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THE LEWIS FAMILY BOATS
Part II The Creation of Mischief II
The start of an 8 year project.
Recipe for a boat as per the builder Peter Lewis
Blood, sweet, tears and 8 years hard labour.
Plus a lot of help from friends and family.
Mix it in with a large amount of wood and 2x 44 gallon
drums of west resin and out comes a boat.
44' LOA, 34' LOD, 10'4" beam, 5' draft, displacement approx 7.5 ton
Ballast approx 3.5 ton. Engine Volvo MD2030, 30hp to 3 bladed prop
C ruises 5.5-6ktns max 7knts.
Sails. Working sail area 720sqft. Light windward 860sqft. Light reaching up to 1400sqft
Main. Hoist 44 ft area 380 sqft Main staysail Area 120 sqft Main Jib area 120 sqft
Main Genoa 380 sqft Main mast MPS 600 sqft
Mizzen Hoist 23ft area 100 sqft Mizzen Staysail area 200 sqft
After sorting out the wreck and salvaging as much as possible we went to work on converting our stack of timber and mental plans into a boat.
Peter had had the plans for a 25 ft yawl originally designed for this father in the 1940's by George Dickson in Nelson on his wall for 20 years. However we knew from the H28 that we wanted something larger than the H28 but not so large that one man can't easily handle her. We wanted a yacht capable of visiting Fiordland and Stewart Island. This basically meant a boat that will handle most reasonable conditions on a 500 mile strip of lee shore exposed to the Southern Ocean.
After much looking at work from designers such as Rhodes, Crocker, Alden, Illingworth, Primrose etc Peter kept coming back to this Dickson yawl. George Dickson had trained at the Fyfe Yard in Scotland before emigrating to New Zealand and becoming a recognised New Zealand amateur designer. He had several very successful designs, amongst them his 26 ft cutter Gypsy which was well recognised around Nelson. Mr Dickson's plans are very detailed right down to showing the grain direction in every piece of timber.
In the end the decision was made that we would enlarge the design. To keep things as simple as possible we enlarged the plans up to 1 meter long and used a 1:10 scale for a finished LOD of approx 10 meters. This meant we had to recalculate the sail areas, centre of gravities, ballast volume and quantities.
Over the previous few years Peter been thinking about building and looking at timber and glue selections. Peter and friends collected samples of timber and glue. They glued samples up and then performed destructive testing of the laminated samples.
Based on this testing Peter settled upon Tanekaha for all structural laminates and for the diagonal planking. The Tanekaha demonstrated good strength to weight and gluing properties. The other timber selected was Macrocarpa for the strip planking and panelling. It is light, strong, easily worked and looks great bright finished
Both do have some down sides. For example the Tanekaha is stringy and less durable than some other natives, so we treated the inner layer with an H1 preservative. Testing showed this did not materially affect the gluing properties. The Macrocarpa is very soft and easily marked. Clean lengths are hard to get.
Once the decision to build is made and the timber is selected the next job is to get it and give it time to dry. So in 1987 Peter went out and selected 3 Tanekaha trees and had them cut and milled.
Start with a tree.
While this was happening I was doing the drawings and calculations for the larger hull. We next lofted the boat out full size on painted and sealed particle board sheets in an empty shop.
In June 1990 Peter was fortunate enough to come to an arrangement with an experienced wooden boat builder Ray Fink for the use of one of his sheds, long term use of his site, guidance and assistance. This allowed us to use his work shop, equipment, skills and staff depending upon workload where required, while allowing us the flexibility to work weekends, evenings and holidays on the boat.
Ray's youngest son Andrew made a huge contribution. First under his fathers supervision when he left school and later in his own right. Mischief was the first boat commenced by what is now Andrew Fink Marine. (Andrew Fink Marine is now a very successful yard in Hamilton producing high quality custom boats).
Twice during the project work was stopped due to lack of money. The first time for 12 months and then again for 18 months. After the second break Mischief was moved to a new indoor location to allow the final hardware fit-out and painting. Peter twice down graded his house to contribute to the project.
The hull was framed up and ribs fitted to back up all permanent bulkheads and to take the chainplates. The backbone structures where laminated up and fitted. The curved transom was fitted followed by the inwhale. No stringers were used. Previous experience with stringers showed us the problems with water and gunk accumulating in them as well as the work required to fit bulkheads around them. The strip plank layer takes the place of stringers.
The hull was first strip planked with 18x32mm macrocarpa concave/convex strips. This was followed by 2 layers of 5-6mm tanekaha and then after a lot of sanding a glass sheathing for abrasion resistance. This gave us a clean interia and a 32mm thick hull. When the hull was turned over it weighed 2000kg.
Peter Lewis & Ray Fink. Planking and turning over.
After turning over the cabin and deck structure was added, the engine fitted and interia completed. Final jobs here were the decking and cabin roof. All overhead and vertical surfaces were panelled in macrocarpa.
The Owner inspects the work.
Interior layout. Immediately down the companion way to port is the galley and to starboard is the nav table and a quarter berth.
Galley. Since this was taken the solid fuel stove has been replaced by a Gas oven as it produces too much heat for comfortable boating in our climate. The Ship mate stove would be put back in if we went south.
Going forward is the main saloon Pilot berths both side equiped with lee cloths.
Very good sea berths.
The settees either side of the drop leaf table can pull out to form 2 more bunks.
Forward again to port is the head and to starboard is a hanging locker, work bench and tool draws. Forward to port is a tapered double bunk and to port a seat. The chain locker in under these. This forward bunk is everyone's favourite bunk even at sea.
A Melting Party… At this point the boat had been under construction for 4 years and the boat was ready to go outside. The next big jobs were the casting of the 3.5 tonne lead keel and collecting deck fittings and hardware.
A lot of the brass fittings were specially made to patterns we had made. Peter designed the fitting, one wood carver/amateur boat builder friend made the patterns and another friend who is a cabinet maker/amateur boat builder built his own furnace and did the castings for us. This was when Mischief was moved to the new indoor location to enable it to be painted and have all the deck hardware fitted in controlled conditions. (Any time a hole is made in epoxy encapsulated wood it must be filled with resin and resealed.)
The spars were also under construction. We where lucky enough to be able to source a set of spars form a 44' Ketch being converted to alloy spars along with some sails and fittings. These were cut up and rebuilt longer and lighter for the main mast. When they where ready a crane was hired and the masts stepped and all measurements made for the rigging to be cut and fitted.
Ready for the transporter. Mischief was moved to the New Zealand Boat Show in Auckland 1997 where she won the New Zealand boat of the show prize.
Mischief was launched at Half Moon Bay in August 1997 after 8 years work
Mischief at anchor. The main anchor is a 40 lb CQR with 200 ft of 3/8 chain. As a lot of our sailing areas have rocky bottoms our day anchor is a folding Grapnel of 1/2" stainless steel with 10 meters of 6mm chain and 50 meters of 20mm nylon.
Mischief on lunch hook bow on.
Mischief sailing. Since this picture was taken we changed the staysail to a boomed self tacker.
This is taken off white sandy beach Great Mercury Island.
Mischief in the 1999 Coastal Classic. We raced in the cruising division and had a great time.
These two Pictures where taken by Terry Fong.
Lunch is served of the top of Coromandel. Regularly when cruising rather than passage making we don't use the main. Also in light weather when the weight of the boom shakes the main too much we only use the light weather nylon sails. MPS, Main staysail, Mizzen and Mizzen Staysail. 600+120+100+200= >1000 sq ft.
Lunch under light weather canvas.
Mischief is kept on a mooring at Flaxmill Bay Whitianga and regularly cruises between Tairua and Great Barrier Island with 1 or 2 trips a year into the Haruaki Gulf. So if you see us around row over and come aboard for a cuppa.
Every year we learn more about how to improve the sailing performance of Mischief. From sail and rig changes to sailing techniques. We have won the Mercury Bay Boating clubs winter series handicap 4 seasons out of 5.
Mischief sails easily at speeds of up to 7 knts, and will balance under sail in most conditions. She has a hull speed of about 6.5 knts, but will do up to 8 kts reaching and down wind when pushed very hard we have seen bursts to 10 knts.
We have had 5 years great sailing and racing so far but already have the design work for our next boat under way. A light weight shoal draft coastal yacht.
From Zane Lewis zlewis@parker.com
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