Star 45 Setting Sail on line How To Sail resources

From: "Don Keeney" <1keyknee@281.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 15:39:26 -0600
Subject: [Star45] Sail Trim

A great place to learn about sail trim and sailing in general.
http://www.sailingusa.info/sail_trim.htm

Don Keeney
Star 45 Class Secretary
--
Outstanding recommendation. Wonderful site. full of photographs and all sorts of instructional materials. Pictures of tells and how to read them:)

Another must place to visit (you can try out your sailing skills):
National Geographics Interactive Sailing:

Master rudder and sail to get your boat going as fast as possible no matter what direction youre sailing in-or which way the winds blowing.

Controls available:

Sail Adjuster: Use the left sliding controller to rotate the sail in relation to shifting wind (shown as arrows). When you cross the path of the wind, your sail will swing to the opposite side.

Rudder Adjuster: Using the right sliding controller, steer to port (left) or starboard (right).


Uncle Dave

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How to Sail the Lug Yawl REPOSTED

My friend and fellow boatbuilder in the Northwest, James McMullen, created a very useful set of drawings to help people learn how to use our favorite sailing rig, the Lug-Yawl. For sail & oar boats you cannot have a more versatile and fun rig for your boat. Clint draws these rigs into most of his designs, such as the Calendar Islands Yawl or the Goat Island Skiff with a mizzen. Please look at these drawings and imagine how this rig could fit into your own sailing.

Now that you have seen these diagrams you can also see how useful the mizzen would be for switching from sailing to rowing and vice versa. While the mizzen is hauled in, the boat will keep herself pointing into the wind so the sail can be raised and lowered without filling and causing the boat to fall off one way or the other. I have found the mizzen useful for stopping and taking a break or for restowing gear or for dealing with safety matters. In these cases, it is best to learn to "heave-to" so that your boat doesnt lose too much ground. That is one drawback of lying head-to-wind under mizzen: you need to have plenty of leeway...no boats, rocks or land to get blown down upon. The advantage of heaving-to is that you dont lose too much ground at all. We make light, strong Birdsmouth masts and spars and have intimate knowledge of the Lug-Yawl.

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How good are small boats

My three sons (one of whom built his first boat at thirteen, and a lapstrake sailing dinghy at age fourteen) seem to have picked up one of my bad characteristics - that is, having too many interests.

The boatbuilding boy is obsessed with sailing, model aircraft, engines, quality cars, and full-sized gliding. He recently confided in me that he had plenty of other potential hobbies, but time and space have already become critical. Welcome to life, I say!

Recently he and I went for a really good day of sailing in his recently-acquired-but-very-old Jack Holt-designed Lazy E (a.k.a. National E). We experienced 20 to 25 knot conditions, and had to work very hard indeed to keep the old boat on her feet. But what a ride we had! Lots of trapeze work, and lots of planing. At one stage as we were planing on a reach, my boy yelled from the tiller that if Green Island hadnt been in the way, we would have had to keep going to New Zealand, because it was too much fun to change tacks.

This reminded me once again just how much satisfaction you can get from sailing dinghies (dinghys? - I dont know how to spell it...). The interesting thing was that when I questioned this young man about which activity he would keep doing, if only one was allowed, he was emphatic in saying it would have to be sailing. This is despite the obvious attraction of the aviation and mechanical interests.

I have a theory that the human brain stores away the sounds, and sights of a days sailing, and that the beneficial effects last for weeks or months. It doesnt take much to keep me going, although more is always better.

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So how did all this crap get on the boat

The word for today is Anthropocene, water, water everywhere, and regarding the most destructive 
people in society...

What can I say but its a new year and way past time for a major boat purge.

Well for one there are those scrap bits of aluminum from an old self-steering project which fall dab center in the middle of the too little to use and too big to throw away zone, some odd lengths of 1" stainless tubing which might come in handy if I ever decide to build an arch, a bunch of Plexiglas offcuts that sorta/kinda might be just the thing for some project I cant quite remember, and then there all that no longer needful but too good to put in the trash...

All of that crap when lumped together adds up to a surprising amount of weight but its the clutter issue which is the real problem as all of this stuff I dont use creeps around the boat (I suspect all unneeded boat bits have legs) like a cancer. Appearing, as if by magic, in lockers they dont belong in obscuring the stuff youre actually looking for and suchlike.

That said, it certainly beats having to mow the lawn...

Listening to Ryan Bingham

So it goes...

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How do you determine the number and dimensions of staves in a Birds Mouth Mast or Spar

Birdsmouth is the word in the shop, lately. We have several orders for birdsmouth masts and spars that are in progress. I have been working hard at nailing down the process to be able to make them efficiently and to a very high standard and feel very excited about how it is all going. The Landing School of Boatbuilding has asked me to to give a talk/demo on making things birdsmouth style, so Ive been pressed to improve our webpage on birdsmouth spars as well. On the page is my procedure for determining the number and dimensions of staves in a birdsmouth spar. Gaeten Jette, a featured contributer to Duckworks magazine on the topic of Birds Mouth Spars, generously helped me customize the online calculator for my use and students use. I hope you find it helpful, too.

We make two styles of Birdsmouth spar, using symmetrical staves (most common) and asymmetrical staves, which when done correctly will yield a perfect octagon and a spar that is slightly stronger and quicker to make. I decided to apply this type to making an ultralight kayak paddle shaft.



I am pleased with the results. The biggest hold up was fitting the plugs in the scoops that will take a ply-composite or a carbon fiber blade, which is already something we produce for our wood/composite, high performance oars.

With that part of the process ironed out it really is just a matter of setting up the operation to produce these paddles after some testing. This one will go to some paddler friends who will take the design on the seas and really test it out. Hopefully, sometime this summer the results will come in and production will begin. Ill leave you with the best part of making new things: breaking them with a hammer. We test most spars this way to make sure that things break the "right" way. That is, in a proper glued structure, the wood should always break before the glue joint does, otherwise there is a problem. Happily, all our spars have been breaking the "right way" in the shop so we know they wont break out on the water.

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A paint job for under 100 or how Interlux Brightside is history toast aboard my boat

On how beans are the coming thing, a very interesting subject, and a reality-based assessment of where things stand...

A long time ago, maybe it was in "Messing About in Boats", Phil Bolger wrote in passing that, just maybe aluminum paint would make a good choice if painting your boat on a budget. As I recall, he cited several other good reasons, with one of them being that it should keep your boat a lot cooler in warm climates...

Fast-forward to a couple of years ago when I noticed someone had just painted an Out Island 41 with aluminum paint and it actually looked pretty cool if you appreciate the look of semi-polished aluminum. Sorta/kinda shiny (as in you might want to use sunglasses when checking it out) is how Id describe it.

My thought process at the time was to wonder if I could find that old Bolger article, what aluminum paint (yeah, the stuff you paint on aluminum siding when you want it to look like aluminum) was going for over at the hardware store, and would or would not the sorta/kinda shiny look hold up or if the paint would oxidize to that blackish/gray patina I associate with unpainted aluminum boats like the Deerfoots.

Since I row past the OI-41 every couple of weeks  Ive had ample time to check out how the paint job has held in the tropical sun, near constant salt-laden trade winds and a few storms... Its still sorta/kinda shiny, still looking good and with none of that oxidized look I was worried about. In truth the paint job still looks pretty awesome.

As it happens, about the same time the OI-41 got its aluminum paint job, I painted part of my deck with some high-priced ($48 a frelling quart) single part boat paint and just the other day I was beginning to see some serious wear and tear telling me its time to repaint the deck even in low/no traffic areas.

To test the paint further, I bought a can of the aluminum paint ($8 a quart) and painted the top section of the topsides where the old blue stripe was with one coat to see how it would cover and work. Six months later its adhering finestkind and, while two coats would have been better, one done carefully, pretty much does the job. Which surprised me because this aluminum paint (be warned) is seriously thin (as in HOLY SHIT THIS STUFF IS REALLY THIN!!!) being micro aluminum platelets in an oil/solvent matrix. To best describe the application its a lot like painting your hull with water.

The resulting finish is very hard and very smooth which is exactly what youre looking for in a marine paint. Going on six months later, water still beads up on the finish and thats saying quite a lot. When I get around to painting the entire topsides Ill finish it off with a wax job on top (Ive been waiting for an excuse to try the hydrophobic Eelsnot instead of wax) which should make it even better.

The best part, other than its just a pretty awesome user friendly paint, is that its cheap at $8 dollars a quart/$27 a gallon... I expect that two gallons would more than cover "So It Goes" with two+ coats with a lot left over for dinghies, touch ups, and suchlike. Whats not to love?

The only downside I can see is everyone will think you have an aluminum boat...

Listening to Tim Lee

So it goes...

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on hard work smart sailing and how the two dont belong in the same sentence

How mystery meat just became a whole lot more mysterious, a quick primer on inequality, and nope no problem here...

Theres an opinion held by a great many that sailing is really hard work and judging by the way some people talk and outfit their boats you might even begin to believe it.

I dont.

The thing is, Im the first to admit that Im a pretty lazy guy. Its not so much that Im against hard work in a good cause but hard work for the sake of hard work when its not needful just isnt smart. Or to be a little bit clearer... Seriously dumb.

A well-designed boat should not involve a lot of hard work to sail it and, if youre having a hard time, there is a goodly chance that you have simply set the boat up badly, not sailing the boat correctly, or just doing something stupid.

By all means call me opinionated...

There is an excellent little video over at Off Center Harbor (you really do need to subscribe) showing a guy single handing his schooner in a no-muss-no-fuss-trauma-free fashion that shows just how easy sailing could be when you let the boat do most of the donkey work and keep things simple.

Listening to some Americana raga

So it goes...

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Download How are the principles of physics applied to sailboat design

Try How are the principles of physics applied to sailboat design nowadays i came across the particular How are the principles of physics applied to sailboat design Detailed information about How are the principles of physics applied to sailboat design and your search ends here In the survey I get that not a few people who need a pdf version for How are the principles of physics applied to

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Guide How to build a plywood boat plans

How to build a plywood boat plans Pic Example How to build a plywood boat plans Homemade Pontoon Boat DIY Plywood Boat Building Stitch and Glue Boat Plans Plywood Jon Boat Building Plans Free Wood Canoe Boat Plans

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