Zombie holcaust department... Asteroids and airplanes

Interesting facts I came across today ...

The chance of my being hit by lightning is 1 in 500,000 which are odds that seem pretty good, but as most of you know, we lost our last boat to a lightning hit... As it happens a friend of mine has been hit by lightning TWICE! That said, I don't know anybody who is too panicked about the idea of getting hit by lightning.

Now the chance of coming to grief in an act of terrorism on a plane is about 1 in 10,408,947. When you think about it, those are seriously long odds and hardly enough to make you raise an eyebrow much less a sweat.

Now  the asteroid Apophis that I have been following has recently been downgraded to a 1 in 250,000 chance of hitting earth (and if that does not excite you, you might want to consider that a couple of years back they were predicting the chance of a direct hit to earth at 1 in 37...) Seriously scary stuff!

So to recap...
   1. Airplanes are real safe!
   2. Less safe to be outside on a boat in a storm.
   3. Much, much, much more likely to be hit by an 885-foot chunk of rock falling from the sky!

Now if somebody could give me the current Vegas odds on zombie apocalypse, I'd feel a whole lot better!

Not so finest kind... Maine taxes!

One of the nice things about boats is that for the most part we can simply sail away or not sail to places that have silly laws and evil tax structures...

Seems like Maine is going to be on a lot of peoples not visit lists... More from Casco Bay Boaters!

Paper dolls and carbon fiber...

While I'm playing with various sail designs for the new rig (both junk and balanced lug variants) at least the mast portion of the equation seems to be coming along without any mayhem or carnage that I can detect.

Most readers so far have assumed that the new free standng masts will be carbon fiber and pricey but they would be wrong. While I will be using some carbon the masts will be mostly wood and glass. Simple to build and when the dust is all settled I'll be surprised if the total cost of the two new masts exceeds $1200.

An interesting byproduct of all this mast and sail design is my paper doll skills are seriously being upgraded and I am getting seriously slick with a pair of scissors!

Spice for a Sunday... Hoyt offset rig

I'm not sure just why Gary Hoyt upsets so many people... I've gone on record that Hoyt, like a few other NA's, are just enough ahead of the curve that their work is often viewed as heretical attacks on Mom and apple pie.

I've read a lot of discussion on the offset rig and almost all of it is senseless knee jerk rants of unschooled and inexperienced folks who simply can't fathom anything that shakes their world view... If I could afford this rig I'd do it in a New York minute!

So it goes!

One of a few... New possible rigs

Working through the various new rig scenarios for "So It Goes" and this rig is currently on the top of the pile...

The hard part with junk rig is simply finding the space for all it entails. The sheeting arrangement takes up an amazing amount of room and makes the location of masts more problematic than expected.

All that aside this rig should scoot right along (might even "scoon"!) and with it's cambered junk sails keep up with most cruisers to windward while leaving the cruising multihull folks who are not motor-sailing plenty of time to check out our hailing port on the transom.

This, of course, is just a quickie cartoon of the rig but it shows the good news that location of the freestanding masts are pretty interior friendly and the bad news that sheeting is going to be somewhat problematic which is most certainly not a deal killer but simply something to work through.

I had hoped to keep the spars within the thirty-four foot LOA ( makes doing the French canals so much easier) but something tells me that all the various new possible rigs will be just a kiss over that... In this one the main mast is thirty-six feet while the fore mast is a rather more petite twenty-six feet or close to it.

Happy, happy...

Christmas is always a busy time and what with designing a new rig and sorting out the materials and a building site for said rig... Well it has been just a little crazy! But there is light at the end of the tunnel (in the non Southeast Asia sense!)

I'll be going more into the new rig and design in the very near future but for the moment my copies of  Derek Van Loan's "Design and Build Your Own Junk Rig" and the Hasler/McLeod opus "Practical Junk Rig" are sure getting a lot of use...

On a sad note Mike Richey of "Jester" fame passed away. Richey was an example to many of us and will be greatly missed.

Christmas to me has always been simply a moment to reflect on family, friends and those close... and a drink to those no longer with us.

Have a happy...

Stuff that works... CDI Furlers

Way back when, I used to work at a marine store that did a lot of consignment sales and I can't think of a better way to see what works and what does not than a constant stream of stuff people want OFF their boats!

For instance... We had dozens of dead macerator pumps (for parts) and it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out when watching one of our customers bring in the third macerator pump of that season that just maybe this was not the way to do the marine MSD thing!

We'd also get lots of furling systems... Either ones that had broke or that could no longer be maintained simply because the companies that built them no longer supported their older products (there IS a special place in hell for companies that do not support their products!) and expected their clients to simply buy all new every few years. Plus we had no shortage of gears that "worked" just fine except that they just never worked very well.

Which brings us to the recently departed roller furling system we had on "So It Goes". When we decided to go with roller furling my first decision was simply not to buy any of the systems we had in the shop because if they were any good (spelled trouble free) we would not have them in the shop on consignment...

The most notable (by its absence) furling system in the shop was the CDI Flexible Furler and I started asking folks who had their furlers just how they liked them and the response was a 100% customer satisfaction. Everyone was a happy camper... Which, of course, was more than I could say for those folks who had Hood, Profurl, Plastimo, etc gathering dust on our shelves not being bought.

The CDI was also cheap in comparison to those other systems and me being Mr Cheapseats decided this is our kind of furling system!

Years later with the rig and mast now gone, I've had the chance to reflect some on how the various parts worked out and the CDI furler was easily the most trouble free part of the rig! It worked perfectly... In all the years we had it we never had a single problem and its furling was as friction free as the day we bought it.

The new rig will not have any head-sails so we won't be in the market for a new furling system but for those who are I'd give the CDI a serious look!

A book worth reading...

The other day I had to marvel at the idiocy of some followers of two beliefs... those who believed in global warming and those who did not. The only thing that became clear as the conversation went on was that neither side was going to let actual facts get in their way.

And so it does go... The world is a complicated place and just about everyone is turning to beliefs of religious fervor rather than the problems at hand. Just between us, this is something that scares me a lot more than falling masts or zombie holocausts!

Which brings us to Stewart Brand's new book "Whole Earth Discipline" which already seems to be pissing off both sides of a lot of arguments and the ink is hardly dry yet. My kind of book as they say...

Bikes on boats... more or less

It's been a while since I have gone on about bikes on boats and things biking...

So if you have been missing my various posts on bikes on boats you might want to check out one of my favorite bike blogs in the meantime... Black Mountain cycles!

It's where I go for info on bikes!

A really interesting dinghy... Unicat

Michael from the Proa File and Schadt Marine design and I were discussing various cool rigs last week and he pointed me to the neat junk rigged proa "Free Radical" from down New Zealand way designed by James Brett. Michael has a real eye for good stuff and I was not disappointed... "Free Radical" to say the least, rocks!

But what really caught my attention was a dinghy that really seems to have all its i's dotted and t's crossed... the Unicat. While the video shows a flat day there is ample freeboard to keep the dinghy butt to a minimum as well as being easily rowed and powered by an outboard of 5HP or less. Just the thing for someone who is looking for a new dinghy to fit the new deck plan of "So It Goes"... Well if I can actually decide on the new rig!

Plans are available from Duckworks so check it out...

Birds mouth spars... but maybe not.

Since I have a couple of masts to build, more than a passing moment has been dedicated to thinking just how to build them... Do the words "cunning plan" resonate?

These days "birds mouth" spars are pretty popular as they are pretty easy to make and  low on material wastage. The downside is that the masts are heavier at the top then they need to be.

Back when we built the first Loose Moose we looked into a spar builder who did Bird's mouth spars and he sent several slices of a mast to show off his work and they all failed on the glue lines... So instead, we built our own and went with the as-designed Bolger  simple box mast that worked finest kind!

There is a lot to be said for Bolger's use of Herreshoff's favorite way of building a mast as it is easy to build and pretty light when all is said and done. Right now there is a very good chance that the new masts on "So It Goes" will be this sort, albeit with a bit of carbon thrown in for good measure.

Speaking of carbon though, there is a thought which keeps running through my head thinking about the rather awesome wing masts done by Gold Coast Yachts here in St Croix who use no carbon but build up a mast using 1/4" Fir and glass (with a whole lot of smarts) that has my "There has got to be a better way" genes seriously kicking in...

For those interested in doing a Birds mouth spar, a must read article and calculator set can be found over at Duckworks Magazine (always interesting stuff) in their "Bird's Mouth Spars Revisted"  which is all the info you really need to get rock and rolling! Throw in a router/shaper bit designed for doing Bird's Mouth profiles and you'll have everything you need!

Hatches and more hatches... A cool tool!

One of the hassles of designing a new rig for "So It Goes" is the fact that the masts will be in some other place and wreck no small havoc on the deck and interior...

The fact that in the not too far distant future I will be having to relocate some hatches and of all the changes the rig requires new hatches are something of an improvement as the current Lewmar's are pretty awful in that they don't really seal well and leak in even a light drizzle (much less a wave rolling over the deck) so new hatches are something of a silver lining to the whole mast fall down go boom/splash scenario!

So, while perusing crafty and ever more cunning plans to build new (if yet unlocated) hatches I noticed that there is a neat clamping jig by  Rockler that has personal stocking stuffer written all over it as four of these babies would be a great addition to my clamp bag !

Some sad news...

I used to do a lot of racing and there was a time that the lure of the TransPac and suchlike seemed to be an important thing in my life.

But...

The fact that a lot of what passes for yacht racing these days is simply rich men behaving badly took its toll. While I loved the sailing and the edge of racing, I simply could not take the abuse and mistreatment that being crew for most competitive yachts called for or deal with their owner's rock star, egg thin, fragile egos.

Life, as they say, is simply too short.

Of course, it did not have to be that way as there were a few owners and yachtsmen who did it all with style and grace... Guys like Roy Disney, who were the exception to the rule. Men you wanted to sail for.

Sadly, Roy Disney just passed away having lost his battle with cancer, and with his passing, a great part of the heart of yachting goes with him.

Oh yeah... A catamaran I could live with!

While I am mired with redesigning the rig on "So It Goes" here is some awesome footage of the only production catamaran I find remotely interesting... The SIG 45!



Oh yeah!

The paper is still blank... the milk and cookies conundrum

So it's been a week since the mast fell down and went boom/splash and so far the elves have been somewhat lazy and not designed my new rig... Maybe they don't like the milk and cookies I have been leaving out for them?

All kidding aside the new rig remains a somewhat hazy affair as it is such a big step that I want to make sure it all makes sense. So much study of various rigs from crab claw to wing mast and everything in between. Fun stuff!

On another tack I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the many Boat Bits readers who have written in to express their concern, support and good wishes. It makes doing this whole blogging gig a real joy and nice to know folks care.

Jessie Cooper... why the first Loose Moose made sense

The really nice thing about free standing rigs is that they are simple... Well, at least they should be! The late Phil Bolger's Jessie Cooper design is a prime example of how simple makes sense.

For those not aware, the Jessie Cooper design (featured in 30 Odd Boats) became our first Loose Moose and was built in a hanger at the Charles De Gaulle airport, which gives a whole new meaning to the joke of when my ship comes in I'll be waiting at the airport!

We chose the JC design because we wanted to retrace the routes in one of my favorite books "The Riddle of the Sands" where the water gets seriously skinny up in the Frisian islands and the one foot draft (yes really!) was perfect though the boat was sea worthy enough to sail back to the US of A if the need arose.

I'll admit to having some reservations about the rig at the time, but while sailing around the English Channel doing our sea trials, I quickly learned that the balanced lug rig was both powerful, weatherly and trouble free... What's not to like?

The rig is self tending, self vanging and does not even require winches or other deck jewelry to make it work... But what is not so great for marine stores is pretty great for those of us on a budget and these days we are all on a budget!

Folks who need to be entertained should note that with only two strings to pull there is not much in the way of gear or things to play with so it might be prudent to bring a good book or two along as sailing our Jessie Cooper was always a sit in the cockpit and read sort of affair.

Nothing is set in stone yet but the new rig for "So It Goes" most likely is going to be a balanced lug schooner and we will keep everyone up to date on the design process. For now I'll just point out how convenient the sail area of a couple of Jessie Cooper mains work out for a CAL 34...

Speaking of rigs...

As I have mentioned before, I like the basic Balanced lug rig, which studies have shown to be much more powerful and weatherly than the ubiquitous Bermuda sloop. The problem is that for the last hundred years there has been little development in rigs outside the Bermuda sloop (or Marconi rig) so in effect most of us are stuck with the same old same.

Of course, when one thing dominates a sector anyone who tries to anything new or in this case old is met with no small heaping of scorn and derision whether it be junk rig, crab claw or balanced lug variant so I have to admire anyone who is willing to work outside the box and tilt at windmills... It is no easy job!


The Balanced Rig is one such beast. Sort of a cross between a split balanced lug and an AeroRig. It does not take a genius to see that this rig will most certainly work and deserves a look if only to see there are actually choices that are not the same old same...

Shucky darn... Mast-fall-down-go-BOOM!

Personally, I blame it on the fact that I mentioned I was sailing to (as opposed to towards) Antigua. But at least we did not leave on a Friday...

The sail towards Antigua (now he gets it right) was pretty nice and about an hour or so before dawn on Sunday, the wind was freshening and we were cruising along at a little over seven knots with one reef in and just maybe the chance of rain in the near future... Not so bad!

Sheila had gone down to grab her foulies and I was having a finest-kind moment watching the log kiss the 7.3 mark and then things got exciting real quick! The breeze freshened just a bit more and there was a definite "PING". Before I could say WTF, the mast was over the side and the finest-kind moment had most definitely left the scene as FUBAR dropped by.

Down below, Sheila hardly heard anything and told me after that it sounded like the cats were playing on deck... though in a somewhat robust and insane fashion.

It only took a couple of minutes to sort out that the port shroud chainplate tang was the source of the "PING" and about three seconds looking at the mast in the water to realize that we were not going to be sailing anywhere anytime soonish.

The bad news was that the mast was now near vertical (masthead down) with the mast base just above deck level and, as it was filling with water, that level was going down fast. Oh yeah, where it gets fun is that it was on the bad side and now that we were were beam on to the seas which were about eight feet the mast was now a very large and heavy club banging on the starboard side of the boat. Of course, as the bright wags will say it can always be worse and as the mast filled the club of mast could very easily start punching holes in our starboard side and bottom... and so it does go.

Considering the sea-state and all, the decision to sever our links with mast and rig was a pretty easy (if expensive) one. So out came the hack saw and vice grips and the work of pulling pins and cutting shrouds where the pins could not be pulled. Kind of a bummer job if anyone's asking.

A little while later we were sitting in the cockpit watching the sunrise and having a cup of coffee trying to put all the events straight in our heads as it had all seemed to happen at the speed of light. The tang that went "ping" always bothered me because of the geometry was such that while easy to inspect one side the other side was both difficult to see and inclined to trap moisture and salt which is why despite many inspections some serious crevice corrosion had taken hold. Hindsight is always 20/20, of course.

So as we were no longer a sailboat and we had to motor, we motored to the closest place with decent pricing on rigging stuff and part of the US of A as we were sure we'd need some stuff from stateside either a mast or materials to build a mast. So, St Croix  won hands down.

The motor to St Croix was uneventful, if a bit slow, but we made port with battery power to spare thanks in no small part to our Electric Yacht drive and Honda generator as they ran for twelve hours without a rest in really big sloppy seas and just seriously all around kicked some serious butt!

I always try and look on the bright side of things and I have always wondered how a CAL 34 would work out with an alternative rig and so it is the new project being added to The List. And, while I will go in to more detail in the not too far distant future, I'll just leave you with three words...

Evolved lug schooner ...

More soon come!

WTF...

Sorry for the lapse, mast fall down and go boom as they say!

More soon come