Another Bloomin' video!

Seanick

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 Jan 2006
Messages
998
Location
West Sussex
www.nickgates.co.uk
Great boat, great video. Many thanks for sharing.

What do you call that piece of canvas tacked on to the bottom of your mainsail? Drabbler, bonnet or watersail?

I call it a bonnet. It is dedicated to the fore lug, whereas I think a water sail is another sail, such as a jib, tempoarily tacked on the bottom of the boom for light air sailing, usually running.

Glad you liked the vid!
 
Great stuff!!! I do love your boat, saw her first at the Old Gaffers last year - so beautiful - almost unreal with that huge high bow. I would want to steal her off you except we have not got the musclepower to sail her :-)

In Part 2 when we can see the apparently untended tiller, do you have some form of sheet-to-tiller steering going on?

Also, in part 1 when you have one of the foresails poled out, where are you attaching the inboard end - I just never quite get a good enough look to make it out...
 
Great stuff!!! I do love your boat, saw her first at the Old Gaffers last year - so beautiful - almost unreal with that huge high bow. I would want to steal her off you except we have not got the musclepower to sail her :-)

In Part 2 when we can see the apparently untended tiller, do you have some form of sheet-to-tiller steering going on?

Also, in part 1 when you have one of the foresails poled out, where are you attaching the inboard end - I just never quite get a good enough look to make it out...

You don't need too much muscle to sail her, although hoisting the fore-lug by myself is character and muscle forming! The furling headsail, winches and autopilot mods mean I can singlehand her as I did on the hols ths year to falmouth, as Ness is keeping an eye on young Freddie!


When we sailed back from Looe the great Nick Skeats set her up a treat and she would hold her course for about 20mins with the helm lashed.

Since then I have fitted a Raymarine smartpilot. The ram steers a trim tab on the rudder, and the trim tab steers the rudder which is allowed to free float. You have to reverse the polarity on the wires to the ram to make this work.
The advantage of this system is that you can steer a large boat with the potential for heavy tiller loads with a small (and therefore cheap) autopilot. The electric consumption and load on the ram is low because its only steering the trim tab, which is 54" x 5".
If you look at the pic of us aground (ahem!) you can see it. I therefore have an autopilot for hundreds rather than thousands, and the tab only took a day to make.

The jib is poled out with a gaff from an Eventide which was broken up, so I just put the gaff jaws on a shroud and hold it up with a bit of line and a rolling hitch. Its not exactly quick release! The longer (20') pole currentl fits into a hole in the capping, but the geometrey (sp) is wrong and it needs someone standing on it to stop it going skyward....
 
What a fantastic project! I shudder to think of the man hours and the cost of the restoration, but the result is a credit to you and you are clearly enjoying the fruits of your hard labour.

I shudder at the man hours too, but the cost is what some spend on beer and fags.........



ps. enjoyed your blog!!
 
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Since then I have fitted a Raymarine smartpilot. The ram steers a trim tab on the rudder, and the trim tab steers the rudder which is allowed to free float. You have to reverse the polarity on the wires to the ram to make this work.

yeah, I have thought that a trimtab is the only way to get a heavy-steering boat hooked up to an autopilot.

The jib is poled out with a gaff from an Eventide which was broken up, so I just put the gaff jaws on a shroud and hold it up with a bit of line and a rolling hitch. Its not exactly quick release! The longer (20') pole currentl fits into a hole in the capping, but the geometrey (sp) is wrong and it needs someone standing on it to stop it going skyward....

I've often wondered how to pole things out without a mast track- food for thought.
 
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