Time for Sally, Ffly and St Kilda

With the launch of the Arctic Tern, and before the arrival of the larch to build the Sula, it was time to take stock, clear the shed, burn the rubbish, sharpen the tools, fettle the Flying Fifteen and make a start on the work needed on Sally II, my own boat.

In fact I have earmarked most of May to work on my own boats, paint the gable end, mow the lawn, and get some sailing in.

Alas: the only sailing so far has been racing Ffly and a fabulous trip on the Dutch Tall Ship Wylde Swan to St Kilda. Leaving Ullapool in the morning, we were through the Sound of Harris by nightfall, and made the islands before dawn.

St Kilda? Go there if you get the chance, preferably on the Wylde Swan which one of her crew described as "a Tall Ship on deck and a spaceship below" which reflects the cool, clean, warm, modern accommodation, in bunks and hammocks. Hard tack and salt horse? Hardly: home-made bread, cakes, soups and a bar, open soon after the sails were furled and all was squared away for dinner.

Based in Makkum, she is billed as the world's largest topsail schooner; a converted herring chaser from the early 1900s.

However, for the best photo of her under sail, coming to in Ullapool, go to Angus Bruce's website at: http://www.highlandpix.co.uk/

Here she is anchored off Village Bay, Hirta in May.

The island itself has been written about extensively and lyrically, so nothing (much) from me then. A sense of sadness; a sense of how hard life must have been and an impression of extraordinary beauty, at least under the warm spring sunshine. In a full Atlantic gale, god help them.

And how do you fancy scaling these cliffs in search of gannet eggs, using a horse hair rope...

From Keel to Launch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Launch Day. Photos are Worth...

Talk About Just in Time...

The sails arrived from Steve Hall at North Sea Sails just a day before the owner, and the day the spars arrived was the day Mattis and I finished the daggerboard case, and finally hung the rudder and put the final coat of varnish on and, and...

But here she is, rigged and almost ready to launch, had not the heavens opened just at the wrong time. Hopefully (although the forecast is rubbish for Thursday) we'll bend on the sails and slip her into the water tomorrow.

Enough: here are the latest photos showing Mr Jeremy Freeland's spars; Viking Boats' way with rudder gear (34 quid, rather than £80's worth of bronze, of which more later); the rudder and tiller, showing the split tiller (that green string's temporary) and lines to up and downhaul the rudder and some photos showing Jan the owner and Mattis stepping the mast.

Throughout the riggging we tried to eliminate stainless steel and unnecessary boat bling; hence the shrouds have lanyards (albeit Excel V12 racing) led through wooden fairleads. This is in line with current racing practice which aims to eliminate unnecessary shiny bits.

Collars spars arrived the day Jan, her owner, arrived to supervise the rigging.

3Si supplied the 12mm swage rigging fittings, John McIntyre the 12mm stainless bar and tube; and this is how we hang rudders at Viking Boats. Cheap, strong and it works. The flat filed in the bar allows the bottom ring to disengage, then the rudder can be lifted off.

The tiller is formed from two lengths of oak, glued then split, bound at the end. The tiller will articulate up and down and can be drawn in or out if a little more or less length is needed. The lines are for uphaul and downhaul. The green string is temporary...

Stepping the mast. Jan, the owner, and Mattis

Latest on the Arctic Tern

Bottom painted and topsides varnished, we turned her over yesterday to fit the mast step and on Monday the spars should be arriving from Collars. The rudder is hung and the tiller made, which just leaves the rig.

Sails from Steve Hall at North Sea Sails came this morning, and the owner arrives Tuesday to supervise the rigging.

Then she's off south, not before we have a trial sail.

Nearly There

One more week and she'll be ready for the owner's visit, rigging, trial sail and off down south.

Then it's on with another Oughtred boat, a Sula, Iain's only design for solid wood, a Shetland boat destined for Ireland.

More anon...

Knocking Off for Easter

Here she is at close of play today. We had hoped to rove up the frames before knocking off for Easter and may slip down to the shed tomorrow and finish the job for (as Mattis says) we can't possibly work on Easter Sunday.

Fitting the top section of the frames entailed quite a bit of juggling of templates and angles. Needless to say Mattis and I had totally different ways of achieving the same result, and they took about the same amount of time. I relied on templates, cutting the frames at the wide side and by measuring the gaps, could transfer the measurements to the aft (shy) side, which was then beveled on the band saw.

Easier done than said (or maybe vice versa). Mattis used templates, and a bevel gauge, using saw cuts to transfer the bevel to the faces meeting the strakes. The bevel gauge neatly slots into the saw cuts from face to face. It's a technique I may have invented myself. But probably age old.

Happy Easter to all who stumble upon this, and especially to my 47 followers. Bless you!