Oyster smack CK273 Primrose

Cantata

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Found another view of my pic above, she's actually CK32, 'William & Mary'.
I was gunner on the committee boat for the 2012 match. For some reason I can't find any of 'Primrose', maybe she finished at a busy time.
Got some of 'Alberta' -
DSCF2785a.jpg

And here's one of 'Emeline' at speed, also coming up to the finish line -


DSCF2805smaller.jpg
 

MikeBz

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Lovely pics. Not sure why I appear to be studying my feet in that photo!

Primrose had been sold (and moved to Wells) by the new owner of Alberta before the 2012 season (possibly late 2011).
 

JoshD

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As Samson said it's an NKE ram. When I was planning it I asked around about tiller pilots and got the general impression they weren't man enough for the job. Primrose displaces nearly 10t and often has pretty major weather helm (hard to pull the tiller without a tiller rope around it to give you 2:1). I approached Mark Wiley of EEML who does a lot of work on single handed round the world boats, since I reckoned that if anybody needs a dead reliable hard as nuts system it's those guys. He put together an NKE system centred on the ram usually used for a 60 footer (primrose is 37'). It revolutionises the boat! One fantastic feature is the remote control medallion you wear round your neck. There's no cockpit in a smack and we sheet our foresails from the foredeck (eg tack the jib sitting on the onboard portion of the bowsprit facing aft, sheets made off on bitts). If you're on your own you can now go for'd, press "tack" on the remote, deal with the foresail sheet s and then stroll back to the helm...

Josh (owner)
 

JoshD

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Btw, somebody said they thought primrose had electric propulsion. That is in fact what I was planning to do when I did the refit 2y ago. I was attracted to the Torqeedo pods, planning to put one on each quarter. I liked the idea that there would be a minimal breach in the hull, that the entire unit would be outboard (space is tight), and that cooling would be automatic (pods immersed in water). Mark (who did the autopilot) was going to install. Mark and I ended up having a prolonged design debate: I felt that I needed a battery bank *and* a properly installed quality diesel generator, otherwise I could simply run out of juice on a long trip. Mark felt that doubling the battery bank and skipping the generator would be better. What happened in the end? Well it turned out the pods were pretty bulky, with a huge fin attaching them to the hull---- so huge that they wouldn't fit in the curve of the bilge and so wouldn't be protected on taking the ground. So I did what most of my friends had told me to do from the start, viz diesel engine with twin bronze hydraulic legs on the quarters. It's a decision I've often revisited in my mind after dealing with yet another hydraulic leak ... (Awful for the wood)
 
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