Episode 10: Two Wet Bottoms!

 It seemed to take forever to get to this point, but we can finally report that we managed to get both of our bottoms wet last weekend! Yes, the boat has actually sailed!! Getting to that point took a bit of doing though.

By the end of Episode 9, we had got most of the jobs on the boat sorted but we were still having serious concerns about the security of the beam fixings. The bolts had gone inin wonky and the helicoils we had previously fitted didn’t feel secure in their holes. Our ideas progressed to dispensing with the helicoils altogether and, after very carefully drilling and tapping vertical (hopefully) holes, we would put ‘timesert’ threaded inserts into the holes and bolt into them.

This was felt to be a ‘good idea’ until we realised how much it was going to cost. The timeserts would go out at about £5.00 a pop, plus there was the cost of the tools for two different sizes. The thought of this caused a terrible pain in the back pocket. Fortunately the marvellous people I work with a Kingston College rode to the rescue and the Apprentice Technician, Jack Knight was ‘prevailed upon’ to manufacture a full set of DIY stainless steel inserts for us. Having spoken to him before, during and after, I can only marvel at how delighted he seemed to be doing the job. He really enjoyed every single minute of it and says he stands ready to produce more if ever was ask him to 😊 .

 

Jack’s Handiwork

These went into the boat the following weekend. The main beam fitted perfectly, but the rear beam, with twice the number of long bolts, was a real pain to fit. In spite of all our careful drilling, it had proved impossible to keep the holes vertical and aligned with the result that the bolts were going into the threaded inserts but were putting a lot of pressure on themselves to do so, with a real risk of stripping threads.  

You can imagine how happy we both were with these developments! Pole and I found ourselves bouncing around increasingly complex ideas that we hoped would somehow get the beam bolts to align with their holes and take the pressure off the threads. Fortunately before we put any of them into motion, I had the good sense to go and have a chat with Jim Chuter at Kingston (as mentioned before, he is one of the finest stainless steel fabricators in the land – I do have to say that, he’s going to be my boss soon!). He spent all of two seconds thinking about it and then suggested that we use studs instead of bolts. The studs could be screwed in under no pressure at all, the beams slid on, perhaps with a bit of force, and locknuts fitted on top, again under no pressure.

The following week, this plan was put into practice with the upshot that we now have a solid boat with two beams attached very well indeed to the two hulls.

Pole was very pleased:

The boat was then dismantled to be taken down to Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club and re-assembled on the beach. Assembly took the combined efforts of the whole ‘Sails and Sprockets’ team (Pete came to join Pole and me for this session) plus we had a lot of input and ‘advice’ from various club members. Special mention should go to Graham ‘Innuendo’ Tomlinson for the loan of his rig tension gauge.

In spite of the cold weather and the feeling that for every listed job we killed off, three others would come along to its funeral, we managed to get the boat into something close to sailing condition.

Close, but still not right. We struggled with getting the mast rake to where it should be. This was mainly due to the shrouds being slightly over-long and it was having an effect on other things such as where our spinnaker pole was pointing and where the jib needed to be sheeted to. Lots of head scratching eventually led to a decision to ask the Tornado Sailors Facebook groups for some advice. During the following week the thoroughly reliable Tornado folk in both the UK and in Australia came back with lots of measurements and tips, including some key input from a chap by the name of John Forbes. If he’s who I think he is, then he has featured in the results of a couple of modest sailing competitions in the past – we will gladly take his advice and whatever reflected glory we can also get!

The following week, in marginally better weather, we were able to put this pedigree information into practice, made easier also by more of Pole’s metalworking skills being put to use in fashioning a new, shorter set of chainplates. The mast is now pointing in the right direction, the spinnaker luff is now more or less tight enough (it was woefully loose) and the jib sheets now reach!

Other tasks, such as getting the racks on followed swiftly and we were soon ready to launch … just as the ESSC race fleet were coming in for lunch. If you have ever tried hurrying a 20ft cat down (and up) a shingle beach that has been re-shaped by recent storms to look like the Stealth roller coaster at Thorpe Park, trying to bag a space near the water before everyone else came in and blocked the beach off completely, you’ll understand the heaving and sweating we had to indulge in. Not helped, it should be said, by the spinnaker downhaul line getting snagged around a trolley wheel and thus lashing the boat to the trolley more effectively than any of the normal tie downs ever could. Fortunately the ESSC crowd are a benevolent lot and enough people rallied to hold the boat/trolley combo in the surf for us while yours truly dived underneath to free the offending line and get boat and trolley parted from each other.

Suddenly we were on board and the boat was moving under its own motive power. What a relief! The biggest buzz from the day (apart from a couple of smashing spinnaker legs) was that nothing broke. Yes, Pole – the testosterone-laden brute that he is – did manage to rip the spinnaker sock, but he does have something of a reputation for this kind of thing and I see it that we got off quite lightly.

The racks, in particular, worked very well indeed. They seem rock solid and comfortable. It’s a bit of a step getting onto them after a tack, but once in place we get almost the same degree of righting moment as if we were on the trapeze and a lot more padding around the backside than any harness would give.

The stupid grin simply indicates how comfortable my backside is..

Of course, there were niggles …. Lots of them. The jobs list has gotten a lot longer, but these are all small fixes which we would normally expect to have in a situation like this.

We had hoped to get out again yesterday – but by the time we had done the additional jobs from the previous week, the fleet were back from their morning races and, with the conditions being decidedly frisky, nobody went out in the afternoon.

The boat is now 95% ready. We’ll be moving on to thinking about how to load it soon. We have club duties next weekend, domestic ones the weekend after that, after which we hope to be able to do our first shakedown cruise.

In the meantime, here are some images and some very brief footage of what we got up to over the last couple of weeks:

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Studs and inserts for the rear beam

Pete ‘advising’ on where the jib tack should go (yes, we now know, it’s waaaay too low in this pic)

Initial fitting of the tent …

The ‘solar panel panel’ coming together. Made from scrap extruded polystyrene and epoxy/carbon, this will eventually sit on the bowsprit. The PV panel itself is propped against the tool cabinet in the background

Navigation light and radar reflector. The light is on a halyard, the reflector is permanently fixed.

 

Spinnaker sock was extended to run a foot or so under the trampoline to prevent the damage that occurred on the first sail

Pole took delivery of his new Bivvy bag

 

A very short clip of us sailing back in after a successful day