Building the Firebug
The part describes the building process of the Firebug: a small 2.40 metres sailing dinghy. I made this site in order to help you build it, and describe what it was like. This part describes:
- Why a Firebug?
- What did it cost?
- How much time did you spend?
- Does it sail well?
- What would you do different next time?
- Final thoughtsPhoto's and a description of the whole building process are on a separate page, as well as a newspaper article (28 june 2003) in the local newspaper on the launching of the Bug. Some pics of getting the boat out of the flat, and sailing pics.
First of all, because it is a lot of fun, and you learn a lot while building. I was looking for something to do in winter while not having the possibility to sail our boat de Ouwe Tukker, and building a dinghy seemed a good option for passing this time.
I was looking for a boat that was:
- Easy to build
- Small
- Preferable fast (or even planing)
- Could capsize (Laser style)
- Could serve as tender for our cruising sailboatAfter searching the Web and dreaming for quite some time, I found many small boats are not very pretty, don't sail well, or don't sail at all. The Firebug has most of my requirements. Having finished the Bug now, I don't think the Firebug would be a good tender, as it turns over too easily. It is too "sporty" for that. But you can't have it all. A plus for me was that the boat is used as training boat for kids and racing is done in it (it is a class in New Zealand). So it definetely didn't seem slow. I would characterize the Firebug as some kind of "Optimist on steroids" that can capsize ;-) .
Basic dimensions are 2.40 by 1.20 metres, weight 40 kilos. Sail area is 4.5 m. Building is done on a building jig. The boat is unsinkable and has two watertight compartiments. More info on the Firebug can be found at: http://www.firebug.co.nz/index.html
Cost are hard to estimate, as I forgot most ;-) and many of the expenses are done in smaller parts. Further, I bought some tools that I can use later. My main consideration on cost is that you yourself are the most expensive thing in boatbuilding. So when you can buy something to make it easier, safer, or better, you should buy it (sounds like I bought a lot, no so ;-)
I am a "cheapskate" by nature, but when you bruise your hands because you work with cheap tools, or you don't get anywhere on planing as you have a poor plane, you'll think about buying something better next time. But, many of the tools are too noisy for me (or for the neighbours, as I built in the living room of our flat), or need a lot of time to learn. I got a long way with a few good handsaws, some planes, handfiles, and sanding paper.
An estimate of cost:
Item cost Firebug plans, and full scale patterns 60 Euro Wood (plywood and fir) 200 Euro Epoxy (West system) 150 Euro Several tools (planes, handsaws, marking out stuff, electric jigsaw) 150 Euro Sawing and glueing jobs in a local workshop 300 Euro Sail, fittings and cordage pack 600 Euro Total 1460 Euro This is just a very rough estimate of total cost. I asked a guy in a local workshop to cut the planks I bought into the right sizes (for stringers etc.) as I have no heavy duty machines, nor experience with them. That saved me a lot of time, but it also cost some. He also made the wooden mast. Normally, Firebug masts are aluminum, but it turned out an aluminum mast from New Zealand would be too expensive to send, so Peter Tait from Firebug headquarters proposed I build a wooden mast myself (woops!). I didn't mind spending some money on the mast, as buying an aluminum mast in the Netherlands would be more costly, and troublesome.
Another one of those questions you shouldn't ask. I started building in november and told my friends I'd be working on the boat tuesdays and thursday nights, and all weekends. But I still went for a drink in town all saturday afternoons (so no work saturday night too ;-). Further I spent christmas holidays (two weeks) and some days to get wood and get bigger jobs done.
I built the boat in the living room, with the parts made in the cycle shed. I couldn't find any other space to build in that was near my house, so some time was spent first on looking for space to build, cleaning up the living room, sealing a part of the living room off for dust etc, and cleaning up the cycle shed. I live on the fourth floor, but luckily, the neighbours were very interested ;-) Actually, I got to know the neighbourhood a lot better from the process of building, searching for space, etc.
After december I went upstairs to the living room, so I put more time in it, all weekly evenings and all weekends. The regular sailing season in Holland starts in April, and we didn't want to lose sailing time. So, from April, I spent all evenings on weekdays building, and weekends sailing our big boat.
In general this is the schedule I kept:
- Oktober - November: searching for building space, finding and buying wood, throwing away some furniture, preparing my partner for building in the living room, cleaning up.
- December: Making parts, learning to use the handplane
- Januari - april: building the jig, building the hull.
- April - june: painting, finishing rigging and mast.
The last week was rather hectic. I wanted to finish the Firebug before the summer holidays (this was supposed to be a winter project!), and the mast got on its way. So I worked till 2 am regularly to get it all done, and got up at 7 am for the next coat of paint (aargh!). Also I sneaked away during lunch breaks from work to get more coats of paint on the mast. I had to get it done as the local press would be visiting on saturdays for the haulout of my flat! Then there was organising transport (renting a bus) to our port, and finishing the last bits, I love it ;-)
I just got two days of sailing in so far, with low winds. But so far I'm very happy. I can't wait to get sailing in stronger winds! Most of my experience is in sailing cruising sailboats, and I can say the Firebug is a lot different. It reacts to everything you do, it catches on very quickly, and balance is much dependent on where you sit in the boat. Tacking is very quick. The mast seems enormous! There was not enough wind to sit on the sides, but when I got tired of kneeling (to keep the transom out of the water for more speed), I just lied down with feet dangling over the side.
Capsizing is easy, and great fun. By standing on the centreboard the boat is raised again, then the only problem is getting in. As I'm fairly heavy for the boat (I weigh about 80 kilos), it capsizes when you try over the sides, so getting in at the transom is easiest.
Still there is a lot more to learn on sailing a dinghy, but I think it sails like it should. Responsive, and quite fast. I hope to get dumped in the water a few times more, because of making mistakes ;-)
What would you do different next time?
Maybe a better question would be; "What did you learn?" I didn't have any experience on woodworking, so I learned lots. Planing, sawing straight and accurately, measuring out in the right way (or knowing when not to bother, and smear it closed with epoxy ;-). I learned about wood, and finding good ways to clamp things. Also I learned about ways of doing things. I found the way of doing something can make a lot of difference, and searching for the best way pays off . I spent a lot of time to find the right way, probably as much time as continueing in a bad way. When cutting the holes for the inspection ports, I spent hours looking for a way to sand off the holes to round them nicely. Normal sanding paper was too slow, so I spent hours getting rough sanding paper on my electric drill. When I had that done, sanding off was done very quickly, and in comfort. But when you found a good solution for something you get a big reward when it works, and you can congratulate yourself on a job well done! ;-)
Now for some mistakes. I think the worst was on wood. I live in a part of Holland where wood is hard to get, and I didn't want to spend a day driving to Amsterdam to get wood. Still I'd have liked to have a nice piece of mahogany for the bow, and maybe select mahogany ply, instead of the Okoume ply I used.
Then I made a mistake on the bow. At first it didn't look so good as it had a slightly different colour than the ply. So I used a coloured varnish on that to make the colour the same. Then it looked like a cheap second-hand cupboard! So I got off the varnish again, with lots of sanding, and I got back the original wood. I had carefully selected and marked the wood, so the grain of the wood, and the knots would be in the right (beautiful) places. And after all, when all the other fir trimmings were on, it looks good again.
Another mistake is that the ply got coloured through the sun. I got some of the original colour back by sanding, but there wasn't much to do on that, and it is not a big problem, as the ply panels all have their own colours, and grain differences.
I spent a lot of time dreaming, and planning, thinking: wouldn't it be nice if... A good saying I heard about this is that at some point you should stop dreaming, but make some small first steps towards that dream. It may be opening a bank account for saving for your around-the-world trip, or telling everyone who wants to hear that you are going to build a boat. For me it was after a boring day at work starting to buy some ply, and starting on a scale model of the Firebug (I had orderded the plans already). I built a four-to-one scale model first winter to learn. Next winter I built the full scale one.
Another thing is that nothing is impossible. I developed an even larger dislike for people who say something "can't be done", is impractical, will cost too much time, etc. All problems in boatbuilding get solved somehow. If you can not solve them yourself, you ask your friends, neighbours, whoever! You'll be amazed how many people want to help, and how much fun you have, and how much you can solve yourself. I still remember a cold evening in my cycleshed when I made my first curls of wood with the handplane. I never thought I could make those scraps, and remember I was amazed at how beautiful they looked.
On a less philosopical note, I enjoyed e-mailing a lot with Peter Tait from Firebug headquarters. I was a bit hesitant to ask things at first, as I thought he'd be quite busy, but we sent about 100 e-mails on the end. He gave me lots of good advice, and tips, and we argued a lot about who would win the America's Cup (of course the Swiss won). But you can also get some good advice from newsgroups (such as rec.news.boatbuilding, nl.sport.varen when you speak Dutch) or handy neighbours.
Some guy told me this isn't going to be my last boat, and I think he's right. First I'll get a lot of sailing in with the Firebug, then I'll need to find a better place then my 3 x 3 metres bit of the living room, after that I'll probably start building an International Moth...