Spring update

Spring is finally here, and while we've not had much nice sailing weather, it's time to get ready for the season. Building the middle section of the boat was only a fraction of the work that is required to actually sail it. I really want to try sailing a two masted boat, so I plan to use two laser rigs. One will go in the mast step and partner that I used in the 16' boat, and another will go in a new step and partner somewhere in the middle section. So I've made those, and another mast extension.

The spare step is so I can rig the boat with a single sail, for when it's really windy.

As we capsized a few times last year, and the drain pipe didn't have enough buoyancy to support us, I've built a 'safety ama'. This will slip onto the ends of the beams on the side opposite the existing ama. It won't touch the water unless we're about to capsize. It's made from a single 8x4' sheet of 6mm exterior ply and should have over 200 litres of buoyancy. The edges are all covered in glass tape and epoxy. It would have been much easier to build if only the bottom was cuved, but I've curved the 'outside' too. This meant that the beam sockets had to stick out, and one seam has a tricky double curve but I think it looks better and heopfully there will be less slamming and splashing when it hits a wave. Here it is, in front of the rest of the boat, which has spend the winter stacked up in my garage.

Also in the photo is the modified steering oar - I've removed half of one side to make it more balanced. That might sound wrong but the centre of pressure of an aerofoil is 25-33% back from the leading edge. It may need a bit more off because it sits at an angle in the water. It probably also needs to be about a meter longer and have a thicker shaft but I want to get the blade shape right before building another. Another minor improvement is some proper rowlocks for the steering oar. The 'two peg system' I used last year limited the steering angle and nearly broke a few times.

Next to the steering oar is a paddle - I had been using paddles that I made (rather crudely) a few years ago for children in Optimists but they were a bit short, had small blades and had been left out in all weathers. This one might be too big, but like the steering oar, I can always cut it down.

A longer boat needs a longer trailer. I'd picked a trailer that used a scaffold pole for it's spine, so it was relatively easy to fit a longer pole. I say 'relatively' because while it's easy to buy scaffolding on-line, the postage on a 21' steel pole is ten times the price of the pole - no wonder they sell them in packs of 100! Eventually I found a local company who would sell me one of theirs and deliver it when they were passing - thanks Worth Scaffolding! The diagonal braces were looking a little rusty, so I replaced them with some much beefier scaffold tubes that will also support a wooden bearer for the boat. Here's a picture of it as we were building it, looking comicly out of proportion due to our camera's wide angle lens.

Another 'little' job was extending the boat cover - unpicking about 5 meters of stitching and sewing a new panel in the middle. Now I'm just waiting for a few odds and ends and we're ready to get back on the water.