Hi magentawave
Boat 1st launched 2001, c case failure/water ingress & hauled out 07. I bought 2011with cockpit gutted,
engine, tankage etc out ctr case chainsawed out below waterline. [Plank on bott o shoe keeping sea at bay, filled remains of c case with milk botts & sealed.] Got
engine & c board lashed on
deck for trip, dunno why as was never going to stay with the pivot system... Don't like. [Apologies to john & jim & no i wasnt in touch- noone likes their designs tampered with- I have their sr34 plans & theres none better.]
so. No crash box as such.. Made a glassed ply ctr case to fit inside remains of existing & from bott shoe to cockpit floor. Lot of timber for support behind at bott, & front of case formed the
mast step. Bott of
mast chopped off [450mm] & is now cockpit floor stepped, directly in front of opening for c board. [Slot starts 650 aft of
companionway bulkhead- cockpit sealed- & fully draining thru case o course.] Case angles forward 4 degrees to take toe of leading edge frrd of mast c/l. Board 1800 x 650 x 70. To get 1.3m wetted & 500+ bury the board comes up thru floor 160, so top comes up thru slot in the
steering pedestal which is directly aft of mast, but as only needs 1m of board down hardly necessary.
Ideal of course is to have a ‘tear here’ weakness in board in case of major impact. Um, not done yet as i just rebuilt to suit, a left over
rudder my brother had made for another
project. Er, way too solid. Came into a marina down wellington full
noise & c board full down for control as blowing. Ah, spring low & maybe not dead centre of fairway- barge was putting in new piers so maybe
steel girder across bottom. Massive bang instant stop from 6kts arse up buried bow. Expected no bott left in boat- but all sweet.
My brother built a ctr case with huge welded up fore & aft internal u section ss channels & urethane cheeks on 400kg blade, for my mono, but just 2 folded ss sheet ‘u’ sections cramped into a glassed ply case fore & aft with sika, handles his huge ton of lead winged ‘c board’ totally issue free. [35’wishbone cat
ketch.] A light unballasted c board for the tri causes no wear as it is not being moved once underway. But hey, lotta ways to skina cat
To handle vane
steering i kept morse as backup [never] & instead run 8mm braid off a short tiller for required
arc, & along port side & turning blocks & up pipe in deck/pedestal to chain off the top sprocket. Lathed sprocket down & fitted another one to get the ratios i wanted. Can either run a baby tiller pilot off the tiller back aft for heavy downhills, & if not expecting to change course in hurry, or off an adjustable bracket on
helm if may b traffic about- or yuk- expect to tack sometime. Better things to do than
helm eh
Bump into quite a few searunners here in nz, usually immaculate & often only owner infirmity sees them being
sold. Article on this one
boating nz June 2015
Cheers & happy sailing, Mark
ps cld try & get pics up if reqd. wld need mi
kids help tho...