Triana - finally in the water

Finally got the new Tri launched and secured onto the mooring after a horrific week of high winds and a 300 Km road trip from the bush where she was built. To get it off the property high in the mountains, I had to bulldoze in a new road, then wait for the rain to stop and drive over it multiple times to pack it down.

The registration process was another nightmare. The bureaucrats would not issue the mooring licence without rego first and would only issue the rego after an identification plate was affixed by a dealer. 2 Stat decs and visits to lawyers later, the process took all bloody day.

Triana is at Sussex Inlet on the NSW south coast, with easy access to the huge body of water called St Georges Basin and to the Tasman Sea. After a lot of consideration, the mooring option was better than having to launch and recover all the time. The trailer will stay in the area to slip and antifoul the boat in the future

The launch itself was fairly straightforward, greatly assisted by a couple of friends who helped with the beam assembly, then by some locals who helped guide her onto the slip and tow her up to the mooring. The wind was far too strong to do it unassisted with 80 KPH wind gusts and that is why the mast has not yet been raised. It will be much safer to do that when the wind has dropped.

Triana is riding a bit high at the bows and a little low at the stern, but that will largely be fixed by changing the existing 8HP outboard for a lighter 5HP short shaft motor.

I'll post some more pictures and performance details after the mast, boom and sails allow me to actually sail her. There is an article about how Triana got her name on the blog at www.boatnames.com.au/ Meanwhile, here are a few pictures of the various stages - all up 2 1/2 years of elapsed time and about $20k in materials and fittings, many of the latter I made myself in the farm workshop, also the trailer mods to add 1.5 metres to the frame and double the suspension units.

Sometime, I'll write a more comprehensive article about the build, based on Kjell Niellsen's lovely design.

Regards

Alan

 

Well done Alan, She looks very smart and it appears you will have some useable internal space with the raised cabin top any photos of the finished interior?

 

Good job-congratulations!

 

How Triana got her name

 

congradulations, that is quite an accomplishment. the first floating of a new design is always very satisfying, even if the first sail is still a bit off.

I have to say that you must have made some excellent materials buys if you built a boat like that for only $20k. looks sharp, I look forward to see pictures of her under sail.

 

Build for around $20k

A lot was saved by not having to hire a suitable building shed, because I has plenty of space at the farm to extend an existing shed. Building the main hull "right way up" using the original trailer as a building frame also saved time and money. The temporary framing was cheap structural ply costing less than $100. Building this way up also helped the internal fitout because I was able to get in through the side and only close it up after many of the components were installed.

I do consulting work and website development in and around the industry and was given a heap of Tasmanian oak-faced ply, also two 4 metre Teak 200mm X 55mm planks that I cut into the sizes needed for internal trims. The deckhead lining is melamine-faced foam obtained from a recycling place. This stuff alone was saved over $2k. Another big saving was on the hull planking. Paulownia is nearly as light as Balsa, but with the properties of WRC, including rot resistance, high fire rating and it is less than half the cost of WRC. It bonds well with epoxy resin and the 440 gsm glass that sheaths both the inside and outside of the main hull.

The amas were A Class cat hulls, reshaped to add volume with foam formers and strip-planked with Paulownia and again sheathed with 440 gsm glass and epoxy. The beams and most other sructural aluminium including aluminium screw jacks to lock the lower beams represented a massive saving over a proprietary folding system, even if mine is agricultural by comparison.

The rig is the A Class mast reduced in height by 400 mm to accommodate an ex-racing mylar main - also contra. The rigging is all new 316 stainless obtained at an excellent price over the Internet. The winches are second hand Barlows - checked and serviced by a specialist supplier for just $500 the pair and the solar panels came off my last boat (though I have allowed for the cost of these and other bits in the $20k total). Most of the fittings I made myself from 316 S/S or aluminium chequerplate so that would have been a couple more thousands saved.

Modifying the trailer was actually a huge job. The steel to extend it by 1.5 metres and for the sliding frame, the rollers. winch etc was over a grand but nothing like the cost of a new trailer.

More later - including some interior pictures

Alan