Small detail

This is a little stainless steel piece I had to cut to fit around and hold the hex head of the leeboard bolt. This keeps it from spinning when I tighten down the leeboard. This is the only way I can tighten the leeboard enough so that it is able to hold in place with a reasonable amount of force against it. Note also that rather than use an underseat bracket as in Gary's book, Gary recommended I try simply stiffening the whole side with a piece of timber and mounting through that. Much simpler solution.

Raise the Sail

Ugghhh, our email system keeps butching my emails... Trying again

Today was an exciting day! For the first time ever I got to see how Shan Skailyn's rigging is all going to work out. Raise that sail!

Small Details

Here are the pix of the leeboard brackets. Note the plural. And note the fact that these are not per Gary's book. In talking with Gary over email he recommended trying a mere timber stiffener rather than the bracket he shows plans for in his book. The timber stiffener starts at the gunwale and goes all the way down to the chine. Each piece is glued and screwed with 8 screws. It was simpler and made lots of sense. I also wanted the option to shift the CLR of the hull a bit as I gain a feel for how Shan Skailyn tacks. So Gary also recommended putting two leeboard locations about 300mm apart. With the swing of the leeboard, there's actually quite a bit of shifting of the CLR that can now happen. You might notice that above each bolt hole I plugged another hole. I was over eager to drill! I decided later (again, due to Gary's recommendations) that the leeboard needed to be a few inches lower. Easy fix.
Then in the other picture you'll see the finished mast step. Nothing fancy there. Just a single piece of wood with a square cutout to fit the base of the stub mast. The really nasty dark stuff on the inside of the hull with the mast step is much worse than it looks. Just a result of doctoring up an overly dark photo. The stub mast is another thing that's been slowly coming along. Nothing worth taking pictures of yet. Actually I wish I'd taken a picture of the original piece of timber for before and after comparison pix. Oh well. Er, wait a minute, I think I did some time ago.

Finished leeboard and rudder

Here's the pix of the finished leeboard and rudder. Not a whole lot else to say. I would like an opinion on my rudder hinge (whatever that thing is called). Is the way I have it set up going to be alright with the forces that it will encounter? I'm just a touch concerned that the little 'tongues' that are holding the pin just may want to tear.
Bob from Arkansas, any thoughts on that?

Hardware finished

Not the prettiest things in the world, but I finally got all the metal hardware done that Shan Skailyn is going to need. One is the 6-1/4" diameter aluminum reinforcing plate for the leeboard. The welded nut was done by a friend of mine stateside some months ago and then sent to me here in Papua New Guinea. Then the other piece of hardware other is the rudder hardware. Even though the rudder hardware isn't super pretty, it's got real smooth action when mounted. I know, I know... $20 could have gotten me some proper rudder hardware, but at this point I'm needing to avoid any more spending where possible. Can't wait to see how it all works!

Just Plane Fun

Planing, planing, and more planing. That's pretty much all I've done during the little bits of time I spent working on Shan Skailyn this weekend. Well, that and shaping with a rasp and belt sander. Oh yeah, and I worked a bit more on the rudder hardware.
Since the hull is on standby until I get more of my ring shank nails, I'm working on the many other small things that will undoubtedly encompass many of the required hours to get Shan Skailyn ready to sail.
What I was planing so much was the leeboard and the rudder. They've been completed shaped at this point and I'm quite happy with how they turned out. It was surprisingly difficult to give them the right shape. I drew out the profile first and cut it out of a template so that I could lay it over the curved face to compare with and shave off where needed. Finished things out with the rasp and belt sander. Pretty much all that's needed now is a good once over with some 120 grit and they'll be ready to have 5 or so coats of polyurethane. In case anyone is curious about the weight of the leeboard (remember my concern in the last post?) it's down to just 5.8 kgs (12.8 lbs). Still kind of heavy in my estimation, but I think we're going to leave it. If, when Shan Skailyn is completed, it seems some weight needs to be dropped, then I'll just have to make a new one someday.
The rudder hardware is coming along nicely. I'm getting my stainless from an old washing machine tub. It's been rather hard to cut! I've also had difficulty bending the pieces exactly as I want too. So far I've got one piece completed, another one partially bent and two others to shape up a bit more before bending to their final shape. Bolt holes will come later. I figured it would be difficult to bend everything with precision, so it didn't make much sense to try to drill those first and go through the heartache of not having them line up later. Glad I made that decision. It would have happened just as I suspected.
Oh yeah, one sad piece of info to add... I broke my only bandsaw blade. Yes, let the tears flow. Will have to work on getting a new one here somehow in the coming months.

Beginnings of leeboard and rudder

I didn't get a whole lot of time this weekend to work on Shan Skailyn. I'm out of 3/4" ring nails at this point. So I'm waiting for more of those so I can start assembling the hull which sits, just about ready for that next step.
Instead I started working on some of the other parts. I cut and laminated the timber for both the rudder and the leeboard. Got both of those planed down to thickness, and even managed to cut out the blank for the leeboard. Regarding the leeboard, I'm a bit concerned about the weight. I imagine that it undergoes a fair bit of stress, so I used a fairly strong wood that also ends up being a bit heavy. Actually, when I laminated it, I alternated between the heavier wood and a lighter wood in an attempt to cut down on the weight. Anyway, what I've ended up with after I've planed it down to thickness, cut out the blank, and not having yet shaped it, is a leeboard that weighs just over 7 kgs (about 15.5 lbs). Isn't that weight a bit excessive for a leeboard? Seems heavy to me. I would guess about 3-5 more pounds will be taken off once it is all shaped. Based on knowledgeable feedback, I may just have to re-make it with lighter timber.
I also began cutting up my sheet of stainless steel into pieces to use for the rudder hardware. That is some hard stuff to cut! I broke my last sawzall blade for cutting metal. So then I switched to my skil saw with a metal blade. I did manage to barely finish cutting my pieces before the last of the blade was worn down. Hopefully I can manage to avoid any major mistakes with these. I have nothing left to cut new pieces with! It's tin snips and grinders and files from here on out. Once I finish cutting these, I'll have to find a way to bend them all with a fair bit of precision so that all the holes for the through bolts (for securing to both the rudder and kick up assembly) as well as the holes for the hinge pin match up. If I end up not finding a way to bend them that precisely, then the other option would be to bend them before drilling the holes, then put a scrap piece of lumber between the bent 'flaps' and then drill through all of it at the same time.