next rudder - pointy edge

The NACA foil formula results in a foil with a blunt edge instead of a point, so that the point can be made of something that's not wood (i.e., whatever resin one is using). That way there's less chance of the edge breaking, and water getting into the wood. Here's how I did it (John's idea):

Clamped a straight-edge to one side of the trailing edge of the foil, and filled in the triangle with resin thickened with chopped strand and cab-o-sil. Put packing tape on the straight-edge for easy release, as resin doesn't stick to it.

After the triangle is hard, the fibreglass goes on and overlaps the resin. Then one has a blade with a pointed glass trailing edge that the water will just slide off of:

The rudder is almost done. (I think I said that before.) The top groove is glassed, and the blade is glassed. Just need to (wait until Monday for the shop to be open and) glass the upper part, drill the pivot hole, attach the lines, and put the rudder back together again.

Didn't quite know how to treat the change from the point to the rounded after edge. It'll be whatever it comes out as. Notice that I've drilled and filled a large hole for the pivot bolt, so the final bolt hole will be isolated from the wood.

Rugged

I found this area rug in the garbage. It was quite new, and the backing is really grippy, so I kept it, thinking it might be useful on the boat. Today I cut it up and installed it. It happened to just cover the floor and seats.

It's polypropylene, so presumably won't take long to dry out if wet.

I really wanted something for the cockpit floorboard, since I didn't put any non-skid on it and it is slippery when wet. Safety first!—I'd hate to have an emergency because I slipped on my own floor! I was thinking more of some kind of thick rubber floor stuff like those interlocking squares you can get. I'll see how this stuff goes. If it's not right I'll just return it to the garbage. :-)

After I put the piece down on the floorboard, I sat on the bench and pushed sideways as hard as I could with my feet to try and make it move, and it wouldn't slip a millimeter, so presumably it'll do. It'll certainly be better on bare feet in the summer than non-skid grit!

Not sailing just now 'cause the rudder is off. The new blade is close to being finished and is looking really good. If I get the urge I can always re-install the old rudder setup and go sailing...

Boom tent

Here's the frame I made for the boom tent:

Here's a closer look at the after end:

From inside the tent:

That little bit of line going over the boom near its after end is what the topping lift clips to, and it serves as well to contain the pvc pipe, which might otherwise be flopping about back there. The topping lift obviously has to come off so that the tent can go on.

Tent on:

Sunday sail

Had a great Sunday sail. Wind was a steady 10-13 knots from SSW. (You may want to turn your sound volume down for the video.)

In the video you may be able to see the telltales I put on the jib. They're good, but were getting caught by the jib downhaul line, so not always available. Notice also the Canadian ensign on the mizzen, eh?

The boat seems to sail better on her side like this. At least there's less slapping on the windward side; and the motion feels better. I prefer to steer from the leeward side, but sometimes in a gust I feel like I need to jump up to windward, and then when I do it over-compensates. Maybe I need to just stay put, ride it out, and see how far over she goes.

I got all the way over to Albert Head for the first time. It seemed like a long way, but then the return downwind trip was pretty short.

According to the track log, it's only about three miles across. Maybe when I've done it a few times it won't feel so far away.

 

The video above also shows the mainsheet cam cleat I was talking about in the last entry plus one, but here's a photo of it:

You can maybe see why it had to go where it is.

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.