Virtual Ship's Log from Captain Hammer

'Cause I don't have enough to do already

Monday, February 28, 2011

Canoe Rig by Todd Bradshaw



This book is changing my life! Maybe overstated, but this book has the answers to so many of my questions about my rig: What's a good sail area to shoot for? What's the best sail plan for upwind performance? How much leeboard surface should I have in the water? etc. Of course he champions experimentation, but for a guy like me whose time to work on this stuff is limited, it gives very good starting points. I wish I had been able to get a hold of this book before making my first rig, but it seems my current plan is on the money as far as being generally well performing (or, should be, anyways). It's been informative and affirming. I do think the author and I differ on aesthetic principles and on how much of a role they should play in my boat, but there's no denying his designs are beautiful.
It is available on amazon.com, of course: http://www.amazon.com/Canoe-Rig-Essence-Sailpower-Traditional/dp/0937822574/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1298905135&sr=8-10 . Or if your local library is registered with the Inter-Library Loan system, you can sign up to get it after I'm done with it.
Next boat piece to design: mast thwart for my "backwards" rig for solo sailing and a foot controlled rudder. The weather here is getting nice quick!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

A Nice Time to Unbend

Well, using the car jack to unbend the canoe was a success. That's not to say it's back to new, but it is a LOT better, and I'm convinced that with a little shifting of the braces and monkeying around I can get her shipshape. I'm already feeling better about it, and it proves the method works.
Here is the nasty kink:

Two 2x4's were placed on either side of the bent gunwale with 2 long 18in pieces of threaded rod, washers, and nuts holding them together.
The car jack was placed between the outward side of the bend and the outer 2x4. I should have put a scrap of wood between the business end of the jack and the gunwale to prevent any marring. I will next time, but no big deal.

I started cranking, and viola! Here is a pic of the canoe in it's usual "dry docked" storage position. From the bottom you can still see that top left part of the canoe (the part I just bent back) is still a little off, but I should be able to do some more jack bending and get it right.

Now the question is: will the gunwale fail easier now that it has been bent? With chromoly steel tubing used in backyard aircraft, if it's bent not too bad and then bent back into place it is actually work-hardened. After that, though, and bend will make it too brittle.
Let's hope I don't bend it again in any event.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

A fresh rain smell was in the air this morning, the unmistakable fragrance of spring. I'm looking forward more than usual to mild temps- to a day when I can really test the canoe rig. I've been using this time to do more research on different rigs and different ways to effectively use outriggers ("amas", as they are called in the islands where they were first used). The lessons I've learned from the first trial are these: 1) I need to use lighter material for sail cloth, maybe a rip-stop nylon, to be really suited for a small boat in light wind. Also a thinner and lighter boom, although I'm sticking with the current one until I've sailed in gustier conditions and I'm convinced it is more than I need. 2) Zip-ties DO NOT work as mast hoops to connect the sail to the mast (think shower curtain rings). They simply don't slide up the mast when tugging on the main halyard. 3) I will eventually (and probably soon) need to turn the entire boat around in order to be more balanced. Typically canoes are not completely symmetric- they don't look the same going forward and backward. The rear seat is closer to the stern than the front seat is to the bow (the front seat is set a little further back, closer to the middle). This is, of course, so there is room for the legs of the paddler in the front. But when you're alone, it would make for better balance to sit more towards the middle (sit in the front seat, but backwards). This would put me further away from the back and would necessitate a tiller (a handle attached to the paddle that's tied to the stern as a rudder- basically an extension for the rudder). I will post what I've learned in my reading later this week. This is enough technical stuff for one post. Here's a pic of a dude way more serious than I am... so far.