Remember Achieng from a few months ago, the motor sailer with the old tarp sail?

I just got an email from Nils: Here she is with her brand new professionally-made sail - looking good!

Graeme wrote:

Any comments on Applecross ?

Well, Graeme, you were asking for a comment  -  so here it comes:

I have always liked Phil Bolger’s writing and have found his designs more than interesting. I have his ‘Boats with an open mind’ and also his “100 small boat rigs”.

I have studied the Micro before, and now it struck me that I would give the rig a radical makeover.

• ·         The original keel is probably not super-efficient to windward, so by moving the rig aft and adding a big, balanced rudder with a perfect foil shape, I kind of get the benefits of a new centre-board without being bothered with the cb. trunk.
• ·         This gives access to the mast and the whole sail bundle from the cockpit. Hoisting and reefing will be super-easy.
• ·         The sheets moves out of the way. Tacking and gybing can be done without ducking our heads.
• ·         The rudder ensures reliable tacking, every time, and will improve the performance to windward.
• ·         A new door in the front of the cuddy could give easy access to a most perfect anchoring (or children’s) cockpit.
• ·         The boat will probably sit quietly at anchor with only the top panel set.

To make this work, a big, stout rudder will have to be built and added on the stern. This can be made in several ways, but it has to be able to swing up when hitting granite. The shown one, at 0.5sqm, may be a bit over the top, I don’t know. Since it will have to share the transom with an outboard engine, it should be offset to one side to let the ob. stay on the cl. The mast is also offset to port, just outside the companionway hatch, but without interfering with the bunk. The moving of the rig this way may call for moving the ballast forward, but that should be doable..

All in all I think this new rig would turn out to make the boat both faster, handier and safer than the original.

Arne

Arcadian is in the same size bracket as Colne Spray, she is 50 feet overall and weighs 17 1/2 tons. She sets 1200 square feet of sail, 500 in the foresail and 700 in the main. When doing the conversion to junk rig I installed two vertical capstan anchor winches on the cockpit coamings, one each side. I arranged the halyard from the foresail to starboard and the main to port. Each mast had a halyard with 3:1 purchase, and a yard hauling parell as moving lines. She had fixed luff parells, a mast lift and a downhaul on each mast. The topping lifts were cleated off on the booms to provide an additional support for the boom, they rarely needed adjustment. The electric cockpit winches could also be used for stern anchor or mooring lines and were also used for lifting the dinghy on the stern davits.

I was able to sail her on my own despite being in my late sixties and with back problems and heart issues. She ended up being faster under the junk rig on all points of sail except hard on the wind and could be sailed by one person as compared with the four it took to sail anything like efficiently under the original Bermudan rig. We made the sails which were flat cut Hasler/McCloud type, they were good when the wind was over about 7 knots. Cambered sails would have improved her performance quite substantially in light airs. The battens were wood and we broke several on the mainsail (21 foot six inches long) when doing involuntary jybes, but we had no problems with the shorter foresail battens (17 foot six inches long). The foresail was double sheeted after the original single sheeting hung up on the mainsail battens one too many times!

my wife's mobility issues eventually lead us to sell her, otherwise we would still be happily living aboard. Her new owner happily lives aboard in the Town Basin Marina in Whangarei and sails her frequently, including winning the Tall Ships Race in Russell three years ago.

David.

Anonymous wrote:

Another approach (same result)

The main mast is said by the draftsman to be 15m from the deck (49.2')

At a glance, from beak to transom, the hull length in the drawing is less than the length of the main mast..

Hazel, are you measuring L.O.A. from the end of the bowsprit? That works (more or less.)

Otherwise, there is something  slightly wrong with the drawing I guess.

I’ll measure again, if I remember right it was from transom including bowsprit, the yard wanted to know because that is what boat charges were based on, Allans drawing was for a refit , re rig so it’s possible there’s a discrepancy there.

Hazel

Funny that!
Now I had another go: I imported the sailplan into QCAD and scaled it up until the battens of the mainsail became 5050mm. The battens of the fore and mizzen followed on and came out right within a cm or two. The sail areas of each sail also fitted with Allan B’s numbers.

The only problem is that this exercise resulted in a hull length of 45’. What am I doing wrong?

Clearly, Colne, as built, is 52’ (Alan B says 50’ in the description).
One way or another, the boat (and rig?) has been built larger than the plans  -  or ???

Arne

PS: What the builder may have done, is to just stretch the hull without expanding beam and draft, just as was done with Samson. If the builder then used the sails as Alan drew them, there would suddenly be much better room for the sheets. That would be an overall improvement.