AMATEUR BOAT BUILDERS'A S S O C I A T I 0 N

Geoff Leggatt,

John McKillop.

Chris Davis,

ABBA COMMITTEE

President, ph 9410 1900 (Wk)

Secretary, ph 9410 1422 (Wk)

Treasurer, ph 9222 5664 (Wk)

JULY/AUG '00

9367 3595 (Hm)

9313 7442 (Hm)

9387 5042 (Hm)

Mike Beilby, Newsletter, ph 9397 6209 (Hm)Contact any of these four people for clarification of association activities.

HOW IT ALL BEG AN

Our meeting for May was extremely wellattended, perhaps because we were to beaddressed by the grand old man of WA NavalArchitecture, Len Randall. While it was greatto witness the attendance, it was even betterto be able to hear the man who was in at thevery beginning of boat design in this state.

Len started by briefly reviewing the earlyhistory of yachts starting with the Dutch andCharles II and moving through the 18thcentury racing developments and final lyreaching cruising boats which he feels werenot developed until after World War 1.

Len's own design career spans sixty years,starting with a 15' chine sailing boat. Hetaught himself the craft, because there wasnowhere to learn it in WA, leaning extensivelyon high school maths. All I can say is that hemust have understood calculus better man Idid. Books by authors such as HowardChappelle and Norman Skene were his chiefguide, of course. Professional recognitioncame with the presentation of a thesis to the

UK-based Royal Institute of NavalArchitects, of which he was made anAssociate.

Serious keelboats with external ballast onlycame on the local scene during World War II.and Len designed and built for himself thesecond of these, "Rebel" and at this point hedecided to make Naval Architecture hisprofession. "Rebel" led to many Randalldesigns, including "Rugged" which won theinaugural Fremantle - Cape Naturaliste race asit did the return event, averaging a then-astonishing 7.75 knots off the breeze comingback. Since then he has designed anastonishing range of yachts from "Gemini", atiny double-ended class boat, through to quitelarge boats such as the 60' "Red Boomer"(one of many of his designs to circumnavigatethe globe) and extending to 73" designs.

All the new yachts in Western Australiawould never be enough to keep the wolf fromthe door, of course, so Len has relied oncommercial fishinii boat design to fill out the

portfolio. Many of these have been designedfor fibreglass but he welcomed the coming ofaluminium to the game with the associatedremoval of the fibreglass mould, allowingchanges to individual boats duringconstruction. All told over twenty five yearsLen estimates six to seven thousand boatshave been built to his designs.

From the early days of local yachting Lenremembers the perfect quality of the timberavailable, especially jarrah, with flawlessplanks around 30' !ong being available. Ah,those were the days. Of course racing designsdemanded something lighter so Oregon wasthen used for topsides. In steam-bent timberstuart would outlast karri, but both madeexcellent ribs. For decks Len has alwayspreferred plywood, even in the early dayswhen it was battling to be accepted by themajority. This soon led to its use in crayboathulls before fibreglass and, later, aluminium.Meanwhile racing yachts went away fromtraditional planks to cold-moulding using avariety of timbers including luan, Oregon,Queensland maple and red cedar for theveneers.

A spirited discussion followed an audiencequestion regarding sailing balance in yachtdesign and it Len made it quite clear geometricbalance between centres of effort and lateralresistance was only the very beginning of avery complicated problem. Certainly he feelsthat the major element in the balance equationis tied up in hull dynamics, angle of heel andangle to the wind.

There was a lot to discuss and the audiencewas eager to listen, but when the talk finallycame to an end it started all over again as Lenunrolled about a dozen of his early designs forour perusal. I think the only people makingthemselves coffee during this phase werethose who couldn't get space at the table tostudy the plans and ply Len with furtherquestions.

All in all it was a great evening which passedall too quickly and we are indebted to Len forhis time and his ability to hold an audiencewhile giving us the benefit of his long years ofexperience.

THE JUNE TOOLBOX VISIT

It wasn't a good day, weather-wise, for thevisit to Steve Key's project in Orange Grove.It was overcast and lightly raining all the timeand Steve has only a leaky lean-to which isneither as long nor as wide as his huge Frers40. But fortunately the very size whichmakes the boat a liability on the outsidemeant that it was large enough toaccommodate all visitors on board, in thesaloon mostly, at one time! Having said that,it soon became an inspiring visit in terms ofthe amount of work Steve has achieved, and isyet to achieve.

The first and best known Frers 40 in thisstate was the nun ocean-racer. "Hitch Hiker".

built for and raced by Peter Briggs about adecade ago. Since then about eleven othershave been moulded here but few haveremained in the state. Steve's sample waspurchased privately from someone whoobviously had second thoughts about themagnitude of the task ahead. It came as anempty, unworked shell and an unfitted deckactually moulded for a Prestige 40 (a slightlyshorter vessel). Steve can best be describedas a competent optimist and the first thing hedid was have the hull ultra-sound tested forshell thickness. This proved to be a bit thinin places so was built up with extra layersinternally. Then the deck was 'glassed onwith five lavers of !.8 oz. tri-axial cloth

FINISHING A FRER5 40

The sharp end. Pulpit and lifelinestanchions in place, but most of thework's been happening inside.

The blunt end. Neat steps mouldedinto transom have failed to show upin this shot.

Looking aft from saloon. Bathroomenclosure on left, galley on the right.Removable companionway steps(centre) give access to the engine.

Looking forward across the saloon.Temporary lifting tackle on left is formoving one of four water tanksunder the side seats.

Here the aft quarter berth lies to theleft and the fuel tank is in position,hung under the cockpit floor, onthe right.

Shower recess, bathroom and toiletall fit in beneath the ample side-deck.

before trimming down on the outside andbolting on an aluminium toeraii.

In consultation with Kim Swarbrick aninternal layout was designed and all necessarybulkheads and other dividers were cut fromply and glassed into place. A high standardof finish is already displayed in many ofthese areas with a lot of careful filling andsanding of corners and the like, so that thefinished job will be at least the equal of theexternal hull. A Yanmar 40 and sail-drive arenow installed under the main companionwayand Steve assured us it was an easy removalthrough the hatchway when the worst comesto the worst. Astern of it and hard up againstthe cockpit floor is the S/S fuel tank giving aneasy gravity feed, (the cockpit floor is notremovable which will make access to thesteering gear difficult, but not impossible,when the time comes for that installation).

Currently the galley is all but complete, andthe shower/bathroom/toilet is at least halfwaythere. These areas are either side as onedescends the companionway. Aft on thestarboard side lies the navigator's cubby holeand then a quarter berth. Aft on the port sidethe boat is beamy enough to allow the maindouble berth, just Ahead of the galley onefaces the beamy main saloon with currentlyfour S/S water tanks going in under the saloonberths. The mast-butt pierces this area andwill require a wrap-around table but there'sno bulkhead as such here, just half bulkheadsunder the side decks to take the chainplates.Further ahead there is a bulkhead throughwhich lies the forepeak containing only oneberth and a natty little built-in seat whichSteve saw in another boat and copied.Steve's order of operations follows asequence he found laid out in a textbook, thename of which he couldn't recall, although hehas it all written out in an exercise book, andhe says everything falls into place quite well.Perhaps we can print this in the newslettersome time.

The temporary plywood cabin-sole lifts toreveal the massive twin Oregon floors glassedin to take the mast compression, and some ofthe adjacent, lighter floors made up from foamand glassed in substantially as they will allhave keel bolts next to them. The basic hullin this area is 28mm thick, built up to 40mmin the region of the bolts. That sounds like alot of fibreglass but then, there's going to be3.9 tonnes of lead hanging underneath andtrying to twist its way out of the hull withevery wind gust so it's better to be safe thansorry.

At the moment the fin keel only exists as acasting pattern stored in a small side shed,although the 25mm keel studs are machinedand ready. Steve is keeping the canoe hull asclose to the ground as possible until the fitoutis complete to minimise the amount ofclimbing and lifting. I think Steve may havethe rudder finished too, but we didn't see thaton the day. On the ground beside the hullthere's one of "Hitch Hiker's" three masts,purchased second-hand, as the start of therigging project. It will be shortened by abouta foot and the stainless rod shrouds will bereplaced by stranded wire because it doesn'tusually let go without warning. Whenfinished the boat will have 0.6 tonnes moreballast than "Hitch Hiker" and with theslightly shorter rig should be a more stablecruising boat with a ballast ratio near 50% andstill giving a good account of itself on the racecourse.

To my mind it's a pity that the Prestige 40deck doesn't give about 3" more head heightinside, but if it did we'd probably have someother critic, about 6'3" tall, complaining andasking for another 3". Suffice it to say thatthere's a lot more headroom than in mycampervan, anyway. If I were to change myvan for one with enough headroom I'd have todouble the investment - Steve's probablysimilarly situated.

With three years' work invested so far, andprobably another three to go, Steve is makinggood time for a backyarder and the finished

boat will be a great accomplishment, one hecan be proud of. We can only wish him allthe luck, enthusiasm, energy and resources toget it into the water and sailing.

ADMINISTRATION

OUR NEXT EVENING MEETINGBring your reading glasses and/or amagnifying glass to the next evening meetingon 25th July because the subject is physicallysmall. How else could we get six or sevencomplete vessels into the MBSC meetingroom? We will be addressed by model makerpar excellence, Brian Lemon. Brian will bringthree or four models to illustrate his talk andmember, Mike Igglesden has no less thanthree Lemon models himself and willhopefully bring those as well; Apart from theobvious "how do you make such-and-such sosmall" - type questions, I for one want tohear some examples of how Brian researcheshis subjects, because that has always struckme as being a very difficult area. Come alongand find out more for yourself

TOOLBOX VISITFrom.super-small we jump to super-big.forthe next toolbox visit; the construction of a26m commercial catamaran at Wavemaster'sworks at Cockburn. No, kiddies, do notattempt this project at home! But on theother hand, this is an opportunity to find cuthow the pros do it. The vessel, "Ocean Spirit1V ", already has a sister-ship afloat inSydney, and the owners like it so much (ormake so much money out of it) that they'veordered another, which is now nearingcompletion, and we get to see it on 12th Augat the usual time of 2pm. Since it shares drivebetween a sailplan and motors, I guess it'stechnically a king-sized motor sailer. It willcarry around 300 passengers on two decksand will mostly do lunch and dinner cruiseson Sydney Harbour as a restaurant vessel. Itstill seems magical to me that WA andTasmania have cornered at least the

Australian market for big aluminumcommercial vessels. Maybe we can find outhow it's done at the visit in August. Watchout! Cockburn Rd has been re-engineered atthe Russel Rd intersection. Lot 500 is on theinland side of Cockburn Rd, a little south ofRussel Rd. (see map on photo page)

ADMINISTRATIVEEvening meeting attendances have beengradually climbing, peaking at 24 for LenRandall's recent talk - a very pleasing sign.However we have decided to reactivate anearlier plan to furnish E.S. designers, etc, withcopies of an Association pamphlet to includein posts to any WA customers, in the hope ofrecruiting further members. We were offereda stand at the Perth Boat Show but are in twominds about this - we understand the showcaters strongly for ready-made fibreglass andaluminium boats, and we would find itimpossible to man the stall continuously forthe six days or so. Perhaps we could getanother stall-holder to distribute pamphletsfor us as an alternative.

CALENDARTues, 25 July, Brian Lemon on modelbuilding. MBSC, 7.30 for 8.00pm.

Sat, 12 Aug, Large cat. construction.Wavemaster, L500, Cockburn Rd. (just southof Russel Rd) 2 - 5pm,

Mon, 21 Aug, Committee meeting.