On the Road

So as not to let down our most ardent fans–here is the next chapter in the refit of this 112 year old tug….

OK–we’ve painted the upper and lower house, plus hauled out on the marine rail and cleaned & painted the hull.   So I’m now turning to the interior machinery–so put on your overalls and enter the the engine room by clicking the above link…..

OK–you’ve seen the engine running but it wasn’t that simple.   After four years of sitting at the dock, all this beast did was to hiss and spit rust and water from everywhere–and at 250 lbs starting pressure this is a lot of hissing.  The engineering is a snake-pit of pipes, tubes, valves,  etc.   Below is the control part of the engine which can either be started from the bridge, back (‘Texas’) deck or right here with the manual over-ride.

Part of the problem was this air valve which pumps air in the 7th cylinder–at the very top of the photo above and stores it in two huge air receivers for future starts.    This is critical–as this engine lacks a transmission and clutch–it is a direct reverse–meaning that in order to back down the boat, I have to shut down the engine, shift the cam and restart–all within a second–and then power in the opposite direction.  This means bringing the entire crankshaft, rods, pistons,  main shaft and propeller (many tons) to a complete stop, then moving the cam 2″ and restarting everything in the opposite direction.  This takes a lot of air.    So all valves must function.  This how I found one when I took it apart:

This is the valve responsible to supply air into the receivers and reaches several hundred degrees in temperature and is under a constant 250 lbs. pressure.

This is the “seventh” cylinder all rebuilt including the valve pictured above.  It is powered by the main engine to pump air–which is needed for restarting the engine.  On top are two triangular valve housings–letting air in (green piping on  right) and out (yellow piping on left–to be stored for the next start).  The blue pipe is water coolant.

Here are two open bays showing the camshaft–each supplying the needs of a piston–which is 10″ in diameter and weighs 250 lbs. each.  The head is about 400 lbs, and a piston rod is about 200 lbs.  This is a lot of mass to turn and reverse direction.

Each bay exhibits four cams and each cam has two lobe strategies for running in both directions.   No clutch, no transmission…..very simple.  Moving the cam engages the second set of lobes and the timing is now directed to a reverse start and the engine runs the opposite direction.  The cams (in order from left to right here) are 1. fuel, 2. intake valve, 3. air start, and 4. exhaust valve.

This engine was built in 1944 by Washington Iron Works and is a model 6-R-13 (6 cylinders, 13″ stroke and right hand).  In dual engine applications, these engines were cast as mirror opposites so an engineer could tend to both from a center isle-way.  In the Katahdin, it is a single engine but this was built as the port engine for the USS Glassford, a ship that was never built as WWII was winding down at that time.

Washington Iron Works built thousands of engines for 101 years in Seattle (where the two sports stadiums now exist).  Only eight Washingtons are still powering vessels.  Here’s the engine when it was built in 1944–still in the factory.   It has powered three other boats including the Foss 15 which spent a lot of time here in Alaska.

BTW, everyone asks me where I get parts–I’ve a 40′ steel container with two other engines all broken down.  The Katahdin engine will run forever.

OK–here are all the moving parts exposed which require oiling every two hours times six cylinders.  All the pushrods are exposed on the outside of this engine, unlike the modern automobile engine.  The four functions that run this engine (see above) are:  Bendex (fuel) injectors, intake valve, air start valve, and exhaust–see cam description above.  Everything moves when this puppy lights off.  OK–here we go:

and….

After three days of fiddling around with all these controls, I finally found the shifting problem–I’d inadvertently positioned a brass disc in the selector valve backwards–no air, no shift.  This has been corrected so it’s time for dock trials, then sea trials….Stay tuned……

Now it’s time to haul the Katahdin out of the water and clean the hull.  I have to tow her with our skiff and can do this only at high slack.  Problem is, that everyone else moves around at high slack–including this skiff, two seaplanes, a fuel barge and a ferry so it’s a crowded harbor.  The current is still running about half a knot and we bounce around until we can get a line on the dock at the marine rail.

Then we hand pull all 120 tons into the cradle….

Once we get her wedged in and blocked, the rail hauls us out slowly to reveal quite a mess on the hull–the result of five years of procrastination.  Actually, we’ve devoted all our time to the restoration of 10 buildings at Totland but now it’s time to catch up.

Yikes!

Double Yikes!  Look at this mess–even starfish!  This is Marine Biology 101!  Time to get out the scrapers and pressure washers….

No wonder I couldn’t steer!

All the growth was removed by hand, then pressure washed.  In all there were 25 wheelbarrow loads of this stuff.

Then we get out the tools of the trade–caulking mallets and irons….

With the help of a local shipwright, I first reef the seams that are questionable, cleaning them before threading first cotton followed by oakum (hemp and pine tar).   Then the seams are painted and then cemented with hydraulic cement. We spend two days cleaning up seams, plugs, etc. before the two coats of bottom paint just prior to launch.

Here are a couple of  seams ready for touch-up.  The hull is now spotless.

The wheel is polished and zincs are welded in place.  Ready for launch–Click  here for the the video of us sliding down the rail and  here to see us drift out off the rail.

Meanwhile the bears move in without an invitation.  Here, mom checks out our barbeque.  Fortunately, we didn’t have any fish on it.  This bear has been making the rounds along the Narrows and seems quite agressive….

….with a cub in tow.

Kupreanof prayer flags….  Looks like we’ll need to post a Katahdin III.  Stay tuned!

This is what 10 years in Alaska will do to a boat.  Actually, it’s about 6 years–the amount of time we have spent rebuilding our homestead across the Narrows.  Now it’s time to turn our attention back to the Katahdin–my first home here in Alaska.  The “Kat” was built in 1899 and has all the associated problems with an old wooden boat–you can read more about her in my new “Pages” section directly above the “Archives” in the right sidebar.    So it’s time to roll up my sleeves….and hire a couple of hardworking youngsters.

Michael is an excellent shipwright and loves old wooden boat projects.  Here we’re digging out rot from the bottom course of the bulwarks.  We discovered this by using a pressure washer!  Not a good sign–probably some of the Mt. Saint Helens blowdown in the 1980s.  This area was logged after too many years which yielded a lot of poor quality boat lumber.  And this is not an easy place to get to.  We’ll slide in a new piece from both sides bolting them horizontally to the existing vertical lag screws–it will be yellow cedar.

Here, Michael installs new siding in the pilothouse–also yellow cedar.  He milled this up with a 3 degree bevel so it follows the curve of the house.  In all, he replaced about 10 pieces here.  Check out the yacht in the background–there are two of these traveling around together–some sort of British flag.  There goes the neighborhood!

I’m lucky to also find Leland, who boasts from Florida.  He’s a faux-painter–that is, he paints things to look old or to ‘disappear’ and all kinds of special effects.  He’s hard working also and loves his craft (or art).   Here’s the results of his magic–it’s a brand new house!

The stairs and rails will be last.

Same treatment below on the main deck.  This tarp I had made years ago has now paid for itself in maintenance saved.  The decks, cap-rails and doors are spared from the vicissitudes of the Alaskan rainforest.  I used varnish on these doors and like all outdoor varnishing, it ultimately fails.  I’ll remove each door one at a time (there are 7 double doors and three full doors) and refinish them with Sikken Cetol.  I use this on all the cap rails, rub rails and the lazarette cover and it is great stuff!

The main mast has rotted out at the base and top–it was installed last in 1982 or so in Seattle.  It is 9″ in diameter and 27 feet tall.  I want to extend it four more feet so I need a pretty sizable tree.  Here I’m measuring with a caliper and this one looks right.  It’s spruce which grows very straight–but the trade-off is it’s also susceptible to rot–oh well, the last one made it almost 30 years.

Earlier in the week  about a hundred yards away on our creek we spot a mamma bear and her cub.  So we look over both shoulders before we begin our ‘logging.’

After laboriously dragging this out of the woods with my tractor and two strong helpers, I peel it and then drag it back into the net shed to dry for a year.   Whew!

Part II will be the hull.   The shipyard has reopened under new ownership and I’m scheduled in a couple weeks.  I’ll redo a lot of the previous work and the hull will be like the pilothouse.  Stay tuned!