Desperate to sail 2015

ways to tie off a snotter, use a cleat or simple notch, or a cinch, or a halyard.






to quickly lower a fixed sail you have to stand up in the boat and lift the mast and sail out and lay it down. this fairly quick, but if you are in rough conditions it may not be useable. with a halyard that is cleated near near you, you should be able to untie it and drop the sail, boom and all in one motion...unless if fouls and than it will be more difficult to lower. The simpliticy of a fixed sail has advanatage, but like anything else, it has a trade off. your first counter measure will be letting out the main sheet, and than lowering the sail if necssary. If you go with a simple fixed sail (no halyard), than you may want to practice in the shallows lift out the mast and sail, and laying them down a few times. when you are comfortable with it than you go ahead, if you can not get comfortable with it than you can fit a halyard to your rig. note that you will have to unhook the snotter to before you lower the sail, which can be slower and more troublesome in a pitching boat than just dropping the whole mast and sail together.

Either way should not put too much weight up high. If anything, the fixed sail will avoid the weight of the halyard or pulley.

 

All is done. All is finished.

Today I completed the sail, bent it on the mast, lashed all the spars, and tried it out on the field. Since I had to hold it with my hands all the time, I couldn't check all the lines, but most of them seem to work. There are now following adjustments in the rig: snotter, downhaul, and outhaul.

Then I finished mast step and partner, and then - daggerboard box.

Now the box itself worked out just fine, except for one "tiny" problem: the daggerboard barely fits, but gets stuck. I can move it all the way up and down, but it requires quite an effort. I doubt it'll be easier on the water. I realize I miscalculated something, because in original idea I wanted to leave a small gap, so that it slides in smooth...

I fear that after daggerboard spends some time in the water, it might swell (even though it's varnished with 3 layers), and then it might get stuck in the box real bad.

The box is made in a way that cannot be un-made... Glued and screwed permanently. I could try to get a wood rasp inside it, and make the slot larger, but it will take a lot of time and effort, also leaving the slot with uneven surface.
For now, I oiled the slot with olive oil, and left overnight. I hope that the oil might make daggerboard slide better.

Does anyone have any advice on how can solve this issue? I know, it's my silly mistake, but what's done is done, and I'm scratching my head to find a solution.

Attaching photos of what is done.

Tomorrow I'll have to go away from lake for one day, but day after tomorrow the first lake trials will commence. There will be more photos.

 

Congrats on doing a great job on the sail.

As for the dagger box problem, I'd plane a little off the dagger to make it fit better. You can always re varnish it later.

Since your sail is cut flat, you can use a trick I learned while using a flat cut Super Snark sail.

You can feather it in strong winds. That is, you can pull the sheet line in just to the point the sail stops fluttering.

Since the sail has no airfoil cross section, it will settle down while providing very little propulsion or drag.

I sailed in a 25 kt wind, using this technique. Up wind the the low free board hull took on a lot of water. I had to frequently stop, bail the water out, then continue on my way. Each time, I feathered the sail rather than lower it. After what seemed like forever, I managed to beat my way home.

 

Thank you for advice, sharpii2, but I really don't want to plane the daggerboard, because re-varnishing will take no less than 3 full days (due to dry time).

Is there another way?

 

Just attack the box with a rasp or coarse file or 60 grit sandpaper on a piece of wood. It sounds like you don't need to remove much.

 

Quite a strange thing: I left both the box and daggerboard in the open for the night, and we had some heavy rain. I just went to check if the daggerboard fits any better - and to my surprise, it does, it slides with little resistance (not perfect, but good enough).

I'm guessing that the box might have swelled from the moisture, and the slot became larger...

If the problem persists, I'll rasp the box.

Tomorrow will hold the moment of truth. I will report as soon as the first trial ends

 

wedge a block of wood very tight into the dagger board box to force it outward, and than put it near a sours of heat (fire, heater or hot sunshine), longer the better, but over night would likely work.

the wood will "creep" and take on a new shape, and perhaps give you enough clearance so the dagger board to slide nicely without having to build a new one or shave the wood.

 

Thank you very much, Petros. Your advice seems very easy to realize, and I shall do so if the box decides to get stuck again.

All right, the test run was more-or-less a success. Every single system works as expected, some even better. Daggerboard fixes at both up and down positions, yet requiring little effort to be raised and lowered, daggerboard box holds firm against the hull, rudder is steady and steers boat well, sail controls are easy enough to handle, and the rig itself is versatile enough to be adjusted on water. Balance is a slight weather helm, and I'm still working on finding the sweet spot for daggerboard.
That being said, as a tradition, today I experienced a calm that has been never seen before. My old man said that he hasn't witnessed such a windless day for 10 years. There are no words to adequately describe the lack of wind that was present today. During this test run, I stopped by a small bridge, and sat there, begging the gods for at least a smallest puff. In an hour and a half, I moved 10 meters in total. So you can imagine what the "wind" was like. There were flukes on the water, and they sat by me during this time, refusing to move on.

Yet for several minutes in total (out of 4 hours), I had some good wind (1-3 knots), and tested the boat in various angles. It seems to go very well to windward, maybe 50 degrees or less. But to be sure, I'll have to wait for more favorable conditions.

Out of all the systems, I am least pleased with the sail. True enough, I have no experience with sprit rig whatsoever. However, I had plenty of time on water today, and even though I tried almost everything I could think of, I just couldn't flatten the damn thing. There are wrinkles everywhere, and the camber is in the last 1/3rd of the sail, that is, by the luff. I am not very experienced, but I certainly know this produces a lot of drag - the camber should be in the FIRST 1/3rd of the sail, that is, by the mast.
I tried tensioning the snotter, as well as releasing it a bit. Tried tensioning the downhaul, outhaul, even added a boom vang, and tied mainsheet to a sheet traveler. Every combination I could think of. Nothing worked. The wrinkles and this baggy luff was a contributing factor that prevented me to sail in these extremely light winds...

Adding some photos I made from inside the boat. Made by phone with poor camera - sorry for poor quality and narrow FOV. I took pictures of various systems, as well as the sail. You can clearly see the problems in the sail I was talking about.

Now before you say it, I know that battens could help the sail shape, but due to the way sprit rig is collapsed, it will be a huge inconvenience. I want to avoid them at all costs.

Can someone with experience with Tyvek and sprit rigs advice me on how can I flatten the wrinkles, and induce camber by the mast, instead of by the leech?
If sail were to be in perfect shape in no-wind conditions, I could make progress even by the mildest whiff...

Tomorrow is the official launch. There will be better photos, taken from the shore with decent camera.

 

I have no experience with Tyvek, but I do have a bit of experience in sail making. The hook, or belly, in the leech area (the back part) is caused by the line of the leech being shorter than the fabric that is a few centimeters forward of that line. You can fix that by cutting the sail in a slight concave curve at the leech line. the amount of curvature is to be determined by experiment. In any case make sure that the leech is not puckered or in any way drawn up by the reinforcement that you might have used.

If you are using something like duct tape for reinforcement of the leech line, then remove it and start over. Pull the clew and peak apart with a little bit of tension.....not much just a little bit ..tie those parts to two trees or something.........tape it while it is under slight tension so that it will not contract into a smaller length, which means that you should be careful not to stretch the tape when applying it to the tyvek.. It is fair to say that sail making is a *****. It takes some patience and experimentation to get it right. We are with you Laukejas, keep trying until you get it right.

The wind gods are evil and they enjoy the prospect of torturing new sailors by shutting off the wind entirely. We must fight back. here are a few suggestions. Look around the body of water that you are in. Look for areas of water that have a few ripples on the surface. That surface is often a little bit darker in color that the calm water. There is wind in those places. maybe not much wind but more than the places where the water is smooth. Smooth water normally occurs near shore especially when there are trees or buildings or other wind obstructions.. The calm areas extend some distance from shore both on the lee side and the windward side. odd but true. Stay out of those areas when you can. The clues are on the water surface.

If completely becalmed, you may want to move in some direction. You can do so by what I call "hillbilly sculling". Use a paddle or an oar. Brace it on the transom of the boat so that the blade is in the water. One hand near the transom , the other on the handle. The blade is parallel to the transom. Pull down and forward on the handle, the boat will move. As soon as the boat moves, rotate the paddle 90 degrees and lift the handle so that the blade is nearer to the transom again, now rotate the blade 90 degrees and repeat the motion. This works, maybe not as well as a true and skillful sculling motion but it is easy. No transom notch is necessary with this method. With a little bit of practice you can become very good at this "hillbilly" skill. In any case the boat moves in a direction that you choose. Look for rippled water, then sail..... or.... pray for some wind.

 

Thank you, messabout. Well, you see, that's the thing with Tyvek - once sticky tape is applied, there is no way to remove it. Tyvek is a layered material, and when one attempts to remove sticky tape, it will tear and delayer the fabric. I know, I tried. The only way to change something is to cut the whole sail apart and start over, like I did with my old gaff sail.
The only thing that can be now is post-treatment, meaning I can add something, but not remove. I can add sticky tape, or I could try to walk through the sail with hot iron. I tried searching the net about this method, but I could find nothing to determine if Tyvek contracts due to heat, or if it rather burns up. I still have scraps left, so I think I can do an experiment.

But if someone knows this already, please do tell!

Yes, the gods were cruel, and the torture was horrifying. I know the ripples you're talking about, and I always look out for them. But yesterday, there weren't anywhere as far as an eye can see. The water was like a mirror, like someone just polished it's surface.
But I believe there are no such thing as no wind. I have seen daysailer and cruiser yachts move around in such waters. It's just a matter of the boat and the rig, if it's good enough to put the gentliest whiff to good use...

With current arrangement, I can easily put in oars and start rowing in half a minute. The only problem is that it feels wrong. It's like turning on an engine in sailboat race. There is a certain satisfaction when you complete all the route by wind power only - from launching to docking...

Speaking of geography here, lake is not round - it represent a tree trunk with branches more. The dock I launch from is in one of these branches. There are hills and high trees on both shores, and these shores are no more than 150m across. If there is generally high wind, there are vortexes and gusts in the branch. If there are low winds, there is none in the branch.
Getting out of the branch to the trunk takes a lot of time. I usually go for it, since there are more stable and stronger winds, but the main problem is getting that far (and returning).


Right now, the official launch is delayed, due to no-wind conditions. I'm waiting right now for it to change...

 

All right, the wind got back again, and I made my official launch.

Attaching several photos, as promised.

This constant wind finally allowed me to see what works and what doesn't. The problems with the sail are worse than I expected. It produces a lot of drag even in moderate wind, and I can't point up more than 70 degrees into the wind (my previous estimate was off). Reaching is horribly slow and involves a lot of tacking.

I need to fix the sail ASAP, because as of now, it is impossible to make any reasonable windward distance.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking I could try to add more sticky tape, maybe double layer of it, to act as a batten (flexible enough to fold, yet sturdy enough to even out the wrinkles). Is it a good idea? What about ironing I mentioned earlier?

Another question is downwind balance. When reaching, balance is perfect, most of the time I can sail with no force excerpted on the rudder. However, when I turn downwind, weather helm is so strong, that no matter what I do, I just cannot control the boat. I tried letting the sail go to the forward of the boat, tried raising daggerboard - nothing helps. The balance is so horrible that I'm afraid of a capsize, if wind were to increase.
Any tips on what can I do about this?

P.S. there seems to be some trouble with attaching photos. I will try to upload them as soon as I can.

P.P.S. Uploading photos elsewhere. Here they are:

http://static.dyp.im/dMzRiXYpvd/45b11f912c702e57b8a4ed718282c669.JPG
http://static.dyp.im/7qbopLXeQ3/74de302c01671ec63ed79e9def95e5aa.JPG
http://static.dyp.im/PQOUMkntLF/a8fd76807ad59c9f36d2f3c76b25b82b.JPG

 

Update: I tried iron on a scrap of Tyvek - it burns right through, even on low temperatures, and Tyvek shows no signs of contraction. Tried ironing through a paper, but it doesn't work either.

I'm trying to "collect" excess wrinkles, and tape them down. But something tells me that it won't make my sail much better...

I'm considering now to drive to the nearest big town, and buy new roll of Tyvek, and make a new sail. The problem is that this was my third sail, and I still can't make it flat and wrink-less.

I red this article, where sailmaker made a sail so good that it looks like it compete with traditional Dacron sails.

Can someone advice me? How do I make a sail like that, smooth and flat?

 

Surely you can cut some sail off as described without cutting the whole sail apart and starting over.

How deep is the lake?

To begin with, avoid this situation...

Take the sail somewhere out of the wind that is flat and work on it there. Perhaps a parking lot, maybe a tennis court at a public park, maybe a covered pavillion, maybe a gymnasium.

.

 

Hi Laukejas.

Just checked to see how you made out.

I see you have problems with the set of the sail. I'd harvest myself a reasonably long stick, maybe one meter long and maybe on cm thick, and tape across the bulge. If the Tyvek wishes to wrinkle there, let it. The idea is to flatten the sail as much as possible, so three or four smaller bulges is better than one king sized one.

That you're having difficulty controlling the boat downwind is no surprise to me.

When I built my sailing raft, over 40 years ago, I used a paddle for a rudder. The inflatable raft was about the size of your boat, but the sail was a lot smaller, about 2.8 sm. I had two clamp boards, one on each side and it was all I could do to steer it.

It worked reasonably well, sailed well upwind, but was a bear to sail down wind. It only worked with my brother on board. I never figured out why. Without his weight on board, it would meanly turn upwind until the sail fluttered.

I never tried making a proper rudder for it. Now I wish I did. Had I done that, I may well have had the world's first sailing inflatable.

This is the reason I all but insisted that you make a rudder. The oar just doesn't have enough blade area to work.

First try flattening the sail.

Then try making the oar into a steering oar, instead of a steering sweep.

To do this, you will need a way to fix it to the transom in such a way that it can be held nearly vertical and twisted. Doing this will turn it into a much higher aspect ratio surface and perhaps double its effectiveness.

 

Sharpii2, SamSam, thank you both.

I searched if the material to make new sail is available near me, and it seems that it is not. I will make some calls tomorrow to be sure.
Apart of adding the battens, sharpii2, is there any other way of flattening the sail itself?

I talked with my friend I mentioned earlier, and we agreed that it might be worth to try this sail in lug rig - the combined forces of halyard and downhaul might smooth out the wrinkles. But I'm not sure if mast is tall enough for that.

As for rudder, fixing oar vertical seems a very difficult thing to do... But I'll see what I can do.

Apart from the sail, could you be so kind to suggest how I could improve the design to help the upwind sailing?