Author Topic: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.  (Read 155960 times)

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #500 on: 14 August, 2023, 08:33:59 pm »
Does this count as interesting?

Built this 5.4m Grand Banks Dory from plans I adapted having downloaded them free from the interweb. Now learning to sail in it on our local reservoir. It's a lot of fun.  The plans are available from hannu's boatyard (https://hvartial.kapsi.fi/). The adaptation was to add in a dagger-board box, rudder and sailplan shamelessly nicked from CLC Boats 'Northeaster' dory (https://www.clcboats.com/images/pdfs/CLC-Northeaster-Dory-Lug-Addendum-Web.pdf). In the image I have the boom set a little too far forward because I forgot to rig the boom parrel, so the luff isn't quite vertical and might benefit from bringing the tack closer to the mast. This is hard to see once out on the water but easier to spot from the photo taken from the club RIB launch. The bow could do with a bit more ballast when singlehanding if I sit on the rear thwart. It sits more level in the water when a junior653 is aboard.

They laughed when I said I was going to be a stand-up comedian. They're not laughing now.

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #501 on: 16 August, 2023, 11:55:22 am »
That is lovely and well done.

I'm surprised by how far forward you have your sail. Is it balanced like that, or does the bow tend to blow off?
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #502 on: 16 August, 2023, 02:53:45 pm »
The mast position pretty much determined itself given that the first frame on this, Hannu Vartiala's design, and the first frame on John Harris' CLC Northeaster coincided exactly, so similar are their basic dimensions.  John Harris prefers the simplicity of the balanced lug on many of his designs, and lug sailed boats, whether small craft or larger junks AKA Chinese lugs, usually have the mast well forward of where it would be on a bermudan rigged sloop or cutter. Harris placed the mast partner over the first frame, so so did I. Harris also inclines the mast backwards (whereas junks often incline their foremasts forward). Later research taught me that the Centre of Effort needs to be forward of the Centre of Lateral Resistance to avoid weather helm, but frankly while I can quote that, I have no real idea what it means. I am by no means a boat designer, although my father-in-law was a naval architect and in part I built this as a homage to honour his memory. I'm more of a wood butcher who got the idea into my head that perhaps I could build something that might float the right way up. And it does. What I have found out by trial and error is that it needed a much bigger rudder blade than I originally gave it, to respond to helm equally to both port and starboard, and therein lies part of the appeal of a home made wooden boat: you can tinker with the design ad infinitum, and not be too precious about it. I think we're on the fourth or fifth iteration of the rudder, and this version seems to work OK.

The specific position of the sail at the mast is determined by attaching the halyard at 35% along the yard, which is Jim Michalak's recommendation. As commented above, by forgetting to rig the boom parrel, or preventer, the tack is further forward than it should be, and also lets the boom move away from the mast.  Both are said to be a bad thing but I'm not yet experienced enough to tell how much difference it makes in practice.

Another part of the fun has been confounding the club instructors. I sail on the headwaters of the Alqueva reservoir on the Spanish-Portuguese border. It's about 100km long down the Rio Guadiana to the dam, with only the top 20km or so in both countries before it becomes wholly Portuguese. Nobody here knows lug rigs. All the fitments are homemade from DIY shop timbers and bits of rope and string from Lidl. The only shop-bought parts of the rig are two pulleys from Amazon for the main sheet, and one of those is redundant. The yard and boom are curtain poles salvaged from my former office. Much consternation and mystified comments when I was sailing downwind by-the-lee i.e. with the sail against the mast rather than let fully out on the other side. "That ought to be impossible - but it works!" my instructor was overheard to say, not knowing, it seems, that the boat heels far less that way. I was just experimenting and didn't know that either.

They laughed when I said I was going to be a stand-up comedian. They're not laughing now.

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #503 on: 16 August, 2023, 03:01:18 pm »
I used to have a lugsail dinghy, a standing lug (so, very little of the boom forward of the mast).

It pointed much better than theory says it should.

Very controllable and versatile, and performed better in light winds than a bermudan rig (when tension taken out of the sail, so it had a considerable belly).

If I get a dinghy again, it will have either a standing or balanced lug. I'm not a fan of dipping lugs.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #504 on: 16 August, 2023, 03:38:36 pm »
I should confess that while everything else is homemade, the sail itself, of polytarp not sailcloth, I did get someone else to make for me. UV from our ferocious sun here means it has a limited lifespan, and I will probably end up making its replacement as the maker of the present sail has now retired and moved away.
They laughed when I said I was going to be a stand-up comedian. They're not laughing now.

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #505 on: 16 August, 2023, 07:18:38 pm »
That is lovely and well done.

I'm surprised by how far forward you have your sail. Is it balanced like that, or does the bow tend to blow off?


The more I look at that pic I posted, the more I think you're on to something and that I misunderstood your question as being mast/hull relation not mast/sail. Ah, the folly of a little knowledge - a dangerous thing it is. My bad. I think I need to revise the way I rig the sail, maybe by moving the attachment point of the halyard forward a little on the boom, say at 30% of yard,  but more importantly shift the tackline/downhaul forward, and control the angle of the boom with the parrel/preventer so that the aft end of the boom is raised and the forward end protrudes less beyond the mast, placing less of the sail out front. Everything is adjustable with cords/ropes/leads/lines and other stringy thingies. Balanced lug rigs lend themselves to that kind of tuning. Every day's a school day...
They laughed when I said I was going to be a stand-up comedian. They're not laughing now.

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #506 on: 17 August, 2023, 12:56:35 pm »
That  is one of the things like about them; the best solution is using rope, not expensive proprietary shackles and cleats.

Allows for lots of adjustment.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #508 on: 23 September, 2023, 01:28:28 pm »


The chain ferry across the River Soar at Normanton on Soar doing battle with the floating pennywort.

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #509 on: 13 October, 2023, 03:29:56 pm »
Lou-Lou Belle, my 1974 Drascombe Longboat Cruiser update:







Suffice to say I'm lovin' it. We'll be catching the tide tomorrow afternoon for another sub-24 hour adventure.  I have taken to posting reels on Instagram and Facebook so if you'd like to join me onboard please look me up by searching "stevenwrowley" and I'll accept your connection request.

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #510 on: 13 October, 2023, 04:36:25 pm »
I'm envious. Looks great.

Sent you a follow request on Instagram, name of Alastairdent
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Oscar's dad

  • aka Septimus Fitzwilliam Beauregard Partridge
Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #511 on: 13 October, 2023, 04:44:21 pm »
I'm envious. Looks great.

Sent you a follow request on Instagram, name of Alastairdent

Thank you it is   :thumbsup:  I'm hoping to achieve 100nm by the time I yank her out.  I might get there this weekend.

I'm also 3 sessions in to my RYA Day Skipper Theory course (Maldon Little Ships Club) which is very good too. 

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #512 on: 24 October, 2023, 06:23:09 pm »
A Ukrainian minesweeper.

It is simpler than it looks.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #513 on: 24 October, 2023, 06:34:50 pm »
TELL RODDY!
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External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #514 on: 26 October, 2023, 04:54:38 pm »
So, earlier there were the three RN training ships passing the Ukrainian Minesweeper. I didn't take a photo.

But I took one of this, the Tecla. I think I last saw it in 2019.

It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Interesting and unusual boaty type things.
« Reply #515 on: 09 February, 2024, 08:00:50 am »
Last Friday they were recovering the narrowboat that had spent the previous month on its side across the bridge after the January floods.