Secondhand Weekender

[wwentz]

'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 :?:

[Barry Pyeatt]

Welcome to the fun!

There have been a number of discussions about various steering systems that are variants of the Stevenson's design. You can do a

"Search" from above and type in T. Nelson's Steering for one such type that has been used quite a bit.

The gallery also has a number of photos of various builders steering systems.

You can to to the "Home" link above and then click on the link to go to MSN Albums and find photos of T. Nelson's as well as others in the builders albums as well as the album labeled "Modifications".

Most builders use either the standard steering system or a modification of it. But there have been some nice "tiller" modifications as well.

The standard "High aspect" rudder design is a winner and works extremely well.

You might ask the builder of your Weekender if you could also have the plans for it and the video if he has them. Otherwise you can get the plans from Stevenson's.

[Johannah]

Here's a wonderful website run by Phil Gowans who has lots of pictures and comments about building the Weekender, including the steering. Take a look.

http://www.pragdata.com/philboat/

[Dave R1]

Welcome to the World of Weekenders 8)

Here's one more way to rig the steering. This is the way I did it. I used a buffing mandrel as the shaft for the steering wheel. It's a 3/4" shaft with a couple of bronze pillow block bushings. One end of the shaft is threaded. the other has a flat for a pulley. The whole thing was intended to have a buffing wheel put on the threaded end and a V-belt to a motor on the other. It set me back $12.00.

I originally had a wooden drum on the shaft around which the steering cable was wrapped. I didn't like that arrangement so I replaced it with sprockets and a piece of #40 roller chain. The chain is just long enough so thatI have stop to stop movement of the rudder without running out a chain on the sprockets. There is a piece of cable attached to each end of the chain and leads around a Harken #082 Bullet Block and back to the stub tiller. There are actually small turnbuckles on the cables where they attach to the tiller. These allow for tension the steering system.

Here's a drawing:

In reality the stub tiller is actually above the sprocket assembly. I just drew it like this for clarity.

The sprockets are mounted between a couple of pieces of aluminum angle. The sprockets came from a farm supply store and are made so you buy the sprocket and hub separately and weld them together. That lets you pick sprocket diameter and shaft diameter as needed. In my case the center sprocket has a hub with a 3/4" bore. The idlers are 1/2".

As it is rigged, the wheel work similar to a tiller. The top of the wheel goes to the lee side in a tack. That could be reversed if desired by simply running the chain under the idlers and over the center sprocket.

It might be overkill but it wasn't expensive and its bullet proof.

[wwentz]

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:

[Fintan Murphy]

And I hope the builder doesn't read this forum :oops:

[wwentz]

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

[Craig]

I am seriously thinking about a topsail and a cutter conversion. There is a Bolxi Schooner down here with more ropes than me... And we can't have that now can we???

[tdrown]

I also am going cutter. I already made another sail (my original jib was made larger, this one is to specs) and I've already added another stay (I also made my bowspirit and mast just a bit longer than specs). I just have to make those PVC hanks and attach a block on the mast and run the halyard and I am ready. I've been meaning to post all the modifications I've done this winter and spring, hopefully, work willing, I will be able to post about them this evening.

[capt jake]

Hey Walt, can you e-mail me?? Your name rings a bell and I would love to talk to you.

jwentz1@comcast.net

I think I have some realtives in that area that I could never locate, maybe????? Never know.

Please, thanks!

[Dave R1]

Now wouldn't that be a small world thing? Jake and Walt cousins? Just the same last name makes it a pretty small world thing.