Tabu

What a spectacular job you've done! Congratulations!

 

Spectacular! Particularly love the Prancing Pony - Are you one of the Tifosi?

Beautiful work and an interesting combination of stunning woodwork and industrial hardware - it shows that much of what we pay hundreds and thousands of dollars for in specialty rigging can be done with off the shelf hardware.

I'm starting work on my next sailboat project in a week or two - I'll post the design brief and progress reports here as well.

--
Bill

 

Yes Bill, a tifosi am I, born of the fortune of once owning a classic 1961 vintage 60 degree V12 250 powered red chariot. Of late my eye is leaning toward the Brawn GP. What a turnaround Ross has made of the Honda team with a dominating redesigned first year car. Reminds me of the early years of Ferrari. So, to signify my goals in building Tabu (hand-made, functional, red, and fast) I display the prancing horse.

 

Sails are up wishing there was water below. I tried to harbor reef with battons and cars attached and it was a frustrating see-saw event with a lot of sail spilling from the boom. A couple of brackets that look like horns not only create a horny boom but contains the sail with battens installed and cars attached in a nice stack on top of the boom. Makes for a convenient place to store the sail, batten, cars, and boom in one tight package. Bending on no longer involves inserting the battens as the sheet goes up. My dog Gus says with that nifty boom tent we should register Tabu as a cruiser. What do you think. I'm reading "There be no Dragons", a book about open ocean passage in a small boat. It is an interesting read and has me thoroughly convinced that I want to stay far away from that idea.

Happy sailing folks

 

Looks great!

The sails look like a well-done first effort.

The jib would perform a lot better if the tack was down to the deck - deck sweeping jibs offer a big performance gain over one that has the tack high on the forestay. This also moves the center of effort lower.

Jibs are generally constructed with sewing parallel to the deck, not forestay - or they are radial sewn. Sewing the jib parallel to the forestay doesn't help the sail shape.

--
Bill

 

Gorgeous boat!

 

Breaking ground and laying the keel!

Hello sawdust maker, how did the boat sail? This is Chris from Oregon, I just finished the lofting part and ready to make sawdust. A question I have is how good a boat will this be for 2 people? Would it make sense to cover the transom with plywood and leave it oversize so that it covers the ends of the carlins? wickz1@msn.com curious to hear how she went for you? Still heading back to Oregon? Would like to see your boat.

Chris

 

Ditto here!

What's up?

--
Bill

 

Many lessons learned since last I was here. To wit, when the can of contact cement states that the glue and the gluee should be above 65 degrees for 24 hours before and 72 hours after gluing, the can has good reason for stating such. The bottom strips of quarter-sawn yellow pine experienced water intrusion with swelling and separation - what a mess. After two trips to the water and the swelling and separation both times I have reverted to an ancient bottom waterproofing treatment - pine tar. Now I await the pitch to cure before trying again.

When laminating the cedar deck, the edges of the laminate was sparingly glued to keep the glue from squeezing large quantities from the seams. It worked. The problem is that air was trapped in the glue voids and subsequent heat expansion cupped each laminate board. Re gluing the deck lamination is not a fun project.

The sail is a fully battened rig as depicted in the "tabu" sail plan. The battens I built are too stiff and provided a sail that simulated a plywood sheet. I have read that a tall pointy sail is best for sailing close to the wind so I made one and will try it once the bottom cures. I also added to the bottom of the jib. The seam that appears running parallel to the fore-stay is a seam that came with the poly tarp, not one i sewed.

I look forward to a more positive report when next I type in this sacred space.

 

You've started down the road of tuning and improvement. It can be a long road - and in many ways just as satisfying as the build process. Don't let early days shade your opinion of the project in the slightest - magic now happens and the transformation from one outing to the next can be unbelievable.

There is a good reason why most people become fans of the "Wood Epoxy Saturation Technique" or WEST System epoxies. The stuff works, and it brings a level of waterproof adhesion and consistency to woodwork that can be magical.

The jib looks 100% better, and softer and slightly longer battens will make a huge difference in the main curvature. Longer, because putting a slightly longer batten in a pocket under tension will cause it to "pre-curve" forcing draft into the main. If there is no tension on the batten length, it will lay flat. "Popping" the battens to get the curve right on tacking and gybing is a normal event.

Keep your chin up and look on this part of the journey as a better challenge with less mess!

--
Bill

 

Tabu 1972

Hi, I still have a copy of boat builder 1972. My father and I built this boat using Dynel sandwich construction back then. It was amazing! Eventually the boat fell into disrepair but I still have a second mast and all the fittings and beautiful red white and blue sails for it. Will have to build one again since I do miss it when I retire (soon). Enjoy!