I was going to say ask Rumblefish

awesome thanks guys, ill stay with stainless braid for now but might keep it in mind for a later project :)

one more coat on the port side and then that will be that area finished, then to start on the stern, small area left, hopefully wont take long.

ive also started on the rudder, light sand and fill then a few layers of paint should have it looking brand new again :)



Going to use the original hardware just clean it up.

Just a thought on the rudder.....worth putting a small 45deg chamfer on the trailing edge, say a flat of 3mm.

With the breeze you get over there a Red Witch is more than capable of 8knots and you may get a severe rudder hum/vibration.

The chamfer will stop this and worth doing now.

Cheers Rumble

what causes the hum/vibration?

Any small imperfections in the rudder surface causing cavitation

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Stuman92 said..
Cheers Rumble

what causes the hum/vibration?

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rumblefish said..
Any small imperfections in the rudder surface causing cavitation

Chamfering off the trailing edge of the rudder smoothes out sharp discontinuities. This helps reduce large eddies forming as the flow of water is suddenly disrupted at the trailing surface of the rudder. Basically chamfering the trailing edge puts the water that is cut by the rudder back in place gently,,,,cavitation at the end of the rudder is reduced,,,, cavitation is the empty void behind the rudder that tries to suck the boat backwards and as it collapses you feel it as a vibration. Cavitation is the name for the void and the vibration is the cycle, Water-void-water-void... = vibration

Your rudder already looks very foil like

Cheers Rumble and Jolene.
i figured that was the reason, makes sense but on the trailing edge it comes down to quite a "sharp" edge already.
ill get a picture today to show.

What an awesome diagram, id say mines around a 2 to 3

with a bit of file work ill have it down to a 5 and then time to paint :)

The previous Design caused some damage where the Eye bolt fixed to the hull, so i have cast in this lump of stainless steel to help spread the load.still needs a bit more paint and cutting back.



Heres my start on my new Tiller arm, a vast improvement over the old one which you can see leaning against the table on the left.






starting to get some shape into it now.
once finished shaping i will be having a pattern carved into it and then seal the hole thing in many layers of epoxy.



Havent got a picture but i have got the first coat of paint on the transom, makes a big difference seeing everything in white now.

ive also finally got the window frames so ill be able to make it water tight soon. :)

the tiller looks great

Thanks Andy :)

any suggestions on what to protect it with?
i was planning on using Epoxy, or is 2pac clear coat better

I would use outdoor furniture oil. Just keep recoating till it can take no more. Top up coat next year.

oil is definitely the easiest.
How come not a estapol or epoxy?

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Stuman92 said...
oil is definitely the easiest.
How come not a estapol or epoxy?

Stuman I just built a new tiller out of red oak and used the west system epoxy to coat. Come up a treat!

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Stuman92 said..
oil is definitely the easiest.
How come not a estapol or epoxy?

Epoxy is not UV resistant. Not sure on Estapol. If you use epoxy you have to cover with clear varnish and that's just a lot of extra work. When it's time to re finish there is a lot of work. With oil you just slop it on and wipe off the excess.

I did mine with International Goldspar Gloss, 10 coats, came up a treat.

I cover mine with an old cricket bat cover and if you want any finish to last I highly recommend getting a cover made for it. Also protects the tiller from rope burn where I tie it in the centre while she's moored

Did some reading and i think im leaning towards the Oil just for the ease of keeping it maintained.

Well the hull is all finished being painted, ive still got 2L of the paint left so i think ill use it to go round looking for imperfections.

Once thats done ill leave it a week then start wet sanding it.

Ive been working on all the removable hatches, sand prime paint. ill put some pictures up this afternoon

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rumblefish said..
I did mine with International Goldspar Gloss, 10 coats, came up a treat.

I cover mine with an old cricket bat cover and if you want any finish to last I highly recommend getting a cover made for it. Also protects the tiller from rope burn where I tie it in the centre while she's moored

10 coats! So basically 10 days to paint a tiller. I would say that's a little sad except I used to have the same problem!

That is what you have to do if you want this kind of result. And that is only 6 coats. Trouble is I am storing the tiller in my shed to protect it from the sun and have my spare tiller (a solid meranti log) on the boat.

yes I know it's alot but I wanted to do the job once!!

Boat was out of the water all winter so I simply sanded and put a coat on each night in the shed, only 15min work a night!!!

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cisco said..

That is what you have to do if you want this kind of result. And that is only 6 coats. Trouble is I am storing the tiller in my shed to protect it from the sun and have my spare tiller (a solid meranti log) on the boat.

Is that tiller extension rotating on one bolt with out a washer? I had to weld up one of these during the week when my son snapped the same on my Corsair.

Don't worry about that tiller extension. I fixed it right and there is no "klunk, klunk" in it.

I can't stand the single bolt type tiller extension.

Not only the clunking but also it drops and gets caught in the cockpit sides every bloody tack!!

Use the dinghy style now with the rubber ball joint. Just remember to take off after each sail as if you store the rubber ball joint bent, it will break eventually

So as i dont weaken mine i plan on making a piece of stainless steel that will "Wrap" around (dont worry there will be rubber to protect the wood) and clamp down with a wingnut underneath, and probably a ball joint linkage on top, will probably lathe the ball joint for the practice.

In other news Got the windows and wow..............there in pretty bad condition, black silicon everywhere......... Looks like its going to be a long weekend of cleaning that crud off :(
Deciding what color to paint the window frames also, thinking silver. Thoughts?

well after a lot of Foul language i got the old perspex out of the frames and wow, the person who was responsible for that atrocity should be shot, the silicone was everywhere!!!!!!!!! ill post some pictures of that laterIve also been working on all the hatches. i would like to come up with a different design for the main hatch but that can be job for later.


Rudder is finished just needs a wet sand/polish.


Looks all good in white, needs a pinstripe


Windows make it look a bit more finished.

beautiful looking yacht !!! so i assume you mean a pinstripe about 4" down from the toe-rail ?


after you float her for the first time , and see the water line . you may want to put a boot line just above the water line as well . gives you something to paint your anti to . ....

Cheers SandS

Yeah thinking Red Pinstripe


As its a trailer Sailor, Anti fowling wont be necessary, just got to make sure i keep it nice and clean.

You have done really well Stuman. Looks beautiful but for appearance sake I do believe you need to break up the all white with some contrasting colours.

Might I suggest a 2 inch stripe at the water line and a couple of narrower stripes just down from the gunwale.

These car yard "Strips and Stripes" guys have a big range of stick on stripes and know how to get them on straight. That is the hard part. They usually have a good eye for what will look very good too.

If you do not get the stripes straight, it will look awful.

Cheers Cisco

thats the plan a Nice Red Pinstripe down the side, was going for a double stripe , one about an inch wide and the other about half inch with a half inch gap.
heres a picture for example.



As Promised here's how bad the window frames are!!!!!!!!!!What Muppet thought ahh yes ive done a good job here.