Next blade shaped up

Not perfect, but close enough...

The photo immediately above is a bit misleading, because the lower edge has a bevel that the upper edge doesn't, which distorts the look of the shape.

New blocks, and stuff

Thursday I went for a sail. The wind was steady, at about 8 knots. Just enough to move along nicely. I thought I'd gone pretty far out, but the Navionics track looks pretty small. Distances are huge around here.

It was a nice, sunny afternoon, but since it was late (4-6pm), the wind was cold. There was a lot of activity. A cruise ship came in (big waves for such a slow-looking vessel!), the Coho came in, a tug towing a cement barge came in, many seaplanes and helicopters took off and landed, and there were a couple of sailboats and motorboats out, as well as a navy ship.

Yesterday, Friday, was possibly a better day for sailing, with a slightly stronger wind, and I was going to go out—even rigged up completely—but decided to do some stuff on the boat that I'd been wanting to get to.

One thing I did was to add another plastic donut to each jib lead, so the sheets can flow through more easily.

Not the best view; right at the bottom of the photo.

The mainsheet blocks had started to fall apart a few weeks ago, so I took them apart and glued them up. But then one inverted on Thursday—I guess I didn't get the tension right on the rope that held it to the boom. I had found three decent sheaves at the maritime flea market, so yesterday I brought them out and replaced the old woodies with them.

I want to have NO failures at sea! One malfunctioning block can mean a dunking, which in turn can mean more than just a dunking.

I made these photos higher resolution so the details can be seen better.

I also replaced the wooden mainsheet cam cleat with a metal and fibre one (no pic yet).

I just took the old wood cams (above) off and stuck the new assembly below that U-bolt, so now the sheet goes through two U's. I found that the woodies weren't always getting a solid grip. I kept the pieces so that I could revert if need be.

The lines leading to the cleats in the photo above are: port cleat, jib halyard + jib downhaul; stbd cleat, main halyard + main downhaul; centre cleat, topping lift. I don't know where I'd tie off the lines necessary for a gaff yard!

Here's what the daggerboard looks like, underwater:

What I started out doing yesterday was sewing an ensign to the leech of the mizzen. The ensign is supposed to be at least 1" for each foot of boat. This one is 18"; just right, I think.

The photo above shows the hoops in place for the cockpit cover that Mary made. I added a ridge pole and extended it over the end of the boom. (Photo later.) Here's a corner of it below:

Both sides have a full-length zipper along the bottom edge, from a tent or whatever it was cut from. I haven't done anything with them yet, but I'm contemplating re-making that bottom edge to bring it up higher for more breeze on a hot day.

You can see I've added a bungee to the spring line in that photo above. I keep forgetting to document all the stuff I do. There are now bungees on all attachments (two on the bow, one on the stern, plus the spring line), and the painter and a rope stern line are there for security. When I come in to the dock, all the lines except the painter are on the dock and I clip them on or, in the case of the spring line, hook it over the cleat. The only line I tie then is the painter, loosely.

Here are some more pics from Friday:

Oh, I just noticed this one shows the two bungees at the bow (just).

This one shows the hold-back for the port daggerboard, the jibsheet cam cleat, etc. The aft bumper is clipped to the daggerboard hold-back bolt, while the forward bumper is looped over the hand rail. It comes off entirely by shoving the bumper through the loosened loop, of course:

I forgot to take a photo of the new mainsheet cam cleat arrangement.

Shaping the next rudder blade

This was the beginning of the shaping of the next rudder blade. Struck centre lines on leading and trailing edges of the blade, made a half pattern (white, below) to work from, and started in with my little block plane on the dining room table. 

The trailing edge is the biggest job, as more material needs to come off a larger area. I've now roughed out the leading edge and am on the second side of the trailing edge (not shown). When I've done that I'll go at the whole thing again and get it closer to the proper shape.

Almost forgot to say that when I was sailing yesterday, I noticed my rudder blade was coming loose! Yikes, that wasn't supposed to happen, 'cause I used a lock-nut. I was able to tighten it while drifting, but I'll have to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Great message

This is a commercial aimed at employees of ships, but the message is true for all of us who go to sea.
Be Ready - VLinc Maritime from VLinc Maritime on Vimeo.

The Next Rudder Blade

I was in a hurry when I made my rudder, so I just threw something together that I thought looked right. 

And now I have a really nice piece of cedar that Godfrey was going to use for his rudder, which he gave me in exchange for some glassing I did for him:

As you can see, it has a big chunk out of it. G was making a balanced rudder, so that nose sticking out would go under the boat, making steering easier.

But my rudder has to be straight down, as the skeg extends straight down from the transom. So, what do do. A really nice piece of wood, the time and sometimes the energy... So I went back to read—really read, this time—the article about rudder blades (pdf file) that I just skimmed last summer.

Now I understand that the outer dimensions of a correctly foil-shaped blade are: Thickness of board = 12% of its Length (of chord, or fore & aft section). So to really know how much of that rudder to use, I only needed to see how thick the plank is. It's 1¼" thick, so I calculated that the blade needed to be 10.42" wide. Which worked out well:

I just sawed a line parallel to the after edge and 10.42" away from it, cutting off that nose that I couldn't have used anyway. John's bandsaw.

This blade is 6½" longer than my current blade and 1½" narrower. According to the author of the article, J.R. Watson, the foil shape will add a performance boost to the rudder. He says:
"A section that has a faired airfoil shape is preferred over one that is flat with parallel sides. This is because the airfoil shape produces lift when moving through the water, thereby counteracting the sideward forces exerted by the sail rig. A flat section produces less lift and at a great expense of drag, slowing the boat and making it more difficult to steer."

Using the above-linked article for reference, I made my own NACA 0012 foil shape to those dimensions in my Illustrator program, to print onto 8½ x 14" paper, which will then be glued to foam board, cut out, and used as a template to get the foil shape right. Or more-or-less right.

The author says that solid wood is good for blades, but plywood laminations are not, because the layers tend to shear apart. And he says that cedar is the best. So I'm making a good start. I'll glass it after it's shaped, of course.

Collapsible Head

The bucket, lined with a biodegradable plastic bag, hangs from the board by its flange. The ring seat sits atop the board, cradling the flange. The bag gets tied after use and sealed inside another bag or container in the cockpit, to be taken ashore later. For solid waste only. Ring is yet to be finished (varnish, I think). It's all disassembled and put away after use, natch.

 

Anchors

 The green milk box in the background holds the anchor line. The 5 kilo main claw anchor is snugged under the shelf just ahead of the box. I snagged another, smaller claw anchor at the maritime flea market, to replace the grapple anchor, which I don't trust to stay open. The smaller claw is the secondary anchor and is kept with its own tackle under the cockpit seat, handy in case of emergency, the bitter end tied to the boat. The grapple may get used as well at some point, so it's not going anywhere.

Scuttlefish blog

This is one of my favourite blogs. Check out his entry about Stan Rogers:

http://thescuttlefish.com/2015/04/stan-rogers-barretts-privateers-and-the-20th-century-sea-shanty/