Thread: Ubeaut's Wooden Boat Squadron - SA division

Hey ... it has just started raining at Mount Barker. Is it raining in the city?

10 minutes later ... it has stopped

Ha.

Got out for a bit of a sail ... conditions were pretty blowy ... very touch and go at the beginning of the day.

Cleared up through. Had three boats on the water at different times.

Steven Miller and Rob Badenoch made it down too in civvies.


AJ Pulling a Wake



Me in the pink PDR ... broke the rudder box ... how many times have I told everyone you need the bolt through the tiller to prevent the case from splitting!!!



but luckily ... I had a spare rudderbox ... in fact ... a spare boat!!!



The two boats have a very different sailing style!

Took AJ's out for a quick burn ... in that wind it was a burn too! He has increased the size of the sail and changed over to a balanced lug. He had it reefed right down but the boat was going very nicely with all the added bits.

We all retired to the local thereafter and supped and sipped on hot chips and mostly lemonade, lime and biitterses!

There are a couple more pics in the set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik...7609690268560/

Michael

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Got out for a bit of a sail ... conditions were pretty blowy ... very touch and go at the beginning of the day.

Cleared up through. Had three boats on the water at different times.


AJ Pulling a Wake

Actually, that's MIK pulling a wake in my boat.
With my bulk aboard, Teal makes -much- bigger waves than that !!
("Call that a wake ? Now -this- is a wake...")

Yes it was blowy.
Most of the SA Squadron wer conspicuous by their absences. (Woosses!!)
Steve & Robin came for a look but opted to stay on terra firma.

MIK wouldn't let me sail a PDR. Said I'd break something.
(This was AFTER he'd broken one rudder box....)
Wasn't about to argue.
Reefed Teal before I even bothered hoisting sail.
Smartest thing I've done for a while.
Reefed, I was a bit slower upwind than MIK's PDR.
Downwind, a bit faster. Spars & sail shape unashamedly guesstimated
using data from MIK's PDR lug rig. (Brilliant stuff that !!!)

Not even grinding my teeth when I say it was fun.
It really was. A genuinely pleasing challenge.

Have already decided on the next few tweaks.
1. non-skid floor paint. nearly dumped it or me in the first 10 seconds. Several times
2. tiller extension. so that MIK can sit in the proper spot.
3. toe straps. so I can match PDR upwind as well as down.

Lake depth now measured. Cans will be suitably tethered.

Only 2 down-sides to the whole day really.
More people and boats weren't there.
I really am getting too old & inflexible for Teal.
As the photos show, Teal is a much smaller boat than PDR.
RAID41, here I come ! Yeeee- Haaaaa !!!

cheers
AJ

Originally Posted by b.o.a.t.

Reefed, I was a bit slower upwind than MIK's PDR.
Downwind, a bit faster. Spars & sail shape unashamedly guesstimated
using data from MIK's PDR lug rig. (Brilliant stuff that !!!)

cheers
AJ

haha... my impression of speed was quite the opposite!

I suppose the real answer is to find a day when survival and non breakage is less important and race around those nice buoys you made up AJ!

Find out if your 50% longer boat is really faster downwind.

The Buoys will settle things!

I was really surprised how well your boat went to windward with the reefed sail. Keeping things tidy without saisl flapping around by reefing reduces the drag hugely.

MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

The Buoys will settle things!

And then swap boats just to check variations in weight, experience & technique. ;-)

AJ

Chippy Mick,

Moved your post about the plywood fantail to
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f33/plywood-fantail-trad-looking-85677

MIK

Really sad news chaps,

Robibade - Robin Badenoch - died about 2 1/2 weeks ago after a short recurrence of the cancer he had bounced back from the best part of a year ago.

He basically had 2 weeks warning - a shock to him and his family. Best wishes to Rosemary and their sons.

I only heard last week when I emailed him to see if he was coming to the Goolwa Festival.

He did get the motorboat he was building into the water. It will be staying in the family which is nice.

Lots of us will miss him both online and in reality. A great contributor to Puddle Ducks, Jarcats, the Clayton Bay Boat Club and us crass commercial types Michael Storer Design, Duck Flat, NIS boats and big chunk of a lot of other people's lives too.

I heard that there was a big crowd (and a very diverse crowd) at his funeral.

Thank you so much Rob ... will miss you greatly.







I cannot work out how to post the videos Robin put up on Facebook but if you are a member you can look here http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1059746942648

MIK

www.flickr.com (to keep flickr happy)

Bummer.

Was thinking about you blokes today too whilst pottering about the north end of Westlakes.
Starting to get to an age where more funerals are 'celebrated' than other things.
Not good.

AJ

After an 18 month absence, I decided to test the waters at Clayton Bay today.

Interesting. Forecast = 10kt northerlies. Actual = more... quite a bit more.
T (C) Avg Gust (kts)
18/06:00pm 27.0 WNW 11 -
18/05:30pm 27.4 WNW 11 17
18/04:30pm 27.3 WNW 15 21
18/03:30pm 27.6 WNW 16 23
18/03:00pm 27.6 NW 18 -
18/02:30pm 27.3 NW 15 22
18/01:30pm 28.1 NW 15 22
18/12:30pm 27.5 NW 11 17

Had a leisurely lunch of take-away hot chips & 1/4 cup of coffee from Sails. Up-ended
the other 3/4 cup into the car console while removing sail & spars from where they
get poked into the front passenger footwell. Launched at the jetty & left the car
parked on the sand, about 1.5M below normal water level. Water very salty. Spray
leaves a visible rime of salt on skin when it dries.

They've dredged around the jetty, up to the base of the ramp so that reasonable
sized vessels can launch. Stuffed if I could find a channel from the dredging to the
river. Using Teal's shallow water capability, I scraped my way over the rocks between
various marker buoys several times looking for it. No channel markers anywhere - just
the snag markers around the dredged area. Most odd - dredge around a jetty to
make it useable, but not a channel to access it.
<shrug> someone else's problem. I'm ok, minus a little paint.

Eventually reached the main channel & lowered rudder & daggerboard. Tacked across
at reasonable speed. About to tack back when I hit a rock. Flurry of activity to get
clear. Sheet off, regain seat, rudder up, board up. try to regain main sheet, get
manoevering speed befor running ashore & tack sans dagger board on half rudder.
Tacked back the other way & about 20M short of the channel marker, stopped in mud.
Quickly learnt to give a wide berth to the edges of the channel. Which doesn't leave
a lot of channel to tack in, especially at Point Clayton. In fact, on one tack, I reckon
my dagger board kept kissing the bottom the whole way across. Under-sized board fully
down, Teal only draws about 600mm (24in). Rudder is a bit deeper at about 750mm (30in)
but I had it part raised for much of the day.

Just east of Point Clayton, a couple of blokes from Transport SA were moving channel
markers back into the water. Some of the existing piles are on dry land, many metres
from the water. They were driving piles into water less than a metre deep, which is
why I kept grounding before reaching them earlier. At this point the wind was at its
strongest too. The clew is obviously under a lot of stress & tape was peeling. Should
have stopped & reefed, but couldn't figure a way to do it which didn't mean wading in
knee-deep mud. So I just kept pressing it back together, & not pushing it hard onto
the wind. Only later did I remember that I now have an anchor....

Anyway, after 3 1/2 hrs I'd beaten & flogged & flapped 10.5 channel Km to Goolwa
North, where I managed to get driven onto the lee shore after getting the daggerboard
stuck again. Which how I know the mud is knee-deep... And ran out of time.

Turned and, after sponging out the worst of the mud & shipped spray, had a most
relaxing run back to Clayton in around 55minutes. Couldn't quite get onto the plane,
but made some impressive rolling waves aft. Made the approach to the rock
garden surrounding the dredged area very carefully & across wind, board & rudder up
well in advance, sliding between a gill net marker & a "Snag" buoy. Which turned
out to be the channel... *sigh*

There are a few dings & scratches will need touching up once it all dries out.
Suspect there are quite a few parts where the PDRs would have to partly lift their
boards, even in mid-channel. Apart from that, a pleasant & interesting afternoon.
Might check out east from Clayton next time.

And keep dreaming of / looking for a "perfect" replacement for Teal.
Needs to be 5ft wide or more, weigh next to nothing, sail to wind-
ward in 3 inches of water, & go like the clappers even in light wind.
Also needs comfortable seats, a private dunny & to not scare the missus.

cheers
AJ

Originally Posted by b.o.a.t.

And keep dreaming of / looking for a "perfect" replacement for Teal.
Needs to be 5ft wide or more, weigh next to nothing, sail to wind-
ward in 3 inches of water, & go like the clappers even in light wind.
Also needs comfortable seats, a private dunny & to not scare the missus.

.............ah I know leave the dunny and the missus home and build a PDR 5' wide.

Just a thought

Hmmmm.... fails on the 'go like the clappers' parameter.
And weight.

Been eyeing off Bolgers Instant Catboat, doodling revised deck, interior & rig - use
the designed sail but as a balanced lug on a mast set 18" back from designed.
Or Light Schooner with a de-tuned rig - perhaps a couple of sailboard sails.
Or maybe Radoslaw Werszco's 4M day-boat with a boom & buoyancy boxes. All of
which fail on all counts except light air performance & comfort. I am really hurting today,
from being cramped up in or on Teal for 4 1/2 hours. There's gotta be a better way to
do this !

On the plus side, the new sail on Teal is about right for the boat other than being too
soft where it wraps around the mast. Could also be bigger in light air, but not a lot.
Might have to examine the piggy bank for coin of the realm to get a proper sail made
up.

Message to UWBS - SA div

I was thinking a bit of a regatta down at Goolwa over Easter. Maybe off the aquatic club there is a good beach still plenty of water for some racing or what ever.

Any thoughts perhaps Saturday?

Saturday would be good.
Not sure what beaches are around - a year or so ago, there was a limestone reef
across in front of the jetty & ramp at the Aquacaf. Haven't checked out any of the
rest of it.
cheers
AJ

What's the wind like? My experiences of Goolwa all involve a lot of wind and not necessarily 'nice sailing wind' unless you're young and stupid.

Not a lot of water there. I was there yesterday and it all looks pretty dire. I could have sworn I saw a seagull swimming in the middle of the channel stand up to stretch his legs.

Organise it and I think I should be able to be there. Hmm, I haven't touched Redback since Stansbury last year, do you think I should have a look at here before then?

Mik? Do you reckon I could build one of your rowboats before Easter?

Richard