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Published On: Jun 26, 2004 09:47 AM

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Thu - April 1, 2004

The Main Hull

Changes we have made from experience to make the
main hull stronger and longer lasting.

We built our first Bolger Windsprint in 1995 at
the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a display
for the public as they walked the wharfs on sunny lunch hours. It is still
racing at Mahone Bay. The second one was built by Annie to compete by
herself in the races. Both these hulls were built with construction grade
ply and to the plans (other then the first was decked)

Windsprints race at
Mahone Bay 2003. Loon has the tanbark sail, lower left
corner

What we found in racing
conditions, hard pressed for extended times, was that the dagger board
should be thicker then half inch (Loon is five eighths but three quarter
would work too) and the bottom is too thin at quarter inch. Loon has been
built with a three eighths bottom, but half inch would work well also.
Decks are curved (flat would be fine too) and have traditional beams of
oak under them and they are 6mm ply.

Loon has also been built with very good marine mahogany
ply, and I really think this is the best cost efficient way to go. This
boat will last and was only about $800.00 Canadian (main hull only) to
build as opposed to $600.00 using cheaper woods.

Loon is decked fore and aft with water tight bulkheads
(quarter inch/6 mm) and these stiffen her as well. They are placed at the
points (roughly) that the akas cross the hull. This makes her heavier, but
no slower (racing with undecked, lighter windsprints, she does the same
speeds) as she is over canvassed by todays standards anyway. The hull can
be picked up by two people once apart and loaded on a trailer. The akas,
amas and mast/sail pile on top.

Over
the years we have pretty much stopped building with epoxy for various
reasons. Loon is completely epoxy free. Bolger's plans allow you to use
screws and glues so we have built her the "old fashioned" way. The glue
comes from a tube," Lepages PL Premium " and it is water proof
construction adhesive that is $3.00 per tube and has never failed us. We
even used it for the butt joints on the plywood. Screws are stainless,
countersunk, PL'ed over, faired and left in.

Loon at her dock. You
can see the temporary gang plank until we get the trampolines on. Photo:
Rob Short

Loon on the beach.
Photo: Ryerson

Posted at 09:41 AM

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Mon - April 26, 2004

Akas, Amas and Fastenings

The akas (cross pieces/bars) are very simple. I
just picked over a dry pile of 2x4 spruce studs 12 feet long. Got two very
straight ones with nice quarter sawn grain and few knots, shaped the top
edges a bit to thin them near their ends, leaving them full size where
they cross the main hull (down to 2x2.5). More on this with pictures
later.

The amas (hulls/pontoons) are
6mm cheap ply. This was all an experiment so I put little money into this
conversion (akas, amas and glue cost $60.00 CDN). Everything worked so
well that I won't change these parts until I have too. When I need to
build new amas, I'll use 4mm mahogany ply, plenty strong. As it is, the
6mm ply amas are very light and work well. I did fill the end thirds on
both amas with foam (the spray closed cell type from a can) but it really
isn't needed. The center sections had no access last year but this season
I'll cut small inspection hatches with water tight covers. Nothing should
be stored out here.

These hulls were
extremely simple to construct and install. The main thing you must be sure
of is proper alignment. To do this simply measure from each end of the ama
at it's center, to the center line of the main hull, mark and install by
the method I use, or one of your own.

We lash our akas to the main hull. To do this we drilled
holes (ISee the pictures below, worth a thousand words) in the main hull
under the sheer/rub rails. We then simply rove the lines through these and
over the akas pulling them in tight to the main hull. The lines we use are
6mm super low stretch, so they only need adjusting a few times for the
whole season, or when we take it apart for trailering. For last season, we
bolted the amas to the akas. This was ok, but we will experiment with
lashing here as well, less fuss.

These
next photos show the main hull, aka and amas as drilled and ready for
lashings.

Posted at 03:49 PM

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