Peter Cane

I am having fun and games here with sail making. In particular, the gaff does not haul up as it should do. I have spent hours mucking about with adapting the rigging but to no avail. It has sailed but I did not like the look of the sail when filled. So I went back to the drawing board to check sail geometry. First off the Leech should be left unfolded to allow air flow. With cotton sails this is impossible as the edges will fray in minutes. So it is back to Nylon. I wanted to give this another chance as I have quite a lot of it for kite making ( try it!! It is great fun flying them ) Secondly I was not convinced that I had the correct geometry for the sail. I could not understand how to plot the points of the trapezoidal sail from the drawing as there are no angles given. See the pic. I have wondered about this for weeks until today it suddenly clicked. It does not explain on the plans exactly how to make the sail. It clicked that I would have to make a movable trapezoid by means of making a suitable frame from timber with the exact lengths of the head, leech, luff and foot. To locate nails through them so that the movable frame could be pinned with one pin to a board. I could then adjust it to obtain the correct diagonal measurements as shewn in the drawing pictured. Having got my nail points in the board underneath it was a simple matter of joining up the dots with a ruler and pencil. Hey presto...one exact size sail to correct geometry. I was pleased with myself that my brain still worked but somewhat displeased that it did not work sooner. Question... Would you have twigged straight away?... I suppose it matters not . Anyway I made a pattern from plywood allowing for seams and used a soldering iron the cut the nylon. Very easy once the pattern is made. All edges are now effectively welded and cannot fray. I used double sided tape to form the hems. I shuddered at the thought of this method before but I must say...it works. As you can see the foot of the sail is far from straight. I will cut another one. It now takes minutes to accurately cut a sail with a soldering iron. I need more practice folding over the hems in a straight line. So....nylon sails are back in. I am beginning to see the advantages of using modern materials!!! I know when I'm beat! I need to make reinforcement corners and that will happ en tomorrow. They will be cut with a soldeing iron to patterns I will make from plywood. Pete.

Thank you all followers of this thread for your interest. It is more than I ever imagined. The hull shell is now complete and out in the hot Australian sun for its first coat of interior varnish to dry. My Vic Smeed Yachting book arrived this morning and it is an absolute Gold Mine! If you get into making a sailing yacht then this book has all you need to know. What tickles me is that the past owner who is no longer with us had several engineering letters after his name but he still bought the Vic Smeed book as there were obviously things he needed to know. Vic was a technical genius. Onwards! Here is how his Starlet design has emerged. It is an easy build. It must be as I have done it! It is imperfect but so am I. Pete

I cut some mast rings from a felt tip marker. They make all the difference and slide up and down well. My first attempts were brass rings but they catch and do not function so well as these. Pete

This is Emma's rudder construction. Pretty sturdy! On the first piece of alluminium bar I tried to drill the holes for the three cross pieces and they were so badly aligned it went in the bin. I ordered another length and this time read the instructions..." File a flat on it first and centre pop it". I should have known better as I was a fitter!. Must be an age thing. Pete

Jond. Thanks very much for your expertise but it is too late now. It has been scrapped. I did try to contact you on your Bluenose blog but I guess you were busy at work. I asked if you ever got around to sailing your Bluenose as I am still curious ? The last I read was that you took it to an exhibition somewhere and just about got it in the car. I particularly would like to know if she sailed okay as I need an idea of how large the false keel should be? If she needed one. I have also in retrospect gained more knowledge about the effects of scaling down a full size vessel even as much as half the size and what compromises one has to make ie smaller masts larger beam, longer keel. Did you have to consider any of those comptomises when building your Bluenose? Pete

I have started to put the skins on. I keep moaning about the cost of birch ply but it is good stuff to work with. Nice and strong and also hard. The skinning and decks will realise about £100 but I suppose that is normal for a boat of this size. I filed out half of the keel slot so as to make finding it easier after skinning both bottom halves! It makes for a neater job. Nearly got caught out there!!! Pete

Hi Peter and thanks. I have to devise something that is not heavy and easy to carry in order to get it to the club by train. A duffle bag sounds a good idea. I have a sewing machine so I will knock something up. I also have a lot of thick bright red leather so Starlet might get treated to a purpose built bag. Its just lying there doing nothing ( as leather does) so the duffle bag sounds great. I am not yet a member of the group but there is a large club with their very own boating lake in Boondall, Brisbane which is an hour and twenty seven minutes away by train. They are called the SSS club. Triple S standing for Sail, Steam and Scale. They even depth charge $5000 worth of rc submarine!. The destroyers all have firing guns which puff smoke, go bang blah blah blah. Underwater videos with G PROs ,the whole nine yards. It seems they have a shed load of fun. Pete

I did say that the Brandos were finished but somehow ( like a model railway ) they always need something else. I do enjoy sewing and indeed like to make my own Grandpa shirts and other clothing. If I can think of a reason to get the machine out then out she comes. Okay!....the two Brandos gather a lot of dust as they live in the same place as I do!....the " shed ". They also needed a bit of protection when they are in their brief case being transported to the pond by train. I also had some thick denim left over from my fabric stash which needed to be used. The result is a Brando Tarpy adorned with a half naked lady sewn on top. I make no apologies as half naked ladies are generally affixed under bow sprits and I believe they are very much desired by most sailors! The method to my madness is that a lady will not allow the dust to settle!!! Out comes the hoover and away she goes. I am hoping my theory proves correct as then the dust levels on Brando now should be reduced as there is a lady presence. We shall see!. I also knocked up a trio of transmitter bags as they were getting very dusty as well. Whilst the machine was out I took the opportunity to make Brando a new sai from cotton poplin. I do not like the nylon sail and also do not like working with nylon. I had a far nicer experience working with close woven cotton poplin. I made the sail as per Gary Webb methods and it worked out great. Two rules applied. The Leech runs parrallel to the run of the fabric. A bolt rope is applied to all edges except the Leech and made fast only at the corners of the sail. Otherwise it is left free running within the sail edges. I liked Gary's method of the cut with all the corners so as the bolt rope can be used to make the sails fast. I also liked his method of applying the reinforcement triangles at each corner of the sail. Clew and Tack etc. I show pictures how he did it ( how I copied ) To stop the twine from unravelling I secured three rubber bands around the roll, top, centre and bottom then made a quick bag to keep the twine clean. This is my sixth attempt at making the Brando sails. Five are in the dustbin and the nylon one will be replaced for a cotton poplin sail. The sails have no camber and not made on sail blocks. I might get into that once I know what I am doing but for the time being I believe KISS must prevail. Gary's boats all sail beautifully with simple cotton sails. They will not win a race but there again I am in no hurry either. Pete

Cheers John. I cheated and used my belt/ disc sander ( very carefully ) to do the bow. I cannot wait to skin it. Trouble is I get side tracked into doing something else. My mind is uncontrollable but I do try to practice the " breathing " and calm down. See my " Brando " thread and you will understand. I will need 30 minutes as I am just about to post. Pete

Nice to hear from you Nils and many thanks. Pete

Thank you John and Druxey for the nice comments. I always thought that there was something amateurish about hard chine hulls until I read up about them. I still do not know the full nine yards but as far as sailing purposes are concerned there is a lot to be said for them. They plane on the water better and are less inclined to " roll ". When we are racing ( and I am not inclined towards that ) then do we want our boat to roll right over to look " cool " or do we want it as upright as possible in order to catch maximum valuable wind? My gut feeling is the latter. I have been reading up and price checking on the International One Metre all singing and dancing carbon and fibre glass hulls together wih custom made sail sets made from the newest " this that and the other " and I have been totally put off by it all. It costs thousands of dollars, nothing is hand made by the person sailing it and I am not set on competition. Back to Vic Smeed and building a nice old model yacht. This IS a hand built boat in the old style. Take a look at the lines of the hull. She is a beauty! Check out the Beam!!...its huge and she will not go over in a hurry. Just looking at it....I was contemplating making another hull the same and planking it out like an old 50s motorised speed boat. It has the lines. The decks are beautifully curved by design. It gives me much pleasure to go back to Vic's days and relive them by building another of his classics. In his instructions he even stipulates that the tracing of all parts takes 20 minutes and all the cutting out just 1 1/2 hours. A full materials list is included. Thats what I call comprehensive. Pete

Thanks for all the likes and I do appreciate you putting up with me with my simple craft compared to your works of art with ship building. I just have another take on it all. Well I have had to remove the hull frame from the board because nose blocks had to be made. I have made them now and will post pics tomorrow when daylight arrives. I made the plug today for the two lead halves that form the bulb on the keel. It is now in the hands of my friends at work who will cast it in lead for me. I am a volunteer two days a week and enjoy the workshop facilities there. They have their own foundry and wood work shop where I work/ hang around and make model trucks etc. Here is a pic of the bulb half made from very workable red cedar which I have a good stock of. Also a pic of the truck I finished today after two months of fun. Sorry to digress but I was quite pleased with it. Now you see face to name. The reason behind the mug shot is not to show how irresistably handsom I am but for scale purposes. Its quite a big truck! Pete.

I have glued and chamfered the inwales. Thank goodness for CA! The instruction sheet recommends glueing on the bottom inwales and then to turn the whole over to fit the top ones. I thought it better to keep the boat on the board for as many operations as possible . I do not want it to twist out of shape. I will now start to fit the bottom skins leaving the boat on the board. I think it will have to come off to fit the side skins but by that time she should be rigid and true. Pete.

Ha ha. Thanks John. I hope so too. I tend to go at a pace but try to avoid beating time! I l eave that to watches. Pete.