More boatbuilding.

More Boatbuilding.

At the start of the last December (summer) school holidays I asked Jamie if he would like to build a sea kayak with me, as a holiday project. And at the same time end up with a real smart headturning kayak. The proposed boat was to be built out of wood.

"yes" was the reply. So we order the plans from the USA and come the first day of vacs, we start building. Our launch date target was 1 January, 2010.

But having built the Banjo, I should have known about launch dates by now. The are never met. Not even pro boatbuilders finish on time.

A few days after starting, Jamie scores a fibreglass K1 canoe and takes to paddling like Forest Gump took to running. So Jamie is all fixed up with a boat and the enthusiasm for the boatbuilding dwindles a bit.

But we stuck to it and finished all the structural work....................................by the middle of Jan. Not too bad for a boatbuilding schedule.

But the boat was not painted. And so it remained. Till Saturday (yesterday). I reckoned that with the big boat comming out of the water soon for its annual overhall, I better get the kayak finished and out of the garage.

So the boat got it's final paint job and we launched it this afternoon.

Rosie reluctantly gave up tv and took it out for a bad photo-shoot.

Later Jamie rocked up and gave it a good test and a thumbs up.

Ther is now lots of space in the garage for all the bits from the big boat when that comes out the water. We hope to get the big boat out next weekend if the weather and tides play along.

Marina sailing.

Went down to the harbour last week to try the borrowed spinnaker for size. But let me warn you, I had no intention of going sailing. Nope, I was gonna hoist the spinnaker in the harbour with the boat firmly secured to its marina berth.

Nothing wrong with that,......................provided that the wind is very gentle, or almost non-existing.

But, on Saturday the wind is up. I'll try it anyway. The boat is moored in a position that puts it on a broad reach. Not bad. Hope we don'y take off with the marina in tow.

So I get various bits of rope out and secured to temporarily rig up the spinny. I hoist the spinny.

It's 75% up. The breeza fills it and the sheet takes off. I stop hoisting and make a grab for the sheet. I secure the sheet and hoist the sail right up. Trimm the sail.

Moer, it's big. I jump ashore to have a look from the side. I spot a tiny little hole in the spinny. I reckon I better get a picture of this lot. I make a dash for the boat and the nav table. I grab the camera and at the same time I hear a "pop" sound as the halliard snapshackle explodes. The spinny floats gently down and covers most of the harbour. As in "harbour water".

I pull the wet kite out. I notice the angling club balcony is packed. I notice they are mostly looking at me.

The snapshackles which came with the rig has turned out to be junk. This was the first time the spinny halliard had any load on it and it went. The jib halliard's also popped the first time it got used.

Anyway, I go and fetch Jamie and bring him to the boat. He loves going up the mast. So up he goes and gets the halliard down for me.

Handy, these little 13 year olds.

Picture is of me and Jamie's pal, Jason.

Rosie

Rosie messing around in front of the house.
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"Rose Bud" my daughter's Optimist dinghy. She has mastered the art of reaching. Maybe next summer we will try beating. And then running, to get her home again!

Preperations continue

It's all in the preperation.

I have found over the years that a good way to get yourself prepared for a long voyage is to read, and read, and read some more. About sailing.

The ineternet has made it so much easier and all the info is there. You must just get going with it. And VERY important, make sure that what you read has in fact been written by someone who knows the subject. Because JEEEEZ, there is a lot of bull out there too.

Anyway, there are not too many folk out there racing small 9 meter trimarans tran-Atlantic. Or cruising them trans-Atlantic. So info is a bit hard to get.

Luckily two Brits have just raced a sistership in the two-man Round Britain and Ireland race. This is traditionally a heavy weather affair and the entrants need to be well prepared to stay in one piece all the way around. The boat in question is Freebird and Grant Kelly has written a very good piece about their adventure on http://www.familykelly.org.uk/ .

From that I've learnt where we can mount the liferaft. It was a bit of a challenge for me until now cause the raft is very heavy and it's weight in the wrong place can be a real speed killer. At the same time the raft must be in a position where cold and wet hands can easily get it deployed if need be. Rafts are seldomly activated in fair weather.

I also got a few good pointers on where to fit the escape hatch. The escape hatch is something unique to multihulls. Yes, monohull sailors love this bit...............multihulls can capsize. Not too often, but it can happen. The plus is that a well designed multi will not sink. So the drill is that should you capsize, you open the escape hatch and that gives you easy access into the upturned hull for shelter.

On Banjo, the hatch is on the list of things to do. It will be put below the cockpit floor. Should the boat flip, the two of us can/ should be able to live in some style on the bottom, (which will then be the top) of the cockpit floor and hopefully have no need for the liferaft.

Modern day technology would enable us to activate an EPIRB (emergency position indicating rescue beacon) which would enable potential rescuers to find us pretty soon.

Yep, the EPIRB, all R 5 000 of it, is on that list of things still to buy with our non-existing race funds. Right up there with the payment for the service of the liferaft. A lot of money for disaster management. But as the saying goes, when it all goes pear shaped, he who has the most toys, wins (survives).

The liferaft left for Cape Town today for its service (by road). In Cape Town my co-skipper will hopefully cast an eye over it when the service agents pop it open.

Comming up next time....................

Checking out the new spinnaker.

a.n.a pontoon sailing.

Regards,

Frans.

Banjo

Banjo.

Banjo is an Ian Farrier designed F9 AX trimaran.

see www.f-boat.com for more details about the designer and boat. Our boat features under "latest news" a few years back. Look for "F9AX being built in South Africa".

I am also pleased to say that Ian Farrier uses a picture of our boat on the cover of his Study Plans book.

But briefly, the boat is 9,55 meters in lenght, 7,02 meters wide and weighs about 1 750 kg. The sail area is 59 meters square. That is a very light boat.

I built the boat mainly by myself over a period of 4 and a half years. The initial work was done in a warehouse at my business in Humansdorp, and the fit-out work was done in our garage at home and on the driveway to our house. The latter prevented the family cars from being parked in the said garage for three years.

What took 10 seconds to type, took an awfull long time to build.

I am pleased to say the build was successfull and the boat is everything I had hoped it to be.

It is fast. In any kind of breeze the speed soon climbs to 10 kts and as the breeze kicks in, the boat would speed up to between 12,5 and 14 kts. It would maintain that speed for ever. Stronger gusts of wind will push the speed up some more to about 16 kts. 18 and a bit knots is the highest speed to date.

All this is achieved with very little effort. The boat just goes!

It is the boat's ability to get up into the low teens and to hold that speed which is making me confident that we can be the first boat in at St Helena in December. To win a longdistance yacht race you want aboat that can give you nice high average speeds. It is no good to speed up to 20 kts for a few seconds and then to drop back to 8 or 10 kts again. You want the consistently good averages.

for more info on the Race itself, go to:

www.thegovernorscup.co.za

Half of the Team

Jamie and I onboard "Banjo", our 2010 Governors Cup entry.

Jamie will not be onboard for the race (this time). I am teaming up with an old sailing friend who will be my co-skipper and navigator.
My co-skipper is lurking in the background at the moment. He will chose his time to come out of the locker and to go public. But its gonna be a good team.

Winning the first race

The most difficult yacht race to win, is the race to the start line.

Well, we have started that race. It is 4 and a half months to go for the December 1st start of the 2010 Governors Cup Race, Simonstown to Jamestown on the mid Atlantic island of St Helena.

Its going to be a hectic 4 months. Business, family and home, and preparing the boat. All within a very tight budget and not much money in the treasury. But we have decided that it will take more than a lack of money to prevent us from reaching the startline.

The boat is being slipped at the end of July for some minor modifications and an overhaul, then back into the water at the end of October. Then some local sailing until we sail down to Simonstown round about 15th November for the start on 1st December.

Up to now I've done quite a bit.

1. I've entered the boat.
2. I've booked the family's passage on the mailship to St Helena and back. (that's another story)
3. Paid over some money for 1 and 2. That hurt.
4. Done a lot of homework on solar pannels and batteries.
5. Bought one of the two solar pannels we will need to charge our boat's batteries during the race. We are going to be a green boat. (that's also another story)
6. With the input of my co-skipper (we are racing two-up) started to work on a comprehensive list for every item that is going onto the boat. We will restrict weight to a bare minimum.
7. Managed to borrow a life raft. Thanks Graham.
8. Managed to borrow a spinnaker. Thanks Graham. These are two big items which we can hopefully now delete from the budget spend.
9. Seeing that it is a long race, I've lengthened the tiller.
10. This morning I've marinised the gas stove by fitting an aluminium pot retaining ring onto the burner.

Having done all the above I am only left with 99 other matters to deal with before we can claim victory in the race to the start line.

Frans.