A Whiily Tern in Oz

[MAGIC's Craig]

Hi, Peter:

We are using a pair of 9'-6" oars built from Iain's oar plans. After I faired them a bit and gently took of a bit from the blade ends, they balance rather nicely and my 100 lb. better half loves to row using them. These boats move surprisingly easily - in calm conditions - with them.

Here are a couple of pictures of WEE BONNIE, the first showing her modified trailer:

IMG_3600.jpg

the next, her oars,
Riding the tide toward the bay's mouth and some NW'ly wind.jpg

And lastly, showing her current colors (colours?):
WEE BONNIE, a Sooty Tern.jpg

Cheers,

Craig

[PeterWidders]

Thanks Craig - she's a really nice ship!
I will probably go with 9ft 6in for my oars as well. Mike (Falcon 1 ) kindly provided a link to the Culler Oar plans. I had seen those but did not have the last page for working out the length.
Cheers

[PeterWidders]

The 3 spars are now done save for some more varnish and a bit of leatherwork.



The sail looks smaller when it gets matched up with the spars.

[andrewpatrol]

Absolutely SPARkling Peter. Not far now.

[PeterWidders]

Boom ..boom ....sorry couldn't resist! Thanks Andrew - getting close but the little jobs do seem to expand somewhat.

[PeterWidders]

The first of the side benches was glued in today. The 2 benches are of Hoop Pine and were cut from a couple of 10 inch (250mm) boards to get the curve required.

[andrewpatrol]

How many different timbers in your build Peter?

[PeterWidders]

That's a good question. Let's see: Hoop Pine, Tassie Myrtle, Celery Top Pine, King Billy Pine, Huon Pine. The Huon, Celery and King Billy are partly recycled timbers. The floorboards are recycled hardwood floorboards. Spars are Douglas Fir; tiller is Silver Ash while the mast-step is American White Oak. I didn't really start out with this eclectic mix in mind but pieces kept turning up from sometimes unexpected sources. There has been a bit of a concern from time to time that it will end up looking like a licorice allsort....but I reckon it will be OK.

[MAGIC's Craig]

Very crisp and clean, Peter. She will truly be lovely to behold when completed.

[PeterWidders]

Thanks Craig. Your pic of Wee Bonnie started me think on the placement of a wind indicator.

Should it go on the top of the mast or on the yard as it is higher than the mast ?

I can see arguments for either location.

Or is such a thing a bit 'high-tec' for the style of boats?

Thoughts anyone?

[MAGIC's Craig]

So far, I find that it is somewhat useful off the leech at the peak...mainly to see whether one is getting decent flow along the chord of the sail. While it might be nice to have something like a relative wind indicator atop the mizzen or projecting far enough atop the main mast, it does not really seem to be worth the fuss and one's cheek or ear give pretty good feedback - as they have through the years. We are not racing star boats here. ;-)

[PeterWidders]

Managed to install the centreboard today: not sure if it will be the final fit before I glue on the aft end capping piece. Once this is glued on, the board will only come out when vertical - not really a problem. The ropes are secured with a simple knot which was then stitched with some twine to keep it in place.

[PeterWidders]

The curved plate on the aft end of the centrecase was glued in today. This piece was laminated from King Billy Pine veneers. The control lines for the centreboard have both been installed as well.




The main fore and aft seat and the 2 thwarts and knees are dry fitted only at this stage.

[PeterWidders]

More small details are being ticked off as 'spalsh date' gets closer.
This pic shows the retaining bolt (upper - through the aft edge of the centreboard) that will be in place when the boat is on the trailer: a bit of 'belt-and-braces' but good security.


The next pic is the bow chock for the base of the mast to rest in when on the trailer. The chock has a plate under the breasthook and will also be held in place with a strap around the stem. The mast will do service as a ridge pole for the boat cover once installed.



Latst pic is of the new trailer.

[PeterSibley]

Peter, does the bolt hold the board absolutely rigid without any vibration? I wonder if the bolt is an easy fit the bouncing on the road may crack and destroy the epoxy and let water in or is there a "soft" sleeve around the bolt ?

[PeterWidders]

Peter - the plan is to have a couple of shaped blocks at the top of the centrecase that will hold the board in place. I would think it would be a hard to eliminate all movement but these should help. The retaining hole is above the waterline but there is always the chance of slop inside the case. 'Will post a pic soon.

[FF]

Peter, you asked for ideas about wind indicators: I have a similar rig on our lugger'Lucia' and we like having a few telltales in the sails and a Laser style indicater that you clamp on the mizzen works also. Balanced Lug is easy but it helps a lot to have the extra information. Wishing you happy sailing

[PeterWidders]

Thanks Frank. The more I think about this , the more I reckon I will put a wind indicator on the top of the mast. We were out sailing yesterday on the harbour and I missed having something up top to get an idea of wind direction; especially downwind when trying to wing-and-wing.

[PeterWidders]

'A nice stage today with the main thwarts and thwart knees glued in. I was lucky with the grown ti-tree knees here as a mate was downsizing and had some spares he needed to shift. There is some very nice figure in the ti-tree. The eagle-eyed will spot a small shim at the top of the starboard knee ......

[andrewpatrol]

Thanks Frank. The more I think about this , the more I reckon I will put a wind indicator on the top of the mast. We were out sailing yesterday on the harbour and I missed having something up top to get an idea of wind direction; especially downwind when trying to wing-and-wing.

You weren’t out on training run with Wild Oats were you Peter? Happy new year to you. I expect that wood library to be launched soon

[PeterWidders]

Hah ...no we give the harbour a very wide berth on 26 Dec. Did a couple of Hobarts a good while back - that was close enough to the spectator fleet.
Launching scheduled for later in January ......looking forward to it.
All the best to you for the new year also.

[PeterWidders]

More work on the small details although the first one here was a bit of a biggie: stepped the mast for the first time, which meant running the trailer out of the shed to give enough headroom for the mast. The heel of the mast needed a bit of fine tuning to get the fit right but it looked good once installed.

[PeterWidders]

More work on the seemingly endless small bits to get the boat ready for a splash later this month.
4 small cleats/fairleads went on today: 3 on the boom and 1 on the yard.



The 2 small cleats (rear) are for the reefing line on the boom, while the "wombat" lead is on the yard and will tether the rope used to hook onto the leathered ring around the mast to hoist the lugsail. A similar lead on the boom will hold the mainsheet take-off. The cleats and leads are made from Tassie Myrtle.

[WI-Tom]

More work on the small details although the first one here was a bit of a biggie: stepped the mast for the first time, which meant running the trailer out of the shed to give enough headroom for the mast. The heel of the mast needed a bit of fine tuning to get the fit right but it looked good once installed.

I'm curious about how the heel of your mast fits into the step. I've always seen a shoulder on the mast heel so that the tenon fits into the step, but the weight of the mast is held by the shoulder, with the tenon cut a little shorter than the step so that the mast does not bear on the keelson.

Is there a shoulder/tenon arrangement like that shown in the plans? From the photo, it looks like the mast is resting directly on the keelson. I apologize if the answer lies elsewhere in the thread--I haven't been following closely.

Looks like a beautiful boat!

Tom

[PeterWidders]

Thanks Tom.
The mast-step is as per the plans. I made the step from white oak with2 layers: the lower piece is solid while the upper piece has the hole for the mast as well as a small drain hole cut in the aft lower surface - not that there is scope for much water to get into the hole. The drain hole can just be seen on the aft face of the athwartships floor.

[Falcon1]

I wish I had done that! My step is just a hole and no shoulder on the mast. Fortunately, my downhaul just has one turning block, no others so I can't drive the mast through the bottom of the boat.

Of course, many people have 2, 3, or even 4 to 1 purchases on their downhauls. I bet I could have better performance with more luff tension. I'll experiment this year.

Looking good Peter!

Mike

[PeterWidders]

Thanks Mike.
I am looking at tackle for the downhaul at the moment and am leaning towards double blocks and a quick release cleat for greater purchase here. The tackle on the plans looks a bit light IMHO.

[PeterWidders]

3 pieces of leather have been installed on the spars for chafe protection for the lug rig. I picked up a nice piece of chromed leather that is approx 4mm thick' and some 1.4mm synthetic twine to stitch the pieces. I soaked the piece for approx 10 mins in warm water and also used some Titebond 3 to keep the leather in place. As usual in thes jobs (new process to me) the last of the 3 done turned out the best.
The piece is bigger than needed for this job but will be useful for chafe protection for the trailer tie-downs and future builds (that's what my wife said ...and who am I to disagree?)



The spacing of the holes from the edge as well as from each other was a bit of a "juggle".



The last spar done (boom - centre) turned out the neatest of the 3.

[MAGIC's Craig]

Very nice, Peter. That looks like a good thickness for the leather and should hold up well for you.

[PeterWidders]

Thanks Craig: your advice greatly appreciated.
As can be seen in the pics, it was hard to get the join perfectly straight but they turned out okay and the quality of chafe protection was the main game, rather than gun-barrel straight joins.

[PeterWidders]

A day fitting hardware of different types.






This pic shows the bow towline fairlead and the chock for the mast to make it into the ridgepole for the boat cover. The fairlead was a leftover from our first boat, a29ft Illingworth and Primrose 'Tocade' which we owned for 14 years. When the cover in on, the mast will also be strapped down to the bow cleat shown in pic 2.

[PeterWidders]

Latest jobs to be ticked off have included makeing some eye splices in 4mm rope for the attachment points for the lugsail. Eye spilces in 4mm rope is a bit of fun, especially the 3rd tuck each pass where the required strand can be easily missed.



The fold-down rowlocks needed a holding piece to secure them when not in use. Varnish still needs a good tidy-up.



The transfers for the name and the logo have also been applied. The name will stay 'under wraps' until the launch in 4 days.

[PeterWidders]

Our launching finally happened on 21 January after a very enjoyable 18-month build. We had a warm day with a very unusual breeze that ranged from 5 - 18 kts and was flicking about 135 degress in direction. We went with a reef in the main- more for the direction changes than concern over the wind strength. Most systems worked very well with a bit of fine tuning needed for the rudder blade downhaul (more purchase needed) and some more trimming of the centreboard (a bit of sticking at times). The performance of the boat actually exceeded my expectations: there was little of the 'tippiness' I had read of in some reviews; helm balance was great and she handled the waves from passing ferries (on a shallow beach) with aplomb .
The choice of name for the boat was a exercise with lots of possibilities from the Little Tern to Whilly Tern side of things (you get my drift) but I settled on "Muckle Mootie" which is the native Shetland Islands name for the local seabird, Leach's Petrel. The bird transfer on the bow of the boat is one such Petrel.

[Zuri]

Congrats Peter. Well done. Happy sailing.
Travis.

[andrewpatrol]

Fantastic Peter. Great to see her on the water. I hope you have many happy sailing days. What’s the first mod?