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Presentation and a new sail for a Kingfisher 20+

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  • 13 Sep 2025 07:01
    Reply # 13541757 on 10066191

    I‘ll post their answer Graeme….

  • 12 Sep 2025 20:40
    Reply # 13541657 on 10066191
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    I have been told that if aluminium and carbon are in physical contact in the presence of an electrolyte (such as salt water) you can get galvanic action.

    If I could get hold of a suitable carbon tube for the top part, I would try to make a aluminium hybrid mast for my boat (as my mast is too heavy for me now) but I would take care to isolate the carbon from the aluminium base. I will be interested to know what Maxspar say about that.

    Last modified: 12 Sep 2025 20:46 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 12 Sep 2025 18:18
    Reply # 13541592 on 10066191

    Hi Mark,

    thank you for the reply! With a fixed hinge, folding the mast is a quite straightforward procedure…. I have rigged running mast lift and topping lifts, lowering the sail bundle on the deck takes a couple of seconds and when folding the mast I don’t have to disengage anything….the boat cover is already made for this mast! 

    Maxspar is a professional company making spars for super yachts, I will ask them about combining alloy and carbon, thanks for the advice!

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  • 12 Sep 2025 16:34
    Reply # 13541540 on 10066191

    Not sure mixing carbon and alloy is recommended. 
    as you need two parts, why not make the joint not fixed, so you can take apart and reduce weight.

  • 10 Sep 2025 16:08
    Reply # 13540745 on 10066191

    Hi all,


    After 3 years of intensive use, it is time for Shui Jen to get a new mast. 

    Her hinged one is a very smart piece, made of two parts connected by a hinge and with an alloy tube sliding on the hinge. Folding and unfolding are easy procedures that I can manage alone making the boat ready for crane and trailer in about 45 min. The hinged mast transforms this pocket cruiser into a trailer sailler which is an intiguing feature that expands the range of our costal sailing. Last but not least, the folded mast enables an easy inspection of the top gears and works as a support for the boat cover.

    Unfortunately the mast is 50+ years old, is quite heavy and has a lot of sign of intensive use. My aging iliosacral joint and multiple reports about old alloy spars snapping suddenly make me think about replacing it.

    I’m thinking about an hybrid one: 1) the lower alloy part will be reinforced with an internal carbon tube making it double and stronger; 2) the upper part will be replaced with a new carbone spare; 3) the hinge will remain the same one; 4) the sliding tube will be also replaced with one of carbon fibre. The idea is to make the mast lighter to fold and unfold but stronger. I’ve already found a company that would make the job.

    I am also thinking to incorporate the mast top in one piece and to make the upper part of the mast a bit longer in order to reduce tension at the halyard blocks and give me the opportunity to increase the sail area in the future. This is the second point: Shui Jen appears to me a bit undercanvassed (actual SA/D 16.8) and with a bit too much weatherhelm.

    Shui Jen is a KF 20+JR and like Pilmer (the last boat of Blondie Hasler) is a JR production boat. Her mast has been probably set a bit too far aft and her original mast from needlespar is thin. Nevertheless, I’d prefer to work on mast materials and sail balance rather than starting a major surgery project by changing mast position and its diameter.

    In a former post on this thread Arne wrote: “Maybe that tactics could be used on your boat as well? Now I checked. If we start with one of my master sails, the one at AR=2.20 and remove the lowest panel, and then scale it down until B=3.65m, the AR will drop to 1.94 and the sail area to 20.1sqm. It will look like a close cousin of Frøken Sørensen’s sail, only with six panels. Then, later you may find that you can fit a taller mast and set a seventh panel. This will bring the sail area up in 23.4sqm and the SA/disp. to 19.4, which is not bad. Moreover, the sail’s fairly high AR will give a tall leading edge for better upwind performance“.

    Would be such a sail with a lower yard angle a good solution for me? How much higher should be the new mast to get her? Any suggestion about dimensions of the top gear support? 


    Dimension of the mast: 8,3 meters,  7 m above the deck; 10 cm diameter at the base and 6 cm at the top, 3mm thickness.

    Actual dimrension of the boat: LOA 6.58; displacement 1315 kg; 

    Actual dimension of the sail (same of Frøken Sørensen): 20.2 sqm, 70 deg. yard, batten length 365 cm.

    Sailing ground: the Adriatic sea, light winds and sudden squalls.


    Thank you for the inputs,


    Mauro

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  • 13 Aug 2022 13:25
    Reply # 12882505 on 10066191

    Hi Mel and Gavin!


    We hope also to meet you on the big blue med…

    We are very happy with Shui Jen. She is a little big boat. She is small but with enough space and storage for a family of four; small but heavy, stable and with a very children friendly gentle motion. 

    She sails good too. We sailed downwind in F4 with four panels and the motor down and we were as fast as a much longer sloop sailing near us only with the Genoa. She seems to be good balanced, we sailed upwind in F3 to F4 with full sail and her rudder was always light. I could leave it for a bit without any significant deviation.

    For this we thank of course also the top sail of Mr. Kverneland!!!

    If you consider a conversion for your actual boat, I would really recommend to go for his method and his plans.  

    The only problem that we had, was the twisting of the sheet. I replaced the block of the upper sheetlets with one without swivel and hope this will work better…


    PS: Shui gets a lot of TLC :-)  


    Ciao


  • 07 Aug 2022 06:32
    Reply # 12875705 on 10066191
    Anonymous

    Gavin and I are so happy to see Shui Jen looking so beautiful; the photo of her on a real mooring brought a tear to my eye! Thank you for your investment into her longevity! You and family will no doubt have many years of fun cruising. Hope we bump into you ( not literally ) in Italian waters soon! 

    Mel and Gavin

  • 02 Aug 2022 09:55
    Reply # 12870290 on 10066191

    Thank you Graeme!

    It's a good idea. To a more accurate description of the cruise, I could also add a couple of pictures of the refitting too.

    Mauro

  • 01 Aug 2022 22:51
    Reply # 12869908 on 10066191
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Excellent presentation and an inspiring story the restoration on Shui Jen.

    Sails look good.

    Together with a little more detail of the cruise, it would make a great article for the magazine so everyone can read it. Well done.

  • 01 Aug 2022 13:50
    Reply # 12869264 on 10066191

    Dear friends of the JRA!


    After 9 months of intensive refitting, Shui Jen has been launched and sailed again. 

    Shui Jen is a Kingfisher 20+ that belong to Vincent Reddish, she spent her last 15 years in the french alps. The last two she was not sailed and since 2021 belongs to me and my family.

    Shui Jen has been loved by all her former owners but has not been updated in the last years. Her refitting was the perfect occasion for us to know each others better and to get started in the world of yachting.

    The refitting included:

    -a new sail made of Odissey III cloth;

    -a new sail cover;

    -new alloy battens and yard; 

    -new blocks and dyneema lines and parrels;

    -a three part Euphore made of a Dyneema line and Burton rings;

    -new wedges made of pine wood;

    -new mast coat made of neoprene and PVC sewn together;

    -new windows of Plexiglass with neoprene gaskets;

    -new 12 volt electrical system including a 50w solar panel;

    -painting the inside;

    All these works were made on ourselves. 

    The works on hull and seacocks were made professionally because of lack of experience and time. These works were made by Viacheslav, a former cadet of the soviet navy that worked firstly as captain on cargo vessels around the world and now works as a skipper and boat builder in the harbor of Koper (Slovenia). The works included:

    -removing the old layers of antifouling to the gel coat;

    -removing the rust on the keels;

    -sealing the two seacocks on the starboard side;

    -replacing the aft seacock with a new one of bronze;

    -epoxying all the little and big defects of hull, deck and keels;

    -smoothing hull and keel with primer;

    -painting deck and hull in a fresh snow white colour;

    -new black antifoulig;

    -installing a bilge pump;

    Viacheslav found little signs of osmosis and a lot of cracks on the gel coat. The keels were rusty but solidly attached. As the seacocks were replaced, he was impressed by the thickness of the fiberglass. He found that the hull of our boat is thicker than that of a Nauticat 33, he had worked on. Accordingly, his comment on our boat was: „she is build like a tank and her hull is strong like a stone!“.

    Shui Jen was lunched on July 2022. On her maiden voyage she was sailed from Portoroz (Slovenia) to Monfalcone (Italy) from a crew of two: Viacheslav and me. I think he accepted to come with me in this first sea trial, also because of curiosity on the Junk rig and on this little strange boat. In the time he worked on Shui Jen, I explained him all the advantages and peculiarities of the JR I’ve read about, but I’ve never sailed one. Hoisting the sail in the gentle wind from the NW was the moment of the truth: either the confirmation that what I told him about the JR was right, or the demonstration that all the theory I’ve talked about was false.

    As all the 7 panels inflated and the sail start to pull the boat closed hauled on the starboard tack, I screamed „it works!“ and yelled out a woohoo of relief and happiness. A gentle pull on the throat hauling parrel eliminated almost all the diagonal creases off the panels and Shui Jen started to point a bit higher than the old bermudian sloop near us. After a while, we tacked and set our curse to N to reach Monfalcone. Because of sailing on the „bad tack“ we planned a couple of tacks more, but as the boat could point quite good, these were not necessary and we made the entire leg on this tack. We covered the 17 miles in 5 hours making and average speed of 3.5 knots in 8 to 9 knots of wind.

    The boat is due to her weight and the two keels very stable. She is also quite sensible and the tiller is light. I think she has a little weather helm but more sailing is needed to confirm this first impression…

    I’d like to thank Linda & Pete Hill for supporting me and encouraging us in doing this; Arne for sharing his knowledge in a way that enables beginners to realize such a miracle; my wife for supporting me and sharing with me a good amount of the work…


    Buon vento a tutti 

    Mauro


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