Rigging a Gig Harbor Boatworks mast

Friday, I picked up my mast from Gig Harbor Boatworks. I'm very happy so far. It's very light and easy to put in place. See my other post on building mast blocks.

I bought the mast bag, and it all fits nicely in the boat when collapsed. Should be easy to trailer her with everything bagged together.

I'd like some help from the Scamp community. I have a few questions about the way I rigged it. I think it's correct, or at least not completely unsafe. If I've done something wrong, please let me know.

Lacing the yard

First of all, the cord on the yard was too short to marlin lace through each eye. So I just laced every other eye.  Is it ok to lace through every other eye, or should I do this differently?

Lace through every other eye, fore end

Lace through the middle.

Last lace on the aft end.

The build manual also seems to imply that you can adjust the sail a bit on the yard. I can't figure out how to do that.

Halyard

I didn't get any pictures, but the halyard has a simple stopper knot, then goes around the mast and ties off on the yard. It's pretty easy, although I wonder if a snap swivel at the top of the halyard would make rigging slightly faster.

Lazy Jack

The lazy jack confused me for an hour or so, I just could not figure it out. I could see the rings on the  lazy jack, but couldn't figure out why the ends were so long if they were going to just clip onto the eyelets at the bottom the boom.

Finally after drawing it out on paper a couple times, I realized that the eyes at the bottom of the boom were not for the clips, they were to hold the loops until the lazy jack corded back up and clipped to the rings near the center of the sail. Once I figured that out, then it fell into place and I was able to raise the halyard with sail fully rigged. I would note that the lazy jack line back down to the cleat is doubled.  That makes it a bit harder to cleat off, but not too bad.

Lazy jacks are doing their job.

A bit closer shot of the lazy jacks.

And the other side.

I have to thank Falk at GHBoats. He kept telling that the lazy jacks needed to cross over. I didn't understand until I had it rigged. Thanks, Falk!

Reefing

I haven't tried to set these up yet, I'm more interested in making sure that I can deploy the sail reliably. Looking at the pictures just now, I think it's going to be easy, it appears as if there is a fore and aft reef. I'll just run the lines and pull the two lines down to reef the sail (after dropping the halyard, of course.)

Downhaul

I forgot to get any closeup pictures, but you can kind of see the downhaul in the below picture. I'm using a Racelite block/cleat combination. The line ties to the becket on the block, goes down to the block attached to the cabin top, then goes up and over the block and stays in the v cleat.

See the downhaul at the bottom?

I'm a bit worried that this will not be effective and will slip. I may have to change it, but I'd like some advice on what is effective. I've heard that the general consensus is that it may be enough to have a single line going through the cabin top block and into a cam cleat near the edge of the cabin.

Mainsheet

I didn't run this. It's easy to run. I did realize that an adjustable traveler will be nice. The plans don't specify but the kit I bought from the Chandlery uses a 3/8" traveler. Seems thick to me, is it really necessary to be that big?

What did I do wrong?

If you have experience with the GHBoats.com mast, please take a look. Did I do something wrong or unsafe? I'd like to know about it now before I splash.

I'll try to rig it and break it back down a few times this week so that I can get some practice.

Splash is scheduled for next weekend!

I think everything is ready to go. My parents will be coming out next weekend. Since Dad started this journey with me, it's only fitting that he be there for the first launch. If you are in the Seattle area and would like to see a new Scamp splash, PM ElHeffe on the Scamp Message Board or contact me privately and I'll let you know where we're going to be.

Center board installation

The centerboard is so heavy that it requires two people to install. My buddy Ken came over and we installed it together.

I got everything ready to install before hand so that we could get it done quickly. Here is a shot of the centerboard rigging. I chose to put the block up higher rather than lower like in the plans.

Rigging is ready.

I also rigged up a couple of packing tape straps. Here you can see one strap on the centerboard. This makes it really easy to hold with two hands, forklift style. The 22 lb lead weight is placed low, so it weighting feels abnormal if you just lift it.
Be sure to wrap the packing tape around the leading edge, both directions. Once everything is installed you can drop the centerboard down and the tape is easy to remove.

packing tape handles.

Note: make sure you can get the 1/4" line through the copper tube, mine was a bit bulbous at the end and didn't go through well.

We successfully installed it and the 3:1 rigging makes it go up and down easily.


Now I need some advice on trailering. How does one lock up the centerboard when traveling? That little cam cleat seems to be a bad idea when the boat is vibrating. I'm considering something to tie on the transom.

I'd also like some ideas about how to make sure that the centerboard does not hyperextend. I haven't been able to see the centerboard extended, so I don't even know if it can hyperextend, but it seems like a bad idea to have it smashing against the sapele trunk. Seems easy to put a rubber stopper on there, but how to mount it?

Sail numbers and mast installation

We got the sail numbers affixed. We followed WoodnMetalGuy's instructions.

sticking down the 4

Done!

The next step is to attach the sail to the mast.

But before I do that, the mast needs support blocks.

Mast supports

I did set the drill press table to 2 1/2 degrees.

The mast from Gig Harbor Boatworks is 2 3/4". I had to pick up a hole saw. It still needed a bit of sanding to make it fit around the mast well.

Sanding the hole a bit to open it up.

 The holes needed to be 1.35" inches apart to match the 2 1/2 degree rake. In the below shot, the right is the base and the left is the upper. I used a rat tail file to file a small water channel in the base. I may have to put down some new fiberglass in the base for protection.

base on the left, upper on the right.

I epoxied them last twice last night and this morning sanded them a bit. They are still a bit rough, but I can use them for dry fit purposes.

The Gig Harbor mast has a #8 screw at just the right spot for the top of the mast box. I used a forstner bit to drill out a recess and put in the screw.

Screw in the forstner hole

Screw protruding

 Then I attached it to the mast.

Mast with block

When you do this, make sure you orient the mast in the correct direction. The black nylon lazy jack cleat should be on the starboard side.

Both blocks fit down in the mast box very well. There is a little bit of forward backward play, but not much side to side. I'll fix it with a layer or two of epoxy.

The end result:

A stable mast

Then I set to work trying to get it all rigged. That'll be another post.

Centerboard overdrill and fill

I wasn't happy with the small hole that would hold the knot in the centerboard.

Filled a 3/4" hole with epoxy.

And drilled it back out to 11/16".

Then I put the rope through.

Figure 8 stopper knot

I did a similar thing for the rudder downhaul, but the hole was very small. I whipped the rope and inserted it into the hole. It won't come loose.

Folded and whipped end

The holes on the kit pieces are too small. I'd definitely use 5/16" holes for the lines and at least 3/4" holes for the stopper knots (after over drilling and filling).

I have to put in a plug for AnimatedKnots, if you need to tie a knot, he gives great instructions.

Tiller

I bought a RudderCraft type C tiller. I wanted to make my own tiller but I'm running out of time before July. And I think the Ruddercraft are attractive. Alternating mahogany and ash.

However, the butt end is too tall to fit through the scamp rudder hole, so I had to plane it down.

You can just see that I planed down the top and bottom ply

I drilled holes for bronze bushings for the 3/8" quick release pin that will go through the rudder and the tiller. Deciding where to place the hole was a bit of guess work.

I drilled holes for bronze bushings

Then I hung the tiller in the garage (that is a slightly painted long bar suspended by a rope in the picture above) and varnished it.
Finally, I put the bushings in place.

Bushing in place

And she fits and looks very nice.
The angle in this picture looks pretty steep, but it's about right for me. It does have a little bit of play up and down.

installed

 It does rub at the corners when at the extreme sides. I'll have to do something about that at some point in the future.

Just grazing the upper side.

In the above picture you can see the quick release pin that I am using to tie the rudder to the tiller. I sure do like those pins. I've used 4-5 of them on this build in various places.

Electrical completed and tested

I got the electrical system all assembled and tested. I put waterproof LED strip lights on the cuddy ceiling for reading and night lights. They take very little energy and shouldn't drain the battery.

LED lights in the cuddy

Here's a shot up to the back of the circuit panel. The bus bar is attached to the mast box and has wires leading to the back of the circuit breaker box.

inside the cabin, before zip ties

I tested the motor setup and that works just like it should.

The only electrical I have to do now is to figure out how to wire up a mast light and a solar charger for the battery. 

Finally, I mounted a hand pump under the seat for emergencies.

Hand pump mounted 

Bunk raising

The bow eye was too low to be aligned well with the crank, so I wanted to raise the front bunk of the trailer just a bit.

A trip to Lowe's for some vinyl lumber and some outdoor carpet and I was able to build up the bunk.
The vinyl lumber was near the moulding aisle. I was able to get a 10' 1" x 3.5" piece (yeah, like a 5/4 x 4). I had them chop it into 3x 40" pieces.
I used 2 1/2" ceramic coated deck screws to stack those together for a 3" rise, then covered them in outdoor carpet. Luckily I had some double sided carpet tape laying around to hold the carpet to the vinyl as I didn't have any stainless steel staples.

The net result is that the bow is lifted about 3". This gives a nice straight shot from the crank to the bow eye. She looks a bit more aligned with the trailer rather than having the stern up so high in the air.

New bunk

While I was messing around, I took a cue from Simeon and painted the wheel covers to match the boat. It adds a nice touch.

Painted wheel covers

Priming & painting the interior

After a lot of sanding, I primed the interior with Rustoleum 7780 primer.

And the rest primed

Priming took a long time. About 5 hours.
I broke the painting up into smaller jobs.

It all turned out very well. Here are the finished shots of the boat. I'm very pleased with the color scheme.

EasyPoxy Sandtone interior

Easypoxy burgundy hull and off-white deck

front view

Installed the nav light

transom

3/4 view

transom with rudder and motor mounts

interior

3/4 shot outside

portlight and ipe trim

transom

Need to add hatches

Lowrance chartplotter mount

I bought a Lowrance Elite 4 chart plotter on sale at West Marine.
I needed a mount for it that I could remove so that the plotter won't get stolen when she's on the trailer. I decided I could make a mount like Simeon has on B3 for Noddy, but on B4.
If I move if aft, I'm a bit worried that the sun will wash it out sometimes, but it should work fine.

I started with some doubled up scrap I had left over from a sole hatch.

Mount plate

I found some circles I had from cutting out hatches that fit the curve of B4 very well.

circle fits well in the B4 cutout.

A little trimming of that circle left me with a pretty good approximation of the curve.

curve

I didn't get any pictures, but I cut a small triangle piece to fill in the lower gap.

I 1/8" roundovered the edges and got it ready to epoxy.

Then I mounted those pieces on the backerboard and put a layer of fiberglass to thicken it out so it was a bit wider than the 6mm bulkhead.

epoxy wet out

Then I glued on the front piece.

Glued up. Note the tape wrapped piece of 6mm plywood to keep separation.

Here it is dry-fit in place.

It needed sanding and a bit of a fillet on top. I also drilled a hole all the way through both pieces and the bulkhead to accommodate a 3/16" quick release pin so that it stays put.

amidships side. You can see the pin hole through the dual layers at left.

athwart side

This week, I'll prime this and paint it the color of the interior.

I've also drilled some holes for the wiring. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea where I can mount the HDI skimmer transducer. I could mount it on the transom, but I don't want to run those wires. I'll test it first and see if it will shoot through the hull. Supposedly you can't sonar through a wooden hull.