Update on Reuel Parker's Latest Build

Back in February, I posted here about how I had the privilege to meet one of my favorite boat designers - Reuel Parker, while I was in Florida working with David Halladay on the beginning of his Tiki 30 project. Well, I've just returned from another work trip to south Florida last week, and this time David and I had the opportunity to visit with Mr. Parker two more times. These visits led to lengthy conversations with the designer about his latest project and boatbuilding and sailing in general.

As when we met him in February, Reuel Parker is working 7 days per week on his latest boatbuilding project - the 45-foot sharpie schooner, Ibis. Ibis is coming along nicely and much progress has been made since I saw the boat the first time. When we arrived one evening at 6:00, thinking maybe Reuel was ready to quit for the day, he was in the process of fitting the starboard bulwark/toerail and was not planning to stop for at least another hour until we interrupted him with an offer of a cold bottle of ale. Remembering us from before and and realizing that we had a genuine interest in his boats and were not there just to bullshit and waste his time, Reuel opened up quite a bit more and really showed us around the boat, explaining how and why he was doing certain things.

The photo below shows Ibis at the stage of construction she was at on Monday, April 28. The interior is mostly done, the houses and decks are completed and sheathed with Xynole polyester cloth, and the bulwarks were being installed.

Reuel describes the new design as a longer version of a 36-foot double-ended sharpie schooner based on the Straits of Juan del Fuca mackeral-fishing sharpies of Washington State in the 1880's. The new sharpie is 45' on deck, 10' beam, 2'6" draft, 15,000 lbs displacement, with an unladen trailer weight of 12,000 lbs. She is a bald-headed gaff schooner, with self-tending sails. She has a new-design centerboard made of steel and lead-ballasted which is a foil-shaped fin when down. The boat sleeps four in two private cabins, has a hot-water-shower, solar-powered refrigeration, and carries an incredible 300 gallons of water and 80 gallons of fuel. Auxiliary power is an Isuzu 3LD2 diesel (40hp), which will propel her at speeds over 8 knots using less than .75 gallons per hour.

You may notice from the photos that the cabin houses appear a bit high in proportion to the hulls compared to some of Parker's designs, but he said this was a compromise to achieve standing headroom for him (5', 10") in a sharpie of 45-feet. The boat is designed for living aboard and extended cruising, and standing headroom is highly desirable for this purpose. Visually, the extra height of the cabins will not stand out too much with the lowering effect of the high bulwarks he is installing and the contrasting paint scheme of cabin sides.

This boat is coming together at an amazing pace for one man working alone, but Reuel Parker clearly knows what he is doing when it comes to boat construction, and he doesn't waste time during daylight hours. He has also perfected the art of building large, high quality vessels with mostly ordinary construction-grade materials, eliminating the need for exotic hardwoods and other materials with the "marine" designation that so dramatically increases the price of boatbuilding. Parker's methods and materials are described in great detail in his books: The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding: From Lofting to Launching and The Sharpie Book

Below is another view of Ibis, from the port quarter, showing the foremast tabernacle. Both masts will be fitted in tabernacles, as the boat is designed as a "maxi-trailerable" vessel.

Parker's definition of a "maxi-trailerable" is: "These vessels are 46' and under in length, 10' beam, shallow-draft, and 15,000 lbs or less. The concept is to provide cruising boats that can be stored on 40' 3-axle trailers, eliminating the need for slips and boatyards, which are rapidly turning into condos all over the American waterfront. The boats can be towed by a tow truck without permits or escort vehicles, or can be towed privately with only a wide load banner (no escorts). "

I think he is right on target with this design concept, as I see this same thing happening close to home here on the Mississippi Gulf coast as well. Since Hurricane Katrina destroyed so much of the waterfront, taking away the grand old mansions and the boatyards and marinas that were already in short supply, the casino and condo developers are snatching up every bit of property they can buy. The dock space problem is not going to get better, and slip rental fees are bound to keep rising. This is why I chose the Tiki 26 as a design to build after I lost my deep draft cruiser, and this is also what appeals to me so much about Reuel Parker's shoal draft designs. It's a good thing to own a cruising boat, rather than letting a cruising boat own you, but if the boat has to be in the water it's entire life and has to be maintained in boatyards, you really don't own it.

David and I returned again to Reuel's building site on Wednesday morning, to deliver some teak that David promised to bring him in exchange for a copy of his book: The Voyages of Fishers Hornpipe.

Although Reuel doesn't normally use teak on his boats, he did mention that he would like some pieces to get out the hand rails for the cabin tops, and David has teak practically running out his ears in the Boatsmith shop.

This second visit last week was even more interesting than the first, as Reuel invited us into his design office where the walls are covered in boat drawings and photographs and nautical books are stacked high in every available space. Since I had sent him a copy of my book On Island Time after meeting him in February, and also a link to my website, Reuel knew about the web design work I do and the blogs I am doing for my Tiki 26 project and David's Tiki 30 and other projects. He said he would like to get the construction of Ibis on his website somehow, and so now we have agreed to work together to create a blog on the construction of this vessel. This should be good news to the many Reuel Parker fans out there who are hungry for more information on his designs but have found little available on the web.

The other good news for those interested in Reuel Parker designs is that he was considering signing up for PayPal so he could accept credit card sales through his website, and upon hearing from me that I had good experiences with the method of payment, he has done so since Wednesday. You can now go to his website at www.parker-marine.com and purchase all of his catalogs, books, and boat plans using a credit card through PayPal. Reuel Parker is more than ever interested in making his designs more accessible to those who are interested, and I am looking forward to working with him on the new Ibis blog to bring photos and descriptions of his work to the web so that the world can watch as this sharpie schooner comes together. Look for more on this here on Scott's Boat Pages, and when the blog goes live I'll post the link, as well as create a link from www.parker-marine.com

Wood is still the Best Material for Masts

I'm off to south Florida again tomorrow to build the mast for my friend David Halladay's new Tiki 30 that I've mentioned here before and am documenting on his blog: Pro-Built Tiki 30

Like the mast I recently built for my own Tiki 26 catamaran project, it will be a hollow wooden mast built up of laminated Douglas Fir, the wood with the best all-around properties for spar construction.

After this trip I plan to write a detailed account of the process here, as well as discuss the pros and cons of modern wooden spars vs. aluminum spars. This is a topic I've had an interest in for quite some time as it is often debated on various boatbuilding forums I frequent. Many sailors of production boats today do not even consider wooden masts as an option, as production boats are always equipped with low-cost, factory produced aluminum spars. But some of the most experienced and prolific designers like Reuel Parker, George Buehler, and James Wharram claim wood is the way to go. I'll look forward to exploring this topic in detail after this trip and I welcome reader comments and observations as well.

Below are a couple of photos from my own mast project, the 27' hollow spar I built for Element II, my Tiki 26. The first photo shows it at the 8-sided stage in the process of shaping from square to round, and the bottom photo shows the finished mast, epoxy coated, but yet to be primed and painted.

The Garmin Colorado 400C: The Ultimate Hand-Held GPS?

The Garmin Colorado 400C with pre-loaded g2 Blue Charts may be the ultimate hand-held GPS receiver that I've been waiting for. The recent release of this unit makes me glad I held off on upgrading from my basic Garmin Etrex unit that I've navigated with for years. I've had my eye on several different units from Garmin, all with the on-screen chartplotter function, but I've been torn between a larger, fixed mount marine chartplotter and the handheld GPSMap 76Cx.

The old Etrex unit is a reliable GPS receiver that provides accurate position information, as well as waypoint routing, distance, speed and time to go, but there is no charting capability unless it is connected to a PC. Of course, I still carry and use paper charts, but I've been wanting the convenience of an on-deck chartplotter since using an older Garmin 182C during a Gulf crossing on my friend Artie Vaugn's boat. Seeing the vessel's position right on the chart and being able to quickly determine distance from that position to navigational hazards is especially handy - even more so on a small, often wet boat than on a larger cruiser.

While accurate coordinates are all you really need, and the ability to get these from a small electronic device the size of the Etrex is a modern marvel compared to pre-GPS days, you still have to plot your vessel's position on the paper chart to know where you are. On a small open boat, trying to wrestle with a full-sized paper chart in the cockpit when the wind is up or keeping it dry in a driving rain is daunting in comparison to using an all-in-one GPS/chartplotter combination.

More sophisticated hand-held units like the GPS Map 76cx and the Etrex Legend offer unlimited charting options, by means of a micro-SD card slot, but each region has to be purchased separately. Only Garmin's proprietary charting software, Blue Charts, will work in Garmin units, and until recently it has been quite expensive to purchase if you anticipated cruising over a wide area passing through several of the Blue Chart regions.

The larger, fixed mount chartplotter units like the 492C began to be offered with pre-loaded charts for all U.S. coastal waters, and though more expensive than hand-helds, the value of the charts more than made up for the price difference for those needing many regions. But a fixed mount unit requiring a connection to an on-board 12-volt electrical system is not feasible for many small boats and especially for such craft as sea kayaks. Even the 478C, designed to be portable and movable between a boat and a vehicle, requires a 12-volt connection and will not run on self-contained batteries.

I considered the 478C last year when I was still sailing Element, my Wharram Tiki 21 catamaran. But to use this I would have to install some kind of basic electrical system, which the boat did not have and I did not want on that size boat. I almost went ahead and bought a GPSMap 76Cx, along with one chart region, for my area of the Gulf of Mexico as the price kept falling. But it would cost $400 for the unit and another $150 or so for the one chart. I could use it on Element or in my kayak, but I knew I would eventually have my Tiki 26, Element II, that I'm building now, and would need to purchase multiple chart regions. This would make the cost much greater than the $700 478C, so I decided to do without and wait to see what was available when my new boat was finished.

Now, it appears that I have my answer in the new Garmin Colorado - a hand-held portable with pre-loaded charts of all U.S. waters and the Bahamas - enough coverage to keep me busy for awhile. This is the sort of GPS receiver I've been hoping Garmin would introduce - a true handheld chartplotter with the same built-in coverage of U.S. waters as the bigger units, but the ability to run off disposable AA batteries. Like the GPSMap 76Cx, it also has a micro-SD card slot so you can purchase additional charts if your cruising takes you beyond the coverage of the pre-loaded charts. Best of all you get all this for just $600 - a price that will probably start dropping after it's been in in production awhile.

A major change from the older handheld units is the user-interface. The Colorado 400C uses an Ipod-style "Rock 'n Roller" input wheel for easy one-handed operation. The wheel rotates clockwise and counter-clockwise to move through the lists on any of the screens and to zoom in and out on the charts. It can also be used to enter text using an on-screen list of alphanumeric characters. The wheel is at the top of the unit, designed to be in the natural position for the thumb, see below:

While the screen on all hand-helds is smaller than the larger, fixed-mount units, it is still quite usable as a chartplotter and the portability makes up for it. On a boat like my Tiki 26, I'll be able to use it from either side of the cockpit, depending on which tack I'm on, or take it down below if I'm working out a route or just want a break from bad weather.

The screen shot below from the Garmin website gives you a pretty good idea of how the g2 Blue Charts display on the Colorado 400C. Screen size is 3" diagonal, or 1.53" wide by 2.55" high.

Like the older Garmin handheld units, the Colorado 400C is waterproof. It uses 2 AA batteries with a projected run time of 15 hours, or it can be connected to a vessel or vehicle 12-volt system via an optional power cable. Built-in memory includes the capacity to store 1000 waypoints and 50 routes.

There is also a built-in electronic compass and barometric altimeter, as well as tide tables and sun and moon rise and set information. An alarm mode includes four alarms: anchor drag, off course, deep water, and shallow water.

All-in-all, the Colorado 400C seems to have everything I would want in a handheld GPS chartplotter. The small screen is the only disadvantage as opposed to larger, dedicated plotters, but you can't have everything with such portability. I'll be watching this unit in the coming months for user reviews and tests and when I get closer to launching Element II, I'm sure it will be on my outfitting list. The best place to get a good deal on electronics like this that I've found is Amazon, as they usually beat everyone else's price and you can get it with free shipping and no sales tax. It's in stock now at the link below if you can't wait, or you can watch and see if the price falls after the initial introduction.

Garmin Colorado 400c Handheld GPS