Not all Swallow Boats are BayRaiders!

[Steve Joyce]

Just thinking about a motor for the Storm15,  and glancing through a yamaha user manual on the web,  it says not to use copper based anti fouling or the engine will rapidly corrode.  Not a problem for me but should be investigated.

[Julian Swindell]

Interesting thought. I have got Coppercoat antifouling. Haven't noticed any significant corrosion on my Tohatsu outboard, which is into its third season now. The only problem found when I had it serviced over the winter was that the water pump was worn out from all the Poole harbour mud that inevitably gets pumped through it. Plus salt in teh cooling system despite fresh water flushing at the end of the season.

[Graham W]

Perhaps the problem relates to direct application of copper-based antifouling to the engine itself. There is no mention of it in my Suzuki manual and I was unable to find much reference to it on the interweb generally.

[Steve Joyce]

Granted it does sound a bit odd,  but this is on page 43 of the Yamaha f2.5 manual

Coating the boat bottom.
A clean hull ...blah blah blah... then...
Do not use anti-fouling paint which includes copper or graphite. These paints can cause more rapid engine corrosion.

Maybe it just causes more rapid erosion of the sacrificial anodes. I thought all anti fouling had copper in it.

[Anthony Huggett]

Whilst virtually all yacht hull antifoul is copper-based, often accompanied by other biocides, I think that outboard motor/propeller antifoul is teflon-based, to encourage the little blighters to fall off.

As I recall the propeller stuff comes in an aerosol can.

[Tony]

Hi, All.

I’ve been thinking of ways of “improving”  CBL#1 “ Four Sisters”.             
 (“Oh no! Not again!”)
  I live close to the River Trent, with a load of canals and other rivers nearby  - and the Norfolk Broads isn’t that far away, either.  Lots of water to explore  on a hot Summers day (Har har!) with pubs every couple of miles along the way.  Just have to keep well clear of those dirty great steel barges that, if not watched closely, might crush me like an egg. 
These are all no-go areas for the CBL at the moment because of the low bridges so  I’d quite  like a way of raising and lowering the mast while on the water. Not possible with the present mast. (Altogether too precarious perched up on the cabin top unless the boat is firmly on its trailer. )

Here are my ideas:
1.  Replace my beautiful mast (sob) with a wooden stump, just taller than the cabin top. Stuck on top of  this in a socket  have a light Carbon mast which carries the original sail.  On reaching a bridge, drop the sail –  yard and parrels  fall down past the joint in the mast – slacken off the halyard even more and un-ship the carbon part of the mast.
Advantages :    
a/  Er....only that the carbon bit of the mast might be lighter. I’d still have to be leaping about on the cabin top when I’d rather be steering.
b/Can revert to the original mast easily. (Coward!)
c/ Could fit a leak-proof mast boot, at last!

2.
Why not have the carbon bit stuck in a stainless steel (£££££!)  tabernacle on the wooden stump mast  with the pivot point  slightly above the level of the cabin top?
Advantages: 
a/  Mast can be dropped from the cockpit.
b/ Can be slewed to one side with the yard, sail and boom -  or lashed to the mizzen to make a ridge pole for a cockpit shelter  with loads of head room and a view front and back!
c/With a bit of encouragement from the boathook the mast could be heaved back into position using a forestay , again from the cockpit if the boathook is long enough to give it a decent angle. Wouldn’t need an “A” frame if the mast was like my mizzen (Wind surfer mast)
d/ Can swap back and forth with original mast easily.

Raising the mast would be easier if the forestay was on the end of a bowsprit.  I was going to fit a plank bowsprit in September to allow more successful use of my jib. ( Can’t use it at the moment as when tacking with the mainsail up it snags on the yard . Try and use it with the mainsail down and the sheets get trapped by the lowered sail. Can’t win either way!)

I then thought that, if intending to have a bowsprit (I’d much rather do without)  in the first place, perhaps I would have given her a gaff rig instead of a standing lug to get a bit more sail area up there  for light winds and leave the area foreword of the mast clear for the jib. Keeps the Cof E more or less in the right place, too.
What do you think?

Cheers!
Tony

[Tony]

Looks like the BayRaider Boys will be heavily into rowing in preparation for next year’s Sail Caledonia (See  http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,604.0.html  )

 Being a bit slow on the uptake  I’ve only just  found out (the hard way, as usual)  exactly  how important it is to have the right oars for the boat.  When fitting out “Four Sisters”, fresh from Matt’s  workshop, I looked at the  Collars Oars formula* for calculating the right length and worked it out at almost 12 feet, which in my ignorance, seemed a bit unreasonable, especially as  the designed-in storage area for them – under the cabin floor - was about 8 feet long.   
So, I bought some nicely varnished toothpicks that fit neatly in the cabin, can be carried conveniently in the crutches while sailing - and are absolutely excellent for close quarter manoeuvring around pontoons and moorings. (See photo)  You just can’t row any distance with ‘em or get up any sort of speed.  Half a mile at 1.5 knots and I’m done for!
Of course, I blamed the boat - and my wife, of course, blamed my lack of muscle tone.  (“The man I married didn’t wheeze!”)

We were both wrong.  With man-sized oars of 11 feet plus in length we now zoom around at a good lick  with very little effort (depending on what I’ve had for lunch)  and can even make progress against the wind and moderate waves.  Not quite so effortless that I want to do without the Yamaha 4h.p. but getting close.
Downsides:
Can’t lock ‘em in the cabin anymore.  Need a plan as I don’t intend leaving 200 quid’s worth of craftsmanship lying around on the off chance that they won’t get nicked.
Bit of a handful in a confined space.   Gives the little boat quite an impressive wingspan.  Other boat owners get nervous when they see you waving great telegraph poles about near their paintwork.
Nowhere to put them when sailing so must leave them on the crutches -  where the extra inboard length tangles up with the spray hood and the outboard bit sticks out past the rudder and needs support. Deploying the oars is now more of a task. Need another plan!
Upsides:
Rowing is now a pleasure.  ....and greasing the oar crutches helped with the wheezing noises.
Anyone else do much rowing?


   * Collars Oars formula
     First find the outboard length of the oar by taking the beam of the boat (rowlock to rowlock), add 8.5'' and divide by 2, then multiply by 2.45.
The next step is to find the inboard length by taking the beam, divide by 2 and add 2.25''. This allows for an overlap for rowing hand over hand, but added to the outboard length, the length of the whole oar can be established as well as the button position.

[Graham W]

I feel like I'm trespassing on this thread but hey, Tony's second possible new rig plan for 'Four Sisters' (above) is almost BayRaiderish in its scope and as such is bound to be good.

To quote a Sail Caledonia committee member's impassioned defence of the rowing element of the race "What we're talking here is the ability to be self-sufficient and efficient in terms of power in a way that takes us back to our ancestors and gives a flavour of the challenges they faced. (I believe I read that one average person can sustain about 0.25 horsepower rowing for any period of time which puts it in perspective.)"  Long oars certainly make the most of that 0.25hp but at the expense of space and convenience.  Now that I'm back in cruising mode, I only have a pair of standard 9.5' matchsticks aboard and use the iron donkey more than I should.

[Tony]

Re:  Oar stowage.

Saw a Post Boat the other day that appeared to be wearing spectacles on its bowsprit, or at least the frames.
Turns out that this is a nifty way of stowing oars alongside. In reach from the forward end of the boat and didn't foul anything. Worth a second look?
Heard somewhere of strapping oars vertically alongside the mast - wouldn't work on a CBL but might on an open boat.

@ Graham W

Trespass all you like - but  "....almost  BayRaiderish in its scope..."?   Do you mind!

To be serious, (well, as close as I get to that regrettable state) The CBL and the BR Ex are two very different boats from different genetic origins. An example of convergent evolution,  perhaps, but only up to a point.
Most people would say the BR Ex is superior in every respect - but everywhere I go with "Four Sisters" people come over to look, chat and pass the time of day.  (It's nearly as bad as taking a Labrador pup for a walk. Cute aint in it!) I was once pulled over in Italy by traffic cops. Speeding? No, they just wanted to know where they could get such a pretty boat.
 (Any hits on the website from Milan,  Matt?)

[Michael Rogers]

Haven't looked at this thread (the whole forum, actually) for a few days. Oars - hah! now you're talking. Done my share of the Dorney Wood style stuff in my time (missed out on my rowing blue by a few thousand miles, but that sort of thing. Used to row at seven, hopelessly puny now by modern heffalump standards).

First, to pay my respects to Collars (deep, reverential bow). Didn't know about their formula, though, and scurried off with tape measure to the boat shed, to size up my new build. Turns out that the 8 ft (French) oars supplied by Matt for the Trouper are a foot short, or would have been until I "fitted" them into the cockpit length (neat stowage it's going to be) with the help of a saw (yes, it hurt), making them 16" too short. Not too bad, and more up to the job than the little 6 footers I have for Cadenza, all 14 ft of her. I may have to move the buttons a bit, so will have a look at that. Plus, somehow, I have to turn down the inner loom ends to make comfortable handles, to replace the ones I cut off (ouch, yes, it did hurt).

Just a quibble - again with respects to Collars (further deep reverential bow), I don't see the point of having an overlap for 'our' kind of rowing, even for you Raid lunatics (that's my envy bubbling up, as my boats are too small for most raids). We aren't talking outriggers, sliding seats and the Diamond Sculls here. That's my two pennorth; I have an uneasy feeling that Tony, ever so nicely (please, Tony), is going to tell me why an overlap is a Good Idea.

I must say I do hanker after a neat little pair of spoon blades - or did until I found out how much they cost. I'm not really complaining - some pretty nifty woodcraft involved. (Note to self - find out whether French ones are cheaper, but don't hold my breath.)

Some of you may have seen, an article and adverts in Water Craft for the Clovelly Scull (or Skiff, can't remember which). Now that is my dream rowing boat, although at my age the arguments for hanging up a sail (or two) instead become compelling.

In this wooden tops'l context and to bang someone else's drum for a moment, some of you may not know that our Matt has a half blue (of the correct light blue shade) from his endeavours in a University lightweight crew of a fewish years back. Just don't ask him who won.

Michael

[Tony]

Hi, Michael.

No, I do not think  (despite the ergonomic advantages) that an overlap is a good idea!
With my lack of style and expertise an overlap is positively dangerous!
Even in calm water I can get tangled up – and relatively short  thumb nails end up taking lumps out of the other wrist – while in anything of a chop its mayhem!
Two vital mods to make rowing easier:-
1.  Some kind of foot brace – you have to accept that when not rowing you will trip over it constantly.
2.  Some way of retaining the oars in their crutches so they don’t float away when you are busy with the anchor.  I use a bit of string (Picture below stolen from http://www.petersmall.co.uk/) but there are better options.

[Tony]

So.
We have Swallow Boats rigged with all sorts of sails – except spritsails and gaff, it seems.

Has anyone tried anything like the drawings below?

The hull shown is the CBL plus non-standard bowsprit and tabernacle..... but the spritsail, particularly, has advantages (e.g. larger mainsail on shorter spars)  for any of the smaller sail-and-oar boats.

[Graham W]

I read somewhere that for all round performance, the spritsail is superior even to the Bermudian, which is surprising.  Apparently the Thames bargees knew a thing or two about sail design.

[Clem Freeman]

I like the look of the sprit sail rig. Presumably would make reefing and a harbour furl easier.

[Tony]

Sails for "Sail and Oar"

If anyone is interested in finding alternatives to Bermudian sails ( with their inherent woeful down-wind performance ) they will find a dearth of literature on the subject.
Even the internet provides slim pickings where traditional sail types are concerned....unless you are of the “broomstick and Tarp” persuasion.

Good news.
John Leather’s “The Gaff Rig Handbook” has been brought out in its second edition by Adlard Coles Nautical.
Even better news.
They are thinking of re-printing his “Spritsails and Lugsails”, possibly by the end of the year.
The first edition, now out of print, is currently available in second hand book shops and on e-bay, but you will have to shell out anything from £55.00 to £140.00 for a copy as collectors and speculators  seem to have got in on the act. (The book is much in demand in the States, I believe.)
If, like me, you would like to get your hands on this authoritative text – at a more reasonable price – perhaps a polite enquiry to:-  contact@bloomsbury.com  might encourage the editorial department of Adlard Coles Nautical to think it worth setting the presses rolling?