Another Arctic Tern leaves the nest

[mcdenny]

Well, after 7 months of sporadic building our AT finally hit the water. The first day was blowing 15 - 20 against our 2 mph current so we had our hands full even with one reef.





Most of my attention was directed at keeping the water out so I did not get detailed performance figures but the GPS showed mostly over 6 mph on a beat and mid-sevens on a reach. We made every tack and only took a few gallons over the rail. She was wonderfully sedate going dead downwind at 7 mph through the water with little propensity to yaw back and forth as swells passed under her. Is that because of the double ended hull? I never sailed a double ender before.

We came home with a list of 16 things to fix or improve, the foremost being the yard - mast attachment.

I copied the rigging for a GIS shown on Michael Storer's website and found it very hard to get the yard up as the more strain on the hailyard, the more friction between the mast and yard. Maybe it was because I did not yet leather the rubbing points. Also slacking the hailyard 20" to tie in a reef let the yard move aft a good bit.

Anyway I made a rope ring by end splicing a piece of 3/8 poly 3 strand and this works much better.



The boat has an electric aux drive which I will detail in another thread. http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthre...Electric-Power

Other "personalizations" include a fully capped centerboard trunk with up and down hauls around a radius on the front of the centerboard. The c'board pic also shows one of the four big fenders lashed beneath the side seats. If the boat capsizes to 90 degrees two will provide 40# of bouyancy, almost offsetting the battery weight. Both bow and stern decks are gasketed to be water tight. I'm going to do a capsize test soon.





7/8" thick Garapa floor boards add about 50# more weight than the 1/2" pine spec'ed by IO; a 12v battery adds another 53#.

continued...

[mcdenny]

I had some 6-1/2' oars laying around and, while way too short for the AT, I could row at 2.5 mph. I only tried it for a few hundred yards as the ergonomics are awful.



We spent a week at a small inland lake connected to Lake Michigan with wind varyng from a steady 15 mph to ghosting conditions. I had a ball in the 15 mph wind with one reef, even got up my confidence to cleat the sheet and hike out in the puffs. Amazingly we could sail in such light wind you could see the wakes the ducks were making. With my handlheld wind meter measuring 2- 4 mph we could sail upwind at 3 mph and downwind at 2 ish.



She belongs to my daughter (shown above on her first solo) and I and is named after the little girl in "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas".

[Todd Bradshaw]

Wowsers! That's a pretty boat. Great job!

[Venchka]

Wonderful! The world can't have too many pretty daughters and pretty boats.

[amish rob]

I LOVE the photo in which the boat is nearly obscured by a sea... if only the bow was covered, too, it would look like you were "body sailing". I can't imagine that tiller is standard.

You've set the bar awfully high for those of us with daughters!

[mcdenny]

Wayne,

Her name is Ami Lou, which always got substituted in the line '...little Cindy Lou Who, who was only two.' Ami Lou is only 33 now and made the sails from a Sail-Rite kit.

PS: Glad to see you back here and the CY forum.

[mcdenny]

Rob, Actually the tiller is shown just like that on the plans. I made it out of Sassafras, Spruce and Sapele to give it some character. The hiking stick is a gussied-up 5/8 mystery wood dowel.

[David G]

Quite lovely. Nice work. I love the paint scheme.

[amish rob]

The simple fact the tiller was built as specified makes me an IO fan for life!

[mcdenny]

Thanks, David. Never in a million years would I have chosen purple, grey and dark green but that was another of Ami Lou's contributions and I think it looks fine on the boat.

[James McMullen]

Congratulations!!!! She looks just great! I'm glad you're having such a good time with her already.

She was wonderfully sedate going dead downwind at 7 mph through the water with little propensity to yaw back and forth as swells passed under her. Is that because of the double ended hull? I never sailed a double ender before.

Yep! That's about the most seaworthy shape for a small boat ever invented. There's a reason why whaleboats and life boats and surf rescue boats and yoles all converge on the same shape. Even now I am regularly amazed at what Rowan will endure with so little fuss.

I hope you and/or your daughter decide to load that baby up on her trailer and come give hear a taste of salt someday. The invitation is always open.....

[Hwyl]

Looks great, awaiting the results of her auxiliary option.

[Harry Miller]

Wow! It looks terrific. Congratulations.

[John Meachen]

Nice looking boat.Well done.

[Allison]

A beautiful boat. I'm glad to hear that she performs so well in light and rough conditions. I'm working towards having mine ready for the summer .

I admire your daughter's eye for colour. Did she have any trouble using a regular sewing machine for the sails?
Have fun!!

[PeterSibley]

A lovely boat , well done indeed !

[mcdenny]

Allison, Her regular home hobby machine worked fine.

[JimD]

Very nice. And I especially like the choice of paint colour.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Beautiful job

[yesiam]

Beautiful - well done. Also enjoyed the thread on the electric power.

[Don Olney]

Nice job! Very well done. Thanks for the photos.

Classic Marine in the UK may have a leathered mast traveller that will fit. They are well-acquainted with IO and his designs.

http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/produ...rchFor=&PT_ID=

[htom]

Stunningly beautiful.

[gazzer]

Denny,

Looks great. Boat looks perfect.

I know that you are still sorting things out, but I have some questions

It appears that you made some modifications to the centerboard to get it to fit the capped case. How is it working for you? I like the idea of capping the trunk.

Also, what do you think of sheeting the mizzen to the rudderhead? Does this give you good enough control of the sail. I am at the point in my build where I have to decide whether or not to cut a hole in the sheerstrake for a boomkin.

Thanks

-G

[James McMullen]

Having tried both ways, I find the boomkim makes a lot of difference in very high wind. I would not be without one now. I found there to be too much slop in the lack of leverage and the stretch of the rope with mid-boom sheeting to fully haul the sail dead straight fore and aft when it blows up.

[Paul Pless]

She's beautiful Denny!

[Gerarddm]

Bella barca! Congratulazioni-

[mcdenny]

Gazzer,

I'm not much of an expert about sailing the boat so maybe you ought to take James' advice. I've not been out in more than 15 mph steady wind with gusts to 20, and then I was just trying to hold on. Yesterday I was on Lake St Clair with a nice steady 10 mph wind but with a 20 mile fetch and plenty of power boats to add spice to the miserable chop. Sailing by myself with one reef the boat was pretty easy to control and I rarely felt the need to sit on the rail sailing 90 degrees to the true wind, maybe 50ish degrees to the apparent wind. Averaged around 5.5 mph upwind and a relaxing 6.5 sailing home downwind on the reciprocal course.

Only problem was it took a half dozen tries to get through stays. I could get up to 4.5 mph right on the edge of pointing too high but the chop would stop the bow before it would come all the way through the wind. Finally made it with some luck and back winding the main. Any thoughts on what might improve tacking? I know I could have gybed but wanted to see if I could make the tack. Not had any problem coming around in calmer water or with more people in the boat.

I avoided the complication of a boomkin and the rudder head sheeting point seems OK in my limited experience. I think it sheets in pretty well but there isn't enough down force to keep the sail even remotely flat with the sheet eased. I ran dead downwind with just the mizzen yesterday in 10ish mph wind coming into the dock and the boom was maybe 45 degrees above horizonal. The sail is only 17 sq ft, though, so maybe it doesn't make much difference. I was doing 3.5 mph but probably the bare main mast was providing more power than the mizzen.

The centerboard with the full cap works fine. The up and down hauls wrap around a 12" radius so you have to give a good pull to get the board to move with any leeway on the hull. The board is solid Garapa so it is heavy but there is no lead ballast. The pop cleat (I have one on the rudder down haul too) worked as it's supposed to the few times I've grounded with much force. The c'board pic in the opening post shows the radius. The shape projecting from the hull is exactly as IO designed it. If you pull the board up quickly a few ounces of water come out of the turning block hole in the cap, I believe carried along by the fast moving line. Here's a thread on the CY forum I started last fall when contemplating the CB modification http://boats.duncan.com/cyforum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=878
At that time I had thought I'd only need an uphaul but later realized both up and down hauls were necessary. Out of the water I measured 8 lbs tension on the uphaul to pull up the board. A negative is you can't tell the position of the CB without marking the downhaul, which I haven't done yet.

[captsct]

Beautiful! I'm just starting a JII that will be named for my wife "Cindy Sue". She and I have talked about her possibly making the sails too, as sewing is definitely her forte.

Scott

[Wacoflyr]

Scott, I just finished sewing the sails for my Pooduck. Sewing is not my forte, but this was easy with the excellent kits from Sailrite. I have a big boat (Bristol 32) and I don't think I'm ever buying a sail again.

[gazzer]

Thanks for the link to the CY Forum posts, I recall reading it when you originally posted but it had escaped my memory. As I was planning to CAD it out to visualize, your detailed drawings were just the thing. My last boat, a Cape Cod Knockabout, had an uncapped trunk and I don't recall that it spit very much at all. Nevertheless, a closed case is worth some thought.

Iain drew a closed trunk for his John Dory. It had a peaked hump in the front to accommodate the board and the cap had a hinged "flap" that could be opened for access to the control line. It looks a bit strange but works for the dory, which has thwarts at both fore and aft ends of the trunk. Probably look pretty ugly on the Tern.

-G