Geam

Bare for info' : I have by some small miracle managed to open a YouTube account and 'beam up' a few videos of the Fisher on the water. The quality is not that good but I see that in many posts. I have not managed to edit/cut the longest sessions, so it's necessary to jump through the videos a bit if they get boring. There's no music, but plenty of 'grinding' winches and 'buzzing-motor' sounds to get on with.  I am very pleased with the function of the two-winch genoa system. It works better than I'd imagined. A bit more sheet travel is needed to be able to sheet in the genoa å little bit more and I'll work on that when time allows. 

The videos can be found by writing "Model Fisher 34 motorsailer"  on Google. Probably also by writing in YouTube too, but I have not actually tried that yet!

George

Admiralty assisted  trip to a local lake today. Not much wind, but nice Wx and 17*C . Fisher sailed very well in fact in almost no wind. The family 'film crew' were there too, but not got any of their photos or film yet- Posting here a couple of poor photos from video on my PC screen. 

Just a few cosmetic tweeks to do on the yacht before I close down the Fisher production unit and go over to the Colin archer.  Not planning to write much about that as so many people have already built it and Carsten and Andreas are already active on this site with their Billing Boats CA models.  

George.

The new raked-back fin and wing keel did the trick. The logitudinal CoG was just right. The bows came up a bit -and the stern down of course- so there's no need to re-paint the waterline either.

Son-in-Law took photos and grandson wizzed about with his drone. The'll beam down photos in a few days. The fin shown here will be 'streamlined' a bit by adding a sheet aluminium cover. I made sail covers last week and reefed/stowed the sails but they came out very wrinkled so won't be using the covers in future.

The problem with battery capacity seems to have been solved by using dedicated Rx batteries and no BEC. So two 4.8v/2000 mAh batteries in parallel now power the Rx. 

I'll post a few new sailing photos when I get them and with some family help I'll try to post some video on YouTube.  That will then be the end of this 18 month scratch-build report. 

Hi -just for info'.....

I've been studying photos of static Fishers recently and although my model floats slightly nose down I think that an additional problem is that the waterline mark has been painted too high at the stern. Quite far into the  build I was convinced that the yacht would be too heavy and it looks like I have tried to compensate for this visually by painting on the waterline mark too high. I remember also that I was expecting the model  to be stern-low!  I was compensating for a problem which wasn't there! This reminds me of the saying, "If it's not broken, don't fix it!"

The new, aft-raked keel will be fitted today and ready for a L-CoG test tomorrow, Sunday. The forecast is for sunshine,+4*C and almost no wind.  Later, I may have to consider if I can scrape off some dark blue paint from amidships to the stern and then when the weather and temp. allows, I will paint over with white. Hope I can do a decent job of it. The white is sprayed on acrylic with clear acrylic gloss on top. BUT, before I 'fix' the waterline mark, I'll wait to see if it's really necessary! 

George 

Son-in-law beamed me a photo of the first 'departure'. I was switching on the Roam3 video camera.

Grandson was there too and took some drone video so that will appear on YouTube when he has time to help me set up an account.

Two 4.8v/2000mAh in parallel -now connected to the Rx. No BEC. 

Yacht floats slightly nose down so will move the keel a bit aft and make it longer to give even more righting-moment. Might make a new,more streamlined single-leg keel-  a bit nicer for the trout to look at in the summer.

George

Launch went well yesterday. BUT after 5 minutes sailing, the voice warning sounded for low reciever battery voltage. I could not hear what the warning was 'saying' until too late. The receiver shut down!  After about 15 minutes 'free sailing' the Fisher turned for the shore just as my son-in-law was removing his jeans to take swim in the very cold water! I had waders on and waded out to meet the yacht as it sailed shoreward. 

When I got back home and switched everything on again it all worked perfectly! Do not know what was wrong but I hope it was just that the BEC on the speed controller could not supply enough power to the Rx due to 3 winch servos and a digital rudder servo. I was not using the R/C much at all during sailing so can't really understand why. The ESC BEC is supposed to supply 5v and 5A. The servos use 0.5A idle and 1.8-2.2 under load so I hope this is the cause - and nothing more serious!

I have now fitted a dedicated receiver battery 4.8v 2000mAh and may even put in an extra one in parallel before the next test-sail.

Did not manage to get photos other than from my Roam 3 action cam -fitted into the wheelhouse door opening. Son-in-law will send me his photos later  also while I was wearing waders he says!  Posting a screenshot from action-cam just after launch.

Too much wind and too cold for testing during the next few days, but doing more tests at home.

George

Ready for launch. Couldn't find  1/12th scale champagne so had to use the crew's supplies. A magnum of  'RHUM'  (it says on the bottle) was located below decks .

Added anchor windlass and manual operating handle. Also produced a stemhead fitting to hold the bruce anchor on the 'stemhead roller' -which is only a bolt, not a roller! 

Trying to revive my old Roam3 action cam to get some on-board photos for the launch and first sail. Weather report is OK for Thursday and Friday. Setting up for automatic still photos only, don't think the stabilisation is good enough for video and have to open a You Tube a/c which I don't know how to do....yet.

Have now 'doctored' the sliders to work in the mast slot. Not the smoothest action but good enough. All three sails can now be hoisted. Still many small jobs to get done before launch. 

George

Mizzen sail has been produced and hoisted. Had some trouble with the sliders. I did not notice when I bought them last year that they were boom sliders and they do not stay put in the larger slot of the  mast! I had to solder some brass wire onto the base plate of each slider -which fits into the mast slot- so that it did not simply fall out again!  Didn't look too good after soldering but it is not noticeable -hidden inside the slot of the mast.

Mainsail to be done during the weekend. The sails are very lightweight nylon so I have not made them with a large (scale) roach area. Could use battens but I think that the sail will still curl in at the leech if the leech allowance (or roach area) is too large.

These are the first sails I have ever made in my life so I will not be surprised if I end up making a new sett.

First I will check that the whole thing floats before getting into advanced sails!

George

I  had problems with my Humbrol enamel (silver 11). I thought it was dry and after 2 days started fitting the pulpits to the yacht. Ended up with fingerprints all over the pulpits. Everything has been sanded down again and after waiting 3days I thinned the (very old ) paint by about 5%  and applied again -with a brush as before. 

I have in the meantime 'googled' about Humbrol metallic paint and 'long drying times' are mentioned all over the place! Pity I did not google first. The instructions on the tin say 6 hours recoat but not 6-10 DAYS drying/cureing time. It has also been stored below 0*C for many days this winter and I read that that is also a NO-NO.

It may be that my paint was miles too thick -due to being about 20 years old- and simply should have been thinned prior to application. The second attempt at painting seems to be much better, but I'll wait a week before the pulpits get handled and fitted. I have also ordered in some 3mm brass and also some 3mm aluminium tube - just in case I have to make them again -without paint-  in polished brass or aluminium.

In the meantime, the main and mizzen sails have been produced and are ready to be punched for eyelets and sliders before hoisting. 

Also the assembled stanchions have been test fitted and will be epoxied in place later this week.

I see that I've been spelling "stantions" wrongly for months now...sorry!

George

Fore and aft pulpits have now been soldered and given Humbrol undercoat matt 01. Will be painted Humbrol 11 silver or Tamiya  Titanium silver acrylic -not sure which yet. After fitting the pulpits, the stantions will be strategically placed to not foul the genoa sheets -I hope. 

Produced a 'kit' for the stantions. 7 each side. Made from 2.5mm alu' tube + wire from Crémant corkholders (!)  + cocktail sticks. I bought some ready made brass stantions when I started the build but they were too thin and simply did not look right at all. Don't know why photos are upside-down, sorry. George

Once again, a post has appeared in duplicate. Sorry but don't know why this happens -nor how I manage to do it!

I thought I would be cutting the rest of the sails, main and mizzen, as the next stage but I've ended up bending brass wire for the fore and aft pulpits. Was going to just keep them in brass to avoid all the painting but have been advised by the learned to paint them in look-alike 'steel'. 

Posting photos of pulpits prior to painting -parts are just pushed into place as a test.  

George

Did some more genoa control testing yesterday. I may have made the genoa slightly too big for the available winch/sheet-length movement. The available internal hull-length only gave me 38cm of sheet length movement.  It'll mean too much internal re-working to get the full 6 turns of the drum available so I'll just have to stick with what I've got.  I expect that the Fisher will not sail closer to the wind than a broad reach, so the set-up may still work OK.  Will try it out on the water/in the breeze, before doing any more adjustments.

Meanwhile the watchman and his son made a sneak visit last night to check the nav lights and wheelhouse nav- instruments -iimmagination running a bit wild these days, sorry!

Did some more genoa control testing yesterday. I may have made the genoa slightly too big for the available winch/sheet-length movement. The available internal hull-length only gave me 38cm of sheet length movement.  It'll mean too much internal re-working to get the full 6 turns of the drum available so I'll just have to stick with what I've got.  I expect that the Fisher will not sail closer to the wind than a broad reach, so the set-up may still work OK.  Will try it out on the water/in the breeze, before doing any more adjustments.

Meanwhile the watchman and his son made a sneak visit last night to check the nav lights and wheelhouse nav- instruments -iimmagination running a bit wild these days, sorry!

I have added some shroud rollers/covers to try to prevent the genoa sheets snagging on the chain plates/bottle screws when changing tack. Fishers do not sail 'close hauled' so changing tack will be a motorised turning-maneouvre through about 150* I suspect! 

The Fisher 34 build is progressing surely but slowly. Radar and reflector now in place and I started drawing, cutting and  making sails 3 days ago. Roller furling genoa is made up and will be connected up to the winches for testing soon.

George

Time to post a new update. Rigging now complete. Had to re-do a few runs due to lack of pre-planning. New 'fails' may be found as inspection of the detail work is carried out but so far I'm please with overall look of the yacht. The light blue fuel tubing covering the crimp tubes will be replaced by clear when I find some. May try white plastic  tape as in full size practice!

Radar and reflector still to be mounted on the mizzen mast. Then it'll be time to cut the sailcloth!

Was allowed to use a background black wall in the dinning room ( for 15 minutes!) to enhance the visibility of the rigging.

George

Managed to make a roller furling unit. Don't know if it will stand up to the forces but it does revolve!

Rigging the masts in what I think is a sensible order. Should be done by the weekend. 

See that the photos need to revolve too!

George

I wrote earlier that the Speed 400 bow-thruster motor would not work. Found that the wires from a large filter across the terminals were touching! - below the filter body and out of sight. So the volts were actually going straight from '+' to  '-' terminals of the battery. Not sure that these filters are even needed with 2.4ghz R/C ? 

I am however sure that FUSES are needed!! Burned out three during fault-finding tests!

George

Spars are at last being 'adorned' with various fittings!

Well, fittings are going onto the masts at last. Another slow process. I spend as much time looking for small screws which I drop onto the floor as I do actually fitting the them. I will have to adopt a smarter way of working on the masts. Planning on 4 weeks to step and rig the masts. Another 2-4 weeks to make the sails. Assistance from the  Admiralty and her sewing machine will be needed. 

Still planning for an Easter launch... April 1st! April fool ?

George 

info:   

I was intending to use the fuse/fuse holder as a 'switch' to isolate each battery from the speed controller. I have been advised by some 'electrified' people that the fuse and holder will be quickly damaged by removal/replacement of the fuse ie. using it as a switch.  The fuse will not actually be cycled very often in my view but, better safe than sorry.

So....off to buy two 30A rated switches for each battery '+' wire. It's really getting crowded in the cabin so I hope this is the last piece of gear to go in before I can start on the masts and standing rigging.  

George

I'm looking forward to starting the Colin Archer...only 1 speed controller and 1 motor👆 There's a lot of wire in this Fisher 34!  I hope the R/C signals get through!

George