JEM Watercraft

Thanks Bob, I'll look into that.

Cheers,

Hey all, sorry for my absence, have been working a lot, and I have had duties for the hostel I am staying and building at. Well, those duties are over for now, and I am putting all my energy towards the project.

I hope to have completed the outside glassing by tonight, which will finally be the end of the work with the hull upside down. I will then put in the frames, as well as some structural elements (support block for bow line, internal storage/frame pieces). After that, I need to figure out two things which have been concerning me for some time, but which must be solved.

Firstly, the mast. I am actively searching for a mast , and the pickings are very scarce, so what I use for a mast will probably depend entirely on what I can find. Optimally I will find a 14-18 foot aluminum mast, with boom, rigging and sail included, but I won't hold my breath. If I find an interesting and proven way to build my own, I may consider that, but I think the mast, as potentially the most important part of the boat, is a risky thing to trust my novice hands to build correctly.

Secondly, the rudder. Tom and I have been working on a good rudder design for a while, and although we have something which I think will be sturdy and successful, all input is appreciated. We contacted Morten by email, and are waiting to hear back from him, as his input will be very valuable. There are a few main complications to the rudder;

1. The stern is not flat in any dimension, it is curved inwards from the middle towards the top and bottom, the most aft point being the upper chine. There needs to be some mechanism to bring the support for the hinges out in front of that point, strong enough to support the weight of the housing and the rudder blade.

2. The housing needs to be able to pivot horizontally, by the aid of a piano hinge, or possibly multiple door hinges, or something else. It needs to be strong enough to take the strain of the blade turned sideways.

3. The housing needs to allow the rudder blade to rotate vertically, in case I need to get it out of the way to bring it to the beach. With a central pin equipped with simple locking mechanism, that will be easy enough, but it would also be nice to be able to remove the blade and replace it with another, if one didn't work well, in trials.

Well, having my hull finished will be a great morale boost, next I have the frames and gunnels to install... Things are really starting to move! Hope I can figure this out, all help and input is greatly appreciated! Will update sooner with pictures of the build! Take care,

William

William, why don't you simply adapt a paddle to seer with. The Polynesians have used this method for centuries and crossed oceans with it. Re your mast, again you don't need to get too complex. Have you thought about a balanced lug sail as opposed to the sloop rig you seem to be favouring? The advantages are lower centre of effort, easier build and much shorter mast for roughly the same sail area. This all equates to less stress on the boat under sail but it also has slightly less pointing ability.

I hesitate to mention other boat designers here but many are now opting for this type of sail rig for their boats and I think there are very good reasons for this.

William,
Another advantage of the balanced lug rig is that the mast is usually short enough to stow inside the boat. The mast does not require any rigging to set it up.
Bob

I've tried six different ways of contacting Morten to no avail.

The PM I sent to Mick came to me as did the one I sent to Morten.

Can anyone help us?

Thanks

mate, try mickandevie@hotmail.com

I sent an email to Morten. Hopefully he'll see this thread soon.

Thank Mick and Matt.

I received an email from Morten.

He'd been away.

Cheers,

Update:

Sadly, little has evolved with Morten.

He must be very busy as there is really no email dialogue and he's not engaging the forum.

William (the OP) and I have so many questions in an ever circling design spiral that Morten would be such an asset to have comment on.

I didn't want you folks to think everything was going on behind the scenes in private emails.

Sigh...

Update:

William and I heard back from Morten, the DK Touring designer!

We have asked him to comment on our lugger rig installation details,

and will post his reply with his permission.