Quite understand why Mark chose a Nonsuch when his chainplate failed at sea. Stayed masts and chainplates should have been history long ago. It is remarkable that yachtsmen and yacht designers cling to the past when pilots moved on to unstayed monoplanes over half a century ago. Perhaps the break up of around the world expensive racing machines due to the forces of standing riging trying to drive the mast through the hull or fold the boat will convince yacht designers to follow the examples of the Freedom and Nonsuch designs. Their rigs are forgiving and bend to sudden squalls. Willows billow while oaks crack and fall when subjected to intense squalls.
Have a Merry and safe Christmas with a better year ahead.
John Newell
locked down to December the 21st or later in Toronto
Hi John,
I like your analysis and I wish it was true but sadly, it isn’t.
I did not chose the Nonsuch. I’d like to believe that it chose me. Truth is, that it came “on my path” She was there, about to sink, in a bay full of wrecks. It was the first Nonsuch I ever saw upclose. Needles to say: in a very bad condition. The fact that the owner spoke of the boat in awe made me investigate. The more I read and heard, the more I set my mind to save her. Finally my rescuers syndrome got the upper hand and made me buy her.
I knew wooden (!) unstayed masts from classic Dutch fishing vessels. I heard of the Freedom boats but that’s about it.
The tale of the buying process is one on it’s own. Like to share but don’t think the story would interest anyone, so that’s something on request.
Saying all that to say this: as a sailor I would not claim to be super experienced but I do dare to say that I know what I’m doing. I’ve never sailed a Nonsuch, never. When all said and done it could be… not my thing! Who knows? Let me first finish her and write about it. Lots of stuff needed fixing and the end of this tread is nowhere near yet.
How fascinating this is becoming ! I never guessed that John Newell, veteran Nonsucher and skipper of the first N26 built (the venerable Mascouche) would champion the idea of a Nonsuch, freestanding mast and all, out there, mid-ocean, making her way in all that weather and rolling sea that the open ocean brings.
Mind you … look at those Freedom yachts. And, yes, many of us have heard of the Vendee Globe boat that bust in two like a too-high strung guitar, in four seconds, a week ago. Luckily, the skipper (Kevin Escoffier) was saved by a fellow (expert) racer.
I guess some of this comes down to what kind of boat one would want to be sailing on and living on, at sea, for weeks on end. So many standing-rigged boats have sailed across oceans and circumnavigated this planet. Some are way better than others and are truly set up (think good desigmn and $$$$) to be able to do this type of voyaging in as comfortable a manner as possible. Having sailed my little N22 in conditions on Lake Ontario that made her “wallow” … side to side … back and forth … never feeling that she was in danger but … sometimes, not all that comfy, I don’t know how nice a trip across the pond in a larger Nonsuch would really be. Truth is, it wouldn’t be all that comfy in an IMOCA boat either !! However, when I sailed off the coast of France in a Bavaria 39 in a nice breeze with big waves, it was pretty comfy.
i wonder if Mark Ellis would think differently about these “coastal cruisers” aka Nonsuches that he designed. Would he go to sea in one ??
Spiro and all, This brings back memories of the re-coring of the decks of my 36. One tool I found handy was by mounting an arbor in a 5" trim saw blade I could the chuck this in a Makita variable speed disk sander. I used this to hog out the core another 2 inches beyond the cut made in the deck. I could then butter the area and balsa with thickened epoxy and slide it into place under the existing deck bevel. I believe this made for a stronger seam and less deck removal. Don’t let OSHA see the tool however, not exactly kosher. There are many long hours involved in the removal, repair, refinish, replacement of all the components on our decks. Kudos on a job well done here Spiro, enjoying the process and commiserate with you on you sore back and knees, keep it up, it’s worth it.
I’d like to share the pictures of the rest of the prep work before painting. Just for the fun of it and who knows, maybe someone benefits.
First of all there was the anti-skid issue. What to do with it once the decision was made that the boat would go for a total repaint? There seemed to be only one answer and that is to remove all. That means sanding flat all anti-skid profile. All of it.
Breathtaking, Mark … absolutely breathtaking. Even if it turns out that you are not crazy about sailing it (which would surprise me), you can enter it in any Concours D’elegance (and win).
So, here’s something - I have decided that, if you buy your own ticket to fly over here to Toronto (when this becomes possible) and find a place to flop while you’re here (becuase our little house is too small for guests even if they are not typically TALL like most Dutchmen) … wait for it … I will let you work on my boat for FREE. An offer that you could not think of refusing, right !!! It is contingent on you supplying materials, etc. (that you’d, likely, fabricate from scratch).
I know … I know. It is BIG of me. I know …
Give this fine offer a think, if you ever have a spare second, after working on your own boat.
Enough joking around, time to work! After much sanding (we’re not talking hours here, this is more like days -even weeks- continuous sanding) she’s ready for primer. You might have seen the photo’s but what the heck it isn’t every day that a Nonsuch turns green overnight, right?
This is the first layer of primer applied. I did not paint the stripe and bootstripe yet. Those are actually a different color of gelcoat and I’d very much like to save that specific pattern and shape. So what I did was to paint these stripes a different color primer. And yes I did raise the bootstripe a little.
I removed a complete air-conditioner, a microwave oven, a watercooled diesel genset, 250 kilo of pots pans plates and silverware. 250 kilos of books and other junk. I can only guess where that waterline will be. So she was overweight a lot, I still fear that she might sink a little deeper than originally intended which would give me more problems than a bootstripe that’s to high.
My girl actually liked the “golden green color” and we considered to order the same tint of topcoat. What do you think?
In total 4 layers of primer were coated. This seems a lot but I have to sand the whole thing back to “smooth” because the primer was applied by hand: roller and brush. To get a nice prepped surface, a lot of sanding is needed. If the thickness of the layer of primer is insufficient, I’ll sand right through it.
In principle, the primer isn’t absolutely necessary for bonding topcoat to gelcoat but in this case the gelcoat was to porous and damaged to directly overpaint. I used a 2 part epoxy primer.
Also. Holland has these MASSIVE boat repair and construction buildings. Like the type with the four-storey doors. Honestly, I could not live in the Netherlands if I didn’t own a boat.
Hope you are wearing kneepads !! It looks amazing.
Let the truth be heard Ernie! Just kiddin’ because I admit that the glory days of Dutch ship building belong to the past. Big cargo bulk carriers are made in China! Only specialized, high performance or any boat that isn’t an exact copy of it’s predecessor can still be made here. Dutch labor is not cheap, except for my labor that is… still considering your offer!
This small country is still on top of the yacht building busyness. But like the bulk carriers: if mass produced, the Dutch can’t compete. Most Dutch yards are specialized building in aluminium or steel. We abandoned wood from ship building since the 1900’s. I think the first metal boats, hot riveted - puddle iron (some sort of cast iron) were made here. There are hardly any yards that do “cold molded” boats like in US Maine.
There are still a very few Dutch yards that build GRP yachts but they are not competing with the big names. One of them is Contest.
I think the nicest GRP European yachts are built in Sweden: Halberg Rassy and others. The majority of the known names however like Hanse, Bavaria, ***eau are just like the American Catalina’s or Hunters. They are build in France, Germany or outsourced to low cost parts of Europe.
If anyone was interested in a high performance (semi) custom build metal or alloy yacht… the only way to go is Dutch. The French do an OK job if you’re on a budget - not comparable imho.
Spiro - this is looking beautiful. And, having stripped everything from my deck three years ago and then doing the sand and fill and sand and fill and sand and paint and sand, sand, sand and sand and . . . myself at that time, I can really appreciate the amount of work you are putting into the boat.
A few questions, and sorry if I missed the answers in reviewing this all:
1 what is the cause of the vertical stripes on the hull in the primer? (Actually my wife/the Owner pointed this out to me.)
2 Having done as much as you did, why didn’t you pull the main halyard winch and steering pedestal (and I guess paint the pedestal to match)?
3 I note that you did not close off the various openings (say the ports and cockpit lockers and such). Were those closed off for the painting and then opened? If not closed off, how did you keep the paint out?
4 I did not notice - did you pull out the support ring the mast goes through? I was too scared to do such and taped it off and painted around it.
Hi lloyd! Thank you for your interest and your questions. I love to answer them.
1.) the width of my scaffold is just about the width of the area between the stripes. I applied the primer by hand with a roller. The picture was taken when the paint was still wet.
2.) The main halyard is an electric one. It’s a pain to remove it. Above that, the base to compensate the contour of the roof is white PVC and was placed not that long ago so the sealant was still good. I decided to leave it where it is.
I prepped the pedestal for paint right on the spot. That means, remove oxidation, aluminium primer, sand, filler, sand, primer, primer, primer, primer, sand. After that I left it in that spot to be spray panted over. It had not leaked in the deck and the chain and cables are replaced recently. I did not see any reason to dismantle it.
3.) During the sanding there was nothing in the holes left by the windows and hatches. The dust was manageable because I used sanders in combination with a vacuum cleaner. Before transport I screwed on plywood, in a way that it could be spray painted over leaving a tiny edge of bare primer.
I have to say that “project interior works” is coming up: enough needed to be done to the interior anyway. A little dust more or less did not bother me.
4.) I had to remove the mast collar when we removed the mast. A Spartite mast wedging replacement system had been installed by a PO. That seems like a nice solution but it’s nearly impossible to remove, in case of a Nonsuch anyway. The mast is 2008 carbon fiber, as is the wishboom.
If you have any questions about anything, please ask!
Once transported to the location where the topcoat was sprayed on, a trip of about 35km, she was out of my hands. She was fully prepped. Anything and everything sanded, and cleaned.
The orders for the painter were:
1.) Grit blast the lead of the keel to bare material.
2.) Lightly grit blast the under water area to remove any material that isn’t firmly attached and rough-up the surface for epoxy barrier coat
3.) prime underwater area
4.) apply epoxy filler to the hull-keel joint
5.) spray epoxy barrier coat to the hull and keel
Continue with the above water area:
6.) tape anything that doesn’t need paint
7.) spray hull (2 layers RAL1013)
8.) spray deck while standing on roof (tape where eyebrow is normally located)
9.) spray roof while standing on deck
This is a whatapp photo that I got from the painter of them doing what I asked for. Very pleased but also a bit worried. What are all those extra black areas on the hull?
