Birch ply

My boat is built out of birch ply, this is quite common in Scandinavia, I have seen boats being both 10 and 20 years (and maybe even 30) old built out of birch ply. Some of them in great shape and some of them in horrible condition. An example from Finland here (http://koti.kapsi.fi/~hvartial/white/white.htm).

Most people nowadays would never build out of birch since it is rot prone, but in my opinion if you find good quality ply and do a proper surface treatment there should be very little problems. My boat is glassed on the bottom and garboard, the rest of the outside is coated with three layers of laminating epoxy (more flexible than glueing epoxy) and painted with two part polyurethane paint, the inside is also painted with the same paint. 

Last week I found a few pieces of ply in my yard, they have been there for about a year and a half, through sunshine, rain, sleet, snow and ice..... They have turned grey but I see no problems with the wood, tried to pull the ply's apart with my hands but was not able to....

Good enough for me!

Another mockup

It seems there are more people thinking about tents this winter, Osbert in Scotland has some great ideas on his blog (http://forthsailoar.osbert.org). He also started a thread (http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?166273-Sprayhood-tent-hoops-from-ply) on the WoodenBoat forum where I found some inspiration from Yeadon (post #33). So I decided to do another mock-up.

Battens/poles sewn into their pockets.

Laid out on the ridge line and pulled down to the gunwale

Not decided yet which version I like best so I will need to think a little more while I am on the lookout for tent poles or acrylic tubing....

Snow

The first snow came yesterday, very late this year, so we spent some time outdoors. 

Another thing that came is the canvas for the tent, not time for sewing yet but I assumed that the price would be lower in the middle of winter (not sure if that is correct).

The new roll and the leftovers from the cover

The fabric is the same as I used for the boat cover, acrylic, same as sunbrella but a lot cheaper. Probably not the best but so far the cover has kept the rain out of the boat so I figure it is good enough.

More tent trials

Finished the tent mockup, now I am confident it will work in reality. A few details such as the attachment to the masts etc need to be worked out when we do it for real. In the pictures the zippered tent flaps at the ends are missing, to fiddly to make in 1:10 scale (so another thing to figure out in real size).

The actual stitching of the tent will have to wait until 'Xiao Feng' is unwrapped in the spring.

Tent mock-up

Started fiddling a little with the tent and how it may look. Drew the deck on a piece of scrap wood and added the masts. After some discussions around design (with my mother the expert) I added a ridge line and some tent poles connected at the row lock position (and yes I stole play doh from the kids to secure them). Tomorrow I will add the tent if all goes according to plan.

Merry Christmas

Long time since I updated but nothing boaty has happened lately, 'Small Wind' is sleeping under her cover. We have had a very warm winter so far, no snow and no ice on the lake, so I actually could have been sailing. Will be starting some boat projects early next year the tent, galley etc.

In the meantime I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tucked in for winter

Even though we have perfect sailing weather (sunshine, +15C and 8 knots of wind) I decide to prepare Xiao Feng for winter. I will be travelling a lot the coming weeks and I do not want to be surprised by snow.
Cleaned her out, rolled up the sails and opened up the hatches. I left the cover on and added a tarp stretched between two 'pillars'. The tarp is mainly a snow cover we will see how well it works.

I launched later than planned and have not had time to sail as much as I would like but I am very happy with my little boat!!! The plans for winter is to get her ready for overnight trips, i.e. a tent, some way of cooking food and a good way of sleeping.