Courtesy of Norman Hardy some more pictures from the other days sail at Abington Park.
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After our sucessful day out getting measured up the Girls finally make it onto the water together. Spent sometime on the water together, getting Gabriela sail trimmed up and sorted, following this we went back to PJ's and tried to get some of the other sail sets cut and built ready for next weekend's open meeting at Two Islands. "you don't see a six for measurement in ages, and then three come along at once!" We had three sixes at Bournville for measurement, the two cheeky girls were joined by a Ravenna belonging to Cliff Pascal Jefferies from Doncaster. Consequently the plan for the day went something like this, weigh Monica, weigh Gabriela, weight the Ravenna, check Monica sits on the correct waterline, check the other measurements on Monica, check the measurements on Gabriela, measure the Ravenna. All should have gone to plan, Monica was weighed, no problem, Monica was put in the tank no problem all good so far. Gabriala was weighed and found to be overweight, ah ha we cried we are not going to be caught out this time we have the drill! PJ sets about drilling 1/2" (12.7mm) holes in his keel bulb, he gets to hole number eight and the battery on his cordless gives up, still 120g over weight. "I have a cunning plan" using the battery drill as an auger we set about hand drilling the final four holes, an hour later and three holes down (see how determined we are) one of the IOM skippers present for his morning sail says "oh I have a cordless drill in the car!" Five minutes later Gabriela weighs exactly 11.5kg! and passes the measurement tests. In the meantime the Ravenna is weighed and found to be 600 grams overweight also, some discussion takes place as to whether we should drill her there and then or Cliff should take her home and drill her in the privacy of his own workshop, not being as brazen as PJ & I, Cliff decides upon the later course. All that remained was to measure the sail sets we made, both sets pass and take Monica for a spin on the water, as you can see I was so keen to sail her I didn't even put on the rear deck patch and she still has the masking tape from the measurement process. Apart from some cleaning up & painting of the keel bulb all that is left is to make the other suits of sails. Thanks to David Alston & Bill Green for their assistance and advice on setting up the sails which I had literally just plonked on the hull and put her on the water to get a sail underway, there are a couple of minor alterations to make to the construction but generally I am very happy with them.
The acuracy of the Jackson household bathroom scales was called into question at the last measurement meeting, Mrs Jackson was most pleased to discover they weigh a pound (454g) over, PJ & myself less so as it meant a serious amount of weight removal from the boats or more specifically my boat. However the trip wasn't entirely wasted as we were able to confirm by measureing the hulls on the correct waterline that we have built two Romanza's! and not something entirely different, armed with the good news we set about designing and making a top suit of sails (I feel a "how to" article coming on.) Several attempts later we have something that looks like this! Bill Green was most helpful, eventually we got it right so hopefully we will get through the measurement process this Wednesday
Monica fitted out with the borrowed sails on her mast & booms, ready to go to measure.
Just the bow bumper to fit. Weighes in about an ounce over the design weight! Riggin'Earlier on I made a mould and PJ cast a bearing head set for the Cheeky Girls, the pictures below are that headset now fitted with 14mm aluminium boom and kicking strap. I had occasion to be in Bedford working recently and so popped to CM Yachts where Mike Clifton gave us his usual great service and we purchased a bunch of bits and pieces to supplement what we already have between us, for making the rigging and sails. The main reason for going to Mike was to collect the 2.4m long masts in groovy 14.5mm aluminium, (we thought it was better to collect them ourselves than trust Postman Pat to do it!). PJ has adapted the mast end so that it drops onto the mast step in the bottom of the hull nicely and taken another picture of the bearing set this time on the mast. I'm not sure what the bit of wire is next to the boom, something to do with the downhaul I expect, no doubt I will find out in the fullness of time. and finally we contacted Bill Green a Six Metre class measurer and have a tentative date to get the girls put in the tank at Bournville a week on Thursday. We are not expecting them to sail through, I am sure there will need to be some adjustments required to get them sitting on their correct waterlines as it is just so tricky to get it right first attempt.
PJ couldn't resist sending me these couple of pictures of Monica with the mast in position complete with stays. Like two excited schoolboys on a first date, we took Monica down to the canal and on the tow path underneath the bridge we laid her gently in the water for the first time.
We took some talcum powder so that we could establish where she was sitting on her water line, all looks well, we don't think we are too far away and so onwards and upwards we now have most the parts to make a suit of sails and then we will be ready for measuring! Powered by "Old Jamaica" Ginger beer! We think we have it right? but we thought we would just have another check! hopefully it is a six metre and not a very expensive mistake!
I got to go see Monica after racing yesterday, I have to say PJ has done a superb job, Monica looks like she is going fast even when she is just sitting on the living room carpet, hopefully when she hits the water the looks will translate into speed.
After our experience building carbon bearing sets for the Wee Nips we decided to transfer this knowledge onto the sixes, the results are as follows. |
AuthorI am Footy skipper turning his hand to the Six Metre class Archives
August 2015
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