Sail carts

March 20, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I have an ancient mast on Meritaten and things are getting tricky if I need to get spare sail carts. The ones I’m using, nylon carts, are getting old and break quite often at heavier winds.

I have now run out of spares and started using steel carts which I got from sailmaker in Poland. These, however robust and indestructible, do not fit quite well. Sometimes the mainsail will not glide down causing frustration in the crew (me) and making situation dangerous at heavy wind.

There is no way to buy these carts anymore. Either I change rail system on the mast - which is not worth it as the mast is old - or I make new carts.

I attempted making them in Teflon at first. The white one is a prototype, too tight as it turned out. Its elaborate form took me quite some time to manufacture so I re-designed the thing and came out with simpler design. Here I don’t need to use any special blades, just standard router bits.
The new prototype, black one, is made of Delrin. Probably not best suited for this job as Delrin is very hard but it is what I had at hand.

I went to the boatyard to try it on my mast. It was not trivial to find it on winter stands - everything is still covered with heavy tarp. Eventually I managed and the black cart fitted perfectly!

Now I will make a complete set in Teflon. Sailing season is coming!

Dry, spring winds

February 27, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski

As every year, by end of February, I cover Meritaten’s bottom part with plastic tarp. It is about time of winter when spring starts to take over, with dry wind seeping out moisture from everything. Wooden boats don’t like such abrupt changes - it puts mechanical fastenings on stress and makes the boat leak much more upon launching.

Just recently we had tons of snow and freezing winter. All of sudden, within one week all snow is gone and temperature oscillates around 10 degrees!

The job went quickly so I could go inside the cabin and clean up the garbage left after demolishing fo’c’sle in the autumn. Kerosane, pressure lamp - my battered Optimus 200 - made the cabin habitable with its hissing and warmth.

The fo’c’sle is mostly empty now, only port-side bunk remains (partially). There is no cabin sole yet and sea-cocks left after marine toilet are not connected to anything. I will remove them and seal the hull - we use chemical toilet nowadays so no need to have these through-hulls.

Plenty of work left here and I will most probably not finish that before launching but there is no stress - we can sail the boat without furniture in this part.

There will be toilet, batteries and storage space here anyway, it’s a matter of organising it properly and seaworthy.

I dragged on deck our storm hook - fisherman anchor. I’m not convinced I will keep her onboard, so far the performance was worse than our smaller Bruce anchor. I will give it a chance this season but most probably it will be replaced by bigger Bruce anyhow.

Cold winter

February 09, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Temperature drops to -25 C, lots of snow since a few weeks.

I went to boatyard to check on Meritaten. All in proper order.

Both batteries taken home for charging.

"Nano" has arrived!

January 28, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski

As it happens often with plans - things don’t go as we intended and plans are being changed.

Seahopper boat builders worked hard to manage building Nano before Christmas. Intention was to avoid mess with Brexit.
They managed!
But then came Covid with its mutations, closed boarders, delays etc. And Brexit. Force majeure.

Steven was extremely helpful and generous in helping me sorting things out. And in the end all was clear for delivery next week.
But I didn’t want to wait so I drove to DHL and picked the package from them directly.

And here she is: Nano in her new home!

As soon as I arrived I went into unfolding her. It’s very straightforward and simple process.
I think it takes about 2-3 minutes.

I admire smart solutions and level of finish.
It was also a good excuse to ignite some of my favourite kerosene lanterns!

Too bad that everything is frozen around us right now. Maiden journey will have to wait a while.

Last days before Nano is on her way to Sweden

December 19, 2020 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Good news from Steven (Seahopper) - Nano is getting her finishing varnish and is booked for pickup&delivery on coming Tuesday! I hope we will manage to cross EU borders before brexit’s chaos!

In the meantime I got some photos showing how these boats are built and tested. Photo above shows the workshop, with water-tank for testing for water-tightness.
Below is a Seahopper on forming jig.

Once the hull is done there comes custom-made fittings.

There is lot’s of ingenuity in Seahopper’s construction. One of many cool ideas is a centre-board mounted sand-wheels. This is handy when one wants to roll the unfolded boat over longer distance. Even though my small Nano does not weight much it’s always easier to wheel-barrow it than to carry her on shoulders.

Seahoppers can be sailed:

… or rowed, like Nano will be:

When not needed the dinghy can be towed behind mother-ship or taken aboard and folded alongside handrails. Or stowed under deck, like I plan on Meritaten.

Well, we are waiting eagerly for our Nano.

Water around our island is free from ice so once she is here I’ll take her for test rides immediately!