Living is easy and sailing is fun when you head out to sea aboard this 28-foot auxiliary cruising ketch.

H28 was designed for the man who has only a limited time to sail, but would like to go somewhere and back in that time. It was designed to be a boat that could be quickly gotten under way for a sail on a summer evening, a boat that could ghost along in light breezes as well as stand up to anything she might get caught out in along our Atlantic coast in the summer time. She is wider on deck than an ideal sea boat should be (particularly aft), but that is to secure maximum deck space and to make her drier in a chop.

Some of the principal objects of the de­sign are to secure the maximum usable room for the cost without sacrificing looks and speed, and to have the boat of as simple construction as is consistent with strength and long life. Whereas it is often said that a vee bottom boat is easy to build because the frames are straight and don't have to be steam bent, still in the end the work amounts to nearly the same, for a vee bottom practically has to have three keels (two chines and a keel) and many more joints to make watertight or they are apt to give trouble. A boat shaped like H 28, if half carefully built, should stay entirely tight even if exposed to considerable strain or twisting.

It is feared that most of the owners of H 28's will have to report to the office without fail on Monday morning and even telephone mother or Aunt Susie on Satur­day night, and so had best have a motor. Now motors, like women, are not all bad, but it must be admitted there is a great difference in them. It would be far the best to have each owner choose his own engine, but for me the choice would be a small one with magneto ignition and im­pulse starter, as there would be no batteries and a very small amount of wiring. There are also some very good one-cylinder mo­tors made today with counterbalanced crankshafts and light pistons and connect­ing rods so their vibration is very small. They are to be highly recommended on ac­count of their great economy—(a one-cylinder engine has less cylinder surface for its piston displacement, and so less of the heat or power is wasted through the water jacket).

BEGINNING CONSTRUCTION

Well, first of all it is usual to lay the lines of the yacht down on the floor, full size, and if you want to do this the most satisfactory way in most cases is to get some building paper (enough to cover a space about twenty feet by eleven feet). The building paper is what is generally used on a house under clapboards or be­tween flooring.   It comes in colors of light green and brownish pink. Get a grade which has a surface hard enough to draw on. Of course, if your floor is smooth enough to draw on, the paper will be un­necessary, but the floor will have to be either painted black to be drawn on with soapstone chalk, or painted white if you are to use a lead pencil, so that the paper is often the best in the end, for it can be rolled up for future use if the yacht is set up on the floor where the lines were laid down and so cannot begotten at.

The incomplete hull (left), looking from the transom forward. The transom and keel have been installed, and the bottom planking has been started from the keel up. The best paints to use on the completed hull (right) are those that are penetrating and seal  the wood against the damaging effects of water. The H 28 ready for launching. The remaining work can be completed while the boat is  in the water.

Before tacking down the strips of paper be sure the floor is swept well and the heads of protruding nails are driven down. On this design the load waterline is the base line and all elevations are given in distances above and below the same. After snapping the chalk line for the load water-line you can tack a batten along the line for temporary use of a large square for laying off the stations. It will probably be best for you to make up a light but stiff wooden square with one limb about six feet and the other about four feet because there will be many other uses for this square as the work goes on.

Of course, I cannot here give full instruc­tions for laying down a yacht, but be sure you have many battens, some very stiff for such lines as the sheer and some very light and flexible for the sections. Many yachts which I have designed were built without being laid down, as the builders had con­fidence in the table of offsets and simply laid off the sections for making the molds, keel, etc., full size. I would recommend this if you are familiar with every step of what you are doing. For most people, how­ever, it is safer to lay the whole of the lines down full size.

THE LEAD KEEL

Lead is a wonderful material to make a keel from for it gets along well with the bronze keel bolts. It is ductile enough to absorb shocks when running aground. It can be melted at low temperature and is heavy. It also can be planed with a car­penter's plane. But I advise you to have your local foundry cast the keel for you, or you may find yourself in the same pre­dicament that Cellini was in when he was casting the statue of Perseus, and have to tear down your neighbors' houses and fences to keep the pot boiling at the last minute.

The lead on H 28 is purposely shaped so it will be easy to make a pattern, or a wooden mold to flow it into. In the latter case flat boards about one inch thick can form the sides, but the frame outside must be very strong, for the melted lead will press down and outward about 700 pounds for each square foot. So, besides strong cross pieces above and below the mold, it is well to have a few iron rods passing right through where the lead will be to hold the two sides from spreading. These rods, if heavily painted with graphite paint, will drive out easily when the mold is removed. The mold should be backed up with tightly tamped earth on the outside to help support it between braces and to prevent the lead's running far if a leak is started when the side boards shrink or crack under the heat of casting. If the lead is cast for you by a professional foundryman he will mold it right in the earth (probably dig a hole in his foundry floor) so he will re­quire a pattern to cast from just the same as if it were to be of iron. And, by the way, for those who prefer an iron keel, it can be made the same size and shape as the lead one and the difference in weight sim­ply make up by inside ballast. At any rate, in casting the lead keel be sure that at least one per cent of antimony is added to it, for this stiffens up the lead enough so that it drills well and even planes better. On this design the keel bolts are tapped into the top of the lead and it is almost impossible to tap pure lead, for it balls up the tap so that a clear thread is unlikely. When an­timony is added to the lead, or junk lead used which has some tin, solder or pewter in it, it seems to tap O.K. Be sure to drill a hole larger than is called for when tap­ping bronze or iron, because some of the lead will squeeze out and make a full thread, and remember that, as these bolts go into the lead about six times their diam­eter, a perfect thread will not be necessary. In drilling and tapping, use kerosene for lubricant; in screwing down the bolts use heavy oil.

SETTING UP

There are many different methods of setting up the framing of a yacht and they all have their advantages and disadvan­tages, but it is likely that most amateurs would prefer to build her right side up and bend the frames inside ribbons or battens bent over the molds. This is the commonest way in most places. A per­fectly good job can be done on a yacht of this size and shape by simply planking her up over the molds and, as each mold is removed one by one, frames are steam bent over the mold to approximate shape and fastened in place by fastenings in the same holes that held the planks on the molds. Be sure to keep battens or temporary deck beams across the yacht so she will not spread at the deck line when the molds are removed. This is the simplest and cheapest method I know of and perfectly satisfac­tory. It is the method that was used by the late John Harvey, who for many years had charge of the small boat building de­partment of the George Lawley Sons Cor­poration.

No matter what system is used for set­ting up or bending the frames, it is well to have the floor timbers bolted in place on the keel first so they can have their outer faces correctly lined up and beveled to receive the planks, for much of the strength of the yacht will depend on a good wood fit between the planking and the floor timbers. The first few frames at the bow can be sawed frames as they are so straight that the grain can run a long dis­tance on them and so they will be as strong as steam bent frames and they can. be beveled so their lower ends will fit on the floor timbers and the upper end on the clamp. This is not so with the usual bent frames near the ends of a yacht where the planking is not very parallel with the cen­ter line.

The clamp of H 28 is made in two pieces as is done on larger yachts and sometimes referred to as a shelf and clamp. It is done on this design as it is thought to be much easier for the amateur to bend in two light pieces than one stiff, square one and, as this boat has such a long cockpit and cabin house, the deck beams need the additional support this arrangement gives.

MATERIALS

There are a great many varieties of oak and most of them are very poor indeed, for they soon rot. The true white oak is one of the best. He (for the white oak is very masculine) is not called white oak because the wood is white or light color, but because as you walk through the woods his bark has quite a light shade in con­trast with the rest of the forest, and when the breeze lifts or turns the leaves, their under side is quite light. The wood itself is a brownish green color and I cannot de­scribe it better than to say it resembles laminations of cat gut and horn in thin, alternate layers, and it acts like it. You will practically have to use white oak for the frames and, if you can, use it for the stem, keel, floor timbers and stern post; it would also be good for the deck beams and transom, but here yellow bark oak will do.

The modem marina is equipped to launch a boat as  large  as  H 28 easily. The derrick will gently lower the boat into the water -with­out the slightest risk of damage.

The so-called hurricane pine—that is, our native soft pine—is a little different from the regular large forest white pine named Pinus Strombus, but as no two bot­anists agree as to the exact number of varieties in any region we shall have to go by local names. The hurricane pine around here (Massachusetts) is the variety the old-fashioned cabinetmakers and boat builders called punkin' pine. It is of a pinkish, yellow color and one of the nicest woods to work. It does not swell or shrink much, or rot easily, but do not confuse it with some of the western and California pines which rot very quickly. If you can get some of this hurricane pine, even if it has some knots in it, it will make most excellent decking, very good planking, and the very best interior trim.

For planking, if you use fir which is called for on the construction plan (be­cause it is the cheapest satisfactory wood for the purpose), be sure that it is all rift-grain and of fine texture and has been kiln dried down to the same moisture content that commercial flooring is. Of course, there are a number of very good woods for planking, but in most cases they are ex­pensive.

As for the metals, you will do well if you stick to Tobin bronze for everything, ex­cept the screws which we will  speak of later. Tobin bronze is like white oak—it will bend without breaking and last in­definitely. It also is a pleasure to work. Most all boat builders today agree that Everdur screws are the cheapest in the end, for so few of them break in driving even if the hole is not exactly the right size; and, of course, Monel screws are very fine, also. But no matter what sort of screws you use, do not rub them on soap, as so many writers advise, but use a heavy grease to lubricate them. Soaps nearly all have strong chemicals in them which shorten the life of the screws while the grease preserves them.

The canvas for the deck and deckhouse is another material on which many builders go wrong. The proper thing to use is loosely woven light cotton sheeting, and if this material is set on a deck well coated with white lead and oil paint, the paint will penetrate up through the sheeting and meet, or amalgamate, with the later coats of paint on top so that a solid, long wearing and watertight cover is made. Strange to say, this is the place where the cheapest material is the best and. besides, the cotton sheeting can be bought in very wide strips.
 
PAINTS

A whole lot could be said about paint, for on this subject in particular, there is a lot of misinformation. You hear some people   say,   "Save   the   surface   and  you save all," but this is far from the truth in boat construction. Many of the modern paints and lacquers are quick and easy to apply, but they do not penetrate. They make a hard shell on the surface so that at the seams, and particularly at fastenings, the water gets below the surface and causes the wood to swell and gives a chance for rot to start. No doubt you have noticed how the fastenings will stain and corrode under these hard surface lacquers. When a pen­etrating paint like linseed oil, lead and tur­pentine is used, the texture of the wood for some distance in is sealed or filled with a water repelling substance.

It is very easy to mix your own paints and you can vary them to meet your own needs by only using a little common sense. If you are bound to use the more modern paints with a cellulose base, or the var­nishes used today, be sure to first put on a filler coat of a mixture the paint makers recommend and sell for this particular purpose, and that will, to a certain extent, seal or fill the wood underneath.   

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here