A stop at the ship yard
A pad-eye for the code... Apart from being exciting, making a stop at the shipyard means having to make lots of decisions. Small and big. Not later, but now. The launching day seems to be coming up faster this year than ever before. Possibly because I am giving the boat I love so much, such a thorough makeover.
A pad-eye? Well, the sailmaker is preparing a Code One sail for greater boat speed, which means I need a solid something to attach it into. In front of the forestay. But there is not much room to play around with up there. And everybody who has attached things on a boat deck knows that some long arm has to be there underneath the deck with a wrench when it is time to get it to sit tight...
MORE THINGS GOING ON:
Janne, the stainless steel guru next door, is giving the new stainless frame bulkhead its final adjustments before polishing it up to its mirror finish. The former dark wooden bulkhead in teak had to go, giving room for this one that will give the inside an open atmosphere. The handles give us a good grab when crawling around in there in sturdy winds. That is something I have been missing since day one, 27 years ago.
Placing instruments in a cockpit with a tiller has always been a tricky issue. There is no natural place in the back where you can reach them, so you put them up front where it's hard to see them. Maybe not a problem if you're at the age of 23 with good eyes, but that was some years ago. So we made a hardboard draft version of a box solution by the main sheet rail. We will see how that works out.
The new electric pod drive will be attached with great precision right here. The shipyard guys sure know how to deal with curves and angles. See more images
Last but not least...the rudder on the Smaragd is sometimes just a little too shallow in heavy winds and with lots of sails up there catching it. So, we will test a solution with an endplate attached at the bottom of the rudder blade. According to the theory, it should make the water flow better and thereby give the rudder more "power" while healing. We hope it will work and look forward to seeing the results.
Is anyone out there with experience to share? We will of course be grateful for any advice. Here is the drafted principle and measurements:
