Refining bits and pieces

Coming…..

Stopping rigging getting caught up here and there

The roof of the cabin has eaves running fore and aft. I found that often when raising the mast, the stays would catch under the aft end. I also found that when sailing and going about, the sheets for the staysail would sometimes get caught under the eaves at the bow end of the roof.

The solution was to streamline the ends of the eaves.

At the cockpit end I created a handle which served the purpose.

At the forward end I added a simple straight bit of teak trim

Installing an outboard in the cockpit

Even though my wife believed the boat would sink if I cut a hole in the cockpit floor, I went ahead and ….

Propeller is positioned just in front of the rudder.

Positioning the outboard, designing on the go.

Finished!

A raised tabernacle for easier mast raising

Upsizing the rudder

 On one occasion when my wife and I were sailing at Brooklyn, we were hit by a sudden southerly. We turned and ran with the wind but then found we couldn’t turn into the wind at all. Had to resort to turning on the motor as we were heading quickly to the northern shore.

I decided that if the rudder was slightly bigger and the gap between it and the end of the keel reduced, it might give us more control.

The right hand picture shows the original rudder. The left hand picture shows the new larger rudder with a narrower gap.

In order to increase the size, it was a simply a matter of applying 9mm marine ply to either side of the existing rudder, so the rudder is not only bigger, it is also thicker which keeps its foil shape in proportion.

  The new (left) and the old (right) compared.

Result: hard to tell but seems to be more effective.