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[peterpan]

 Standing rigging was completed using braided cord and the deck release / tensioning pelican hooks for the shrouds and backstay Pic 163. These are very clever and just apply some tension as they are locked in place with the tube.

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 The very simple wood blocks for the running rigging are a wood block with a hole through it, but the secret to them working is that there must be a continuous curve on the inside of the hole on the load side. And then of course be shaped to look like a ships block
I put a direct load on the block of 1 lb which was fine, but I am not so sure about a snatch load, say in a jibe. Also, how long they will last with the sheets running through them.
I know there are many members who could make stunning working blocks but then you would have to have the engineering skill, equipment, and time to do so, none which I have.
It will be fun finding out how they perform when we are on the water.

 
I used a hard wood for the block for the sheaves, Pic 163 164

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 A dowl for the pulley Pics 165 166, glued and fixed in with I fine brass pin Pic 167 and a brass wire for the shackle. Pic 168

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Now for the keel 

[mrzippy]

Hi Peter,
This is looking good and will have great presence on the water !
Interested to know what sail cloth Gary recommends? and what you've used on our side of the pond please??
With you regarding keel sizes, his keels seem exceptionally long/deep IMHO,
but he is able to sail in much deeper water at marinas and on the open sea etc, where its not an issue.

re keel bulbs -
I've had great success melting lead for smaller bulbs in an old thick bottomed saucepan, on the electric cooker's hob,
didn't expect it to get hot enough - after a previous experiment with a gas blowlamp failed - but it works fine !
The most important thing, is to get every last drop of moisture out of your plaster mould to avoid explosions,
again household applaince to the rescue - bung it in the oven for a while to dry out !
or there is the not so elegant laminated lead sheet method.

Paul.

[mrzippy]

Peter have you seen this amazing modified Bearospace Irene with retracting keel and even retracting rudder !?
fantastic idea and engineering, but extra weight - sadly the killer of anything with sails.
Paul

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2550991-Bearospace-schooner-Irene/page113

[AndyBiggs]

Hi

Good Luck - it is easy than I thought - but did wear safety glasses and thick gloves

Recently cast the lead for the Flyer I'm making. Used an old two handled sauce pan, initially on the kitchen cooker, with the back door open. Then finished it off with a camping stove outside, which only just got enough heat into the sauce pan. Trying to keep the sides of the sauce pan hot enough was the hard part, a larger cooker/burner would have been better. I lost a little in the pouring process and some more will be lost when cleaning/shaping the lead. The mould is not strictly as shown on the plans, as it has parallel sides. Once cooled I cleaned the lead with a rough file and then made a fence of masking tape and poured in some West epoxy, to level the top surface. Once its hardened, I'll do the same on the underside, before completing the shaping/profiling process.




Bearospace Cutter FLYER - Page 37 - RC Groups

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 Hi Paul
First Gary Webb uses “cotton poplin”. I used a cotton bed sheet, which I think is the same thing.
I have just looked at the boat with the retracting keel and rudder. Absolutely incredible design and engineering. I love looking at this sort of thing.
It has to be an exhibition piece. Otherwise, it’s an awful lot of work just to get the boat to fit in the car  and I would think it would capsize if they were retracted on the water.
I am still in awe of the skill and dedication required, and the finish on the boat was up the engineering standard as well

Cheers

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 The Keel
Not only is working with these materials all new to me but it is a pivotal part of the build so I will cover it in a bit of detail.
From the start the draft has always been a concern (my very first post sets out these concerns). I discussed this with Gary Webb and at this time (Aug 2019) he had experimented with a reduced keel on one of his other designs and felt it should work on Annie but obviously at my risk.
In theory it simply means shortening the aluminium fin and increasing the amount of lead in the bulb to maintain the correct finished designed weight of the boat. In practice if the weight is not properly distributed on the keel bulb (centre of lateral resistance) the boat wont sail.
I started by shortening the o/a length of the fin from 20 ins to 17 ins. This will bring the draft very close to my IOM.

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 Casting the lead keel. The mold
There are many suggestions on types of molds and methods of poring lead, but again I decided to go with Gary Webb’s simple wooden mold design.
This calls for a base with an upright support and 3 blocks with the bulb shape cut at different angles to form the mold. Pic 1
The fin is then clamped to the upright and positioned in the mold Pic 2. 3. The blocks are then screwed together with a high temperature silicone sealant/ gasket between each block. Pic 4.
This looks straight forward but it is essential that the fin is centred as the plan and in line exactly in the mold and does not move when the lead is poured. This took a lot of trial and error to get it right.
Also, I increased thickness of the central block, to increase the weight of the bulb without changing the CLR (I hope).

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 Poring the lead
I had some help poring the lead.  My grandson works as an engineer at a heavy plant hire company, and we did the pore there. He had welded together a tall narrow metal box and melted the lead in it with a large propane torch. This allowed us to pore the lead into the narrow mould slot without disturbing the fin.
Everything happened very quickly, and I did not get a photo of the actual pore Pic 5 shows half the pore (note the large extract system taking away all the smoke and fumes) and Pic 6 the finished pore. You can see that the required weight of lead (plus a bit) did not quit reach the top of the mold which was better than it overflowing.
During this process there was a lot of smoke but very little flames and no leakage and the wooden mold remained remarkably cool

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 I left the mold overnight and then opened it up.
Removing top block Pic 7 8. Removing bottom block Pic 9. Removing the centre block Pic 10
I was delighted with the rough keel and amazed how little damage was done to the wood mold. With a little cleaning up you could use it again.

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 Finishing the bulb
A quick rub with the file Pic 11. The overall balance was fine, but I was overweight by about 2 lbs. Better over than under, however I needed to remove a lot of material and a file was not going to do it.

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 I do not have any metalworking tools as such but then found that my multitool with a metal cutting blade if used lightly would shave pieces off with ease. Pic 12. Note the shavings in the plastic pot. This allowed me too actually carve the shape I needed and remove the material evenly around the bulb to maintain the shape and balance. Pic 13 14.

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 It did not take much filler to fair it off with epoxy filler and apply a couple of coats of primer. Pic 15 16

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 When fitted on the boat I was delighted. Pic 17. It is perfectly balanced, and I have a draft of 15 inch.
Now need to see if it sails.

[mrzippy]

Ingenious method of producing a fin and bulb in one hit Peter, interesting to see thank you - not for the faint hearted !
I've only cast simple shapes in two halves to date and taken note of this.

I trust you have safety securing bolts/pins passing through the bulb fin joint?
large model yacht keels are so easily bashed - often before you get them in the water !!

Paul.

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 Hi Paul.
Your comments made me realize I have left out a very important part of the process. (Partly because I didn’t photograph it)
Before the lead was poured three 15mm holes are drilled through the fin. When the fin is clamped in the mold a gap is left between the bottom of the fin and the bottom of the mold.
When the lead is poured it then surrounds and goes through the fin securely fixing it.
Having said this, I did put a pin through, not to fix it, but hopefully to stop it dropping off if the lead did somehow break away from the fin whilst in the water

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I put myself under some pressure to get the boat on the water before the winter to check how she would sail, especially with the shorter keel. So, I screwed the deck down and taped it to the gunnels and taped the cabin tops and hatches down. Managed to find a perfect afternoon before the current gales arrived and went to Wicksteed Park model boat lake for  A FIRST SAIL

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 She sits perfectly to her marks Pic 1  2

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 In a gentle breeze she sailed perfectly, goes through the wind on a tack with very little sail adjustment, on a beat with sails sheeted in needed no rudder input to maintain a course and was very quick downwind with no tendency to go bow down. The wind picked up a bit and she is amazingly responsive to rudder input and perfectly balanced. Pic 3 4 5

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 Now she is finally on the water I am absolutely delighted. All credit to the designer Gary Webb in producing such a responsive boat using deceptively simple, but clever building techniques using everyday materials that also looks good. Also, my reducing the draft seems to be fine .
We will have to see how she handle heavier conditions, but I am confident that she will be a joy to sail.

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 I can now move forward with completing the build.
This includes permanently fixing and sealing  the deck, finishing the gunnels, and capping rails, adding deck fittings etc.etc.

Before I can fix the deck there is one problem, I must solve that was highlighted at the sail and that is how to launch and lift the boat from the water. I do have a work in progress on this and will post on it shortly when it is completed.

[AndyBiggs]

Looks great, especially seeing it on the water. Will be interested in seeing your device to get it out of the water.

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 Launching and lifting the boat from the water.
This has been a concern from when I was first looking at buying the plans (see first post). All of the videos of people sailing their boats show them wading into the water, which is not option for me.
For this first sail I had made a couple of straps, but I was not surprised that they were useless. They worked but the slightest imbalance and they slipped off.
Fortunately, the water level was only a few inches below the concrete dock (Photo a) and I could just get down and remove the hatch cover over the keel box and lift it clear of the dock. It was still very awkward with the masts and standing rigging in the way.