The first job after the glue had cured was to clean off the excess glue and smooth the surfaces with a wood plane.
I used a wood plane, surform plane (green handle top right) and sandpaper to shape the tiller. The original square section has been retained on the right hand end. This end goes into the rudder stock. The tiller has then been tapered on the bottom face towards the left hand end.
The tiller is now ready for final fitting to the rudder stock, the drilling of fastening holes, varnishing and the making, fitting and bolting on of the tiller extension.
This evening I went to the Onerahi Yacht Club and watched their racing programme in operation. Here are a couple of the Starling Class yachts enjoying an evening sail. I talked to some of the skippers before they launched - it gave me a good boost and a determination to keep the rebuild momentum going.
10 comments:
Beautiful laminated tiller.
Those Starling yachts are truly attractive vessels. They look like they'd be more fun than the P-class boats for guys like us. Are they planing dinghies?
Dan
Yes, Des Townsen the designer was one of those yacht designers who had a real artistic flair - not all designers have this talent.
Yes, they can plane very fast and are a lot more suitable for guys like you and me - not to small like a P Class but not so big that you get overpowered in a real sailing breeze (At 64 years old I think I may be past stacking out all day trying to hold down something with twice the sail area such as an Olympic Finn).
No chance of seeing either of you on a foiling Moth then?? :o))
Any time you want to make me a tiller feel free, Alden..!
PS. First picture... my old woodwork teacher would have given me a clip round the ear if I'd put my plane down flat.. "always on it's side, boy".. I can hear him now.... :o)
Steve, I feel suitably chastised over my misplacement of the wood plane, I will put myself in detention on the stool in the dunces corner (It's right next to the beer fridge).
Thanks for the compliment regarding the tiller. The varnished alternating wood colours may give the impression of very impressive wood work but its really easy - peasy. But it takes time to laminate and shape, flash tillers are for retired people like myself with the time to pay attention to the detail of it all.
It's an interesting coincidence that you mention a foiling Moth. When I went to the Onerahi Yacht Club earlier this week to watch the centerboard racing there was a foiling Moth. I took a number of photographs which I was going to Blog about. What intrigued me was how wet he got when he launched it - I think the foil must have been about four feet deep which meant he had to walk out into the water until it was up to his neck to launch, then do some acrobatics to get on board..... impressive speed, about 10 times the speed of anything else on the water.
There's a fair few Moth's in the harbour now.. mostly from Hayling Island SC as they have a reputation for serious racing... last year there was an open for them - must have been 20 or 30 of them out from all sorts of countries.. I find them fascinating, fast as you say, but frighteningly quiet.. I was overtaken by one at a huge number of knots and never heard him coming.. and what's the rope/rod/thingy hanging from the nose for? Must do some googling...
I did a google and there is something hanging down called a 'Wand' which provides a mechanical linkage to the the fins horizontal foil angle.... ....the boat sinks, the rod is pushed backwards, increases the foil angle, increases lift.... the hull lifts out of the water, the rod becomes more vertical, the foil angle decreases balance is eventually found.
Read more at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?340855-Foiling-Moths-what-s-the-thing-hanging-off-the-bow#PB5kEeOLwe1I6KRx.99
Hi Alden, I'm in south Auckland and also restoring a starling. Mine isn't as much of a do up as yours but I have never really tackled doing up a boat and I'm really enjoying it. Just wondering what primer and top coat paint you are using and where you get it from?
Andrew McKay
Hi Andrew, nice for you to comment. It's good to hear that someone else is also restoring a Starling, they are great little boats.
I have been purchasing my paint from BURNSCO which is a nation wide Marine Chandlery chain of shops. But they are not the only Marine Chandlery Shops around the Auckland region.
For varnishing the deck I am trying out a brand called 'Nautical Gloss Varnish' which is a lot cheaper than my usual varnish which is 'International Goldspar Original'.
Onto the bare plywood I first used 'International Yacht Primer' - this is grey in colour (about 3 coats with sanding into between the coats.
I then applied two coats of 'International Pre - Cote' high quality undercoat.
The last coat was a different brand (Transomarine 331 Gloss Enamel) mainly because I happened to have a can of this paint that I hadn't used. An International brand of high gloss enamel would do just as well.
PLEASE NOTE: - I used the traditional 'single pot' system - That is I didn't use a 'two pot' system where by you mix up a 2 to 1 mix of paint with its hardener.
The paint system I used is oil based, so all clean up is with turps and I purchased a really good fine haired paint brush to use.
I brushed on the primer paint, but I used a foam roller for the undercoats and the finishing coat.
The method for the finishing coat goes like this - Roll it on as fast as you can (I did either one bottom side or one side only at a time) and then tip the paint bubbles off with a wide synthetic brush - only do the tipping off once, resist going back again or you will mess it up. This gives a reasonable finish that is not as good as a spray paint job but is better than a brush only finish.
Good luck!
Hi Alden.
Wow thanks so much for all that information its unbelievably helpful.
I looked up Burnsco on the net and they have so much stuff that I have been looking for.
My starling has a few things missing and has a really old rigging system, not that I really know how a starling rigs (why are there so many sheets?). I am a active member of the Port Waikato yacht club but we are a very small club and sail opti's and sunbursts.
I've only into my second season of sailing being 33, I feel a bit of a old dog learning new tricks but I have really fallen in love with the sea. I'm originally from the south island (Grew up in Invercargill) and we generally stay well clear of the freezing water haha.
I also have a flying Ant that I sailed last year and started to strip over winter but moved on to getting the starling up and running so I can have a good run at smashing some 9 year olds in their Optimus boats.
Well I'm going on a tad.
Hope you keep updating your posts so I can see your progress and keep using it as a reference, your doing a amazing looking job.
Andrew
Andrew,thanks for your encouragement. It's good to have comments and interest shown from a fellow Mainlander. I grew up in Christchurch and did my early sailing in a P Class and an Ok dinghy on the Christchurch estuary. I also sailed with my dad around the bays of Banks Peninsular, one of the greatest of weekend cruising grounds.
Although I am experienced yachtee / boat builder and have been sailing for nigh on 50 years, when you do a restoration on a boat, you go from generalities to specifics and I am probably as much in the dark as you are regarding what to do with rigging and ropes and do - das to do with the rigging side of things. Despite my experience my heart is always in my mouth every time I start a new project and I wonder whether I have the 'where with all' to do it properly. I have found these things helpful:
- Making a 'Starling' folder on my computer desktop.
- Doing google searches on Starling dinghies and saving useful photos.
- Going to the local yacht club on sailing days, looking at Starlings and how they are set up, talking to their owners and taking photos of how the control ropes for the sails lead back through the spashboards to cleats and jammers - and putting the photos in the desktop folder for future reference. ---- I have found the owners I have talked to, to be very helpful and forth coming.
- I was lucky to have taken some photos of a well set up Starling at last years Auckland Boat Show which for once had a large area devoted to sailing dinghy classes. I have a photo of a deck layout that I printed today to use as a reference as I set up all the sail controls.
- 'North Sails Auckland' (Google them) is where I purchased a new set of fiberglass sail battens and a set of hiking straps last week (arrived in a tube - all good - used the credit card over the phone) - I think North Sails is the only accredited sail maker for Starling mains'ls.
- 'Sail One' (Google them) also sells accessories for Starling dinghies.
I intend to continue to blog about my restoration until she is launched, so I hope any information will be of use to others. If you have any questions at any time, feel free to ask, just post here on the comments page with any queries.
Kind Regards - Alden
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