Blue Moon

[The Q]

Saturday:

I was at the SC attending a first aid course for the 3 Rivers Race guardship crews. It was given by a competitor, who just happens to be a plumber, well that's what he calls himself, he's actually a heart surgeon...

Sunday: Well, I didn't sail this weekend it was gusting 40mph, and I'm not yet happy with BM's handling in strong winds..

So I went to the club, added a couple of plastic milk Bottles half full of water  on string to the cover, to help hold it down, then paddled round the front and removed the Jib club.. After that returned to the club house for a coffee and Bacon Butty .

Then to home and the workshop.

 I've discovered some International Canoes have a tube within a tube jib club, by a clever arrangement of string, the inner tube slides out lengthening the Jib club on close hauled, some boats also use the string to tighten the leech at the same time.

So out with the angle grinder and cut off various bits and pieces plus unbolt and remove the furler.. I'm going for the K.I.S.S. principle. While thinking about the various bits of string they were using, I thought, why not use a bungy inside the Club to draw back the sliding extension?.. That removes more complications of string..

So I put a 28mm diameter dowel into the lathe and turned that down to just under the 27mm ID of the jib club, after checking that slid in and out OK. I put the extension into the lathe with a drill bit in the headstock and drilled a centre hole. then using a hand drill I drilled a 45 degree hole to meet the end of the center hole.

Through that a bungy was fed with a knot in the end a hollow was made in the extension to accommodate the knot. Then assembly was fed into the jib stick, the bungy tensioned up with just enough tension to pull the extension back into the jib club.. That was OK so...

The extension was then removed and varnished, I wouldn't be surprised if I have to sand again before final installation..

On the club , the forestay (the wire in the jib) mounting points were moved back about 5 inches as I've realised they were too far forward.

So that's it for this week, next week I will re install the jib club, add the bungy suggested by Jim to force the Jib club to boom out. Then realign the jib sheet turning blocks, before going sailing again next Sunday..

[The Q]

Just a reminder folks, today is Horning Boat Show, 10:00 to 16:00, free to enter, the sailing club is open, if you don't want to go out in out boats £5 for an adult free for accompanied children, our tea bar is the cheapest in town... Sit on our quay heading and watch the world sail by..

[The Q]

Race one,

Started well, then jib club extension jammed again or to be more precise was sticking, I think the varnish was still to soft (second coat given on Saturday)..

Race two rigged a string to force jib club extension back in so I could tack the jib.

Race 3 , got really irritated by having to pull various extra bits of string, the jib club was supposed to mean self tacking!!! Removed all the bits of string and the bungy that helps with holding out the boom.. Jib had too much belly..

Race 4 moved the luff mounting point forward of the pivot of the jib club.... It worked, self tacking was back properly and  the jib was relatively flat. Kept up with the other boats, all with taller rigs for half the race.

Conclusions..

The mast on Blue Moon is fairly "soft" and bendy, with no vang, putting tension on the forestay just bends the mast forward. Hence the removal of the jib club bungy, it was pulling the jib club back to hit the mast.

The mainsail is back at the house and will be modified to bring the leach foot of the sail up 18 inches and the luff foot up 5 inches. Measurements were taken for that.

This will allow a vang to be used, if that's successful, giving  more jib luff tension the jib club bungy will reappear.

If that's OK then the jib club extension will be pulled out to the maximum length that doesn't hit the mast.., and the jib luff move back as far as it can for a reasonable shape.

I'm considering a block and tackle beneath the Jib club to increase tension, but this will be a last resort..

[The Q]

someone took a long distance piccy of BM sailing of which this is a clip.

[The Q]

The mainsail mod was successful, the vang now works, but now needs rerouting so I can adjust it while sailing.

The jib club is on it's minimum extension, looking at the drawings, I made a cock up in cutting the jibs foot, So the jib is now clipped to the front of the club, and the extension fully in.. It seems to work that way for now ..  
Currently experimenting with ways to keep the jib out when running I'll try tightening the bungy more next time.
The, below club, block and tackle was installed and that too was a successful mod..

Added 20kg in the stern to try to keep the nose up, that seems to work, next time another 20kg will be added to try that..

I've decided over the winter to modify the boat by cutting a frame to allow the seat to go back another 18 inches, this means shortening the aft hatch as well. That way I might be able to remove those weights from the stern..

This weekend is the 61st 3 River Race, yours truly is running a guardship at the Hickling broad mark so I will spend 24 hours counting boats going past and radioing their times back to the club..
101 entries last time I heard, to race 50 miles under three bridges and back to the club...

[The Q]

The 3 Rivers race 2022.
https://youtu.be/8dwY-S3SaqY
https://youtu.be/t32oU8EMHZY

101 entries, about 95 started, 19DNF.
Two capsizes,
One boat caught it's mainsheet on a deep water channel marker and tipped over taking on a lot of water.
One man injured his hand and was an ambulance job,
Two dismastings,
One Broads sailing cruiser caught it's main on a tree, mainsail torn from luff to leech...

A punt won the  fastest passage trophy in 8 hours 10 minutes  for the 50 mile route.
A wayfarer won the 3 Rivers trophy on handicap.

[The Q]

The official film of the 2022 3 Rivers Race.
https://youtu.be/8TgaFfSsLWI

[The Q]

Not so many reports now as development slows...

We had a successful regatta week last week and BM even managed to win a race on handicap, having been ahead of some of the fastest boats in the fleet at one point.. They were heavily reefed though and BM wasn't.

The jib is currently rigged in this fashion. (photo of a different boat)


But with 4 jib sheets...
Two conventional ones at the rear of the club,
Two to the front of the jib club, thence via deck mounted blocks to me ..
This allows me to hold out the jib when running and has made a big improvement to down wind performance..

A temporary topping lift has been fitted, much needed to scandalize the mainsail when approaching the quay while sat down in the hull.. A proper one will be added in the winter..

Of sitting, last week I broke the seat, a bolt in the chair had fallen out. So on stepping into the boat I slipped and landed full weight on it's front edge.. This is now all glued up and part way through reinforcement, the bolts have been glued in too...

Much much more research has been going on into rudders, weed has become a major problem on the broads we normally race for 1/3rd of the summer on Black Horse Broad, but that has been abandoned, the weed was catching on rudders and the rescue boats proppellors. Twice during the regatta on the river BM returned to the club house trailing weed and lillies...

I noticed traditional Broads boats have spoon rudders, like this..

Was that because of the weed a hundred years ago?

So at the moment I'm working on another new rudder design somewhat nearer the spoon than the spitfire wing she has...

[The Q]

Ok then, now Blue Moon is out of the water the plans for this winter.
1,
A new rudder, I dropped the old one out today and did some measurements. 2 inches in front of the rudder shaft to the aft edge of the hull is 19 inches, the maximum draft is limited to 30 inches. So 19X30 is the box the rudder must fit in.
1A,
Having done much studying of rudder theory I've decided the plan area should be 2sqft, that's about 20% less than the old rudder. The weed means a sloping forward edge.
1B,
The results of above mean a 1ft Chord for the rudder at the hull, the leading edge curving back and down till it hits 30 inches draft at six inches from the aft edge of the box. The trailing edge, will be straight, down to the aft bottom corner of the box.

Well that's the current plan anyway but it still needs tweeking.

2,
Measured for the seat move aft. The most it can move is 23.5 inches, this is limited, by hull frames, and the mainsheet taking my head off. So 23.5 inches it will be.

3, A few weeks ago a my winter sailing compatriot pointed out a Wayfarer main is the same height / luff length as the Kestrel main. Research showed it wasn't... But the difference is only 3 inches so that's not a problem.
The Wayfarer main does not have a full length top batten, and is over 12Inches longer at the foot, both of which significantly move the sail area aft, which is what is needed.  

3A,
So I bought a new Wayfarer sail, with two sets of reefing points which are also needed. We have several club members in the sail making business, so I was able to get one at an extremely good price. The person whose helped me with that, is also looking for a second hand metal wayfarer boom for BM, I'm also looking for one, if one doesn't turn up by Christmas I'll have to order one due to lead times.

The jib however will need commissioning as a one off..

4,
With moving the seat back various controls will be too far away, I've decided she needs a centre console, that will be designed once I've moved the seat back so I can sit inside and measure up for its position.

5,
The antifouling needs moving up by 2 inches, she's not lower in the water than expected, it's when she's moored up she slightly heels towards the mooring point.

And finally
Three years ago last August, my winter sailing compatriot came off his motorcycle into the front of a tractor. Four weeks ago we sailed in his Yeoman keelboat for the first time since then, a week later  we started competing again. So far we've done surprisingly well.
Tomorrow, we have a passage race of about 3 Hours, starting shortly after I have the honour to lower the flags for the remembrance silence.