Thread: Texas GIS

Yawl, ready to go!

Looks fantastic John! The kids must be jumping out of their skins to go sailing.

The sails look good too. What are the eyelets for along the luff?

We had to cancel our planned launch today. Besides it being cold and blowing a dog off a chain, I broke a tooth in half and have been in agony. Luckily we have a local dentist who opens on Sundays so I could get in to get it fixed.

We'll be trying again tomorrow (Monday) as winds are predicted to be lower at 10-15knots, but the forecast is for some rain. Oh well, we'll see.

Originally Posted by woodeneye

Looks fantastic John! The kids must be jumping out of their skins to go sailing.
The sails look good too. What are the eyelets for along the luff?
.

The eyelets are a mistake. The sailmaker that finished the heavy sewing for me added those since he thought it was lashed on like a sunfish sail. Maybe that was why I gave him pictures and the instructions. They look really stupid and they will be removed at a later date, maybe.

We had a great time sailing today.

GIR gets wet & so does dad!
I started the day stepping onto the boat wrong just as a gust of wind blew the boat. My foot landed on the gunnel with all my 200 pounds of weigh and capsized the boat while tied to dock. It took a while to stop laughing, but we did get the boat bailed out. Glad I got the first capsize out of the way so early.
We started with the sail reefed at the 2nd set of points, while the mizzen was full up. Note that I said we, wife, 2 kids and myself. We built the boat we all went on the first sail. Our launch site is straight into a busy channel with a fast incoming tide so we going to play it safe.
We started to sail with a group of Lasers going upwind and against the current, but we did not have enough sail up to make progress against the tide, so we waved bye to the Lasers. GIR then headed down wind with the current and out into the lake. For downwind sailing we were under powered and guessed the first reef would have been OK for the gusty conditions.
I don’t think anybody has seen a yawl rigged skiff before in these waters based on the waves and thumbs-ups we got. Maybe it was the lime green color, which looks really good on the water.
The kids steered while I handled the main sheet and mizzen. Did I mention it was a great day? The lake had its typical power boat wake waves but we had enough wind to power thru them. I only heard and felt the flat bottom slapping a couple of times, but we were in a lull and it was a big wake. The huge speedboat that created the wake got pulled over by the local sheriff. I have never seen a speed trap on the lake before. The sheriff was hiding behind a bulkhead with radar gun.

We played in the lake sailing upwind, reaching and a little down wind, but it was too hot for much of that. We had gotten use to the boats movements and where ready to try full sail. Worked our way up into an area without much traffic. Sheeted the mizzen tight and dropped the sail. With 4 people on board it was a circus. Son manned the mast, wife sat next the daggerboard, and daughter was at the helm and a brand new and very new & noisy sail tumbled into the boat. We sat for a few minutes to catch our breath and see how the mizzen held us head-to-wind. It did well. I helped rehoist the sail from behind the middle seat.
With full sail I was able to sit on the rail during the heavy gusts, but since we were cruising we all sat on the floor most of the time. We headed back up the channel to the dock, it was so gusty we elected to drop the main and row back to the dock with just the mizzen up. It pushed the boat real well and I only dipped the unfinished oars a few times to control our direction and our last hard turn up to the tee-pier where my daughter stepped off the boat with the bow line and tied us up. No crashing or yelling just perfect.
What a great day.

Awesome all around. Congratulations!

Nice John and kids!!! Yeah! Sailing! Enough building! Time for sailing!!!

Beautiful boat. Were you able to keep the daggerboard down? Mine floated like a cork on steroids (I almost nutted myself when it came flying out), and then we were able to wedge some line in there, but it would still pop up each time we tacked and took some pressure off of it. Wife was on daggerboard duty to keep it down, especially since we ran downwind and had to tack up a narrow stretch to get back. I think some bungee will fix that up nice and provide some tension. No lateral sloppiness, it just wants to float.

Jeez Christophe what'd you use, cork to make that board?

You could also lead a bungee loop from the case logs up and over the top of board. That is what I do on my sailing dinghy.

Oooh, good idea, I was going to wrap around the trailing edge and back up to the front of the case, like the rudder. I loop over the top is a good too. I will decide when I get home later this week.

Hey John, cool to see people recognize. Sailing by the lakehouses people were coming out into the rain on their porches to look at us go by. That was pretty neat. These beautiful New England boathouses with big ugly plastic powerboats, and the inhabitants were coming out to watch. Made me feel good, like I was adding to the aesthetic of the place. I hope it made them feel good too.

Originally Posted by callsign222

Oooh, good idea, I was going to wrap around the trailing edge and back up to the front of the case, like the rudder. I loop over the top is a good too. I will decide when I get home later this week.

Loop around the trailing edge might be better as it allows you to set the board at any depth required.

Congratulations on your succesfull maiden voyage. May the winds be with you in the Texas 200! Boat is looking great in lime green.

By the way, you are not the first one (and probably will not be the last one) capsizing the boat before having set off from the dock.

Best regards,

Joost

I congratulated you, your family and clint here - https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/g...ml#post1166030

Great! Congrats from Poland

Originally Posted by callsign222

Nice John and kids!!! Yeah! Sailing! Enough building! Time for sailing!!!

Beautiful boat. Were you able to keep the daggerboard down? Mine floated like a cork on steroids (I almost nutted myself when it came flying out), and then we were able to wedge some line in there, but it would still pop up each time we tacked and took some pressure off of it. Wife was on daggerboard duty to keep it down, especially since we ran downwind and had to tack up a narrow stretch to get back. I think some bungee will fix that up nice and provide some tension. No lateral sloppiness, it just wants to float.

Took this idea from the Opti sailors around here. I put eyelets on the front face of the middle seat supports one on each side of the daggerboard. The bungee is tied to each eyelet and passes in front of the daggerboard.This pulls the daggerboard aft and puts on enough pressure to keep the board in position. When not in use just push the bungee down so it hooks on the front edge of the daggerboard case.
I do not like the idea of a bungee running from the board to the mast.
1st it gets in the way of my crew
2nd I would get tangled up in it

I also added 2 small blocks of foam inside the aft end of the daggerboard case. This keeps the board from thumping inside of the case. It just makes the boat quieter.