May

Through a complicated series of events I flew back and picked up the the van in St. George, UT, not Colorado. I had several days to explore the area before setting off. This is Snow Canyon.

It has great examples of petrified sand dunes (Kayenta Formation), lava flows and Navajo Sandstone.

Being near the south border of Utah at the start changed my trip plans significantly. I decided to drive up the 'steps' of the Grand Staircase. It rises 6,000 feet from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in five alternating plateaus and cliffs, exposing over 200 million years of geologic history.

This is the Colorado River cutting into the Kaibab Uplift (Kaibab limestone - Permian, 245 million years old) which is geologically the same as the top of the north rim about 50 miles downstream. Behind it are the first two cliffs. The short Chocolate Cliffs (Moenkopi Formation - Triassic, 200 myo) and the taller Vermillion Cliffs (Moenave and Kayenta Formation - Lower Jurassic, 165 myo) behind.

Another view of the Vermillion Cliffs. This is a site where California Condors are released from captive breading. Their numbers declined until it was decided in 1987 that the only way to save them from extinction was to capture them -- only 22 birds were left at that time. Now, of 384 living individuals, 188 are in the wild. (I saw one last year in Zion National Park while hiking -- with a 2.5 - 3 meter wing span, it's an impressive sight.)

National Monument and Bureau of Land Management areas allow dispersed camping, which, around here, means you are by yourself.

The White Cliffs (Navajo Sandstone - Upper Jurassic, 145 myo).

I drove up north through the Grand Staircase National Monument along the East Kaibab monocline -- known as the Cockscomb. Miles of dirt road.

The Grey Cliffs (Dakota Formation - Cretaceous, 100 myo) with the Pink Cliffs (Claron Formation limestones - Tertiary, 60 myo) in far distance.

The Pink Cliffs -- best viewed at Bryce Canyon National Park. All this is capped by the Paunsaugunt Plateau, less than 1 myo.

From Bryce I drove back into Arizona, across Nevada and to Santa Barbara, CA, to pick up my daughter from college. The real goal of the drive was to take a week trip bringing her home for the summer. It was a great time traveling together.

First destination was Yosemite (she hadn't been before), then up part of the Oregon coast. Mountains, water, green, cool, were all great after the desert.

This is the Fallen Monarch of the Mariposa Giant Sequoia Grove -- it fell over 300 years ago after standing for a couple thousand years! It's first picture is from 1899 with U.S. Cavalry officers and their horses up on top.

Long exposure from Tunnel View well after sunset.

Lots of water coming over the falls, standing in the meadows, and flowing down the Merced.

Watching the climbers on El Capitan gives you get an idea of the size of the granite cliffs. Six climbers here on 'The Nose', a 2900 feet, multi-day climb. You can see the lights of their hanging camps at night.

When I returned, I put the last layers of carbon on the ruder. I had left it with two non-overlaping layers and the uni. I put a layer down the leading edge to tie these together, an extra layer under where it sits in the rudder case, and then wrapped the whole thing in a continuous final layer. Here it is untrimmed, just out of the bag. Fairing and paint sometime in the future.

The centerboard ready for shaping.

From my experience with the rudder I was less worried about making two passes with the router to separately mark elevations and then remove material. Given its larger surface, it was easy to remove each step in one or two passes.

Flat contour of the trailing edge with resin groove exposed.

Rounder shape of leading edge.

There's not much left of that top layer of Corecell, but without a uniform top layer this technique wouldn't work.

You can also see how I relieved the forward edge, which remains in the case. This was noted by Menno and addressed by Ian in an update. I estimated the angle of the hull at this offset location from the full-size pattern of the bulkhead just forward from the case.

Cutting carbon after final sanding and routing of groove for uni on first side.

I proceeded with the other side and its first layer of carbon in a similar fashion.

April

We hiked in snow flurries to get a different view of Delicate Arch (16 m tall) now across the valley. The desert in the spring is very interesting. We had sun and hot, sun and cold, wind with tremendous, visibility-cutting dust storms, snow . . . you name it, we had it.

Below, taking an email break. Email and nature might not seem to mix, but when service is infrequent, ya do whatchya gotta do.

The La Sal range on the eastern edge of Utah. I've always loved the contrast of the red rock and the white snow at this time of year.

We camped at Fisher Towers. Too close to the towers for a great picture (opposite direction), but great spot to spend the night.

We left the van in Grand Junction, Colorado, and flew home. I'll return in a month and continue on a trip towards California and then home.

Meanwhile, back in the garage . . .

When I cut out the profile of the rudder, I cut right on the line. With the centerboard, I left a margin so I could use the LB to smooth out the irregularities of my cutting.

The blank was thicker than the final board, so I took the whole thing down to the thickness that I wanted for the upper portion that remains in the case and will need to be flat (all dimensions at this point are minus the anticipated cloth).

I'm convinced that the groove around the edge is critical, and made this one even bigger. I put some black pigment in so that I could easily see it while sanding.

Now it was time to test out the preparations. First, have a plan on how not to get confused as to which line is which depth, and then set the router. (If you need to get in the mood, watch a video of a master making a hawaiian longboard -- "I know the board in the blank, and I know how to go get it")

For this first attempt, I considered the grooves to be markers for the final amount of material I needed to remove. I chose a narrow bit so they wouldn't run into each other on the leading-edge side and also would maximize the flat area to run the router on.

Then with a larger bit I worked from the outside to the inside, removing material with a stair-step pattern and a couple islands that were supports for the last swipe of the router (each stair step removes material at a depth of the next highest step so that the lower groove remains).

After some easy passes with the stiff long-board, it really took shape. I found that using some foam scraps cut to shape were great holders during this stage. You can see the trailing epoxy edge now showing.

Not quite sure why it seems hard to find, but it took a while to source stitched carbon at 45-45. I finally found it at Composites One (thank you Tom!) and because they allowed purchases in small quantities, chose VectorPly C-BX 0600 and 0900. While not the exact weights specified, it looks like great material -- and I could actually get it!

Here I've routed out the groove for the UD and am cutting the double-bias (DB) (UD does not actually go next to the foam).

The material was great to work with, nothing like the DB glass that falls apart so easily. As I always do, the piece was wet out on plastic, then moved while supported by the plastic. Here it is just off the vacuum table.

The idea is for the central piece of glass and this first outer layer to maintain the flat or 'trueness' while shaping the other side. The carbon at the trailing edge is placed exactly as I want it. I held the leading edge back (and thinned the foam for the extra layer) and will run an extra tape layer down this edge and over the top. After covering the other side, the whole foil will be wrapped in a single piece for the final layer.

Here's the second side after literally 2-3 minutes with the longboard using the grooves as a guide - not much left to remove. While I was anxious at first about being able to control the router and get an 'exact' groove, this was really not a worry. The longboard fixes nearly everything. If you make an error on the outside of the line, the longboard easily takes off the small high spot. If you make an error on the inside of the line, a slight low spot will remain. If you can still see it after two layers of carbon, then it will easily disappear during final fairing. Either way, the grooves provide a guide to the perfect shape.

Hard to show in a picture, but it really is a great shape.

Second side in the bag. I found this 'tube' bag material used for surf boards - it's useful for parts that shouldn't be against the table. Just cut to any length and close the ends.

I left the trailing-edge carbon long on this side and will cut/sand to shape against the strengthened epoxy groove that has now been exposed on both sides and encased in first layer of DB.

March

I wanted to drill the pivot hole in the centerboard while I still had a flat surface to work with. My dad has a drill press, so I headed north.

The Skagit Valley, a very productive agricultural area, is a little over an hour north of Seattle. It was first settled by families from Holland and is still known for growing tulip and daffodil bulbs. It's also one of the largest producers of seed crop.

March is daffodil season.

My dad was doing the annual on his plane while I drilled the pivot hole.

Also this month, my daughter and I went on a morning and evening photo shoot of Seattle. On one side, Lake Union. (A link to the Duck Dodge)

While the other side is on Puget Sound, connected to the Pacific Ocean (a 3-4 day sail, water is just to the right, out of the picture).

Back to building: some decisions are hard. The only boats I've sailed have had booms. Would I like one without? Most of the time I plan on using dry storage - a 'mast up' area where you can either launch with a crane or trailer. This makes me lean less towards quick set up, and more towards . . . I'm not sure exactly.

In the end I decided on a main boom. The reason I'm thinking about this now is that I wanted to recess the area of the main sheet traveler and track in the cockpit seat. Originally I was planning on recessing the whole thing, but after evaluating the size of the traveler and leaving enough space so that lines wouldn't be caught etc., it seemed too large. Instead, I went for leveling the attachment surface (seats are slanted out) and then leveling the top of the track with seat cushions. That hopefully will limit Murphy's Law with sheets and traveler binding, and also allow lying down comfortably. Pieces are of HD and will be secured at time of VB.

Here I'm making the measurements -- length along the cord and corresponding thickness -- for the topographical plan of the centerboard. Glasses with 'readers' weren't enough -- I didn't have this problem when I started this project!

Also this month, my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with friends and family,

then took a trip south. We stopped in Salt Lake to do some Spring skiing at Alta, 32oo m, 1300 cm snow, one of the first ski resorts in US. We lucked out with fresh snow and sunshine!

Heading south, we visited Nine Mile Canyon, a 40 mile canyon showcasing over 1000 panels and 10,000 images of petroglyphs and pictographs from the Fremont Native Americans, 300 - 1250 A.D.

And hoodoos with Wilson Range in the distance near Goblins State Park.

We hiked Little Wild Horse Canyon, a narrow slot canyon in the sandstone on the edge of the San Rafael Swell. You wouldn't want to do this with the threat of thunderstorms up drainage. Amazing twists and turns, colors and shapes.

We camped at Arches National Park. There are over 2000 arches and fascinating sandstone formations here. We've been here before, so it was relaxing to not 'have to do it all.'

Colors of Salt Valley (thousands of feet of salt are in a dome underneath, which accounts for many of the types of formations at the northern end of the park.)