DuckWorks Sailboat Plans

DuckWorks Boat Builder Supplies offer some great boat plans for small boats for various usage such as sailing of course and supplies. I love these two small sailboats in the following videos. Check them out and maybe you will get the boat building bug.

Scout Sailing Dinghy

 

Portage Pram Dinghy

Sail and Fan

I have been asked the following several times by students of mine... Can a sailboat use a fan to make it sail forward? The answer is no, so why not? Because if you have two forces acting equally on each other, then you are going nowhere. The 2 forces, fan and sail, cancel each other out.

If you use the sail only via the wind, then of course you will sail forward. If you use the fan only against the air you get a fan boat and you move forward, stick the fan blade in the water like a propeller in the denser air called water and you have even more density to push against and again you move forward.

So, it's obvious use sail only or motor only with a fan in the air or propeller in the water to move forward.

Mark Rober talks about this in his video "Testing if you can blow your own sail (see video below)." He also talks about the density of the air that also plays into a sailboat sailing and other affects that are quite interesting.

In addition, Mark points out the importance air density, known as air pressure... On ground there is more air pressure because there are more air molecules, higher up like on the top of Mt Everest, there is much less air pressure, less air molecules. Air molecules weigh more down low than higher up. Gravity is pulling on the air molecules. A helium ballon will rise because its lighter than the air molecules around it. Thus, a sailboat will sail better with more air pressure versus less, but for us sailors the air pressure is always good as we mostly sail at sea level or on lakes that are higher up inland but still have more than enough air pressure.

Mark Rober full video is super interesting, so of course watch the full video below. He makes kits that you can buy to experiment on varies scientific and engineering topics. Well worth the cost for kids and the young at heart. Click this link to visit his website to purchase.

Watch the air pressure topic at the 3 minute and 8 second mark.

Watch just the fan and sail experiment at 5 minutes and 42 second mark.

The whole video is interesting to watch and learn from.

Mast friendly reminder

Hello follow sailors... Just a friendly reminder. If you are going to leave your mast up
(vertical) this winter be sure no water can get into the mast. If water does get into the mast it will of course travel down to the bottom/base of the mast and accumulate. If the water can leak slowly out it can still accumulate as the water slowly freezes. When the water freezes it will expand and crack a mast like the soda can even if there is space above to expand upward.

If you must leave your mast outside in the freezing weather and are not sure if water is getting into the mast then lower the mast and store it perfectly level. If stored perfectly level then the water will spread out over the full length of the mast and when it the water freezes the expansion will push upward because their is room to do so over a large area (of course if the mast is not totally full of water).

If you want to leave your mast up then one needs to make sure the water can not get in. You do this best by removing the mast head and base, applying marine sealant as you put the masthead and base back in place. Sealing other fittings like rivets, bolts, etc. is important.

There are mast that have the ability to drain at the bottom, which is usually on boats that can not capsize or have very light weight masts that drain easily. On small capsizable boats if it capsizes and the mast is not sealed it can fill up with water resulting in a vey heavy mast that will eliminate that ability to right the boat.

I hope this reminder is helpful. 

Soggy Tandem Island

I have indicated to some of my customers that the hatches on the Hobie Mirage Tandem Island (TI) can leak. Here is a great example of that truth with a TI that is currently in the Race 2 Alaska (2023).

How do you fix this issue. For most trips you will be fine but if you are getting waves over your boat consistently that is when it becomes a problem. To fix it, one puts oil or vacylinee on the seals to make the water bead up and reapply ever so often. Tyten the forward hatch bungee. One can also put an extra seal on the forward bow cover/hatch. See the video below for these and other additional fixes. 

As we see in this video the boat is totally full of water. The sailors indicate the boat did not sink due to the outer hulls buoyancy and mostly that is true, but there is also positive flotation in the center hull that should never be removed.

Watch the progress of this TI in the Race 2 Alaska by visiting this site and also visiting R2AK.com

Hobie Wave in a pickup bed

This is how well a Wave fits in the back of a 6 foot/1.8 meter bed of a pick up truck. In this picture the boat sticks out about 6. The rule is an item can not stick out more than 4 feet from your rear bumper (this rule varies from state to state). Must also have a safety flag. There are what we call T Hitch Extenders that can give support if an item is sticking way out of the back of your vehicle. I recommend using one when boats stick out like this as seen in this picture. One can also add taillights underneath to the horizontal bar, again something I recommend. One can buy these lights from Harbor Freight and other businesses.

T Hitch Extender

Soft Spots?

If your Hobie 16 has a soft spot on the top of the deck in front of the forward pylon its time to fix it big time. Soft spots on any part of a hull means typically the fiberglass matting is delaminating. If one does not fix it the soft spot will likely expand, get bigger and bigger until like in this picture the hull will break off or crack, etc.

Loved this picture and had to post it. Stay tuned as I will add to this post on how to fix soft spots before a hull breaks.

A BOOM CAN KILL!

Sad to say a 38 year old man was killed when a boom hit him in the head and knocked him overboard. He was pulled aboard and attempts were made to resuscitate him, but to no avail. He and 3 others aboard a yacht were on their way to Sydney Aus.

Yes booms can kill and we should always inform all on board when making maneuvers, particularly down wind when jibing. Before jibing inform all on board of  your intention to jib by yelling "prepare to jibe", make sure all on board inform you that they know what you are about to do, they should yell back "ready to jib." Then after they respond you yell, "Jibing." Once through the jib of course trim up and sail your course.

Sometimes when people are sailing directly down wind the wind can accidentally get behind the sail and throw it across to the other side of the boat, this is called an "Accidental Jibe." The wind should never "accidentally" get behind the sail. The sail will give you signs its about to come across accidentally via the boom lifting up (if boomvang is not tight, if you have one), or sail gets loose looking/baggy, has bad shape. Sails that are fully battened are harder to see lack of shape. Thus we should also be watching the wind as it ripples across the water, make sure the wind is hitting the sail at the correct angle.

Wearing a water sports helmet is not a bad idea to protect ones head. Hobie Cats roto-molded sailboats have no booms, which is a great safety feature particularly for new sailors. The advantage of a boom however does allow for better mainsail shape control for better performance.

Sadly some lessons are learned the hard way, so let us all learn from this and keep an eye on the boom.

Here is a nice video to show how to safely jib a keelboat. Shortly I will post some new videos myself of how to jib a small monohull and catamaran.

Adjusting H16 rudder system and playing in rainwater

2 Items... First if you have wondered how to adjust your Hobie 16 rudder cam/rudder locking system so your rudders raise and lower properly here is a new video we up loaded.

Second... North Idaho was hit with big storms and lots of rain this last weekend (8/10-11/19). Last night the rain came down hard filling my Sea Super Snark hull with water so I decided to have a little fun and run my Playmobil powerboat in it. Got to let out your inner child sometimes. By the way Playmobil has great boat toys which I use as visual in my safe boating and sailing classes.

How to not use a quick pin

Since its a new sailing year/season I want to inform everyone about a safety issues that seems to pop every spring because people are rigging their boats and getting ready for the sailing season.

It is common for me to see people using quick pins on their standing rigging (rigging that holds up your mast). This is a really bad idea as these quick pins have a mechanical mechanism inside that can fail. Basically the pin typically has a ball-bearing type end that pushes out, which keeps the pin from sliding out of the hole it was inserted into (pic #1). If one pushes the button on one end of the pin it release the mechanism so one can remove the pin from whatever its inserted into. Other pins sometimes have a T-shaped mechanism on the end of the pin (called a drop cam and external spring... see pic # 2), but most use a ball-bearing type design as display in pic # 1).

So on many occasions I have seen this mechanism fail, resulting in the guts/pieces on the inside of the pin falling out, leaving a pin with no prevention from it pulling or wiggle out. And what is the result? Typically the mast comes falling down, particularly on sailboats with only a few wires holding up the mast.

Each year I warn people about this and most remove these pins and replace them with pins that have no such mechanism, just a pin with a wire ring on the end, or cotter pin (called a clevis pin, #3). Others do not and come back to me not only to get a new pin but many times a new mast, etc. which of course is a lot more costly than a simple pin replacement.

I might add not heeding this warning can also result in people getting hurt. Luckily in my 30 plus years in giving this warning no one has been hurt badly, just a few scraps and bruises, mainly because most take the advise and do the change.

Now quick pins can be used to attach running rigging, such as blocks, etc. to the deck, cabin top that run the sails. However using a quick pin on anything that functions with the boom, can be an issue, because if the block or some mechanism comes loose from the boom as a result of the quick pin failure there is some potential for damage and physical harm, particularly when one is in the act of jibing and the boom comes flying around.

So here are 2 pics showing how one should and should not attach a furling drum to the bow fitting with a quick pin. This lesson can apply when attaching any wire to a deck fitting. I am not showing in this pics attaching it to the deck fitting.

In the first pic shows a shackle (see pic #4 for an example of a shackle) with quick pin and lanyard, with the pin going through the furling drums permanently attached shackle (A). In the second picture I have edited out the shackle/quick pin combo to show how this system should be set up with a simple pin with wire ring or one can use a cotter pin if one is leaving the mast up (not trailering the boat). So the non-quick pin just goes through the furling drums permanently attached shackle (B).

Many sailors use quick pins for easy of set up and take down. It can potentially make such work easier, but also can potentially harm you and the boat when such pin fails.

I hope this article was helpful. If you have any questions or experiences about this please leave a comment. 

Securing the Halyard

A common question I receive is how to secure a Halyard to the mast so one end does not come loose and slide up the mast creating a situation where you have to lower the mast to retrieve it. I made the following video on how to do this. Kind of a rough video but it gets the point across.

Comptip Removal

Have you ever wondered how to remove an old comptip

Click on image to enlarge

mast top (fiberglass mast top) out of a Hobie 16 mast? Basically what I do is lay the mast on the ground and cut most of the comptip off, then I lay two heat guns (on full heat setting) on either side of the mast next two where the two sections meet and turn them on at full power. The heat will weaken the old glue. I wait for the metal of the mast to get real hot (caution do not touch the mast) and put on thick leather work gloves so if I accidentally touch the metal I do not get burned. I also tie a line to the base of the mast and to a solid immovable item. Then I take a chisel and rubber mallet and start hammering at an angle and away from the metal mast section. After a few hits the old comptip will start to slide out and then totally be out. Once you have done this you can prep the inside of the mast (clean it out) for a new comptip. It's a simply process but if not done right the job can be a nightmare.