contents:'Rocker'
The Beetle
Extreme Lateen
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__The Rocker_____________________ Seeking out good new locations for sailing in is a never ending quest.
Surfers look for the big waves, fishermen, a spot that guarantees a good catch, I look for
sandy shoals, with plenty of room to wade. Needless to say, part of my vacation plans include
beaches.
The models are easy enough to take on a vacation, I routinely stuff about six or so, in a
sports bag, along with different sail types rigged onto masts, and try out the same model with
other rigging.
The 'Rocker' gets its name from the city 'White Rock' not far from Vancouver, that has an
excellent beach. The small city was named after a huge 486-ton boulder that lies on the beach,
layed to rest by ice age glaciers thousands of years ago.
Native legend has it that the rock was hurled across the Strait of Georgia by a young Indian chief.
He then took his bride and moved there from Vancouver Island to make it their home. This model features a high aspect ratio sail, and a rounded hull.
Aspect ratio describes a sails length to its height
The main sail is rigged with a vang, so little power that the sail generates is lost from sail twist.
Two pegs are used as a fairleads set down in the hull, one for the jib the other for the mainsail.
(You don't need a peg for the mainsl' a regular screw eye will do.)
The jib is rigged so that it does not swing more than a 'broad reach' since the boom of the jib
will rise when full, and in doing so will only spill wind if let swing beyond that. The jib sheet leads
up through the hole in the peg to the clew, passes through a fitting, and runs back down to the
deck and is pegged in place.
Plastic from a red motor oil bottle provided me with colour battens and fittings and a rudder
that matched the color of the hull. Tip: round plastic containers can be used as a roundness gage. Once you find one the right size,
slice it in half, straight down each side, leaving half the bottom to keep the curve ridged.
The model is held up to a light, and the round edge of the plastic is moved around on the work
area, as you inspect the light shining through the two surfaces.
Even if the plastic is not exactly the right size curve you have in mind, a little pressure will flatten
down the flexible plastic onto the wood surface and expose any shallows or bumps.
Performance Rating: __The Beetle_____________________ Back in 1920 John Beetle, a skilled Massachusetts boat builder, built for his kids a
couple of small cat rigged sailboats. A 'one class' design means that the overall design of the boat does not change.
New types of materials may be introduced, such as Dacron sails, but a Beetle cat from
1940 will look the same as one made in 2000. It has become a tradition on Nantucket Island to rig these craft with coloured sails
that make for some very colourful regattas (as seen in the painting) giving them the nick
name the 'Rainbows.'
Considering the dimensions of the Beetle cat, you can hardly describe the MkI model I
made as a scale model (I would have to saw the hull in half to come even close!) The mast is shortened to 8½ inches long and placed in the first mast step. The spar
for the gaff was cut 7in. and made from a bamboo skewer. The boom (also bamboo) was cut 9in.
long. Beetle cats have a large "barn door" of a rudder, its what gives them a reasonable
waterline length for what would otherwise be a stubby little boat. So, the rudder on this
model stretches behind to give the model a total length overall (LOA) of 13in.
I added a hank, or sleeve, to keep the leading edge of the gaff in place, with enough
room for it to slide down the spar when I needed to reduce sail.
I managed to find a light turquoise plastic bag for the sail keeping up with the
'Rainbow' tradition. The hull was given a couple coats of white paint
(leftover 'kitchen and bath' paint) with a blue stripe along the waterline.
As with all gaff rigs, and this is an extreme gaff, occasionally when tacking downwind,
the gaff will swing to one side (tack) and the boom will swing to the opposite tack.
This fowling is called a 'goose wing jibe'. It is easy to correct by guiding the boat to
turn (filling the sail) and with a couple of light tugs on the control line.
Overall, this is a sharp looking model and once the sail is tweaked up properly, sails
well, even in very light wind. It also has a low draft due to the rudder being shallow.
To find out more about Beetle cats, I found the manufacturers website.
beetlecats.com
Performance Rating: (Very Good, Good, Fair, Acceptable, Difficult)
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buy a kit here __Extreeme Lateen_______________________ One expects both positive and negative aspects of any given sail or hull design. This
one exceeded all positive expectations and failed to live up to the negative ones.
The model has a lateen rig with a difference, the leech of the sail has a deep roach
supported with long flexible battens. Here we have a hybrid design, combining
ancient with modern.
The main spar is made of two bamboo skewers. These can be joined in different ways
using glue and line, even wire. Since the length of the yard was longer than the hull,
I wanted to join the two in a way that I could break it down and take it with me on
holiday without the risk of breaking the spars in transit. (the yard is a full 20in. long,
the boom 11.5in.)
Looking for inspiration, I took a few dives into the garage junk pile and emerged
with strip of 1/4in. clear plastic tubing left over from the fish tank.
Cutting the tubing into small rings, I was able to use them as clamps, joining the
skewers together.
Not only that, I was able to squeeze the line used as a halyard, in between the two
surfaces of the skewers. (tied around the top spar) There was enough pressure here to
keep the line in place, and with a bit of tugging, move the halyard along the length of
the spars to adjust the point where the sail would hang from.
This aids in giving you more control of the sail due to more leverage when sheeted from the sails clew.
The lateen also has a downwind advantage in that the entire sail area is put to use.
On sailboat models that are sloop rigged, the jib needs to be coaxed into swinging out on
the opposite tack (wing on wing) to be any use at all.
Rigging and fittings... all of the fittings that hold the rig together are made from
recycled flexible plastic. Since this is such a large sail, I wanted a tighter grip than
what you get with rubber.
To get a good grip on the spars, a plastic cleat should have a hole in it small enough
that the spar will just squeeze into without having to use a lot of force. There are different
methods to do this, you can poke a hole using a hot wire, have a collection of small drill
bits, or you can simply bore a hole if you have a fine, straight tipped hobby knife.
At the aft end of the boom, the sails clew and the mainsheet both slip through another
fitting (first) and then it is worked over the end of the skewer.
At the forward end of the boom, a length of line is securely tied.
(I recommend putting a small notch at the end of the skewer to keep the knot from slipping.)
This line slips up through a fitting on the end of the spar above, that fitting, also
holds the tack of the sail in place. The line becomes a 'preventer' that ties to the
fairlead at the stem. It should be long enough to allow the sail to swing out to a full
beam reach(but no more). It also prevents the sail from swinging around from back to front
in strong winds.
I gave the hull's bow a scow entrance and increased the angle of the run back at the
stern. (note the shaded areas in the illustration) Giving it a good planning surface. The centreboard used is what we now provide already 'faired in' with the kit.
The model preformed best with the board turned back as shown, where it balanced with the
sail plan. When needed for windward, it can be lowered slightly, and a little more for a
broad reach.
Overall, this is one of the fastest model boats I put together. I expected it to
heel over frequently, it didn't. (Due to its speed and somewhat low centre of effort and
flat hull.) I expected it to make lots of leeway due to the hull design, It didn't.
I also expected it to be hard to control, it wasn't. Only thing I can think of on the
negative side, is that the sail design doesn't lend itself to being reduced, but I have
sailed it in some pretty hard wind without much problem.
Performance Rating: Very Good, Good, Fair, Acceptable, Difficult.
White Rock has been a holiday destination for decades, you can still see the occasional old
cottage tucked in between the new luxury homes.
With kilometres of wide sandy beaches, restaurants, art galleries and great sunsets, with a lively
strip running along the oceanfront and an endless stroll of locals and tourists.
Although not naturally pure white, the locals have painted it such, to make it more attractive,
and more visible, to boaters.
The beach itself, when the tide is out, can mean a quarter mile trek over the sand just to get to
the water, when the tide is high, you have that much space to sail around in, in between tides
there are plenty of tidal pools.
Too big to get crowded, I get about a dozen football fields of area to do my thing in.
A sails aspect ratio is the ratio of its height to the length. A narrow but tall sail has a
high aspect ratio, and a wide but shorter sail has a low aspect ratio.
There are formulas, and methods you can use that give you a numerical expression of aspect ratio,
lets save 'fun with numbers' for another day......
This model was made from another models hull, a schooner that already had a rounded off hull,
and I made it even more so. After a paint job, a re-worked hull, and a new sail plan, it was a
new sailing animal all together.
The hull was ground down to its shape using a bench sander, the hull being 'rocked' carefully
from one side to the other.
A little more work, the shape can be attained using a small plane, even a spoke shave,
followed by rough, medium and fine sanding.
This is an over all fast model, and not too complicated. The long top batten restricts sail reduction,
Once underway, it slips through the waves and rides swells well.
Windward Ability- Good
Swiftness- Very Good
Manoeuvrability- Good
Lateral Resistance- Good
Sail Adjustability- Fair
Ease of Construction- Fair
Catching the eye of local yachtsmen, it wasn't long before others had placing orders for
"Beetle cats" of their own. And over time, thousands were made with fleets all over the
New England coast. These little cats are probably the oldest one design class in America.
A one class design also means that one boat will not have an advantage over another when
racing, same length, beam sail area.
The dimensions of these boats, with a length of 12' 4" and a beam of 6'makes it a stable,
compact craft for beginners and a perfect size for one or two out for a days sailing
adventure.
Making the model....
Think of it as a 'stretched Beetle' :-)
To attach the spar to the mast I tied a length of rigging line using a fishermans bend to both pieces.
There should be enough line between spar and mast to allow the spar to swing side to
side when changeing tack, about a half inch.
Stability (no ballast)- Good
Windward Ability- Fair
Swiftness- Good
Manoeuvrability- Fair
Lateral Resistance- Good
Sail Adjustability- Fair
Ease of Construction- Fair
Every model you design, to a degree, is an experiment, you never know for sure how well a
model is going to perform until it is put to the test. With experience you can make a
good guess, but that's all. This makes it all the more interesting, first the concept,
then putting it together, and the final test run.
This is one of the largest single sails I ever made. (approx.98 sq.in.)
Large sails can sometimes be a bit unwieldy at first when brisk winds generate turning
forces that turn the model windward. This disappears when the boat starts to pick up speed.
The lateen sail reduces problems like the one above, because about one third of the
sail area sets before the mast. This moves the sails centre of effort closer to the mast,
where the sail pivots, and thus, the turning radius from the centre of effort is reduced.
Along the boom, you first run the mainsheet through the hole of a plastic fitting, then
work the fitting down the length of the boom to about the centre. This is where the boom
sets against the mast. The end of the line will slip down the gooseneck.
With the preventer, in a good breeze when sailing "off" or downwind, the model literally
sails itself, you scramble to keep up or let the line "power spin" off the reel.
- On both ends the "worked" surfaces turn right up to the middle of the hulls thickness
measured down from the deck. This is done by drawing your working lines on the hull,
placing the hull 'belly up' on a work bench and go at it with a wood plane. Then follow
with some sanding and prime coat for paint.
Stability (no ballast)- Good
Windward Ability- Very Good
Swiftness- Very Good
Manoeuvrability- Good
Lateral Resistance- Good
Sail Adjustability- Fair
Ease of Construction- Fair
