and the spacing of the holes will be different too..... I'm sure I've seen something at work that is small and has the same sort of slider arrangement - I'll keep my eyes open as I can't quite place it right now. Ray
Hello nautibuoy, Are these what you have been looking for ???. I saw one in the tool box and thought, they are just what I need !. But, they are not correct for the job, too strong/heavy and the wrong shape. The radius on the sides is too big, I need more clearance UNDER the slider than these can provide. Not very far from perfect though !!!!. I am making some cut from Square Brass Tubing, which slides on a Strip of Brass, and they are looking very good, but a lot of VERY small work to make. BUT, they look SCALE !!!. John. www.john-dowd.co.uk
Hello John, no those are not what I was thinking of, though funnily enough I'm about to finish the wiring of my vacuum pump and I'm one spade connector short! I'm convinced that I've seen a small sliding arrangement somewhere in work that was like a small version of those craft knives where you slide out and snap of a blunted section of the blade. I had a look in what I thought was the most likely place on Friday but no joy and not enough time. Ray
Thought the J builders may appreciate a few pics I took on Endeavour around two months ago while on a sail shake down on Auckland Harbour. Dreamwakes
Hello Dreamwakes, Is the Endeavour still "down the road" from you?. I am sure the Forum members would love to see any photos you have of her, I know that I would. Feel free to post away !!!. John.
John, as work has been very busy and hobby time has been only in short slots I've been spending it on my near-scale Rainbow J boat, mainly working on the deck. I've also been thinking on the rig; I've already constructed a mast with a 'groovy' type slot in the back and thought I would get my mum working on sewing the sails. Do you have any pictures/diagrams of the sliders used? I'm not sure whether to cheat and simply use a bolt rope or use a slider arrangement and I guess that in the absence of any decent information it'll have to be the cheat option. BTW, apologies but I never did come across that slider again. Ray
Friend John, Where did you get th' lines to build a J-Class hull? I've searched all over th' Net and can't find a thing.
Someone else might give you links but just do a couple of searches on this RC sailing discussion group. The best info as I remember it is found by searching "mariquita" or just going to that thread, which shows up in the list when you search "enterprise". Plans are to wrong scale maybe, but that is not hard to remedy, I would not think.
Hello Roaddog, As stated earlier in this thread, the Hull is an old 10 rater one, very near to scale above the water line, but not below. It has a wide fin keel and a ballast bulb. A "true" J Class model sails with far too much heel, their keels are only 2 inches deeper than true scale. But, the real J Class boats sailed with the deck almost awash. The Helmsman often got his feet wet !!. John.
Hello, After many months of hard work, yesterday Endeavour sailed again!. A new plywood deck has been fitted and planked. Cabins, new sails and a scale colour paint job has been done. The test sail lasted about 2 hours, because the boat sailed perfectly!!. I am really pleased, the work was well worth it !. John.
Good evening, The boom & deck really do complete the scale effect - she looks absolutely fabulous! I can't tell from your photos, but does the forward headsail (yankee) overlap the inner? If so, what sort of sheeting system have you used & how many winches? Please excuse the questions, but I'm currently working (very slowly!) on Claudio's re-drawn & modified Enterprise (got the first few planks on either side). As I said, it's very slow going - it's nearly 30 years since I last planked a model yacht hull - but I definately want it finished by next summer as the full size J's will be racing off Falmouth in Cornwall. Wonder if they'll accept a late entry......!! Once again, congratulations on your Endeavour, she really looks the part. Row
Hello Row, Yes the outer sail, the Quad, does overlap the Jib by about one inch, The sheets for it run through small rings fastened to the front of the Jib. Still working on the sheeting for the Quad, they "should" run down and well aft, but that causes many problems with the Mainsail. Models have no Crew!!. All sails at the moment are set on Bowsies. The Main will be run on a RMG winch. The Quad and the Jib on a big lever arm winch. This is because of the size differences of the three sails. The RMG is plenty strong enough to handle all three, but it would mean a lot of pulleys and such, and a lot of potential snags while sailing!. The lever arm winch is sitting here doing nothing - - so, its going sailing!. John. www.john-dowd.co.uk
John, Many thanks for the info - I hadn't initially realised that you'd gone 'the whole nine yards' and included a quad aswell. Very impressive stuff. I would be interested to see how you resolve the quad sheeting arrangement, even though I don't think Enterprise would have sported double clewed headsails - I seem to recall that Endeavour was the first to fly such sails although by the time she reached the US, Rainbow was also sporting a similar set up. Once again, many thanks & congratulations on the outcome of 'Endeavour'. Row
Hello, Removed the Bowsies which were setting the sails during the test sailings and fitted the two winches. The Quad and the Jib are controlled by a Hitec lever arm winch, a 815 BB. The main is controlled by a RMG 380EH winch. The Rudder servo is a 1/4 scale Futaba one. Power is supplied by a 6 volt 4Ah Nicad. Just waiting for the weather to clear up, very wet and windy at the moment ! John.
Hello, The weather today was very good, so out with the boat and off sailing. The two winches were used for the first time, a bit nervous about the first trip. No need to have worried!, all was OK, just a few adjustments and the boat sailed very, very well. Really pleased with how things have worked out. Bring on the Summer weather, lets get some SAILING done !. John.
John, Winch installations look great - how do you seal the deck hatch? Also, from your labelling it looks as though the sheet pull on the quad is around half that of the jib - I would have thought it would of been the other way around considering the overlap of the quad, or have you installed a block system that I can't see? One last question (honest!!), do you have any photos / diagrams of the headsail sheeting arrangements ? I'd be really interested to sea them, although I'm still a fair way off needing them - the Enterprise hull is now fully planked & mainly sanded, so I'll be starting the glass work soon. At the moment I'm struggling to find a local fibre glass twill supplier who does less than 280 g/m2, which is kind of overkill. May have to resort to mail order which seems ridiculous considering the number composite moulders/suppliers in Cornwall. Anyway, congratulations with your Endeavour & here's to many an enjoyable day on the water! Regards, Row
Hello Row, The Hatch is just a very close fit, no sealing at all. There is a small lip around the top edge which could be sealed with silicon sealant, but no water has got in at all. The "Boom" end of the Jib is twice as wide as the same end of the Quad, so the sheeting is correct - - no pulleys!. The headsails are just metal hooks at the correct length, all is tensioned by the back stay onto the hull. Have you seen how I made the hull for Bluenose, on my website?, real quick and lazy way of doing it !!. John. www.john-dowd.co.uk
Hello Twister, I decided to seal the deck hatch, got tiny amounts of water had got in the boat, and that was sailing in very light winds!!. The hatch has a small lip around the top, only a few millimetres wide at most, this lip was coated with "Vaseline", making very sure that all of the lip was coated. The opposite lip on the hull was smeared with silicon sealant, keeping the planking and the sides of the hatch opening clean. The deck hatch was carefully and firmly placed in position and the sealant left to dry. A rather worrying time!, IF the sealant glued the hatch in place, I had no way to remove it, other than a lot of Force!. A couple of hours later, I pulled at the hatch - - - and out it came !!. Trimmed the sealant with a very sharp blade to straighten things up, I now have a nice line of sealant all round the hatch opening in the hull. The Ointment, "Vaseline", acts as a release agent with silicon sealant, I have used it before, but not on something so important to me !. Test this on something before trying it on "important bits" !. John.
Evening John, Many thanks for the hatch sealing tip - I don't know why it hadn't occured to me before. I remember several years ago fitting a new kitchen for my better half and somewhere along the line she'd aquired a very old belfast sink (apparently it added to the rustic charm!). The bottom of the sink was covered in scratches and chips, far too deep for the supplied rubber gasket with the waste kit, so I did a similar thing to your deck gasket which also resulted in no leaks. I remember from my 'big boat' sailing & maintenence days that polyurethane sealants tended to be reasonably effective adhesives whereas the silicon based ones were not recommended where adhesion was required aswell. As a suggestion for the future, if you ever need to replace the deck hatch gasket, instead of using vaseline as the 'release agent' what about wrapping the hatch with a thin piece of polythene (supermarket carrier bag) or perhaps cling film? I think I'd be inclined to experiment first !! By the way, I'm sure it's a boat ownership thing, but I find it amusing that anything 'non-boaty' that needs repair/modification and any old thing lying around will do. If it's for the pride & joy, care, attention to detail and huge worry are always the order of the day! Anyway, many thanks for the info, and fingers crossed that the only thing you'll need to worry about is cobwebs in the bilges!! Regards, Row