Jack Holt Heron re-imagined Pt.2

h E R O n
Jack Holt Heron re-imagined Pt.2
In the beginning there were waters, and I wasn't on them.

Photo 16: Yellow bottom for safety, black sides for looks. The vertical exit surfaces of the keel were carved out theoretically to reduce drag, and because it looked good, making a wineglass shape; the bottom wear surface was left chunky to take the bumps.

STEERING:
I used 2 rudders, because in the Sydney - Hobart yacht races, steering gear failure is a regular occurrance, so I wanted a spare, but on a 10 foot boat where can you store it; on the back, so might as well use it! Two rudders looks cool, gives responsive steering, adds sideways slip resistance (and forward resistance), and allows a centrally mounted outboard motor, or other central accessories, like a back stay.


Photo 17: The transom decked out with new shiny bits of bling. Lifting outboard bracket for 4Hp, twin rudder pin sets, and twin towing eyelet bolts for barefoot skiers.

With the Heron hull came a broken ancient plywood centreboard, a repairable old ply centreboard, and an unshaped solid hardwood centreboard blank, 3 vaguely similar wooden rudder cheeks with different tillers and shapes, a repairable rudder blade, and an unshaped hardwood rudder blade blank. Add to that 2 very old glass over wood Mosquito catamaran rudder blades for backups, from my collection.

Standard Heron rudder cheeks mounted high are much too tall for the stern corners of my hull, and the other cheeks were all different shapes, so I cut them all 2" - 3" shorter to suit my rear deck. I removed the tillers, and bound all the cheek's blade pivot holes together in line with some 1/4" thread bar, drilling new pivot holes in one to conform to best fit like the others first. Then lined the hinge lines all up best fit, clamped them all together in position, and made wholesale changes to the pack with a circular saw, to make them all near identical in size and shape, and with a shorter height suppoorting the tillers.

I shaped 2 centreboards, and 2 heron style rudder blades almost identical in the same way, lining up the pivot holes and clamping together aligned, before shaping the perimeters together. The same was done for the 2 cat style narrow blades, with new pivot holes created to suit.
Am using the full sized Heron style rudders usually, and the spare 3rd rudder cheek has a cat rudder blade in it, staying home ready for an unlikely emergency.
All rudder cheeks had identical tillers fitted, made of Merbau wood, - narrow fence palings or timber decking, from the local hardware store, and are all rigged with blade up / down controls and other features identically, and held on to the cheeks with 3 very long stainless steel screws and epoxy resin. All tillers have a 1/4" brass pin on top in line with the steering pivot pins. These top pins can be used to anchor the opposite tiller extension's adjustable steering lock, or hold the removeable rowing seat panel, making it into a rear shelf, or table when not sailing.
All rudder cheeks are made to fit the transom rudder pin pattern, and are all interchangeable on both rudder pivot pin sets, with no differences.

The rudders had to be mounted as high as possible and as wide as possible on the transom sides, and they are still in the water a little even when fully raised, so care must be taken at beaches with waves.

I made and fitted new floor boards of heavy 8mm plywood in the rear cockpit area, made to take heavy loads getting in and out with no fear of breakage. Lightweight front floors were adapted from a racing boat - very thin and weak, and temporary.

Blocks of Merbau wood were installed in between the deck frames at about the beam, and epoxy resined in position for rollocks, later with two sets of rollock holes drilled, for best rower fit.

A stainless steel outboard engine lifting mount for a bigger boat was cut down and shortened, and mounted to the transom in central position for a 2 horsepower normal leg outboard motor, at a useful height, to be used maybe later on if I register it. The outboard motor is centrally fitted, and can rotate 360 deg. for turning safely between the rudders in all positions, and the motor bracket can lift up to get the leg right out of the water.

I sanded and repaired and resin finished all the old oars to look like new. 2 pairs of oars now available to use or sell. (Sold 1 old pair quickly.)

Fitted a new thick heavy centreline foredeck support from the stem top to the mast footing, and more reinforcement in weak deck areas, so you can jump on the front deck when it's finished.

Wooden masts, booms, and gaff are stripped, sanded, holes filled, and all clear epoxy coated. Including a spare wooden boom in pieces, which was repaired, and 3 spare wood masts.

I cut the forward crew seating away from the centrecase and side frames to free up space and give easier access foreward, and trimmed back the side seats from the beam forward, to make room to easily lie down and sit up, or walk about, on both sides. Added extra supports under the remaining seating, and rounded the corners for safety and comfort. Along under the side decks, the smallish vertical deck support gussets were bolstered with 12mm thick pine plank offcuts. More side deck support pieces were glued in, so the side decks, and all decks, can be safely walked on for their entire lengths.

BOWSPRIT:
It's going to be a cutter rig most often I think, for looks, and sail versatility. Also a cutter rig gives backup forestays and uphauls, for just in case.
An aluminium bowsprit was made from a piece near the top of an aluminium Australian Lightweight Sharpie round section mast, so that the bowsprit forestay is 18 inches past the hull's new bow forestay position. A piece of aluminium square tube section was welded in close to the thick end of the bowsprit, to be a Heron style square hollow mast step, and the rear of the bowsprit is flattened a bit, bent a bit so the mast steps flat, while the sprit angles up a bit. It was then blanked off at the end with welded aluminium plate, and 'stepped' in a wood cradle, with a stainless steel backing plate and clamp, secured with very long screws. The front end of the sprit is also capped with a welded aluminium plate. On the forward top centre of the bowsprit, to the front end, is a piece of aluminium flat bar 4mm wide X 25mm X 500mm long welded edge on, along the bowsprit top, drilled with 3/16" holes for forestays, pulleys, and sail shackles at convenient locations, eg. at: new bow stay / stay sail position; the original Heron forestay position; the end of bowsprit position; and others. The bowsprit middle is supported at a few degrees angle upward by a Merbau block at the bow, about 100mm high, and a stainless steel strap is bolted vertically over it and through all woodwork, clamping the middle of the bowsprit at the bow gunnels. A stainless steel hose clamp holds a sliding moveable shackle position on the deck part of the bowsprit, for extra messing about with the inner sail. The bowsprit and mounting block was first set up at the bow without any decking.

FITTING OUT STARTS:
Made all new decking from 6mm marine ply, with the side decks long scarf jointed to make them seamlessly one piece, avoiding the annoying side deck join in most wooden Heron builds. All decks are pre fitted and drilled ~ 60mm screw spacings, and screwed down, removed, sanded and coated in epoxy resin both sides, surface roughness smoothed when hard, ready for final smooth sanding and painting, when required.

Made 2 bottom chine protectors of Merbau wood, 25mm x 40mm x 300mm long, one each side, abeam under the chines, screwed and resined in flat wise, with angled lead in and back faces. They are made to take bumps and scrapes in a garden trailer, truck bed, or on a concrete ramp. Made from offcuts from making the tillers. Not finely shaped, fairly chunky. May get better shaped later at the next hull painting.

Make stainless steel wear strips down the keel centreline from bow to stern, and both sides of the centreboard slot, screw holes, screws, and strips all resined and screwed in tight.
Make stainless steel plates to support gangs of cleats to go on each side deck, for uphaul / downhaul lines, etc..
Make a plastic shelf for inside the bow's (to be) sealed buoyancy tank, to be accessible by the inspection hole.
Make stainless steel bump strips for edging around the gunnels, and long screws were used to pin the metal strip and new wood edging to the old wood gunnels, all metalwork was strained tight and epoxied before screwing down tight.
Fitted all decks, and screwed it all down in place temporarily for the equipment placement phase, drilling holes, positioning, and making adjustments.
Two large stainless steel plates were made, with two holes for the rollock positions, to protect the side decks from rowing wear.

MAST AND STAYS:
Made a custom heavy masthead crown, strong enough for thick stays and trapeze harness wires, and with a rear anchor point for a topping lift rope / backstay or extra pulley. An attatched thin stainless steel plate on top of the mast horizontally, holds a navigation light mount for a removeable all round white masthead light. The hot running incandesent bulb was replaced with a cooler, brighter, more efficient LED light. A plastic garden hose click on fitting was used as the quick release for the light; the thin metal plate shields the boat from downward light, to keep eyes night time adjusted and keen. Dont need to have electrical wires down the mast all the time, so it's all removeable. A camera mount, down light, radar reflector, and radio aerial are future mast top options.

Stainless steel chainplates were set flush against the hull through slots in the gunnels and decks, angled toward the mast head, with about 1" protruding above the deck and 6" below, with 3 countersunk bolts each side, and a wood backing plate on the inside of the hull, with big washers and lock nuts, strained upward against the bolts, all epoxied together in a sandwich, and then tightened. They won't move, or leak. Inside bolt ends were trimmed short and rounded for safety and comfort.

FIT OUT:
Four cam cleat and fairlead brackets were made of stainless steel sheet, attached to the four, pin locking sliders, to slide in the old style Stainless steel jib sheet tracks common for Herons, Mirrors, etc. in the 1970's. I had 2 old working cam cleats in my collection, and bought 2 new cam cleats the same size, and four SS lined plastic fairleads to finish the job. Twin jibs' sheets now have anchors.

Stainless steel wire shrouds were made up for a standard Heron rig that will never break, from oversized wires off a 20 footer. The masthead, chainplates, shrouds, eyes, and shackles should never break on a 10' wood boat, only the wood is suceptible to damage I reckon.
I did lots of rope work, whipping sheet ends, and whipping eyes in cordage for uphauls and foil control lines.

One fine day I set both the foresails to find good jib cleat track positions. Two pairs of jib cleat tracks were fitted for 2 jibs in a cutter configuration. The tracks positioned both sides of the rollock blocks, optimised for function, access from the back seat, and ease of use, and mounted about the beam and rearward, on the narrow side decks. There will be no foreward crew on the jib sheets, only a cramped passenger, if anyone.

Mast and boom furniture, and boom vangs were sorted out for two booms, a full sized gaff rig one, and a shorter mast head rig one. Brackets were made on the full sized boom to stow the gaff securely horizontally when not in use, for when using storm or cruising sails.

When the centreboards were both finally finished ready to install, I painted pictures on both sides of both boards, of dolphins and squid, to entertain the dolphins underwater. The heavy hardwood one is being used first. As of writing this text, one dolphin so far was impressed enough to have a second look. I hope it chased a painted squid. But I hope the pictures don't attract sharks' attention; in S.A. they can easily be longer and heavier than my boat.
When installed, centreboard control lines were made to operate from the cockpit rear, with shock cord to spring any hits and groundings when down, and a cord line to lift it, and hold it up with a cam cleat. The heavy hardwood blade doesn't need to be held down, I don't think it floats well.

I finished off and painted the front and rear decks. Screwed down and sealed front and rear buoyancy tank lids - decks. Still easily removeable at a later date. I thought I'd better do it before the boat changes shape any more - it was several millimetres different in some places, and some screws were no longer able to be straight in their pre-made holes. I had to give extra 'creative assistance' to some sections of screws to get them home.

All remaining side decking is currently resin sealed but unpainted, and temporarily screwed in place, at this stage still recieving hardware. Gangs of pulleys were placed on the deck both sides of the mast base, to redirect uphaul ropes down the mast, and then sideways around the cabin position. Pulleys were also placed on the outer of decks to further redirect the uphaul ropes along the side decks to the custom made banks of cleats mounted on stainless steel plates, and screwed on to the side decks, just foreward of the jib sheet tracks, behind the cabin level.

All rudder cheeks and tillers are identical as far as being interchangeable port or starboard, including all spares. A 20mm diam. PVC conduit tie rod joins both tillers, at either forward or rearward positions on the tillers, held on with 4mm bolts as vertical pivot pins, for twin steering. The rudders maintain identical angles, parallel, with no inside radius difference when tight turning. Tiller extensions of PVC 20mm diameter electrical conduit 1m long on swivels are made, anchored near the tiller ends just back from the handles, used in the same way that catamaran tillers are used when tacking, only there are 2 to choose from, or park them rearward on the top tiller pivot pins, and use the short 350mm long merbau tiller handles directly. A short wooden single tiller extension was made, but I have had no need to use it yet.
An extra long tiller extension was made of 25mm diam. PVC conduit about 1m long, fitted over the 20mm conduit tiller extensions, and made to lock with a twist, making a simple long tiller extension - extension, for foreward use. (Not useable now since the steering lock setups are in the way on the tiller extension ends.)
A bell crank type side lever will be needed on at least 1 tiller if push pull, inside cabin steering is tried in the future.

I got some ~2.5mm thick aluminium sheet 500mm long folded up to a profile 70mm wide, cut in half to get two pieces, and bolted them to both sides of the upper sections of the bowsprit support straps, like short wings, to hold and support the oar's blades when stowed on the deck. They were both covered with 8mm of plastic foam to help grip and protect the oar blades.

HULL DRAINAGE:
Despite vowing to not have any holes in the hull anywhere, the need for drainage was realised. I got sick of sponging out rain, and the buildup of dust and small leaves blown in was becoming annoying. My lovely stern and woodwork was holesawed and butchered to accept a butt hole. A drain pipe of 25mm diam. PVC conduit was made, with a bung at the inside end, about a foot inside, by the centrecase, and another bung placed in the side of the pipe, in a position close to the boat bottom, cockpit side of the rear buoyancy tank. The drain passes through the sealed buoyancy tank from the cockpit to the outside, with both bungs in the cockpit. No bungs on the outside, just a hole, to trick people. The tube was given deep anular saw marks and severely scuffed up at the epoxy sites to key it in, and it was well sealed with resin, then the back end excess bit was sawn off, filed and sanded flush with the stern. Now an unsightly blemish on my art.

Bung access holes were cut in the rear floorboard on that side, and finger holes were cut in all floorboards for lifting them out, then file rounded edges both sides of the holes, and dress the wood cuts with varnish.

Boom vang adjustments were changed to be on the two booms, not at the lower anchor point, which will be inaccessible with a cabin set up.

All side deck fittings were made, assembled, fitted, sanded and varnished if need, positions finalised (so I thought) and screwed in place, checked for useability and changes made, then all removed. The decks were then final trimmed, countersunk, de-burred, un-used holes filled, sanded, sealed with epoxy, sanded again, and painted over with outdoor water based colour paint on top and sides, and white underneath to reflect light in the cockpit underdeck areas. They were dried for a few weeks, and then sealed and bedded on the hull with cling wrap film over silicone sealant, and all the deck's screws, plates, and fittings tightened down for a final seal. All screws and bolts were dipped in varnish before final fitment to seal all holes in the wood, lubricate threads, and help lock everything in place when dry.

A stern mounted foot plate was made of 4mm thick aluminium checkerplate 200mm wide, 75mm high to screw into the transom, and 120mm deep tread, set middle of starboard side, level with the boat bottom, like a trim plate, clear of rudders and outboard motor leg. The bottom V gap created by the hull and footplate radii junction was flushed flat with silicone sealant, and painted over underneath later, for smoothness; the paint to protect and smooth gloss the silicone rubber a bit.

The outboard engine bracket had another set of rudder pins fitted on, with the same pattern as the other stern mounted rudders. No plans for outboard motor use yet, it will now support a single central third rudder for a wind vane self steering setup, yet to be invented; and it can also be used as a single regular rudder position - another form of emergency steering backup.

I made a foredeck wave deflector, angled back rearward either side from the bowsprit, and tilted over foreward, to channel water away from the cabin and over the deck sides, with some shallow scalloped hollows made across the tops to nestle longitudinal spars and oars in. It was shaped and bedded on to the deck, varnished and screwed down, but is easily removeable. Oar blades are supported at the bowsprit end, on the rubber padded aluminium supports, and held down with octopus straps around deck handles, and further back the oars are nestled in hollows of the wave deflectors, with the oar handles well up off the deck, just inside the side stays, and clear of the cabin, and all control lines.


Photo 18: Much later pic. From bottom: stay sail jib track, fender tie-up fairlead, anchor rope deck cleat, multiple cleat block, uphaul lines, cabin folded down, trapeze shock cord pulley next to chain plate and Stbd. shroud, wave deflector on the deck, bowsprit. Dual cleats give safety, security, and peace of mind. The rollock holes are under the camera, and the second bowsprit jib tracks further back. Mesh retains bailing buckets and sponge. Red cord is staysail up/down; yellow is mast up; blue/yellow is the sea anchor, held next to the buckets. Split garden hose covers the top edge of the aluminium cabin base. flat clamps are seen holding the cabin base down. Did you notice the forecastle ?

Worked on the trailer, because the boat shape doesn't fit it anymore. Weld metalwork where needed on the old trailer. Check wheel bearings and springs, make wood sliders and cover with old carpet, adjust boat support cradle shapes, and re-bolt it up. Check the light bar and make adjustments. Getting ready for fun. Later, another trailer will be custom fitted for the job.

I fully rigged the boat at home on the trailer one calm day, made rig adjustments so it all hangs well from the top. Got new longer uphaul ropes to get through all the the pulleys to the deck cleats easily, convenient shackles and sister clips selected, and little changes to pulleys, alignments, and positions of things.

There are plenty more jobs to do, but it's ready to sail right now.

MAIDEN VOYAGE:
Sunday 01 / 11 / 2020
First test sail was at Westlakes, near Port Adelaide, Kaurna Nation country, South Australia. It is a small shallow seawater artificial lake with an island, carved out of swamp land, now surrounded by too expensive houses, and connected to the sea by underground pipes, and a controlled outlet into the old port channel. Not ideal for sailing, but safe and convenient (2 Km away) for a maiden, until the wind died out. I found out that it needs speed to tack, or you have to gybe, it doesn't point well, and tacking quickly in succession single handed with 2 jibs is a bit frantic, especially in fickle winds. It's much heavier than I thought, sits lower in the water, is slow to respond in light winds, but is very stable, and looks very good on the water in full sail. I made many mental notes, and not just because I'm mental.

I hoped I didn't make a mongrel, but instead I made a beauty, that handles like a mongrel.
Oh Well !


Photo 19: West Lakes, S.A. Standard Heron sails and rig, except jib is further foreward on the end of the bowsprit. Gaff and boom are up high for head clearance. Doesn't look too stupid.


Photo 20: West Lakes, S.A. Other side looks good too.

 

With dual rudders, you don't need to make them as deep, because most of the time, you're sailing on a heel. Unlike a center rudder, you are not in danger of lifting your steering works out of the water. This could reduce drag, pot catching, not add sideways slip resistance. This should either give you less lee helm or more weather helm, to counter the effects of moving that resistance leeward. I really like the dual rudders. It allows for a greater width to length ratio.