A Sail, Oar & Canvas project post.
Stepping the CLC Skerry rig for the first time and marrying up the boat with it’s trailer.
Project blog post, end of February 2025 : were it not for the fact that we have a series of gales sweeping the south west – thus extremely heavy and often continuous rain – I would by now have the Skerry’s rig up and fettled into place. I would also have fitted the crucial trailer cradle to the trailer frame and worked out all of the details for towing the whole set up, down to the river and/or further beyond.
Anyway, for me winter is nearly over and that means that my biggest current worry or concern is pretty much behind me ; the concern that I would find the dark wet winter difficult to cope with because of my limited tolerance for exercise – once again that’s the subject of another post. As it is I think the Skerry project has really helped me get through this winter so i’m now planning something of about the same kind of time commitment for next winter – as a hint it’s about rebuilding my workshop – anyway that’s a digression so…..
With the build structurally complete for now and most of the first stage detail work done i’m glad to say that I hit my first target of project completion before the end of February : it isn’t finished of course but then i’m never finished with a boat until it’s disappearing out of the drive behind somebody else’s car. So, the build and modifications stage are done and i’m spending my time working on the second stage of the project which is all about turning the little Skerry into a miniature cruising boat that I can bivouac aboard in and make myself basic hot meals.
The mast goes in using the new deck level thwart – stepping is now even easier when I set the heel into the bottom mast step and swing it up – it then laces into a pair of eyes bolted thru the thwart.
Almost the last job at this stage – re shaping the head of the mast, plugging the hole (it’s getting a blck or low friction ring depending on what’s in the bitsa box) and giving it all a coat of varnish.
Below, just hanging around while I complete the epoxy fillets on the new trailer cradle. With a couple of permanently rigged tackles I could hang the boat, fore and aft, under the shelter roof when i’m not working on it or sailing it.
As I write, almost at the tail end of February, there’s been a lot of progress all at once, first we lifted the Skerry onto it’s trailer and moved it’s cradle slightly until it was supporting the back of the boat as best I could – the new cradle hopefully gets around the crease in the bottom panel caused, I think, by the boat bouncing on it’s previous narrow and hard trailer bearers. The cradle is now back in the workshop having tack-filleted it to it’s riser this morning.
Later on it was great to slip the mast into it’s step and swing it into position in the new deck level thwart and even later to hoist the yard and sail temporarily to check their position : as with everything boat related the rig now needs a few hours work and attention while I get the details sorted.
The trailer-hull cradle. One of the few problems that I found with the hull of the Skerry is that there was a slight creasing or dishing of the plywood bottom panel, I think from where that part of the hull was only supported by lengths of angle section alloy and only covered with something like foam rubber which had degraded and broken down. I really noticed the problem when I finished the hull with an attempted gloss black finish and when I realized that it wasn’t anything like as good as I wanted it I gave the whole hull a wet rub down and that revealed the ‘crease’.
My solution was to make a laminated bearer to the shape of the hull at that point and ultimately to bolt the new piece to the trailer and epoxy ‘tack welding’ it to it’s riser such that the flat section of the cradle would match the aft slope of the hull. I finished the new ‘cradle’ with screws and more epoxy fillets before covering it with some thick camping mat and bolting it to the trailer frame.
At the bow iv’e set the hull onto a new flat bearer and thick pad – the prow now sits exactly at the height of the height of the trailer’s vee chock and just needs a small length of camping mat to prevent any abrasion. At this point i’m working with the idea of securing boat and trailer together with ratchet straps that pass through wide strap guides screwed onto the new bearers.
As of a very wet and windy weekend just before the end of February – my intended project completion date – the remaining jobs are mainly with the mast, the yard and boom as I have to set up a halyard, a sheet, a downhaul and a line to stop the boom from sliding forward – in might need a shaped chock as other Skerry owners use. For a birthday treat and because iv’e almost completed almost on schedule I treated both of us (Skerry and me !) to a brand new anchor from Jimmy Green marine who are one of the few chandleries to stock many makes of small boat anchor – mine is a small Rocna as iv’e had good experience with the type in the past and of course it will get named as Rocky Rocna.…..i’m so original !
Recent post launch video recap.
Dirty Wet Dog, the great adventure. 