Beaching Catamarans

[CaptainRivet]

Awesome, thanks so much.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Sos

Here are some pictures of a repair I had to do to our keel and replacement of our timber keel shoe -

Showed that to my CFK repairer and boat builder. He done that on a couple of boats already and recommended making them from 5mm V4A stainless steel, epoxy the top so it bonds well and glue with 3M 5200FC. Have a very good local SS store with good prices in Lanzarote, so getting that is easy.


He says more V4A more durable and protects better then timber…any thoughts or recommendations on this?

[Matt Johnson]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

Showed that to my CFK repairer and boat builder. He done that on a couple of boats already and recommended making them from 5mm V4A stainless steel, epoxy the top so it bonds well and glue with 3M 5200FC. Have a very good local SS store with good prices in Lanzarote, so getting that is easy.





He says more V4A more durable and protects better then timber…any thoughts or recommendations on this?

Bob Oram suggests marine plywood with a fiberglass outer layer. This a sacrificial surface and easy to replace if rotted.

[catsketcher]

My boat has small 100mm deep keels - really just for drying out and for sitting on in boatyards. These just have a few layers of 600db on them - no issues yet.

[Sos]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

Showed that to my CFK repairer and boat builder. He done that on a couple of boats already and recommended making them from 5mm V4A stainless steel, epoxy the top so it bonds well and glue with 3M 5200FC. Have a very good local SS store with good prices in Lanzarote, so getting that is easy.


He says more V4A more durable and protects better then timber…any thoughts or recommendations on this?

My timber shoes have quite a few dinks and holes where we have sat on stones / small rocks etc. I would be a bit worried about high point loads with stainless steel. The timber has a bit of give in it! If you were just drying out in mud or sand not so bad but here in the UK we dry out on all sorts.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by fxykty

You don’t have to have kick up or cassette rudders to be able to ground your boat as long as you have robust skegs (with a foot plate to prevent sinking into the sand/mid). Although we do sit bow down as our skegs are 1.1m and the deepest point of the hulls 0.8m.

Attachment 255174

Works well nose in to a beach with a slope, but the one time we dried out on a sand flat (Indian Head) it wasn’t that comfortable to sleep. And all the Australian critters that can come on board!

Here’s a photo of us dried out on a very low tide sand bar off of Horseshoe Bay at Peel Island, in the southern part of Moreton Bay. Even though the sand is relatively flat it is very waterlogged so our skegs sunk down about 20cm as the water dropped. We’ve ended up almost level, very slightly bow down.



Beaching makes cleaning the bottom and jobs like changing anodes very easy. It was a pleasure to drop an allen key and simply pick it back up.

We went bow in at high tide a bit closer to shore, dropped our main anchor and backed up until we were in position. We set that anchor and had about two hours before the water dropped enough to touch bottom with our skegs. We used our dinghy to put our stern anchor (an F-37) into deeper water about 60m behind us - this was to keep us from swinging or surfing into the beach. It was about waist deep at low tide and well dug in.

Coming out tomorrow and the plan is to ease the stern anchor line and retrieve the bow anchor first. Then reverse slowly while pulling in the stern anchor line (UHMWPE so it floats). The line is on a reel so it stows as we bring it in. Lift the stern anchor out of the sand and we’re off with a smooth bottom and fresh anodes.

Beaching rocks! Our kitties like to explore the sand and sea grass beds too.

PS: our mast is out for some work but we had committed to lead a sail cruising group this past weekend, so we motored. The little mast is from our minicat inflatable sailing catamaran and provides a good platform for flags and a temporary anchor light.

[Franziska]

Us in Les Sables d'Ollone :-)

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Sos

My timber shoes have quite a few dinks and holes where we have sat on stones / small rocks etc. I would be a bit worried about high point loads with stainless steel. The timber has a bit of give in it! If you were just drying out in mud or sand not so bad but here in the UK we dry out on all sorts.

Yes I will switch from stainless to a solid wood 3cm thick keel shoes from a wood that called Morena here in the Canary Islands which has natural oils in like teak and oak. I used that for my dingy ladder and held up better then the teak before now the last 3 years.

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by GRIT

Hi, malbert73.

Thank you for the compliment. We always appreciate hearing that; it's been a long journey.

We started the build in 2010, and are still at it. We launched in the fall of 2019, and installed the mast and sails in the spring of 2020.

It's mostly cosmetics now, but of course, that's the thing that shows the most!

The interior of the hulls still need paint, and panel edges finished. The pilot house needs drawer faces, and the cabin sole is just paint at the moment.

Thanks for your interest.

Cheers.
Paul.

Hey Paul- looking good in Annapolis- we dinghied by this AM. Love your rudder design. What’s the white post at stern- for radar eventually?

[GRIT]

Hi Malbert73. I'm sorry we missed you. If you're by again, and the dinghy is there, please stop by to say hello.

The 6 inch schedule 40 pipe you see had a 36" tall by 1.5" schedule 40 pipe atop of it, on which we had mounted the wind generator. On my way south this fall, I ran into a bit of a rough patch, in Nova Scotia, and broke the mounting pole off.

I was trying to get to NYC, to pick up my wife, who was on a business trip, and the weld at the bottom of the 1.5" pipe cracked and failed. The pipe is welded to a plate, which is then bolted to the 6" pole.

I left Lunenburg 10 days or so before Fiona hit, with 25-30 knots in the forecast, coming from the SW and going West then NW, with leftover swell from a bit of a blow we had from the SE. It turns out that was a bad combination. I was doing 8-12 into a bit of a swell, with the first reef, in about 20 knots true and 30AWA. I installed the second reef, and the wind picked up to 30 knots true, which was nearly 40 knots AWS, again making 8-12 knots boat speed, with an AWA of about 30 degrees. Which was a bit rough.

I theorize this is what weakened the pole enough for it to break off a short time later. Grit doesn't hobby horse, but going through 4 foot seas, at speed, has a bit of a jerky motion to it. And the windgen is nearly 20 lbs, 11 feet above the deck.

I then hit some kind of wake or rogue wave, or something, which was a few feet higher than the 4 foot swell, and 3 foot seas I was previously sailing in, and took a wave into the mast beam, and sent it over the top. That slowed the boat down quite a bit, and combined with the wind, I guess it was just too much for the windgenerator pole to take.

So, to make a long story somewhat shorter, the weld wasn't up to the job, and I'm sorting out my options now. A friend has offered to make one out of Stainless, with gussets on the plate. It's a given that I'm a bit hard on equipment, but that weld hadn't properly penetrated the plate, so it's not completely my fault!

As an aside: I'm surprised how much of a difference that windgen makes, at times. In port washington a week or so ago, we had 4 days of dark cloud, but with a lovely 15-20 knot wind. We really missed out on some charging, and the battery dropped down to 30% of charge, whereas we're seldom below 90%.

We'll be leaving in a couple of days, if you see us here, stop by.

No need to subscribe, or hit the like button... we're just normal folks

Cheers.
Paul.

[malbert73]

Originally Posted by GRIT

Hi Malbert73. I'm sorry we missed you. If you're by again, and the dinghy is there, please stop by to say hello.



The 6 inch schedule 40 pipe you see had a 36" tall by 1.5" schedule 40 pipe atop of it, on which we had mounted the wind generator. On my way south this fall, I ran into a bit of a rough patch, in Nova Scotia, and broke the mounting pole off.



I was trying to get to NYC, to pick up my wife, who was on a business trip, and the weld at the bottom of the 1.5" pipe cracked and failed. The pipe is welded to a plate, which is then bolted to the 6" pole.



I left Lunenburg 10 days or so before Fiona hit, with 25-30 knots in the forecast, coming from the SW and going West then NW, with leftover swell from a bit of a blow we had from the SE. It turns out that was a bad combination. I was doing 8-12 into a bit of a swell, with the first reef, in about 20 knots true and 30AWA. I installed the second reef, and the wind picked up to 30 knots true, which was nearly 40 knots AWS, again making 8-12 knots boat speed, with an AWA of about 30 degrees. Which was a bit rough.



I theorize this is what weakened the pole enough for it to break off a short time later. Grit doesn't hobby horse, but going through 4 foot seas, at speed, has a bit of a jerky motion to it. And the windgen is nearly 20 lbs, 11 feet above the deck.



I then hit some kind of wake or rogue wave, or something, which was a few feet higher than the 4 foot swell, and 3 foot seas I was previously sailing in, and took a wave into the mast beam, and sent it over the top. That slowed the boat down quite a bit, and combined with the wind, I guess it was just too much for the windgenerator pole to take.



So, to make a long story somewhat shorter, the weld wasn't up to the job, and I'm sorting out my options now. A friend has offered to make one out of Stainless, with gussets on the plate. It's a given that I'm a bit hard on equipment, but that weld hadn't properly penetrated the plate, so it's not completely my fault!



As an aside: I'm surprised how much of a difference that windgen makes, at times. In port washington a week or so ago, we had 4 days of dark cloud, but with a lovely 15-20 knot wind. We really missed out on some charging, and the battery dropped down to 30% of charge, whereas we're seldom below 90%.



We'll be leaving in a couple of days, if you see us here, stop by.



No need to subscribe, or hit the like button... we're just normal folks



Cheers.

Paul.

Lol- thanks Paul and sorry for that experience with your wind gen. Main reason to post is admiration of your boat and appreciation of your kick up rudders- so easy it looks like you raise them routinely at anchor to prevent fouling?
I had my preteen kids with me driving the dinghy and they weren’t in the mood for me to engage in another conversation with an adult [emoji3]
Have a great season! I am hauling for winter in 6 weeks or so as usual given our stage in life…

[GRIT]

No worries Malbert. I appreciate your post; the rudders are a great option, and yes, they're up as a matter of course. Every time we anchor, we raise the rudders, and usually the daggerboards too. Annapolis was a tight anchorage, so we left the boards part way down.

No worries about the wind-gen. It's all part of the adventure!

Cheers, and have a nice winter.
Paul.