jimmy_the_builder
Well-Known Member
And some. I used to sail them at school. A long time ago!
Fairline Squadron 78 refit/fit - Hard Top
- Thread starter jfm
- Start date
And some. I used to sail them at school. A long time ago!
Hurricane
Well-Known Member
Having been there when the last two photos were taken, I can confirm that it does indeed appear to sail well, and that jfm also seems very proficient in its use.
He's very proud of the matching paint job on the hull, so much so that in the middle of a high speed run across the bay in N Sardinia he kindly turned the boat upside down so we could all have another look
We had a catamaran on one of the UK sailing circuits that I used to sail, that had "PTO" in bit letters painted on its underside!!
DTIM
Well-Known Member
GP14 class still going strong and I'm sure the modern version is a far cry from what you used to sail at school
henryf
Well-Known Member
Having been there when the last two photos were taken, I can confirm that it does indeed appear to sail well, and that jfm also seems very proficient in its use.
He's very proud of the matching paint job on the hull, so much so that in the middle of a high speed run across the bay in N Sardinia he kindly turned the boat upside down so we could all have another look
Cruel.
But funny
Let he who has never capsized cast the first stone
Lasers were quite new when I last sailed. We had national 12s, firefly, wayfarer and a 20 tonne enterprise. The topper was around but a bit too soft, kept turning into the wind when sailing close to the wind.
This is literally just a pottering about toy as the opportunity is there. I'd like to teach Emily and get her involved as well hence the 2 person requirement.
So are all the hulls the same or are there different sizes?
The 420 looks an option.
Henry
kcrane
Well-Known Member
Not that long ago, young man. Of course at my age I can remember when... what was I saying, oh yes, GP14 is where our sailing started, on a reservoir in the Yorkshire Moors. Flipping cold I do remember that.
Hurricane
Well-Known Member
My family, when I was very young, had a Heron dinghy but, I too, learned most of my sailing skills at school in a GP14.
But my greatest claim is that my initial sailing at school was in Mirror Dinghy number 29 - now does that date me?
More recently, I sailed my cats on Datchet Water - thats what we called it anyway - sounds almost as nice as a reservoir in the Yorkshire Moors but it is actually a concrete reservoir next to Heathrow.
We sailed our Sunday morning races with the gentle purr of Concorde overhead!!
rhino_mac
Well-Known Member
GP14 class still going strong and I'm sure the modern version is a far cry from what you used to sail at school
Sorry for continued thread drift but the whole dinghy thing is something I'm thinking a lot about at the moment.
I'm looking at a multi purpose dinghy for this season. I'd like to be able to bimble around Poole Harbour with my 9 year old daughter so need something pretty stable, but I also want to have something that I can race competitively. The GP14 looks like it ticks all the boxes (main reason is they have a fleet of them at Poole YC where I'm a member).
If you fancy something a bit fancier, check out the RS Range - the RS 400 looks proper fun if you want something double handed.
http://www.rssailing.com/en/explore/en-za-rs400
Unfortunately they don't race the 400's at Poole YC but I'm tempted with one just because they look like they fly! But for a good all rounder I don't think you can go wrong with a modern GP14. It's the RYA Dinghy show this weekend (in London) so maybe an opportunity to see everything on the market in one place.
Pinnacle
Well-Known Member
Henry
Not sure the GP will be suitable as its dry hull weight is a min of 132.9Kg. Add on the mast, sails and some water and you will quite quickly get to >150Kg. While I appreciate you are indeed a fine figure of a man
depending upon how steep the launching ramp is going to be, this might be a bit much. The weight is a function of its now quite old design, so something that was designed more recently is likely to be quite a bit lighter. This will have the added benefit of also be a bit more responsive.
A 420 would not, IMHO, be a great choice as it has a trapeze. These are great where you have steady(ish) winds, such as at Datchet which Hurric was talking about, but in the probably more shifty and fickle winds of the "lake" you have described, there would be am increased likelihood of swimming. Probably not to be recommended if you are trying to get E to learn/like it.
Not sure the GP will be suitable as its dry hull weight is a min of 132.9Kg. Add on the mast, sails and some water and you will quite quickly get to >150Kg. While I appreciate you are indeed a fine figure of a man
depending upon how steep the launching ramp is going to be, this might be a bit much. The weight is a function of its now quite old design, so something that was designed more recently is likely to be quite a bit lighter. This will have the added benefit of also be a bit more responsive.A 420 would not, IMHO, be a great choice as it has a trapeze. These are great where you have steady(ish) winds, such as at Datchet which Hurric was talking about, but in the probably more shifty and fickle winds of the "lake" you have described, there would be am increased likelihood of swimming. Probably not to be recommended if you are trying to get E to learn/like it.
rafiki_
Well-Known Member
F
Henry, I would choose a Wayfarer. 16' boat, quite a lot of room in the cockpit, for a gentleman of an appropriate size (I'm similar).John, or others.
I've had a casual look at Lasers & similar and got a bit confused whilst perusing the 2nd hand market. There seem to be loads of different models. Which should I buy?
It's going to sound a bit posh but we just had a lake created, about 800 metres by 100 metres and there's another one being dug out which will be bigger, sort of 2 lakes joined together. I love the thought of having it on our boat but realistically I can't see it happening with the current P50 so assume just for inland use.
I'm 6'2" up to 100 kg and I'd like to be able to have 2 people in the dinghy, 2nd person will be 35-70kg.
What should I buy? It won't ever be raced, purely a recreational toy for a bit of fun after work.
The hydrofoil kit looks amazing, we've been buzzed by hydro-foils in Chichester harbour. Quick and then some !!!
Henry
RogerRat
Well-Known Member
Aahh, memories,
NO risk of killing this thread, too good! JFM, love the mods, btw.Mike, I know your ageing a bit but some of these old boats still float, like the 'Wivenhoe' One design. I learnt in pram dinghies, prior to the lovely Mirror. Our first dinghy was an '11+' No. 196, later updated to No.343
Fast dinghies were Merlin Rocket and Osprey before making the leap the THE International Olympic 'Tornado' Catamaran. also at Datchet under the gentle rumbles of Concorde. I remember waiting for the reverse thrust to kick in on landing which we could hear from 6-7 miles away in the summer evenings.
As Pinnacle said above, I think the GP14 is a little heavy and out of date. There's no problem racing against them in Poole as all these classes have P.Y. rating and you can race them on handicap.
I think the Laser 2000 is worth a look as they are 14' 6" light, nippy and suitable for sailing single handed or with crew. Good stable, following and resale ok too. Good value imho.
Like these::encouragement:
http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/display.phtml?aid=400505&fx=GBP#contact
Nuff from Fred Drift. :disgust:
with apols of course.
Hurricane
Well-Known Member
To add my 3 pennyworth
IMO, the top deciding factor is that they sail them in your local sailing club.
It doesn't matter if you don't race the boat but if you have the same class of boat as others in the club, you will get all kinds of advice.
It is also worth checking out the people within the sailing club's fleets.
Some types you will "get on with" - "others may have completely different views".
In my experience though, most dinghy clubs will have a group of people that match your style of living.
I started at Datchet Water Sailing Club with a Laser 2 - the boat wasn't for me - it kept tipping over.
The club members with Laser 2s at that time were also way younger and very competitive.
I stayed in the club and switched to a catamaran and really got into the catamaran fleet.
Within a few years, I became the fleet captain and then commodore of the whole club.
Switching from the Laser 2 to cats was definitely a turning point in my dinghy sailing and it wasn't specifically due to the class of boat.
IMO, the top deciding factor is that they sail them in your local sailing club.
It doesn't matter if you don't race the boat but if you have the same class of boat as others in the club, you will get all kinds of advice.
It is also worth checking out the people within the sailing club's fleets.
Some types you will "get on with" - "others may have completely different views".
In my experience though, most dinghy clubs will have a group of people that match your style of living.
I started at Datchet Water Sailing Club with a Laser 2 - the boat wasn't for me - it kept tipping over.
The club members with Laser 2s at that time were also way younger and very competitive.
I stayed in the club and switched to a catamaran and really got into the catamaran fleet.
Within a few years, I became the fleet captain and then commodore of the whole club.
Switching from the Laser 2 to cats was definitely a turning point in my dinghy sailing and it wasn't specifically due to the class of boat.
henryf
Well-Known Member
Thanks for al the advice. I think I may start another thread as this is veering away from the topic and there seems a lot of advice.
I don't envisage joining a sailing club or competing again. The current lake and subsequent 2nd lake being dug out are going to be big enough, in fact the second lake may well end up becoming a sailing club in its own right.
I shall post up a separate thread.
Henry
I don't envisage joining a sailing club or competing again. The current lake and subsequent 2nd lake being dug out are going to be big enough, in fact the second lake may well end up becoming a sailing club in its own right.
I shall post up a separate thread.
Henry
jfm
Well-Known Member
No worries about Fred Drift - I'll reply on other thread
Quick update from the yard. all going fine - plan is to relaunch next Saturday 7th March - 3 weeks out of water which is the longest I've had a boat dry in 12 years of med boating
Quick evening pano of the yard
As well as the big jobs I've done other housekeeping. Both props off, rebalanced and polished, sprayed in TK, and cutlass bearings checked (all ok)
The stabiliser job has turned into a refit of the actuator assembly not just the fin, so Sleipner can fit their new keyless tapered shafts. So the whole actuator assembly was removed from boat both sides...
New actuators were then fitted. The only re-used part (despite fact old actuators were perfect!) is the stained "washer" plate glued on the outside of the hull. The bearing housing in the centre is, as you can see, all new. Picture below also shows the keyless tapered shaft. You tighten the tapered joint while injecting hydraulic oil under pressure via the inlet point that you can see plugged at top of shaft in this picture. The oil runs through to the hole in bottom of shaft, to pressurise the joint, while an O ring in the groove you can see on the shaft prevents leaks and (I presume) keeps seawater out of the joint in service. The pumping in of high pressure oil removes friction and expands the female part, and this gets the taper uber-tight so that no key is needed. To remove the fins later, you just pressurise it again and the thing drops off easy peasy.
Next pic below is the flange on the top of the fin. All these bolts are torqued up to tighten the tapered joint
I'll post more pics of the stabs next week, when the fins will be on. The curved 1m sq fins, moulded one shot in an infusion mould (not 2 halves stuck together like most) are things of beauty...
I replaced the stab stickers for fresh new ones. And there's new a/foul on the hull - black micron 77.
Bart you asked about drainage. Basically water on the fabric part of the HT runs off at the edges into a gutter in the HT. It's not well shown in these pictures but maybe you can see the idea
At bottom right of below picture you might be able to see a rain water collection "sump". To the right of the smudge of sikaflex, out of shot of the pic 99%, there is a drain grille that leads to a pipe in one of the 80mm dia HT support tubes/legs...
The pic below shows the front legs attached to the bottom of this moulded "sump". The rain water drains down plastic pipe inside the after 80mm dia s/s support leg, from where it runs into the existing fly deck drain system, which collect water all around the fly deck and pipes it down to a small sea chest collector in the e/room each side of the hull (a drain hose manifold really) and then discharges it each side of the hull just below w/line thru a 2.5 inch BSP seacock.
A while ago we discussed hull thicknesses. The first pic below is a cut out taken last week from the hull in the middle of a panel between frames and stringers so this is the "basic" hull thickness. Its at forward end of e/room, a metre from the keel, where a new transducer was installed. 20mm thick. The second is a seacock cut out about 175mm to the side of the keel, aft end of engine room mid way between 2 frames. It has the double GRP laminate thickness along the keel - 36mm. The laminates are well compacted not resin rich. I'm very happy with these samples and I think this is at the top of the class in this category of boat
Finally here are a few more views of the HT generally. In the second pic, that boat to the left in the far side of the yard is a SeaRay 63 SS enclosed version, the very machine the transat poster on t'other thread wants. He could just buy that if he wants a med SeaRay
Re-launch is next Saturday (7/3/2015) so I'll post a few more pictures and video after that. This week the decks are being sanded so should look like new, and the hull is being A Glaze polished. The capping rails are being varnished - much as I like the teak oil finish it needs a few goes each season and I'm trying to cut some of the maintenance burden on the boat.
- I'll reply on other threadQuick update from the yard. all going fine - plan is to relaunch next Saturday 7th March - 3 weeks out of water which is the longest I've had a boat dry in 12 years of med boating
Quick evening pano of the yard
As well as the big jobs I've done other housekeeping. Both props off, rebalanced and polished, sprayed in TK, and cutlass bearings checked (all ok)
The stabiliser job has turned into a refit of the actuator assembly not just the fin, so Sleipner can fit their new keyless tapered shafts. So the whole actuator assembly was removed from boat both sides...
New actuators were then fitted. The only re-used part (despite fact old actuators were perfect!) is the stained "washer" plate glued on the outside of the hull. The bearing housing in the centre is, as you can see, all new. Picture below also shows the keyless tapered shaft. You tighten the tapered joint while injecting hydraulic oil under pressure via the inlet point that you can see plugged at top of shaft in this picture. The oil runs through to the hole in bottom of shaft, to pressurise the joint, while an O ring in the groove you can see on the shaft prevents leaks and (I presume) keeps seawater out of the joint in service. The pumping in of high pressure oil removes friction and expands the female part, and this gets the taper uber-tight so that no key is needed. To remove the fins later, you just pressurise it again and the thing drops off easy peasy.
Next pic below is the flange on the top of the fin. All these bolts are torqued up to tighten the tapered joint
I'll post more pics of the stabs next week, when the fins will be on. The curved 1m sq fins, moulded one shot in an infusion mould (not 2 halves stuck together like most) are things of beauty...
I replaced the stab stickers for fresh new ones. And there's new a/foul on the hull - black micron 77.
Bart you asked about drainage. Basically water on the fabric part of the HT runs off at the edges into a gutter in the HT. It's not well shown in these pictures but maybe you can see the idea
At bottom right of below picture you might be able to see a rain water collection "sump". To the right of the smudge of sikaflex, out of shot of the pic 99%, there is a drain grille that leads to a pipe in one of the 80mm dia HT support tubes/legs...
The pic below shows the front legs attached to the bottom of this moulded "sump". The rain water drains down plastic pipe inside the after 80mm dia s/s support leg, from where it runs into the existing fly deck drain system, which collect water all around the fly deck and pipes it down to a small sea chest collector in the e/room each side of the hull (a drain hose manifold really) and then discharges it each side of the hull just below w/line thru a 2.5 inch BSP seacock.
A while ago we discussed hull thicknesses. The first pic below is a cut out taken last week from the hull in the middle of a panel between frames and stringers so this is the "basic" hull thickness. Its at forward end of e/room, a metre from the keel, where a new transducer was installed. 20mm thick. The second is a seacock cut out about 175mm to the side of the keel, aft end of engine room mid way between 2 frames. It has the double GRP laminate thickness along the keel - 36mm. The laminates are well compacted not resin rich. I'm very happy with these samples and I think this is at the top of the class in this category of boat
Finally here are a few more views of the HT generally. In the second pic, that boat to the left in the far side of the yard is a SeaRay 63 SS enclosed version, the very machine the transat poster on t'other thread wants. He could just buy that if he wants a med SeaRay
Re-launch is next Saturday (7/3/2015) so I'll post a few more pictures and video after that. This week the decks are being sanded so should look like new, and the hull is being A Glaze polished. The capping rails are being varnished - much as I like the teak oil finish it needs a few goes each season and I'm trying to cut some of the maintenance burden on the boat.
harstonwood
Well-Known Member
Looking absolutely fantastic. A really great upgrade. I wonder if you will notice any aerodynamic effects, at high speed from the hard top?
jfm
Well-Known Member
My thinking/hope is not much different from the bimini which was almost as big and in some respects more "spinnaker" shaped. This boat isn't ever a high speed machine because I cruise at say 23kts. In cross winds of say 30knots in a marina she is less wind sensitive and therefore easier to park than many smaller boats, even with the bimini up. She gets caught by the wind, but in nice slow motion rather than jerkily
jimmy_the_builder
Well-Known Member
Looking very nice jfm. What's with the f/b seating backrests - colour change, or protection during works?
harstonwood
Well-Known Member
look forward to a full report on your first high speed run! had to delay our lift out today in Pwllheli due to strong gusty winds, hopefully will abate tomorrow!
Good luck with the relaunch
Good luck with the relaunch
jfm
Well-Known Member
It's just sticky plastic protection film, which happens to be yellow. I'm sticking with the existing grey sunbrella for this year due to quite liking it still and limited refit bandwidth!
sharpness
Well-Known Member
Re-launch is next Saturday (7/3/2015) so I'll post a few more pictures and video after that. This week the decks are being sanded so should look like new, and the hull is being A Glaze polished.
Boat looks great JFM, and all these works have been done in record speed time it seems. Though i suspect its going to take the person in the pink top (pic above) just as long to polish that beast, and they're definately going to need a bigger pair of stepladders
henryf
Well-Known Member
"To remove the fins later, you just pressurise it again and the thing drops off easy peasy."
I shall remember that when you post the picture showing your cunningly devised fin removal tool hand crafted by Colin who had to live in the bilges for a fortnight whilst finalising his calculations
It is astounding the amount of work being undertaken. Core samples look very impressive. A very solid bit of kit and the envy of many a builder.
Henry
I shall remember that when you post the picture showing your cunningly devised fin removal tool hand crafted by Colin who had to live in the bilges for a fortnight whilst finalising his calculations
It is astounding the amount of work being undertaken. Core samples look very impressive. A very solid bit of kit and the envy of many a builder.
Henry
