Sunday, January 09, 2011

Here's the box completed. The picture on the left shows the completed box closed, and the one on the right shows the box packed with all the loose parts of the dinghy. When the dinghy is converted from sailing to rowing, the rudder and rigging will be removed and need a place to be stored. Also, when the dinghy is stored all the loose parts are better kept indoors, and a single box for everything will keep things tidy.

The box is not finished at all. At the moment it is still all bare plywood, quite ugly looking because it was scrap plywood, but I needed it in a hurry. I will probably paint the box a bright white, the same colour as the the dinghy.

With so many loose parts that might get mislaid and lost, I decided to build a box to keep it all together and safe. It's a surprisingly large box, because the daggerboard fits in it. In the picture I have all the parts I've completed in the box, to show how it will work.

The dismountable tiller comes in very useful here. It would not fit if was of the original design

Saturday, January 08, 2011

I have now completed the rudder box. This will be the final version ... no major screw-ups so far. It still needs finishing and assembling, to be followed by installation.

Monday, January 03, 2011

While the rudder box is in the clamp, I'm learning to make saddles. These ones are not quite right, but I will make five more that look something similar. They will take their places for different jobs on the rigging.

  • One the end of the boom for the sail outhaul.
  • One on benind the midships seat, for hanging one of the blocks for the mainsheet.
  • Two for the boom vang, or kicking strap, that pulls the boom down. One goes on the bottom of the boom, the other one on the mast.
  • One on the mast collar on the bow seat for the mast holddown.

The new rudder box parts. In the middle is the oaken tiller, separating the two halves of the rudder box, with their battens glued and screwed.

Saturday, January 01, 2011

I've cut the parts for the new rudder box. It's all oak and beautiful birch aviation-grade plywood. This rudder might yet become a thing of beauty.

It seems that I'm going to build a third version of the rudder box. It is pretty certain that the plywood I used for this version is not marine (i.e. waterproof) plywood, so it will rapidly disintegrate when it gets wet.

Now that I know how to build the rudder box I'm getting more daring, and I'm planning to make a different tiller. In the picture I show a trial tiller made of soft pine. I think it's quite pretty.