Check out the website of the Irish OK DInghy Association
http://iokda.wordpress.com/
Hopefully it will develop quickly over the coming months!
Trevor
IRL11
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Where we are now.....
So - its the end of a long summer - I had great aspirations to get the boat finished by now, but I am still at the 'pile of plywood' stage. I will start getting pics up in the next week or so and that will keep the pressure on me!
It has been a great summer, I did a (very small) bit of racing in an RS200, sailed the Wayfarer (which I have now sold) and bought an older wooden wayfarer - I seem to have a thing for wooden boats, I just need to be a hell of a lot quicker at building them.
Tio be honest, work has been a bit hectic and has taken up a lot of my time. Hopefully winter will be a bit easier and more straightforward.
I will post at least once a week from now on!!!
It has been a great summer, I did a (very small) bit of racing in an RS200, sailed the Wayfarer (which I have now sold) and bought an older wooden wayfarer - I seem to have a thing for wooden boats, I just need to be a hell of a lot quicker at building them.
Tio be honest, work has been a bit hectic and has taken up a lot of my time. Hopefully winter will be a bit easier and more straightforward.
I will post at least once a week from now on!!!
Monday, 5 September 2011
Back to the build......
So, after a very long busy summer (and a little bit of Wayfarer racing!) it is back to the build. Thre target is to get the boat on the water next spring.
I recently got my sail from Speed (great service from Jim Hunt) and will be getting my mast this month from Aardvark (again, great help from Terry Cooke). Mast bend numbers and suchlike are all new to me - they are not something spoken of in Wayfarer circles!
I recently got my sail from Speed (great service from Jim Hunt) and will be getting my mast this month from Aardvark (again, great help from Terry Cooke). Mast bend numbers and suchlike are all new to me - they are not something spoken of in Wayfarer circles!
Monday, 7 March 2011
Inspiration and thoughts......
Have a look at http://www.ok.yachting.org.au/?Page=52418 - they have produced a great looking boat from a kit, using different techiniques to those outlined in the plans.
The folks there have produced what looks like a very stiff structure, a lot of work has obviously been done to produce the kit, and then put the kit together to form the boat. I certainly look forward to seeing pics of the finished boat.
......any, I will blatter on with my bulkheads and frames!
I had been wondering about overall stiffness of the hull, and how this could be increased with plywood webs, or beams, without increasing the weight substantially. I will leave wondering about this until I need to..............more important now to get the bulkheads set up!
The folks there have produced what looks like a very stiff structure, a lot of work has obviously been done to produce the kit, and then put the kit together to form the boat. I certainly look forward to seeing pics of the finished boat.
......any, I will blatter on with my bulkheads and frames!
I had been wondering about overall stiffness of the hull, and how this could be increased with plywood webs, or beams, without increasing the weight substantially. I will leave wondering about this until I need to..............more important now to get the bulkheads set up!
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
The first step........
I have started marking out and cutting the bulkheads- all will be cut from 6mm ply. I am pretty busy at work at the moment, so probably wont get much more than the bulkheads cut in the next two weeks. If I am lucky, I may get some of the frames cut, which are going to be western red cedar. The frames add thickness to the plywood bulkheads, giving a much greater surface area for the side and bottom panels to be epoxied to.
The boat is a pretty simple shape - quite boxy, and has a transom, plus three bulkheads, which add to the structural strength of the hull and act as a building mould to attach the hog, chines and inwales to. The cockpit is relatively small and the boat is only 4 metres long, with bulkheads 800, 1800 and 2800mm from the transom. The cockpit is between the first two bulkheads and is only 1 metre long. This type of construction does give a lot of built in bouyancy, in two large sections - between the transom and bulkhead 1, then between bulkheads 2 and 3 (the space in front of the forward bulkhead is not actually a bouyancy tank, as it is not completely sealed, and contains the mast step).
Deciding on the shape of the bulkheads is one othe most important decisions, as the hull shape is dependant to a large degree on what I decide here.
............measure twice before cutting - I must remember that!
The boat is a pretty simple shape - quite boxy, and has a transom, plus three bulkheads, which add to the structural strength of the hull and act as a building mould to attach the hog, chines and inwales to. The cockpit is relatively small and the boat is only 4 metres long, with bulkheads 800, 1800 and 2800mm from the transom. The cockpit is between the first two bulkheads and is only 1 metre long. This type of construction does give a lot of built in bouyancy, in two large sections - between the transom and bulkhead 1, then between bulkheads 2 and 3 (the space in front of the forward bulkhead is not actually a bouyancy tank, as it is not completely sealed, and contains the mast step).
Deciding on the shape of the bulkheads is one othe most important decisions, as the hull shape is dependant to a large degree on what I decide here.
............measure twice before cutting - I must remember that!
Friday, 25 February 2011
Getting Started
So, the first thing to do is do get the framing set up. Lots of thoughts about boat shapes, curvature in the panels, amount of rocker etc etc. I am not going to push the boat out, so to speak, on my first OK Dinghy, but will tend towards a shape I have in my mind........ What is this shape?
Well, as little rocker as possible, straighten the chines as much as possible (without going to the limits of tolerances). I will try to lower the chine towards the bow and add curvature to the bottom panels (but not to the max!). There is a great article on 'Completely OK' which discusses hull shapes, and I have had some great advice from folks in Australia who have recently built wooden boats.
To be honest, hull shape will never make any difference to my sailing, as know I will not put in the time on the water to ensure that I always get a good start, out to the right side of the beat, get all the shifts right and generally sail the boat properly! It will be much more important that I have a sound boat, that measures!!!
Putting curvature in the panels is a 'free' way of adding stiffness to the hull, as curved plywood panels are way stiffer than flat, straight panels.
Framing will all be red cedar, which is very light, and chines, stringers, deck beams etc will be obeche, again light.
Bottom panels, bulkheads and centreboard case sides will be 6mm ply, top panels will be 5mm ply and the decks will be 4mm sapele ply (which looks fantastic).
Epoxy will be used for all bonding and the boat will be coated in epoxy too.
I have not yet thought about things like side deck shape, mast material or deck layout. Unlike other classes I have sailed, there is some flexibility in these areas. I will be going for overdeck controls though - too messy, complicated, expensive and 'retro' to go for through deck controls.
I am sure nobody is interested in a picture of some sheets of plywood and planks, but as soon as the frames start going up, so will the pictures!!!
Well, as little rocker as possible, straighten the chines as much as possible (without going to the limits of tolerances). I will try to lower the chine towards the bow and add curvature to the bottom panels (but not to the max!). There is a great article on 'Completely OK' which discusses hull shapes, and I have had some great advice from folks in Australia who have recently built wooden boats.
To be honest, hull shape will never make any difference to my sailing, as know I will not put in the time on the water to ensure that I always get a good start, out to the right side of the beat, get all the shifts right and generally sail the boat properly! It will be much more important that I have a sound boat, that measures!!!
Putting curvature in the panels is a 'free' way of adding stiffness to the hull, as curved plywood panels are way stiffer than flat, straight panels.
Framing will all be red cedar, which is very light, and chines, stringers, deck beams etc will be obeche, again light.
Bottom panels, bulkheads and centreboard case sides will be 6mm ply, top panels will be 5mm ply and the decks will be 4mm sapele ply (which looks fantastic).
Epoxy will be used for all bonding and the boat will be coated in epoxy too.
I have not yet thought about things like side deck shape, mast material or deck layout. Unlike other classes I have sailed, there is some flexibility in these areas. I will be going for overdeck controls though - too messy, complicated, expensive and 'retro' to go for through deck controls.
I am sure nobody is interested in a picture of some sheets of plywood and planks, but as soon as the frames start going up, so will the pictures!!!
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Plywood, cedar, obeche et al...........
Thanks to Alastair Duffin, who probably makes some of the best, most competitive and certainly the most beautiful GP 14s going, for all the help and advice about plywood, and wood in general......
Hopefully it will all pay off.
Hopefully it will all pay off.
The Background..........
Once upon a time, I used to do quite a lot of sailing in Greystones SC, about 20 miles south of Dublin, on the Irish east coast. I raced Enterprises, Lasers, Laser 2s (showing my age now!) and occassionally stood on the foredeck on J24s.
I built Enterprises (http://www.sailenterprise.org.uk/), a double chined wooden dinghy in he past, stopped sailing for over 15 years and am now back sailing in East Down YC, about 20 miles south of Belfast.
I sail a 'Wayfarer' dinghy (http://www.wayfarer.org.uk/), big and heavy, but have always wanted to build a dinghy to sail again............and decided on the OK Dinghy.
I have had great advice from a few people, especially on the far side of the world, a special thanks to Colin Lynch for all advice so far.........
Well, here goes...................back into the world of building.
I will keep this blog up to date with my thoughts, wonderings and decisions, as well as photos of the build progress. If all goes well, I will be sailing a new OK Dinghy this summer (famous last words.......)
I built Enterprises (http://www.sailenterprise.org.uk/), a double chined wooden dinghy in he past, stopped sailing for over 15 years and am now back sailing in East Down YC, about 20 miles south of Belfast.
I sail a 'Wayfarer' dinghy (http://www.wayfarer.org.uk/), big and heavy, but have always wanted to build a dinghy to sail again............and decided on the OK Dinghy.
I have had great advice from a few people, especially on the far side of the world, a special thanks to Colin Lynch for all advice so far.........
Well, here goes...................back into the world of building.
I will keep this blog up to date with my thoughts, wonderings and decisions, as well as photos of the build progress. If all goes well, I will be sailing a new OK Dinghy this summer (famous last words.......)
The plan................
Sometime before Christmas, I had a fit of the headstaggers and decided to I needed to build a dinghy again. For some reason, I decided on an OK Dinghy (check out http://www.okdinghy.co.uk/ and http://www.okdia.org/ for more information).
This blog will follow the progress of turning a pile of plywood sheets and some planks, into a small sailing dinghy.
Follow this blog to check out the progress and please feel free to comment.
Trevor
This blog will follow the progress of turning a pile of plywood sheets and some planks, into a small sailing dinghy.
Follow this blog to check out the progress and please feel free to comment.
Trevor
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