Kill or Cure

It has been fairly obvious to me over the recent months of re-ownership of Sacré Bleu that I need to get fit again to sail this boat, - well actually just to sail. And so I have passed on SB to another owner who will spread the experience of 3.7 ownership to another part of the country. Whilst I get back into shape on one of the machines above, in readiness for the next 3.7.

These things run HIIT programmes (high-intensity interval training ) which is I'm reliably told the fastest and best way to get in shape. It seems it is also the type of training responsible for giving Andrew Marr his major stroke!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22141372

So as long as I survive I should be back-back in the game shortly.

Interesting outcomes

So I've had a run of bad luck with the wind. None - then bonkers gusty (28knts & big shifts) - then perfect but a lake full of 150 Optimists and now what was forecast to be 8-10mph was nothing like that.

Oh well I went out today anyway to make sure the alterations I've done to the mainsheet set up work. I'd measured and measured but you don't really know until you sail, if what you've done works. One of the reasons I wasn't keen on 15 gusting 28 to trial the new system.

But I can confirm it works. The extension makes it past the kicker, if I point it toward the cockpit floor (advice taken from the NZ fleet) when tacking. A little bit more thought is required when gybing, making sure you have pre gybed the extension or you are in trouble. But apart from that I MUCH prefer the positioning of the mainsheet off the boom!! It is so much more sensitive, it's directly in your eye line. Rather than looking at the bottom of the boat for the tail of the sheet and allows you to keep your weight forward all the time. I had no issues with the 'horse' hooking the stern quarter either. Which I was please about, and thought might happen but didn't.

I'm also happy with the reconfiguration of the control lines. They are all nicely elasticated now, so you can just grab the line, un-cleat and let go and the elastic take the line down to the deck. Rather than before where the lines were run though fixed deck bullseyes on the side decks and you had to adjust the line from inside the bullseye, which was awkward to say the least.

The other thing I've realised is I am ENORMOUSLY UNFIT! I have lost almost all my aerobic fitness over the last 4 years and it really shows. I'm going to have to do something about it, as the sailing skill memory seems to still be with me, but I'm going to be a liability to rescue crews if I don't get some fitness back soon!

As if to prove this, I went for a run the other day and I almost keeled over. This part of the plan may take a bit longer than I was hoping!

No wind is dangerous!

We've had a succession of weekends / weeks with no wind or a day of dogs off chains. Which for the bored sailor wanting to remember how to sail his old boat, can only mean one thing. To dangerously start cutting things up and changing the sheeting system around on his boat!

Above is the new shorter version of my rudder, which in combination with a slightly shortened tiller extension should allow me aft sheeting with centre boom take off. Fingers crossed all the measuring and trialling the boat on land will translate into a system that works on the water.

I wanted to try it on Sunday, but the wind Gods were playing silly buggers. With a really shifty and gusty breezy day. A great 11knts but with gust into the high 20's. Combine this with loads of rain and BSC's notorious shifty lake (+/- 20º) and I thought better of it. So till the next time.

Fingers crossed my mods have worked!

PS... I've just realised I need to do some mods to my trap harness too. It seems to have shrunk whilst languishing in my sailing bag!

Went sailing... if you can call it that

The weekend was the first opportunity to get Sacré Bleu wet, but unfortunately the weekend was totally windless. But I was determined to at least get it wet. Just to remember what to do, and give the boat a lightest of shakedowns. Which raised the need to sort the elastic for the centre board.

You'll notice the new electric motor I've installed along with the mast mods.

Makeshift Lathe

A big thanks to Jeremy who made the new mast foot for me, he's an absolute star. All I can say his I owe him a lot of beers, as a new one form C-Tec was costed up at $250NZD!

I knew that I would have to do some extra work to the mast foot when I got hold of it. As I'd intentionally over estimated the spigot lengths to make sure I had enough length to enable me to make adjustments when I received the foot.

So how do I make the mods to the mast foot when I don't have a Lathe?

Use your power drill as a Lathe!

I clamped my drill in my vice, put the brass mast foot in the drill chuck, turned on to a high speed and used a file and hacksaw to make the mods. Surprisingly simple.

I needed to shorten the bottom spigot and round off the end. To help when the mast is placed in the foot socket. Plus - I didn't want to lose the mast foot again. So I need someway of stopping this. I stepped the top spigot down. Flattened one side and drilled through so I could attach a dyneima loop to the mast.

Bobs your Uncle - no more lost mast foot!

I've been saved by JC

What can I say - JC has performed a miracle! That'll be Jeremy Carey just to be clear. Thanks to his fabulous skills with a lathe I may be able to get sailing soon!

Erection problems

So I'm being kept away form the water by jobs on the boat that need to be done while it's warm. Too warm it would seem, even for 10am on an otherwise wet month of August. I was worried that my West 205 epoxy, with a use by date of 01/01/2012 would not go off. I shouldn't have bothered looking for a local supplier of glue. As I can confirm that even if the hardener is dark brown the stuff goes off much quicker than you want it too!!! More of that in a bit...

So jobs to do. It's been awhile since I've sailed, and to be frank the uniqueness of rolling the boat over for the small performance gain I have decided is not worth it. This may have something to do with age? Needing to save as much energy as possible? ;-) or just that the foreshore in the UK is never really conducive to this procedure. Oh and the fact that the original downhaul line was about to break. Which meant it needed to be changed anyway.


Unfortunately this meant 'Drimmeling' out the spinnaker piston lock that the mast was originally built with, so I decided to put a mast head sheave box in instead. Tick.

After spending the requisite - almost £30 for a 10ps worth of injected plastic. Just because it is to do with sailing. I installed the mast head sheave. Meaning that I now have a conventional external main halyard system. No more rolling the boat over. Tick.

Next carbon over the holes that the old halyard system used. As a test for the super out of date epoxy. To my surprise the glue worked fine! Ace, my wallet is relieved. I think it's important to seal the mast. Especially the opening at the mast head. This should stop / slow the water coming in the mast when capsized. Giving me a little extra time to get not the board.

Doh! Whilst transporting the mast I seem to have lost the rotating mast foot. Balls! This is a problem, I'm hoping it fell off in the boat park. Otherwise it's air freight from NZ time, as they are not an off the shelf item.

I'm really do hope I can find this sucker, as I need to get my water wings before October and the Lyme Regis S.C Nationals. It's been quite a while since I last sailed (4?5? years!), and I know fitness is going to be an issue as I know I have a complete lack of it. My back isn't getting any better with age. Sitting at a desk all day, Scoliosis, tight hip flexors from a reasonable youth athletics career and falling out a tree all cause me quite a bit of pain. One of the reasons I went for the 3.7 in the first place. Hiking killed my back.

Back to the jobs.

Now to replace the 'intermediate shrouds'. Originally #384 had 3mm wire inters bonded to the mast. After a while sailing the boat the electrolysis created between the carbon and the stainless corroded the wire at the intersection. Causing the wire to break. At the time I decided to replace these with SK78, believing in the hype about it's, No / V Low stretch qualities. This resulted in a loss of power. As they did stretch.


Guy who I bought the boat back from had had some wire inters made up. So whilst sorting the mast it was a good time to put these on.

Now for the big test of the glue! I shouldn't have worried! I was intending to sink the hard eye into a bog mix of glue, by wrapping it down with peel ply. I wasn't working slow, but it seems 10am sun shine and a black mast was to much for my filler mix, and it went off before I got the carbon top layer over it and wrapped it down. Meaning I now have a large bump on the front of my mast.

Oh well I'm sure it will be secure enough. It just doesn't look very pretty. At some point I may cut it back and re-do it, but for now it will have to do.

Need to get on the water.

BTW - if you see a brass fitting that looks like this at B.S.C it's from my mast!!! Send me a message here!

Back in the game

After a time in the wilderness, I'm back in the game, having recently just bought back 'Sacré Blue' from Guy Revill who had been looking after her at Lyme Regis sailing club. More to follow...

Footing off...

Recently, at the RYA Dinghy Show 2017 where I was manning the UK 3.7 Farr stand over a very successful weekend.  It was mentioned to me by a Swiss reader of this blog, who is also building a 3.7. That this blog could give the wrong impression. In other words, it looks to the reader that this 3.7 project just upped and stopped after I sold 384. This is farr (sorry could resist) from the case!

So having realised that the last blog entry left this impression. I thought I should write a new entry to point everyone toward the UK Farr 3.7 Class Association website.

This is now where I am active as the UK Farr 3.7 Class President.

Under this role I am pleased to say that the UK Farr 3.7 class is going from strength to strength. With new boats being home built and new boats being bought from Butler Boats. The UK's class builder.

So if this blog has tweaked your interest in a Farr 3.7 the association site is one of the best places to get your information from now on. You can also look in on the World organisations Facebook page here or the Farr 3.7 Facebook Builders page here if you are interested in building a boat. Or have need of tips from previous home and professional builders.

See you on the water...!

Front page news...

Yachts and Yachting ARTICLE LINK

I spy with my little eye...

Hand over...

Congratulations to Ewan, the proud new owner of 'Sacre Bléu!'... Ewan is the perfect new owner for 'Sacre Bléu!' An RYA Youth Coach and previous test sailor of 'him', he will be very well placed to move the 3.7 fleet forward in my short absences. In fact there is already talk of two boats being built over the coming winter. One for Ewan and one for Ben Brown. Ewan has also started his own blog to record the events of Farr 3.7 - 384 and to keep the momentum building around these great boats. His first blog post is already up - go here: Monkey Farr Story to read it.

So what next? House moving and extension building, is what next. So this blog may go a little quite for a bit. But rest assured, as Mr Schwarzenegger said...'I'll be back'.

For Sale!

Sacré Bleu! Is being put up for sale. What the heck... I here you say! Well it's not what you think. I'm currently in the process of moving house which will then involve some major building work to create my design studio and extension etc... and this is already sucking up huge amounts of time. Which is already impacting on my sailing time.

So it seems the most logical thing to do is to put 384 up for sale during this in-forced stay of sailing. I intent to import another 3.7 whilst I am sorting the house, so I am ready to go for next season. Or depending on the availability of the right 3.7's I may embark on a self build project later in the year, if the house has gone smoothly. All in all this seems the best course of action to keep momentum going around building the class. Especially as Butler Boats, through pressure of Streaker orders - have not as yet been able to finish building there demo boat! ( It's all there: Mould, laser cut timber, carbon rig the lot and I believe they even have 2 orders for new boats, but they just can't get to it! )

Anyway there's enough info on this blog for you to get a good understanding of the quality of 384 and what comes with him.

Asking price: £3700 ( boat, sail, and amazing trailer )

Leave me a message or call: 01491 613873

Congratulations!

Dave Barker launching his new Farr 3.7 this weekend.

I just wanted to say a really big congratulations to Dave for finishing what looks like a stunning boat. The first UK built Farr 3.7. Dave's also been tirelessly creating a fantastic blog of his build, which is a superb resource for anyone looking to build a 3.7. It's full of everything you might need to know - including costings for the complete build and event cut lists. Well worth a read... the blog link can be found on the UK Farr 3.7 class website. 

To Do List...

Ok so I have woken up from my... 'you must be kidding I'm not going sailing in that weather slumber!' and have got a few things sorted on the boat that need to be done before the boat and myself get wet again.

The first on the list was a new gooseneck. I looked around and found some off the shelf fittings that would do, but they were very expensive. £50!!!! So I ordered some 12mm 316 Stainless Rod from www.metals4u.co.uk along with a stainless shaft collar and with the addition of a pillar drill made a new one £14 inc p&p.

Next on the list was to repair the C-Tec tiller extension. I have had to wait for the weather to warm up so I could glue this back together.

I ordered a short length of tube from www.easycomposites.co.uk, made an internal sleeve, cut the ragged ends off and then added a bit on the end of the extension to make up for what I'd cut off. Just add glue...Simples.

Student support

Sacré Bleu went out for a shake down sail last weekend, at the hands of Piers Hugh-Smith. It seems there is nothing that will get between a 17year old and attempting to get an A* grade at A level. Not even freezing temperatures and at times, snow.

Piers has been building a self designed and self built CNC rudder for his A level and as part of the A level project report - pictures, measurements and test sailing needed to be done.

I happily gave up a Sunday afternoon to help him out. And in the process found that the boat needs a little TLC.

The biggest job is replacing the gooseneck, which got broken whilst being test sailed, and is currently a bit of a lash up using an old spreader screw bar. This is more difficult than it sounds. As the rotating rig needs a fixed gooseneck and finding one is proving pretty hard. It looks like I'm going to have to make one. But if anyone knows where to access a Laser style but NOT fixed gooseneck please leave a comment.

There are also the sort of regular jobs to do. Like replacing the connecting shackles in the kicker system that at currently stretched to bursting point. And replacing several lengths of worn rope. But there are also the sticky jobs to do like; repairing the tiler extension and rudder stock.

Unfortunately when people capsize to windward they tend to haul on the rudder, which in turn forces the rudder cassette agains the pintle supports and this has started to create a stressed and split area in the rudder cassette. This needs to be sorted pretty soon, as it will ultimately spell the end of the stock if not sorted.

And then I've also go to replace the standing rigging.

The current set up is shrouds and forestay terminated with hooks and turnbuckles. The turnbuckles are good, the hooks less so. They go into un-sheaved holes in the carbon mast. And I can see signs of wear here, with the holes starting to elongate. So the decision is to go for T Terminal's and backing plates with either wire or my preferred M-Rig rope. Although the rope is untried, it will be cheaper and lighter.

And then I need to re-progrip. and add a mainsheet jammer swivel base. And sort a popped batten end on the sail.

So I have quite a bit of work to do!

2013 Boat Show

Good day spent at the RYA Dinghy Show. Although I would have much preferred to have spent my time manning a Farr 3.7 show stand. But there is always next year!

The day was very useful never the less spent building contacts and finding new and interesting dinghy products. The best of which was Marlow Ropes new DM20 fibre, marketed as M-Rig. This is a dynemma fibre with NO creep and is designed for standing rigging. And deals with the issues that SK75, SK78 and SK78 Max have (in decreasing amounts) of creep over time. I full expect to be using this on my Farr. I expect I may also be replacing the current Intermediate shrouds with this new fibre. As I have a sneaking suspicion that I may be losing a little power after replacing the corroded broken wire inters with the current rope. 

Congratulations

Well done to Mark O'Brien for his success at the 2013 Farr 3.7 Nationals. Held at Manly Sailing Club New Zealand. 4 bullets in a row sealed his victory. Of note is the fact that his boat is sail number 176 showing that the 3.7 has a very long competitive lifespan. 

His and Hers?

The UK almost has a set of Male and Female Farr 3.7's! (NZ boats are Male apparently!) Dave Baker is getting on really well with his boat. Follow the final leg of his building journey here:DAVE'S Blog LINK. It's a great blog that is effectively a step by step guide to building a Farr 3.7. If you have ever wanted to build your own boat, reading Dave's blog will show you that it's not as hard as you think. And the best place to start is with a Farr 3.7.

It's official...

Butler Boats LINK