Bamboo batten blues – again

Today the bamboo for the battens finally arrived. But they are too thin. Obviously there was some misunderstanding in how to measure the diameter.

So we got 26 canes. 5,4 meters long. (That means about a third of the batten will be overlapped and seized in the middle.) At the thick end they were 40-45 mm while we were aiming for 80 mm at the top and 60 mm at the bottom of the sail. The thin end was 20-25 mm.

The good thing is that we have more than twice as many canes as we need. So we should be able to use battens on both sides of the sail. This will give a slightly heavier sail than to use a thicker batten on the mast side and just something thin to lash on on the other side. Two 40 mm battens are also not as strong as one 80 mm. So I am pretty sure they will bend too much and possibly break in any heavy wind. But we will know more about that when we have tried it. The battens were also different. Some where thicker at both ends, so we will put them at the top.

This is what the battens looked like:

We also brought the sail aboard so we can lash it all together tomorrow and cut the rest of the running rigging, like lazy jacks, sheets, sheetlets and downhaul. I added a mast lift even though it isn’t in Tom’s plans, to help the lazy jacks hold the sail up at the forward end. It also gives an extra line up the mast, that might be handy to have.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow!

Sail is finished

A longsplice by my father in the bolt rope finished the sail. Now it is just the battens…

Stop the presses – bamboo is in Sweden!

According to the latest info, the bamboo might arrive at Stockholm tomorrow. Then we might be able to finish the rigging.

2 m/h roping

My mother can rope a sail at 2 meters/hour. Look!

This corner is nine layers of 11 American oz Top Gun polyester cloth. Roping really adds a nice look to a junk sail. Some people like to save time by sewing on webbing or just reinforce with a rolled tabling.

Waiting for the bamboo

The bamboo won’t arrive until next week. So now we work on other stuff. After a couple of rides with our about 20 years old bosuns chair we had to get something new. So I bought a climbing harness a bit extra padded from a rock climbing shop. I also found an emergency break that can ride a second line. Everything works great, I could hoist myself up quite easy. And the lower attachment point of the climbing harness is great for working at the mast top. (Where else would you want to work on a junk mast?) Here is Ricard getting ready to be hoisted. We had to fix the lead for the halyard so it won’t chafe at the mast and create friction.

Meanwhile my mother is sewing on the boltrope and my father drives to the chandlers to find some line and fasteners.

Here is a picture of the mast at the galley. Looks quite good if you ask me. I had to discourage some people who wanted to hug it, because we had just had some extra oil on it. Maybe next time Mårten!

Big Mastday!

So at last we could raise the mast. Thank you Ricard for all the seizings etc.

First we moved the heavy thing to the mast crane.

Then we moved the boat.
We just had to take a trip under engine. Here is Ricard at the tiller. I must say that this boat is much easier to maneuver than our last boat, even though the propeller is offset. When in reverse I didn’t find any prop walk whatsoever and it started turning quite fast for a boat with this kind of keel.

A bit nervous at the mast crane.

I climbed up to untie the sling.

And we are up!

And back to the jetty.

Largest fid in the world

Grommet day.

Today we made some grommets for the mast head to attach all those lines in, like halyard, and lazy jacks. To do this we made grommets with thimbles to attach the blocks in.

First, a grommet.

Then it is served.

To form it we used the largest fid in the world! The mast:

Almost finished:

Just need some more stretching before the final seizing goes in place. Then some tar on the grommet to protect the wood and guck together the serving.

Want to know a secret? Tomorrow Ricard will come help us raise the mast. Let’s see what happens.

Progress

Great progress today. Most of the grommets in the sail are done (only one batten left) and we shaped a tree into a yard.

A picture of my try at double spar taper by eye ball:

It is supposed to be thinner at the ends and fat at the middle. And it is also supposed to have all the taper at the top. (Otherwise the straight edge of the sail will be baggy, and we can’t let that happen to a junk sail can we?) But I agree the spars aren’t perfectly straight. I suppose we are one of those boats giving junk rigs a bad reputation. Like my grandfather said when I told him we were going to rig our boat with a junk rig: “Poor bastards.” But he meant the Chinese junks he met when he was a sailor.

And some pics of the sail with grommets:

Tomorrow we will try some handsewn rings at the nock and peak.

Line for the junk rig – and the sailmakers secret weapon

Some things they say about the junk rig are true. It has a great appetite for line. I live in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, a city of about one million people and one million boats. And the chandlers didn’t have enough line in stock and had to order it.

So how much line do you think Linnea needs for the one sail? Including running rigging and the bolt rope around the sail.

Is it:

A. Less than 100 meters?

B. Between 100 and 200 meters?

C. More than 300 meters?

Now the picture of the sailmakers secret weapon:

A stapler! We finished all the machine sewing on the sail tonight thanks to the stapler. It was perfect for temporary attaching the corner patches and tablings before sewing. The thing is, no double sided tape works on our “sail cloth”, which is called Top Gun and is actually a really strong vinyl coated polyester fabric. So tomorrow we will try to fit all the grommets. The boltrope will have to wait until we get the line though.

Grommets by the gross

No, don’t read the headline as proof of my love for alliterations. We just ordered three gross of #3 spur grommets. I like to think that the sail is finished. But as you can see, I am an optimist when it comes to adding the last touch. Like three gross of grommets. Hopefully attaching them to the sail will go really quick!