March 2021

IMG 4776 almost finished March was a very busy month on the boat.

With some help from Kirsty, I reinstalled the rubrails, adding a seam of caulking to stop them squeaking against the hull if flexed.

Most of the hardware has been installed: sheet blocks, fairleads, centreboard uphaul and downhaul, and sheets and other lines cut to size.

The pintles and gudgeons for the rudder have been installed and final coats of epoxy applied to the rudder. Whilst this was being done I also shaped and glued the pieces for the tiller, and temporarily installed the hardware for the rudder uphaul and downhaul and the tiller extension. These were then removed, the tiller and extension given a final sand, and then coated with Deks Olje.

The forward hatch has been fitted, using shock cord to hold it down. I used this method on Kirsty Ann, and was happy to use it again.

I spent a weekend working on the end connectors for the wishbone booms, laminating them from multiple layers of 6mm plywood. Once the connecting pieces had been glued, they were fitted to the booms. The forward connecters were glued in place, and the rear connectors were glued to one boom. I've fitted a pin through the rear of the other boom, to allow me to open the boom to slip them around the masts, and then lock them in place. I've sewn webbing straps to fit around the masts, for the beckett blocks, and have fitted another block to the front boom connectors. The snotter line feeds through these blocks, and forms a 2:1 tensioner to hold the booms in place. Another hole has been driled through the aft boom connectors, and lines passed through these, to hold an S hook to clip on to the clew of each sail, and the blocks for the sheets. Once I had everything fitted, it was all removed, and the connectors sanded down to the same profile as the booms. The booms were given a final sand and then everything was coated in Deks Olje.

The snotter for the main sail is led back through some blocks and fairleads, to a clam-cleat at a point that is readily at hand for the helm. The snotter for the mizzen runs through a clam-cleat that is fixed to the mast. Downhauls for both masts run through S hooks at the tack, and are connected to the thwart or breasthook. Apart from tensioning the sails, this will also keep the masts in place in the event of a capsize.

Amelia gave me a name plate for the boat at Christmas, and I have now made a wooden panel to fit the name plate onto, and have fitted this to the reinforcing timber for the rudder, using it as a way to hide the bolts for the upper gudgeon. The name? I have called our Lapwing Pitthirrit, the name for a Masked Lapwing in the Dhauwurd Wurrung language of the people of Gunditjmara country (the area around Warrnambool, Victoria). Given the changes I've made to the deck layout I thought that it was an appropriate name. Pitthirrit is pronounced Pitirit. You can see an animation of the Gunditjmara Dreaming Story of Pitthirrit on Vimeo (it was previously on the Monash University Indigenous Studies Centre website).

The hardware for the centreboard has been installed. After this photo, I laid out he blocks and fairleads for the sheets and checked to see if the sheets would come easily to hand from the helm. If I am sailing solo I want everything available immediately. If two of us are sailing then the main sheet will be left slack, and handled by holding it between the blocks.

The hatches don't sit flat until the shock cords are stretched over the screws below the hatch. These screws go through the ply into a block glued to the inside the bulkhead.

Gluing up the rudder stock of our B&B Yacht Designs Lapwing 16,

A quick wipe to remove some of the dust on our B&B Yacht Designs Lapwing 16,

The mast steps were cut from several layers of 6mm plywood on a scrollsaw. They were then laminated to achieve the required depth.

Gluing the removable section of the main mast partner. The top section was screwed in place while the glue dried, and then these screws removed and replaced with Silicon Bronze screws.

The mast steps were temporarily screwed in place and the masts were raised, to check that the steps were in the right place.

As I built birdsmouth masts for this Lapwing 16, the masts were somewhat larger than they would have been if the masts were aluminium. So, I added additional timber strips to both sides of the main and reefing steps, and to the side of the step away from the centreboard case, and wrapped them with strips of fibreglass tape for additional reinforcement.

installing the uphaul and downhaul for the centreboard on our Lapwing 16. Laminated pieces of the incomplete wishbone booms can also be seen.

The mizzen mast step installed, with an additional fillet of thickened epoxy in front and behind the step. You can also see the edge of the fibreglass tape running around the edge of the step.

Mast step for the reefing mast in our Lapwing 16.

Mast step for the main mast in our Lapwing 16. Each step has a small drain hold cut into the bottom edge,

Main mast partner installed. The eye bolts lock the partners in place, and will also act as tie-down points for the sail tensioner, and will hold down the masts in their crutch while the boat is on the trailer

Because the trailer is quite narrow, I can't stand on the mudguards to get into the boat. A ladder or a milk crate will have to come with us to each launch.

The connectors for the wishbone booms were laminated from several layers of plywood. I made a cardboard template for the pieces that fitted inside the booms and formed the cap at the end of each boom. Once these had been cut and glued I then cut the pieces that covered both the internal section of the connector and the ends of each boom. These were then glued together.

I had to increase the height of the winch on the trailer. A trip to the local hardware store found a piece of galvanised section that was the right dimensions.

The wishbones are glued together at the nose, and on one side at the tail. The other side of the tail has a bold holding that half of the boom in place. This lets me place the boom around the mast after the mast has been raised. Rather than coating everything in epoxy, I applied several layers of Deks Olje to the booms. The main benefit of this is that I can give them a light sand and add more coats to bring them back to a good finish very quickly,

Hardware for the sheets in place, and the mast crutches cut and fitted.

The mast crutches look more like bird feeders than anything else. They are made out of the ends of the masts. The offcut from the main mast was too short, but a piece cut from the end of the mizzen offcut was added to it, and joined with an internal plug.

The wishbones nest perfectly!

150 litres of bouyancy, in the form of milk bottles, with the lids glued in place. At the end or a run of epoxy, I would use up the last of it to seal another batch of bottles. The internal spaces swallowed all of these, and could have taken a lot more as well, and there was still room to store all of our safety gear, towels, fenders, ropes, paddles, anchors, etc.

I called our Lapwing Pitthirrit, a Masked Lapwing in the Dhauwurd Wurrung language of the people of Gunditjmara country (the area around Warrnambool, Victoria). Given the changes I've made to the deck layout I thought that it was an appropriate name. Pitthirrit is pronounced Pitirit.

Amelia gave me the name plate as a Christmas present. It was a little bit too big to sit on the reinforcing timber for the rudder, so I made up a piece that fitted over it, and also hid the bolts for the upper gudgeon.

Ready to get onto the water, finally!

The tiller and tiller extension were made of strips of Oregon, offcuts from trimming the strakes used to make the masts. On this boat I've included a rudder uphaul as well as a downhaul. I didn't add an uphaul to our CS17, and often through that I should have.
One of our bailers is made from a laundry detergent bottle. They say that nobody can bail like someone who is terrified, so I've made sure that there will be a bailer for everybody on board :-)

Our B&B Yacht Designs Lapwing 16: Pitthirrit

March 2021