Worse than paint drying?

Not a huge amount of progress to report this weekend and certainly nothing exciting.

So far I've managed to strip back 4 of the 8 areas of white non slip.  I'd forgotten how paint stripping, despite being a mind numbingly dull process, its also quite addictive.  The great thing about SR is that there are natural milestones in the little bulkheads so you can break down a long job into smaller sections. In my case with a cup of tea between each one. 

My plan is to take the cockpit area back to bare wood and see how pretty I can make it before deciding whether to go for varnishy goodness, more painted non slip or a totally different approach. 

I've also bought my two items for this project thanks to Ebay and Reeve's my local hardware shop in Maldon.  The Ebay purchase was enough western red cedar to make 2 rudders (one with wings and one without) and a dagger board for my Son's mirror.  Checkout seller:feuillusfencing2010 on ebay who seems to have a huge range of wood at useful lengths and sizes for boat building.  I ended up paying £36 for the wood which I didn't think was too bad.  

The other purchase was three in one paint stripping tool which just about gets into the curvy bits of the boat. Told you it was nothing exciting! 

Wings

Despite being away from Twelves for a while I’ve kept an eye on what’s been going on in the class and found the adoption of foiling rudders a really interesting development.   Historically, resistance to developments has either centred on preserving the Classes appeal as sea boats that can are sailed on restricted water or on maintaining the boats as an attainable challenge.  Daggerboards and fully battened sails are the most obvious examples that spring to mind.  Whilst both would almost certainly result in faster boats it has been argued that both are less suited to puddles and rivers.  The class has always been fairly cautious, at least in the last 30 years, allowing any developments that effectively outclass the existing fleet to quickly or eroded its club racer appeal.  Yet both of those historical defences appear to have been put aside or forgotten in the case of wings.  It strikes me that the very arguments used against daggerboards and battened mains actually have more weight than in the case of wings.  Both boards and battens could be easily retro fitted either by boxing in a centreboard case or through buying a new set of rags.  Whereas wings require an new foil and stock and modifications to transoms etc etc.  I have no idea what a professional retrofit would set you back but I suspect is would be well over a £1000.  Still there’s little point of bemoaning the fact that things have changed and the fact I’d have rather seen developments that make building easier rather than more complex. There’s now a critical mass of DCBs and Paradigms with wings it’s probably a development that will continue regardless of its impact.     

LP at Newquay Wales in 2005

I’ve only had a little bit of experience with wings in the Cherub class and they are a very different boat and have approached wings/foils in a different way.  It was at the 2005 nationals where I first saw real demonstrable evidence wings were faster even in relatively light conditions.  During the early part of the week Loco Perro (a Big Issue to N12 fans) was just faster than the Patterson 7 without a foil.  This was particularly obvious upwind in sub planing conditions where we came back from some terrible starts to be either first or second round the top mark.  Then midweek and overnight Mr Bloodaxe Patterson revealed his foiling secret. The next day, in the same conditions, he pasted us.  More annoyingly, from a personal point of view, he won the cherub champs with us just a couple of points behind in an N12 on steroids.  

I’ve also seen the advantages pulling on the foil on a Slug design and going from about 7kts to about 11knts (according to GPS) and standing well back on the racks - A very odd but very cool feeling.  So despite my reservations, the little I know will be translated into a home built retro-fitted wing arrangement for Silent Running.   I’ve got some ideas about how this little development will work and once I find a way of getting my brain to translate them into pictures I will post them here! 

Introducing

I’ve had a unhealthy interest in the National 12 class ever since I saw the front cover of the December 1990 edition of Yachts and Yachting.  I can still remember the picture of 3162 flat out at the Llandudno nationals. At the time I thought that was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen and in my memory at least it’s one of the best images of sailing I’ve seen. I wish I could find it.

Although I’ve not been an active member of the class for a while, their website has always been one of the first to be scanned for new stuff every lunchtime and their stand one of the first to be visited at the Dinghy show. 23 years on, I’ve just acquired N3252 (Silent Running) for £50 from Owen who sailed her at Twickenham. Unfortunately there is a reason for the low price and these pictures probably sum it up quite well. 

Poor SR had a close encounter of the Hayling Bar kind at the 2012 champs.  The mast jumped off the step and went through the hull leaving rather nasty little hole.  In the process the mast step/hog  has also been damaged and will repairing again. The front bulkhead was also dinged. Oh and the mast is now in three pieces and the main ripped.
Owen's insurers concluded it was a write off and Silent Running became my restoration project and this Blog is my record of the process.

It starts with these simple objectives. 

• Make Silent Running seaworthy again
• Try to reverse the signs of ageing a little and keep her pretty looking
• Spend as little cash as practical
• At the same time as making her as competitive as possible
• Have fun 

Achieving the first objective could be relatively simple but it’s the other three that I think will prove the most challenging but the most fun of the coming months (possibly years).