Tremolino tales

Since I have my waterstay tension issue sorted out thought I might start a new thread on sailing the boat. As noted in the previous thread my rudder went missing, thinking that it might be under the mooring I poked around thoroughly with the boat hook without luck. I mentioned that I'd lost the rudder to the mooring contractor and he got back to me soon after and mentioned that a rudder had turned up at the Warneet North Yacht Club. The fancy WRC tiller was gone along with my new tiller extensions which is a shame and the rudder was smashed as it had obviously been hit by a propeller. It also scarred the metal case which I can't imagine did their prop any good. It was a pretty rough setup so I'm hoping to improve the section with a more elliptical style shape similar to the F24 rudder which I was thinking of using. The photos show the rudder setup as it was configured.

 

Well, the rudder did steer its way back to you. I agree on the shape. I tried a lot of rudders on my sailing canoe which tacks slowly due to the long keel. Rectangular section rudders always stalled the boat before it could get around. What wound up working best was a shape that narrowed from your top width to half the width on the bottom with a fairly long aspect ratio.

 

The rudder wasn't much good it stalled easily and you had to be careful with control inputs. Just another job to do before sailing but I'm going to take my time and do it right so it doesn't have to be revisited. Just some random notes to follow, I'm making up a cover for the boat to hopefully keep the bird crap off it while it's sitting on the mooring. The sails fit inside the cuddy along with the boom and my boat hook which is nice. Previously I had them lashed on but it's a worry when the boat can flop about a bit on the mooring that they may be lost. I now have most of the kit together for Cat 6 racing the only thing missing now is a manual bilge pump, wondering if anyone might have some thoughts on a good brand or model?

 

These were always well regarded because they are rebuildable and they carry spare parts Whale Marine - Products http://www.whalepumps.com/marine/product-spares.aspx?Category_ID=10000&ProductType=10358. Of course no boat should be without a bucket for when things really go wrong!

 

Oops, that was for spares. Whale Marine - Products http://www.whalepumps.com/marine/product-application-items.aspx?Category_ID=10009&FriendlyID=Manual-bilge-pumps

 

I shaped up the replacement rudder today out of some laminated hardwood, basically it's a straight lift of the lower half of the F24 trimaran rudder with the same profile and about 100mm longer than the original rudder.

 

That should be nice. The odd thing about that canoe rudder is I kept the same thickness all the way down as the blade narrowed so at the tip it was effectively a much fatter section than the 0010 or 0012 it started out as. I'm not sure this would be as effective at fast tacking because the canoe slows so much coming about. It did fine on fast speed control though as the canoe can go pretty quick.

 

Visited the boat today among other jobs, I was a bit anxious the other night as the worst night of another week of gales hit. It gets you thinking about how well everything was tied off. The mooring ground at Warneet is reasonably well protected but can still suffer some major wind. She rode all that out well but I did notice that somehow one of the mooring lines fouled the prop on the outboard bracket and pulled it out of the side of the boat. It's not a very confidence inspiring system and I'm hoping to revisit it when I do some mods on the boat prior to the Summer season. I'm thinking a resonably well triangulated ply bracket and a small brace that goes to the aluminium crossbeam should do the trick. It should also get rid of the PVC pipe that goes through the aft berth of the boat at the moment. In the end I just pushed the bracket back into the side of the boat to fill up the hole in the ply. I've pulled the outboard off and brought it home as It has had one of the attachment bolts fall out. The whole boat requires an orgy of loctiting to cinch up all the non nyloc equipped nuts and threads. I even found that one of the rudder gudgeons was working loose and had non locking nuts fitted.

My little Blueline plastic dinghy has been great. I forgot my wooden rowing thwart today so had to row in a kneeling position which gave the back a good workout when pulling up the inlet against the tide.

I've nearly finished the rudder, just have to spray final paint on and do pivot bolt and fit uphaul and downhaul lines.

 

Still getting closer to going for a sail. Went out today and measured up the hatches and length required for the tiller extension. Still working on the rudder blade faired it this week and coated with International interprotect in preparation for undercoat and final paint I'm using perfection and perfection snow white two pack for the final coat which should be hard and durable. Did some housekeeping on the boat and sorted out the problems with the outboard bracket. The plan is once I've been out for a sail I'll haul out and sheath the hull, paint and do antifoul. Antifoul very much needed, there doesn't seem to be too much hard growth in Warneet but the first signs of soft weed growth have shown up.

 

Finally, the rudder is ready to go. Spent ages messing around with the uphaul and downhaul trying to get it to work as smoothly as possible, moderately happy with it now, good enough to go sailing.

 

Good luck, Corley-I bet she'll be a blast!

 

Thanks Doug, will post some video when I head out, good conditions this week for a sail. I was invited out for a sail this morning on a friend's lovely classic trimaran the Lex Nicol designed Escapade. It was a bit of a nostalgia overload can first remember admiring her at Royal Melbourne on a swing mooring back when I was about 13 years old. A much heavier boat these days but well adapted to cruising duties always nice to see older multis still in use.

 

Managed to get out and fit the rudder and outboard today. It was hard work rowing out and I was lucky enough to have a friendly tinny owner give me a tow out to the boat. Took a few photos of some of the other little trimarans that share the mooring ground. One appears to be a Piver (possibly a Herald?), A small Hedley Nicol design a clipper? with a horrible cabin grafted on. The sleek little red trimaran looks like a Chris White Discovery 20 and another trimaran which I don't recognise but is well kept, perhaps a Hartley design. I'll try and get better photos next time only had my phone camera which isn't much good.

 

What a cool place to live! Think you might sail this week?

 

That is a Clipper, but it needs clipping. On behalf of Nicols everywhere can you bring a saw when you go back with the camera and do some pruning?