Duck punt build - days 3 and four

snaps

121 said:
Sail direct from Jeckells in Wroxham (Hoveton to be pedantic).

Dimensions: will have to unfurl again and measure, but the boat is 23' long and the mast I think 12' so that should give you some idea.

Mast is tubular sectional aluminium - from what, I know not because it came with my other Gun Punt - but I imagine not too difficult to find something similar on eBay.

Spars I made: Doug Fir from deck planking offcuts from my bigger project. Easy to make; 1.5" diameter (two bits 1.5" by 0.75" glued [epoxy] together). From raw to round in a day (if you remove the time for the glue to go off). I have some offcuts still if you want them...

If you want close ups, give me a list of which areas and I will try and get round to setting it up again. The rig is so, so simple to set up; I even have two strops on the boom to allow me to have a tall rig (so my wife can accompany me without decapitation) or a lower one for single handed or more blustery conditions.

The bit I'm most pleased with - believe it or not - is the attachement of the leeboard blades; captive cotter pins that belong on the back of a Land Rover tailgate, they self lock and tighten and can never get lost!!

The general concept was that everything must be able to breakdown and be stored within the confines of the cockpit or under the decks and still alllow 2 adults to lie down with their heads below the coaming. The rudder and treadle assembly is in 6 parts if I remember correctly but just takes 90 seconds to deploy
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it is the running rigging I want to see

how the ropes go where the spars meet

Dylan
 
About the steering... My point was that adding rails could do two things: make the boat slower to steer, which could make going about a bit stately. Without a foresail to back, things could get difficult. Also, adding rails to a boat could change the rig-hull balance, in any boat, depending on how you do it.

I was thinking about narrow flat bottoms and standing up to sails. I'm a bit of a believe in narrow flatties because the centre of bouyancy moves quite smartly to leeward as the boat heels - or to put it another way, with a hard chine it quickly puts buoyancy in the water. Whichever way you think about it, it adds to the leverage that the moveable ballast (the boat's occupants) can apply.

A good example of this is my Light Trow design, as sailed by Ben Crawshaw.

Gavin
 
Lakesailor said:
Is it traditional to paint them grey? There is one in the Windermere Steam Boat Museum which is also grey.
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I think so. There was another grey one once moored for a season in front of my grandma's house on Chichester Harbour. I remember aged about nine or ten arguing with my dad that that square grey thing (too far away to really see clearly) couldn't possibly be a boat, must be something like a concrete float off a pontoon :). A few weeks later I sailed past it in my Mirror and found out what a duck punt was :D

121 said:
The rudder and treadle assembly is in 6 parts if I remember correctly but just takes 90 seconds to deploy
Click to expand...

I was trying to figure out from the pictures what that was all about. What's the purpose of the lower, red, semicircular board? It looks like it pivots, but also as if the pivoting won't actually achieve anything because the yoke on top with the tiller lines rotates independently. What's the cunning design that I've missed?

Pete
 
What's the purpose of the lower, red, semicircular board?
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In danger of hijacking Dylan's thread here, but briefly:

There are 2 holes in the sole boards (seen in the rowing setup) and there are 2 corresponding cylindrical stubs on the bottom of the treadle base, these mate together to form a rigid base. On the top surface of the treadle base is a stainless track. The treadle riser slides into the track and can be adjusted for and aft. The treadle riser needs to be detachable to enable storage under the deck. In the picture showing the treadle assembly I have in fact slotted the base in back to front, because the scalloped face should be forwards and acts as a heel brace whilst rowing (the treadle can be used facing forwards when sailing or facing backwards if you want the rudder installed for assisted steerage). The foot treadle has a fixed stainles pin that locates in a hole on the top of the treadle riser.

This was all experimental design "on the hoof" and could I'm sure be streamlined but up until launch it was all in my head!! In the event the rudder is too small and needs to be twice the size - tacking can be a laborious affair and best kept to open spaces....

Is it traditional to paint them grey?
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The colour of a punt should be that of a Kittiwake's back - a recommendation of either Sir Ralph Payne Gallwey or Col. Hawker, I can't remember which. The low silhouette and colour makes the boat merge with the water (typically grey and muddy in estuaries and during the winter months -the "scene of operations" - when the light is dull and flat)
 
Yantlet said:
They are painted grey for the same reason battleships are I guess, to hide! Or maybe ducks are colour blind to grey?
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I think battleships are grey so that they can't be seen in the North Atlantic - not sure the duck punt is designed for that purpose :)
 
the colour of a kittwakes back

bum,

I was thinking of green

but now I feel myself coming over all traditional

the colour of a kittiwakes back sounds so good

as for hijacking threads

that shows the thread is alive and your boat is wonderful - I love pix of boats

nothing I like more than coming to my in box in the morning and finding pix of interesting boats in it

dylan.winter(at)virgin.net

Dylan
 
121 said:
There are 2 holes in the sole boards (seen in the rowing setup) and there are 2 corresponding cylindrical stubs on the bottom of the treadle base...
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Ta. I think my mistake was assuming from the curved side of the treadle base that it was meant to rotate. All sounds very sensible.

dylanwinter said:
bum,

I was thinking of green

but now I feel myself coming over all traditional
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If you're being traditional, you wouldn't want a green boat anyway. Unlucky, innit.

Pete
 
dylanwinter said:
it is the running rigging I want to see

how the ropes go where the spars meet

Dylan
Click to expand...

Weather cleared enough to get some footage of the hoist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO2OlMMmJps&feature=youtu.be

Shows the std rig height and the higher setup. Looks more awkward as it was done outside the boat....
This may not be an approved method but it's how I choose to rig a lugsail, the key driver for me is the fewer moving parts possible (because I will always drop them in the drink) and cold hands don't work very well.

Hope this answers any questions, Dylan.

The yard is in fact the gaff from my "Twinkle 10", temporarily pressed into service so the balance isn't quite right - I haven't got round to attaching the spar I made for the punt yet, but it will push the head forward more...
 
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thank you very much indeed

121 said:
Weather cleared enough to get some footage of the hoist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO2OlMMmJps&feature=youtu.be

Shows the std rig height and the higher setup. Looks more awkward as it was done outside the boat....
This may not be an approved method but it's how I choose to rig a lugsail, the key driver for me is the fewer moving parts possible (because I will always drop them in the drink) and cold hands don't work very well.

Hope this answers any questions, Dylan.

The yard is in fact the gaff from my "Twinkle 10", temporarily pressed into service so the balance isn't quite right - I haven't got round to attaching the spar I made for the punt yet, but it will push the head forward more...
Click to expand...


thank you

thank you

thank you

brilliant

I was about to turn the whole mast into a web of ropes and blocks and yours is so simple

brilliant in fact

Dylan
 
Aye simple, but lacking one very important piece on a balanced lug rig.
His downhaul is shown as a simple loop and the tension of the rig is made on the halyard. This is wrong. The rig is hoisted aloft using the halyard, and the tension is applied with the downhaul. 2 to 1 ratio for a small rig like yours should do. Have a look here for really good balanced lug info:-
http://www.storerboatplans.com/GIS/GISRigging.html
 
Even Chance said:
Aye simple, but lacking one very important piece on a balanced lug rig.
His downhaul is shown as a simple loop and the tension of the rig is made on the halyard. This is wrong. The rig is hoisted aloft using the halyard, and the tension is applied with the downhaul. 2 to 1 ratio for a small rig like yours should do. Have a look here for really good balanced lug info:-
http://www.storerboatplans.com/GIS/GISRigging.html
Click to expand...

That all looks far too complicated for a little duck punt.

Dylan likes it as simple as possible.

This has no blocks and I made the spars myself.
 
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Even Chance said:
Aye simple, but lacking one very important piece on a balanced lug rig.
His downhaul is shown as a simple loop and the tension of the rig is made on the halyard. This is wrong. The rig is hoisted aloft using the halyard, and the tension is applied with the downhaul. 2 to 1 ratio for a small rig like yours should do. Have a look here for really good balanced lug info:-
http://www.storerboatplans.com/GIS/GISRigging.html
Click to expand...

This image is of Hirondelle which appears in the video of Swallow in the thread on Scuttlebutt.
 
His downhaul is shown as a simple loop and the tension of the rig is made on the halyard. This is wrong
Click to expand...

Not for me it aint. One halyard and a captive downhaul. Nothing to lose. Fewer loose ends and only one adjustment ........ on the halyard.
 
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