I wanted to finish building the boat and go sailing before I headed off on an extended trip to the UK. Much as I would like to stay and go sailing the boat is packed away until I return later this year. At least I know the boat is as finished as they ever are and that I could not be happier with the result of about 1000 hours work spread over a period of almost two years. Well almost two years minus 4 or 5 months of assorted travel inside and outside Australia.
Two more sleeps and then off I go to the airport.
Saturday, 19 April 2014
Packing Up the Mainsail With a Folding Mast.
The advantage of the folding mast arrangement is speed when packing up or rigging when going sailing. I took some photos showing the steps in packing up with the boat on its trailer in my backyard. First photo shows the sail flaked down on the boom with the gaff lowered on top of it. The lazy jacks make this quick and easy; the luff flakes down nicely without assistance, the leech needs to be helped with one hand while lowering peak and throat halyards with the other. The sail is bundled up and tied with a number (about 8) shock cord sail ties.
As the mast is lowered the bundled sail falls down and rests on one of the side seats. The mast sits on the crutch at the transom. The bundled sail is now raised and tied up to the folded down mast with two pieces of hook and loop tape. Note that the furled jib, halyards, topping lift and side stays are still in place making an untidy mess.
A few more shock cord ties are put on to bundle up the jib and all those ropes. That's it for the main mast, main sail and jib.
When launching the boat the process is reversed and, with a bit of care, the mast goes up and the lines fall into place without getting tangled.
I had more difficulty with the mizzen because it didn't want to go into a tidy bundle ready to be stowed in the boat for travelling. I have solved this by adding simple lazy jacks so that the sail and gaff can be lowered onto the boom. Flaking the sail is a bit fiddly but the lazy jacks help a lot with this. Once that is done I list the whole bundle of boom sail and gaff parallel to the mast and tie it all together with more shock cord ties. Lift the mizzen mast and bundle out of its box, lay it diagonally across the seats and tie it to the centre thwart.
Strap the boat to the trailer and drive away. It took longer to write this post than to do the actual packing up!
As the mast is lowered the bundled sail falls down and rests on one of the side seats. The mast sits on the crutch at the transom. The bundled sail is now raised and tied up to the folded down mast with two pieces of hook and loop tape. Note that the furled jib, halyards, topping lift and side stays are still in place making an untidy mess.
A few more shock cord ties are put on to bundle up the jib and all those ropes. That's it for the main mast, main sail and jib.
When launching the boat the process is reversed and, with a bit of care, the mast goes up and the lines fall into place without getting tangled.
I had more difficulty with the mizzen because it didn't want to go into a tidy bundle ready to be stowed in the boat for travelling. I have solved this by adding simple lazy jacks so that the sail and gaff can be lowered onto the boom. Flaking the sail is a bit fiddly but the lazy jacks help a lot with this. Once that is done I list the whole bundle of boom sail and gaff parallel to the mast and tie it all together with more shock cord ties. Lift the mizzen mast and bundle out of its box, lay it diagonally across the seats and tie it to the centre thwart.
Strap the boat to the trailer and drive away. It took longer to write this post than to do the actual packing up!
The Jib Halyard
My jib is hoisted with a halyard that is tied off to the pin rail at the base of the mast. I had difficulty putting enough tension on the halyard and the luff of the sail bowed out. I tried using a truckies hitch to pull down harder on the halyard; this helped a bit but there was too much friction around the pinrail and where the rope crossed itself. Finally I did this:
Now I can get enough tension on the jib. It still bows out a little but I am satisfied with the result. In the photo I have tied it off on two pins to make the setup clearer; in actual use both black and yellow lines would be tied off on the outer pin.
As an aside; when running downwind, with the boom out as far as possible, the boom hits the halyards which is not a good thing, My partial solution to this is to use the outside pins for the halyards that have the most tension and the inner pins for the lightly loaded tail of the lazy jacks.
From left to right, the peak and throat halyards, two spare pins, tail of lazy jacks/topping lift and the jib halyard.
Now I can get enough tension on the jib. It still bows out a little but I am satisfied with the result. In the photo I have tied it off on two pins to make the setup clearer; in actual use both black and yellow lines would be tied off on the outer pin.
As an aside; when running downwind, with the boom out as far as possible, the boom hits the halyards which is not a good thing, My partial solution to this is to use the outside pins for the halyards that have the most tension and the inner pins for the lightly loaded tail of the lazy jacks.
From left to right, the peak and throat halyards, two spare pins, tail of lazy jacks/topping lift and the jib halyard.
Ballast Tank Inspection Hatches
I put inspection hatches in the top of the ballast tanks so that I could get at the pivot bolt for the centreboard. This seemed like a good idea at the time because it would avoid cutting holes at some future time if I needed to get at the bolt. Now I am not so sure and, if I were doing it again, I would have made the tank tops solid.
I used these hatches made by Nairn. The lid screws in and is transparent. It was quite interesting to watch the tanks fill up when the boat was launched.
The transparent lid is strong but the white plastic ring isn't. I stepped on one of the hatches, fortunately while the boat was on the trailer, and the lid broke the threaded part of the ring away from the surround with the screw holes. If the boat had been in the water I would have had a big problem!
I removed both the hatches and cut the remains of the broken ring so that I could see how it had failed. Here are a couple of photos. First photo shows what is left of the outer part of the hatch.
The next photo shows a cross section of the outer part of the hatch. You might need to enlarge the photo to see the crack across the narrow corner. The plastic at that point is only about 1.5 mm wide and is certainly not strong enough to stand on, at least not when it is poor quality plastic.
I used these hatches made by Nairn. The lid screws in and is transparent. It was quite interesting to watch the tanks fill up when the boat was launched.
The transparent lid is strong but the white plastic ring isn't. I stepped on one of the hatches, fortunately while the boat was on the trailer, and the lid broke the threaded part of the ring away from the surround with the screw holes. If the boat had been in the water I would have had a big problem!
I removed both the hatches and cut the remains of the broken ring so that I could see how it had failed. Here are a couple of photos. First photo shows what is left of the outer part of the hatch.
The next photo shows a cross section of the outer part of the hatch. You might need to enlarge the photo to see the crack across the narrow corner. The plastic at that point is only about 1.5 mm wide and is certainly not strong enough to stand on, at least not when it is poor quality plastic.
I went looking for a better type of hatch to put in the existing holes. Needless to say, the metal hatches were too small! I now have two new hatches but I had to enlarge the holes slightly.
These hatches are made by Armstrong, click here for more info. They cost about 4 times the original Nairn hatches but they are more than strong enough to stand on!
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Serendipity Sailing at Lake Wivenhoe
This is a short video made by my friend Paul Hernes during a Wooden Boat Association of Queensland camp at Lake Wivenhoe, March 2014. Thanks Paul.
Friday, 21 March 2014
She Sails
Had a great 5 days at Lake Wivenhoe with some members of the Wooden Boat Association. The lake has a surface area of 109 square kilometres and a shoreline of 462 kilometres so it is big enough for serious sailing. Here are a couple of frames from some video taken by one of the other members. When the video arrives I will put some/all of it on the web.
Still a few things to sort out but I am very happy with my new boat!
Still a few things to sort out but I am very happy with my new boat!
Saturday, 15 March 2014
She Floats!
I went for a test launch a couple of days ago mainly to see how she got off and on the trailer but also to try out the ballast tank arrangement and to check for leaks! I was more than a bit relieved to find that everything went well. Sad to say but the battery in my waterproof camera was flat so I only managed a couple of photos with the mobile phone before leaving it in the car for safety.
The two photos appear to be the same but the first is taken with no water in the ballast tanks and the second with them full. The approx 130 litres (130 Kg or 285lb) of water ballast sank the boat by approx 35 or 40 mm. The design waterline is where the colour changes so she floats quite a bit higher than expected. Crew weight will sink her a bit more.
Having taken her to the water and launched her of course I put the mast up and went for a sail. The wind was very light and flukey so it wasn't a very good test sail but everything appeared to work. I need to work out a way of tightening the jib halyard to straighten the luff. I think the mizzen boom needs a vang to flatten the sail, without it the boom lifts and the sail twists making it less effective.
Next week I'm off to a 5 day camp with the local wooden boat guys so there will be lots of suggestions about improvements and hopefully some more photos of the boat in action.
The two photos appear to be the same but the first is taken with no water in the ballast tanks and the second with them full. The approx 130 litres (130 Kg or 285lb) of water ballast sank the boat by approx 35 or 40 mm. The design waterline is where the colour changes so she floats quite a bit higher than expected. Crew weight will sink her a bit more.
Having taken her to the water and launched her of course I put the mast up and went for a sail. The wind was very light and flukey so it wasn't a very good test sail but everything appeared to work. I need to work out a way of tightening the jib halyard to straighten the luff. I think the mizzen boom needs a vang to flatten the sail, without it the boom lifts and the sail twists making it less effective.
Next week I'm off to a 5 day camp with the local wooden boat guys so there will be lots of suggestions about improvements and hopefully some more photos of the boat in action.
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