Whisper Too

[Whisper Too]

Hi- this is George - I'm a new member and bought a 1978 Sirius last October from a couple in the Nepean Sailing Club in Ottawa. I wanted a sail boat , my wife wanted a motor cruising boat so based on a friends recommendation and the pop up top of the Sirius thatts what we opted for. This year we are going mainly motoring with a small emphasis on sailing!!! We are located on the Rideau and bridge clearances are a minimum of 22ft - too low for the Sirius mast.

I've built a small cabin on top of the cabin roof which replaces the pop top and gives us about 6 ft headroom all the time - i can lower it for travelling on the trailer. I'm planning to build a 15 ft mast with a gunter rig to do a bit of sailing and allow us to deal with the bridges.

My Sirius came with a 8hp Nissan twin cylinder OB which although it seems big for the Sirius is very quiet and unobtrusive when motoring, and the only real problem has been the result of the shallow water in some of the Rideau and the depth of the rudder. It a real problem when reversing on the OB power. I've not found it easy to raise and lower the rudder so I'm thinking about a new design which would meet my needs for steering when sailing and motoring. Any advice would be welcome. and a design like the one Bob is suggesting is interesting. Bob do you have any details??

My big remaining job is cleaning off the swing keel and anti fouling which I plan to do at a friends marina later this year.

I'm glad to see that there is a Sirius Forum now. I've been looking since we bought the boat. One thing I would like is some design details of the boat, particularly around the rear flotation chamber.

I have a copy of the original Sirius Manual, which tells about the keel lock down system which some one was asking about. If any one is interested I could copy and e-mail.

Hope to keep in touch.

George



So far we've been out a couple of times this year

 

[rwb]

Sirius owner

Hi George, not sure about your new cabin top design. My boat came with a permanent wooden structure that was extremely heavy and the owner had cut away a lot of the cabin top and rear bulkhead to install this not so pretty design. Removed it and rebuilt boat back to specs. She would have been very top heavy under sail with the wooden house installed. Not sure this boat will sail well with a short mast. There are some great designs to raise and lower the Sirius mast easily. Check the other inputs on this Sirius discussion group for info.

The rudder design I talk about is designed on the CS22 rudder design. Yes with the Sirius rudder in the kick up position can be a job steering. If you are interested in my design I would prefer to talk off line if you can give me your email addy. It is almost finished mine....Bob

Hi- this is George - I'm a new member and bought a 1978 Sirius last October from a couple in the Nepean Sailing Club in Ottawa. I wanted a sail boat , my wife wanted a motor cruising boat so based on a friends recommendation and the pop up top of the Sirius thatts what we opted for. This year we are going mainly motoring with a small emphasis on sailing!!! We are located on the Rideau and bridge clearances are a minimum of 22ft - too low for the Sirius mast.

I've built a small cabin on top of the cabin roof which replaces the pop top and gives us about 6 ft headroom all the time - i can lower it for travelling on the trailer. I'm planning to build a 15 ft mast with a gunter rig to do a bit of sailing and allow us to deal with the bridges.

My Sirius came with a 8hp Nissan twin cylinder OB which although it seems big for the Sirius is very quiet and unobtrusive when motoring, and the only real problem has been the result of the shallow water in some of the Rideau and the depth of the rudder. It a real problem when reversing on the OB power. I've not found it easy to raise and lower the rudder so I'm thinking about a new design which would meet my needs for steering when sailing and motoring. Any advice would be welcome. and a design like the one Bob is suggesting is interesting. Bob do you have any details??

My big remaining job is cleaning off the swing keel and anti fouling which I plan to do at a friends marina later this year.

I'm glad to see that there is a Sirius Forum now. I've been looking since we bought the boat. One thing I would like is some design details of the boat, particularly around the rear flotation chamber.

I have a copy of the original Sirius Manual, which tells about the keel lock down system which some one was asking about. If any one is interested I could copy and e-mail.

Hope to keep in touch.

George



So far we've been out a couple of times this year

 

[Whisper Too]

cabin top

Bob - thanks for your reply. My cabin top is very light weight and does not involve any modifications to the existing cabin except removal of the pop top and the sliding cabin door. My mod is probably lighter than the pop top which is extremely heavy. My roof is simply canvas stretched over longitudinal battens. For trailering the canvas cabin top comes off and the sides fold in so it virtually disappears.

I'll follow up on the ways to lower the original mast.

I'm really keen to fix the rudder. The original is very difficult to raise and lower and almost impossible to hold half way up and with some of the water around here I need to back up some times in pretty shallow water. I was thinking of making a shallow (16 inch) deep, balanced rudder.

Any way my email address is gfield@ripnet com. Hope we can get in touch off line.

George

 

[Eric s/v Windrush]

Hi George
Interesting projects. I am interested in your gunter rig idea. Keep us posted!
Cheers
Eric

 

[BillyG]

Bob - thanks for your reply. My cabin top is very light weight and does not involve any modifications to the existing cabin except removal of the pop top and the sliding cabin door. My mod is probably lighter than the pop top which is extremely heavy. My roof is simply canvas stretched over longitudinal battens. For trailering the canvas cabin top comes off and the sides fold in so it virtually disappears.

I'll follow up on the ways to lower the original mast.

I'm really keen to fix the rudder. The original is very difficult to raise and lower and almost impossible to hold half way up and with some of the water around here I need to back up some times in pretty shallow water. I was thinking of making a shallow (16 inch) deep, balanced rudder.

Any way my email address is gfield@ripnet com. Hope we can get in touch off line.

George

Hi George. Yes, that rudder can be a little heavy. We've learned to mount the rudder prior to setting out, even though the launch site depth is a little skinny. Not sure if you have a line rigged from the bottom blade which is led to the top near the tiller and cleated there. Not too difficult to kind of pull on the line and push the bottom blade at the same time. OK, the swim ladder may get in the way and, oh ya, the backstay is jabbing into your side and, oh, the knees are hurting a bit.

But anyway, try the line if you haven't got one on there yet.

BTW, may I bother you for a copy of the owner's manual? Let me know and I'll e-mail you. Many thanks!

Billy

 

[rwb]

rudder

Hi all, the raising and lowering of the Sirius rudder was never a major problem with us. Once the hold down line was loosened the rudder blade would come up on it's own to the trail position. To lower we used the boat hook to push down while holding the hold down line. Worked okay, but our concern was lack of steering with the rudder in the up position, a lot of pressure to turn the tiller. To that end we designed and built a new style rudder based on the "CS22" pull up rudder. After a number of sails with this rudder design I'm very happy with it. It takes very little effort to pull up or deploy full down. The rudder blade is held in the desired depth by a ball lock pin. Here is a picture of the finished rudder and rudder casing. Sorry that it's a bit busy view wise, but I hope you get the idea.

Hi George. Yes, that rudder can be a little heavy. We've learned to mount the rudder prior to setting out, even though the launch site depth is a little skinny. Not sure if you have a line rigged from the bottom blade which is led to the top near the tiller and cleated there. Not too difficult to kind of pull on the line and push the bottom blade at the same time. OK, the swim ladder may get in the way and, oh ya, the backstay is jabbing into your side and, oh, the knees are hurting a bit.

But anyway, try the line if you haven't got one on there yet.

BTW, may I bother you for a copy of the owner's manual? Let me know and I'll e-mail you. Many thanks!

Billy

 

[Whisper Too]

new rudder

RWB - wow this looks like a great rudder. I did modify mine and made it wider and shallower but its a bit of bear and vibrates a lot . I like yours a lot better and will start one right away. I looked at some CS22s and the rudders appeared to be similar to the sirius but rotated 180 right out of the water but as you say this design eliminates steering with the rudder up - not good. In our last correspondence you said that you had some drawings and would send them to me - is that still on? Also I'd be interested in how you made the casing for the rudder and whether you have shaped the rudder to an aerofoil.
Also noticed that you store your trolling motor on the casing for the rudder. Ibet that enhabces the low speed steering of the boat - great idea. Definitely going to build one of these rudders.

George

Hi all, the raising and lowering of the Sirius rudder was never a major problem with us. Once the hold down line was loosened the rudder blade would come up on it's own to the trail position. To lower we used the boat hook to push down while holding the hold down line. Worked okay, but our concern was lack of steering with the rudder in the up position, a lot of pressure to turn the tiller. To that end we designed and built a new style rudder based on the "CS22" pull up rudder. After a number of sails with this rudder design I'm very happy with it. It takes very little effort to pull up or deploy full down. The rudder blade is held in the desired depth by a ball lock pin. Here is a picture of the finished rudder and rudder casing. Sorry that it's a bit busy view wise, but I hope you get the idea.

 

[rwb]

email address???

Hi George, I had requested your email address to talk further and you sent me one. I emailed you via the given address but never got any response...so I just assumed you were too busy to answer. If you would respond or give me another email address I will contact for exchange of info. You have knowledge of the CS22 rudder design so you know the basic design.

The upper casing is made from 1/4 ' layed up fiberglass. This came from the previous owners attempt to build the permanant wooden house that I had described and this fiberglass was from the cabin top of this structure. But I would use 1/4 " alluminium plate. The rudder bottom 2/3 portion of the 6 foot length is foil shaped and I used the design shape from the "Duckworks magazine" article dealing with rudder foil design. The trolling motor is a back up for the O/B. It is a 50 lb thrust but is not powerfull enough to use as my main source of power. Did come handy when the Evinrude O/B quit leaving the marina. Never checked the gas line hose connection, I was in a hurry and did not do a good pre flight check and the gas line to the O/B was not connected. I'll leave it at that but did run for a few minutes on the fuel bowl fuel..lol!!

But if you confirm your email address I will again attempt to contact you. Far too much info to put on here....Bob

RWB - wow this looks like a great rudder. I did modify mine and made it wider and shallower but its a bit of bear and vibrates a lot . I like yours a lot better and will start one right away. I looked at some CS22s and the rudders appeared to be similar to the sirius but rotated 180 right out of the water but as you say this design eliminates steering with the rudder up - not good. In our last correspondence you said that you had some drawings and would send them to me - is that still on? Also I'd be interested in how you made the casing for the rudder and whether you have shaped the rudder to an aerofoil.
Also noticed that you store your trolling motor on the casing for the rudder. Ibet that enhabces the low speed steering of the boat - great idea. Definitely going to build one of these rudders.

George