Selected Posts by Doug to the Harryproa discussion group

Getting Out Again Message Posted:Sun Dec 3, 2006

G'Day,

Great sail yesterday, top speed was up towards 15 knots I'd say.
Trying to take it easy on the masts as they just seem a bit small diameter at the bottom, and not made with carbon.

Otherwise the boat is very safe and comfortable at these high speeds, except probably my own design/engineering on the rudders will probably be another weak link. Rudder blades are pretty much to the design with the end grain kiri and carbon in a strip down the thickest part. I have an idea for putting another set of gudgeons underneath the present ones and sealing off the forward part of the stock where I left a gap to swing the rudder forward if using two rudders. Need to take it out to get the grinder to clean smooth to bond PLy and glass on to extend downwards a few inches the beam to rudder structure. Not a big job but the boatyard with power is up river under the Perth Causeway which is 3-4m clearance, which means getting the masts out - maybe some help.

Could probably get my row boat which is at the boatyard and tow it from Perth water up to Maylands. Might put an outboard mount on at this stage.

The two rudders aren't really so bad to shunt with, I'd like to stick with it now I built it, but first timers recommended single rudder as Rob experimenting dictates.

I don't want to make a new single mast for a while as I've just completed two, but as I still believe it can circumnavigate (Australia), it definitely needs a proper engineered (I did a few years civil engineering at uni, so could try some calculations myself), carbon mast (include hinge).

Doug

 

Re: [harryproa] Sunday E/NE tending W/NW, Moderate Message Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006

G'Day,

More sailing experience now shows a few points that are better than others.
1) I broke the rudder off the beam where the gudgeons are glassed on, too little contact area and too much torque due to the two gudgeons spaced so close together on the beam.

Will probably fix it back on with extra glass, but in future hope to improve on current design with Rob's single system though I haven't had a close look at and don't know exactly how it all works, I trust Rob's designing, to get it sorted right.

2)I find the two mainsails a little complicated to watch and angle in to the wind, and steer too. It may be a good challenge to a pair of keen sailors but, I'm not really that experienced sort of go on the feel somewhere between luffing up and too hard on, and see where the speed is. This sort of tuning is not so easy with the two mainsails. I therefore suppose I might make the centre mast tube and bulkheads as Rob did by cutting a big hole in the side of the lw hull to retro-fit. I can use one of my current masts in that centre spot.
However there are a couple more issues on the mast/sails:

3)To get around Perth, up Rivers under bridges the masts need to swing down. I think this is fairly straight forward not adding too much extra bulk down around about boom height to make a hingewith pins or some fixing. The mast overall would need too be lighter than my wood/glass, too heavy too lift without excess effort. So a single mast in the centre with a hinge and light enough to drop and raise up so foam and carbon I suppose.

4) Another issue is that I found that the mainsail only ( called cat rig or una rig ?), would not swing around sometimes its a bit complicated but I wonder if the easy or ballestron rig would be easier to turn because you can sheet to both ends? I'm not sure about this I'll look for some internet diagrams or look at Harryproa galleries.

Incidentally for cruising with two mainsails, lowering/raising sails out on the water you can't reach the aft boom end as it is lying far back over the stern. I.e. an easy rig would be easier to reach especially if ever wanting to reef offshore. I needed to jump in and walk down the back to tie on the clew (is that the back corner of the sail?) and your sail falls into the water a bit. The front sail/mast is easy to reach standing on the deck and netting.

I don't know about the dynamics but why the small jib on the easy rig wouldn't be better performance I don't know.

I occasionally wanted to push the boom back round through the wind and this would be easier with the balancing jib.

5) Definitely need a small outboard (2hp) on a bracket near the ww hull ( so the boom won't bang into it, and easier to reach for helmsman, and out of way of rudder). One direction only needed, opposite end that used for anchoring keeping things tidier.

Anyhow good fun sailing the proa this morning, good 8-12 knots I think, I think above improvements will be safe enough to venture in confidence out offshore, up and down the coast.

PS very sunny, shade cover really top iit off.

Doug

 

Continuing feedback on "SIDE CAR", Elementarry Camper Message Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006

Hi Proa People,

Got to Mandurah, which is 50nm down the coast from Fremantle. Nice ENE to head South with a low swell, and offshore winds was a good run. Probably averaged above 5 knots most of the way. The Easterly dropped away about 10am and I fell a sleep for an hour waiting for the SWly sea breeze to come in. The breeze seemed a bit more WSW so managed to stay on course for the Mandurah entrance which is straight South. I got to the low wooden bridge in town and thought about sailing under but chickened out and pulled the two winsurfer masts out and rudder swished my way under and into Soldiers cove with the sails up again.

No new findings - speed very promising, goes through waves without going up and down over them, comfortable enough on the deck, rudder very light if raked forward slightly( though this stops the rudder from being used as ascullibng oar, it needs to be angled backwards), sheet controls work good, shunting is fun but at the moment takes time to put the rudder up and then the other one down and my sails aren't getting away fast enough to give the rudder enough effect so makinng the shunting a bit of work expect this to improve with the masts done.

Generally I expect the boat is more fun as you can look down at the water under the beams and through the net, you can see all of the rudder going through the water, and watch the entry and exit of especially the LW hull. Getting on from walking out in the water is easy and the wide beam and high buoyancy hulls make a stable platform for sailing and staying on board.

Doug