New low-cost "hardware store" racing class; input on proposed rules

Reflecta and Prima?

Well, they have to have names...

Very very well done to all who worked on them, and their designer/builders. A credit to all concerned. Thanks for the pics and U tube.

 

My, she moves nicely!

 

Well done Richard and team! The boat looks great. Is that a vinyl wrap finish?

I also really like the look of your Duo, which is very much in the style of the tender I've been doodling for years. I'll measure the available space on my old 28'er and see if a Duo could fit on the foredeck.

 

Richard had a crew of professional boat builders, so made a very nice, and complex boat for a two and a half day build.

My regular building partner bailed out on me and I almost canceled, I called the person organizing it and explained my problem. Anna at Edensaw found a couple of volunteers to help me, so I packed up all the supplies and drove over to Port Townsend.

both voleneers actually had some good wood working skills, one even had built a stitch and glue kayak before. I have seen stitch and glue built lots of times and helped a few times, but I had never done one from scratch before (we had to start with raw lumber, no precut parts per the rules). but I think what sounded like fun to them on Thursday (lets built a boat!), after a long stressful day on friday (from 9 am to 11pm), both volunteers were beat and had it, and than quit. leaving me with a boat a long way from being done. Their help was valuable, especially good was that one of them had done stitch and glue before. But it would have been nice if they would have stuck it out another day. I might have actually won something.

I did not have time to pre mark the parts before the event, so we laid out the paper patterns carefully, marked the parts and than cut them out by hand. I could have also saved time by joining the 4x8 sheets before the event (the rules would allow it), but I am not sure I could have gotten several sheets of 4x16 plywood on the roof of my old toyota wagon (it is only 14 ft long total length) to bring them to port towns end. I supposed I could have joined the sheets, and marked the parts, and than cut them off at 14 ft, it would have saved a lot of build time. but I barely had time to gather materials and pack them up by myself (I had a very heavy work schedule and I should have spent perhaps a week planing this out, but I could not).

We used cable ties since they are easier on the fingers, and I think do less damage to the plywood where it passes through the holes when you are pulling it up tight. If I do this again I might try something Richard suggested, use heavy fishing line (or I might try polyester lacing cord) to "sew" it up, and than leave it in place. It would also save a lot of time clipping off the cable ties and filling and smoothing the holes.

On saturday a couple of local friends came by the booth to say hi, and I recruited them to help for a few hours anyway. Their help allowed me get it so it would at least float. With just a few more hours I could have gotten the fore deck on it so it looked more finished, and perhaps install the dagger board box and rig the sail so I could have sailed it out of the harbor. The judges were not impressed that I built most if it alone, and it was fully water tight, unlike some of the other entries.

Any way, I have a good start on a hardware class racer, I will have about $400 into it in materials when I am done I think. Steve Dittmore laided out the pattern and emailed it to me just a few days before the event, I printed it locally. It all came together very nicely for a first time build, considering it was hand marked and hand cut (parts left and right side were match cut and trimmed). The only trouble was trying to close the prow, it wanted to stay open too far, I had to make a temp jig to force it into shape. I had put the gunnels in place when the parts were laying flat, which may have made it too stiff in the bow to close as designed. Another thing I might do differently is get it formed up and than attach the gunnels. Steve had designed it to use all plywood frames, deck, benches and mast step reinforcement, this would have used 8 sheets of plywood, and more time to allow each stage of epoxy fillets to cure, it could not have been completed in 2 and half days. So I altered the structure to use only the hull, bulkhead and fore deck in plywood (used only 4 sheets of plywood total), than will finish it off with frames, plank floor and side benches. It cost much less, and would be faster to built, likely weight a bit less too.

after the bow piece was finally in place, and the transom installed, all the slight uneven plywood edges trimmed up, it measured exactly 14' 0" bow to stern., and 4' 11-7/8" max beam. Right on our design goal.

As you can see I got the outside painted, and one bulkhead and a floor in it, with a fake rudder (for decoration during the float test). Just a few more hours I could have had it a bit more finished looking, oh well, good reliable help is hard to find.

here it is at first splash (with me using a kayak paddle to move it):

 

Seems like something...

...is missing.

 

Oh! There's no radar!

 

Better late than never..

My report on Day 2 of the build

Once again I tried to take a short video clip of each of the 5 boats in build every hour. But as the day wore on the videoing took a back seat as the pressure to finish the Zest on time mounted. Wisely the coracle builders took their hull downwind of the show before boiling and pouring the pitch, so I missed that part of their build.

Our hull was glassed on the outside and was watertight after day 1. You can see Bob and Josh turning it over and it could have been launched. We then spent most of the day dry fitting the cockpit (Bob is marking and then cutting out it out - it fitted first time, no trimming needed), aft deck, rudder post and foredeck. And some more work on the wings, although we knew they would still be unfinished by the end of the build. The last three hours were spent epoxying it all together, we finished work at 8pm.

You can see my video of the second day's build here https://youtu.be/V905Y8qz8Sg

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

And a Day 3 report

We knew Sunday would be a manic time, so I took some video of each boat before the 9am start. Epoxy takes several days to cure properly and shouldn't be over painted in that time, while of course paint will never dry once immersed in sea water. So we decided on a radical approach to finishing the Zest - chrome finish sticky back vinyl!

Finish time was 1pm and Josh reckoned it would take an hour to fit the vinyl. So at 11am I began bolting on the wings and fitting the deck gear - shroud plates, rudder fittings, mast step, kicking strap, cunningham, toestraps (I had to do it as I was the only one in the team who had ever seen, never mind rigged and sailed a racing dinghy). Then outside at 11.30 to do a trial rig using a mast and sail from another boat. Amazingly it all fitted!

At 11.55 the hull went back inside and Josh got to work. He actually finished at 12.45, so we had time to add a purple stripe (encouraged by what was then a large crowd)

I videoed each boat at the 1pm tools down. We then had to carry each boat about 1/4 mile to the launching beach. Zest was last as we had the mast, boom, sail to carry plus a wide hull. So the other boats were long gone by the time we launched.

I wasn't looking forward to a downwind start through a very narrow marina full of expensive boats in a brand new design that had never been sailed before. But after a few wobbles I got away.

You can see my video of the final day's build here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMRrkYBdZrc

I sailed round to the beach and the prize giving. You can see the sail out of the marina in a video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxe6y-xsd0Q

Third place was the "girls" team from the Wooden Boat building school with their dory. Second was the all-hand-tools dory while we were very pleased to be awarded first place. Thank you Edensaw!!

But especially thank you to Josh Turner, Bob Lange and Dan Carver the three boatbuilders

Next year we plan an even more spectacular crowd pleasing design.

You can see more on the Zest here

http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/1-beach-cats-and-dinghies-/436-zest

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

 

A couple of other comments

Most people who saw the boat called it the "Silver Bullet"

The two boatbuilders were Josh Turner and Bob Lange. Dan and I are boat bodgers and handed out tools, got coffees etc and basically got in the way

Although Bob has been a boat builder for years he had never built a sheet plywood dinghy before, nor done "stitch and glue". Josh has more small boat building experience, as he built a Duo last year.

So bizarrely I was the most experienced dinghy builder, having built my first stitch and glue dinghy in 1972. I was certainly the only one who knew how to rig the boat and the only one who could sail it, despite being too fat and old.

Fortunately my good friend, and expert dinghy sailor, Mike Scott was around to help me launch

Richard Woods

 

Brilliant lateral thinking... a shining example to us all...

 

Congratulations, Petros. You have made the transition from rule-maker to rule-implementor/builder. So, now we have four active building efforts in the greater Seattle area.

What about Richard Woods' Zest? Is there going to be a rule-compatible version?

 

My next dinghy project is a two person dinghy that would certainly fit the rules

The Zest would fit them with narrower wings

Richard Woods

 

The excellent official Edensaw boatbuilding challenge video is here

https://vimeo.com/139429566

Richard Woods

 

Thanks for the video, Richard-and congratulations to everybody who participated!

 

Thank you, yes sticky back vinyl

As I am sure you know, our nesting Duo fitted in the back of our 6ft long bed truck and we drove 12000 miles with it a year ago. Visiting 21 US states and Mexico. It wasn't really a Duo though, I had added the outriggers so actually had a Tryst trimaran. Amazing really that one can get a 10ft x 7ft sailing trimaran in the back of such a short pickup

The Duo we built at last years 2day Edensaw Challenge is now the tender for our Skoota 28. We will have it on display at the Port Aransas WBF in a few weeks time

http://portaransasplywoodenboatfestival.org/

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com