Trailer

I needed a small trailer to transport the Moonfish - but the budget for this project didn't allow for a new one.  Eventually, patient searching and waiting on eBay got me this one about an hour's drive from home:

This must have been built sometime in the 1960s, by a firm of which no trace remains:

The suspension has a weird leading arm setup:

which uses what look like motorcycle shock absorbers (again, produced by a long-defunct firm) to provide both location and suspension.  The wheels and hubs appeared to be very early Mini items.

Detailed examination showed that the shockers were completly shot, as were the bearings and all the bushes:

but that the stub axles and mounting tubes were recoverable:

So I sourced some new shockers from a classic motobike store, modern composite bushes (the originals were nylon !), modern 4" hubs and 400 x 8 wheels (adapted with some additional sintered bronze bushes) and rebuilt the suspension.  I also rebuilt and recarpeted the rear bunks and made new forward bunks where a simple keel support had been before.

All of which gave me this:

which has been very easy to launch from and recover to, but is currently giving me really excessive tyre wear.  Something not quite right in the suspension setup, I think ........



(to be continued !)

Lateen Sail

I decided to make my first attempt at a sail out of polytarp in order to allow me to experiment relatively cheaply until I can find the correct specification (or I just decide to buy a Sunfish sail from the USA - they're hard to come by in the UK !).  After considerable research to get the correct dimensions and then a useful discussion on the 'WoodenBoat' forum about design (Thanks, Todd B !), I eventually had both what I thought should be a workable design and technique.

First step was to mark out the basic dimensions and the offset curves for the head, foot and leech in order to try to put some shape into the sail in more or less the correct place:

The edges were then created, using double sided tape and thin cord:

until the basic shape was complete:

This was then reinforced with tabling and tarp tape at tack, clew and head:

together with eyelets mounted through tape reinforcement at all attachment points, until the sail was complete:

and then lashed to the spars:

At the tack, there is a multi-directional lashing (as per the Sunfish Rigging Guide) and a cunningham:

and an outhaul at the clew:

both leading to jam cleats on the boom ready to hand for the helm:

The sheet runs from a wire horse over the tiller (again, to Sunfish spec), through a couple of blocks on the boom and a pair of double-sided velcro supports:

down to a ratchet block mounted between the cockpit well and the daggerboard:

While I was getting excited with polytarp, I also made a cover from the remains of an old boat cover tarp:

Still to follow - a little bit about refurbishing a 1960's trailer (an ebay 'bargain').

Spars

The Moonfish/Sunfish has three spars - a stubby, unstayed mast and a long flexible boom and gaff:

My mast is made from an old microlight aircraft wing spar from a friend's workshop (Thanks, Pat !) which happened to be exactly to Sunfish spec.  Luckily, it had an eye at one end:

 which is ideal as a halyard sheave.

At the base of the mast I stuch some chrome leather padding (left over from when I re-leathered the boom jaws on our Whammel); here temporarily stuck with parcel tape for a trial fit:

so that it would be a snug fit into the mast socket - made from plastic drainpipe tightly fitted into the oak deck pad covering the oak/epoxy mast trunking below the deck:

While the mast is nicely anodised, the boom and gaff are not (too expensive) and came (to Sunfish spec again) from an industrial alloy stockholder.  The ends have hardwood dowelling inserted and are then capped of with HDPE caps:

At the tack, the spar ends are connected by inserting stainless ringbolts and then connecting them with fishermen's stainless spring rings:

The outer ends had eyes (from my 'Bits Box') for outhauls fitted and a Sunfish spec bronze goosneck rounded off the whole construct:

Sea Trials

After a winter of waiting, we conducted sea trials of Blue Streak (as the Moonfish has been named) on Easter Day.

After suitable christening with beer:

she was launched onto the River Cleddau.

She floated (level !) and the test pilot reported that, when there was wind, she sailed well:

Unfortunately, there wasn't much wind and he was really unimpressed at having to paddle back the last quarter of a mile to the slip against the incoming tide !