Saturday evening racing

Had a nice sail this Saturday until a storm moved in to ruin the race.

Tiller

I had considered either just buying a tiller from the infernal-marine-supply-store-not-to-be-named, but as expected, they wanted WAY too much $, or just using a stick of closet rod or something similar till I had more time to make something better. But I had some leftover mahogany from the material I bought for the rubrails, and figured anything other than a nice laminated tiller would annoy me until I did it right. So, here's the rough blank for a slightly curved, mahogany and fir tiller. Marie took the photos of the layup. She gets some nice shots, doesn't she.

Goopy, messy process. Laminating spars and the tiller is quickly decimating my remaining epoxy supply. Fortunately, there is not much left that calls for it.

Even pressure is the key to a good lamination. The horizontal C-clamps are clamping scrap plywood cheeks to keep the layers aligned while the spring clamps give just enough pressure to squeeze out a bit, but not too much, of the thickened epoxy.

Here it is clamped in place after an initial clean up on the table saw. This photo was taken by me with my crappy phone camera. I'll have Marie take nicer pictures once it is completely done.

 

Running rigging

I'm starting to add the running rigging. Here is the port turning block and cleat for the mizzen sheet. Both the mizzen and mainsheets are split and can be trimmed from either end. The mizzen runs to the either side of the aft deck near the transom and is split over the tiller to avoid interference. After it runs through a block there, it is led forward to the aft end of the cockpit and must be routed over the coaming. This mahogany block raises the block and cleat just high enough to give clearance.