Why a Chainsaw is a one of the BEST Boatbuilding Tools Around

In the boatyard

With our 23' BEAM, we were limited to one commercial yard near Vancouver. The 100 ton Travelift seemed like overkill for our 4 ton boat. The yard operator asked about our plans. "Just drop the mast, cut out the middle bit, put in a new carbon fiber mast beam, install a new cabin and cockpit sole, build a cabin, put back up the mast with longer rigging. Oh yeah, and install a diesel and prop shaft etc.". The man looked at me with a wry expression on his face. Clearly he'd heard this sort of talk before. "How long are you going to be?" expecting to hear 6 months or more. "1 month" I replied, "It's too expensive to haul out for longer". He just smiled and walked away, clearly not a believer.

I'm normally the sort of person who likes to do it all myself. My wife is smarter than me and had insisted I hire some teenage boys as helpers during the pre-fabrication phase. During this part of the project she organized one friend to come from California for 10 days, another from Seattle for a weekend, friends from Vancouver Island who arrived for the weekend, my father for a few weeks, and my teenage helpers for just about every day. They were invaluable and I wouldn't have been able to do it in 3 or 4 months without them. So thanks Mark, Leighton, Ken, Don, Robin, Dad, Stew, and of course my wife Diane, who organized them, fed them, and gave them a home during this work.

We gotta get a chainsaw....

The first week was spent removing the small cabin and the wing extensions of the hulls. The boat was very well built, with lots of integrated structures. Fiberglass is hard stuff to cut, and wears out blades quickly. A jigsaw, reciprocating saw, and circular saw were all used to good effect but it was going too slowly. So Dad lent a chainsaw and Mark, one of my faithful helpers, got cutting with a vengeance. We wore out 3 chains cutting through the boat. Later I found out that you can get tungsten grit reciprocating saw blades that would have helped speed things along. We dropped the mast with the assistance of a mobile crane, and unbolted a lot of winches for relocation elsewhere on the new cabin.

Week 2 saw us installing the used diesel in one hull, including a prop shaft and carbon fiber propeller strut. Nothing too interesting to most folks here I think so I'll skip ahead to Week 3!

Week 3 - installing the new carbon fiber mast beam, cockpit sole, and then cabin sole. Lots of grinding existing hull, filleting, taping etc. All the prep work was paying off. No real surprises. A new higher mast step is installed on a short post on top of the mast beam to allow the boom to clear the cabin top. I could have just raised the boom and shortened the mainsail but that would have been too easy.

Week 4 - the mast goes back up, with short lengths of Dacron rope between the turnbuckles and shackles on the chainplates. In one glorious day, we assembled all the cabin pieces, screwing them together with temporary 2x4 cleats and props. Filleted and taped a number of seams but it certainly wasn't complete when the boat was re-launched exactly 1 month after being hauled out. The travelift guy couldn't believe it either.

That was the end of July 2005. The summer was spent finishing glassing and fairing most of the the outside seams, installing recessed side windows. Fall found me glassing inside seams, tracking down the odd leak during one of the wettest winter in Vancouver's wet history, and minor details. It's now February 2006 as I write this and I'm nearly ready to build some furniture inside the new bridgedeck cabin.

More details can be found at www.maiaaboard.blogspot.com

Evan Gatehouse

February 2006

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