Little Egret: an Egret-style day sailer

[johnno]

Well I set it all up again on the lawn this afternoon, in the same stiff breeze. I had basically drilled the second hole in the boom (done the other day) too far forward. Really, it's correct in that it's where the reefed clew needs to sit, but actually it needs to be about three inches farther aft to make for a simple attachment which when tensioned up by the snotter comes to sit in the correct position. I played around with the sail height, just as John suggested, which also gives me a little more room for the downhaul as well as lifting the boom slightly.

I was then quickly able to set up a very nice very flat full main, and very flat and taut reefed main (I should have taken some snaps). The mizzen will have some fairleads and jam cleat on the boom. The main doesn't need it.

Unfortunately the reinforcing in the clew is way overdone, which makes it hard to fold up that corner of the sail when reefed. Also the clew is quite small, so I could never get it over a fork in the boom as Ross suggests. Likewise the cringles are on the small side but they won't produce any really problem. Those are lessons for the second set of sails.

Some changes I'm definitely going to make.
1. I'm ditching the lacing for webbing mast hoops, with side closing buckles. I will either use plastic shackles to attach them to the sail, or whip them on. The lacing is a pain, and a time waster. The web hoops make adjustment around snotters a piece of cake when raising and lowering sails for reefing.
2. I'm ditching nice hempy looking three strand polyester rope for braided rope. There is very little tolerance in my mast height and boom length to be able to get the adjustment I need out of stretchy rope. If I can find pretty coloured braid all the better. But I'm not buying any of that stuff with coloured fleck through it.
3. I'm going to hang my wood blocks on the mantle piece and replace them with light stainless blocks. There's hardly any load on anything on the boat, but the more small blocks I can get, the easier it is, with braided rope, to get everything taut.
4. I'm going to make some little separate cunninghams for luff tensioning.

[Ross Lillistone]

The thing I like about using a fork, or slot in the aft end of the sprit is that it is so simple to catch a loop or cringle reeved through the clew eyelet and the aft reefing eyelets. In the following photo you may just be able to see how simply the slot in the end of the sprit has hooked-up the loop tied through the clew eyelet. The stiffness of the clew reinforcing does not matter with this system, although it does make rolling up the reefed material untidy, as Johnno has pointed out. But, hey, have a look at the ocean racers when they reef - nothing tidy there!



To reef, one simply casts-off the snotter to release tension, then pull the sail in within reach using the sheet or just pulling in the sail cloth, then poke the sprit out and get it to engage in whichever loop you want and then tension up the snotter. You can lower the sail as required to effect the reef, and also bundle the reefed portion of the sail and secure it using reefing nettles. As JohnW said, the best way to reef in a small boat is to heave-to and lower the sail, tie in the reef, and raise it again. Little Egret will lie easily with the mizzen sheeted flat while the main is being reefed (I think!), and with the mizzen dropped for reefing, she should heave-to with the tiller down to leeward, the main sheet released, and the board half raised. This has always worked for me in other dinghies, but you need to let the boat lose all forward way before putting the tiller fully to leeward.

I agree with John about the blocks. I am a traditionalist, and I like timber blocks as much as the next person - but experience has lead me to use the very simplest commercial blocks for sheeting, with my favourite being Riley RM17 and Riley RM6 if I need a becket. Having said that, I must say that Paul Hernes has some really nice home-made wooden blocks on his Phoenix III, but he was very disciplined in ensuring that they didn't get too bulky.

Ross Lillistone

[T. Traddles]

Rick, I'm reefing mine this way because I cannot reach the end of the mizzen boom from within the boat to reattach the reef clew/cringle as Ross describes. Okay for reefing on land, and for the main, but not for the mizzen. She'll be sorted soon.

I sail a similar configuration. It is rather easy to loosen the snotter, pull the sprit forward, unship the sprit from the clew and quickly attach it at the reefing clew and haul in on the snotter to flatten the sail. (I don't have a fork on my sprits, but rather a wooden nipple carved into it that fits through a small eye splice sewn into the clew.) Roll up the reef and tie it in. It seems to me that you might be "complexifying" the process with the holes in the boom.

Your boat really looks good in the video. I take it you had no issues whatsoever with the rudder and controlling the boat.

[RFNK]

I meant to comment on thst too! The rudder seems to be working really well!

Rick

[johnno]

Another little poorly-shot sailing clip. Went out today in light to moderate breeze..light early then a storm came through. I'm starting slowly to get used to her, and also slowly getting some proper rigging gear together. You can see today I had the mizzen setting well, main downhaul was attached to the reefing cringle, so a little loose at the tack. I fixed that later but no video of that bit.

It was the first sail up here with my wife (wearing my thigh high fly fishing waders to stay dry standing in the water while I rigged her, in case you're wondering what large feet she seems to have ) so we took it easy. I managed to hove to under mizzen and adjust both snotters from the cockpit easily, which gave good sail adjustment between the light and moderate breezes. She carried full sail in twenty knots, but if we had stayed out much longer I would have reefed. Likewise, adjusting snotters while under sail was also no problem.

The centreboard is nicely balanced and easy to manoeuvre. I added a little extra width to the trunk to ensure it doesn't jam with sand, but it doesn't rattle or move, nor let any water into the cockpit. In the stronger breezes she stayed dry. I think I'm tacking through only around 110 degrees or so. I'll have to keep checking that.

Not bad weather for a mid-winter day

[WX]

Good to see you making good use of that retirement there Johnno.

[Tim Marchetti]

Another little poorly-shot sailing clip. Went out today in light to moderate breeze..light early then a storm came through. I'm starting slowly to get used to her, and also slowly getting some proper rigging gear together. You can see today I had the mizzen setting well, main downhaul was attached to the reefing cringle, so a little loose at the tack. I fixed that later but no video of that bit.

It was the first sail up here with my wife (wearing my thigh high fly fishing waders to stay dry standing in the water while I rigged her, in case you're wondering what large feet she seems to have ) so we took it easy. I managed to hove to under mizzen and adjust both snotters from the cockpit easily, which gave good sail adjustment between the light and moderate breezes. She carried full sail in twenty knots, but if we had stayed out much longer I would have reefed. Likewise, adjusting snotters while under sail was also no problem.

The centreboard is nicely balanced and easy to manoeuvre. I added a little extra width to the trunk to ensure it doesn't jam with sand, but it doesn't rattle or move, nor let any water into the cockpit. In the stronger breezes she stayed dry. I think I'm tacking through only around 110 degrees or so. I'll have to keep checking that.

Not bad weather for a mid-winter day

that's a great clip, love the banjo

[PeterSibley]

A hard winter on Sandy Strait, lovely John, I liked the sound track too.

[T. Traddles]

Johnno, nice clip.

One of the reasons you may not be tacking so well is the set of your main. A little more sweat on the halyard and a little more sweat on the tack downhaul will straighten out that luff. Check your robands, they may be too tight to allow the luff to move freely up and down the mast.

I've been sailing with a similar rig for two years and had the same trouble with my main as I see in your video. I make sure that I get the luff good and taught at the ramp before attaching the sprit and tightening the snotter. Once I have left the dock, and after about 10 minutes or so of sailing, I check the set of the luff again. Sometimes it needs adjusting due to the stretch of the halyard. When you need to make adjustments to the luff, head into the wind, loosen the sprit. Sweat the halyard and/or tack downhaul and then tighten the snotter for appropriate wind conditions.

Since my sail area fore and mizzen is similar to yours, I imagine the tensioning on the sails will be similar. I've been told recently that getting good windward performance out of a cat-ketch requires a goodly amount of tension on the sprits in light and moderate winds. I know it helps in heavier conditions, but I have had disappointing windward performance in light conditions because I have kept the sprits too loose while beating. Loosening the snotters a bit on a reach and run in those conditions will improve speed. This is the reason Ross mentioned the need to adjust the snotters frequently for course and conditions in an earlier post.

[Larks]

Love the banjo John, is that you? More clips like that please!!!

[johnno]

Thanks for the input Traddles. I know I still haven't got the main right. There's a few reasons for this. In that clip, as I mentioned, I had rigged a downhaul on the reefing cringle to give myself a little more space between the two ends of the downhaul set up. The tack of the main is only inches above the deck, with no room on the mast for an attachment. By going up to the reefing cringle, I get more leg room. I then set up a second downhaul from the tack down to the deck. Because the attachment point for both is on the deck, after a broad reach or run, the rotating mast has stretched the downhaul, because the top of the downhaul rotates with the mast but the bottom stays fixed on the deck. This stretches everything including my stretchy halyard.

The main above the reefing cringle was in good shape though with the luff from there on up in good shape, so it was not as bad it first looks in the clip.

I have lowered the sprit booms somewhat. Where they were previously was overtensioning the leech, and leaving a baggy foot. The lower positioning of the sprit seems to have got the sail shape much better. Once I've got rid of all the stretchy rope in the system, I'll also be much better off.

I added a additional block to the snotter set up this morning and they work much more effectively now. I'll post some rig details once she's all working smoothly. Traddles, do you have some pics of your rig?

I went to get some braid instead of three strand halyard but they only had flecked ropes in the chandleries up here, so I'll wait.

I'm experimenting with all sail tuning options as I go, and I haven't even verified tacking angles yet because my mind has been on other things. Maybe tomorrow I'll check again.

[RFNK]

Really nice clip!

What rope do you want John? Just double braid or do you want something with a dyneema core? You're not winching it on so I'd just use double braid - it doesn't stretch much. What diameter, what length and what colour? I'll be in Sydney on Friday - I'd be happy to send something up if that helps. I've got some old stiff stuff too which you could have if you want it. It's very strong but might be a bit thick for you. It's white (used to be anyway!).

Rick

[T. Traddles]

Johnno, I have a Core Sound 15. The main is 60 sq ft and the mizzen is 45 sq ft. I have no pictures of the rigging of my boat, but the link here takes you to a website of a nicely built Core Sound 20, which is rigged similarly to mine. http://www.roguepaddler.com/cs20q.htm

I do have pictures of the rigging that came with a CD from B&B Yacht Designs, but do not have explanations. If you are interested, pm me with your email address, I will send them to you. I won't post them here because of copy right concerns.

[johnno]

Hi Rick, thanks for the offer but she'll be fine once I get to Brisbane, where there's plenty of choice. Things you learn:

1. The sails (and mast) will turn through 360 degrees on this boat, so 180 degrees of that is very useable. For example, the beach I will normally rig on faces south, and that's also where the wind comes from. Having a rig which will sit with booms dead forward is terrific for depowering downwind, and means on the beach, I can rig without the boat trying to sail up onto the sand. However, it also means I need an extra eight metres of sheet length over that required for a stayed mast. I need to buy new much longer sheets than I originally thought!

2. I loved the look of the Liros 'hemp' three strand polyester rope, and it is very good German quality rope. However, it's no good for halyards, snotters, and downhauls where anything more than minimal stretch is just a pain. Everything needs a tiny bit of give or things start to snap, but those lines need tensioning up tight, and three strand just doesn't do the job. I'll replace all those with 8 strand.

3. For simplicity's sake, I have been using a single length of three strand nylon rope to lace on the sails, to attach the head and tack, and to make the downhaul. I knew eventually these would turn into separate bits of rigging but I wanted to see how it all went first. For example, I have on order some 12mm webbing and plenty of white side fastening buckles from which I will make robands. I'm going to see how they work in lieu of the lacing. I've now almost made some separate downhauls. I'll certainly make individual webbing robands for head, and tack, separate form the lacing system. In the meantime, with the single piece of line multitasking a number of jobs, I get a few issues, but I can make decisions slowly and carefully before I start screwing things onto/into masts and other parts of the boat.

[johnno]

Love the banjo John, is that you? More clips like that please!!!

Might be...more to come today I hope, but there's no wind, or next to none. Won't stop us going out though.

[Larks]

Might be...more to come today I hope, but there's no wind, or next to none. Won't stop us going out though.

Sounds like a good time to start testing the "casting platform" qualities.....???...which I'm thinking would make good subject matter for another clip anyway........

[johnno]

No fishing, but another great little test day. Rigging took 15 minutes at the ramp in total from arrival at the ramp to car parked and boat ready to sail. I've got the lacing down pat now. New downhauls.

About 5 knots of breeze down to next to nothing, but we made good way, and today I checked tacking angles. Pretty much 90 degrees tack to tack, perhaps even a little less, in very light breezes, so I'm stoked with that! We spent a lot of time adjusting snotters and downhauls, and playing with sheeting angles. Again she just glides through tacks. Most of the time we were sailing in between 3 and 5 feet of water (checked with my little hand held sounder which works a dream), with the board lightly tapping the sandbanks at times. The only thing I didn't check was speed, but my friend and I both guessed around 2-3 knots in 3-5 knots of breeze.

I gave him the tiller early on so I could take some pics. I discovered sitting up on the foredeck is a great spot. I shot a couple of movies too, one I'll be uploading later tonight. Meanwhile, check out how dismal mid-winter sailing up in the Sandy Straits is!!

[johnno]

Give it a few minutes and then try this...

[m2c1Iw]

Everything is turning green down here, wonder why.

10.5 deg wet and windy.

[T. Traddles]

That looks like easy living! I wish we had that kind of "dismal" in winter here.

[m2c1Iw]

Johno when you get a chance please show us a bit more detail/pics of your outboard bracket, comments about performance and any improvements you might consider.

Your design looks great and I was wondering if there is any torque movement on the deck etc. I'm preparing to plagiarise.

[johnno]

Mike, I'll take some pics tomorrow. Now that she's up here, I don't even take the bracket off. I'll save the comments until I have the pics to post as well.

[Rainmaker]

G'day Johnno. Boat is looking fantastic, and this thread has been great reading. Thanks.

Have you secured the floorboards in the boat or are they sitting in there loose? If they are secured, how did you go about doing it? I'm thinking of a similar floorboard arrangement for my boat. The build start is still a ways off but it doesn't hurt to get ideas.

Thanks, Kirk.

[johnno]

Bracket first. It's working a treat. I don't bother taking it off now that the boats where she'll live. It's so easy to take the outboard, and anyway, I need to run it in. At the rate I'm going (no use, or up to five minutes use per trip) it's going to take 48 trips before I can even throttle up to half throttle, according to the manual! Another 48 trips before I can open it up fully. Even on one quarter throttle today, the speed was impressive.

There's a few photos here. Basically, apart from what you can see, I put a block of hardwood up under the side deck, epoxied in place. It was about 38mm thick from memory and about 350mm long and roughly 150mm wide. It's end was touching the aft bulkhead and epoxied onto it too. Add the 6mm deck ply and there's 44mm of timber to support it. There's zero flex in the side deck. There's zero movement of the bracket on the side deck, no slip, no twist. Maybe I could have made the bracket an inch longer, but I figured I didn't want the outboard moving on the bracket, so why make it longer than the outboard bracket itself? The two bolts are 10mm dia. I made the bracket to sit flush following the sheer of the side deck. As a result, I had to add the angled section of chopped up cutting board so that the outboard would sit roughly vertical. If I did it again, I would probably angle the base of the bracket on the side deck, and achieve the same result. Shaping the cutting board was interesting. I planed it a bit at first, then got out the angle grinder. The angle grinder just melted it, and then I just pushed the melting plastic out to the edge. Hard to describe but it felt just like pushing butter around on a slice of bread.

There would have been more pics on this thread back when I built it.

[johnno]

Hi Kirk, the floorboards are made up into two panels, one each side of the boat. The boards are held together with small joists (see earlier pics in this thread). Each panel is three metres long, and light enough to very easily take in and out of the boat. I just have to remove the round hatches to the floatation chambers to slide the panels out because the tolerance of the fit is close. I have 4 screws per side to attach the panels, screwed through the boards into the top of the bottom frames of the boat. I don't like the screws much. The fit is so good, I'm going to come up with a little attachment do-dad to make the process able to be done by hand without a screwdriver. Basically some kind of wedge, or a rope tie onto the frames. The floor frames of the boat are not in alignment, so the floorboard panels have some curvature downwards when they sit atop the frames. This adds a little complexity to the do-dad I'll have to come up with.

Good luck with your build, look forward to it when you get under way!

[johnno]

And so back to the tough life.......

[WX]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiKVd5WqKhc

[m2c1Iw]

Thanks for that, I scored a near new 2.3HP Honda short shaft today so tomorrow there will be much measuring head scratching and general contemplation.

[Trevor S.]

Doesn't look like the "winter" that I'm familiar with. Boat is looks fantastic. Great job!

[johnno]

Thanks Trevor! Now she has a name

[P.L.Lenihan]

An absolute joy to behold,whether on trailer or in aqua, and certainly a great source of pride and accomplishment for yourself John. I hope you continue to grace this thread with wonderful pictures of SARAH WILSON doing her stuff!!


Mille Merci!


Cheers!

Peter

[jim_cricket]

Nice sharpie Johnno! Great job.
Cricket

[johnno]

Thanks Jim! Spent a little time this evening having my first crack at some leather work, making a chafe guard for the sprit boom. I'd tried some mylar tape but it came quickly loose at the edges. The leather was cheaper to buy. This wasn't too hard, a few nail holes to guide the stitching, and some nice waxy twine. Seems to sit on nice and firmly, and certainly there's no movement, but I'll try wetting it tomorrow to see if it shrinks on even more. I don't want to pull the stitches though.

[JimD]

Looks brilliant.

[timo4352]

Nice work. I think it can be very satisfying working on little finishing touches like this - making her just the way you want her. It's like giving her a present. And learning something new-for me anyhow.

How is your rudder working out? You've had her out in some pretty rough stuff already. Any problems - loss of steerage or anything?
Tim

[PeterSibley]

Very neat John, there seems to be nothing you don't do perfectly .

[johnno]

Thanks for the nice comments, it does look great doesn't it. Going to do the second one this morning, and off for a sail tomorrow (I hope) to try them out. I'm already thinking about what else I might make in leather, it's such nice stuff to work.

Tim, the rudder is outstanding. The boat turns on a dime in light or heavy winds, tacks surely every time. Same performance whether hull is flat or heeled over. No problems downwind either. I've yet to be out in a steep following sea, but then again, I'm not urging that day forward either! However, I don't anticipate any problem.

[timo4352]

Glad to hear it!
I shoulda never doubted it!

[johnno]

In the interests of completeness, I'll post a few pics of the steps for this chafe guard. I often had trouble finding such info when I was building various things, so it might help someone in future. I'm sure there are better ways to do everything I do, but this is the way I did it.

I bought some remnant leather for $5 a square foot, a couple of sailmakers needles, some heavy waxed whipping twine, and some new Stirling shears to cut the leather.

I punched the holes with a nail (the hole punch I bought was too large I reckon) into a cutting board....


then folded the leather over so I could punch through the first holes and make matching holes along the other edge....


Took some waxed twine and put a needle on each end.....


then laced it together in a shoe lace pattern...

[johnno]

More good fun over the flats. Have a look at the water depth, and check the lack of wake. Loving it!!

[PeterSibley]

Hi Kirk, the floorboards are made up into two panels, one each side of the boat. The boards are held together with small joists (see earlier pics in this thread). Each panel is three metres long, and light enough to very easily take in and out of the boat. I just have to remove the round hatches to the floatation chambers to slide the panels out because the tolerance of the fit is close. I have 4 screws per side to attach the panels, screwed through the boards into the top of the bottom frames of the boat. I don't like the screws much. The fit is so good, I'm going to come up with a little attachment do-dad to make the process able to be done by hand without a screwdriver. Basically some kind of wedge, or a rope tie onto the frames. The floor frames of the boat are not in alignment, so the floorboard panels have some curvature downwards when they sit atop the frames. This adds a little complexity to the do-dad I'll have to come up with.

Good luck with your build, look forward to it when you get under way!

John, I quite like the McMullen Rowan way of doing things ... but don't tell him .

[johnno]

Hi peter, yes he and a few others have more or less the same fitting. I'm going for something way less fussy..but still have to work it out. Too much sailing, not enough thinking at the moment

[Tim Marchetti]

Too much sailing, not enough thinking at the moment

The way life should be

[PeterSibley]

Hi peter, yes he and a few others have more or less the same fitting. I'm going for something way less fussy..but still have to work it out. Too much sailing, not enough thinking at the moment

I think I'll do mine that way, the perfect level of fussiness for me.

[Rainmaker]

John, I quite like the McMullen Rowan way of doing things ... but don't tell him .

Thanks for those pictures Peter, that's exactly the sort of idea I was looking for - quick & easy to take the floorboards out, and nothing to stub bare toes on!

[Rik van der Vaart]

Hi Johnno, glad to see you on the water. She came out awesome. Reading backwards through the posts after quite an absence.
More wind, more pics...

[johnno]

Couldn't resist...



Had a lovely sail today. Squeezed a fairlead onto the mast which acts as a nice attachment point for the main downhaul/cunningham. There was no room for a wooden cleat like I made for the mizzen, as the main sits down almost flush with the deck. Initially I had put a 'U' attachment on the deck just aft of the mast, but this prevented the mast (and sail and boom) swivelling round through anything more than about 80 degrees off centre. Much better now, the main swings easily 180 degrees, which came in very handy beaching her this afternoon in a following breeze after a lovely two hour sail.

I also tried her out with the main in the central mast step, reefed at first in about 17 knots of breeze, and then shook out the reef as the breeze dropped down to 12 knots and she handled it all with aplomb. She also just sat there calmly for five minutes while I took out the reef with the unsheeted main hanging out to leeward, steady as a rock. I was out with a friend in his boat who took some pics, so I'll see what they're like later, and post if I can.

[Larks]

Couldn't resist...
.

Perfectly justified, it'd have been wrong not to!!

[WX]

Johnno, I was doing a tidy up in the office today and found an old chart of the Southern end of Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Straits. The engraving for it was done in 1877, this edition is marked as March 1907 and the last small correction was done 1967. It's a bit ratty but would look good framed...would you like it?

[johnno]

Gary, that would be so unbelievably special! What a lovely generous thought. I'd frame it for sure and give it pride of place in the Poona house! Thank you!