Thread: The Northstar GIS Build

The old man sitting on the front porch swing tapering spars.

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I can't imagine these little sticks holding up ten square meters of sail. I have some 2 oz fiberglass that I am going to cover the whole length. I was unable to get spar quaility lumber for this anyway so that will give me a little safety.

The boom weighed 2 kg when complete and the yard weighed 1.9 kg. I will weigh them again when I complete the fiberglassing so I can see how much the actual increase is when finished ready to go in the boat.

Middleagesman - I got my new pintels and gudgeons today and they included the pin. I certainly appreciate your great offer.

Howdy,

If the timber is of the density range of Fir and doesn't have knots or bad deviations of the grain and the spars are the dimensions in the plan they will work fine.

The glass is extra weight and messing around and won't make much difference to performance. It might make the spars slightly stronger but it is not needed.

I don't know of a single spar breakage on a Goat. We (personally) did however break a few masts on the OzRacers in the early days when we were trying to get the mast/sail combo right The plans for the OzRacer only ever contained our revised mast details.

If later for more performance reasons you want to go stiffer then a slightly larger diameter yard makes a big stiffness difference and you can see all the different playing with booms for a loose footed setup.

But the original ones work well if the boom is laced along the foot and they are the ones that started to give the boat its reputation for performance.

Best wishes
MIK

Here is a roller I fixed up for epoxy and fiberglass of the yardarm and boom. I worked pretty slick.

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Something really interesting, I have a poor method of weighing these things. I step on the scale, then weigh again with the spar. Both yardarm and boom weighed 2 kg after a layer of 1.5 oz fiberglass and three coats of epoxy. That of course cannot be true. What is true is that it added very little weight and helped my feelings. It also made considerable mess along the way but they look great.

I redid the roller to suit the rudder and centreboard. These are the ugly ducklings progressing toward swans.

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After a shave and a haircut, they are beginning to look pretty good.

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No more boat work for the next four or five days, I'm on holiday to do a little camping and fishing. These things need to cure for a few days anyway before I can start to sand and fair them.

Got word today that my sail will ship tomorrow. Now I'm really going to have to get to work.

The sail is here. I just opened the box and peaked at it. I don't even have a place big enough to lay it out unless I take it into the yard. May do that in the next couple of days just to look at it.

The spars, centreboard and rudder are ready for final coats of epoxy. Took the mast staves to the thicknesser yesterday and I'm now ready to build the mast. Much work to do and life is busy getting in the way. I'm heading to Kansas in a couple of days to visit my 92 year old father (1,500 miles round trip) so that will slow me down. I think I will put the mast together and do the final coats of epoxy before I leave so they can age a bit before I get back.

We will be starting on the mast ladder today. Pics to follow.

REally cracking along there!

MIK

Here is the dry fit and then the glue up.

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Just add glue and step back and look at the results with my good friend Ken. Wonderful helper, great person, machinest eye for fine detail.B69.jpgB70.jpg

I had to post the reply above four times before it would "take". The site almost seems to be infected. I have had this problem in the past but not this bad. I have another post I have put up three times and it will not take at all. I will try again later.

Well, it finally took along with the pics I was trying to post, but no the comentary. We ran out of epoxy after we got the first wide stave in place. Ouch!!! So we just clamped it up and taped it up and we will wait for the new shipment of epoxy to finish up. I'm going to have to sand it again to clean it up for the last stave, but it looks good and is reasonably straight.

Off to Kansas.

I am confused. The mast is basically done. I have to radius the corners and fiberglass the butt and tip, but other than the finish, it is done. What I don't understand is the book keeps saying you have to determine the orientation of the mast and make sure the notch reflects that orientation. It does not say where the notch goes (butt I presume), how big it is what it fits into ect. Is this something that was part of the OZ racers but not the Goat? I'm ready to do this if I know what it is and how it works. I find no mention of this in the plan.

Tomorrow the centreboard case and rudder case then we will be ready for 3D.

Originally Posted by Northstar

I am confused. The mast is basically done. I have to radius the corners and fiberglass the butt and tip, but other than the finish, it is done. What I don't understand is the book keeps saying you have to determine the orientation of the mast and make sure the notch reflects that orientation. It does not say where the notch goes (butt I presume), how big it is what it fits into ect. Is this something that was part of the OZ racers but not the Goat? I'm ready to do this if I know what it is and how it works. I find no mention of this in the plan.

Tomorrow the centreboard case and rudder case then we will be ready for 3D.

I think you are referring to the notch that is cut into the mast base infill piece? When I built my mast I had the same question. I was told there was no preference for the orientation of the mast.

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