Stevie 2 sticks (and 2 batteries)

The two parallel projects.

Working on rig 2 for the Pathfinder – honestly not an April fool’s post…..honestly

Note to readers – I wrote this post mostly with the John Welsford designs Facebook page in mind and apart from my own blog that will be the place it shows up.

The best boat that iv’e ever owned was my ‘2 stick’ Hunter liberty and during my time of ownership one of the best sailing moments came about when I chose to come off the anchor and ‘back down’ through a line of boats anchored to leeward of my position and all done under sail. Manouevring a small and light boat that has 2 masts, a centerboard and a rudder isn’t exactly rocket science but it’s nice when you do it without waking the entire anchorage with the clatter of an outboard. In fact I had many similar moments of simple satisfaction with that boat and one thing it left me with was respect for rigs that I would have completely dismissed during my IOR race days.

The downside of that boat with that rig is that the mizzen was originally placed in the off-center companionway and slightly impeded cabin access as well as it’s boom being mostly in the way during any sail manoevres. I felt then that the boat might have been better with less sail aft but further aft – in other words a Yawl. With the whole boat only being 22 feet plus small change I liked the idea of the center of the boat then being free of rigs and rigging but having enough of a steering and balancing effect to prevent one of the Liberty’s worse habits – which was wild sheering at anchor. I developed my ideas with that boat over several years and ended up with a larger mainsail rigged with a simple down-angled sprit boom for slightly more power, even better sail effect at anchor and with the mizzen mast moved out into the cockpit.

When I came to build the Liberty’s replacement – the Welsford Pathfinder I was absolutely determined that I would be building not only a yawl but an English style standing Lug yawl just like the uber fast converted National 18 racing dinghy that was based on this coast at that time. How my boat evolved from planned Lug Yawl to actual gaff sloop I don’t totally remember now but I don’t quite like it and now I maybe have the opportunity to change it i’m planning the job while I can’t do much else – i’m writing this post after having a minor stroke recently.

The scarily fast ex National 18 that was my original model for the Pathfinder’s rig.

Right now, this project has two practical aspects that i’m working on at the same time ; the first part is to build the second (Lug) masts as I already have a section of alloy tube which I could use to make the smaller mizzen mast from. I’m thinking mainly in terms of building a top tapered freestanding mast from machined Douglas Fir staves but with a solid or ‘filled. bottom few feet- Correction – at the moment I don’t seem to be able to contact my usual timber guy (John Moody) so I am also working up a plan to build a new mainmast in sleeved alloy tube.

Just to add…today.

Today (Saturday, late March) is the first day that iv’e gone down the yard to the boat to start some work while also videoing it, now, at the end of the day it’s almost painful watching myself on video and I haven’t exactly had a productive day except that I started and mean to continue. This evening I know I will be working on the mast project in that I will be doing a search for alloy tube and making a working drawing of the sleeved section and end caps.

The second aspect is that I am tempted to whip the lid off (the cuddy) and raise it slightly to give me more headroom when I am reclining against the side of the boat inside the cuddy. This doesn’t have to be a mandatory job although one aspect of having a Lug mast set far forward in the boat would be the removal of the sloop rig’s compression post ; while a minor seeming change it would give me the space to have my head and shoulders at that end when i’m trying to sleep under the cuddy – the second POS project is to give that part of the boat a rain cover for sleeping under and road protection.

I am almost at the point where I have the specs for the mast and it’s deck partners – in fact having slightly over-built the kingplank I am in a better position to bore a hole through it for the new mast. If I get to ‘raise the roof’ then I will also get to remove the tabernacle.

In real time the project which is happening right now is preparing to do an electrical installation for the boat….today, in terms of actual work I took the lid off the central dry storage compartment and emptied the battery side of Granite blocks that were put in there as ballast. My idea for having 2 parallel projects is that I can do practical work on one while having to do a a load of thinking about the other one.

Second thread – the Coble.

There is a second thread to this post and it concerns a one time working craft from the north east of the UK coast ; the Yorkshire Coble is how I know it. Several years ago I had a blog post about Cobles being worked on ‘on the blocks here’ as Cobles have twice captured my attention as potential working/sailing boats and I just love their shape. In both cases of the Cobles that I have seen up close both were built on a fiberglass hull and both were being rebuilt as simple, if somewhat crude, working boats – each one getting a one pot diesel at the time I saw them.

I don’t know for sure, but happen to think that there was a revival in working Cobles around Scarborough and i’m pretty sure I once saw a video about Cobles sailing on and off the beach there – Cobles being working ‘beach’ boats at one time. As things worked out I never did get to pull everything together to complete the post and so deleted the work some years ago. The slight link with the Pathfinder is that I once said to the designer (John Welsford) that the hull shape reminded me of the Cobles that I had seen and if I have it right then he did say there was a bit of that shape in the Pathfinder.

This black and white line drawing particularly appealed to me as I like the raked mast coupled with a bowsprit and jib……I had the slightly unusual idea of using my current chainplates to take pair of running shrouds or a 2 part halyard split to either side. Imagine this as a Yawl, perhaps with the boomless sail but full battens instead and it’s close to what I am planning.