Raid Caledonia…


After a week of Sail Caledonia making our way across the Great Glen under oar and sail I can confirm that the GIS is a suitable craft for raids!!!

Raid Caledonia is a “race” from the salt water in the West to the salt water in the East across Scotland on the Great Glen waterway which consists of 3 lakes (called lochs in Scotland) and some canal stretches between the lochs adding up to a total of some 96 km.

Having sailed GISwerk only five times prior to our departure from the Netherlands for Scotland 2 weeks ago, the Scottish lochs and canals have truly shown us what a capable boat the GIS is. On Loch Ness we were confronted with fairly strong winds (with gusts above 20 knots and a short steep 4 ft swell) which GISwerk handled beautifully and without much problem under full sail downwind. Probably not a very sensible thing but it definitely made for a most exciting and fast surf and gained us a first place in the leg!



There are pics from John Macpherson - see his great collection on he event - http://albums.phanfare.com/2963156/4023713

In the rowing legs we ended a constant third, in the sailing legs we got in 1st – 5th. The winds are very unpredictable on the Scottish lochs: a force 2 can easily become a force 6 but might over a few minutes time dwindle to force naught. Some experience in “reading” the Scottish weather would be very helpful (one day in particular we had difficulties forecasting the winds resulting in tying in an unnecessary reef causing a big delay in finishing) as would be a few more days sailing the boat before entering an event such as Raid Caledonia. We ended a tied second (out of five boats) in class 2 and overall ended a shared third place out of 9 competing boats.



What matters most however is that we had a blast, got to know the boat fairly well sailing and rowing the boat in a lot of different conditions, met some lovely people during the event and enjoyed the fine music, food and drinks the organisation had arranged for.



Results and a link to a lot of photo’s: http://www.sailcaledonia.org/


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Joost's thread on launching his Goat Island Skiff
Peter Hyndman's Goat Island Skiff Page.

The GIS is not the fastest rowboat around since it can only handle one pair of oars. It does however not loose that much ground in comparison to an Oughtred Ness Yawl especially when one considers the fact that a Ness Yawl is rowed by two persons using four oars. Our GIS has a crew of two where the crew was steering with the rudder half raised. With the anchor gear on the port side of the boat, the helm could sit on the cockpit floor on the starboard side just in front of the aft deck and next to the tiller to keep the boat balanced.

Unfortunately we only discovered this ideal set up for a crew of 2 after the first rowing race (a 12 km rowing leg) in which I struggled a bit to keep the boat on course. For this first race I had taken the complete rudder stock of the transom. I am now however convinced that when rowing fast and for some distance it does help to have either the crew steering the boat as described above or to lash the tiller to the traveller with the rudder foil halfway in the water (ideal solution when single handing). It does help track the boat when the centreboard is half way down.

I am quite sure that with only one person on board (the transom would then clear the water) she would row a wee bit faster and might be able to give the Ness Yawl very good competition.

In the Great Glen most of the time the winds are either fully in the back or are to be confronted head on. This raid we luckily had them in the back for the whole duration of the event which helped during the rowing and made for some very fast and exhilarating sailing (longer downwind sailing with some shorter upwind reaches incorporated in the sailing legs).

With my limited experience sailing the GIS, I am convinced that the fastest course for the GIS is on a reach, but she will plane alright with the wind coming straight from behind when the wind is strong enough. She remains very stable when surfing down waves and there seems to be sufficient volume up front to keep the nose from diving (one person sitting on the thwart, the other person steering the boat from the aft deck in these conditions, otherwise from the gunwale just aft of the thwart).

Up wind she does alright without much water coming over the sides (and I have been told that if a boat doesn’t take on much water up wind on Loch Ness, it is not very likely she will do elsewhere). The Ness Yawl however seems to be faster up wind. Another interesting boat that did especially well in the upwind legs outpacing all other boats was the Pathfinder canoe stern yawl designed (and sailed) by Colin Cumming.

This could however also have to do with:
1. the very good and experienced crew on the Ness Yawl (they won this year’s edition by a great margin)
2. the strong winds which meant we had to “spill” the wind in gusts by easing the sheet a bit (reefing tends to cost more time)
3. the entry on the bow of the GIS is fine enough to prevent pounding, but when trying to point really high it does sometimes become an issue
4. us not having got to know the GIS that well yet only having sailed her a couple of times before the event

The boat feels very stiff, strong and safe and seems to be capable of handling a lot of wind and waves without any problems at all.

Doing Sail Caledonia means having to go through multiple locks with a lot of boats (10 boats in competition and 3 safety boats in this case) and mooring up to 4 boats next to each other on pontoons as well which left a couple of inevitable (minor) scratches on the hull and mostly the rubbing strips. Some varnish and she will however be as good as new again!

Two more serious things however require attention:

1. Crack in the top of the front side frame on port side. Being a bit in bit of a haste when mooring the boat in a good force 5, I bumped into the top of the front side frame with an oar handle thus causing a nasty crack (diagonal one) splitting the top 5 inches of this frame (wood still attached however with no splinters having come off). Immediately after the damage was done I packed the “injury” with duck tape to prevent it from further splitting.

I am uncertain what would be the best method to repair this damage. I will probably try to very gently ease the crack open a bit and pour some liquid epoxy into the crack and consequently clamp the cracked part and then perhaps reinforce the frame by putting 2 wooden “pens” through the side frame.

2. I stupidly decided not to entirely follow MIK’s plans for the rudder stock by leaving the bolts out that go through tiller and stock (yes, I know, I should have followed the plans where I elsewhere have diligently done so and not have gone for the looks of a boltless tiller).

In the smaller waves hardly any touch to the rudder was required; planing down the bigger waves in the middle of Loch Ness in force 5 is a different story however and at one time some corrective tiller action was needed to prevent the boat from breaching and to keep her the right way up. The stresses were however too much for the rudder stock causing a crack from the top of the rudder stock down to the rudder fittings some 2 inches from the top. Immediately after the crack happened we reefed, lifted the rudder a bit to ease the pressure on the rudder stock and raced down to the finish line to take first place in the leg.

Easiest way to repair this damage that I can think of is to pour liquid epoxy in the crack and to clamp it until cured. Then 1 bolt will have to go trough the tiller and lower reinforcements and the rudder stock to reinforce it sufficiently (as per MIK’s plans).

I must stress however that the conditions on Loch Ness were quite severe and I am fairly confident that under more normal conditions (or if we would have put in a reef) this damage would not have happened at all (it is very unlikely that a reasonable thinking person would normally take his/her boat out in the conditions we had anyway).

Advice and feed back appreciated as I want to do a good repair job without damaging the looks of the boat / rudder stock. I will try to take pictures tomorrow of these damages to show you exactly what needs to be fixed.

The hull is stiff and strong enough to take a quite a beating, so no concerns there. The only thing I might do differently if I were to build another one was to use a hard wood for the side frames. The side frames seem to get most beating when using the boat as a sail & oar boat and it therefore seems to be a good idea to strengthen them with a small penalty with regards to weight.

The tiller extension I currently have on the boat uses a bit of rope to connect it to the tiller. The rope however stretches a lot (knots tightening) and it gives a vague feel when steering. To resolve this issue I am going to replace the piece of rope by either a stainless steel bit are a standard dinghy tiller extension.

The sail. The balanced lug rig seems perfect for the boat. I would however appreciate feed back on the following:
- sail might perhaps be a bit smaller for a sail&oar set up (8.5 m2 would be better for single handing and for stronger winds or winds that change in strength rapidly and frequently)
- more reef lines would be advantageous as it would enable to adjust the sail area in a better way in relation to the wind (for an 8.5 m2 sail maybe to reduce the sail in 2 steps to approximately 7 and 5.5 m2)
- the sail I have has a flat cut (Duckworksbbs USA sail). It sets well but I feel that a bit deeper profile would benefit the upwind performance especially in lighter airs.
- I might prefer a sail not laced to the boom as this would mean more adjustment possibilities. The required fatter boom would allow cleats to be attached to the boom which would make for easier reefing
- Next to the downhaul, a kicker might be handy to have more control over the sail shape (following Keyhavenpotter’s set up on his scow)

The GIS might be the perfect boat for single handing raids (perhaps with the aforementioned slightly smaller sail). She would then definitely go faster under oars (transom clearing the water and less weight) and should also pick up some speed under sail.

For two persons (as we did this raid), a slightly longer boat with two rowing stations could be faster (is that longer raid version still in the back of MIK’s head?).

I am thinking of the following concept for a very fast and reliable raid craft:
- same hull shape and construction method as for the GIS with similar layout
- about 5.4 meter boat overall boat length
- 1.5 meter width
- same rig as on the GIS (around 9.5 m2)
- 2 rowing stations allowing 2 persons to row
- same dagger board and rudder system as on the GIS

Interesting concept?

Thanks Joost for the terrific postings. I had heard at the Beale show that a Goat had been racing in the 2009 Caledonia Raid and had been sailing very quickly. Well done with so little experience of sailing your Goat, people at the show were telling me how impressed they were.

Brian

Congratulations, Josot, on such a fine and successful Caledonia Raid and the great write-up.

I enjoyed every word, and I am looking forward to reading more of your experiences sailing your Goat.

Thanks.

Bob

Congratulations Joost, it sounds like it was a most enjoyable event and thanks for posting your experiences.

Keep prodding Mik about a stretched GIS, I have done the same but I think he is trying to ignore me

Well done

Cheers
Mike

Joost, I had a long reply but lost it all...I will sleep then repost. Good job. i have lots of thoughts.

Wow .... JOOST!

That was a very big surprise!

Thankyou hugely for the technical feedback. I would suggest that the broken bits can just have glue put in them as you suggest.

Sounds like there was a timber grain direction problem with the frame - it should not split diagonally. A simple way to prevent it would be to put some thin glass (or even carbon!) along the edge where it split.

Add no weight at all.

With the rudderbox - reglue and put the bolt in. You won't have any trouble after that.

Actually ... the above is all FANTASTIC tech feedback - deeply appreciated.

MIK

More pics and bits about the Goat Island Skiff on my webpages

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Just collected the GIS pics here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik...ted=3608655455

I am checking with the photographer whether I can use .. so might only be a short time display but the full set of all the boat is here on John Macpherson's albums.
http://albums.phanfare.com/2963156/4023713

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This is a fantastic development, Joost. Muchos congratulations, my friend.

And thanks for the great photo series.

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The "Cosmos Mariner,"My Goat Island Skiff
http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w168/MiddleAgesMan/

Starting the Simmons Sea Skiff 18
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37973275@N03/

Congratulations Joost, that's a great result particularly as you were so new to the boat. It'll be interesting to see if there's a surge in sales of Goat plans as a result . You certainly showed everyone just what a fast and seaworthy boat the Goat is.

cheers,
clay

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"The best boats are either small enough to carry home, or big enough to live on." Phillip C. Bolger (1927-2009)

What a treat. Thanks for the writeup, and the fotos. Your experience matches mine in a blow. The boat wants to take care if this clumsy captain.

Actually, Joost and his crew have demonstrated something that is pretty typical about racing over several days.

It is really good to take it a little easy and not push too hard ... maybe 80% for the first few days and just keep out of trouble. If you have the skills right you will end up toward the front. Then increase effort in the last third.

All the adrenalin junkies get fired up on day one, stressed out of their minds by day three and have run out of reserves by halfway through.

If you look at major regatta results it is really common to see those two trends.

You can see the cumulative results here - Joost's boat has done well because of their consistency and growing confidence about what they can do. It looks to me they worked hard but stayed on the conservative side with pushing the boat.

Also that they managed to have fun is a good indicator of that same healthy approach.

Nice job.

MIK

Attached Files

Sail%20Caledonia%202009%20-%20Cumulative%20Results.pdf (5.7 KB, 51 views)

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