Boats’ Got Wheels

Saturday was another beautiful day so I was itching to get some more sailing in. There was a tsunami warning in place due to the earthquake in Japan so after discussions with a friend we decided to give Lake Ototoa north of Helensville a go.

On a whim however we decided to check out launching from Eric Armishaw Reserve, Pt Chevalier on the inner Waitemata Harbour.

The tide was in so we decided to give sailing a go. As I was setting I noticed that there was a surge of the tide, coming in about a meter further. This was the affect of the tsunami all the way from Japan, pretty awe inspiring to say the least!

The launch went well, we sailed out with a light breeze behind us past Coyle Park then ran along pointing towards Herne Bay for a while before deciding to turn back. Shortly after that the wind died and we were forced to paddle back most of the way. Again, with just two people I was amazed at how much ground we covered.

Back at the reserve, the tide had gone out so far that there was 300m of sand flats to cross. Fortunately I’d brought along my new kayak trolley!

The new rudder is working well, although it wasn’t really a strong test.  All up, another great day on the water:

Job’s Done

But too wet and windy to test, hopefully next weekend.

As I mentioned last post I glued together three pieces of oak left over from the rudder and leeboard into a board. In case one of the joins isn’t strong enough I also backed the board with perpendicular lengths of pine. All of this was given a coat of epoxy.

The hinges have been bolted on with 6mm stainless steel bolts on both the rudder and pivot board. To top it off I treated myself to a Ronstan Battlestick tiller extension.

The finished rudder:

I’m quite pleased with the wood on white contrast it brings.

Oops!

Sometimes you just don’t realise how much pressure things are put under!

Saturday got off to a great start, I’d loaded the car up on Friday for an early start, checked the weather forecast:

• southerly 10-15 knots mid morning
• raising to 20 knots in the afternoon
• moderate swells

Challenging but doable if I take it easy. Got to St Heliers beach and set up. On Friday I’d purchased a kayak trolley which proved to be a great help launching and retrieving. Setting off went smoothly and we made a good pace until I looked back at the rudder and noticed something was amiss; it wasn’t all the way down and at a bit of an angle. Closer inspection revealed that it was coming loose of its fittings! I quickly let the sheet out and pulled the rudder up and tied it out of the way all the time drifting further out. Thinking I’d paddle steer back to shore I got set up and quickly discovered that I had not a clue as to the right technique to use!

Eventually, one capsize later and several other close calls, I got on a good reach and managed to point her towards Ladies Bay for an textbook landing. At Ladies Bay we took a break and took down the mast; I had tried to paddle back earlier, but the mast had too much of an affect on stability and nearly caused another capsize. After that it was a quick paddle back to St Heliers beach.

Back at the beach Nico joined in the fun

I had hoped to use the day to evaluate the canoe’s performance but alas that was not to happen. I did have a few observations though:

• Paddle steering is harder than it looks.
• As the swell increases, so does the amount of water splashing into the hull (also aided by me sitting in the aft bulkhead to better steer.
• Under sail the swell didn’t present any issues and I didn’t feel any loss of speed.
• Even against the wind, she paddles at a good pace.

Now to the serious business:

This is where the rudder failed. I built the mounting board out of 20mm treated ply covered in epoxy and then painted. To attached the hinge I rather optimistically used short screws instead of running a bolt all the way through. As you can see the pressure popped the screws straight out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see the pressure was enough to break the metal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other side, even the hinge pin is bent. The rudder is made out of oak and I added a layer of epoxy under it when I built it. So I’m guessing that’s the reason it held up better. But when I fix it will become the weak link so I’ll need to replace the screws with bolts as well.

This coming weeks job will be to rebuild. I think I’ll laminate more of the oak into a board and use that instead of plywood.

Outriggers at the Fiji National Museum, Suva

Last week work sent me to Suva, Fiji. At the end of the week I visited the National Museum to see their collection of canoes. On display was the last existing Drua, this one; a small one at 15m long was built in the early 1900’s.

The shells on the hulls indicate that the Drua belonged to a Chief and the area he was from. Even though the two ends are not identical they are still proas and shunt instead of tacking (the smaller hull is always kept to windward and the sail is moved from one end of the hull to the other when changing heading into the wind). Druas represent the height of Polynesian canoe building, some being over 30m in length and very fast.

The workmanship and details on the boat is incredible:

I find the look of the raised platform quite appealing and I’m wondering how feasible it would be to build two Ulua hulls and mount a platform between them in a similar fashion? Maybe a project to try some years in the future. My relationship with Cecile is far to important to embark on another boat building exercise so soon!

Other canoe designs:

A more “conventional outrigger”:

C’est La Vie!

Her maiden voyage!

With the leeboard properly attached and one hiking seat ready to be used it was finally time to go sailing!

Saturday was Eloise’s first birthday party so it had to wait for Sunday. Because Cecile wasn’t impressed by St Heliers beach I thought we’d give Takapuna a go. By the boat ramp there is a nice rocky area with great rock pools for kids to play in.

Nico does the final pre-launch checks:

Getting ready:

Off we go:

Sailing was great, I was a bit rusty and without a wind vane was having a bit of a time of it trying to find the wind direction but I started to get the hang of it by the end of the day. 

Again I got a reminder of just how tippy the canoe is; this time she went over with me. So I got my first capsize lesson!

There was enough buoyancy in the mast and boom to keep her from going over completely so I just swam to the outrigger side and pulled her back upright and started bailing.

Of course I wasn’t wearing my lifejacket at the time. Something I fixed once I got back on board.  However I ended up going for another swim (while trying to clear up the main sheet) and found that the jacket actually got in the way. So all up I’m undecided on that.

Back to bailing, this took a long time and I’ll need to make a bigger one. I also took to sitting on the hiking seat regardless of the tack for ease of mind.

But it was a lot of fun! And when I got back we broke out a bottle of bubbly to celebrate. After the drink (and ice cream) I took Thys out for another short sail. Even with the extra person, there was no drop in boat speed.

At rest at the end of the first sail:

Auckland Anniversary Weekend

Today, last year I was up in the maternity ward of Auckland Hospital with the midwife admiring all the boats sailing past while Cecile was giving birth to our daughter Eloise. This year I had hoped to be sailing my canoe.

During the week I mounted a stainless steel plate on the leeboard and on Friday night I fitted the mounting bracket on the inside of the hull. I used a length of 3mm aluminium angle bracket which I extended past the seat for a more forward position. It’s screwed to the gunwales, seat and a block underneath, I hope its strong enough to take the pressure.

On Saturday I cut and glued together several lengths of wood to make a seat frame. My plan was to weave the seat:

This was finished by the evening with me making a mistake or two. But it works:

So I was all set to go sailing on Monday. Except of course the weather didn’t co-operate. With winds gusting 30-35 knots I thought it best to pass. Fortunately I got an offer to sail on Viking which I gladly accepted.

So no outing on the canoe but I still had a great day sailing!

Success! (Video at the bottom)

What was supposed to be bad weather turned into a beautiful day, so frustrated interruptions to my plans I decided to push ahead and make my first test sail. Options for launching were the Manukau Harbour or St Heliers beach. I settled for St Heliers because

• It’s a sandy child friendly beach
• There is vehicle access right to the waterline
• its tidal and with low tide I could go out a fair distance and still be in standing depth in case I capsized.

So after loading up and bundling the children, Cecile and Mum into the car we arrive at the beach:

Once everything was set up we set off across the shallows to deeper water:

As you can see it draws very little water.

With the water above my knees I set up the mast and started paddling.

The final job I need to do before I can say that it’s complete is to mount the leeboard on the side of the hull. Since this involves drilling another hole into the hull and there is some science in it positioning (get it wrong and the boats handling characteristics change) I had hoped to test several different positions to find the best one.

So using a couple of clamps I secured the leeboard to the side in what should be the right place. With the rudder down and the leeboard secured I pulled in some sheet and off we went! Speed was quickly picking up when I made my first mistake of the day; Gary does not recommend cleating in the mainsheet but did I listen? No so with the boom on the starboard side and speed picking up the ama started to lift and I had no hiking seat, I was heading to my first capsize! So I eased sheet and found that I couldn’t!

Capsize was averted by turning into the wind but I learnt my lesson.

Then my second mistake of the day happened; I had grossly underestimated the strain placed on the leeboard and one of the clamps holding it snapped! Putting an end to any notions I had of testing different positions. However with one clamp and eased sheets I was able to get a couple of minutes sailing:

The canoe is light and I was going at a nice pace in the light winds so I can see that it will be fun and challenging in stronger winds. Yesterday I picked up some lengths of bamboo that I will be using to hike out on in the future. As it was even the short sail I had today was fantastic.

The only other improvement I need to make is work out a simple way to keep the rudder down while underway. I’ll probably resort to the old fashioned pin.

Back on shore I spent the rest of the afternoon paddling out and back, first with Mum and then with Cecile. In the light winds the boat is easy to paddle, but once the wind picks up because it’s so light and rides high out of the water the wind turns it side on. Not a problem when the sail is up though!

Cecile climbing aboard (by this time the tide was coming back in)

Paddling:

Nico joining in:

End on the day, waiting to be packed up:

One minute sailing video

(and yes, I’ve lost count of which week it is )

Picked up a Stowaway

Well we are back in New Zealand again, and just in the nick of time too, avoiding cyclone Vanias’ landfall by a matter of hours.

On arrival I found this little fellow attached to one of the straps securing the tarpaulin to the hull:

I’m going to have to be extra careful removing that one.

Work has slowly commenced again, I’ve built the rudder/outboard mounting bracket and given it two coats of primer, mounted the rudder brackets on the rudder and built the mast head to attach the sail to.

Of course with my luck being the way it is, it looks like we’ve brought the weather from New Caledonia (rain) with us! I’m hoping that I’ll get a break in the weather to go on a test sail before the weekend (when we are off to Taupo of the jousting).

Pirogue

French for dug-out canoe.

I finally got to go to the Museum of New Caledonia to have a look at their collection of outrigger canoes. It has been a while since I was there last but I do recall them having some on display. As it turned out I was in for a bit of a disappointment; there were only two pirogues on display, a small (2-3m dug-out) canoe with a thin outrigger and a life-sized replica of a double hulled pirogue, I’m not sure if it counts as an outrigger but it certainly appears to be a proa.

My second disappointment was that there was a ban on photographing the exhibitions. Reasoning that it was to prevent damage from the flash, I turned mine off and took some photos of the double-hulled proa on the sly. It did mean that I had to use my point and shoot camera instead of my DSLR so please forgive the poor quality.

The netting is a turtle net and unfortunately the information board was in French so I don’t know if it ever sailed.

 

The hulls are decked over the top with the planks tied down with coconut fibre rope, in the Kanak style for their larger sailing pirogues. The top decking has access holes so that the inside of the hull can be reached.

Truth be told, I’m impressed with how well my Canon D10 performed in these conditions.

Some Canoe Photos

But we’re still on holiday.

This is from a photo in our room and shows Kanak proa:

The local museum has a nice collection Kanak proas’ on display and I hope to be checking them out this coming week.

Today we visited the Ile of Pines and next to where we were swimming was this old dug-out hull:

Close up of the hull sides:

It was a bit beyond restoration.

As you can see the weather was against us today with the islands three month drought being broken on the weekend we went to visit.