wwentz

I bought this handmade boat about 10 years ago, but haven't sailed it for five years due to advancing age (my own, not the boat's). Stored in a dry garage since purchase. A sweet boat to sail, responsive to the lightest breeze, holds up well to gusts. Good sound condition, epoxy cloth and paint over marine ply, blue and white. Philippine mahogany brightwork and wheel. Registry is current with Oregon Marine Board. Good suit of sails, good sweeps, bumpers. On EZ Loader trailer. Boat has a custom cradle to hold the boom & folded mast firmly while towing, Strong, ingenious socketed hinge on mast butt. Includes spare mast, jibsail and emergency tiller, mahogany stock for carving. First $550 takes it all. E-mails to watw@teleport.com

Thanks to all you fine folks who answered my first posting, I completed conversion of the Figment from tiller to wheel today. I incorporated a LOT of your ideas. Also had to do a bit of innovating, since the builder had modified the stern by removing the vertical sternpost and replacing it with a 2x6 bolted flat to the stern. So I modified the plans by making a rudder box that slants to follow the sloping stern, but with a blade that is "bent" to point straight down. It is also a kick-up, loaded with a bungee so as to lift up if it hits something solid, rather than just tearing the stern off, as the old one would have (anyone wanting a FREE used rigid rudder, all fir and heavy as lead, just contact me and pay the freight!). As usual, I overbuilt... the box is glued, screwed, through-bolted in three places and a bit more robust than plans call for. The rudder blade pivots on a half-inch stainless bolt, running in bronze bushings glued through the wood. Since the rudder box swings on an inclined axis rather than a vertical one, this would cause the end of the stub tiller to move in an up-and-down arc as it was moved across, so the stub tiller also had to be made to pivot to keep it level. So I mounted it on a single 3/8 stainless bolt, also running in bronze bushings. The wheel itself is one of those purty little jobs from eBay (I can't make a really nice one with my simple tools), mounted on a 3/4-inch shaft (bronze bushings naturally) and I stretched a section of bicycle innertube over the steel shaft to give solid purchase to two or three turns of the rudder rope. I didn't have to cut any more lazarette holes, as I had feared... but I think I did develop several new joints in my arms while working through the original lazarette, repeatedly shortening the (pre-stretched) rope and tinkering with the turnbuckle. At any rate, the whole shebang works like a charm... the wheel makes three turns from stop to stop, which is about what I wanted... and it's all thanks to your helpful advice. Good show, all! Walt Weekender Figment :wink:

Now you mention it, a cutter rig would look good too, as well as generating more power and probably causing less potenmtial problems aloft. I'll pump you for more ideas on adding sail later. But, for the moment, I'm icorporating some of the ideas in the steering/rudder assembly, which I hope to have complete and installed by weekend. Thanks! Walt

Ooo-kay! Thanks, folks! All this stuff is tremendously helpful! The idea of the pivot on top of the stub tiller is alone worth the price of admission, and should simplify that linkage considerably. I can see I'm going to have to cut a couple more small lazarettes to mount the steering cable blocks, but that's not a biggie. Better than trying to train a mongoose to work in that cramped transom space. The idea for the gaff topsail is still very much in abeyance. Granted, it would be a pretty small sail for the effort expended. I can think of three ways to do it, all bad... so, for the moment, first order of business is to get the new mast and rudder installed, and get the old Figment back in the water. Regards, Walt :wink:

'Hoy, all: After daydreaming about it for decades, I finally got my first sailboat... a Weekender... from the guy who built it. Now that I'm retired and have more time to get into it, I can see how he started a careful workmanlike job and got sloppier and more hurried as he finished it off... but hey, it's the first boat I've bought, I'm just a learner. He made several modifications to the design, which I am now correcting as I go along. For one thing, he put a long, gawky tiller on it, which just gets in the way, and a gawdawful one-piece rudder which actually points forward to scoop up any flotsam you hit! I'm installing a wheel, but don't know exactly how it links to the kick-up rudder I'm building. I was going to do a gearbox with bicycle gearwheels and cables going through slots to an external rudder-horn, but apparently the original design was much simpler, involving rope and roller. I haven't seen any drawing, however. Anyone have any help on that? Also, since the local reservoir is surrounded by hills and often has light airs, I was pondering installing a demountable, hinged spar to carry a small gaff-topsail for light-wind sailing. Has anybody else tried this? Thanks for reading, Walt :?: