Thread: GIS Build in New Jersey, USA

Ouch! Instant and unexpected inspection ports! As the others have said, its better it wasn't your head and that you were on dry ground still. My kids are continuously climbing over my OzRacer and I'm amazed they haven't put a hole in it when they thumb it with the offcuts they find around the garage. I think Mik has stuff on his website about patching holes like that .. Koala put a hole in his Eureka and I think Mik had some great solutions. Unfortunately you can't completely hide a patch in bare wood.

That is one weird accident, Dave. I have dropped my yard all sorts of times-- the angle of the dangle must've been just perfect. I guess the downhaul could have been an accelerant but the boom would have dropped dragging the peak down and raising the throat, I think... I'm no physics guy so what do I know. Good luck.

FKNA good looking boat under the trees, it's absorbs those gentle green colors and looks wood spritey.

Christophe, we saw at SRR that your yard is much better behaved on the way down than mine (or, I suspect, Dave's).

Mine tends to invert itself and come down like a spear, peak-end first, terrifying anyone beneath it and threatening to poke a hole in the bottom. I'd never be able to just let go of the halyard and trust it to fall gently into the boat the way I've seen you do.

I wish I knew what the difference was. Slippery halyard? Slippery mast? Halyard attached at the perfect balance point?

All I know is that, if my halyard cleat let go the way Dave's did, it would be a BIG problem.

My yard drops smoothly, neither end first - pretty flat. I wonder what the difference is? I read about this in another forum concerning a different boat design that used a balanced lug yard, and they solved the problem by attaching a line that goes all the way to the peak from the masthead.

edit - I read the part where you had the whole thing under tension. wild. Btw, your boat looks beautiful.

Originally Posted by paulie

Christophe, we saw at SRR that your yard is much better behaved on the way down than mine (or, I suspect, Dave's).

Mine tends to invert itself and come down like a spear, peak-end first, terrifying anyone beneath it and threatening to poke a hole in the bottom. I'd never be able to just let go of the halyard and trust it to fall gently into the boat the way I've seen you do.

I wish I knew what the difference was. Slippery halyard? Slippery mast? Halyard attached at the perfect balance point?

All I know is that, if my halyard cleat let go the way Dave's did, it would be a BIG problem.

Maybe it's the weight of FrankenBoom?

Paulie, do you release the downhaul before dropping the mast, so the rig swings forward a bit? (Bleater would negate this)

Originally Posted by callsign222

Paulie, do you release the downhaul before dropping the mast, so the rig swings forward a bit? (Bleater would negate this)

I use a bleater and so the boom does not swing forward, whether or not I release the downhaul first. The more I think about it, the more it seems to be either a balance problem or a sticky halyard problem. It definitely pivots around some point up there. But I don't know if it pivots around the halyard attachment point (balance issue) or around the point where the halyard goes around the mast (sticky halyard issue). All I know for sure is that, once it pivots, it really wants to come down peak first.

When I re-rig the boat next spring, I may try shifting the sail on the yard so that the yard's center of mass is further forward. If that doesn't help, I'll have to assume it's the halyard.

Originally Posted by paulie

I use a bleater and so the boom does not swing forward, whether or not I release the downhaul first. The more I think about it, the more it seems to be either a balance problem or a sticky halyard problem. It definitely pivots around some point up there. But I don't know if it pivots around the halyard attachment point (balance issue) or around the point where the halyard goes around the mast (sticky halyard issue). All I know for sure is that, once it pivots, it really wants to come down peak first.

When I re-rig the boat next spring, I may try shifting the sail on the yard so that the yard's center of mass is further forward. If that doesn't help, I'll have to assume it's the halyard.

I bet it is a center of gravity of the yard and sail issue. My yard comes down slightly peak up.

Been meaning to ask about the halyard going around the mast setup. I've stopped doing that as it makes hoisting the sail much more difficult. I sweat the halyard tight against the deadeye and it seems to be controlling the yard fine. Only downside I see is that the yard flies around a bit more during hoisting but that has not caused a problem. Am I missing some reason to go back the the halyard around the mast setup?

What about when reefed? How do you keep the yard near the mast on starboard tack with a reef in?

Sent from my cell. Please excuse brevity and typos.

Originally Posted by paulie

What about when reefed? How do you keep the yard near the mast on starboard tack with a reef in?

Sent from my cell. Please excuse brevity and typos.

Ha good point, I have not reefed in months. That's summer sailing in FL. Would have discovered this next time I reef, thanks for saving me the trouble of learning the hard way.

Well, don't be so quick to re-rig your halyard just yet. It might work fine. Before I rigged my bleater, I didn't use any kind of lashing between mast and boom. The halyard/downhaul tension was enough to keep the boom near the mast. The same might be true of the yard.

IMG_1054.jpg
Owner, builder, sailor Dave about to embark...

IMG_1055.jpg
Brother Rick, Captain of the sailing vessel Flor D'Luna, returning from pit stop at rest area 100 miles later...

There are more photos to come but they reside on OPCs (Other Peoples' Cameras). The stories to accompany them will have to wait until there is photographic proof.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Storerboat aficionados around the world, I humbly submit photographic evidence that I did indeed build a Goat Island Skiff and that it did indeed float on water and sail before the wind!
(I do, however, have to apologize for the tiny photos. I'm confident that my dear and esteemed father actually has full sized images but is technologically challenged enough that he transmitted to me some sort of thumbnails or something. Or when given the choice, he selected the smallest number of kilobytes possible because he remembers too well having to push data through a dial-up modem. I will replace these pics with real ones soonest.)

This weekend I trailered my Goat for several hundred miles to the lake that inspired me to build it, Lake St. Catherine in Vermont. Admittedly, it is not fully complete. But I work in a world where 70% on time beats 100% late and so I present to you the sea trials of PROJECT: ARMY BRAT*.

IMG_1028.jpg
Yours truly after successful transportation.

IMG_1044.jpg
At the boat ramp.

IMG_1050.jpg
Dipping in.

IMG_1073.jpg
Stepping the mast away from shore.

IMG_1079.jpg
Hoisting the main.

IMG_1083.jpg
Fishing around for the mainsheet. I don't think I've trimmed the downhaul yet.

IMG_1088.jpg
Underway in light air, 3-5 kts, with the occasional puff. I Have no tiller extension yet, so forgive my position aft.

This is only a sea trial (sounds better than lake trial) to ensure all functional systems function. Many details remain unfinished including a tiller extension and hiking straps. I learned the hard way just how necessary they are when the winds picked up now and then and I scrambled to get on the rail. I considered doing a capsize drill and neven dressed for the occasion. But this event was only one of many on the family's agenda and I decided that it wasn't critical at this juncture.

*Unfortunetly, I did not have assembled the appropriate audience of family and friends so I did not conduct a proper and formal introduction to Neptune. That will occur in the spring and her name will be revealed. Until then she will carry the pre-production code name, Army Brat (thanks go out to Paulie).

You did it Dave, well done!

Just wondering why you chose upside down for trailering? If you back up to the water so that the wheels are just above the waterline, the GIS can be happily slid off the back and into the water. Retrieval in the opposite way works well too, even in shallow water.