Junk rig Albin Vega 27

  • 07 Apr 2020 07:27
    Reply # 8883074 on 8880950
    Jami wrote:

    Graham,

    can you please explain how one is able to add a skeg and make it strong enough? This is something that has been out of my understanding.

    Hi Jami, Arne's excellent sketch shows it better than my photo.  I had 50mm sq holes in the skeg, about 250mm below the root where it joined the hull, in the vicinity of the vertical bolts, so I could insert a spanner and do up the nuts .  This allowed me to use shorter bolts there. I later filled the holes with epoxy and micro-balloons.  Then I had horizontal bolts  going through the skeg into the transom as well.  I then put a large fillet of epoxy and micro-balloons between the skeg and the hull, and transom, to give me a radius, then laid up a significant lamination of epoxy and unidirectional glass over that. Either the bolts or the glass might have been enough on their own but I have always been cautious.  I used five layers of 12mm plywood for the skeg.  It was about 50mm wide at the trailing edge.  The front of the rudder was therefore also 50mm wide, tapering to about 15mm at the aft edge.

    Besides the support the skeg gives to the rudder, which I prefer on a boat sailing in the open sea (being super cautious), I also like the extra directional stability it provides.  I could take my hand off the tiller on Mudshark while broad reaching fast, and the boat would only slowly begin to round up.  I could jump into the cabin, grab something, and jump back out without broaching.  Self steering with the windvane was effortless. 

  • 06 Apr 2020 10:54
    Reply # 8881109 on 6681593
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Jami, (..sorry for jumping in...)
    if you scroll down through the pages from that Vega PDF, you will see that one owner has made a stern-hung rudder with a skeg in front of it. Just as Graham describes, the skeg has been extended up along the transom. If you look at my attached sketch, you can imagine that the trailing edge of the skeg is quite thick and strong, and when firmly glued or bolted through the transom, it should be pretty strong. Personally, for a Vega, I would just go for the freestanding semi-balanced spade-rudder and keep the original rudder as a spare, and for adding directional stability.

    Arne



    Last modified: 08 Apr 2020 16:41 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 06 Apr 2020 07:02
    Reply # 8880950 on 6681593

    Graham,

    can you please explain how one is able to add a skeg and make it strong enough? This is something that has been out of my understanding.

  • 05 Apr 2020 01:27
    Reply # 8879332 on 6681593

    A transom-mounted rudder is something I am seriously contemplating.  Though I could not read the text in the dropbox link, the photos were interesting.  My boat, Blue Moon, has a similar rudder configuration and has similar steering characteristics to the Vega.  The bermudian-rigged versions always reef the main first.   I think I will fit a skeg in front of the rudder, both for added support and because it will shift the CLR further aft, which will also help with balance.  I have done this before on a boat and it was a great success.  The skeg was both bolted and heavily glassed into the hull with unidirectional glass and epoxy resin.  One design feature was to extend the trailing edge of the skeg aft of the transom by 150mm, and carry it up to deck level.  I could then bolt the trailing edge through the transom as well as glassing it.  This spread the load on the skeg into the transom as well as the hull.  The boat ran like it was on rails but still tacked smartly.  Here is a picture of that boat, Mudshark.  I rebuilt the boat from an old wreck and it took me 10 years.  (Rock and roll I gave you all the best years of my life...)  Here it is finally being launched in 1992.   You can click on the photo for a larger image.


    Last modified: 05 Apr 2020 01:29 | Anonymous member
  • 04 Apr 2020 12:48
    Reply # 8878587 on 6681593

    Because I'm also interested in Vegas I found a collection of swedish articles from the swedish Albin Vega Association about self build transom hung rudders:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/v40cvrg9wpq2bcd/hackroder.pdf?dl=0

    With google translate it is quite understandable.

  • 21 Sep 2018 10:30
    Reply # 6685814 on 6681593
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    I don't have photos of rudders fitted to the Vega, but if you look up JRA newsletter 55, p.17, you can see how some have fitted them to the Vega's close sister-boat, the Tur 80.

    On a web forum, one person who had built a rudder for his Vega, noted that it should be at least 50mm thick, and with not too much balance, or 'it would vibrate'. I guess he meant when running the inboard engine.

    Arne

  • 21 Sep 2018 08:00
    Reply # 6685680 on 6681593
    Deleted user

    Arne

    Thanks for your reply, my Vega has an inboard engine so no conflict with an outboard. I wonder if you know of any information to be had on replacing the original rudder with a transom hung rudder as you suggest ?

  • 20 Sep 2018 23:12
    Reply # 6685290 on 6681593
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Bill,

    I think there is a photo or diagram of a Vega with a H-M style JR somewhere in one of the older JRA-newsletter.

    Actually, I have been thinking that if I get dumb enough to start another JR conversion project, and if I am not (at least) smart enough to downsize into a big dinghy, I could well end up with a Vega, myself. There are plenty of them around here, and even the good ones are not expensive.

    One thing which one must do if fitting a JR, and that is to construct a new rudder and fit it on the transom. This is because the original rudder struggle with coping even with the Bermuda rig, in a quartering sea. With a sloop JR, the new rudder is simply a must. In case your boat has been modified to outboard engine, I suggest the new rudder is moved, say, 30cm to starboard, and with the outboard moved 20cm to port. This way they should ‘cooperate’ well.

    With a powerful JR and an equally powerful rudder, the converted Vega would become both easier to handle, and faster on all legs than the original.

    Arne


  • 20 Sep 2018 16:01
    Message # 6681593
    Deleted user

    i believe there is an Albin Vega 27 that has been junk rigged in the past but it is somewhere in America, I wonder if anyone has any information on a rig for this boat 

       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

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