Technical Notes: Boatbuilding
Bronze belaying pins.
Pangur Ban has a few belaying pins in her rigging plan. Since I had the scrap and the lathe, I decided to make some bronze belaying pins.
Parrel bead turning.
Gaff-rigged boats generally need parrel beads to close the gaff jaws around the mast. Yes, there are lots of places to buy them. Some of those places are really inexpensive. I just thought I'd like to try making my own.
Mast Hoop Lamination Form (1.2 MB PDF)
The Egret plan calls for sails bent to mast hoops. Many home builders resort to sections of PVC pipe to make theirs. Wood hoops were what I really wanted, but they price out at around $20 each in the size I'd be needing. I'd seen a number of different ideas about how to laminate your own. I figured with a bandsaw, a homebuilt form and a bit of epoxy I could have what I wanted without breaking the bank.
Before laminating the two 1/2 inch layers of plywood for the bottom and sides, I thought it would be a good idea to test the method I planned to use. This gave me valuable information regarding strength and coverage.
This mast lamination method saves some epoxy and reduces, somewhat, the volume to be removed compared to simply starting with a full-length square timber.
Three-part die with first test thimbleJune 28, 2007
In my spare time I've been developing a system for making thimbles from copper pipe. The article is a work in progress, but there might be something there you can use.
All images and text Copyright Dale Austin, 1962-2008