trailer and sails

vegatern · Jan 8, 2010

The forward bulkhead takes the load from the mast and rigging and transfers it to the keel and hull. Most, or perhaps all, of the cabin furniture, the bulkheads and half bulkheads, which make up the interior of the boat are structural in that they create a web that stiffens the hull and prevent it from flexing, which could lead to failure. Where are you located mike?
Craig Tern#1519

johndixon7677 · Jan 9, 2010

craig, frozen minnesota , planning for the bight of abaco berry islands and andros mike

________________________________
From: vegatern vegatern@...
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, January 8, 2010 11:54:40 PM
Subject: [AlbinVega] Re: trailer and sails

The forward bulkhead takes the load from the mast and rigging and transfers it to the keel and hull. Most, or perhaps all, of the cabin furniture, the bulkheads and half bulkheads, which make up the interior of the boat are structural in that they create a web that stiffens the hull and prevent it from flexing, which could lead to failure. Where are you located mike?
Craig Tern#1519

imbissfrank · Jan 9, 2010

Enough talk of the Berries !!!! I am sitting here in the middle of a winter storm, plenty of snow, cold, etc etc, Berlin, Germany My Kingdom for a Vega at Russel's Light in the Bahama Banks !Frank Gallardo Jr
sv Cin Cin V-2184
"May the warm wind at your back not be your own"

tim_klynn · Jan 9, 2010

I've thought about cutting access panels into the plywood underneath the settee bottom cushions, but have not done so because of concerns about structural stiffening.
I am guessing it could be done, but I think the plywood may be functioning as a diaphragm that provides lateral hull stiffening as well as preventing the forward bulkhead at the half bulkheads aft from flexing. But on the other hand, there are several boats that have eliminated the plywood and the settee altogether and are still afloat (as far as I know).

I am guessing there must be a link somewhere on a how to for strengthening the bulkhead under the mast. Does anyone know where it might be?

vegatern · Jan 9, 2010

I did cut access holes, about 16" square, in the plywood settee tops, 3 on each side. The boat still floats. I made covers then got bogged down thinking of flush hinges and latches so haven't quite finished. It's a terrible character defect I have, not quite finishing something but then starting a new and more interesting proj

johndixon7677 · Jan 9, 2010

watch out for the resident bull shark between little harbor and frozen and alder keys

________________________________
From: Frank Gallardo Jr imbissfrank@...
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, January 9, 2010 12:17:47 PM
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: trailer and sails

Enough talk of the Berries !!!! I am sitting here in the middle of a winter storm, plenty of snow, cold, etc etc, Berlin, Germany My Kingdom for a Vega at Russel's Light in the Bahama Banks !

Frank Gallardo Jr
sv Cin Cin V-2184
"May the warm wind at your back not be your own"

j.hunter9999 · Jan 9, 2010

Frozen Wisconsin. Looking forward to the South Pacific.

bobnlesafloat · Jan 10, 2010

Spring Fever has had access panels cut in the saloon berth bases since 2002 with no problems whatsoever - and we've had a few rough passages since - so I can't see it being a problem, though I never considered that this might have a significant impact on the boat's structural integrity when I did it.

There are two loose panels under each berth, I'd guess there size is about 14" x 18" each - to be honest the measurement was done far more scientifically than just by using a tape; I actually brought a slab of 24 beer cans aboard and drew around it, plus a bit of slack for it to go through. The perimeters of the 'holes' are edged with 3/8" x 1" battens screwed/glued to the underside which project 1/2" into the opening and the original bits of ply which I cut out just sit on top of them; other than the odd support batten 'popping' off and needing to be re-secured, they've never been a problem and make beer stowage/retrieval much easier. If I did the job again, I'd probably be tempted to actually remove the bases when I did the job, which would allow you to extend the athwartship battens to the full width of the settee bases and so provide a little more strength to the ply bases; ours have developed a slight sag over the years, which may be a result
of the holes slightly weakening them, or alternatively, it could just be that my bum's so fat from drinking all the beer stowed beneath?

The bunk bases are also peppered with 3/4" ventilation holes too, so I hope they don't have a serious structural function!

Bob Carlisle, Spring Fever 1776.

tim_klynn · Jan 11, 2010

Great post Bob, makes me laugh every time I read it. It also make me think that maybe I ought to scale back the hole sizes to 12 pack size to prevent temptation and the future overloading of the settees.....

bobnlesafloat · Jan 12, 2010

...maybe I ought to scale back the hole sizes to 12 pack size...

Sorry Tim, but that sounds very dangerous to me. A sufficency of beer in the saloon, forepeak and cockpit lockers, the bilges too for that matter is vital for a boats stability and thus safety; it's simple physics really:

Some fools still rely on lead or pig-iron, but if their boats were to start shipping water, they'd be stuck with the stuff; whereas if you use beer for ballast, then provided that you can drink it slightly faster (to allow for the differing specific-gravities) than the seawater which is leaking in, then you'll stay afloat; provided of course that you don't allow the resulting waste to sit in a holding tank, remember to bucket and chuck-it!

Nor should you worry if you discover that the quantity of stowed beer has put your Vega down on it's marks, just deep-six some of the less vital equipment to compensate; if you look carefully on top of most Vegas - fairly central and just ahead of the beam - there's this big metal stick, with some white flappy things and lots of wires attached to it (actually it's fairly easy to spot once you start looking for it) that doesn't seem to do a great deal and is a really poor design with regard to weight distribution, just dump that. Better still, if you sink a few cans of beer before starting on the task - always a good idea with any job - you will discover that there are actually two of them up there (I'm not too sure where the second one hides the rest of the time?) but if you undertake the removal then, you'll save twice the weight and can thus ship even more beer.

I also have a novel (and scientific) approach to saving weight in batteries by using whiskey & water to fill the cells, but as it can be dangerous - unlike the foregoing - if you get the proportions of the mix wrong, I'm reluctant to air it on a public forum.

Bob Carlisle
Spring Fever 1776
Mon, 11/1/10, Tim Klynn tim_klynn@... wrote:From: Tim Klynn tim_klynn@...
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Hull stiffening furniture and bulkheads
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, 11 January, 2010, 17:26
Great post Bob, makes me laugh every time I read it. It also make me think that maybe I ought to scale back the hole sizes to 12 pack size to prevent temptation and the future overloading of the settees.....

tim_klynn · Jan 18, 2010

Bob, Thanks for that very scientific explanation of the dangers of not shipping enough beer. I really took your advice to heart and had the engine torn out (to make room for more beer) and was about toss it overboard, but then my girlfriend put a stop to it and pointed out that after we ditched the white flappy things, we would have a hard time getting back to shore to resupply with more of those crucial 12 oz. safety items.
In retrospect, I probably just should have gone ahead and tossed the engine, as we did still have our radio and could have just gotten on the radio and explained the dire emergency that we were in (we now had a large volume of space that was unoccupied by beer, creating dangerous instability) and gotten a tow in.