Thanks Phil, nice photos from the camera boat. Looking forward to the video.

Graham93

Nerys,

It’s not clear from the photos, but the bear does ‘steer’ the boat using the tiller - at least that’s how it looks from a distance.😉 😂😆

Graham93

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed the blog, I certainly enjoyed the build, even if it did take a lot longer than I expected. I am pleased with the end result, although whatever I build, there are always things I think could be better. I expect I’ll tweak a few bits here and there and possibly make a smaller lighter keel for light winds.

JB, it will be my favourite on windy days. The rowing boat is the favourite for windless days 😆.

Graham93

Doug,

Thanks for the offer of a Pilot bear for the Cutter, but a little too big I'm afraid. He would have to duck everytime the boom swung past 😂🤣

Graham93

At last, the day arrived! The weather this morning for the Buxton area looked to be ideal with 10mph winds forecast.

I don't have access to a Transit van or similar 😊 so the boat has to be transported in bits and assembled at the lake side. It is a bit of a squeeze to fit it all into the car.

The large, yellow sided case keeps the mast and sails safe during transit. It is a simple pair of wooden frames hinged together and covered with twinwall plastic sheeting which I just happened to have in the shed. Also in the car is a folding stand for use at the side of the lake, and a launch cradle made from copper pipe.

At he lakeside, assembly involves fitting the keel, rudder, mast and sails. It takes around 15 minutes to complete - possibly less in future with a bit of practice.

Once launched, she was away ⛵👍. The wind was a lot less than forecast, maybe 5mph with some gusts. She did struggle a bit on such a gentle breeze. When it did blow, she was fast and responsive, outrunning the video chase boat on occasions.

She is named 'Ellen' after my grandmother. Oh, and the helmsman? The designer, Gary Webb (bearospaceindustries.com) has started a bit of tradition of having a bear as helmsman 😀

Hi JB,

I've just measured the fin length. It's effectively 16" so the torque will be closer to 12 ft lbs.

Graham93

Martin,

It is a shame it needs a keel but it should make it stable. It would need a lot more weight in the hull to achieve the same stability, but then it would be too low in the water. The keel is easily removable, so I will be able to experiment with alternative shorter fins/lighter keels if the initial trials show that could be a viable option.

I painted the fin dark blue so that it wouldn’t be obvious under water - and I had plenty left over after painting the gunwales 😀

Weight training today 😂🤣

Graham93

Phil,

You should have just enough time to get your camera batteries charged 🤞. I have to work out how to load it into the car🙄

Graham93

Unlike traditional Pilot Cutters, this plan calls for the model to be fitted with a fin and weighted lead keel.

I left this part of the build to the end for two reasons. I needed to know the weight of the model before the keel could be cast, and I didn't like the idea of messing about with 4+kgs of molten lead😮.

The plans give a target weight for the completed model of 8.2kgs (18lbs) including a keel weighing 4.5kgs. With all the extra details I've added to the hull it has turned out heavier than the design weight (No surprise there then 😉) so to keep the total weight of the model on target, the keel weight needed to be reduced to 4kgs. To compensate for the lighter keel, I decided to extend the fin length by 50mm.

The fin is made from 3mm aluminium sheet. This was cut out using a jigsaw fitted with a metal cutting blade. The large hole at the top of the fin reduces the weight a little, and provides a convenient hand hold. The three holes at the bottom are to provide a key for the lead keel.

A wooden mold was made from scrap timber and the fin clamped in place. 4.5kgs of lead was melted and poured in - very carefully! Once cooled, the mold was removed and the keel was then shaped using a 'surform' tool bringing the completed weight of the keel down to 4ks.

Thin balsa sheet was glued to both sides of the fin with contact adhesive and then sanded to give a streamlined cross section to the fin. The completed fin slides into the keel box below the hull and is held in place with two steel cross pins fitted through one of the deck hatches.

The completed assembly was finished with two part epoxy, glass cloth, and several coats of navy blue paint from a rattle can.

There is a rudder servo and two winches to control the sails.

The sheet to control the main sail is routed from one of the winches through a fairlead in the deck just behind the mast. It then passes through two blocks attached to the boom and terminates on a traveller just abaft the main cabin.

The three fore sails each have two sheets attached. One sheet from each sail runs down the port side of the deck, through a fairlead in the deck and is then tied off on a loop driven by the second winch. The three remaining sheets from these sails are routed in the same way, but along the starboard side of the deck. These are tied off on the other side of the loop below deck. Running this winch from one end to the other tacks the foresails by pulling the sheets in on one side and letting them out on the other.

The plans suggest that the fore sail winch is controlled from a rotary knob on the transmitter so that the sails can be tacked. I have put together a custom electronic mixer that has two operating states. In one state, it allows direct control of the winch from a rotary knob on the transmitter as suggested in the plans. In the other operating state, the fore sheet winch is controlled in tandem with the main sheet winch from the same stick on the transmitter. A switched channel on the Tx reverses and offsets the signal to the winch thus tacking the fore sails at the flick of a switch! It will be interesting to see if this works as intended.

The electronics is installed in two wooden boxes which slide into runners below the deck. The construction and mounting of these was shown earlier in this blog. I've used magnetic reed switches to turn the power on/off as in my other models. This allows the power to be turned on and off using a magnet above the deck and avoids the need to find somewhere to hide a toggle switch.

JB,

Still have to make the fin/keel so that it will stay upright, but shouldn't be long now to the maiden voyage.

Bill and Ben don't go out when it's windy as they find rowing hard work in a wind. So they won't be missing out too much. It is going to be one or the other depending on the forecast. In any case I won't be able to take both models to the lake at the same time as they won't fit in the car together. In fact, I'm a bit concerned about fitting this one in the car by itself🤔. Time will tell.

Graham93

Thanks Colin, I hope you are right!

Graham93

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and the ‘likes’.

My 9 year old grandson visited this week, first time we have seen him in over a year. He made two comments: “It looks very realistic” which was nice 👍, and “It might sink” 😭☹️. I hope he’s wrong with that one 😆

Graham93

After a week of threading, knotting, whipping and a bit of cursing I've managed to rig all the sails.

The rigging cord is 1mm diameter, 12 strand braided 'Dynema'. This is very strong, and doesn't stretch. The loops at the ends of the lines are glued with CA and then whipped with cotton thread which is also secured with CA. I hope this will be sufficiently secure. The pins in the shackles and blocks are screwed in and then seized with a fine stainless wire so that they will not come apart on the lake.

Instead of tying off the downhauls on the belaying pins on the Fife rail I have chosen to loop them round the belaying pins and use a bowsie to tension the lines. This is to speed up rigging of the sails at the lake side. The last photo shows one of the bowsies, disguised as a block. Thanks to 'hammer' for this suggestion.

Martin,

You don’t have to be quackers ... but it helps 😂🤣

It entertains the passers by, some of them are taken in for a few seconds. You overhear some interesting discussions on the lakeside about wether it is real or not. The blue flashing eyes tend to give it away though. 😆

Graham93

Thanks everyone for the positive comments on the rigging so far 👍. There will have to be some compromises with the running rigging to speed up the task of assembling the model at the lakeside where it won't be a realistic option to be fiddling with shackles and pins. It is bad enough having to find dropped pins on the workshop floor 😠

Graham93

Thanks for the suggestion Gary. That's certainly a valid alternative for attaching the shrouds to the mast. I chose to do it with the shrouds looped round the mast over wooden cheeks as that is how it is shown on the plan.

A bit of research in 'Gaff Rigging' by John Leather came up with " In traditional rigged craft, the shrouds are looped over the masthead and rest on wood bolsters set on wooded hounds cheeks... Alternatively, a mastband fitting can be made with eyes to which the shrouds are shackled." So both approaches are valid.

Graham93

Hammer,

“When the great day comes I hope she sails as good as she looks”

So do I, so do I. It’s been a long build. I’ve enjoyed it, but it will be really disappointing if it doesn’t perform on the lake. I don’t need a static model cluttering up the workshop.

I keep thinking there’s not much more to do, but I keep finding things I haven’t done yet.😔

Graham93

Hi Martin,

The mast is quite substantial. I don’t think it will bend. If there is a strong gust it will heel the boat and spill the wind from the sails. At least that’s how I hope it will work. All this is new to me as well 🙄.

The elastic works well to self tension the shrouds when rigging/ derigging the mast. If it proves to be a problem, I can replace it with regular cord, but then it will be more difficult to maintain tension.

Graham93

Having made all the bits and pieces needed for the rigging, it's time to replace the temporary blue string with something more appropriate.

I read somewhere that plastic coated fishing trace line can be used for the shrouds that support the mast. Photos 1 and 2 show the shrouds and bowsprit stays I made using this trace line. It just didn't look right, so I replaced these with twisted nylon cord which I think looks much better.

The lower end of each shroud is formed into a loop which fits round a deadeye. The lanyards which connect the pairs of deadeyes together are elastic cord which ensures that the shrouds are kept taught. Each lower deadeye is attached to the chainplate using an 'R' clip which makes it relatively easy to de-rig the shrouds and remove the mast.

A forestay runs from the mast to the stem where it is also attached using an 'R' clip.

The bowsprit rigging comprises a chain bobstay fitted between the stem and the cranse iron at the end of the bowsprit together with two stays, one fitted on either side. The chain was made in the same way as described for the anchor chain in an earlier post. A pair of blocks form a tackle which allows the chain to be tensioned.

The lateral stays are made from the same nylon cord as used for the mast shrouds. Each stay has a tackle to tension it.

Doug,

Nowt wrong with Yorkshire tea 😀

😂🤣

Michael, Doug,

You are both wrong! It was Yorkshire tea😆

Graham93

Hi Nerys,

Thank you for the 'criticism' which I don't take as a criticism, your input is most valuable and welcome. I can see what you mean when I look at it again. The jib stay is attached to the bowsprit traveller so can easily be brought inboard to reduce the overhang of the jib topsail. The rigging of the jib topsail is also a bit loose in the photo causing it to sag a little increasing the overhang. I'll see how it looks once I have it rigged properly. If all else fails, I can always make a smaller replacement jib topsail (more sore fingers!).

The sails are made to the dimensions shown on the plan, but the overhang is bigger than it looks on the plan which I don't understand.

Please don't hold back with your helpful comments.

Graham93

Thanks Hammer,

I knew there had to be a reason for the rope being on the Port side, Now I know 👍

Graham93

Hi Martin,

Haven’t had her assembled with the stained sails yet. That will have to wait until I have all the proper rigging in place.

The mast is 48” if that helps you gauge the scale better

Graham93

Hi JB,

The eyes (grommets) were hand sewn and I have the scars in my fingertips to prove it 😆.

As for making suits, that’s definitely not one for me. ( I did however get married in a suit made by my fiancé ! 👍)

Graham93

Time to make the sails! This is my first attempt at making cotton sails.

Full sized paper templates were made using the sail dimensions provided on the plan. These were used to mark out the outline of each sail on an old polycotton sheet by drawing round the templates onto the sheet with a pencil. For each sail, care was taken to ensure that the warp of the cloth was aligned with the leech of the sail. A 12mm wide strip of hardboard was then used as a guide to draw an additional line around each sail providing a 12mm hem allowance. The sails were cut from the sheet, together with triangular reinforcing pieces for each corner on each sail.

My wife was volunteered to machine sew the hems and reinforcing pieces 😉❤️. The sails were then returned to me for the rest of the sewing🙄. A bolt rope was hand sewn around each sail. The rope is sewn along each edge of the sail, except the leech. It is sewn onto the Port side of the sail. I don't know why it should be on the Port side, but I understand is the convention. Can anyone enlighten me as to why?

Grommets were formed at the corners of each sail by sewing in a copper ring.

The hand sewing for each sail took 4-5 hours 😮

Once completed, each sail was fitted to the Cutter using temporary rigging. This was to ensure that the sails were the right size and shape. At this point, the main sail had to be remade as, despite it being cut out to the right size and shape using the paper template, it had somehow 'grown' to a size which meant it just didn't fit once finished 😭 The second attempt fits OK.

Finally lines were drawn onto the sails to represent the seams that would be present on full sized sails and the sails were stained using tea and waterproofed using a mix of beeswax and linseed oil. The last photo shows the 'before and after' effect of the staining and waterproofing.

Blackpool show is going ahead: October 16/17th 👍

Graham93

Hi Nerys,

I’ve just seen a post (on another site) from Meridienne stating that the Warwick show will take place on Nov 6/7 this year!

Graham93