Recent content by cliffordpope

Or would you prefer To err With her On some other fur?

http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US6763777 Item 28. "Rolled scats" - sloping sides to the cockpit well, as seen on many racing dinghies. Presumably to let water to drain out when heeling.

The first thing having started to separate the three strands is to do a rough whipping on each to stop them unravelling themselves Sellotape will do. Unravel about 6" for an ordinary sized rope, bend it round in a loop, and then feed each strand under three consecutive strands of the standing...

Classic Sailor sounds if it it might be a saucy read for those inclined. Or is it about classic sailers? :)

I thinks the cabin is based on the upperworks of this more famous vessel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbinia

I think classic has to include two features: a) the article is typical of its time and b) it represents something that was especially outstanding at the time - a particularly well-made specimen, or a significant design, something that would have caused it to stand out amongst its fellows. I...

"Launch" could mean anything from a lightweight runabout with very thin strip planking, or plywood panels and a light petrol engine, to a a solid hunk with 1" planks and an ancient diesel. Does it have a 4 foot beam or 8 foot? So somewhere between a few cwt to 2 tons. Is it designed to swing...

Steam in a bag is the easy way. You can buy rolls of polythene tube, or just use old lengths cut from sacks and staple them together. Wrap it round the first 6 foot say of wood, and clamp one end into the final position. Pass in steam from a wallpaper steamer, stuff rags in the ends, and after a...

I'm just repeating what a marine engineer told me some years ago. I said that no matter how hard I tightened the nut, at the end of the season it was loose and needed tightening to the next hole. He told me that was in the nature of a taper - it needed a sharp shock to seat it fully. He always...

You can't rely on the nut alone to exert enough force to seat the taper. Take the shaft out and thump it down on something solid. (Like seating an axe head) As an alternatively to adding shims, you could grind down the back of the nut a little to the next alignment point.

You could try doing a scale drawing of the underwater hull profile and the sails, and work out the Centre of Lateral Resistance in relation to the Centre of Effort. CLR you can get by cutting a bit of cardboard to the stem-stern underwater profile and balancing it on a sharp edge. You can test...

My 21 footer was built in 1882. Believed to have been originally a half-decker, the cabin was added in 1913 and the original counter sawn off. I rebuilt this some years ago, just guessing what perhaps it should look like. Some planks have been replaced over the years, most recently the...

Really? I think it's an ugly pastiche, a travesty, using certain features slightly reminiscent of a genuine classic steam yacht. The topsides are too high, and the funnel too thin, for a start. Here are some real beauties...

She's sailing well under bare poles. Or is there a replica engine? :)

Steaming isn't the chore it used to be with the invention of "steam in a bag". Just put the wood in a tube of polythene, connect up to a wallpaper stripper, bend it into position as soon as it is soft enough, wedge in situ, and rip the polythene off. Then fasten.