Rig 6 from 100 Small Boat Rigs 103 Sailing Rigs

One of my boys built himself a lapstrake (clinker) dinghy. At the time, we were working very long hours in the Brisbane workshop and I couldnt give him much of my time to help. But, he was surrounded by timber, glue, and tools, and with space in one corner and a ready-built strong-back he was on his way.

The boat turned out very well indeed, especially as the builder was only fourteen years old.

The owner-builder (Dave, in white) with Cousin Kevin lending a helping hand.

Hull nearing completion

After the building process, Dave was keen to get on the water, and he decided to purchase a carbon windsurfer mast to speed the launching, and a friend gave him an old Laser sail, which happened to be the same size as the designed sail.

Builder, carbon windsurfer mast, and Laser sail

The boat sailed reasonably well with the windsurfer mast, but it was too flexible down low and when sheeted on, the whole rig bent aft inducing weatherhelm and other handling problems - still it was fun.

Sailing nicely in light conditions...

...but in the gusts and sheeted hard, the rig bends aft, and you can see that the boat is becoming difficult to control

Eventually, Dave stashed away enough money to get the proper sail made. It had a fair amount of roach and leech battens which were too short. The leech would not stand as the flexible mast bent back, and it flapped uselessly. I dont have a photo to hand, but below is one of a boat we built earlier to the same design. This one had a nice, hollow timber mast which I made using the "Birds Mouth" method. Although a lot stiffer than the windsurfer mast, the leech problem is still evident.

Stiff mast on an earlier boat, but still having problems with the floppy leech

We decided to do something drastic, so we cut the roach off Daves new sail, removed the battens, and sewed on a new leech tabling (hem, I guess you would call it). This improved the set of the sail, as I had put a slight hollow in the leech and it worked well without battens. But the mast was still too whippy.

The final stage was to install a forestay and two shrouds (side stays). In order to retain the sail-shaping advantages of the bendy mast, we attached the stays at a point only a fraction above the half-height point on the mast (as per Rig 6 in Phil Bolgers book, "100 Small Boat Rigs", which is now published as "103 Sailing Rigs").

The improvement has been astounding. The handling issues have been resolved, and with the mast held at the half-height position, all sorts of sail shaping options are available by using the main sheet, the vang, the halyard, and the outhaul. We made the stays from 4mm Dyneema without an outer sheath as an experiment, and it has worked very well indeed. I couldnt work out the correct method for splicing the braided Dyneema core, so we ended up just doing plain bowline knots around the stainless thimbles - not very neat, but they work fine. I dont have sailing photos, but here is the boat on dry land as we set up the stays.

Stays attached halfway up the mast

Simple lashings

Mast far better controlled, and showing a little 11sq.ft. Heron jib set as well. The original boat carried quite a lot of weather helm and the jib helps to balance that out.

Sail plan in cat-rig form. The alloy sleeve around the lower part of the mast was an earlier attempt to stiffen things up.

All of this shows how much fun you can have messing around with rigs and layouts. A great source of satisfaction.

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Up Date Rig 6 from 100 Small Boat Rigs 103 Sailing Rigs

UP_DATE

Back in early April I wrote an entry about the above rig. You can find the article here http://rosslillistonewoodenboat.blogspot.com/2011/04/rig-6-from-100-small-boat-rigs-103.html

At the time I wrote the piece I didnt have any sailing pictures showing the modified rig in action. Now I can show you a couple. They are low-resolution, but they give a good idea of how much the rig has been improved.

The mast used to bend back alarmingly when sheet and vang were tensioned - now everything stays where it should be and the boats behaviour has been improved dramatically.

Setting out for a day of pleasant sailing with a vastly improved rig

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A paint job for under 100 or how Interlux Brightside is history toast aboard my boat

On how beans are the coming thing, a very interesting subject, and a reality-based assessment of where things stand...

A long time ago, maybe it was in "Messing About in Boats", Phil Bolger wrote in passing that, just maybe aluminum paint would make a good choice if painting your boat on a budget. As I recall, he cited several other good reasons, with one of them being that it should keep your boat a lot cooler in warm climates...

Fast-forward to a couple of years ago when I noticed someone had just painted an Out Island 41 with aluminum paint and it actually looked pretty cool if you appreciate the look of semi-polished aluminum. Sorta/kinda shiny (as in you might want to use sunglasses when checking it out) is how Id describe it.

My thought process at the time was to wonder if I could find that old Bolger article, what aluminum paint (yeah, the stuff you paint on aluminum siding when you want it to look like aluminum) was going for over at the hardware store, and would or would not the sorta/kinda shiny look hold up or if the paint would oxidize to that blackish/gray patina I associate with unpainted aluminum boats like the Deerfoots.

Since I row past the OI-41 every couple of weeks  Ive had ample time to check out how the paint job has held in the tropical sun, near constant salt-laden trade winds and a few storms... Its still sorta/kinda shiny, still looking good and with none of that oxidized look I was worried about. In truth the paint job still looks pretty awesome.

As it happens, about the same time the OI-41 got its aluminum paint job, I painted part of my deck with some high-priced ($48 a frelling quart) single part boat paint and just the other day I was beginning to see some serious wear and tear telling me its time to repaint the deck even in low/no traffic areas.

To test the paint further, I bought a can of the aluminum paint ($8 a quart) and painted the top section of the topsides where the old blue stripe was with one coat to see how it would cover and work. Six months later its adhering finestkind and, while two coats would have been better, one done carefully, pretty much does the job. Which surprised me because this aluminum paint (be warned) is seriously thin (as in HOLY SHIT THIS STUFF IS REALLY THIN!!!) being micro aluminum platelets in an oil/solvent matrix. To best describe the application its a lot like painting your hull with water.

The resulting finish is very hard and very smooth which is exactly what youre looking for in a marine paint. Going on six months later, water still beads up on the finish and thats saying quite a lot. When I get around to painting the entire topsides Ill finish it off with a wax job on top (Ive been waiting for an excuse to try the hydrophobic Eelsnot instead of wax) which should make it even better.

The best part, other than its just a pretty awesome user friendly paint, is that its cheap at $8 dollars a quart/$27 a gallon... I expect that two gallons would more than cover "So It Goes" with two+ coats with a lot left over for dinghies, touch ups, and suchlike. Whats not to love?

The only downside I can see is everyone will think you have an aluminum boat...

Listening to Tim Lee

So it goes...

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