Rob Blackburn

On my first masts I simply drilled a hole and put the rope through before I glued the bottom plug in and then left it wrapped around the mast. This irritated me badly as it was always in the way. Plan B is to simply tie it to the horn cleat that I use for the downhaul and wrap it back around about 6 times until it gets towards the bottom and then through the clam cleat. The other idea I had was to drill the hole in the new masts and put a rope in with a sister clip or a bowline loop poking out on a 2cm tail to keep it out of the way. But, in reality the nature of our sailing is such that your original advice rings loud that if you put the mizzen in the middle hole, you can take on most things. It definitely worked but you end up with the same situation as the mizzen alone don't you? ie less sail and a balanced boat. We have also just put the main away quite often and sailed with mizzen alone in the back hole. This is fine up to 90 deg to the wind I reckon so if it is nasty you tend to run or reach for safety anyway. Rob ps. how is the election affecting all you guys? If you are like me you want it over.

We did the luff sails and did vertical roller reefing. http://homepage.mac.com/blackburns/Expeditions/PhotoAlbum89.html The little clam cleat behind each mast is used to stop the rig rotating against the wind of the sail. The hole in the sail about 30% back from the luff pocket is used to tie off the snotter. The sail does not set as well obviously but at that point you don't care really. In my humble opinion the best reef is to move the mast. I love the boat with only one mast going as it is sooooo stable and relaxed. In our 20 by yourself, two sails in any sort of breeze is too much power for comfortable sailing. Simply move the mast and away you go. Another adult on board and it stiffens dramatically. Rob

If you did turn turtle the other thing to do is let the masts fall out. They are then tied on with the sheets and would still hang around. This would allow you to get the boat up, undo the sails, roll them up and bail the boat with a large Master and Commander style mess tied to the side. You would then take a deep breath and plan your next move or open the spirit locker for a fortifying serve of rum. I tie mine down to the deck with a 10mm shock cord with an adjustable sail tie on it to tension it up tight. I have put a piccie of the ones here. Not too clear but you get the picture. This gives you a quick and easy safety mechanism ie quickly tie them down if you are going out in deep water but otherwise I don't bother as the thing is very stable particularly with a big load on board. Also you don't have to drill a hole at the masts most stressed point and it allows you to quickly reef by rolling up the sail on the mast. Rob [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

Do you have any shots of the boat on the water underway or even a profile of it on the trailer from 20 yards back? It does look huge. After my recent trip my kids would have given a finger for a cabin. Rob

I do wonder if this is a bit sort indulgent and my wife would say obessive... but as I like to waste time at work looking at other peoples boating photos I would be remiss in not putting ours up. http://homepage.mac.com/blackburns/FRASER_04/PhotoAlbum81.html I have left out the repetitive ones but this is a fair summary of the week. Rob

We used a water based polyurethane clear that is terrific. You have to add so many drops of cross linker to the stuff and stir and then paint on. Looks terrific and apparently it is almost safe enough to drink. We have 4 coats of epoxy and then 4 coats of this stuff on top. Rob

We could do a boat swap like a house swap? I would love to sail around Auckland. Rob

The mizzen sheets do get tangled up in the motor at times but I can't see a way around that. I would prefer to be out there untangling the gear stick than sitting at work... if you know what I mean. Having done time before the mast on a Laser(sic), you get into the habit of checking the sheet after you tack, the good thing being the fact that you won't capsize this boat as a consequence of your inattention. I actually get more tangles from the two cleats I bought for the stern. They annoy the hell out of me as the sheets will tangle on them before the motor. I have since seen ones that click up and down to avoid this. The bit I really enjoyed on the trip was sailing the boat with only the mizzen in the centre hole. It really went well and took any urgency out of the sailing. We came back from some big sand cliffs with a gusty NE wind and had a very relaxed sail, still averaging about 75-80% of the speeds we would have got. You could have done better with a big hairy crew and both sails but with the kids it was a dream. Also went out with Alex one afternoon and got 7.4 (GPS) on a reach in a strongish breeze. Really efficient. It was funny actually as a bloke and his wife watched us take a mast out and move the other from his yacht and on our way back he called us over to discuss it. It turned out he used to live in the next street about 8 yrs ago. Small world etc but it was still amazing. We then bought a cook book off them as that seems to be all they are doing now.. sailing and researching a cook book for sailers who have no fridge or oven but do have a pressure cooker. Rob

We have returned from our family whale watching expedition having set a new world record for the amount of stuff that a CS 20 can carry. http://homepage.mac.com/blackburns/Expeditions/PhotoAlbum80.html When I packed the yoghurt maker at the harbour I knew we were in with a chance for the title but the final clue was the amount of tinned spaghetti that we brought back. Don't anyone ever ask the question... Can a CS 20 take my family and camping gear. Had a great time, got close to the whales and the camping was good and the boat was terrific.. eliciting favourable comment from all and sundry. No credit to me, the designer and builder should bow. We came home on a 15-20knot NWester and the final broad reach was at 6.0-7.5knots with all the gear and the family. We had a 5.25 hour broad reach. You only dream of such stuff. Shall put the photos in order and put them up in a day or two when I catch up. Rob

It is a bit hard getting onto the computer here at home due to ebay mania but here is the piccies of the dodger/tent I like the look of. http://homepage.mac.com/blackburns/Expeditions/PhotoAlbum78.html It is in 2 parts which I like the look of and looks simple enough. What always puzzles me is how to attach it to the boat without buggering up the look of the boat with lots of ordinary deck fittings. I was thinking you could get some small polished stainless fittings made to screw onto the coaming lip which you could have all the sharp edges rounded off. Then the hoops for the tent end would go in OK. But at the front with the dodger the only stuff I have seen is that used on speed boats and is big and clunky looking. Could be a business opportunity. My latest project is a solar panel with gel batteries (off ebay of course) installed in a ply box with cigarette lighter plugs and a regulator to run the flouros at "base camp", air bed pump, chargers etc. A couple of Chinese hurricane lamps would be cheaper but you know how it feels when you have some sort of obsessive disorder... Rob

I have just started on this for my CS 20 and have a photo at home on the computer I will send you. It is from the inside cover of this months Watercraft magazine and shows a cat ketch with a really good looking spray dodger and detachable cockpit cover that sort of continues up on gradually increasing hoop sizes if you can understand me.. Shall do it tonight. Good luck with the boat. We are off up to Fraser Island on thursday in ours for one week of camping and whale watching. Rob

sigh... 34. Rob

Graeme, what number CS am I ? Everyone else has their number on their postings but I don't know mine.... I feel sort of left out. Rob

Can I make an observation... The coaming would have to be 4 foot high to keep the spray out. Going to windward it comes over and lands from the front corner back to the thwart. The skipper seems to be spared the worst in our boat. It is not a dry boat. The kids and the wife all have new raincoats. And in our boat Eric put EXTRA laminated Jarrah deck beams in and I can still feel the deck move under my 190 pound weight as I hold up the mast to put it in the hole. So at 275lbs plus your beany on your noggin you would want MUCH more than the plan allows for unless you were to laminate the deck ply maybe. Rob

This is weird. I was looking at that picture in Wooden Boat too and thinking.... I often have the main to windward and forward of the main mast on a deep reach and find it works well. It is like that obsession in Laser sailing of sailing by the leach downwind... tricky to do to the last 1%. Having had a Norwalk Island Sharpie I was thinking that that would be a heavy boat to hold all that up in the breeze. I think the CS hull shape is far more efficient and driven easier. Our masts are all finished and we are off this weekend for the first test. Something else will break next time as these masts are not coming down. Rob

We had our CS 20 built by Eric Sanberg here in Oztralia and it was a very enjoyable experience. Much like living in a Wooden Boat article for 6 months. I had planned to do the finishing work... mentally to justify the expenditure I suppose but in the end he just kept going. Took 350 hours all up. From start to launch day. And that included all the other stuff.. Getting the stainless fittings made right through to painting fairing etc. I did about 3% I reckon. Originally Eric thougth 200 hours but that was just the hull building. And we altered a bit and added extra in places so there seemed to be the correct amount. For my 2 bobs worth, do it now before the terrorists or the old folks home gets you. Rob

Turns out that we have bent the main mast as well. It did not come down but has a bulge on the leeward side and has a 5-10deg kink. So off to replace that tomorrow. Pity I did not start out with the you beaut tempered alloy but then how dull would it all be if things worked perfectly. Spent the weekend helping Col over the road convert his sloop rig dory into a junk rig dory. Should be interesting... Rob ps. we are wondering if the web is populated by dreamers who are seriously outside of all the boxes you read about in the paper. What box are we in?

I have to be really honest in that we broke the mast. It did not break itself. That might sound funny but 4 big blokes, a big black gust on the water and no letting off on anything is what did it. I think the other factor was that as we drove up into the gust we would have increased the apparent wind further as we had been on a broad reach. Do you think the lesser temper alloy will eventually break further up.? ie should I replace the whole bloody thing? or will the thicker bottom and sleeving do? R.

Well, I remember at the time that I rang 4 different suppliers, one in Brisbane and none could help... So if it is here it must be well hidden. I have the new 80mm x 3mm wall here with the 63mm for a sleeve. So I guess I will know soon enough. How much stronger will the 3mm be compared to the 2mm one? Can you work that out? Rob

Did someone say CS 30... Now that is worth workshopping... How would it be laid out? Rob

Not going to use the wood plug but some 65mm 2mm aluminium tube with some collars turned up and slipped over and glued to give it the right diameter. Thinking of 4 collars over 1.8m or so? Rob

Well the bottom sections are 80mm x2mm T5 6060 extrusion. The new section is the same but 3mm and are going to put a sleeve in it to about 1.8m.... Also going to do the same for the main mast I reckon. I guess we run with this as it is all we can readily get and if we break it again shall look at it then.. Rob

Hello again, I will get the data on the alloy from my mate the "welder" who got it for me today if possible. At the time I remembered a discussion on the group about various grades and I think the one wanted was "T5?" or something but we could not get it here. Somebody posted the fact that alloy tempered itself over time and got harder I think. Either way we broke it but will get all that today in town. I am also going into the sailing club to look at my Laser as I suspect it's lower mast section has a liner in it too. I have been thinking about it a bit and am wondering if an aluminium liner might not be lighter. If you can't get one to fit neatly inside you could lathe up from hardwood some "donuts" to slide over the ends to make it a closer fit. I also wonder if this would not be a result of fatigue over time but then it is not that old but then boats the world over drop masts so it is not too significant I don't reckon. At the end of the day we were having so much fun and the boat was going so well that we will probably do it again so shall have to be prepared. Tom asked how fast were we going.. well I dont' know but the thing was seriously on the plane so you would have to suspect better than 12 knots.. that is a guess. I took my gps but the batteries were flat typically. Yep it moves along. See you all later. R

http://homepage.mac.com/blackburns/Expeditions/PhotoAlbum74.html The pictures tell the story but essentially it came down to this. A gusty westerly blowing we decided to trailer the boat up the river and sail down to Ballina and go back for the trailer. We figured it would be good running and reaching. We had a fairly uneventful trip until a few bigger gusts started reaching us. We were on a broad reach and had 2 x 85kg on the gunwhale and saw the gust coming. Without sheeting off we put the other 2 up on the weather rail and as the gust had lifted us I steered up a bit to keep the pressure on. The thing with westerlies is they are gusty and the gusts come from different angles. I looked to the wake and said .."now that is planing" only to hear a funny sound as the mizzen went over the side. We then sailed downwind to the lee of a nearby island to sort ourselves out. I have long marvelled at the way the mizzen stays upright in a breeze when you look at the relative lever of the thing... not a lot of mast in the boat and lot of sail up in the wind. Our consensus is to have a bit of wood lathed up and put it inside the new lower section up to above the start of the sail to spread the load and reduce the arm. Think I will do the same in the main as well. The other thing that became evident was we really should have had a hacksaw on board in case we could not have got the mast out of the boat as it had buckled quite a bit. In summary I reckon we overloaded it by.. 1. big gust with change of direction, 2. did not sheet out ... 3. drove harder into the gust rather than back off...4. lot of weight on the rail putting more stress on the whole thing... But this is the place to find it.. in the river, not 50 miles from town at Fraser Island.. Rob

Well for my 2 bobs worth... I have a laser that is the twitchiest most unforgiving boat to sail short of a Moth I reckon. They teach you anticipation and insight... Round bottom, light, over powered and has a boom that WON'T go forward of the mast. That word won't is the big one I reckon. As the earlier post puts it most out of control capsizes are the result of out of control gybes. Typically arriving at the bottom mark at speed and with the sail on the wrong side. We have deliberately gybed our cs 20 in big conditions to see what happens and now can't imagine how you could tip it gybing. I simply can't. For the wind to be strong enough you would have let go the main long ago and rolled it up or let it flog. That is the beauty of the rig. If you let go the main sheet, the thing will weather cock to any angle down wind. What can go wrong at this point? The noise would be bad but that is it. My point is .. if and when you gybe in big winds and you simply have plenty of sheet in hand to let go, the low centre of effort relatively speaking of the rig and the fact you can get the sail straight around to spill the wind on any angle of sail will save you. To tip going to weather would require you to leave the main on, mizzen off and sit to the centre, even then I wonder whether the rudder would lose authority and you would gybe around on the shoulder of the hull? I reckon that that would be the only way to lose it. On reflection, I think you would take some water.. but hey, that would be a day to remember. I can't imagine how you would get into that spot. Who knows, maybe we need a prize for the first to do it and tell. Rob