According to Ferenc Maté in The Finely Fitted Yacht, any galley worth its salt must have a searail. It simply must, absolutely must. Well, I need to tell you that I did not want to finish my boatbuilding effort only to be laughed to scorn at the marina — all just because the galley did not have a true searail. So, we set about to do what we could.
Maté
had even included an illustration of what a true searail should look like,
complete, of course, with exact dimensions.
All of that looked relatively easy enough to understand. The stock needed a rabbet, an angle cut, and the corners rounded. As I looked over Maté's dimensions a bit more, it seemed to me that what he had in mind would be more fitting for a ship, or at least, a larger boat than what we build here.
So, we made some necessary changes, one of which included ploughing a full groove rather than a mere rabbet. The joint would be stronger that way. We also cut the top of the searail a little lower. That way, perhaps, everything would be more in proportion for a small cabin. We choose black walnut for our searail wood.
We had our full length groove, so we next made a 4 degree angle cut with the saw. Cutting the angle would make the searail not look so heavy, would make the searail look a little lighter. And besides, the angle cut is what Maté recommended. You must understand I am not a true sailor, so I followed Maté's suggestion. Here is how it turned out.
Not too bad. We were approaching the Maté suggested shape for a true, nautical searail. We rounded a corner or two with a rounter, and then stood back to look more closely at our stock.
The
general searail shape seemed to be there. At least, there was some promise.
We would need to flush the ridge left by the saw into the stock, and finish
rounding all corners.
It was time to hand plane the stock. Now, I like hand tools, and planes are probably my favorite tool. There's just a good feel about a good plane. For this job, we decided to use a jack plane. Our lines would be straighter that way.
We began shaping our wood, gradually coming to an outline shape of what we wanted. Our searail was beginning to look, well . . . almost respectable.
Slowly everything was beginning to come into nautical shape. The searail
was almost there. We next used a hand scarper and sanded our walnut stock.
Finally, we were at that point that we needed to make a trial fit, just
to see how the searail might look. We snapped the searail in place along
the edge of the countertop.
The fit wasn't bad, and the shape seemed to be what Maté had outlined. There was still a lot of work to do. We needed to cut a tapering curve for the ends of the searail and apply an oil finish, but we were coming closer.
We wondered how the searail might look from our berth. So, I sat down on what would later become the berth and took this shot. The shape of the searail looked OK. The walnut, of course, will be much darker when finished, and should provide a good contrast with the surrounding woods.
Our next project will be the backsplash. Apparently, Maté enclosed his galleys countertops with a searail on every side (or almost on every side). I thought that made the galley countertop look too much like a tray. So, instead, we're going to make some backsplashes out of walnut. However, because of the curve of the deck, we'll probably need to steam bend the walnut into place.
Our galley is beginning to take on a salty and nautical look. We'll never be out to rough waters, but we're going to do our best to look salty and rough.
Today the searails, tomorrow the seven seas . . . well, at least, Lake
Pleasant in Arizona. In the meantime, though, we thought we might as well
attach our backsplashes. Here is good perspective of the full countertop,
complete with nautical searail! The corners of the galley countertop are
left open. According to Maté, open corners make it easier to clean
the surface of crumbs.
If you look carefully, you might be able to make out the sweeping curve
at the end of the searail. No respectable sailor would leave his searail
with a simple straight cut. Men have been keelhauled for less than that.
Make it look nautical or don't make it at all.
Now, maybe, just maybe we might get Jimmy Buffet to change
the wording from cheeseburger in paradise to
searail in paradise. That may be asking for too much,
though. The nautical searail is an easy project to build. And, I hope
you give it a try sometime. Now, where did I put that cheeseburger?
Back Yard Yacht Builders
A non-commercial association of amateur boat-builder enthusiasts.
All our wooden boats are Stevenson designs.