How to build an adjustable tiller lock for a couple bucks

Its that time of year again.  Spring Tweak time!  This years Spring Tweak is a DIY tiller lock.

This tiller lock is fully adjustable, easy to make, unobtrusive, easily removed and set up, and only costs a few bucks to make.  Ill show you how to make one.

Tiller Locks:

When it comes to tiller locking devices, theres certainly no shortage of them.  Do a Google search for "tiller tamer", or "tiller lock" or something similar, and before you know it youll have spent your entire day looking at a bewildering assortment of different types, both commercially available and home made.  Dont ask me how I know that.

Tiller locks generally fall into four main categories.

First, youve got your on-off lever action type, like this TillerClutch for example.  These usually have a lever mounted towards the front of the tiller that allows you to alternate between locking the tiller in place, or allowing it to move freely.  Its always locked or unlocked, theres no in-between. 

Then theres the Solid Brace type.  These consist of an adjustable rod that goes from the tiller to a box usually mounted on the seat back.  Theyre designed to be rugged.  The rod doubles as a tiller extender and can be easily detached to unlock the tiller.  The rods length can be adjusted as needed.

Next, theres the Friction Knob type, like the ever popular Tiller Tamer.  Here, a knob is used to adjust the amount of friction anywhere from very loose to a full lock.






Also using adjustable friction technology are a variety  of  DIY Shock Cord, Rope and Bungee types.  These are usually home-made and can range from a single piece of rope stretched between two cleats, to devices constructed from bungee cords, fairleads, camcleats, blocks, hooks, and various other items.


Of course they all have their pros and cons.  So how do you decide which one to buy or build?

What makes a good tiller lock (in my opinion):

• Adjustability means flexability.  I favor the devices that allow the friction to be adjusted from completely free tiller movement all the way up to a full lock.  Dialing in just enough friction to hold the tiller in place still allows an occasional nudge to adjust the boats course.
• Dont get in the way.  Most devices have ropes that lead from the front of the tiller to the sides of the boat that block access to outboard motors, block seats, and so on.  This can be a major drawback on a boat with limited space to begin with.
• Quickly disabled and enabled.  I want to be able to quickly and easily disable or remove the device when Im done using it, or in case of an emergency.
• A DIY solution, inexpensive and easily constructed from readily available parts.
• Strong, reliable, and should not be unattractive.

How my tiller lock works:

My tiller lock is a Friction Knob type.  Tightening the knob pulls up on an eye-bolt, pinching a line against a strip of leather with increasing friction. The amount of friction is fully adjustable from very loose to a full lock.  The friction between the rope and leather is smooth, consistant, and the leather will not wear out any time soon. It is not necessary to locate the tiller lock near the front of the tiller on a boat the size of mine, or on any boat with a well balanced helm.  I located mine slightly forward of my aft coaming and ran the line almost straight across. There, the line is not blocking my way at all but still functions perfectly, so long as I keep the line free of slack. Two jam cleats on my coaming allow me to easily tension the line tightly.  I can instantly remove the device by pulling the line off the jam cleats. A leather washer under the knob protects the tiller from damage and its friction prevents the knob from turning on its own.

Materials needed:

To make my tiller lock youll need a stainless steel eye-bolt and a few other small items that you can probably find lying around the house or garage.  The eye-bolt I used is a Stanley V2161 that I got from Lowes for $1.28.  Youll also need a small scrap of leather, a couple stainless steel screws, a short piece of rope, and a couple small scraps of wood.  You may also need to purchase a couple small jam cleats.  The knob can be made from a scrap of wood by tapping a threaded hole in it or using a threaded insert, or you can buy a threaded plastic knob at a hardware store for $2.60 like I did.  Or simply use a stainless steel wingnut.

Building the tiller lock:

The lock is very simple and building it should be quite self-explanitory.  Here is a cutaway diagram of how it goes together:

Youll need to drill a 1/4" hole through your tiller for the eye-bolt.

Make the bottom piece from a scrap of wood measuring 2-1/2" long by 1" high by 3/4" thick.  I used white oak.  Cut a 1/4" slot completely through it, long enough for the eye-bolt to fit through, and counterbore a couple of screw holes in it. Round off the corners.

Cut a strip of leather as wide as the inside diameter of the eye-bolt and long enough to wrap around the wooden piece.  Leather from an old belt works fine.  Insert the eye-bolt, then add the leather strip, holding it in place with glue or a couple brass tacks. Make a leather washer for under the knob. Drill the hole in the leather washer oversized so the eye-bolt can freely move up and down through it.

Attach to your tiller, kick back and relax!

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Cape Henry 21 Professional Build in Ireland

Tiernan Roe is a professional boatbuilder in County Cork, Ireland. His company, Roeboats, specialises in building quality wooden boats. Mostly of classic styling, they build for sail, power or rowing. Roeboats recently launched a Cape Henry 21 that they built for a customer from France.Tiernan sent me these photos, which show some interesting details brought into one of our most popular small cruisers.

Cape Henry 21 ready to get wet.

Launched in a pretty setting.

First sail of the new boat.

The mainsail has still to be fully set up in these photos.

Compact sink & cooker unit, neatly executed.

Other side of the galley. Nice detailing.

Looking aft from the double forward berth.

You can follow the construction of this boat on the Roeboats news blog, from start through to launch.

After launch, Tiernan Roe sent me these comments. "She sails very nicely and I found her easy to single hand from the get go. The interior is pretty snazzy with frame and panel oak fronted drawers and a gas stove with tank fed sink.  Also the centreboard was a lot easier to operate than I thought. Its an awkward shape out of the boat to try and move alone."

To see our full range of designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/

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High build primer

The inside of the super structure was sand blasted, then received two coats of epoxy primer. The roof of the super  structure was sand  blasted, then received two coats of epoxy primer, followed by 2-4 coats of Acrylic Urethane. The roof of the super structure will eventually get a coat of some sort of non skid coating, but that wont happen until next year. The sides of the super structure is what Im working on now, and is what everyone will see and touch, got sand blasted, followed by two coats of epoxy primer, then three coats of high build epoxy primer. Once Im finished working on the high build, shell get another coat of epoxy primer to seal the high build, then three coats of top coat Acrylic Urethane.

The high build primer is another step I added to only the sides of the super structure. The purpose of the high build is only to help one achieve a nicer finish on the top coat paint. High build primer is able to be built up quickly to a thick layer, then is easily sanded back down. The easiest way to describe it is by calling it liquid body filler.

Just by the nature of the beast, building the super structure created many imperfections in the metal. Every place I welded a frame, or cleat  on the  inside, a bump in the metal was created on the outside. These small raised areas or "bumps, are called weld print through. If you run your hand over the metal, you feel the bumps. The print through will be extremely obvious on the  shiny final coat unless hidden. My method of dealing with it is to hit each spot lightly with the grinder before sand blasting to lower the bump below metal. The high build primer fills the now recessed area, and everything gets sanded smooth. The high build causes the print through to vanish.

All the welds on the super structure were ground flush, and the high build buries all the grinder marks and allows me to sand everything flush. Because the metal has been  laying around a long time, some rust developed, and after blasting the rust away, some pitting was evident. The high build fills 99% of those holes.

Once the high build  primer is sprayed on, I give it at least a day to cure before I start sanding. I use air tools for all my work. My preferred sander is a six inch dual action sander with a hook and loop pad that can accept a shop vac to eliminate the dust.  I first sand the panel using 220 grit, and sand any bad spots until I start seeing the under lying  epoxy primer. Once I have a panel sanded to 220, I go back over any questionable spots and add a bit of filler, the sand the filler to 220. Once Im happy with how things feel, I sand the whole panel to 400 grit. This sanding process takes some time, but its not hatefull, and goes rather quickly. The super structure is different than the hull in regard to  how its built and how it will look, so I dont feel as if I need to long board sand it to make me happy.  Once the panel is final sanded, and blown off with compressed air, is is now smooth enough that it  begins to show a reflection. I know things are going in the right direction when primer shows a reflection

As one is sanding with the 400 grit pad, the only way one can find imperfections is by feeling them with your hand. Eyes just arent good enough. The surface really is glass smooth, and any bump or ripple is easily felt by touch. The goal for me is to have a respectable looking paint job that will be easy to keep clean. While most areas seem insignificant, those small holes and marks will trap dirt, and ultimately speed up the demise of the paint. Because Im going to be the one whos eyes are going to be looking at things the most, I want it to work for me. As long as the surface is smooth and flat, buffing, polishing and waxing will work well in keeping the paint looking fresh for years to come. This could easily be a 15-20 year paint job.

High build primer is a porous coating and needs to be sealed with epoxy primer before the final coat of Acrylic Urethane is applied. The filler I am using also needs to be sealed, and there are some spots where I sanded to bare metal. There is no way around one more coat of epoxy primer, but thats a good thing and a small price to pay to make sure the job is done right. Once the last coat of epoxy primer is on the boat, I have 72 hours before the primer gets too hard and will not allow the top coat to chemically bond with the primer.  If I wait longer than 72 hours, Ill have to scuff to get a less than ideal connection between the top coat and the primer.

Its Sunday morning as I sit and type this entry, and the salon is ready for top coat. I still have to sand the wheel  house, but the trim, eyebrow, and all the difficult stuff has already been sanded and faired. The only thing left to be done on the wheel house is the flat panels, and that can be finished in four or five hours. Ill probably seal the super structure with primer early this week, and final coat the super structure by the middle of the week. I have one large area of "orange peel" I need to re paint on the hull, so I plan on sanding and painting this coming Saturday. As long as things go close to my planning, Ill have all the painting COMPLETELY FINISHED  by next weekend and Ill be able to  unwrap the hull and the super structure.

Cheers,

   

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What flats skiffs cost to build and sell

This post is not a tell all expose of the behind the scenes scheming of flats boat builders trying to get rich. Its just my way of trying to show you what things cost and how and why some skiffs cost what they do. With my basic information presented here you can go and look at your skiff or any other and add up the numbers to get a good idea of what its original cost was, is and where all your hard earned money is going.

To save you the time of reading the rest of this I will give you in site right now as to why so many skiffs cost what they do, its very simple, "because the market will bear it". 

The first thing you have to know is what the materials cost the builder. If you build lots of boats then you can get a slightly better discount on goods bought wholesale from either the manufacturer or the vendors that buy in bulk and resell to you. Most flats skiff builders are building a small amount of boats a year. Less than 200 is the norm. Small shops maybe 30-40 a year. The difference between these two shops will differ in buying power by very little between the two. The smaller shop will have smaller over head verse the big shop with employees and all that goes with size. So if a small time builder is producing 20 skiffs a year with low overhead but is charging the same or more than the big shops the potential for profit by a per skiff basis is way more than the bigger shop. But that profit is limited to 20 skiffs so the bigger shop can be way more profitable in the long run. 

I will be describing here a materials list that will fit any of the top end skiffs I built in 2000-2001 from 16-18.The only real difference in cost will be the slight added amount of fiberglass materials for the slightly longer hull and the added length of the rub rail. All the hardware is the same for most all skiffs. The time difference to add this hardware to a 16 skiff verese an 18er is nothing.

The fiberglass labor to build the bigger skiff comes to about 12% more.

All poling towers have the same amount of welds, bends, feet. Thats where the labor comes in. Aluminum sells by the pound so you are only buying as a builder onces more. 

Its these little details that save the builder money.

The prices here are from 2001. Sorry but Iam not in the business anymore so you will have to add inflation to these past real costs. Anyone with time to spare can look up these costs today. I leave that up to you. This is easy, but the sad thing you will see Is the increase in skiff prices from then to now but your wages and buying power is not in line with this increase. Thats just my opinion.

I will show a basic break down of one of my skiffs. I was going to print every last part down to the last screw and oz. of resin. Too long a list. But you will have to trust my list and numbers to get an idea of whats up.

PARTS AND HARDWARE

This is all the hardware, rub rails, electric wires connectors, cushions, batterys everything needed to put the skiff together.

$1,627.00

HYDRAULIC STEERING

This is what the whole setup costs including an Edson wheel.

$1,114.00

GELCOAT AND RESIN 

- 14 gals. For hull average

- 10 gals. deck , hatches

- 2 gals stringer

- 4 gals. Bulkheads

- 4 gals cockpit floor

- 4 misc, for tabbing in parts

38 gal total but will vary a bit between hull lengths by about 10-12%

$15.00 a gal. For vynelester resin= $570.00

GELCOAT 7 gals. For entire skiff about 5% difference between lengths.

$120.00

FOAM CORE

There are at least 10 excellent core brands out there to choose from. I always used either Dyvinycell, Kledgecell, or to me the best core, Corecell.

You have to add up the sq. ft. This is easy, just draw out the skiff as shown and add up the sq. ft.

- 180 sq. ft. Hull.       3/4"

- 108  deck.               3/4" 

- 42 floor                    3/4"

- 48 bulkheads.          3/4" and 1/2"

- 12 stern        3/4"   And  3/4" hard foam

- 4.5 tower lid.                  1/2"

- 3 misc. Deck supports. 1/2" 

- 6 rod racks                   1" hard foam

403.5 sq. ft. Core in varying thicknesses , densities.

- 7 gals bonding putty 

- 3 gals bonding resin used

$ 1,516.00 to bond core in skiff.

FIBERGLASS CLOTH, KEVLAR , CARBON FIBER CLOTH

Following is the layup schedule that I have used on most of the skiffs built during this time period. 

There have been variations due to the customer or what was going into the skiff but this Is my standard layup. Its very low tech and simple but becomes very high tech through the enginerring of how its put together. Works very well building by hand layup all the way through resin spray out guns and using a Vacume bag to hold the core In place. But I feel you and I can build a superior boat by hand with a brush, roller, and bucket if thats all thats available. All the rest diffinitly enhances the skiff build but just go for a ride in one of my 32 year old skiffs. Still cooking along.

HULL LAYUP

- gelcoat.                           Let cure

- 3/4 oz. skin out Matt.      Let cure

- 1-1/2 oz Matt. 

- 10 oz. layer Kevlar cloth

- 1-1/2 oz. Matt.                  Above three all at once, let cure

- fill in strakes with putty, let cure , agitate hull skin for core bonding

- bond core. Let cure

- fair core , fill voids

- 3/4 oz. Matt.

- 7 oz. layer eglass cloth laid up with Matt all at once.

DECK, HATCHES, COCKPIT LAYUP

- gelcoat                          Let cure

- 1-1/2 oz. Matt.              Let cure

- bond core.                     Let cure

- fair , fill voids

- 3/4 oz. Matt

- 7 oz. eglass cloth, all at onces with Matt.

BULKHEADS

- one layer 7 oz. eglass cloth on bare core.

STRINGERS 

Depending on floor size, stringers vary a bit. Described here is a simple hat stringer. Some I use are shaped like an H. The core is doing all the work, the stringer is just to support the floor. If the deck and the entire skiff is bonded as a whole then you do not need lots of thickness. In skiffs that have their decks riveted on or screwed on then its a whole other story.

- 2 - layers 1-1/2 oz. Matt with a 12" strip of Carbon unidirectional laid down the middle all at once.

- 40 yds 3/4 oz. Matt.

- 40 yds 1-1/2 oz Matt.

- 14 yds 10 oz. Kevlar cloth

- 32 yds 7 oz. eglass cloth 

- 12 Carbon unidirectional cloth 

 Material Costs total $ 615.00

TRAILERS 

Trailers vary in cost but have a very high markup from whole sale.

- $750.00 standard trailer

- $ 1,300.00 top of the line

ENGINES

All boat builders that have boat dealers can buy their engines from the manufactures if they can afford to be affiliated with them. That means you have to be able to have enough boats going out the door to be able to sell to dealers at a discount so that they can resell at a profit. 

If you can buy $100,000.00 dollars worth of engines up front then you get them for a great price. The deal is they go on the boat and boat dealer sells the boat and only he gets to do the warranty work or future maintence on it. As a builder once out the door its out of your hands. Now as a boat dealer engine sales shop you can buy engines from the manufacturer but at not as great a savings. What the manufacturers do is give them rebates for every engine sold. Sell a lot of engines and you make your profit from this. 

What does all this BS mean, if you are a small shop what you do is find a motor dealer and get him to sell to you at just above his cost with him getting the rebate and you maybe passing the savings onto the customer. What you are really after is the boat sale with lots of options to install.

A Big foot Mercury 60 hp cost whole sale $ 3,544.00 with the prop costing $210.00 more.

Ok we now have some numbers to add up;

- $1,627.00 parts 

- $ 1,114.00 steering

- $ 570.00 resin

- $ 120.00 gelcoat

- $ 1,516.00 core and bonding putty

- $ 615.00 fiberglass cloths

- $ 750.00 trailer

- $ 3,754.00 60 hp Merc 

Total... $ 10,066.00 for the total boat cost in materials wholesale to get it out the door in 2000-2001.

Today if you mark it up by inflation standards my guess is that most every thing has gone up quite a lot.

I would mark this up 30% today. I still do boat projects so I see the costs rising. 

The thing you need to look at, ask yourself at this stage is, why is that boat that has no hatches, very little hardware, weighs so very little with a tiller steering cost so much?

You can see what the materials I have used. These same ones you can use today to build your own skiff. 

I will try and sess out this dilemma next.

You have all the materials you need to build a skiff in a pile on the shop floor. Now you need to build the dream skiff. Skiffs need a shop to be built in, people to do the building and all the stuff that goes with trying to sell your skiffs to the public some where out there.

This takes start up money. You will need cash to get your shop and build your plugs and molds and then your first hull. If you can do all the design work yourshelf, all the plug and mold work on your own and then build the skiffs on your own you will save a ton of cash. But you will only build a few skiffs a year. This I did in my early years making a living but could always see that if I could just build five times the amount I could then make a good profit. Thus in come the employees the added costs and so on.

By the time I sold out my share of Hells Bay Boatworks to my partners we were a well oiled machine with many boat models, a very low overhead as we owned everything built to date and only had the mortgage to pay and the standard cost of having employees. But as Ive  already explained I wanted to go sailing with my family so I sold out. Best thing I did for lots of reasons.

The break downs of the rest of the skiffs costs are based on that time. Today they could be the same , way more or very little. Depends on how much your start up costs were-are and your current overhead. Buying a company and pouring tons of advertising money at it with all the start up costs can be earned back in the long run if done well and you have deep pockets or investors that have them to.

Everybody that I have ever worked for wanted a good return on their investment so have always been under pressure to get it right the first time.

Once you have your skiff built and know its costs you can then set its price. With lots of similar skiffs about all claiming to be the greatest thing invented in the last few years you will have to decide where you will fit in this market. Having very high priced skiffs can make it very easy to get more for your skiff as the others have set the bar. Theres nothing better than having a very well built, designed and known skiff that really performs with a great reputation to keep the hype flowing and the market value up. Its called marketing. But some might say its also profiteering too. Well weer talking about skiffs here not oil or food.

LABOR , EMPLOYEES, ugh

This is a break down of what I think your average hired fiberglass workers, riggers should take to build a skiff. I always think of the skiffs built to my designs and engineering at HBBWs as low tech - high tech. By this I mean that the employees building the skiffs were mostly people that wanted steady employment but had no knowledge of boats or boating or could care either. Just a job. But with the proper training and motivation you can get a great crew together to build a high tech boat. The high tech part of the building comes from the engineering of putting it all together. Today my guess is there are a bunch of younger people out there that want to be part of this industry so theres a better chance of getting people to move to the next level and be more well rounded so as to be able to do it all.

In rigging you have to get the crew to care for the boats so they will treat them like a favorite posseion.

Once you get them to see it your way and understand the value of what they are working on then your screw ups go away.

I have worked at every level of building boats hands on so Iam very familiar with all aspects of building from the drawings through sea trials. This has helped me tremendously in my career. The hours I show here can vary a bit but not widely unless you have very new, or very slow workers. If you are infusioning a skiff with high tech epoxy resin the labor is about the same or less with a crew that understands the process. The rise in cost is in resin only. But you want to put in all these new fancy cloth weaves that sound so great on paper. Not for me ! Waste of money. I feel all the hybrid Biaxells take up more resin, and are prone to high impact shattering because of the way they lay. An infused epoxy hull with these cloths having to be pulled and compressed over many tight lifting strake angles is a pain in the butt. As soon as your hull has been lifted out of the mold go and look at it to see all the little air bubbles and resin pockets in the cloth and Chines. But oh ! When we go to paint over all this you can fix it then. Not for me.

Ask your builder why a hull that is so light with so little resin used and so little cloth needed costs so much. Do the math, a 375 lb skiff cant have too many gallons of resin and cloth. The cores the same pretty much for all skiffs. 

TO BUILD A SKIFF -  THE HOURS

- sell skiff.                                                                 ? Lots 

- wax molds.                                                             2 days

- spray gelcoat all parts.                                            1 day

- skin all parts, layup all parts                                     2-3 days

- core boat - by hand , Vacume bagging, or infusion. 3-5 days 

-finish glass all parts.                                                  2-3 days                                                                                      

- remove parts, cut , trim parts.                                  2-3 days

- assemble boats from all parts.                                  7-10 days

- rig skiff, carpet, tower all hardware.                          3-4 days

- rig skiff electrical.                                                      2-4 days

- install motor, steering                                                2-3 days

- finish details, fix dings etc.                                        1 day

27 days x 8 hours a day = 216 hours to build, rig an average skiff as described without options.

39 days max worst case scenario. If this is happening you need to see whats up to get the hours down.

Lets split the difference on the two and end up with 280 hours to finish.

280 hrs. X  $ 20.00 US average wage cost back then = $5,600.00

Workers costs back then were from $11.00 an hour to $ 18.00 with most in the $ 13.00 an hour area.

The two shop foremans wages were more. The wages of the owners are included in my estimate. We had a health plan for all employees. We gave out bonuses every year to all employees.

Now take the two costs ;

$ 10,066.00 materials

$ 5,600.00 labor

= $ 15,666.00 

Now we have to add in the mortgage, building insurances, advertizing, extra employees like the secretary, alarm company, electric, waste disposal of acetone, lawyers, company trucks, inventory,

Future plug and mold building, tools needed, dinning out smoozing clients,and so much more. 

Yikes ! Iam so glad to be anchored here in the Leewards remembering why Iam here.

This is where in todays Internet world you can do very well advertizing through facebook, instagrame, and other venues for very little. You still will have to get someone to deal with this though. You wont have time as youll be building and selling. Starting with a small shop building a very good designed and built skiff with a well controlled overhead with good employees should keep the costs of your skiff low. But with more models you need more room and more people.

To wrap this thought process up the average cost for a top end skiff out the door in 2000-2001 cost about $18,900.00 to $20,000.00.

For the simple bottom line skiffs they cost about $12,000.00 + -

When I started HBBWs with Hal and Flip the overhead was low, not many employees, very little advertizing costs, wages were low. As we got bigger so did the costs.

Now some of you will say " wow I paid way less". Yes but what Iam showing is for a wheel steered skiff with a rigged bait well. Tiller boats were less, side consoles a bit less than a center console and so on. 

The place where real profit lay was in the options list. This is stuff you dont want to give away with a standard boat so you put this stuff on the options list. The markup here is mostly profit. To builders this is where you get ahead in sales profit. This is where you hear all the crazy prices coming from.

I had many clients that wanted to see the sales ticket for the most expensive skiff built to date so they could figure out what else to order. These were always the worst skiffs as too much going on. But yes there was good profit there.

Simple open skiffs today with no floors and hatches that drain into the cockpit and tiller steered are very cost effective to build. Less parts and labor. Not much in materials for the hull and deck.

Building a one off top line skiff on your own today will take an amature about 600-700 hours to build and rig. A simple tiller skiff 250 hours less.

The material costs will be about $9,000.00 more or less without an engine for a top line skiff.

To build an all epoxy skiff one off will cost about $2,800.00 more in resin costs.

A 17 tiller home built skiff will cost in materials about $4,500.00

 Iam now back to what I said in the beginning of this , people buy these skiffs because they can afford them, because they have no time or skill to build their own or they make to much to stop and build their own. Because they like the idea of a well crafted product and the process of having their own boat built. They buy them because they can be way better at getting near fish than in the wrong skiff.

Lots of reasons. 

I have worked all over the place on many different projects for a days wages. The only times I made any real money were when I owned my own business, made a profit and then sold that business or land. 

Yes these skiffs can cost and some do a lot and can be worth it. Others are riding on the others backs and picking up sales by being a bit less in price. So look at what you are buying or lusting after.

I think for lots of guys out there its time to clean out the garage and save a pile of dough and build your own skiff.

I would love to own a Finnish built Swan 42 sloop but the price tag is way out of my range, so I built my own boat and have been using it now pretty much non stop since 1999. 

  

Hope this helps

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Didi 950 Build Started

Michael Vermeersch of Ohio commissioned the Didi 950 design and has now started construction of his boat. He is building from a pre-cut plywood kit that was supplied by Chesapeake Light Craft in Annapolis. The kit arrived as 61 sheets of plywood with all components accurately cut by CNC router and packed on 2 pallets.

Michael reports that he is progressing well with the assembly of the backbone and bulkheads and that everything is fitting together beautifully. A few more bulkheads to go, then he will be ready to start setting up on the building stocks.

Michael with wife Pat & daughter Catherine.

Since adding this design to our stock design list, another three boats have been started. They are in Australia, Greece and Latvia.

The Didi 950 is drawn to the Class 950 Rule and detailed for building by the radius chine plywood construction method. It can be built from plans only or from a kit. Kits are currently available in USA but can be supplied by most of our international kit suppliers as well. Enquire with the supplier in your area and I will send the files to them for pricing. Note that for USA you must order from us, you cannot order it directly from Chesapeake Light Craft.

For our full range of designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/.

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Didi 950 Build Stringers going on

Earlier this month I posted about the start of construction of the Didi 950 of Micheal Vermeersch in Ohio. Construction is progressing nicely.

The backbone components have all been fitted and glued. They have slotted connections, egg-crate fashion, with all of the bulkheads. Further into the project all of those junctions will be strengthened with structural epoxy fillets.

The sheer clamps have been scarphed into lengths sufficient to span the full length of the boat, from available shorter lengths. Before that they were also bevelled along both edges to remove excess material to save time later planing them to shape.  The sheer clamps are the major strength members along the deck edge. Normally they would sit flat against the inside of the hull skin but with these designs I turn them diagonally across the corner for a cleaner and lighter detail that also has a better balance of gluing area between the components that are being joined.

Now Michael is fitting the hull stringers. With this method of construction the stringers are arranged to suit the different regions of the hull skin. In the photo below you can see the sheer clamp, spanning the bottom corners of the bulkheads. Just above that is a topside stringer. There will be another similar stringer close to the chine that will accurately align the upper side panel.

The other full-length stringer that is in place is the tangent stringer that defines the edge of the curved portion of the hull that is laminated from thinner plywood. On top of the hull there is a stringer partially slotted in, defining the other edge of the curved panel.

Below the tangent stringer is a short stringer at the right in the photo. This is an additional stringer needed to fill in the space where the side panel increases in width due to the tightening of the radius toward the bow.

In the foreground are stringer lengths that will be scarphed together into the long lengths required. The angles have been planed and are ready for gluing.

 

 

 

 

 

Didi 950 with hull stringers being fitted.

To see more of this and our other designs, go to http://dixdesign.com/

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How to build a roller furler for under 40

Ellies home-made sub-$40 roller furler

Introduction:

There are many different types of roller furling systems. This furler is a "Wykeham Martin" or "wire luff" type.  This popular design has been in continuous use worldwide for over 100 years.  It requires a jib that has a stainless steel wire sewn into the luff, or has a "jib set flying" (a jib that does not attach to a stay).  If your jib hanks onto a fixed forestay or needs to wind around a forestay this furler wont work for you. The furler you need would be more like this one.

This furler, as illustrated below, is sized for my 15 Welsford Navigator, or any similar sized small sailboat. It is comparable to a Ronstan RF76 or a Harken 434 dinghy furler.  It can be scaled up in size and strength for larger boats by substituting a stronger eye-bolt, stronger u-bolt, upper swivel, and ball bearing thrust bearing.

Here is a test run of the furler

Origin

In issue #58 of Small Craft Advisor magazine, Kirk Gresham wrote an excellent article on how he designed and built two roller furlers for his 17 cutter Eider for a mere $40 each using bits of scrap and a few bits and pieces of hardware from a local hardware store. This saved Kirk a whopping $670 off the $750 price tag he was quoted for two furler units from a local Port Townsend chandlery. I knew from the moment I read Kirks article that I wanted to build one of his furlers too. I love building things. Id much rather build something than buy it, even if it ends up costing me more. But in this case building it saved me a bundle too. Thats a two-fer for me!

I had some questions after reading the article, but I knew Kirk attends the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival every year, so I met Captain Kirk at the festival. He answered all of my questions and allowed me to take some close up photos of his furlers.

Being a mechanical designer by trade, naturally I couldnt resist making some improvements to the design.  I used bronze thrust washers in place of the steel radial bearings Kirk used, and I made the spool with a core of solid hardwood instead of using a section of PVC pipe.  These two changes significantly increase the strength of the furler, make it operate more smoothly and increase corrosion resistance. I also used an ABS end cap instead of the bent aluminum strap used to contain the furling line. It looks better and does a much better job of containing the line.

So, here I present my improved version of Kirks $40 roller furler.

Click to enlarge

Making the Drum Assembly

The drum is made from an inexpensive 3" ABS drain pipe end cap available at any home center that sells indoor plumbing supplies, like Home Depot, Lowes, Grainger, etc.  The cap I used is a Mueller 2979H.  (Note: a 3" cap is actually 4" in diameter.  It caps a 3" inside diameter drain pipe).  Caps are available in a variety of sizes if you want a larger or smaller furler. You will also need a stainless steel eye-bolt. I used a 1/4" x 4" Stanley V2161, but welded eye bolts are a better choice as they are much stronger. To make the drum assembly, drill a 1/4" hole in the center of the end cap for the eye-bolt. Drill 7/8" diameter holes every 45 degrees around the outside for access to the furling line. Locate these holes so they are 1/4" below the open end of the cap.

I also drilled a series of small drain holes in the bottom of the drum.

Use locktite to secure the two nuts on the eyebolt.

Making the Spool Assembly

To make the spool assembly, first I cut two plywood disks from 1/4" plywood. The outer diameter of the disks should be just slightly less than the inner diameter of the ABS cap. We dont want the furling line to slip through the gap and jam the furler. Sandwiched between the disks is a piece of oak (or any other hard wood) that is 2" in diameter and 7/8" thick. Glue these three pieces together taking care to align them accurately. Drill a 1/4" hole through the center for the eye-bolt. Drill two more holes to match the stainless steel U-bolt legs. The U-bolt I used is a 1/4" x 1-1/8" x 3-1/2" Stanley V2193. Drill one extra hole in the upper disk for the stop knot of the furling line. Paint the spool with several coats of enamel paint. Cut and file the legs of the U-bolt flush with the nuts. Use locktite to secure all four nuts.

Assembling the unit

To assemble the unit, place the spool onto the eyebolt of the drum assembly. Then add a 1/4" stainless steel washer, your thrust bearing, and a locknut. Additionally secure this locknut by drilling a tiny hole near the end of the eyebolt and adding a cotter pin, or use Locktite (blue not red).  The thrust bearing is simply two or three 1/4" I.D. sintered bronze thrust washers. These strong, inexpensive corrosion resistant self-lubricating washers should be readily available at any good hardware store, or you can order them here. Once in a great while, apply a drop of motor oil to the thrust washers. It will soak into the porous metal and lubricate them for a long time.

A ball bearing can be used instead of the thrust washers if you prefer. They are more expensive but may operate more smoothly under high tension.  The exact size you need will depend on the diameter of your eyebolt and the space available inside your u-bolt. The style of bearing you would want is shown below, and a source for stainless steel thrust bearings in many sizes is here.  Ive tested both the thrust washers and the ball bearings on my boat and there was no noticeable difference.

Tie a stop knot in the end of your furling line, feed it through the hole in the upper disk and out through one of the holes in the drum. Spin the spool to wind up the line.

Upper Swivel

A swivel is required at the head of your jib to allow the wire luff to spin and roll up the jib.  With this type of furler you want a swivel that spins easily. I have tested three different swivels on my boat that have worked well for me.

This anchor swivel, is a good choice provided your luff tension is not too tight.  If your jib uses a jib halyard, this swivel will work for you. It is extremely strong, very inexpensive, and spins well under moderate tension.  However, since its not a ball bearing swivel, it can stick when tensioned too much.

Ball bearing swivels are a better choice.  The Ronstan RF75 swivel is considerably more expensive, but is an excellent choice for larger sailboats with higher luff tensions.  And this jumbo sized (size 10) fishing swivel is an excellent choice for smaller sailboats and sailing dinghys.  It is the largest ball bearing fishing swivel Ive been able to find and works very well on my Navigator. It is rated to support up to 810 lbs.  Do not rely on this fishing swivel to hold up a mast on anything larger than a sailing dinghy.

A word about strength

Make sure you select components that are strong enough for your application. An easy and conservative way to do this is to look at the diameter of the stainless steel cable used to make your jibs luff wire.  My jib uses 1/8" cable, which has a Safe Working Load (SWL) of 352 lbs.  3/16" cable has a SWL of 740 lbs, and so on.  The SWL of each one of your components (eye-bolt, u-bolt, swivel, thrust bearing, shackles, etc) should be at least as high as that of your cables.  Youll be able to find the SWLs on the products packaging, at the manufacturers website, or with a bit of Googling. That way youll know your furler is stronger than your luff wire.

$40 furlers around the world

Click here to see Barrys UK version of this furler.
These young folks are enjoying their furler on their homebuilt catamaran
John Hows Fulmar
SailCanoeFan in Montreal  

Conclusion

This furler has performed flawlessly on my Navigator Ellie for over 5 years now, and I couldnt be more pleased with it.  If you have any feedback or if you build one of these furlers for yourself, Id love to hear about it.  Please leave a comment below.

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First Build Day Building Form

After months of hemming and hawing over plans and possibilities and uncertainties and even driving to the Middle of Nowhere to get a trailer, finally we start building the boat.  Or at least we build something that is essential for building the boat.

The Glen-L plans call for making a building form upon which to build the boat.  With the building form you get the boat at a height you can work on it, as well as have a level, plum, and square form upon which to assemble the individual pieces.

From these photos you also get an idea of just how beautiful a location we have to build the Shantyboat  Thanks to Lawrence and his family for their generosity, and perhaps their healthy curiosity as they watch the project slowly come together from a pile of lumber to a boat.

I actually found an error on Glen-Ls otherwise flawless building plans.  The plans called for the cross spalls to be 97", which is one inch over 8 (a frustrating waste of conventional length lumber).  Another measurement in an end view gave half the measurement of the cross spall as 3-11 1/2", or 95 inches. As usual after a little back and forth clarification, I got a message from Gayle:

Wes,

I had Glen take a look at the plans and heres his
response:

Seems to be an error. The cross palls should
extend 3 11-1/2" each side of CL or 95" long. You
have thickness of side planking, plus FG plus rub
rail to obtain beam of 8 2". This will make an 8
width on the bottom to match the two 4 wide PW
panels. 

Gayle Brantuk

This building form was mostly made of scrap lumber.  The stringers (the frames of the boat that run longitudinally) will sit on top of and perpendicular to these cross spalls on top of the building form. 

I actually built the form wrong, at least according to the plans (the side pieces are reversed inside out).  And though it didnt hurt anything, it set me off on a cascade of self-recrimination at my carelessness.  If I assembled the boat with as little attention to detail, I would be wasting material, causing undue frustration, and making an ugly boat.

This made me rethink ways I could balance my eagerness with my sense of precision.  The next week I switched gears from my cavalier construction of the building form to a slower more careful approach.

Jen and Kai both helped me make the building form.  And after Kai and I had a pretty pointless conflict, I realized one very important boatbuilding need that I hadnt taken into account for people working hard in the hot sun all day:  Snacks!

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Didi 950 Build Bottom Skin Panels

Mike Vermeerschs amateur boatbuilding project of a Didi 950 is moving on to the next stage, with bottom panels fitted and work starting on the side panels. Mike is building from a plywood kit that we supplied to him and reports that the fit is good. The kit has jigsaw joints on all large panels, making them easy to assemble either on the floor or on the boat.

Didi 950 with all stringers installed.

Two of the stringers each side, at the junctions between flat and radiused skin areas, have plywood doublers attached to serve as backing pads to the joint. I call these the tangent stringers. The doubler on the upper tangent stringer is in process of being fitted and can be seen running forward from the transom through to the third bulkhead from aft.

In the photo below, the transom has been fitted, followed by the bottom panels. These panels each have two transverse jigsaw joints and join each other at a centreline butt joint over the plywood backbone. In the photo the jigsaw joints have temporary battens over them to secure them while the glue is setting.

Bottom panels fitted.

Mike has also started to dry-fit the side panels ahead of gluing in place. At the right of the photo the forward lower panel can be seen and which will continue through to the transom. The lower edge, as seen upside-down like this, forms one half of the chine. The other half of the chine will be formed by the upper side panel.

Today Mikes 300lb brother decided to test the hull stiffness of this partially-built Didi 950 . He climbed onto the bottom of the boat and jumped on the bottom panels. They passed his improvised test but I think that I would have recommended that he wait until the whole hull was skinned before doing such a test.

Mikes 300lb brother tests the Didi 950 hull stiffness.

The broad stringer that shows on this photo is the upper tangent that will join the lower side panel to the radius.

To see our other designs, visit http://dixdesign.com/ .

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