"Little Wing"

[slash2]

LittleWingLaunchedl.jpg (63.59 KiB) Viewed 13335 times

I launched my Pocketship today - 'Little Wing'. Wow, what a journey. Two years and three months.

I've been pushing hard to get her launched before winter and everything aligned right this weekend. I have lots more to do; lots of touch up, all the electrics, etc. but she was ready enough to sail. She trailered well (other than a near disastrous trailer problem) to the Potomac River, rigged up nicely, and launched easily. All my friends were busy, so I did it solo. As she was ready to slide off the trailer, I realized I didn't have any dock lines attached! Almost had to go swimming. I had some trouble with the sail slides on the luff; it was tricky as I had to steer her into the wind, run up to the mast, jiggle the slides, then run back to get her into the wind again. Once had her sails up, wow. What a sweet boat. It was perfect day - sunny, 80 deg, with winds around six knots or so. Just right for shake down. Wind picked up a bit at times and I got some heel and maybe, maybe, almost touched a rubrail to the water. But mostly it was lazy, wonderful sailing. The other day I wondered - What if I don't like the way she sails? Well that's not a problem; what a nice little boat.

There are a few things to take care of: A tiller extension and maybe a main sheet jam cleat would be useful for solo sailing. The rudder bangs around a bit on it's mount. I think the jib jam cleats are too far forward; I had to get up to free them. And the sail tracks. I did dry lube them. Maybe they will free up with time. And I need to figure out the bowstay/ trailer bumper problem. I have storage at the state park where I can keep her fully rigged on the trailer, but that means the bowstay must stay attached, which gets in the way of the bumper...

Thanks so much for all the help and advice over the years!

I'll add more to this thread later, detailing what I did differently on my boat. Others have documented the build process and how nice a Pocketship can look when done by a craftsman. Mine is a 5 meter boat - she looks good from 5 meters (or more) distance.

In the end, today, I didn't want to go back to the dock, but I realized the sun was going down and headed back. I then remembered I had brought a Bluetooth speaker and turned it on and set my music to random. The first song to come up was 'Forever' by Fleetwood Mac:

I like the way the light falls today
Slow, too lazy for anything
And I see boats that are sailin' past me
You know, I wish this day could keep on goin' and last forever

Yeah...

[dbeck]

Congratulation, Steve!

BTW: Your boom gallows looks a bit unusual

[Creekboater]

Congratulations Steve. The further in my build I get, the more I realize how big a deal launch day is.

And...fantastic name by the way.

martin

[slash2]

Thanks for the kind comments!
As I was nearing completion I became worried about what happens if I don't like the way she sails? Well no problem there.

Anyway I want to add a few posts to detail what I did differently on my boat (or at least deviated from the plans). I see three sets of mods. Those endorsed by John Harris, those suggested by others on this forum, and those that I think are unique to my build (the boom gallows for one).

Mods I made that were endorsed by John Harris:

Tabernacle:
1. I did make mine removable. I followed the plans suggested by John for the most part. I only used three bolts but I used elevator bolts, which are similar to carriage bolts but have a much larger and flatter head. I also used oversize washers on the inside. I overlapped the cabin top fiberglass over the bulkhead and vice versa as well as adding 2" wide fiberglass tape. In addition the cleats were made from steam bent white oak.
2. I added 6mm plywood to the sides of the tabernacle.
3. I can't remember if John endorsed using a larger bolt for the mast pivot, though he did note his bent. I used a 1/2" bolt - probably overkill.

I made my companionway hood removable. I wish I had seen the forum suggestion to make the sides 1" thick to allow more purchase for mounting screws. Mine was further complicated in that I wanted my screws to be perpendicular to the cabin top so they would sit nicely in finish washers. That meant that the screws had to angle into the hood sides in a narrow space to avoid the slide track and not poking out the outsides. I bedded the hood with white butyl tape which was a bit of a mess on such a big piece that needed some finagling. Silicone might have been better.

[slash2]

Mods I made suggested by others:

I added extra lead to the centerboard. The plans show a larger lead area than what is cut out in the kit pieces.

I converted the small forward part of the seat backs into storage (and I closed the openings in the forward frame supports). On the starboard I made a compartment accessible to the cockpit with a small hatch to close it off. Its a great place to store all that little stuff like a whistle, Revolve boat hook, keys, etc. On the port side I made an opening into the cabin. This will also be a good place to store small items. I posted about these elsewhere.

I liked the idea of adding a wood block on the inside where the bow eye bolts in. Based on what I read and measuring off the plans I epoxied in a nice support piece. When I finally mounted the bowsprit and measured where the bow eye wanted to be and drilled the holes, I just missed my wood block (I was higher)! I ended up adding a mat made up of six layers of fiberglass saturated with epoxy. Don't know why I was so far off...

There are a couple of mods I wish I had made:

Someone has posted how to widen the footwell without really losing any interior space. I saw that too late, though the standard footwell worked well with my size 10.5 feet in Crocs.

I think closing off the stern flotation area from the lazarette area is a good idea.

I also lengthened the gaff so it can rest on the gallows.

[[email protected]]

Congratulations! Tell us about that interesting-looking gallows!

Doug

[slash2]

Mods I think are unique

Well - of course, the gallows. I wanted to use white oak where I could and a lot of those places need it to be bent; plus I like learning new things. The standard gallows just seemed a bit clunky to me so I thought a half circle would work nicely and still provide the support and safety (if jib halyard breaks). Because it's wider than the SS posts it ended up cramping the space for my rear cleats, so I angled them. I still need to figure out something for the spars to actually rest in. I'm thinking a removable piece made of stiff foam. Details on the fabrication at:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1098&start=0&hilit=Oak+gallows

The cabin shearclamps, carlins, and cleats are all oak, steam bent as needed. Well, I had installed the shearclamps before deciding on oak, so I made 'L' shaped covers out of oak.

I decide against laminated rubrails as I wanted to use oak and it would need to be pretty thin to dry bend. So I steam bent oak milled to the full cross section of the rubrail. I did use two pieces on each side to get the length. It came out pretty good though a couple of areas have a bit of a kink. This was due to a warp in the timber I used. I was hoping the steam bending would overcome those natural curves, but it didn't completely.

I thought the leading edge of the keel was a bit too vertical and, being softer wood, would get easily damaged if run aground or hitting logs (lots of those in the Potomac). So i made the front end more curved (I probably overdid it) and then added a strip of oak along that section as well as aft of the centerboard. That should help the centerboard area drain and dry as it will sit above the trailer carpet. I do worry a a bit as the front of boat is now supported by a fairly short length of keel.

I mounted my portlights with brass barrel screws. It gives a clean look to the exterior and interior and there's nothing to bump your head against.

I have an ePropulsion Spirit remote outboard. I will use it in a fixed position (not steering). The cool thing about it is the remote throttle which can be wired or wireless. It pushes the Pocketship fine and the battery has a lot of capacity. And when I get over 5 knots (ha!) it will regenerate (in theory).

I coated the bottom with CopperCoat. I posted about that elsewhere.

I varnished the cabin ceiling and transom. The rest of the bright work (spars and exterior oak) was done in Cetol. Not as glamorous as varnish but it should hold up much better (I hope).

And lastly (I think), I modified a used trailer that was designed for a Precision 16. It didn’t take much to set it up for the Pocketship; the precision has a short bulb keel so the keel bunk was wide. I moved the brackets in and put on new wood and bunk carpet. The winch had to be moved back a bit and will need to lowered.

Edit - thought of something else. It bothers me to have loose things on a boat so I hinged my sole openings with barrel hinges and added a pop-up latch.

Hinged Floorboards

Floorboard (3).PNG (147.01 KiB) Viewed 12726 times

[Dan]

Steve,
Congratulations on the launch of Little Wing!
I've been lurking on this forum for at least a year, and following your progress. Thanks for all the information you and every builder on here have shared. I retire at the end of this month, and soon it will be time to start my own building journey.
Where are you on the Potomac? If you need someone to crew, PM me and I can meet you. I'm in southern Maryland and probably not too far away. I'd love to see your pocketship and the mods you've made.
Dan

[slash2]

I’m keeping her on a trailer slip at Leesylvania State Park in Virginia near Woodbridge.I hope to get as much sailing as I can before it gets too cold, so I’m sure we can meet up. Send me a message with your contact info.

[Pascal]

Hey. Let me know what day you plan on going. May be a sail with 2 Pocketship ? I am in Silver Spring and fairly flexible . Alexandria, VA, sail ? My boat Naoned is now 11 years old. I did not sail her much this year so looking for an opportunity.