After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

[rregge]

Years back I built the hull of my Arctic Tern (closed bow and stern and gunter sloop rigged) but now that I am single (and without a workshop) its time to finish the rest of this boat and take her sailing. Note: I have taken her rowing and except for a small leak I may have fixed she rowed ok for and 18' "rowboat"

She is on an aluminum trailer (with two flat tires) in a garage around the block from my loft (all recently divorced guys should live in a loft). The rudder and rudder case need to be sanded, re-varnished and installed. The spars are all cut and almost ready for varnish. The center board is stuck in the up position. I need to add 100# of ballast. Then I need sails and all the rigging and I have never rigged a small boat before.

To top it off the plans are faded and are a little hard to read.

And my little Mazda CX30 may not be able to tow her. But that is a problem for a latter date.

I will be asking a lot of questions. Arctic Tern drawing #27 version 2.0 begins.

Russell

[John Meachen]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

My suggestion would be to deal with one issue at a time and to use the fun of each expedition to motivate you to clear the next hurdle.Checking to see if the tyres hold air is a good starting point.I don't think you ought to have any anxiety about whether the car will tow the boat.If you put aside the planned ballast,does the boat and trailer weigh less than a couple of passengers and their luggage?It might be a challenge to find somebody to supply and fit a towbar as there might not be a huge demand and there is an amount of conditioning to encourage people to use enormous vehicles for towing even the smallest boat.This page might encourage you https://owners-manual.mazda.com/gen/.../04100100.html

It looks like some varnish and brushes will be on the shopping list and the improvement in appearance will surely be something that makes enough difference to provide a major boost to enthusiasm.The boat is a bit big for solo rowing,but wouldn't the reward of an occasional excursion while waiting for varnish on the spars to dry be a nice diversion?

[pez_leon]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

The towing issue is an interesting one. I also drive a small Mazda and had no trouble finding and installing a tow bar. As best I can tell Mazda approves my car for towing small loads everywhere in the world except the USA. My guess is that this has less to do with our landscape and more to do with our litigious culture.
If you want this internet stranger's opinion: I think you are unlikely to damage your car with careful towing of this light boat, and I'm not aware of any laws that would be broken by this use. However, you might find that your insurance declines to cover you if an accident occurs when the car is used outside of the described use cases in the manual.

- James

[Autonomous]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Sometimes life gets rough, sorry for your divorce.
What sail plan does she have?

[rregge]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Gunter sloop

[rregge]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Checking to see if the tyres hold air is a good starting point.

EXCEPT the garage doesn't have any electricity. It is also hard to move around since there is also a TR-6 with bad brakes in the garage.

[johngsandusky]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

I keep a 12v air pump in my car, plugs into the cigarette lighter socket. There are extension cords for that too.
Good luck with the project, keep us posted.

[Andrew2]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

My Willey Tern weighs 'ex rig) 70kg, and the trailer the same, so two passengers is about right. Your similar boat maybe 30% more? I have the same gunter sloop rig and the stays I made in wire. But, friends new built 20ft gaffer, we are going with Dynema. This actually was cheaper than ss wire and they demoed the splicing technique, quite simple. Braid lashings to tension the stays. On mine, I set the mast up with props and looped the spliced ends over the reduced mast top, then made the bottom swages with the required gap for the lashings.
BTW, if solo, yes to ballast. Iain is generous with sail area and 100 lbs will calm things down a bit.
A2

[ahp]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Investigate etrailer.com. They may have a towing hitch for your car, no drilling involved. They have towing hitches for lots of cars and they are good. but I doubt that they have one for a Maserati.

[rregge]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Sanding spars by hand with belts from a belt sander, still tons of dust in my loft. I have gone against the grain (yes I know) with 36, 80 and 120 and it looks reasonably well. Any suggestions on how to get the nice rounded top on the spars and how to determine the angle on the lower end of the gunter pole.

Should I varnish the spars (6 coats of Epifanes like the rest of the boat) before or after fitting with the hardware?
The rigging is going to be a challenge the blue prints are faded with age and I have never set up the rigging on a small boat. I have sailed big plastic boats, but small centerboards is a new experience.

Thanks

Russell

[Michael_Owen]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Second vote for e-trailer. I got a hitch for my 2014 Corolla, and it's been great. Cheap, too.

I would varnish as much as possible before fitting hardware. Will you bed the hardware? I used Dolfinite and like it fine.

AS far as rigging goes, Geoff Kerr's series on OCH has an episode on rigging a Caledonia Yawl. I used it when rigging my Whilly Boat. Super-simple, but effective.

Good luck, and post some pix when you can!

Mike

[rregge]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Second vote for e-trailer. I got a hitch for my 2014 Corolla, and it's been great. Cheap, too.

I would varnish as much as possible before fitting hardware. Will you bed the hardware? I used Dolfinite and like it fine.

AS far as rigging goes, Geoff Kerr's series on OCH has an episode on rigging a Caledonia Yawl. I used it when rigging my Whilly Boat. Super-simple, but effective.

Good luck, and post some pix when you can!

Mike

Everything will be bedded with Dolfinite, just like the hull.

What is OCH?

Thanks

Russell

[hawkeye54]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

" Off Center Harbor " , I believe


Http:// www.offcenterharbor.com - no affiliation



Rick

[Michael_Owen]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Hey Russell,
Sorry, I forgot that yours is a gunter sloop. The build of the Caledonia Yawl on Off Center Harbor is a great series on glued-lap construction, but the rigging bit is for a balanced-lug yawl, if I remember right.

Mike

[rregge]

Re: After a 6-7 year hiatus, its time to finish my Arctic Tern

Things are progressing. The rudder and rudder case and sanded, while sanding 70 year old really tight growth ring Douglas Fir is a PITA. It reminds me of sanding hard maple or white oak, I am doing this by hand. At least two people on this board (including Jim Ledger) bought some of this material more than a few years back.

When I get the TR6 started and out of the way, I will get the Arctic Tern out of the garage and take some pictures.