Thread: Solo "Expedition" Sailboat

Glassing the foils seems to have gone ok. Three coats in the day on fresh wood seems to have dried much better this morning than one final coat on an earlier two coats which has been sanded. Leave now to set so they will sand properly when I get back.

Sorted the mizzen mast fit this morning, it had grown slightly large at the partner after taping. Epoxied applied to eased surfaces.

Final clean up of spars, holes drilled through the epoxied holes, and then first two pack varnish applied just now.

Brian

G'day Brian
Would setting up your reefing as per Roger Barnes' article at the DCA web-site be a goer ?
cheers
AJ

Thanks AJ for pointing out Roger's piece on reefing. I had been trying to think how one line can do it but had not worked it out.

http://www.dca.uk.com/articles/reefing.htm



If I am reading it correctly, it works by the joined rope being on both sides of the boom. Pull down the first reef by say pulling the line on the port side of the boom. For the second reef pull the line taught on the starboard side. Very neat.

RAID41 has this inverted L shape, so planning to run lines under the shelf top. Have to try to think through if it can be done on one side of the boom only. We are going more for the approach of dropping the rig. Then using a shackle perhaps at the luff, and webbing or soft shackle round the boom at the clew. Then the reefing line attached to the clew acts as an outhaul to correctly shape the sail. Normally as flat as possible for a second reef! I have some very small neat Camcleats CL268

http://www.clamcleat.com/cleats/clea...asp?theid2=148

which will fit nicely under the boom shelf and use very thin 1mm to 6mm line.



Roger is usually at the Beale show, on the water with the DCA group, so your timing is great. If he is there I will have a chat about his reefing system.

Thanks,

Brian

What a great idea! For the resurrected Goat I was thinking of having a loop of line tied into the luff cringle which could just be slipped over the end of the boom, with a wooden cleat to locate it. I got the idea from a picture of the Deben Lugger. Combined with this system for the leech a reef could be put in very quickly. Might still need a topping lift though.

Thanks for the link.

cheers,
clay

Here is a pic of glassed foil, showing overlap waste glass. Worth mentioning not to leave these overlaps as large as I did since they were catching on the chair sides that were supporting the foil whist I glassed it. The extra length was preventing the glass sitting down flat at the very edge of the foil.



Next the foil trimmed in about a minute with a craft knife. The little craft knife has been really useful. after glassing the ends I was perfect for slicing of runs and also used as a scraper, running at 90 degrees to the surface along the edge taking off all the excess resin and nicely squaring the face.



By running the knife about 5mm from the back edge it leaves two glass edges standing upright where the glass cannot come together due to the square edge.



So, there is a perfect standup at the edge, which can be used to infill the back edge with thickened epoxy. No tape needed. Bit worried though. It will not fill and disappear like new glass would, so could leave a mess?

I cannot find the thread but I am sure this is being discussed on the forum at the moment.

Yes, I ran unidirectional kevlar down the back edge of the dagger board ( yes I do have a kevlar fetish, came on as my titanium fetish died down), so will need to run some thickened epoxy down to give me something to sand to. Since the kevlar needs something covering it, I have trimmed the glass down to about 2mm on the dagger and have filled it with thickened epoxy using a 1ml syringe. Leave the rudder blade alone.
Brian

If I am reading it correctly, it works by the joined rope being on both sides of the boom. Pull down the first reef by say pulling the line on the port side of the boom. For the second reef pull the line taught on the starboard side. Very neat.

Not sure how it works ... it looks like one line pulls in the first reef and the other pullsi in both reefs simultaneously.

So if you do a single reef and then the second reef, you have to release the first reef before you can pull in the second as the first it taut already.

So to put in the second reef, you release the cleat for the first and when you pull in the second you have the friction of putting the second reef down and pulling the rope for the first reef back the other way. If the first one cleats itself you won't be able to put the second reef in until you identify the problem.

If I am right, I can't see the point. It does mean you can unreef without undoing two reefing lines, but I think it is better to keep the two systems separate. I have seen too many bits or rigging meant to do two things at once foul up.

My favourite crewman was my friend Al .. who understood that in a crisis
you do the first thing
then the second
then the third
etc.

He seemed to be moving slow, but in every instance everything was carefully sorted out and complete.

Keep systems separate from each other.

Oh and if the piece of rope common to both systems or its cleat lets go .. you lose all your reefing.

Two independent systems.

MIK

The two lines are joined so that when you pull in the first reef with the starboard line,
you don't have excess second-reef line dangling about the place. You don't need to
release reef 1 to pull in reef two on the other side of the boom. Losing either a cam-
cleat or a dead-eye can only allow 1 reef worth of sail loose due to the location of the
join in the line. That would only be a problem if none of the other reefs are tied, & no
back-up is employed. You could do them as completely separately lines if you don't
mind pulling out the slack in the second line when the first reef is installed.

Its purpose is to be able to safely & easily reef the clew from the centre-line of the
boat, even while the sail is off the wind. Having damaged Teal's sail because I couldn't
reef without going ashore due to being unable to heave-to into the wind, and too many
rocks to beach her, I'm inclined to give it a go.

cheers
AJ

I am pleased to be able to report Brian and the Raid41 made it to Beale. An event more suited to those equipped with webbed feet this year which looked to me as though it had unfortunately affected the gate.

A few snaps of her public debut.








At least the downpour proved the floor drains most of the excess water away.

Chris

Probably the only boat with that ability there Chris. Is that one of your canoes next to it?

Aye MIK,

That's the baby of the fleet, it's been very interesting having the two so close to each other.

Back to spend the day chatting - two days down and I still haven't seen much of the show. But that's what it's all about for me.

Chris

Sounds like boatshows for me too!

MIK

Hi guys, just back from the show. The lovely Bolger Chebacco Boat just behind Trim was built by a very nice German lady. And guess what? She just two weeks ago bought plans for Beth! What a small world.

Main news is just how many Goats seem to be being built in the UK. Saturday was Goat day. All day long more news of Goats. Goats in the Raid Caledonia, a Dutch boat, fastest sailing boats in the fleet I was told, a brand new black UK Goat at Morbihan, Goat in Sussex only started at the end of Feb and only tank tops and painting to do. This Goat is already booked for her first race, The Fowey Classic in August!

Have to go for a shower now, three days camping!!!

Brian.

Howdy Brian,

There have not been huge numbers sold in the UK (unless more than I think are buying them from Duckworks) - so that means that most of the plans buyers must be going ahead to build. Which partially explains the lower volumes of plans in the UK. In the USA people buy plans to just have a look.

To have a lot on the way is great! And so many looking like they will be used seriously ... fantastic.

If you run into any again ... find out where they got their plans ... would be interesting to see what is really happening!

MIK

Some snaps from Beale











Brian