Klaus S's NIS 26 Cruising "Charlotte" Part II

4 Years After Launching

Having already written a fair bit about my boat I thought a follow up about what did and what didn't work out well of the many modifications I did to her and add some personal observations about sailing these fine boats.

You might have guessed from my articles that I'm a bit of a tinkerer as far as my boat is concerned, always trying to find better or easier ways with regard to boat handling, rigging, cruising comforts etc. Well, some of these modifications worked very well while others are still in the process of being perfected and some were just a good idea at the time.

I start with the masts, as you know I made mine rotating and that idea worked out a very worthwhile modification. Even though it was difficult to align the deck and heel bearing on the main mast, the difference in sailing performance is very noticeable. Something I would definitely do again if I were to start over building her. And the ease of raising and lowering sail while not having to point exactly upwind makes all the difference when I'm out on my own.

My mast raising system works adequately, it still takes me two full hours on my own from pulling up in the car park to completely rig and launch the boat . Luckily, this does not happen more than three times a year since I keep her fully rigged on hard standing. I would go for the carbon fibre masts and some kind of tabernacle if I were to do it again, I have an idea how to do that which would work, even with rotating masts.

My mainsail has 7 battens and is rather heavy to hoist. They help when lowering the sail and it never seems to flog but I have to use the winch to raise the mainsail from about halfway up. Maybe 5 or 6 battens in the main and 4 in the mizzen would be a better compromise.

The classic cream sailcloth colour had faded slightly over time but my boat still stands out in a fleet, not always an advantage. :-)

I still have not yet used the third reefing point in the mainsail, wished I had once, on the last cruise or, else, found a way to set the double reefed main flatter while motor sailing to windward. Once there is a high stack of sail slides in the bottom of the sail track, sail setting is compromised, perhaps a gate to shunt the reefed portion below the boom is the answer. I do not use a reefing hook, there are separate luff and leach reefing lines on my sails. With the mizzen, having fewer sail slides, the sail slug stacking problem is not so bothersome.

I do use a powerful outhaul, which is hooked to the reefing cringle, and can flatten the sail some but there is room for more experimenting. I'll have to try the suggestion of roving the fall of the leach reefing line back to the same side as the sheave, apparently the bunched sail portion does not get squashed on the boom then but rather pokes out to the side of the boom where it is easier to tie the reefing pendants in it.

Talking about strong wind sailing, my boat is no fun in over 25 knots going to windward with little sea room to sail in (narrow channel) and a choppy sea to boot. Something I'll try to avoid in the future. Let's face it, these boats are not blue water boats capable to bash to windward in any condition. In flat water and moderate winds she sails upwind very well but once the breeze gets strong and the chop gets up, time to seek shelter or turn around. But, going downwind, even in 25 knots of steady wind, is fun. Once I had just a double reefed mizzen up and the boat kept hull speed with ease, just sliding down the waves for miles after miles. Because of the small sail area the autopilot could cope very well, it found the steering tougher on a reach in these conditions. Perhaps there is a lesson there, if my autopilot struggles, I have too much sail up - have to remember that! I've had white knuckle downwind runs with too much sail up, even if 11 knots on the GPS gives something to brag about later.

In the cabin, bits have been added after each cruise, a shelf here, stowage rearranged there, but overall I'm very happy with my layout and she's comfortable, living aboard. A good quality marine toilet with holding tank would be nice but the small porta-pottie will have do for now.

I'm pleased with my expensive Isotherm boat fridge, it keeps the food and drinks cold and its quite frugal on power drain. The 80 Watts of solar power I had available on my last cruise could reasonably keep up with all the electricity used aboard, I had to run the generator once on a cloudy day and again occasionally after one of the batteries had died. I replaced the two deep cycle batteries after that cruise, they had lasted 5 years. I hope the new ones fare better as the charging system is far improved from the earlier days. I now have 2 x 22W solar panels permanently mounted just ahead of the main hatch garage, these are angled to hug the cabin top and are hardly noticeable when standing next to the boat. A three stage regulator keeps the batteries charged while my boat is kept on hard standing and while on the water. I use a big flexible solar panel in addition to the fixed panels when cruising with the fridge in use.

I wish I had made provision at the building stage for routing additional cabling in the cabin, its getting very difficult to run extra wiring neatly out of sight down there.

The cooking and sink arrangement have worked out very well, the gas cooker is trouble free and very easy to use. Being right next to the companion way, any cooking smells and heat escapes straight up there and I rarely run the fan that blows air back from the forward hatch. The water storage (100 litres) appears to be plenty, I have not yet run out of water whilst out cruising although I do top up the water tanks when there is an opportunity and carry a separate jerry can of water to refill the solar shower.

My cockpit shades are still evolving, the latest idea is to have separate, cantilevered port & starboard shades for the cockpit as the mizzens lazy jacks make conventional, over the boom, shades very difficult to fit. The shade for the cabin fits over the aft end of the main boom and attaches aft at the stainless steel tube A-frame I have across my cockpit.

This frame has worked out very well and has multiple functions. As mentioned, the cockpit and cabin shades attach to it. It carries the 27 Meg radio aerial. It provides a convenient place to hang the boarding ladder from and the fixed rungs on the frame makes boarding my boat from the dinghy alongside easy. This frame, being about chest height when standing on the cockpit seats, makes a great place to stand and lean against while scouting the way ahead. One is out of harms way of the main boom and the mizzen boom there if a preventer for the latter is rigged on downwind runs. I often stand there when sitting down gets tiresome while sailing on long tacks.

The A-frame also holds the aft portions of the masts while the boat is being towed. I have a removable hinge fixture for the mizzen attached that makes raising the mizzen a work of seconds.

The base plates of the frame required additional gussets welded after cracks showed there at the conclusion of the 3000km boat towing on the last cruise. There was just a little too much flexing in the frame with the masts weight on top of it and the vibrations caused by road travel. I will have to fit temporary cross ties in future for long road hauls, to keep the flexing of this frame minimal. Otherwise it is just about perfect once I learned to duck when going forward in my cockpit. :-)

I now remove the booms from the sails while road hauling, the sails are carried in zippered bags on the port side deck, the mizzen boom strapped atop of them. The stanchions hold all in place. The main boom is strapped on foam pads on top of the masts, the lot is out of the way to give access to the cabin. I found the lazy jacks make the attachment of the sails to the booms fairly easy during rigging and the boom-less sails in bags are easier moved about on board during rigging.

The new drop kick rudder is a great success, it gives the boat a very easy and responsive helm, even with very little blade area down. I once wondered why my autopilot was working busier than usual, after leaving a shallow beach anchorage and raising sail, only to discover I forgot to lower the rudder blade - the boat was sailing happily along her course with just a foot of blade in the water.

The first time the lowered blade kicked back due to hitting something there was a problem as the blade had completely come out of the case and it was very difficult to reseat it from aboard as the blade was now floating behind, held captive only by the tangled raising rope. The solution was simple, I just have to remember to cleat off the blade raising rope as short as possible so the blade's top end cannot completely fall out of the case (which is open at the aft side) when kicking back to clear an obstacle. Reseating the blade is quite easy then.

I'm very happy with this rudder, I can at last sail or motor confidently in very shallow water with good steering control and it proved its worth many times over on my last cruise.

The motor raising/lowering arrangement also works well and I'm happy with it. I had re-arranged the sheaves for it to give a fairer lead to the raising rope, the 4:1 purchase is adequate but could be better since the motor is off balance on the vertical slides and moves not as smoothly as I had hoped for. I can always use the winch on the coaming to run the motor raising rope around, should I wish so.

I have removed the complicated rope push/pull autopilot to tiller attachments in favour of the conventional arrangement where the autopilot's heel pin steps in a bracket which is screwed to the port side of the motor house. The autopilot is now more exposed to the elements but it is out of the way, whereas, at its former location against bulkhead H, it intruded in the cockpit's comfort. I use a tubular section of a plastic bottle to slide over the autopilot's controls to keep the spray off the switches.

We did a fair bit of motoring on the last cruise but I also had gained enough confidence in my boat to sail off the anchor where there an offshore wind and sufficient sea room. Its actually quite easy, raise the mizzen and sheet it home amidships, leave the centreboard up, lock the tiller. Go forward and raise the anchor, the boat will start drifting backwards as soon as it's broken free. Stow the hook, go back & raise the main or sail off with just the mizzen up if so inclined.

Centreboard(s), as you know my boat has asymmetric centreboards, sharing the central trunk case on a common pivot shaft. The idea for them was accidental after, making and fairing them in halves, it was found the board would be too heavy to carry on my own once had I epoxied the halves together. So, I finished them individually, rigged dual raising tackles and left it at that. I planned to sail with only the windward board down to get the extra lift from its asymmetrical shape. This does definitely work, the boat will point very high indeed and leeway is hardly noticeable while sailing along at speed, in flat water. However, I have given up racing my boat and now exclusively cruise on Charlotte where the boards asymmetrical advantages count for less. Very often the centre board is not fully down and I have been known to not bother changing boards at a tack, leaving the 'wrong' one down. The boat still gets to where I want to go, perhaps more leisurely, but that's cruising. :-)

The board(s) are fully up on downwind runs and only marginally down on reaches, this gives a noticeable speed increase, especially in very light airs.

So, if I were to do that part again I'd make a single, 4" thick, symmetrical board, perhaps make it lighter and leave it at that. Even the off centre board idea has many merits as some builders would know. The large centreboard trunk in the middle of the cabin is about the only negative comment I ever hear on my boat.

Boat paint, my boat was painted with Brightside single pack polyurethane paint which was easy to apply by the roll and tip method. But, it does not seem to last long here down under. I repainted the hull after 2 years as this paint blistered at the water line where it was immersed for too long on a cruise. It is now, after another 2 years of solid boat use, time for another repaint job, probably next year. The paint has faded and starts to craze where the waves had washed it constantly, especially near the bow, it is still OK further up the hull. I had repainted the red boot stripe with 2-pack paint the last time and this has stood up much better.

The cabin top was repainted last year, the original job had crazed badly and small bits came off while washing the boat. Either I put it on too thin (too few coats) originally or it was just not up to the hot sun here. So far the cabin top looks fine, we'll see in another year or two.

I prefer my boat to keep on good looking and a quality paint job goes a long way towards that goal.

I'm seriously considering doing the hull in 2-pack next time, unfortunately the primer and undercoat are supposed to be also in 2-pack which means a hell of a lot of sanding to get the old paint off to do the job properly.

This paint would also fare much better when subjected to fender rubbing or dingy bumping alongside.

The non slip deck paint appears to last about 2-3 years without looking too grungy, it is not hard to redo, just a lot of masking off involved.

We tried to use a lanolin based antifouling for the recent cruise, one boat using the spray version, one the wipe on liquid and myself the grease variety. We all had lots of algae type fouling after 5 weeks in the warm tropical waters but no hard growth. The algae came off easily by washing and scraping on the other boats, on mine this job was very messy as I had to do it at home since there is very little underside access to the sharpie hull on my trailer. I would not recommend the grease type lanolin, its just too messy to get off and any rope dragging under the boat gets covered with the sticky stuff.

If I ever find an easy way to turn my boat upside down again, the bottom will be coated with the copper powder/epoxy product.

Life lines, these are great for confidence when sailing solo even if they do distract from the boats nice lines. Originally I had 3 stanchions a side and upper/ lower life lines. This made it very difficult to board over the side from a dinghy. With the new A-frame in the cockpit, the after stanchions were removed and the dual forward life lines terminated at this frame. I only fitted the upper life line aft from there, after threading it through a plastic hose first and fitting captive pin shackles to the ends. It is now easy to unclip this line at either end to board the boat, the plastic hose covering makes it gentler to lean against when sitting on the coaming.

The upper life lines always interfered with the main sheet and the boom vang when the boom was let out. I solved this chafe problem by crossing over the life lines from bow rail to first stanchion and again forward from the A-frame to the second stanchion. The chafing problem has disappeared with that modification, the crossed over portion of the line is lower though. Since there is no need to go forward on my boat while sailing that does not worry me.

Well that's it, thank you for reading. I'll try to include a few pictures of my last cruise.