Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cutter

[jamieduff1981]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
Last night I did my first stainless steel weld. I had planned to practise on scraps first but forgot. It's just a mig weld and the settings I guessed at worked out fine actually.








After a very cursory clean up it looks like it will be an acceptable part after proper clean up and some polishing.





I also got the mast partner glued and screwed in permanently which is another step forward.

[jamieduff1981]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
I spent last week in Stromness on a traditional sail making course run by the Orkney Maritime College. It was a really great 5 days. There was online work to do beforehand, but I had since New Year to do it.


We used the two headsails for my dinghy as the course project, and the 6 (and a half) of us split into two groups with me in one and my wife in the other.


Whilst my wife is already a pretty competent sewing machinist who makes all her own bags and clothes and made the costumes for our daughters' dance school's show last year, I have never sewn anything since making a stripy fish out of felt in home economics class in school, and generally have no aptitude for materials which aren't rigid. My first attempt on the big clutch-controlled industrial sewing machine went really badly which reinforced my conviction that I was really going to struggle with this.





Fortunately? it turned out the machine was damaged and nobody else did any better so we all ended up using servo-motor machines instead, where I gradually realised I could infact sew in a reasonably straight line if I practised a little.





My group worked on the staysail using a cross-cut design. Here we've reduced the sail plan dimensions to allow for stretch, have lofted the reduced dimensions out onto the floor and are calculating and pinning draught points and edge curves.





I am quite fussy in a sensory sense and whilst I respect Dacron's ubiquity, I hate how it feels and sounds. I chose Clipper Canvas instead. It's still a synthetic fibre and is hot rolled and resin coated so it's nice and airtight like Dacron but very quickly feels (and sounds) like old fashioned cotton canvas, but is much more stable than cotton canvas whilst having a bit more bias elongation (i.e. diagonal stretch) than Dacron. The Clipper Canvas came in 150cm widths, but on sails the size of those on my dinghy that is far too wide and leaves limited scope for shaping the sails. Hence, we slit the cloth into 50cm widths. Here we are laying out the cloth.





Broadseams were calculated and marked on in hard pencil next. This is the tack seam which gets a double allowance. The rest were half or less as severe. After the photo the panel above was taped in position with its edge following the pencil line, and the sail no longer sits flat on the floor.





Likewise the leech tapers were calculated, marked then taped.

[jamieduff1981]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
We designed our corner patches, cut and positioned these for sewing.





Meanwhile, the other team was doing likewise on our jib, but we decided to go for a mitre cut for that sail so we could learn more overall.





We lifted the sail off the floor at that point to check the curvature in 3 dimensions, made a couple of very small adjustments then sewed the panels together. This done, we then moved onto marking our edge curves with a baton, trimming then folding our edge seams.





Now the edges and patches were ready for sewing.





This took us to the end of Day 2. On Day 3, we took time out from our sails to learn about assessing existing sails for repairs, and did some repairs for a local chap with a nice Shetland Model with a 4 sided lugsail.





On Wednesday night, we worked until 10pm learning traditional hand sewing and rope work techniques which was fun.

[jamieduff1981]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
I learned how to make a sailmaker's eye splice








We all agreed to abandon the staysail at this point, which my wife and I plan to finish with traditional bolt roping and handsewn eyelets and cringles. There simply wouldn't be time to do this on the course. Instead, we all focused on completing the jib using slightly more contemporary methods. This involved pre-tensioning a luff rope, splicing in thimbles, then sewing it in.





Once finished, we test flew out jib on the course leader's 23ft boat. The stay is a bit too upright for this sail and the sheet angle wrong so I'm pushing the sheet down a bit here to get a better idea of the sail. We're quite happy with it.





We each got nice little certificates to say we finished the course.





...and waved goodbye to the Orkney isles. This is the third time we've been there, and I'm sure we'll end up back there again some time.


Thanks for reading

[gray duck]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
Great report! thanks

[pez_leon]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
Very cool. Learning to sew has been one of my favorite unexpected benefits of building my boat. Congratulations on what look to be beautiful sails in the making!

- James

[Michael_Owen]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
Awesome! Good job on that jib.

Mike

[stromborg]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
That looks like a very cool class. We have company here in the US that puts together very nice pre-cut kits for sails, I've built a bunch of those (one more is on the way right now) but actually working out the math/layout problems to get the shape is something I'm not quite ready to jump into.

[tunznath]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
I would have liked to to that but the Orkney Isles are a little far from the Azores islands

[galleywench]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
Great progress, I wish I had the time and guts to build my own sails. Looking forward to you reaching the finish line, I can't wait to see that rig in action. I went back and forth between the lug rigged yawl and your rig when building mine; I ultimately chose the lug rigged yawl version, but don't entirely rememember my reasoning behind it now.

[dalekidd]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />

We each got nice little certificates to say we finished the course.





...and waved goodbye to the Orkney isles. This is the third time we've been there, and I'm sure we'll end up back there again some time.


Thanks for reading

Nice job! Congratulations on completing the course and making your own sail. I've built a couple sails from kits but that's far from designing your own. Always a lot of satisfaction in learning and doing something new. WTG!

[jamieduff1981]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />

Great report! thanks

Thank you!

Very cool. Learning to sew has been one of my favorite unexpected benefits of building my boat. Congratulations on what look to be beautiful sails in the making!

- James

Thank you! Sewing is definitely a skill I think I'd like to develop and use more. Boat covers, boat tents, sail bags. Experimenting with new sails. The list goes on and on!

Awesome! Good job on that jib.

Mike

Thank you!

That looks like a very cool class. We have company here in the US that puts together very nice pre-cut kits for sails, I've built a bunch of those (one more is on the way right now) but actually working out the math/layout problems to get the shape is something I'm not quite ready to jump into.

Thanks! The physical assembly was a good skill to learn but the theory/maths side is actually really simple provided it's done in the correct order. I have little desire to attempt to portray myself as an authority on the matter but I think I got my head around it quite quickly and would be happy to write a post about it if there was interest.

I would have liked to to that but the Orkney Isles are a little far from the Azores islands

It would definitely need to be made into a 2 week holiday I think - that is quite a journey! There is another course in the south of England but again not straight forward to travel to for anyone likely to arrive at an airport around London

Great progress, I wish I had the time and guts to build my own sails. Looking forward to you reaching the finish line, I can't wait to see that rig in action. I went back and forth between the lug rigged yawl and your rig when building mine; I ultimately chose the lug rigged yawl version, but don't entirely rememember my reasoning behind it now.

Thank you! I've enjoyed your short videos on Youtube by the way. Your Apple 16 turned out lovely

Nice job! Congratulations on completing the course and making your own sail. I've built a couple sails from kits but that's far from designing your own. Always a lot of satisfaction in learning and doing something new. WTG!

Thanks! As above to Stromborg, I think there's a bit of a mystique around design that probably isn't merited. There's almost a deflated "what? that's it?" feeling upon learning how the numbers are arrived at.

[jamieduff1981]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
I had a few pressing things to do, but this weekend I started modifying the inexpensive used combi trailer.

I started by getting the bow up where I wanted it. The Apple 16 is a rather different shape compared to the GP14 which I think was on this trailer before.





That's better. Not finished, but going in the right direction.



It sits on its keel in the centre, but the GP14 was gunwale hung. I want to use these for stablity and to share some of the weight.



I cut and rewelded those supports to sit under the iroko rubbing strips



This will basically work.



I will weld on a post at the front of the trailer for a winch, and I will add two further supports from steel plate covered with carpet to sit under a pair of chines. This will ease getting on and off the trailer, and offload what's likely a fairly high stress on the keel from that point load. It's plenty strong enough to sit there like this, and I've taken it out for 2 miles at low speed but I don't think bouncing over a pothole at ~50mph will do the hull any long term good.

I'm confident this is going to work out just fine though.

[pez_leon]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
What a fantastic barn full of projects.
How much of the weight rests on those rubbing strips? It looks from here like a potentially harmful point load at an awkward point. Bouncing down a rough road on a trailer has got to be one of the hardest things our boats experience. No doubt you are better equipped to decide on this than I am, but I wonder if those side supports wouldn't be best used only for stability, so that they hold zero weight when resting.

- James

[dbp1]

Re: Melitele - my Campion Apple 16 Cuttebr />
After a few back and forths with the designer, as I have been pretty annoyed with two different trailer configurations (what came "stock" with the Trailex SUT-550, and then a modification to get a plank down the center instead of rollers), he said that what he uses / suggests for the Apple (and similar boats). He said:

"This is the sort of arrangement that you should be looking at, though not gunwale hung:

https://www.tridentuk.com/gb/trolley-trailers-towing/launching-trolley.html

The Apple is quite happy with a pad reaching across chines 1 and 2 and extending a few inches above and some inches below so that the pad’s lowest point contacts the trolley cross bar and maintains the approximate angle. Another pad under the forefoot is all that is required. No rollers, no bunk beds, no point loading. This sort of arrangement has been used since the beginning of inter-club and open meetings after the 2nd world war when dinghy racing started to take off. Bunk beds and dinghies and light dayboats are an abysmal combination."

and

"Although I use fairly short pads - they've survived two trailers over more than 50 years - I think longer ones could be advantageous. Mine pivot and are slightly loose so that the pads accurately conform to the hull; the pivot is also offset so the pads naturally fall towards the centre line of the trailer. A better set up is probably as shown in this photo - vario trailer - though I don't favour the roller. Both in this photo and the other attachment - welshharp - I favour the wide nose pad well padded on the edges as it gives you more room for manoeuvre when you're struggling in a lop, with murky water and unable to see clearly and the boat trying its best to turn at 45 degrees to the trailer. I don't like the hard edges of the roller or its mount or the narrow landing area but then I normally launch and recover single-handedly. A rubber bow stop is a good idea, as is a rope from the stern to the trailer cross-beam.

vario-dinghy-road-trailer_16ft6.jpg
"

I've been meaning to modify the trailer I have (I have the parts, just haven't had the boat in the garage where I can winch it off the trailer) to change to this configuration: two "V"-shaped supports, probably with rollers down the center (as that's all I could get that'll go on my trailer, but little/no weight should be on them).

What I eventually realized (I think from a comment by wizbang, incredibly source of belligerent knowledge) is that a lot of the advice about trailers on this forum relates to traditionally built boats, where most/all the weight should be on the keel, and everything else should just support them. But a plywood stitch & glue boat is not structured like that at all. There are certainly stronger and weaker points (e.g., near frames, near the centercase, are stronger), but trying to get all the weight on the keel (which for a boat with plenty of rocker is a pain) isn't necessary, and may compromise other things that would be more useful when it comes to making it easy to launch/retrieve.