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The George Blog – 10 Most Recent Topics

10 Most Recent Topics
Fat Double-Enders posted in Design
Wine et al posted in The Odd Word
Cut Knees and Deben 4-Tonners posted in Design
Additional Format for Plans posted in Design
Soy Cheese posted in Recipes
Deben 4-tonners posted in The Odd Word
Design 067 - Jig Profile Drawing posted in Design
Error on Design 067 Jig Drawing posted in Design
Birthdays posted in The Odd Word
PayPal problems posted in News

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Fat Double-Enders

I get a lot of emails discussing possible new designs and it is always interesting to comment on these. Recently one such discussion struck a chord with me because it embodied three lines of thought that had been somewhat vaguely passing through my mind for quite a while.

The first line of thought was basically a fairly "fat-bodied" double-ender. Perhaps a bit like a traditional Scottish Fife. But a bit more body around the bilge amidships.

Second was a cat rig. Now this is not inconsistent with as Fife at all. And I have been thinking that I should do another cat rig (aside from the new Design 152 – which is not traditional at all!).

Third was thinking about very simple stitch-and-glue construction. On simple ply frames. Everything could be CNC cut if required.

I'm hoping to be able to get this design, in two versions (about 5.5m and 6.0m – 18' and 20') up and running, at least as a design proposal, fairly soon.

So thanks to Mike for crystallizing some of these ideas.

Date posted: Saturday, 04 Sep 2010 | Comments (0)

Wine et al

It's odd the questions you get asked when you are a vegan-vegetarian. One of the most frequent goes something like:

"Of course I suppose you don't drink (alcohol – wine – beer – whatever beverage is being offered)?"

Well ... yes ... I do! I drink quite a lot of wine and enjoy it immensely. Now wine isn't necessarily always strictly vegan – in fact it is seldom vegan. White wines very often use egg or milk products or isinglass (made from the swim bladders of fish) as finings (to clear the wine). And reds tend to use crushed up beetles, bone gelatin or dried blood.

Even beer need not be vegan – best British bitter is often fined with isinglass. Guinness is not vegan ..... (now there's a blow!). Campari contains cochineal (basically ground up beetles). Not all vodka is vegan... and the list goes on.

So life has to be a compromise. The line between vegan and non vegan is not absolute (honey for example?). We all make our choices.

When I can, I buy vegan wine. At out local supermarket there is a decent red – "Our Daily Red" it's called - a nice name. It's organic, vegan and sulphite free. And it's $7.99 a bottle!

When I can't, then I drink and enjoy a non-vegan wine. I will tend towards reds, because if I have to make a choice, I would go for ground up beetles rather than egg or milk products – egg and milk production causing so very much animal misery and hardship. One hopes that the beetles are killed quickly and relatively painlessly .....

The quantities of animal product per bottle is of course quite small. But think of the total number of bottles produced. And so many things can contain animal products that it is hard to think about it all the time:

Sugar, breakfast cereal, potato chips – all can (but don't necessarily) contain animal products. Some 'E' numbers are animal: 120, 542, 631, 901, 904, 920 certainly are. 101, 101a, 153 ,203, 213, 227, 270, 282, 302, 322, 325, 326, 327, 333, 341a, 341b, 341c, 404, 422, 430, 431, 432, 433, 434, 435, 436, 470, 471, 472a, 472b, 472c, 472d ,472e, 473, 474, 475, 476, 477, 478, 481, 482, 483, 491, 492, 493, 494, 495, 570, 572, 627, 635 can be of animal derivation.

So it's a mine field! My answer is to be content with the choices I make. They are my choices, no one else's. And it's myself that I have to answer to.

Date posted: Saturday, 21 Aug 2010 | Comments (0)

Cut Knees and Deben 4-Tonners

A while back, helping our daughter to move apartments, I cut my knee quite badly, kneeling on a glass-topped table, which is of course a fundamentally stupid thing to do. Some number of hours later, after having negotiated the US emergency care system, and now the proud possessor of a considerable number of internal and external stitches, I was forced to reconsider my current (non-boat design) work program – which included re-building the garden shed, changing the location of the entry door to our apartment, installing a wood stove etc. What was I going to do with the extra enforced sitting down (albeit with leg stretched out) time? Even exercise (indoor rowing) time was forfeit!

I decided to use the time to do something that I have been wanting to do for a long time – transcribe the original Deben 4-Tonner drawings to a modern format. The original (1936) tracings are very fragile now and I have considerable doubts that they could be printed off, even if I could find someone with a old Diazo machine.

So I transcribed the original Table of Offsets into Prefit (part of the MaxSurf suite of programs) and then created the hull surface in MaxSurf itself (a 3D naval architecture design program). Then I tweaked the resulting "lines" until they fitted as closely as possible, to the original Offsets. This is pretty much what would have happened in 1936 on the laying-off loft floor at the boatyard; the lines were set off and faired full size.

From this I created two drawings: "Table of Offsets" and "Lines", which are a close facsimile of the original tracings. I will be posting these on the website in the next day or so. They will be a free download.

From these two drawings it is not so big a job to recreate the original Sail Plan and Construction Plan – which pretty much completes the original working drawings! I hope to do this in the next few weeks. The knee however is recovering, so other spare time projects are looming ...

Be advised also, that these are not the drawings that exactly represent the Deben 4-Tonners as built. Boatbuilders being boatbuilders, my father added an extra plank to the topsides (essentially making the original "Top of Rail" into "Underside of Deck". And he changed the original coachroof cambers, which are, to say the least, somewhat eccentric on the original drawings, together with various other practical changes.

Anyone downloading the facsimile original drawing may be a little confused by the Table of Offsets, which is not entirely in the format we are used to seeing today. I will be adding some explanatory notes.

I hope that Members, Deben 4-Tonner owners or not, enjoy these drawings.

George

Date posted: Wednesday, 11 Aug 2010 | Comments (0)

Additional Format for Plans

When I started out as a boatbuilder, the architect typically provided a Specification, a Lines Plan and a Table of Offsets, a Construction Plan, with a few typical sections, a Ballast Keel Plan, a Sail Plan, a Deck Plan and an Interior Layout Plan. The builder sorted out the rest and how to build the boat.

Now I am not proposing we return to this, but I am thinking that for some of the larger boats, not every builder needs all the Plans and Instructions that come with our current standard Design Packages.

Larger boats tend to have more interior layout possibilities – so a "standard" set of plans and instructions might not be relevant, especially for experienced builders. And experienced builders may not want many of the other instructions or drawings.

So, I have started with the largest yacht in our current designs - the 67' Cruising Cutter, Design No. 44. I have broken the design plans and instructions down into Design Packs, and builders can buy whichever packs they require.

The first Design Pack contains all the plans for the construction of the vessel – the entire hull, deck, cockpit and superstructure; keel and ballast; tanks; engine room; stern tube and A-bracket; rudder and stock – in fact pretty much everything in steel (and some in stainless steel). It also contains a Sail, Rig and Deck Plan. This pack contains all the plans and information that an experienced builder needs to construct and complete the vessel.

All these drawings (63 plans in all) have now been converted to downloadable format and are available on the site. This allows the experienced builder to build this vessel for a very reasonable plans price.

As I convert the other plans and the instructions, further Design Packs will become available, generally as set out on the Design 44 webpage.

George

Date posted: Wednesday, 16 Jun 2010 | Comments (0)

Soy Cheese

It's hard at times being a vegan vegetarian. For me the toughest is cheese. I like hard, aged cheese - specially sheep's milk, or very old Gouda, or similar. And I like it with a glass of wine and an oatcake in the evening. So sometimes I do break down and eat cheese!!

Vegan/vegetarian cheeses are mostly pretty horrible – well to my taste anyway. And they always seem to be full of chemicals and other things that I don't know the purpose of.

Recently I came across a recipe for home-made cheese that is actually (again to my taste) pretty good. The basis of this recipe is from The Nutritional Yeast Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak. Nutritional Yeast seems to be a peculiarly American foodstuff – though I have discovered that it is now available in the UK: Marigold Engevita Nutritional Yeast Flakes.

Anyway here is (the slightly adapted) recipe:

125g (4.5 ozs) Firm Tofu.
3 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
2 - 3 Tbsp Tahini (sesame seed butter)
2 Tbsp lemon juice (about the juice of one lemon)
1.5 Tbsp Sweet White Miso.
1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp Agar Flakes or 3 tsp Agar powder
175 ml (3/4 cup) water

Mash the Tofu thoroughly in a bowl. I use a fork, which seems to work well. Add the other ingredients except the Agar and Water. Mash everything together until you have a reasonably smooth paste. It doesn't have to be "blended" smooth.

Heat the water and the agar in a tiny pan for a few minutes until the powder or the flakes are dissolved and the mixture starts to thicken. Add to the rest of the ingredients and stir in and mix very thoroughly.

Scrape the cheese out of the bowl into a plastic or ceramic container, press down and smooth over. I use a stainless steel spatular for this job. Pop into the freezer for a couple of hours and then remove to the fridge.

The cheese is reasonably firm and will cut into thickish slices OK. It will also melt, brown and go bubbly under the grill (broiler). And it can be used in cooking just fine. Not totally like real cheese but pretty good.

And the taste is very good!! The texture is not like hard cheese - A bit softer than, say, fresh cheddar – but it is perfectly tolerable.

And it is vegan. And you pretty much know what is in it!

For increased quantities, I guess it could be made in a food processor or blender. This small quantity gets lost in a blender and there is too much wastage. The result would however be a smoother cheese (is that good or bad I wonder?).

Enjoy!

Date posted: Tuesday, 25 May 2010 | Comments (0)

Deben 4-tonners

I do get lots of emails about Deben 4-tonners. And, as I mentioned in a Forum post, not all of these turn out to be actual 4-tonners.

A few days ago however I got a lovely series of photos of a beautifully restored 4-tonner, Coral II. She had been out of the water for at least 15 years. The owner has done a wonderful restoration job, which is so good to see. Her first trip is to sail from Maldon in Essex to the Orford river in Suffolk.

I think this particular boat was started in 1939 as Yard No. 127 – my father used to build for stock and the boats usually sold sometime during the build. But the outbreak of WWII put paid to boatbuilding except for the Admiralty and the War Department. She was completed after the war as Yard No. 337 and launched in October 1946.

It's really satisfying to see her in such good condition again – truly better than new! I hope she now has another 60+ years ahead of her.

I am intending to complete a database and photographs (where available) of all the boats built at the yard - time as ever is the problem.

Date posted: Tuesday, 25 May 2010 | Comments (0)

Design 067 - Jig Profile Drawing

A corrected Jig Profile Drawing -- Plan 067-003-03 issue 02 web, dated 20/05/2010 -- is now available on the website.

Apologies for any confusion to 067 builders.

George

Date posted: Sunday, 23 May 2010 | Comments (0)

Error on Design 067 Jig Drawing

I screwed up somehow in transferring the Jig Profile Drawing (067-003-03) to downloadable format and the drawing contains incorrect dimensions – specifically in the height of the rails and blocks to support the frames. The instructions have the correct dimensions.

We will be issuing an amended drawing in the next few days.

Thanks to 067 builder Gurcata to bringing this to my attention.

George

Date posted: Wednesday, 19 May 2010 | Comments (0)

Birthdays

I turned 66 the other day (well yesterday to be precise).

Being blessed with good health, a strong physique, and an active enquiring mind, I mostly don't feel 66.

What I have noticed however is not that I am less tolerant – in fact I reckon I have become yet more liberal, tolerant and easy-going as the years go by. But, and it is quite a big but, I am increasingly finding that I don't want to debate some fairly fundamental things any more. I know how I feel and that's it really.

At a party the other day, I was sitting next to a guy whose world views were pretty much diametrically opposed to mine. When I was younger, I would have listened to what he was saying and maybe debate (possibly quite hotly and enjoyably ) with him; now I find myself saying "I'm sorry, but I simply fundamentally disagree with you" and that is end of the conversation!

I guess it is a time thing. At 30 there seemed to be all the time in the world. At 66 it is obvious that time is rather more finite. So I'm not willing to waste it discussing something that I don't want to discuss, something I strongly disagree with, or something about which I'm not going to change my mind whatever the argument.

And anyway – there are still too many boats that are waiting to be designed ......

Date posted: Sunday, 16 May 2010 | Comments (0)

PayPal problems

Two days ago (sometime on the 10th March) PayPal updated their site. This caused major problems with many shopping carts. Instead of going to the payment page, PayPal loaded a page which carried the message "You have requested an outdated version of PayPal ...." PayPal seemed totally unable to explain what was causing the problem, or suggest what to do to fix it.

We have re-coded our shopping cart and we seem to have resolved the problem. My apologies to anyone trying to purchase designs over the last couple of days. It should all be working OK now. If you do get a problem please let me know.

George

Date posted: Friday, 12 Mar 2010 | Comments (0)

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