MAST & RUDDER

The picture below shows a second mock up of the rudder head with the rudder blade.

Below is a close up of a new and better line arrangement. Yrvind has no tiller. It saves weight and gives me more space on deck.

On passage I let the boat self steer with the help of feed back from the sheets. The lines from the sheets run in my case directly to the rudder. It is a simpler arrangement. An other advantage is that close to the coast it is handy not to be tied down to the tiller. With the steering lines I can walk around on the boats deck using them as remote controls. Whith the help of the steering lines I can in good weather stand on the fore deck looking at the bottom when navigating in shallow water. If I like to do that.

In the meantime the real rudder blade and the centerboard are being faired in Marströms mast shop. In the background two centerboard for the Volvo Ocean Race boats can be seen.

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More good news, Göran and Per has given go ahead with building my spars. Here Göran and I are with an experimental mast for my boat. It is a 2.7 meter long piece of an Ice boat mast. They are usually made of glass fiber. I consider doing the same. The disadvantage is that it is about two to three times as heavy. The good thing with glass fiber is that the mast will be extremely flexible, like a fishing rod, which is good considering capsizes and pitch poles. Also it will allow me to place an VHF antenna inside the for the AIS sponsored by TRUE HEADING. Inside the mast the antenna is protected from weather and it gives no wind resistance. I consider it to be essential to reduce all kinds of resistance as much as possible. On a small boat powered only by wind and muscles you have very limeted resorces and have to be as efficient as possible.

Next week 4 to 8 November I be in Stockholm giving a talk together with Thomas at ABF ( see under lectures ) Also I will be at the Stockholm boat show looking for sponsors. Therefore during that time no work will be done on the boat.

PLOTTED NUMBERS

Jakob Alander has kindly helped me to plot the stability numbers below making it much more understandable. As can be seen there is no need to have a deep keel to get positive stability through 360 degres. Matt Laydens Paradox and other small boats with similar height to beam ratio and a low enough center of gravity confirm this.

PARTICULARS AND STABILITY

Here are some stability calculations and other numbers who Guy Lilljegren kindly has provided me with. There are three sets for center of gravity for 5, 10 and 15 centimeters above the waterline. Hopefully the center of gravity will come out at 10 centimeters above the waterline, but only the Gods know for shore. The numbers are really too small to reed but if you click on the pictures, first one time, them again, they get bigger and bigger.












QUANTUM SAILS KUNGÄLV SPONSOR MY SAILS

I have been very fortunate in that Quantum Sails Loft in Kungälv have undertaken to sponsor me with sails. From previous experience I know that the do an excellent job. Below is Patric sewing on a sail to Yrvindaren. (see photos)

Here Henrik is showing all 0.5 sq meter of it.

Quantum sails will sponsor an illustrated lecture in Göteborg on next Wednesday the 29 October 6 30 pm. If you are interested in hearing me talk about my voyages take contact with quantum sails phone 0303 10818 The talk will be in Swedish.

STARTING ON THE LOWER AFT DECK

The last work on the interior is now done, it was getting some NM-epoxy on the underside of the shelves. To make the epoxy flow in the right direction I turned the boat upside down and on its sides.

I also weighed her. She was at 250 kilos or 550 pounds found lean and strong.

After that I started on the lower aft deck. Here I am fitting the frames to the deck curvature which is 85 millimeter high on 1320 mm beam.

Here looking aft, having removed the pattern.

The frames are ready to take the Divinycell which for the deck and deck house I use a thickness of 30 mm and a density of 80 kilo per cubic meter.

After laminating the inside with one layer of 600 gram quadruple glass in NM-epoxy I bend with the help of lead weights the panel over the frames.

To be continued…

RUDDER & BOWBOARD

Kåre Ljung an areodynamiker one of Ridders disciples, now working at Marströms, has helped me to modify a NACA-profile to suit my demands.

Here Gösta Larsson who kindly has offered to help me mill the rudder and CB Divinycell-core is programming his NC-machine to do the job.

Here Gösta is adjusting the machine.

Here he is advising me how to watch the machine mill the divinycell to size. The tolerance of the machine is better than a hundred of a millimeter. Fare more precise than what I need.

Here Im watching the machine doing the precision work. Thank you Gösta and your company Larsons mekaniska i Hjorted.

In the meantime Börje from BT-Hantverk has done the rudderfitting. Shown below.

Here I am doing a bit of mockup with the stearing lines I use instead of a tiller, saving a bit of place on my small aft deck. Tacking care that I get a god angle of the lines also when the boat is going backwords and there is a reverse pressure on the rudder.

Sad comment. Even in our little quite town of Västervik there is vandals, bored people. Here someone has destroyed our nice little clock in the park outside by throwing a stone at it.
One of the good things with siglehanded ocean sailing is that you are fare away from the vandals. Life on the ocean wave is freindly.

THE MATTRESS

Thanks to Gunnar Bäckstrand of HGB BACKSTRAND AB I now have an excellent mattress which will protect me from the cold Cape Horn waters. It is 6 cm thick made of closed cells which means that it cannot get wet. Whith 6 cm mattress and 4 cm divinycell foam in the hull I will have a total of 10 cm or 4 inches insulation. If I then also can get hold of some old blankets in Argentina I will be worm and snug in my boat.

The picture below shows me cutting the mattress material to size.

The picture below shows the mattress in the bunk. The size of my bunk is length 191 cm, wide at feet 40 cm, wide at head 68 cm. It is a bunk impossible to fall out of. Very secure.

MORE ABOUT THE LEAD WEIGHTS


Now all the lead weights are cowered with kevlar for wear resistance and to prevent myself by being killed by lead poisoning. The front end have gotten a teflon patch to slide more easily into the lead chambers. The stainless steel handles are in the back.Without them it would be very difficult to handle the weights in heavy weather.

Below is a picture with all the weights secured in the extreme aft position. Their intended position when im running down wind in heavy seas, to give the boat directional stability and to increase her mass moment of inertia to help prevent pitchpooling.

AT THE FOUNDRY

I did not consider my self competent to do high quality lead castings with no porosity or hollows. After much searching I found Bo in the village of Blomstermåla (its name means “the painted flower”) Here Bo is outside his foundry.

After having put the model in sand the inlet and a substantial raiser is added.

More sand is poured

The sand is compacted.

The lead is poured.

Here is my weight with inlet and raiser which are sawn off with a bandsaw.

The pieces with its stainless steel handle weigh 14 kilos or a bit more than 30 pounds each. In the boat there is place for six making 84 kilos, the weight of a big man. I always make a few extra. I have six spare ones to select the best and in case I make a mistake. Below is some of them.

Below the final product swept in kevlar for wear and with its handle.

Thank Bo and the personal at Blomstermåla foundry for a well done job.