Sandpiper's 2nd Shakedown Sail

[bobsastro]

Sandpiper was launched a couple of weeks ago, and CLC has posted some launching images on their Facebook page. Here's a short report on the second shakedown sail here in Sydney, Australia (get out your atlases for place names):

Took Sandpiper out in Pittwater yesterday with Peter, our neighbor (who sails regularly on a 30' racer), and a guy from Dee Why who is planning to build a Pocketship. One of those funny days, overcast, wind in bunches, with steady 15 kts, and gusts over 20. With three experienced sailors, we gave it a bit of a workout, and it performed just great. You just can't overpower such a small boat, so we used the new jiffy reefing (slab reefing) very soon after sailing, and with someone playing the main, it was possible to work our way up Pittwater into a gusty NE wind. I had put a Windex on the masthead, and with the arms set at 55 degrees, it pointed just about there, which is what the designer says it will do. It does sail really well on a beam reach, just quietly gets along at about 4-6 kts. It's very dry, only a few splashs in the face over the few hours, and none in the forward cockpit. Nothing broke, thank goodness. I had readjusted the internal balast more forward, and added 20kg, which seems just about right, particularly if the third crew stands in the companionway while tending the jib. The boat tracks beautifully on a reach or downwind, no doubt due to the partial full keel. It also jibes with no fuss or drama.

Problems? The main one is the time to rig and unrig, (see my post on the removeable/foldable tabernacle) as there are 6 main control riggings, all of which have to be threaded through at least 2 blocks, and in some cases 4 blocks before raising the mast. It took about an hour from road rig to ready to launch, and including the washing down, about 2 1/2 hours at home to derig and stow the mast, boom, and bowsprit before dropping the tabernacle and boom gallows to get the boat into the garage. Wish I had a secure place to park it with it in road ready state (which takes 40 minutes from pulling it out of the garage). Works out at about 2 hours for every hour sailing! I have an idea, however, which is to make some temporary "chocks" that sit on the cabin top, and across the posts for the removable boom gallows, on to which I can put the mast and boom/gaff/main, fully rigged to the mast and boat. This setup can fit into the garage. Lifting up the mast and hingeing it, and putting the boom on the gooseneck only take minutes so it will be road ready quickly, and the mast should be able to be raised almost immediately we get to the launch site. I'll work on this after Christmas.

The other problem is the tiller, which is long for good reasons as you need some leverage on a very effective rudder. However, you can't lift it very much due to the size of the hole in the transom, and when the helmsman tacks, he has to cross in front of the tiller, which means anyone sitting aft of the mainsheet block is in the way. I'm thinking of coming up with a tiller with a hinge inside the transom (a strong one!) so it can be lifted to allow the helmsman to slide straight across the cockpit. Other than those, I see nothing I'd like to change on Sandpiper, and it's really performing as advertised. Singlehanding it in our coastal climate of big afternoon (summer) sea breezes will probably take a better sailor than me, and the thought of launching/recovering it on my own is a bit daunting. That said, when we were launching, a South African guy was launching his English Westerley, which is about a 6m open boat in plywood, by himself, and when asked what he was doing, he casually replied he was sailing it down to Sydney Harbour, about 20km of open sea! By the way, I added a transom step, which is a single "U"-shaped step on the back of the transom on the side away from the outboard, so to get out of the water, you pull yourself up by it, put your left foot on the wing of the rudder, reach up for the transom combing, put your right foot on the step, and climb over the transom. On the subject of outboard, the bargain 2.5 hp Vortex (Chinese 2-stroke) is still in its run-in phase, but 1/3 throttle pushes Sandpiper along at about 4 knots, and I'm sure once I can use more throttle it should be able to push against a bit of wind and sea.

Cheers/Merry Christmas
Bob in Sydney

[bobsastro]

For those of you who read my comment on rigging and unrigging Sandpiper to get it into my garage, I've now put together my solution in the form of some "chocks" to hold the mast and boom/main/gaff on either side deck low enough to get in the garage. When I want to go on the road, I install the boom gallows, tabernacle, and bowsprit, lift the mast onto the tabernacle/boom gallows, and the boom etc onto the gooseneck and the boom gallows. Every shroud, halyard, and sheet is connected permanently, except for the gaff yard halyard, so it should be ready to raise the mast at the launching site in minutes. I've attached a pic of my solution (please note the "chocks" are only for the garage and driveway, not for trailering!).

Cheers,
Bob in Sydney

[bobsastro]

My final comment on the rigging/derigging issue regarding storing Sandpiper in my garage. My most recent outing was pretty disappointing, as I thought I had all the running rigging sorted out well on the cradles I built for the mast and boom/gaff while it's in the garage. I thought it looked a bit suspicious when I put the mast and boom/gaff onto the tabernacle before getting ready for the road. When we got to the launch area and tried to raise the mast, it was a hopeless tangle, and took longer to sort out than the first time I rigged it. After sailing, coming home to wash down and put the mast and boom/gaff on the cradles, once again it got so tangled that I gave up and disconnected the mast/gaff/main from everything, rolled it up, and stowed it on it's own. I've now given up storing Sandpiper in the garage for the future, and will get a full cover made so I can park it on the street with the mast and boom/gaff/main installed and rigged. If this had been a Marconi rig, I might just have been able to handle the complication of stowage, but the gaff rig running rigging complication has defeated me in this regard. Otherwise, I love the Pocketship.
Cheers,
Bob Fuller

[Bflat]

Belated congratulations on your launch.

I'm currently making first fillets on mine.

I'm curious if you've made any headway into rigging easier and faster. Any solutions?

Thanks,
Bob

[John C. Harris]

The variable at play here is the folding tabernacle. That additional degree of articulation makes it harder to keep the halyards sorted.

It DOES take a little practice to get everything sorted so that the mast goes up and down without a tangle. There are little adjustments to halyard tension you make when the rig is stowed that keep everything in order. You won't get it right on the first or second sail.

PocketShip's predecessor in my personal fleet, a highly optimized "Marconi-rigged"* Montgomery 15, had three halyards compared to PocketShip's four, but was quite a lot harder to rig.


*(It is time to retire the fossilized term "Marconi" to describe a jib-headed rig held up by wire stays. It's not quite accurate, and it recalls an age when sailors were just starting to use wire shrouds and spreaders on yachts and compared them to the new-fangled wireless radio towers. That was around 1895, and the term refers only to masts with wire shrouds and spreaders, which could be gaff or otherwise---not the shapes of the sails. If ancient words are needed, the right language for triangular-shaped sails is "Bermuda Rig." I prefer the more precise term, "jib-headed," meaning that the heads of all of the boat's sails are shaped like the head of a jib.)

[DanaDCole]

If I understand what is happening the lines are loose and as soon as you leave the boat they manage to transfer themselves to the other side of the boom or mast several times and it is nearly impossible to trace them out.

I'm wondering if it would help to tie the loose lines to the mast just before it is folded all the way down. That is, grab hold of the lower end of the loose line and pull out most of the slack, then use a short piece of line to tie it to the mast. I'm imagining this as I write it so it is probably totally wrong.