build storn

8/13/2019 Build Storn

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theStornaway

Iasked the owner where he got it and if he wantedto sell it. No mate, I wouldnt sell this for anything. was the answer. However, he told me it was built by Scruffie Marine some mob inQueensland. I found them on the Internet and Isoon had a set of study plans and photographs of their range of boats. The one that impressed me wasthe Stornaway design. The very name smacked of the sea and the windswept island off Scotland. Ithad the look of a working boat and obviously designed by someone with a familiarity with

working craft used around the British Isles.

It fitted my needs to a tee. Firstly it looked like aboat and it looked like a boat from every angle. As alover of traditional craft, I could never be contented

with a plastic boat shaped like a running shoe! For years now I have been browsing through boatingmagazines, particularly those from the UK lookingfor my dream boat. Heaps of designs but the task of

b y R O B E RT C A RT E R

building

I had pulled into a service station to getpetrol and a chap drove up beside me witha boat on a trailer. I was immediately mesmerised. Here was the boat I had beendreaming about for most of my life! I had togo up and walk around it, bend down andlook at the underwater shape.

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10 Australian Amateur Boatbuilder

the need for a centreboard. Another requirement was that it would be able to use the mast, spars andsails that I acquired from a late friend who had agaff cutter of similar size. He had equipped his1940s built 18 boat with a new rig but sadly theboat could not last the distance. Thankfully their size and shape closely matched those specified. Allthe traditional bronze fittings were there on good,

solid, clear Oregon spars. Another incentive in usingthis rig was that my friend was a Cape Horner andhad sailed around Cape Horn in 1935 in the Finnish four masted barque Herzogin Cecilie. I felt that thismight inject some heritage into my craft. His name

was Dennis Adams, AOM and a fellow marine artist.

My apologies to Derek Ellard of Scruffie Marinefor not following his design faithfully. My pure gaff rig would replace his lugsail rig. The fact thatDenniss rig was from a gaff cutter meant that I stillhad to construct a mizzenmast. This was another

fact in choosing the Stornaway. I am a yawl or ketch devotee. As I paint marine pictures, I think they look prettier but the real reason is that they can beadapted readily to heavy weather conditions. The

jib/mizzen combination has been acclaimed by many over the years as a safe and reliable methodof coping with a strong wind while keeping the

vessel balanced. As the foot of my mainsail was300mm longer than that specified, I pushed themizzen back this amount which was balanced by the fact that my bowsprit was this much longer andmy jib longer on the foot also.

In having to acquire a mizzen I decided to opt for a bermudan sail rather than the lugsail that wasspecified. The reason being that in sailing singlehanded I could cope with dropping a sail on a track

without having to wrestle with the yard as it camedown. Another feature of the Stornaway designthat was of great benefit was the fact that it has ashoal draught and I like the idea of nosing ashoreon beaches. It would be able to float in less than600mm of water, supporting my need of not havingto raise or lower a centreboard without a crew. My boat would also be used on Narrabeen Lake wherethere are quite a few sandbanks.

Another adaptation was an inboard engine rather than an outboard. I hate outboards on traditionalcraft as they just dont look right. The only trouble

with an inboard was that the smallest available wasunnecessarily large for the boat. I had fixed in my mind the putt-putt engines I had been familiar with as a boy but they had disappeared 30 years ago.Then by chance I discovered that someone was stillbuilding them and three months later I found

compressing good looks and practicalrequirements into 18ft (5.5m) seems to be toomuch for most designers. I had quite a few telephone conversations with Derek Ellard, theManaging Director of Scruffie Marine and his pre-natal advice convinced me that once again I shouldfather a boat.

The specifications for the last sailing boat in my life were:

Wooden, good traditional looks, gaff rig, smallenough to sail solo yet have the space to take outfour or five people, trailable and able to sit on amooring without blowing over, a large opencockpit where I would spend most of my time buthave a small cuddy to escape rain and a place tokeep gear. It also had to be able to take a smallinboard engine. This meant that there would be noroom for a centreboard, not that I wanted to bebothered with one anyway. This was a major reasonin my choosing this boat. It had a full-length ballasted keel about 300mm deep, which obviated

Engine mount and bearers.

Frames set up on keel.


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myself a proud owner of a 4hp single cylinder Blaxland Rae petrol engine, unchanged from its

original design of 1904.Scruffie Marine supplies kits or a finished boat.

The kit appealed to me as having built 10 boatsduring my lifetime I knew I would get a lot of funin building it. The kit does not eliminate the needfor skill but saves time, both in marking out andsourcing materials. There would be no foolingaround with a table of offsets as the frames andpanels are partly cut out but still part of 2400 x1200mm plywood sheets. The components stillrequire accurate finishing and fitting which is all

part of the fun. The kit also saves money as thesawn and dressed timber supplied with the kit isroughly at the required length. You dont end up

with a lot of expensive offcuts.

The greatest hurdle for anyone wanting to build aboat at home is keeping ones better half happy,and their having to put up with a portion of the

yard being converted into a construction zone andhaving to tolerate the abandonment of all the odd

jobs around the place for a year. Finding the rightplace to build it and then getting it out of the yard

needs a lot of thought. I dont have a shed but am very fortunate. I live on the shore of NarrabeenLake, so my boat would take shape under the starsand slide down the ways into the water just as aboat should. The down side of this was covering itup and putting it to bed each evening andunwrapping it in the mornings.

The keel comes already assembled with the leadballast imprisoned inside. As provision had to bemade for the propeller shaft, I made a drawing of the profile of the engine and the clutch assembly

Canting hull to fit bottom panels.

Removable slats to close off cuddy.

Inside cuddy 2 x 6ft berths.


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cuddy for space and safety reasons and also tomaintain fore and aft trim. This meant that the fullcabin version of the design, which has a smallgalley, could not be used. Anyway the cuddy looksmore attractive and less boxlike. It all fitted inperfectly, with engine controls (throttle lever onthe carburettor and earthing switch on themagneto) within easy reach of the steeringposition. Rather than covering the engine with abox, I constructed a wide removable thwart over the engine, bridging the side seats. This had severaladvantages. It protects feet and limbs from comingin contact with the flywheel, it is an extra seat andthe pretty little, bright red engine with its polishedbronze carburettor bowl can still be seen andadmired. The dog clutch and shaft couplings had tobe covered up completely as they could be a very effective meat mincer.

I had to find a place for the petrol tank. Its outlethad to be at least 300mm higher than thecarburettor. (No petrol pump problems here!) Thismeant that it could not be under a side deck. Theforepeak was an ideal place. The design specifiesthis space as the anchor well with an open top. Idecided to deck it over and have the anchor hitched up externally on a cathead with only theanchor rope in the forepeak, sharing this space

with the tank. I made a square cover for this spaceto keep out water. This forepeak has drain holes,port and starboard and this was ideal if therehappened to be a petrol leak at any time or to drainoff water from a wet anchor rope. The 6mm copper fuel line which goes through each frame forward of the cuddy bulkhead had to be fitted early before

12 Australian Amateur Boatbuilder

Engine mounted prior to cladding hull. Foredeck with anchor cathead.

and Derek assembled the keel with a cavity for theshaft at the correct angle. The large flywheel, which is on the opposite side of the engine to thepropeller and its clearance over the keel, dictatedthe angle of the shaft. The cuddy bulkheaddetermined the engines fore and aft position. Theengine had to be in the open rather than inside the


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the deck went on. The tank came fitted with itsown sludge trap and isolating cock but this wasawkward to reach, so I installed another cock

within the cockpit area to turn off the fuel for brief periods and for maintenance on the carburettor.The fore peak bulkhead is completely sealed sothere is no chance for petrol vapour to get into thecuddy.

The exhaust is a wet type and after the muffler box the exhaust pipe is led to the side of the boatup under the deck and out just under the gunwale

via a gunmetal clam.

The exhaust is 50mm copper tube with twoelbows, connected up in two places with rubber exhaust hose. This arrangement allowed theexhaust pipe to make two 90 bends and at thesame time utilises the flexibility of the hose totolerate vibration and make it easy for it to pass

from the muffler box up through the seat and thenthrough the side of the boat.

The engine mounts required some thought.Obviously the mass of the engine had to directed tothe keel, which relative to the length of the boat, ismassive. (50mm x 200)

I made two athwart-ship bearers out of 50mmbeech, scooped out in the middle to clear the endsof the crankcase, and bolted on to the keel. These

were supported by four pieces of 50 x 50 x 6 anglebolted to the keel. The outboard ends of thesebearers were then bolted into fore and aft supportsrunning between the adjacent frames. The engine isbolted down with four x 3/8 bolts. This was alldone before the sides and bottom were fitted. It

was convenient to stand on the ground betweenthe frames to plot and fit the engine mounts andthen lift the engine through the frames. With a deepbreath one can manage to lift the engine if exhaustbox, magneto and carburettor have been removed.Once on the bearers, one can juggle it around incomfort. Prior to this I had to place the engine inposition and pack it up on bits of wood, held inplace with rope and G clamps to get it lined up

with the shaft. This allowed me to measure how high the bearers had to be. The forard bearer ishigher than the after one and the tops of both areangled. I decided to leave 6mm for spacers under the engine mounting flanges and these would befiled down or packed for final lining up. It wouldhave been an enormous task to do all thiscrouching inside a finished boat and more than my 75-year-old joints could take.

The shaft is 20mm stainless steel with an oldfashioned, flanged gunmetal stuffing box at each end. These were supplied with the engine and havenot changed since motors first went to sea.

I wont be too descriptive about building the hullas most readers will either be very familiar with V bottom hull construction or will be able to follow the very comprehensive building instructions thatare supplied. The chines are well rounded and thisenhances the appearance as well as improvingperformance. It is built upright and it is suggestedin the instructions to turn the boat over to clad thebottom. In my situation I could not turn the boatover so I canted the boat at 45 to put on one half of the bottom and 45 the other way to put on theother half. Both sides and bottom panels are inthree pieces which meant they had to be joined. I

was somewhat concerned about this as I imaginedthat there would be a tell tale lump where they

met. A butt strap was used rather than a scarf andthis allowed a perfect continuous curve to bemaintained. As a retired engineer I am very taken

with the structural adequacy of the design. Theboat is quite light for its length and beam and I feltno temptation to add to or beef up any of thecomponents although the design provides for two



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I painted inside the cuddy white for brightnessand the cockpit, seats, deck and cuddy roof, buff colour to reduce glare. The latter tends to enhancethe working boat appearance and used up a lot of Weathershield acrylic paint that I had left over from painting my house. I reasoned that Duluxsclaim that their product gives protection for 10

years was good enough for my boat. I used Dereks

technique of using a paint roller to stipple thesurface of the partly dry paint with great success.There is an adequate grip without the sandpaper affect of commercial non-skid paints. The beauty of using acrylic house paint for these surfaces is thattouching up is so easy as it dries quickly and it isinexpensive compared with marine paints. I used atwo part polyurethane paint for the topsides andunderwater, a copper based paint. There issufficient varnished bright work to give anattractive contrast.

To mark the waterline I devised the following. Asthe ground slopes towards the water the boat wasbuilt on a six metre plank 50mm thick x 200mm

wide. One end of this plank sits on a wood bearer flat on the ground and the other end on a trestleabout 600mm high. The plank is dead level and hasa central support. The keel sits on this plank on two50mm blocks. With a straight piece of timber as astraight edge, resting on the plank, the waterline

was marked off at 150mm intervals from a verticalpiece clamped to the straightedge. A builders level

was placed on the straightedge and levelled justbefore each mark was made on the side. This gave

a perfectly level row of marks along which themasking tape was lined up.

As I got to within several weeks of completion Istarted to feel pangs of sorrow that it was all over.Even though my boat would be moored not 10metres from where it took shape, I found myself looking for little jobs that would keep it on thestocks a bit longer. It took just over a year from thetime the kit was delivered. My building time rarely exceeded two full days per week. As I came from amanufacturing engineering background I probably had some skills that benefited me, mainly inplanning the work and utilising my time efficiently.I kept small jobs for brief periods on days when Ihad other commitments. The veranda around my house became a storage and work area when itrained.

I applied a bit of science in launching the boatplus the labours of four grandchildren. Using pipe

rollers, the boat was pushed back along the plank until there was no load on the trestle, which wasthen removed. This allowed the end of the plank tobe lowered to the ground with no effort. A metrein front of the plank there is a low wall. Another plank was dynabolted to it using a piece of angleiron. This plank sloped down into the water and theboat rolled itself down this inclined plane with aperson on each side to keep it upright. It floated!!

I named my boat Libby after Elizabeth my wife!

Well, I did say earlier that it is important to keepones better half happy!


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