shakedown sail part 1
Aug. 12th, 2023 07:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_crowwell, I have to say it was not a catastrophe, but also the piece of the rudder I was worried about pulling out did, in fact, pull out, and the rudder itself came off, but I think that was because it couldn't kick up and it just boosted itself off its pins.
After further scrimmage Matt and I decided, with white caps developing on the DAR pond, that a small craft advisory was in effect and we should not, in fact, be attempting to sail today. SO. Really - I'm pretty sure it was Beaufort 4 with gusts on top of that. It would have been fun if we'd had some practice in quieter wind, but it was entirely too much. It was hard work rowing upwind.
We came home via Local Burgy, and then measured all the things that we could think of, and Matt in a fit of brilliance measured some more things and we went to Foster Farrar (the local hardware store) and found a shaft bearing and some largish diameter pins with holes through them for a cotterpin, and came triumphantly home... only to realize the shaft bearing we'd gotten had the inner diameter to match the inner diameter of the hole. We needed the outer diameter for the shaft bearing. So we went back to Foster Farrar, and got a new shaft bearing with the correct outer diameter.
Once home again, I had out drill out the threads on the shaft bearing, so we found a big heavy vise to hold it down and used the drill press. the little brass tube holding the string fit right in, and we used the vise again to press-fit it and get the cord through it and tie the stopper knot (a surprising number of things on this boat are held with stopper knots - the halyard, the downhaul, the down-string for the kick-up rudder).
Matt wanted to put a cotter pin in the pintles so the rudder wouldn't leap off the stern again, s he accomplished that. I got the shiny thing in place on the rudder (picture for shiny) and then slathered everything with epoxy+wood flour which honestly looks exactly like peanut butter except for the way it hardens to rock, basically.
the breeze feels glorious, but it really is 14-15 knots with gusts past 20, and I am hoping it might moderate some and be ok to try again tomorrow.
After further scrimmage Matt and I decided, with white caps developing on the DAR pond, that a small craft advisory was in effect and we should not, in fact, be attempting to sail today. SO. Really - I'm pretty sure it was Beaufort 4 with gusts on top of that. It would have been fun if we'd had some practice in quieter wind, but it was entirely too much. It was hard work rowing upwind.
We came home via Local Burgy, and then measured all the things that we could think of, and Matt in a fit of brilliance measured some more things and we went to Foster Farrar (the local hardware store) and found a shaft bearing and some largish diameter pins with holes through them for a cotterpin, and came triumphantly home... only to realize the shaft bearing we'd gotten had the inner diameter to match the inner diameter of the hole. We needed the outer diameter for the shaft bearing. So we went back to Foster Farrar, and got a new shaft bearing with the correct outer diameter.
Once home again, I had out drill out the threads on the shaft bearing, so we found a big heavy vise to hold it down and used the drill press. the little brass tube holding the string fit right in, and we used the vise again to press-fit it and get the cord through it and tie the stopper knot (a surprising number of things on this boat are held with stopper knots - the halyard, the downhaul, the down-string for the kick-up rudder).
Matt wanted to put a cotter pin in the pintles so the rudder wouldn't leap off the stern again, s he accomplished that. I got the shiny thing in place on the rudder (picture for shiny) and then slathered everything with epoxy+wood flour which honestly looks exactly like peanut butter except for the way it hardens to rock, basically.
the breeze feels glorious, but it really is 14-15 knots with gusts past 20, and I am hoping it might moderate some and be ok to try again tomorrow.