A Lazy December Daysail on Lake Tarpon

It was a half hour drive to Lake Tarpon and when I arrived several of the WCTSS folks were already rigging their boats. There was a light breeze on the nose leaving the ramp so we all spent a long time tacking out into the open lake. My dagger board and rudder kept getting tangled in weeds which was interesting as it feelt like the laws of physics had all of a sudden abandoned me and the boat with full sail would no longer make any progress to windward.  The forcast for light to non existent wind from opposite directions proved accurate, nevertheless there was enough to get the fleet moving.  We had a very relaxing sail as the early morning fog gave way to another sunny mid 70s day.  It's rough here mid December but we press on.
After a good, long lunch we sailed back up-wind to the ramp.  Why am I always sailing up-wind to and from any given destination?  The wind finally died completely and I rowed back to the ramp.  There was a bit of mayhem at the ramp as a bass tournament weigh-in was taking place.  An octane and beer fueled bass fisherman, hell bent on making it to weigh-in is not a force to be taken lightly so rather than deal with the crazies I tied Goat up to a fence post and chilled.  An hour or so later the ramp was almost deserted and I took my time getting the boat packed up while enjoying the afternoon sun.

 Tacking out to the open lake.

 

 After a pleasant sail into the dying breeze, we all descended on the Tarpon Turtle restaurant for lunch.

 

 I think this is the first time Goat has been in a slip.

 

Nick Lackey's self designed double ender, Viking sharpie?

 

Leaving the Turtle after lunch.  To no one's surprise it was a beat back to the ramp.

 

 Nick at the helm, photo by Carol and Dennis Marshall

 

 Me, photo by Carol and Dennis Marshall

 

 Two Goats, photo by Carol and Dennis Marshall

 

  The wind was on the nose coming back and then died completely.  Here I have just come off plane to obey the posted speed limit. Photo by Carol and Dennis Marshall

Cayo Costa Trip Video

The annual November Cayo Costa West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron trip is coming up and I just recently finished editing the video from last year. Has a whole year really gone by already? The trip is always a lot of fun. Last year was the first time I rigged the GoPro on a kite. Check it out in the video.

Kayak Train

Dave Lucas orgainzed a successful attempt at setting the world record for the "International Briggs and Stratton powered old timey African Queen type boats towing a string of kayaks and canoes".  It was a grueling challenge but we all pulled together and set the record that will be talked about for generations.

A little video of the glorious event:

Here's creativelenna's photo album:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativelenna/8083661993/in/set-72157631761037197/lightbox/

 

A bit of sailing at Ft DeSoto

We had a good turnout at the Ft DeSoto daysail.  Here's a little video of us sailing with Dave Lucas Melonseed "Leyla"

Carbon Boom Reinforcement

Floppy booms are not good.  I've complained before that the boom on the Goat is too flexible.  This prevented me from applying full downhaul for fear of breaking the boom. 

The original banana boom in light air

The bendy boom is a Douglas fir constant width box section, 37mm wide by 52mm deep tapering to 45mm at the front and 43mm at the back.  The Boom started out as a solid two piece laminate but it was very heavy and not stiff enough.  So rather than building a new boom I hacked this one as an experiment.  First I routed out the middle and capped the resulting U shape with a new piece of 7mm thick Douglas fir thereby removing some weight and increasing the depth which should increase the stiffness.  This lighter/stiffer boom is shown in the pic above and was still much too flexible.  

 Cross section of all wood boom:

I did not feel like building another boom and had a lot of carbon tow left over from another project so I decided to add a layer of the tow to the top and bottom of the boom.  Laying up tow can be a real pain unless you have a way to control it's placement.  So I routed 2mm deep channels on the top and bottom of the boom to contain the tow.  Since the highest load on the boom is applied at the downhaul I doubled the depth of the tow channels to 4mm for the front ~1.5m of the boom.

2mm deep tow channel and beginning of 4mm deep tow channel.

The tow was wrapped back and forth around 4 small nails at each end of the 1.5m channel to a depth of 2mm.  I made sure to work epoxy into the tow every few wraps to avoid dry spots.

Nails used to wrap tow around

Beginning to wrap tow back and forth on the boom, I ended up suspending the spool of tow from the ceiling to facilitate the weaving. 

The tow was compacted by clamping with a packing tape covered batten.  Picture taken after epoxy had set and batten was removed.

Closeup of cured first layer. 

Once the epoxy set the process was repeated for the entire length of the boom first top then bottom.  I used clear packing tape to compact the layup.  Then a bit of sanding to smooth it out plus a UV protection clear coat.

 Top layer of carbon tow sanded and clear coated

Holes left over from the 4 nails and carbon end wraps still visible after finish sanding.

So what did all of this farting around do to the stiffness?  First the boom weights:

Hollow wood boom:                  2815g
After routing carbon channels:  2460g
With carbon added:                   3150g

I very carefully measured the deflection of the hollow wood boom before and after the carbon was added using a bucket and water as weight.  The chart below shows deflection vs. weight of the boom before and after carbon. 

For a weight increase of 335g or 12%  the stiffness increased 65% correction 40%!  The boom now feels indestructible and no deflection is noticeable under sailing loads.  The boom is heavier than I'd like but that is mainly because I believe there is too much wood left.  The 690g of carbon and epoxy is doing most of the work and a lot of the wood is just along for the ride.  A thinner wall wood box with the same amount of carbon would most probably work just as well.  How much thinner could it be?  I don't know.

Deflection of wood carbon boom with 14kg load in the middle.

The finished boom.

Cedar Key 2012

This is the biggest event of the year for the West Coast Trailer Sailors.  Don't know how may boats showed up this year but it was a lot.  We spent most of the time sailing, socializing and boat watching and still managed to not see everything.  My sister's family, including 2 very young nieces came with us and the kids loved the water and sailing in the Goat.

Click on the slide show if you want to go to the Picasa album to see pics full size.

Crystal River Boat Bash

The CRBB in April is a fun gathering of folks interested in historic Florida boat building as well as modern wooden boat building.  A nice way to spend a weekend camping and sailing on the Crystal River.  To my surprise, another Goat showed up.  Rob Hazard has built a beautiful GIS and we spent Saturday afternoon sailing on Crystal River.  What fun!

Here are a few pics of the event.  I spent more time sailing than picture taking.  Click on the slide show to go to the Picasa album to see pics full size.

Everglades Challenge 2012

Doing a bit of catching up with the blog.  Here are a few shots from the start of the Everglades Challenge in March.

Click on the slide show if you want to go to the Picasa album to see pics full size.