Tuesday 2 December 2014

Sails & Trailer

Some good progress to report since my last post.  I installed the centre board having applied several primer coats to the inside of the centre board case and 2 coats of antifoul.  Some smaller jobs were finished such as installing the traveller on the transom.  Next up was to make new mast tangs for the shrouds.

Then a call came for the sailmaker, Yannick Lemmonier,  to say that my sails were ready and he could come to fit them, to make sure they fitted correctly.

Yannick had already sent me a sail design viewer with his designs for my boat, which were very interesting:-



And here they are in real life:-


Here is the jib with Yanick Lemmonier from West Sails in the background.  Yannick took great care in every detail to make a beautiful suit of sails.  I was curious to see the batten in the jib and apparently a small roach cut in as well.

Here you can see the mail sail being hoisted - a very satisfying moment!


Spurned on by this progress, I set about enlisting my friend Brendan to help build a trailer.  We had looked at a number of commercial designs but all need some modification and our local galvanizing company will not galvanize any metal which has already been galvanized, so if modifications were made they would leave the structure susceptible to rusting.  So nothing for it but to order up the steel and trailer components.  We used some of the original molds to allow us accurately site the hull supports.  Having the boat plans to hand was very useful in deciding dimensions.



Here are some photos of the trailer nearly completed - just needs to be fitted to the boat to make sure it works and then off to get galvanized.


We designed the trailer with an extendable tongue which consists of 60mm box section sitting inside a 70mm section, and secured in place by two removable pins.   The bunks are adjustable and the rear bunks are designed to be removable so that they are clipped off before launch and retrieve.

In this next photo you can see where the extension tongue is held inside the larger box section for on the road towing and when these pins are removed you can extend the tongue to various lengths to suit the launch ramp - hopefully this will allow us launch without launching the tow car as well!


Tow coupling hitch is bolted to the inner box section which is nested within the main centre channel of the trailer


Adjustable and removable rear bunks with magnetic real lights

Adjustable mast support and winch assembly for bow of boat.








3 comments:

  1. That all looks terrific, Paul. The sail drawings are most impressive! Who says a simple Somes Sound doesn't deserve the best? Did you leave the sail on the main boom loose? I can't see any slides in the photo. And I don't readily recall what John spec'd.

    I'd like to hear a lot more about the trailer because its been a quiet nagging concern of mine for a while now. I'm not sure that I can get a pre-made trailer locally that will suit the SS. I'll check with our local galvanizing companies and see if they will work on a trailer that's been modified and already been galvanized once. I'd prefer to not build from scratch but I will if I have to. Will it be troublesome for you to get yours licensed?

    If you could do a brief video of the trailer that shows the working parts, I'd be most appreciative.

    You're gonna be sailing by the new year!

    All the best,
    Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeff - Thanks for the kind comments. In fact John Brooks calls for slides on the foot of the mail sail, and I had them fitted to the boom, but my sail maker was keen for a loose footed design and I email John , and he said either way was fine, and even ventured to say that some state that loose footed main sails are marginally superior.

    I now have the trailer dismantled in preparation for galvanizing. However as soon as it is completed I will so a short video and post it.

    All the best

    Paul


    ReplyDelete
  3. I haven't looked a your blog for a while and I am VERY impressed with what you have done. I loved your bracing system to install the coaming. Your workmanship is superb. You should submit your Somes Sound to Wooden Boat Magazine. I was able to get Morning Star published in the New Launchings section for the March/April issue.

    ReplyDelete