My D5 set sail!

[jeremy]

After several years(!), my D5 finally set sail today. I took out it once before, just about a year ago to propose to my soon to be wife. However, at that time it was missing paint, fairing, and all of the sailing parts.

It finally came together today.

Check out the photos here.

Construction photos can be found here.

I had one minor mishap - the cleat that acts as the downhaul broke off the mast early on, so I had to tie to the cleat on the forward bulkhead. It worked fine as a downhaul, but it severely limited the ability of the mast to turn so the sail wouldn't always set quite right. In the scheme of things failing, though, that's pretty benign.

According to my gps:
Moving time: 2 hours
Odometer: 3.7 miles
Max Speed: 4.4 mph (this HAD to have been with a decent current)
Moving Average: 1.8 mph

Wind was < 10 knots. Sometimes considerably less.

While sailing, three different boats of people asked me about my little Mouche and thought she looked really fun.

A few previews:




For all you folks in Florida - that's a mountain in the background

[JohnH]

Jeremy,

Great to sea it in the water.

I checked your web site. Interesting music. I have a Martin D18 (about 30 years old) and love the old fiddle tunes on it; I'm a great fan of doc Watson.

Cheers
John

[UncleRalph]

jeremy,

Congratulations on your boat. Also, compliments to your launch day photographer. Very nice pictures.

Ralph

[jeremy]

John-
Thanks, I'm a big fan of Doc Watson, too. I've even been lucky enough to see him live.

Thanks Ralph,
It's no P19, but it's a start I'll tell the fiance you liked her photos.


I forgot to mention that I went through quite a few decent sized wakes in the boat. It shook me around a lot, but I stayed quite dry. Well, as dry as one can be in an 8' boat with a wet dog.

[John D Wiilimann]

Jeremy, tu as fait mouche, as we'd say in french. Meaning you hit the mark, you nailed it, bullseye. You're boat looks really nice and is an inspiration for me to get moving on my D5.

I see you really went to town on making it sturdy, double transom, fiberglass bottom, graphite centerboard.

Did you put a breathook(knee) on the stem? I see there is one on the plan but can't figure where to put it, maybe under the front seat?

What did you use for your mast ? How about the sails? Where about's did you find details on how to sew your sail; any books recommended?

Thanks a lot for the great pictures.

[jeremy]

Thanks, I appreciate your comments, John.

I really did go to town on making it sturdy. If I had to do it over again, I'd do less than I did. I like the doubled transom because the rudder hardware can go on there without reinforcement, but I think putting a nice backing block on there would have done the trick and saved some weight.

No breasthook. It's on the plans, but the seat goes right to the top there. I made sure the cleats up there were pretty beefy, though. There are knees on the aft transom.


The mast is two pieces of clear fir epoxied together and shaped into a sort of circle with a bit of planing and a lot of sanding. It's supposed to be tapered from 2" to 1.5", but mine isn't quite that tapered. My sprit was made similarly to the mast.

The sails are cream colored dacron. I actually used a kit from sailrite which comes with all the pieces cut out. Then, I sewed it by hand using techniques from the book The Sailmaker's Apprentice. There's a grand total of two different stitches in the whole sail, though, so it's not all that complicated. If you have a sewing machine, it'll be MUCH faster, too.

[chrisobee]

Your sail looks very professional. I am impressed you have the patience to do that much hand-work. Did it take you a long time.

[jeremy]

Thanks for the compliment on the sail. It did take a very long time to make it, but now I'm pretty good at handsewing.

It probably took me a couple months working on and off in the evenings to finish the sail. It was mostly done when it was too cold outside to work with epoxy, so at least it kept me going on the boat.

I also made a canvas bag to stow the mast, sail, and sprit. Canvas is MUCH easier to sew by hand than Dacron. This bag is definitely handy - just throw the whole rig in there and it protects it and gives you some handles.

You can just see the bag to the right in this photo:

[jacquesmm]

Look good, very good.
The sail would be perfect if the mast rotated freely in light winds. A Delrin or other plastic ring at the partner would help and a round mast step or a ball in the step, like a golf ball.
It will not make big difference sailing, it's just tinkering.

[jeremy]

Thanks a bunch, Jacques.

The mast would rotate much better if my cleat didn't break off, forcing me to tie off the sail to the forward bulkhead.

The bottom of the mast and the step are coated in epoxy+graphite, so they're pretty slick, but a golf ball or something does sound interesting.

I've thought about putting a delrin ring at the partner. It's clear that I'll need to touch up the varnish or maybe the varnish and epoxy on the mast and partner as they wear right now, so this might be a worthwhile investment.

Do you have any tips on how to secure the ring? Overdrill the mast partner hole, route out a step in the outside of the ring and throughbolt?