Sunday morning - the time I take 'off' to do all the other things I can't fit in with building a boat and the usual household chores, is the time that I usually post on my blog.  But I was inveigled away the Sunday before last for a birthday celebration at Rob and Maren's Prince's.  And then last weekend saw the Winter junket.  I wasn't going, but was lured by the thoughts of a wood burning stove on Shoestring.  I'm a great fan of being warm, but the only place that's warm in my shed is in bed with a hot water bottle!  So I succumbed to temptation and had a nice wee sail in Shoestring and another one in Freebie, before coming back to reality.

However, I have now caught up with my blog and you can gasp with wonder and awe at more photos of painting bits of plywood:

Annie,

Great blog,  basis of the next book?  (Voyaging on a slightly more comfortable income?) 

Love that the beer factory is already installed (anchor locker, then heads, then beer - sounds the right order!)

If your glasses steam up, shows the face mask may not be well  fitting (and working).  I suffer from tree pollen asthma, so wear a mask cycling to work in spring, I found it worth getting the best - Moldex 3105, FFP2 standard.

Annie, thank you for the efforts on the blog - they make great/interesting reading (no surprise really given your previous record as an author of fascinating books!)

The tabernacle discussion is interesting too. We went for a forward opening tabernacle, but given the layout of things the mast actually steps about a metre below cabin height, with the pivot about 300mm above the roof line (swinging thru a slot in the cabin roof). 

The original design from the designer called for building a wooden case dividing the cabin in two with the mast stepped onto the keel and pivoted at cabin roof height (wherry-style) - but this "mast version of a centreboard case" so wrecked the usability of the cabin we started again, and constructed the tabernacle and step in steel (yes, very infra-dig I know). So, the structure is now a piece of box section secured to the "keel", with the open sided box for the lower part of the tabernacle welded to the top, and four steel box-section braces securing this between the deck clamps, port and starboard and a substantial laminated beam forward. This is then bolted (thru the cabin roof line) to the upper part of the box (with the (yet to be finalised) pivot.) The obvious problem with this design is the opportunity for leakage! I think the best current plan is to make a large fabric "boot" that is seized to the mast above the pivot and secured around the edges of the opening in the cabin roof. A bit like a gearstick boot in a car. Time will tell if this works.

We are using an alloy-lamp-post mast and planning for only 16-18sqM of sail so hopefully this will be strong enough!

As a picture is quicker than all these words, these two pages in Befur's Blog might help add some clarity... one  two and following pages.

Annie, I still think you are going to beat us into the water with a "fully finished" boat, our current plans are to install the steam plant and try to "see if it floats" before the winter, and then aim to fit the sailing rig in the following season :-/

David Tyler wrote:You're both right, of course. The load when sailing is taken by the bottom of what I think of as the fender locker, but I understand is now the woodshed (Tys tie's fender lockers totally fill with water when hard on the wind in fresh conditions, and I was under the impression that wet wood doesn't burn as well as dry wood...) I was thinking of the times when I was short tacking with both boards down, and when the windward board was inadvertantly dropped. There was definitely some discernible movement, though of course Tystie has pivoted boards, which transmit forces through the pin, and Siblim doesn't.

Your port side shelves will be fine.  Put something similar on the other side, and all will be well.

The wood lockers are intended for wood that has just been brought aboard.  Quite apart from the fact that there is heaps of room under the foredeck for fenders (which will probably only be used at junkets, when someone wants to come alongside), I know from harsh experience that not very much wood takes up a lot of space until sawn into stove-sized lengths.  I shall have a box below for the sawn-up wood which can dry out nicely there (not that I have any intention of sailing hard on the wind in fresh conditions if I can avoid it!)  But putting newly-gathered wood in the deck lockers, will avoid bringing insects on board, and if any wood happens to have rot spores, they won't be finding their way below.

I shouldn't have thought that even with both boards down, the windward one would put any serious loading on the inside of the box, but I shall certainly assume that you are correct.  I have an enormous capacity to worry and am now thoroughly discomforted with respect to the bilgeboards, so I am fitting an extra 12mm, shelf, at the same height as the stringer the deck lockers are attached to.  (From what I can gather from drawings showing the bilgeboard down, this is where the top will be.)  Well filletted to the bulkheads and board casing, I trust this will do the job, although the shelf below it will be somewhat less useful.  On the starboard side, as I said, I am fitting a fore-and aft counter, which is about 800 mm long and, fortuitously, at exactly the correct height.  With the bulkhead cut, coated and framed up, it would have been more than vexatious to have to start again on that side.  I can't put a similar set of shelves that side, because the passageway is already well to starboard of the centre line.  The amount of strutting and bulkheading in the heads compartment will put HMS Erebus to shame, when completed!

ueli lüthi wrote: as the leeward board will take the big part of the forces. it's the outward side of the case that needs to be strong on bilgeboard top level – and there the hull should provide sufficient strength…

utnik

Well, I have to admit that this was my thinking, but I'm the first to admit to being totally ignorant about engineering stresses and very challenged when it comes to thinking about them.