Blue Moon

[The Q]

Thanks for the advice, I have been recommended that book elsewhere. My intention is to see how far this diet takes me before I start trying anything different..

I've a spreadsheet tracking my sugar level tests, and it's slowly drifting down... When either that stops drifting or my weight settles out,  will be the trigger point at which I'll make a decision.

[The Q]

Since the last waffle, I've changed the lifting tackle , which now works well.

Glassed round the aft end of the keel then added a layer either side which comes the a point. Next time out this will be trimmed straight  ready for it to be sanded and given a suitable profile when finishing occurs...

Next time, probably tomorrow the new lifting tackle, will position the keel  on a pile of breeze blocks so I can almost turn it over to do the bottom and leading edge.

Various shelf doors have been fitted to keep the dust out, more to do..

[The Q]

Every day so far of this holiday except Christmas day I've worked on the keel.


So it's had two coats all over of heavy glassfibre cloth , one of surface tissue on the sides and bow.
The bow was surfaced this morning, while that was setting, I sat the other end and reshaped the tail end of the lead lump casing. It needed building up a little on one side, that was done with glass cloth and thickened resin. It's now setting with a heater gently blowing over it.


It needs turning over to finish the bottom of the keel, but that will have to wait till tomorrow. When it's all set..


There is Border collie at my feet wanting his long walk...storm Bella is on its way time we went..


Ps Ben the border Collie is banned from the workshop until I've vacuumed up very well, a dog with fibreglass up his nose would not be a good idea.

[The Q]

The 60th 3 Rivers Race is on 5th-6th June 2021,
starting at 11:00, at Horning sailing club Norfolk. Up to 150 boats 14ft, to 40ft starting in roughly 10 boat starts over the next 2hours.
You have 24 hours to complete 50 miles of river, under 3 bridges twice, one of which has just 6ft air draft.

The record is about 8 hours, the worst year just 13 boats finished. You and your crew against wind and tide.

There are about a dozen guardships around the course, each with a rescue boat, to which you shout your race number as you pass. There are 4 turning points on the course where you cross a line or round a buoy.
Entry forms and notice of race are on 3rr.uk

That bridge..
https://youtu.be/nSgMcPrcOXU

One of the turning points.
https://youtu.be/WOpGhAqFBqg

Just an amateur bodging away..

[GregHBBR]

Or for my attempts see:

https://www.gregafloat.org.uk/seahawk/3rr2009.php

Prepare for a long read (around 23,500 words)!

[The Q]

I've read all your reports some time ago Greg, they are a good read.
We competed against each other ..and the course..

I did every race 2002 to 2015 in  three different Yeoman. Prior to that from 1981-96  most years, in two different Lysanders, for about 6 years , two years in a white boat and once in a Rebel.

Since 2016 I've run the guardship on Hickling Broad, counting them all past. And radioing in times for each boat.

Your 2009 report said Gemima was first home in your class, that was owned by Derek Cole a Horning Club member who did well most years, I've sailed with him a few times in a Yeoman.

Oh just caught up on your 2020 report,. I'd advise hiring from Phoenix yard right by the bridge , their boats are electric..very much quieter.

They now allow stern on mooring outside the New Inn Horning,  this causes a bottleneck for the 3 Rivers Race on the return.
The one time I was competing the tide was flowing out, on our return towards Horning, every time you sailed out, to pass the moored cruisers the tide caught  us  and pushed us back.. Slantendicular came along, and just nudged us from behind with her bowsprit. It was just enough to get us past the moored cruisers before we dived back to the bank and sailed forward.
We didn't protest...

[Chris Waite]

May I join in, (in in) in praise of the Three Rivers Race?

I first came to it while a student, as a college chum, Tom Moore owned the original Norfolk Punt Swallow.  Here she is being helmed by yet another 'Chris' with Tom as 'crew' -



Lordy, that's a while ago; we'uz just babies!

It was a matter of getting up to Norfolk from London in an ancient Frogeye Sprite, turning the boat over and carefully taping up the seams on her carvel bottom boards with masking tape, (it never lasted), as she used to leak like a sieve, then gingerly slipping her into the water, so as not to disturb our handiwork.  I think she has now had those planks replaced with plywood, but her side strakes are still (? the original) clinker.  We also undertook other tricks, such as removing the forestay, using the jib and its halyard to raise and lower the mast for bridges; any simplification to gain a few seconds.

Must have done at least four 'Three Rivers' like that, at worst it took almost all of the twenty-four hour time limit and I think our best time was about nine hours.  Isn't it something ridiculous around sixty miles in total; or have I doubled up and is that several other races I'm thinking of?

The last one I did was with Tom again, but by this time we had matured considerably.  Markedly older and richer he was able to afford to have the cruiser Moonshadow, built -

https://wolstenholmedesign.com/portfolio/galleries/gallery-1/g1-moonshadow/

Glory be, she was a beautiful beast

Now sold on

Chris

[LASER41420]

Really needs an HBBR team entry next time!
Steve

[The Q]

The absolute maximum distance is 54 miles, with the Lower Bure mark couple of miles  below the Stracey arms. However I've never seen it that far. The lowest I've seen it has been the Stracey itself which gives a 50 mile race .
Here is a link to the map of the race.
https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/photo/165633

The Ludham bridge turning mark never moves as it's in the only sensible, big enough, piece of that river to turn round.
The South Walsham broad mark is normally in the broad, but if the wind is light or from the wrong direction, it may be moved into a bay before the broad.
The Hickling Broad mark is normally up by the Hickling SC club at the top end of the broad, but due to excessive weed in 2019 it was near the entrance of the broad.
The lower Bure mark can be anywhere between the bridge and six mile house., The highest I've seen it it was moved to just before the bridge due to light winds..even so that year only 16 boats finished that year.

Teams need 4 boats of at least two different classes.
My choice ideally is a boat of 20ft, tall rig that can be lowered easily,  draft 3ft, Or even better liftable. Larger dinghies have done well. Note the maximum Norfolk handicap issued Is 25% if you are slower you still only get 25%, I have several times finished the race with a boat of 35% of your finishing time. Note 25% is roughly 1360 ish Portsmouth.

Examples of norfolk handicap
A Star class is 0%
Norfolk punt Swallow is about 3%
A laser is 10%
An Enterprise is 14%
A Norfolk dinghy 23%.



Martham Developments, the mad fools, will hire you a sailing cruiser for the race, you need to book early ..https://www.marthamboats.com/ and we are greatfull to them in that they lend us one or two motorboats for the race weekend to act as guardships.

[The Q]

And back to boat building,
Both sides of the keel have been sanded filled sanded filled etc.

Its now lying on its side with a top coat painted on, it looks good except for a couple of dusty lumps that have landed.
There are now two heaters in there warming it up till it sets.

Before I did that I trimmed to size some bits of shelving and glued up two sides that are now also setting.

[The Q]

The second side of the keel, and the bottom have been coated with top coat, that is now setting.

More work has been carried out on shelving, next week they should be painted and installed.

[The Q]

Not a huge amount done this week,

The heater timer worked well, nice to walk into a warm workshop... The ceiling insulation worked well too, no melted patch over the workshop..

The keel is now finished except for anti fouling, which it will get with the boat.. So  it was lifted onto a trolley and after a multi point turn, the trolley was moved into the entrance of the workshop. It would have moved on to near the boat, but we had heavy snow on the Saturday, and it was tooo cold on Sunday..

One Shelving unit has now been painted blue, due to drying time and a keel in the way, the other hasn't been done yet..

[The Q]

Today, I've moved the keel out , it didn't get far, the ground is too soft, even with the board beneath. So I've parked it where it is until I get a couple of thicker boards .

And a couple of photos..someone insisted in being in shot..

[inwe]

Nice job Q. A very well found shape. Well done.
Richard

[The Q]

Thanks Richard,  it took hours of work  reading up on keel design, then designing it and redesigning and re...

This week, Not much done really, the axle of the trailer was de rusted, zinc paint coated then top coat painted. After about 23 years sat around, the trailer needs some care and attention.

Much measurements of the trailer were done, I have to remove the old flatbed off the top which is held on by 4 bolts, then the chassis needs derusting zinc coating and painting. The old red lead paint has just about had it..

Meanwhile the old, flat bed needs cutting into various pieces, the main piece being 1/3rd of the old flat bed to provide somewhere for the keel to sit, and a couple to mount the new section back onto the trailer... Once all the bits are cut to size then they'll need treating before bolting back on..

I've spent hours and hours working over the trailer design, to get the balance right, and to comply with UK trailer laws. At one Point it looked like I would have to move the axle, until I realised If I put the boat on the trailer backwards, the balance point was near enough correct..

Luckily the old flat bed the boat had rested on, on the trailer, is not part of the chassis, so I can remove that and replace it with a new smaller one without getting the trailer tested..

I discovered this small unbraked trailer has bigger section tube than the 2 ton capacity braked trailer i have, lightweight it is not, which brings me too.

I've been calculating the trailer for the new version of my boat, the boat weighs 275KG, +180Kg for the keel = 455Kg

An unbraked trailer under UK law, cannot weigh all up more than 750 Kg.. so 750Kg - 455kG = 295 Kg. The tube weight I calculate to be under 180Kg leaving 115Kg then I have to add axle, wheels, couplings etc..  At the moment the Boat is in the weigh of the crane, so I can't weigh the trailer to get a more exact weight.. It's going to be close...

Oh I did, remove some excess weight after the boat was weighed, so that will give me a bit more leeway..

The old trailer light board is now 40 + years old so I've ordered the parts to build a new one, all Sealed LED units. Various brackets will need to be made to fit the board to the trailer, and the overhang of the boat at the rear could be over 2M requiring a warning board and that mounting somehow to the pointy bit of the boat..

[The Q]

Over the last couple of weekends, the board, which will be come part of the underside of the hull, to spread the weight of the keel, has been glassfibred and sanded ready. However it's been blowing 50mph with snow out there. So it ain't going to be fitted yet.

So I started cutting the old flat bed that sat on the trailer, then a section was taken into the workshop, I was going to start further work on that section, but found the noise of the angle grinder on hollow metal tube way too loud indoors and my ear defenders have hidden themselves somewhere.. A new pair has been ordered, but no deliveries at the moment due to the snow,,

Two more smaller pieces need cutting from the old flat bed, all three will then need trimming to shape, de rusting , zinc paint and topcoat painting, then assembling together as the new bed to rest the keel on, on the trailer..

[The Q]

With New ear defenders on, the piece of flat bed already cut off was trimmed to shape, wire brushed down (wire brush in angle grinder) painted with Zinc paint, then top coat. another top coat still to do..
last weekend was -3C 45mph winds not a weekend to be outside, next weekend is forecast to be 10mph Winds +17C so if that happens the rest of the flat bed will be butchered up for bits..

Some time ago when I started looking at rebuilding Blue Moon, I found a handicap calculator that gives rough figures from the sizes of sails and hull. It's used on the PRHF (Performance Handicap Racing Fleet) in some areas of the USA.. (found here, http://www.capedory.org/phrf.html ).

After butchering the formulas to remove things like inboard outboard options as they don't apply to Dinghies and small keel boats. Then using their fiddle factor column which they used to adjust for type of course, I used it to change the final results from the USA 3 digit PRHF handicap Number to the 4 digit UK RYA Portsmouth Handicap number.
I then put in the details of every Dinghy and keel boat including Blue Moon, that I could find the dimensions for to produce a graph..
That produced a reasonably straight line except for a few of the most extreme boats. The graph was plotted Portsmouth Number against Norfolk Handicap Number. They should correlate, and for the most part do..


Anyway I searched for the spreadsheet on the computer and found it.. It claims I last used it 2005!!! So I suspect that it's an early version.. I've updated it with the latest figures from Blue Moon and it shows it to be faster than first thought. I'm not sure I believe that, but won't know till she sets sail..

There should be a second spreadsheet of generated handicaps / issued handicaps but that's missing, So I'll have to regenerate it.

Further research and adjustments will, be made to the spreadsheet.

[The Q]

Hmm a very old version of the PRHF  spreadsheet..
I made the new calculated handicap verses actual handicap, graph to find it all over the place..
 Then I realised..
Some of the boats weights were in Kilos, some in pounds, the chart is American so all should be in lbs.
Some boats were hull only weight, some were fully kitted out.
Most didn't include crew on board which for a small boat is significant.

So I spent an hour correcting this last night, still more to do on that and I've noticed the number of boats on the list is somewhat shorter than I remember, so I need to research boats again and extend the list..

[The Q]

This weekend, more metal bashing, two pieces were cut off the old flat bed for use. The rest of the flat bed was cut into useable pieces for the might come in handy pile.

The smaller piece goes between the sides of the previously processed section, it will spread the weight of the boat onto the axle. That piece has now been trimmed to size and cleaned up for painting.

The larger piece goes at the front end of the section that will have the keel resting on it. It goes from side to side transferring the weight onto the A frame of the Trailer, 40 inches forward of the Axle. It's been trimmed roughly, and dry fitted. It just needs a little fettling, then derusting, before painting with the little piece.

I was going to weight the trailer but the bathroom scales failed.. They are 30 years old plus .. A new set has been ordered.

The trailer needs to be raised up to work on it, I'm going to get some foundation blocks this week for the purpose, they will be used later to raise up the boat to fit the keel..

More playing with the PRHF spread sheet seems to indicate a Norfolk Handicap of about 13%, that's slightly faster than an Enterprise but slower than a Laser. I need to do more work on the spreadsheet though to add more information.


4 MDF sheets were demolished into sections for shelving and uprights in the library
 Three more shelves were installed, as were two uprights for the  next section of shelving.

[The Q]

Well Doris has spoken,
Outdoor sports allowed from March 29th, the rule of six should go May 17th, So all is Go for the 60th  3 Rivers Race on Jun 5/6th 2021 (unless Doris Changes his mind).

Entry Forms on www.3rr.uk

As an aside to this Racing at Horning Sailing club was due to Start 28th March.
But now of course can't start in a limited fashion until April 4th on Black Horse Broad and then programmed Down river to Acle or Thurne on the 5th