PadrePoint

I just bumped into this video of how a guy made a tent cover for his sailboat. Very clever, I think, especially the idea of running a tight strap around the hull to provide anchoring for the tent sides. I also spotted another of his videos. I wonder whether this tent might be set up while IN the boat.

Great write up about some great accomplishments. Congratulations, Tom.

Thrillsbe, I’d installed the forward step this spring but I haven’t tried placing the mizzen mast and sail into it yet. Your videos explain a few things I wondered about. My sails don’t wrap around the mast so I’m unsure what to do with the main if I do a switch to mizzen-only while underway. So, I have a few things to try out when I return from a two week vacation.

Reporting on Graham’s “Homework” Assigment Today, I had a chance to be alone on my boat and try things Graham suggested. I’d already learned that I could steer the boat somewhat using only the mainsheet. That was cool to discover that. The wind was 8 mph with gusting. It really was a beautiful sailing day. Using my new iphone app, Waterspeed, I recorded today’s sail track. I wonder what my sailing looked like from shore. I first wanted to see how closely the Norma T could point into the wind. Sometimes it seems like I just don’t get it going toward the wind enough. But, in this series of three tacks, I seemed to get from about 85-100 degrees. That was pleasant to see. Three points: Then, I tried locking the tiller and using the sheets ONLY for steering. Now THAT was interesting and really fun. I haven’t really done much adjusting of the mizzen sheet and I began to realize how much it can impact the boat. After a while of keeping a longer steady course or purposely varying it with the sheets I wondered whether using sheets only I could actually come across the wind to the other tack. Well, give it a try. WOW! It worked. Try a jibe… who hoo! Here are some tacks and jibes using sheets only with a locked tiller… and I even purposely did a few circles. VERY FUN!! So, what would happen if I raised the rudder out of the water? Well, doing that made the boat was a more skittish and… “pivoty” for lack of a better word. The boat would “oversteer” quite easily. I wondered if raising the centerboard halfway would help, and it did. I could control the boat reasonably and still do tacks, jibes, and circles (sometimes accidentally). Even with the centerboard completely up as well as the rudder there was still a capacity to steer. Playing around without a rudder: My wife and I are getting ready for a two week vacation so after a while I needed to head home and put the boat “to bed”. Heading into the dock I used my second mizzen halyard to keep the mizzen sprit and sail out of the way. I’m really glad I added one to each mast. SO, MY HOMEWORK GRADE? I did all my graduate study on a pass/no-pass basis. Since I successfully did all this stuff in today’s “passage” — AND safely got back to shore — I shall give myself a “passing” grade. I’m happy. And, thanks, Graham, for the homework.

A Few Additional Items I’d been thinking about building a bed platform for the rear cockpit area (I brought up the issue in this thread.) Finally, I had the time and inclination to begin. With some measuring, a few “bulkheads” were made from leftover pieces of okume plywood. Those would go across the cockpit, resting on the keel batten and much of the floor, and still allowing water (if there is any) to move along the keel and not pool up. The three bulkheads were screwed together to cut slots for the cross pieces. The first cross piece was cut from the kit’s temporary bulkhead that I had tossed into the attic (until there was some use for it.) When cutting the center cross piece from this plywood, it occurred to me I should cut off a corner to help ease it into place. But, OOPS , I cut the wrong corner. Ok, first, cut off the correct corner. Then, I guess, it’s a little repair to make (the cut-off corner is screwed into place until I epoxy everything… then it will be glued.) Onward. Three cross members were made, again from leftover wood. For setup, I’ll assemble the most aft piece first and then place the rest of the supports. With this approach I won’t need to permanently install rails along the cockpit edge. Now to cut several rectangle shapes for the area between the seats, using leftover plywood pieces from my current boat build. The pieces are weird shapes but I got three of the four pieces this way. BUT, the fourth piece will need to be cut from a new full sheet. (Trivia… I bought the wood for my current ski-boat build from B&B and to get the plywood fitting into my van for transport home I had Alan cut little squares that fit around my van seat’s mounting pylon… Alan hoped “I wouldn’t rue the day” with those notches, but things have worked out as I planned.) So, I now have a bed platform available for Norma T. The disassembled pieces fit nicely into the smaller forward cockpit space nestled up to the centerboard trunk. I’ll add little lips to three of the platform pieces to make them fit together more securely and I’ll epoxy coat everything… later. Very little wood was left over from this project that was fashioned out of my boat-build scraps. I love using up wood that I purchased. While being such a busy beaver, I did a couple other little jobs that I wanted to get at. First, I had picked up a strap-type boarding ladder that needed some way to attach securely to the transom. Since I sometimes lean my back onto the transom when a lot of people are aboard, I didn’t wasn’t a metal hook or eye sticking out. I ran some rope through a piece of 18 mm ply (the darker wood) and then bolted the wood to the transom. The ladder is easily stored away and can be quickly attached for sailing… in case it’s needed. I’ll try it out… someday. My third little task was to create a one inch spacer to raise off the thwart my alternative mainsheet camcleats. The riser makes it much easier to set the line into the cam cleat. I really like having these additional cleats for a passenger to use when managing the mainsail while sitting in the front cockpit… or when I am sailing solo and sitting right behind the mizzen thwart (that way, I don’t need to reach behind me to adjust the mainsheet in the original cleats along the inwales.) A few more little building tasks are now done… well, except to epoxy the bed platform pieces. Perhaps yet this year, I will try out the bed platform with an overnight on board.

Rowing must be done gently… and upstream… and with a merry attitude. I’m not so sure I’d have a sufficiently merry attitude about rowing, especially since I’d make a motor part of the whole thing (and, it’s a great looking motor well in the photos.) And if I had to row (as a backup) because my motor was not WORKING… well, merry I would not be. Just saying.

An All-Day Sailing Event My local sailing club enjoyed a 5 mile Poker race yesterday in which each boat member could grab a playing card from each of five bouys set along the way. The winds were great and mostly behind us for a quick sail. We rafted up for lunch while the wind shifted to again be mostly at our backs for the return trip. It’s like it was arranged. Good connections. The race back consisted of six legs and a “rabbit” start. Each bouy was a “finish/start line”. The last boat across the line kept moving forward and became the leader of the next race leg. All other boats used that crossing as their start (an interesting and enjoyable way to do it.) A non-sailor joined me for the event, working the mainsail on the way up the lake and the tiller/mizzen on the way back. The two of us novices somehow managed to win one leg on the return trip and placed sixth of seven overall. The participants then joined up at a local bar and grill for supper and “poker hand” taking of prizes. It was a GREAT DAY and a great sail. I put together a little video:

A member of the sailing club sent me this photo of my wife and me, joined by my son’s family. I’m amazed how comfortably the CS15 seems with four adults and a couple kids.

Roller Bunks, Revisited In a short while after installing the new roller bunks onto my trailer, I decided that the wood I used (previous post) made things too high. So, I took things apart again and drilled holes into the steel brackets to make the roller bunks directly attached (without wood.) I still wanted to make the steel channel iron that supports the rollers match the bottom curve of the boat rather than simply rely on a single roller to bear all the weight (the channel iron was straight.) THAT took some doing, to bend the channel iron enough in a number of places to produce a curve and keep it when the pressure was released. A few different approaches finally yield enough force to permanently bend the steel and I believe I accomplished (enough) of what I was trying to do. An old clamp of mine didn’t make it. But, the roller bunks are at a better height now. AND, the boat just rolls off the trailer at the landing.

Paul raised a good point with his Duckworks motor mount. I’d been thinking about this for quite a while, and a few days ago, I decided to give it a go… drilling a couple holes into the bottom of the rods to add a couple more hitch pins for security. I really thought the steel of the rods would simply resist my drilling attempts. (I’m not much of a metals guy.) A little persevering did the trick and, I think, has improved the motor mount.

I’m sticking with the motor I got for the boat I’m building. (The “fossil-fuel” motor was installed today.)

The Motor is On!! The marina guy is starting to install the controls, gauges, lights, drains, electric stuff, and bulge pump… finally.

Still Waiting for Pink Paint The Wheezer, and her dad, have been trying to get an auto painter to paint the Spindrift 10. Some arrangements fell through; others haven’t returned the calls. As I understand, she has finally locked in a painter… fairly soon, perhaps. She has been busy all summer (including a two-week YMCA kayak cruise in the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior, which included some sailing time) and is now back in school. Meanwhile, I volunteered to install the hardware on her mast and boom. And, to hold the three mast sections, sail, and perhaps more, my wife sewed up a pink bag… just for fun.

Maybe that’s what makes for my sub-par sailing skills. ?

Jay, The magnitude of this project (and plenty of others) always astounds me. Thanks for the update. Hoping to be at October’s Messabout.