No not mine :-)... Howden's in New Zealand have a boat which was built on spec for sale. The hull is glassed on the outside and sanded back ready for painting, resin sealed on the deck ready for clear coat varnishes, Epoxy sealed in the cockpit and sanded back ready for paint, internally it has been sealed with three coats of epoxy sealer. The mast step is fitted, chain-plates and bow handle are fitted, alloy transom cross beam is fitted and the hull to this stage weighs 42.8kgs, min weight is 50 kgs. The asking price is $8756 NZD which is roughly £4648. Anyone interested go to the links page and contact Andrew Howden or send me a email / message / comment and I will forward it to him.
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Light and Patchy
I was hoping for better weather for trapezing but the wind didn't live up to the forecast. 13knts was the forecast but is never really made it much past 8knts. The lake is also starting to weed up. Which didn't help. I'm also at the top of the weight range at 75kg ( which is an incentive to lose some weight ). 10kg less would be much better. In an attempt to actually show some trapezeing I went on the wire in as many of the gusts as possible, resulting in the inevitable! :) But at least getting wet shows how easy righting from a capsize is!
Monday, 4 July 2011
Video rig
We had no wind this weekend. So I set about making a video rig as I'm sure lots of people are interested in seeing some video of how the 3.7 goes in this country. I have a waterproof bullet camera from some earlier sailing video experiments so I dug this out.
And set about making a boom arm for it (see pic). In the past I've always suffered from not being able to attach the camera particularly well to the boat. This situation gets worse when you add a big lever arm in the shape of a boom. As what ever you have used to tie the camera boom on with tends not to be man enough. And slowly droops or falls off! Not good. As I was scouring the house for something suitable, I saw my sons drum kit and had a brain wave. A Drum rack clamp! Perfect for attaching to the transom bar and holding my bullet camera boom at 90˚. Now all we have to do is pray for some wind!
And set about making a boom arm for it (see pic). In the past I've always suffered from not being able to attach the camera particularly well to the boat. This situation gets worse when you add a big lever arm in the shape of a boom. As what ever you have used to tie the camera boom on with tends not to be man enough. And slowly droops or falls off! Not good. As I was scouring the house for something suitable, I saw my sons drum kit and had a brain wave. A Drum rack clamp! Perfect for attaching to the transom bar and holding my bullet camera boom at 90˚. Now all we have to do is pray for some wind!
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Insurace claim
Lesson No1 if you want anything done quickly email someone in New Zealand.
As most of you will know my boat was damaged whilst being shipped. I originally emailed Oceanbridge in NZ about this and as ever got a immediate email back. I was asked to contact Atlantic Pacific in the UK, well do you think I've had a response yet? Well 3 weeks have been and gone and not a peep. So I'll email NZ to see if they can help. Yep you guessed it, an immediate response even though the individual I emailed was on holiday. All the information I needed to move forward was there, even a CC hurry up to the Atlantic Pacific UK to contact me ( which they still haven't done ).
So if anyone's at all worried about the long distance communication involved in getting a 3.7 imported, I wouldn't worry. In my experience everything's dealt with in a very timely manner. And far better than you get in the UK.
As most of you will know my boat was damaged whilst being shipped. I originally emailed Oceanbridge in NZ about this and as ever got a immediate email back. I was asked to contact Atlantic Pacific in the UK, well do you think I've had a response yet? Well 3 weeks have been and gone and not a peep. So I'll email NZ to see if they can help. Yep you guessed it, an immediate response even though the individual I emailed was on holiday. All the information I needed to move forward was there, even a CC hurry up to the Atlantic Pacific UK to contact me ( which they still haven't done ).
So if anyone's at all worried about the long distance communication involved in getting a 3.7 imported, I wouldn't worry. In my experience everything's dealt with in a very timely manner. And far better than you get in the UK.
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Details, details...
I eluded in a post the other week that my boat was a master class in efficiency and I thought I should show you why I think so.
Firstly there's no main halyard! What! Yep no halyard. This saves the 2:1 compression on the mast allowing the mast to react as it should. So how do you get the sail up and err... down. Simples, roll the boat over to pull the sail up. My boat has a great trailer that incorporates a neat strap ( efficiency 1 ) and cradles that allow this to be done easily. The boat is also very light. The main is attached to the mast head via a loop of spectra which is inserted behind a spinnaker piston hook which has been bonded into the mast tip ( efficiency 2 ). This is achieved by pulling a short rope tag attached to the spinnaker piston at the mast tip. There is also a line that runs to the bottom of the mast, simply pull the line when you want to drop the sail and the piston opens. And you pull the sail down.
The shrouds and forestay terminals in the mast are just holes! ( efficiency 3 ) The terminals on the shrouds and forestay are hooks. You just hook 'em in the holes and put a bit of tape around them to keep them there. You remove the tape when you pull the sail up when the boat is on it's side.
Stepping the mast is easy. ( efficiency 4 ) The shrouds have bottle screws. You attach one using a shackle ( no fiddely shroud plates and pins ). The forestay has a short spectra strop. You put the shackle through this and step the mast locating the mast foot pin in the mast step. Attach the lose shroud with a shackle. The rig is slack at this point. You then take a trapeze line to the bow. And using the bow trolley line tie the line to the trap hook to make a simple boat breaker. Pull the trapeze adjustment system until the forestay shackle can be attached to the deck eye on the fore deck. Release the trap line and your done. Oh there are some lowers as well but you just pop those on the shackle when you are doing the shrouds. Brilliantly simple, no extra bits of kit and less weight.
Firstly there's no main halyard! What! Yep no halyard. This saves the 2:1 compression on the mast allowing the mast to react as it should. So how do you get the sail up and err... down. Simples, roll the boat over to pull the sail up. My boat has a great trailer that incorporates a neat strap ( efficiency 1 ) and cradles that allow this to be done easily. The boat is also very light. The main is attached to the mast head via a loop of spectra which is inserted behind a spinnaker piston hook which has been bonded into the mast tip ( efficiency 2 ). This is achieved by pulling a short rope tag attached to the spinnaker piston at the mast tip. There is also a line that runs to the bottom of the mast, simply pull the line when you want to drop the sail and the piston opens. And you pull the sail down.
The shrouds and forestay terminals in the mast are just holes! ( efficiency 3 ) The terminals on the shrouds and forestay are hooks. You just hook 'em in the holes and put a bit of tape around them to keep them there. You remove the tape when you pull the sail up when the boat is on it's side.
Stepping the mast is easy. ( efficiency 4 ) The shrouds have bottle screws. You attach one using a shackle ( no fiddely shroud plates and pins ). The forestay has a short spectra strop. You put the shackle through this and step the mast locating the mast foot pin in the mast step. Attach the lose shroud with a shackle. The rig is slack at this point. You then take a trapeze line to the bow. And using the bow trolley line tie the line to the trap hook to make a simple boat breaker. Pull the trapeze adjustment system until the forestay shackle can be attached to the deck eye on the fore deck. Release the trap line and your done. Oh there are some lowers as well but you just pop those on the shackle when you are doing the shrouds. Brilliantly simple, no extra bits of kit and less weight.
Second outing...
I have to say I have no idea why this boat is not more widely distributed! The Farr 3.7 is without doubt an absolute joy to sail. She is right up there with the best if not the best, and I have sailed a lot of boats. From Musto Skiffs to MX-Rays to UK Cherubs to National 12's to Buzzes to RS100, RS200, RS800, 29ers, 29erXX, Mirror's, Splash, Int Moth.... the list goes on and on.
I think you can tell I enjoyed my sail today!
Perfect for UK inland waters where space is a little restricted or where the wind is shifty. (Like where I sail at BSC, islands and shallows etc... ). You can sail conservatively and hike her until the mean wind is enough to trapeze on, or go for it and hook on at every gust. She planes readily, is light and well balanced and is statically stable. And what's more she'll be a great sea boat too. Excelling in big wind. With no ultra low boom to deal with and a simple fully battened rotating rig squeezing all the power out the main sail sized just shy of 9 sqm. She is a joy!
I think you can tell I enjoyed my sail today!
Perfect for UK inland waters where space is a little restricted or where the wind is shifty. (Like where I sail at BSC, islands and shallows etc... ). You can sail conservatively and hike her until the mean wind is enough to trapeze on, or go for it and hook on at every gust. She planes readily, is light and well balanced and is statically stable. And what's more she'll be a great sea boat too. Excelling in big wind. With no ultra low boom to deal with and a simple fully battened rotating rig squeezing all the power out the main sail sized just shy of 9 sqm. She is a joy!
Saturday, 11 June 2011
First outing...
I sailed her today. Just a shake down sail to make sure I have worked out how to rig her and if I need to sort anything. I have been waiting a couple of weeks to do this, as it has been so dam windy recently. I wasn't keen to go out for the first time with it was blowing a hooley!
But I can report that she everything I had hoped for. Responsive, balanced and a genuine joy to sail. With a really nice matched sail and mast.
The other thing a have been very impressed with is the sheer detail in the way she has been rigged. It is a master class in minimalism. And very much not the way we do things over here. I'll talk more on this in my next post with more detail and pictures as this is just a short up date on my 3.7 progress, to keep everyone up to date. Ta tar for now...
But I can report that she everything I had hoped for. Responsive, balanced and a genuine joy to sail. With a really nice matched sail and mast.
The other thing a have been very impressed with is the sheer detail in the way she has been rigged. It is a master class in minimalism. And very much not the way we do things over here. I'll talk more on this in my next post with more detail and pictures as this is just a short up date on my 3.7 progress, to keep everyone up to date. Ta tar for now...
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