Thread: GIS Project in Finland

1. The center board can apparently be made both from solid wood and from plywood. It is said that the performance will be less with plywood. Is this only because of the length or is also the thickness having any impact?

Half the plies of plywood are across the board, with no strength at all against the sideways stress. Therefore the board would have to be much thicker than specified for solid wood. It might break unless heavily reinforced with glass or carbon cloth. make sure that you make the board before the case so that the case can be made to fit with the right gap so the board doesn't get stuck.

I am mostly asking as it might be easier to get the right profile with plywood as you have those gluing lines to follow as they are becoming visible, and you will see even with your eye if it is not straight. The price difference is still that small that whatever is better, I will pick.

2. I have all chances to get any shape and quality of following kind of woods: Spruce, pine, birch, ash, oak, maple and aspen. What is best to use out of those. I have been thinking to replace in the plans:
1. Oregon with Spruce
2. WRC with Pine
3. Hardwood with Ash or Birch (I have pretty much of own ash already, from what is left over from the flooring in my new house)
Is this OK, or will I end up in trouble?

I used "furu", Scots or Norway pine (tall) wood as the softwood and for spars. It is nice and straight-grained and few knots. Ash would glue with epoxy better than red oak.

Originally Posted by engblom

Instead of asking one question here and there, I decided to create an own thread for my future project.

At this very moment I am not having a chance to build the GIS, but I want to do as much planning as possible so I have nothing to ask when I finally get to build.

Here comes some questions immediately:

1. The center board can apparently be made both from solid wood and from plywood. It is said that the performance will be less with plywood. Is this only because of the length or is also the thickness having any impact?

Strongly recommend real wood. The ply ones seem to be much less reliable ... but the timber with glass over is so strong for the loads that it can be considered indestructible.

I am mostly asking as it might be easier to get the right profile with plywood as you have those gluing lines to follow as they are becoming visible, and you will see even with your eye if it is not straight. The price difference is still that small that whatever is better, I will pick.

The template takes care of the shaping and changing from planing to sanding means that you don't make mistakes.

2. I have all chances to get any shape and quality of following kind of woods: Spruce, pine, birch, ash, oak, maple and aspen. What is best to use out of those. I have been thinking to replace in the plans:
1. Oregon with Spruce

Perfect.

2. WRC with Pine

If the spruce you can get is lighter then that is better. The lightest possible wood for all the framing.

3. Hardwood with Ash or Birch (I have pretty much of own ash already, from what is left over from the flooring in my new house)
Is this OK, or will I end up in trouble?

Perfect again. YOu might need to consider colour too.

Michael

Bad luck!!! Today I was a few minutes late from owning an e-scow as a temporary solution until I have a GIS. Somebody needed really badly to sell it today, and sold one for just 200 EUR with a lot of sails and all equipment. It would have been a good temporary solution that would even pay a bit of the costs of the GIS when sold again.

Well, back to the planning of my future GIS... I have been thinking to use this image as decoration together with the name of the boat: http://www.wildlife-fantasy.com/artwork/goat.jpg, if I just get permission from the artist. I would be happy if somebody, with a good eye for colours, could suggest colours for my future GIS. I will paint everything including the mast to get even less maintaining than what varnish gives and to avoid problem from UV. I am open to all suggestion and I will probably test it by painting a GIS on the computer. I have a bit been thinking to go with red and white... but I still do not know if that will be best. also I wonder if I would need a third colour.

One more question that came to my mind: I have read somewhere (maybe at somebody's blog or here) that a bit more stiff spars are good. Is it a good idea to make them hollow too with a bit extra thickness on the height, or is it just unnecessary extra work? I can get boards in any dimension to glue together (even non-standard dimensions)

Goats come in all colors. This is one of the things I like best about them. Most "class" boats are all the same color, except maybe for their spinnakers. BORING! But Goats are all finished slightly differently, painted a profusion of bright colors, and finished with custom decals and flourishes. Makes for a much more interesting sight when 2 or 3 get together.

So play around with different colors on your computer and go with what you like best. Just avoid dark colors on the top surfaces. They get hot in the sun.

Originally Posted by engblom

One more question that came to my mind: I have read somewhere (maybe at somebody's blog or here) that a bit more stiff spars are good. Is it a good idea to make them hollow too with a bit extra thickness on the height, or is it just unnecessary extra work? I can get boards in any dimension to glue together (even non-standard dimensions)

Hi ... generally people are moving to more stiff yards and much stiffer booms and use the boom only attaching the sail at the front and back, not in the middle.

You can see the data the Goat Island Skiff Group has collected on the WIKI page.
WIKI for setting up and tuning Lug and Sprit Rigs | Michael Storer Wooden Boat Plans

Everything works OK as standard and perhaps in more gentle for the sailor and is the cheapest and simplest way. However if you are already a good sailor I would probably recommend making those changes when you build.

Best wishes
Michael

Okay, here comes a difficult question: What is better for the mast itself: spruce or pine?

Spruce has the advantage to be much lighter than pine, but it is also bending quite easily, so I wonder if a hollow square spruce mast is about the same stiff as a pine bird-mouth mast.

I guess my alternatives are:
1. Pine bird-mouth mast. (Spruce is probably too soft)
2. Spruce hollow square mast.
3. Pine hollow square mast.

The difficult thing is to pick the one that has just exactly the right softness to take some strong gusts, but still stiff enough that it does not hurts performance.

It does not really matter how good sailor I am at this moment... It is also about what I will become, and I do not want to redo all the spars. I know all basics about sailing, but will do the eternal fine-tuning of the skills once I have my own boat. I will probably also a bit compete with other people sailing around.

How is it with battens? The plan mentions them, but nothing about how many and where they should be placed. Do they give more performance or not?

Howdy,
That's an easy answer!

The mast is very strong so using spruce is fine. Spruce will work well with square hollow standard mast or with the optional birdsmouth round mast.

Michael

Originally Posted by engblom

How is it with battens? The plan mentions them, but nothing about how many and where they should be placed. Do they give more performance or not?

Pretty much everyone I know has gotten rid of full-length battens, assuming they ever had them to start with. Too much trouble and not enough performance gain, if any.

Some sails are cut with a curve in the leech (trailing edge). Those need short battens (< 500mm) to keep that edge from curling or flapping.

Maybe MIK can explain when the full-length battens would be helpful. I still have mine somewhere.

A few questions about the mast:

1. Without taking into consideration the amount of work, which mast would you prefer between the hollow square mast and the bird-mouth mast?

2. Why is the first spacer cut in an angle for the square mast? Should the same be done for the bird-mouth mast?

EDIT: I found the answer to question 2 in the text of the plan. The answer gave me one question more: The text says to turn the mast that no bend is sideways. Imagine you managed to get it straight, in what direction should the angled cut be? Forward of backward?