A bit more video of a friend sailing my boat for the first time in VERY light air while I took a bit of film. A few initial teething problems with the running rigging ended this session but she does look and go well. This is a 60" J class from Alan Horne at jclasshulls.co.uk
The prototype J Class yachts were a class for the Americas Cup back in the 1930s. They were over canvassed and could only sail in less than 20 mph winds!
All of the original were metal hull yachts using the rising aircraft industry design teams for maximum strength against lightness of hull. In the case of the British Endeavour of 1934 she also had to be sailed across the Atlantic to get to the competition! If you look aft on the yacht there is a discrete black hole and this is where the mizzen mast was set for the journey.
The class had a formula which traded off hull length against sail area plus some stuff in between. A couple of hulls have recently been built one of laminated wood but otherwise those 'rescued' have had to be re-fitted to modern standards.
The Endeavour now has an engine with prop in the cut out rudder area and floats a foot lower on the waterline.
One of my yachts is the 1 : 35 scale Amati Endeavour kit modified to take to the water and I found the quadrilateral jib makes her look really good on the water. But as I say there is so much sail are that even at this size there is too much. I set her up to run with local expected breezes without the quad sail and she goes well. When there is a light breeze the quad can go on and I use the rudder to give some weather helm so she is under control.
It can be seen from the hull design that the rudder is sloped away at an acute angle and this can be a problem! Consider the hull heeled over 20 degress and you will see the rudder no longer operates in a directional way but just makes the aft of the yacht rise up and down, so you have lost control!
Therefore the yacht needs to be operated close to the vertical position. The extreme of this is the modern planing cup yachts which only work upright with a mainsail angle of just a few degrees.
I have added the 3rd. photo as it shows the detail of the mast. On the model this is a 'stressed' ally extrusion mast. The cross-trees are scale and the wire shrouds do strengthen the mast. The mast and sails are stored separately in a sail box.
When on static display I have a crew, nice and easy at this scale! There was a class system among the crew, the floppy (Rupert the bear) white hats are the crew the proper seamans caps are the officers. When at sea there were 22 crew on board I have about 9 on show. Ca'nt afford any more.
Having modified the connection to Jaws, the shark stays central to the stern. Whereas before he would veer to one side and tangle the connection around his fins. The steering of Orca is very slow as the shark tail fin has a lot of influence, in as much as wanting to remain straight ahead. The Orca has a large turning circle because of this, I would estimate a least 10 metres. Where as without the shark in tow the Orca turns in 2 metres. Something to remedy in the future. Here is a short video,
This is my first attempt at building a boat and is based on TOPAZ (J8). The hull/basic kit is from jclasshull.co.uk and the sails from PJsails. My biggest mistake is to make her too heavy but I can't remove ballast, besides that she goes REALLY well. I am still fiddling with the tuning to remove the Lee helm and have already got her neutral. : ) The remote movable Genoa clew carriages are proving to offer brilliant control over the Genoa leech, powering up or down as required.
That’s a very sleek yacht and sails beautifully. I notice that you are sailing close hauled in several directions, what she like on a reach or run? There’s a fair breeze there, do you foresee having to replace the genoa with a jib in a blow?
Hello Frankiesays, you are right, since that video I have moved the mast top backwards due to a pretty strong Lee helm which has worked a treat, she is pretty neutral now. Trying to sail and hold the camera meant sail trimming wasn't the best however broad reaching she looks and goes beautifully, straight downwind = no nose dives so far and very controllable. I have a jib which is about 20% smaller than the Genoa which I have yet to try but am still learning to work with the rig as it is at the moment.
This tug is large enough to mount a iPhone inside the bridge. Footage was however done with a phone mounted in front of the bridge.
The various models you see was for the so-called Annual Record Day where the idea is to see how many boats can be in the dam. As you can see, very few actually run, and some only have a little toe in the water.
There was 122 "models" that day in 2022 setting a "new" record.
In 2023 nothing was organised and in 2024, the "record" was 75.
Great video, thanks for sharing. And, yes, that is a LOT of boats!!
Even 75 boats this past year is an impressive number.
It looks like an awesome pond to run in.
Our club has a nice venue, but ultimately it is a storm water runoff-fed pond. So no gradual beach and certainly no wading to set up the boats, that would be nice.
Dave B
@DWBrinkman
Our dam is also a storm water retention dam. No toilets and no clubhouse. Its 7meters deep in places but the launching area forms a beach during summer. Should start filling up from now onward though. Then the water get to the steps and you need to dust off the Wellys for that wading excurtions. 😊
That's a nice bit of video. she runs well.
I have a Krick Outboard but still haven't decided as to what I am going to put it on yet. I have also got a Graupner Rhode Island F1 Tunnel Hull that has a brushless outboard on it but not had a chance to run it yet.
Built from Hampton fishing boat plans in 2018
Converted to hybrid in 2021 - Sails replaced with dericks and 5 blade prop gets fitted.
Becomes a Lobster boat.
Aucklands' classic wooden boat festival ,1,2,3 March
This is a slideshow of day 3 in the pavilion when all the boats were in (first vid was set-up day and only about 70% had arrived) By this stage, over 10.000 people had been through. I came down on the bus to take these pics (round trip 72km) went back home, picked up the car and trailer, came back down at 6pm Sunday and picked up the boat. All round a 216km trip (city and back 3 times, well worth the effort though.
JB
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Thank you for a great picture show lots of nice ideas for modelers would love to see but 12000 miles plus a little far to travel thanks again 👍 peter3l
Looks like fun Cash👍
Great selection of boats.
Just one reservation!
The German tugboat is flying it's national flag UPSIDE DOWN!🤔
Was it in distress?
Cheers, Doug😎
Doug, i remember my old Felix, or it might have been the Neptun, that I had mounted my flag the exact same way...but I didn't have an excuse as I spent almost 5 years at Ramstein🤣
Must be something in the water here, Donald doesn't come out much but next time I talk to him I'll tell him.
