Almost ready for more sailing

I made the modified brummel splices to the side lines. A little bit shorter tapers than the 36 times rope diameter, but if this weakens the Dynex by 50 % (which I doubt) it will still have a safety margin of 3 to the design specs. These lines will not let the pole move sideways.  I have not yet tried the spin from the pole and are looking forward to this week end's sailing.

The gooseneck getting a deck flange

The allways light summer is over. Nav lights need to be fitted.

This is for the GPS.  The only instruments I have used so far is a piece of wool yarn in each shroud and an iPad.

The safety compartment is now closed. 

More glue

Got the last G10 tube bushing in.  The pole is almost ready for another go, just have to make sure the side lines are attached in a fool proof way.  I ordered some more dyneema, but will likely not have it before the week end so I will have to cut the current line in two and make eye splices on them, hopefully they will not be too short after the splice is in.

Definitely looks more like a proper boat with the pole attached. It is obvious the spin will catch more air and more easily from the end of this pole than how we rigged it on Ytterøya rundt.

Glued and taped the new wing net rail inner supports

Laminated a goose neck on a plug from building foam.  Covered in peel ply and wrapped in tape during cure.  The plan is to melt out the foam with acetone or some other chemical.

more epoxy repairs

I decided to put on some extra UD carbon and then covered it all in several layers woven fabric at the tip.  The hole has now been made and the G10 bushing is in place.

The new pole "ear" being glued in place.  Making a new and attaching it was easy, the hard thing was to remove the old broken one.  It is now also laminated over.

Preparing the new inner supports for the wing net rail.  These will definitely not fail in compression, but I've started to wonder if they are so stiff something else will fail instead.  Hope not.

Test fitting under the rail.

I have the wires for the mast head VHF antenna and the Nexus nWind transducer treaded, and now have to make a gooseneck for trough deck wiring.  The mrc Box will be located inside the mast near the base.

It's getting dark here now, so I have to have working navigation lights before relaunch.

Inside. First haul for repairs.

After a week or so in the water, breaking up a few things and demonstrating the boats ability to outperform about any other boat in these waters (emphasis the boat, not the skipper - not yet anyway) , it was time to haul and get inside for repairs and finishing off a few more things.

My "yachtclub" has a big house at the docks that I can use for the repairs.  No heating though, which is challenging when working with epoxy.

The bow web has been carved empty and cut clean at the bolt level.

It is is currently being vacuum bagged, this time the uni carbon runs around the end of the web, and I only used HD foam out there, other wise it is rebuilt as per plans.

The web it self had nothing to do with the damage but make sure not to follow the plans regarding the side stays as this will not work properly, as stated by the designer "...these (sidestays) should be locked to the pole in some way so that they cannot slip or move."  I think I should have been able to see this coming, and I'm pretty mad at my self I didn't. But, soon things are back to start.

The wing net rails failed at once.

Farrier put out an update on this, but I ignored it as I had already finished fairing the floats and I probably hoped that mine would not fail.  Anyway, I'm rebuilding the rail supports as per Menno's recommendations and they will now be very rugged.

Using cutoffs from bulkhead panels to make 5 supports each side.  Make sure the supports clear the main hull when folded.

Inspecting the mast foot after the compression incident.  I had to see if anything had cracked inside.  To remove the plastic I had to chisel it out in pieces.  Seems everything was OK, the plastic wasn't inserted all the way it seems.  New plastic bearing currently being made.

Inspecting the shroud to mast connections.  After the dismasting in the garden, it was exciting to see how the new stopper knots behaved after being out in a bit of wind.  Seems like we got the size right now, and the knot seems to hold well after my tightening by pulling a 3-series BMW with hand brakes on over dry tarmac by the knot.

Also seen here is a Ronstan Orbit block attached to the mast with Colligo's new loops making a fully articulating sheave.

Wednesday night beer can race

This Wednesday was the first sail in decent winds.  Probably around 8-12 knots gusting to around 15.  We were not able to make it to the start and met the fleet a few minutes after start, fell in behind the last boat and sailed the course from that point.  A 15 nm triangular course.  Crew was one man on a sail boat for about the third time, one very experienced cruiser not familiar with this boat.  We sailed conservatively and did not use the spinnaker, we didn't have the option of using the screacher without the bow pole.

On the reach we sailed pretty well, hitting 14,5 knots in a gust with the sheet well out and the traveller down.  The boat was absolutely stable and would have been able to take a lot more power. We had a compression fracture between the plastic insert and the carbon in the mast foot and had to rake the mast more forward to keep it rotating.  One more issue to address when indoor again.

The downwind leg was pretty boring without the spin.

We put in a reef before the upwind leg and did 11 knots pointing as high or higher than the rest of the fleet.  Neutral helm and almost no movements due to waves.  Pretty impressing! The wind died after a while and we shook out the reef, but continued to make huge gains on the fleet including a Dragonfly 28 sport.

Conclusion:  It's a rocket.  Can't wait to learn how to sail her!

Ytteroya rundt 2011

There is an annual distance race organized by the local yacht club every August.  It has been the big goal for the season to get the boat ready for this race.  Unfortunately, I crippled my boat the night before, and the forecast suggested all big sails available should be used.  At the time of the start it was absolutely no wind, and after a two hour postponement the race started but a lot shortened.

We jury rigged the spinnaker from the remnants of the bow web and was able to get it flying.  However, the wind was so moderate that I struggled to get the boat moving AND go downwind at the same time.  We gained rather well on some jibes, and lost it all on others.  We would probably been best off just drifting along with the others.

After a while heavy rain started and the wind died.  Anyway, we managed to get the boat moving.  We had to try both tacks to see which one gave movement, as the wind was undetectable to the human organism, but when correct we sailed almost one knot while all others were drifting, bows in all direction.  After a while I was wet, it was getting late and I was tired of this kind of "sailing" and withdrew.

Conclusion:  The boat has a lot of potential, we have a lot to learn.

Another unfortunate happening

While sailing to the start of last week ends race on Friday night, close hauled under main and screecher doing about 7 knots in far less wind, the bow pole diverted sideways and ripped the bow web apart.

Although much of my rigging is not exactly to plans, such as the mast section, the bow pole was rigged, to the best of my abilities, according to the instructions. 

I had my side stays go three rounds around the pole and locked with half hitch knot but this failed to keep hold of the pole and caused the failure.  I will get the boat up and indoor again this week end and start the repairs.