.

This morning I took the dog for a walk down at the cove, it was high tide, raining hard and the wind out of the southeast at about 30 kts. The tri was bouncing up and down in the waves and bashing against the rocks. As I watched the forward part of the port ama broke off and drifted off down wind bouncing along the shore.

We'll see what's left tomorrow.

Wheel house a go-go

1/6/2014

There was an old North Sea dragger in the line up of dying boats in the cove and one night last month it sank. Fortunately no one was injured. However the wheelhouse was not actually attached to the vessel and floated off. For a while it languished on its side and then over the past few days it has righted itself and has now become a roost for Blue Herons

This picture was taken at high tide, as the tide recedes more of the wheelhouse becomes visible, it looks like a Uboat surfacing in the cove with a heron as the periscope.

The ex barge

1/6/2014

The large barge shown in my last post has been broken up and now is an ex barge. There's a large pile of broken timbers, broken concrete ballast and iron piping right in the area that was torn up by the lesser IQ's and a much larger mudhole. The whole pile stinks of creosote and is a monstrous fire and environmental hazard, however it's all going to be gone by mid January thanks to the Ministry of Forests. They have a plan, what they had to do with an old barge escapes me but thanks anyway.

A bigger body

7/18/2012

Things have changed mightily in the cove since my last post. The little dead boats are all gone replaced by this giant of a dead boat.

The James Island Belle did not go to be repaired or restored. I found out that before she was beached she had been sold to a fellow who tied her up between two larger vessels. A wake from a passing boat brought the two larger boats together and essentially crushed the Belle. So she was stripped and when the pump got her afloat she was towed out in to the outer harbour and the pump removed. Bye bye Belle.

Then along came the big boy, covered in junk and leaking like a sieve. The deal apparently was that in exchange for removing the boat bodies from the beach the company owning the barge could beach it and then bring in a crusher to take it apart piece by piece.

Didn't happen, no one would remove the pieces. So instead the junk was all removed from the upper deck in case it should sink on its way to another mooring spot. Hasn't moved since.

I think the in case should be in parentheses. Hello Belle.

Speaking of junks here's Kuia Le on launch day my favourite little sailor supervising. Dry as a bone and right on her marks

The job we all want

12/24/2011

I go down to the cove almost every day and every day at about the same time this little work vessel passes. I have no idea what he does or who he does it for but I want this job!

Can't think of a better way to pass the time, a slow cruise around the harbour every day, just putting along at about 4 or 5 knots watching the birds, seals and otters. And for the most part without another soul to ruin the day.

The best part would be knowing that there was somebody like me standing on the shore saying "I want that job"

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12/15/2011

A heron has taken up residence in a corner of the cove, I guess the hull of the boat shown in my first entry provides a minor reef of sorts for small fish and thus a steady supply of meals for the heron.

According to my well thumbed Peterson field guide this is a Great Blue.

Unfortunately a flock of lesser IQ's has also taken up residence and they've been using their trucks to tear up the landscape creating a giant mudhole. See the picture below. They're also a great danger to the dogs and their walkers who like to use this unused industrial ground as an off leash dog park.

This picture only shows part of the damage.

The other problem of course is their droppings, empty beer cans, McDonalds boxes and bags, and other unsanitary items. With any luck they'll run into one another and put an end to it. Then we'll have some dead trucks to go along with the boats.

This reminds me of my motto of many years, podicis abundo, you can look it up.

James Island Belle

12/7/2011

This lovely little boat was stripped of everything salvageable and then run up on the beach I thought to die there. However last week there was a pump going on the afterdeck and the next day she was gone, don't know where, hopefully to be restored.

It's been a tough time at the cove over the past few weeks, high winds, lots of rain and King tides so I've put off the launch of Kuai Le until the spring. Plus I can spend the winter months planning little changes and making boat bits always a pleasant way to pass the time.

I realized that Kuai Le would need a boarding ladder or more properly I would need a boarding ladder so came up with a little design and built it out of 1x2 fir left over from making the sail battens for Kuai Le. 1/4 inch ready rod ties the two sides together and is let into a groove on the underside of the upper and lower tread. The one side is longer than the other because there is a large cleat within easy reach on the short side so the upright didn't need to be any longer than it is.

The view from Dead Boat Cove

10/18/2011

Dead boat cove is and isn't a real place. It is a real place in that I can show you were it is on a chart and it isn't because it has no real name. It lies between the Ladysmith Marine Society marina and Slag Point. It has many live boats but more boats that came there to die or are dead.

Anyway I visit the cove almost every day and I've begun taking pictures of the dead.

This one was the second boat to die on the beach after I began visiting the cove. It appeared on day and apparently it was listed on craig's list as for sale as is where is. Then bits started disappearing and it retreated further into death.

The boat itself has pretty good lines and was once, I suspect, someone's pride and joy but no more.

My intention here is to document the deaths at the cove and also the births and to comment generally on boat building, sailing and any other matter that crosses my mind. I'm not intending to blog often but you never know do you what might pop up.