AMATEUR BOAT BUILDERSA S S O C I A T I 0 N

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Geoff Leggatt,

John McKUlop.

Chris Davis,

Mike Beilby,

MAR/APRIL '01

ABBA COMMfTTEE

President, ph 9410 1900 (Wk) 9367 3595 (Hm)

Secretary, ph 9410 1900 (Wk) 9313 7442 (Hm)

Treasurer, ph 9222 5664 (Wk)

Newsletter, ph 9397 6209 (Hm)

Contact any ol these lour people lor clarification ol association activities.

ANOTHER SHOW AND TELL - OUR SECOND.

9387 5042 ( H m )

With only three speakers on the agenda forTuesday 30 January the programmer soundeda hit thin, but what a silly prejudgment thatwas! Each talk could have filled an evening'sprogrammer on its own, given a bit more timeand space, and we had three widely diversetopics to savour. All three talks were welli l lustrated by photos scanned into a lap-topcomputer by John Harskamp and thenprojected onto a screen. I don't know howlong this sort of preparation took John - itmust have been some t ime - but the resultwas extremely professional and added to theenjoyment of the evening. The speaker wasable to use a remote control to shift picturesand this even incorporated a laser pointer.Where do we get all this technology? AskJohn Harskamp and Chris Davis, theyorganised it.

The evening started with Hans Harskampdescribing his a luminium half-cabin launch,

"Water World". This is a Dave Jackmandesign, stretched a l i t t l e to 23' long, and theplans came on a cont inuous roll of mylarmeasuring 21' x 6'. Hans sounded veryhappy with the plans but they wouldn' t sui teveryone because they gave plate shapes onlyup to the chine line - choice of freeboard andsheerline are up to the builder - whether thefinished product resembles an aircraft carrieror a banana, it's up to him.

From the photos Hans seemed to have chosenfa i r ly generous freeboard, g i v i n g goodaccommodation and a dry boat, both usefulcharacteristics when the boat is taken on ilsfavourite fishing run to the west end of Rotto.The a l l -up bui ld t ime was an almost recordeight weeks at Hans' place of work as aboiler-maker/welder. The entire constructionwas in 4mm a l u m i n i u m rather than movingbackwards and forwards through 2.5mm and3mm, resulting in a boat s t i l l not too heavy at

about a tonne. A good marine-grade alloywas used, cut simply with a small electricjigsaw and cleaned up with an electric plane.More sophisticated machinery, in the form ofa I lydrahend press, was needed to bend thesuh-lloor sections with a careful choice ofradius to avoid cracking the alloy.

The finished boat sleeps three, has no lessthan 200 litres of fuel below the cockpit floorand is powered by a very economical 80hpSuzuki four-stroke outboard. Mans kepttrack of all his costs and they were basically$4573 for materials, plus about $2000 for 2-pack paint,etc, with about $10000 in themotor, however the finished boat is worthmuch more than the sum of those parts. Avery professional project.

The next speaker was a workmate of GeoffLeggatfs, Rolf Heidecker, who a couple ofyears ago completed a Lidgard 35' yachtwhich he's called "Balance". Like Mans, Rolfstarted out as a boilcrmaker, but he now has adegree in mechanical engineering so there's awide range of ability there. Since he wasplanning a yacht in strip-plank Rolfexperimented first with a 17' Canadian canoe- not a bad project in itself, completing thatduring his third year Uni exams. The canoewas in Western Red Cedar but for "Balance"end-grain balsa "Ouracore" was chosen.

Displaying some lateral thinking, Rolf choseto build the hull's accessories ahead of themain boat - rudder, pulpits, lesser fittings,that sort of thing - rather than have acompleted hull sitting around while thesecomponents were constructed. He'd spent$6000 on plans so I guess he could be fairlysure all parts would fit. The hull was plankedup in Duracorc, reinforced appropriately withglass fibre and then sheathed inside and out.Deck and cabin were made up the same waybut not fitted until the below decks fit-out

was complete. When the deck was finallyfitted, this was done with the wholearrangement upside down so that whenglassing inside the joint gravity helped, ratherthan hindered the operation.

I think Rolf must have had access to a nicecheap crane because he used one to turn thehull several times, each time using the crane tolift the shed roof off first! I lost track of thenumber of times Rolf did this, but it musthave been three or four. Rolfs determinationto do it all himself even extended to castingthe 1.5t ballast keel. Now 1 know earlybooks of amateur boat building take thisactivity for granted but with many foundriesdotted around (he place not many presentday builders would tackle it. Modernpolystyrene helped in the pattern-making, asdid cpoxy-sand for the mould, but the castingstill took two attempts, the first endingdisastrously when the mould burst under thepressure of molten lead, leading lo the secondmould being buried in the ground on aKojonup farm before pouring. The fin isextended in timber to meet the canoe-bodyand even goes further into a centrecase in thehull for stiffness. This yacht could fallsideways off a 20m wave and survive.

The yacht is rigged with a double spreader,fractional mast with diamonds and draws noless than seven feet of water. Although hewouldn't want to go any deeper, Rolf foundthis draft manageable during an eighteenmonth north coastal cruise, providing carefulattention was paid to tide tables andappropriate calculations made. The cruisestarted with participation in a Fremantlc-Carnarvon race, followed by sailing around"the top" and ended with participation in theHamilton Island scries of races in Queenslandbefore bringing the boat home by road fromBrisbane. Spectacular photos taken on theKing George River in the Kimberleys served

to illustrate the great versatility of "Balance"as both a cruising and racing yacht.

Following a coffee break, Peter Leggattrounded off the evening with a summary ofhis lifetime in boats. He started the saga offwith details of a couple of models built whenhe was a lad, including a rather nice vane-steered example before moving on to hisfather's construction of the elegant 30 sqmetre, "Flame". This must have been a hugeproject, even back in the early fifties whenpeople were more accustomed to doeverything for themselves. "Flame" wasplanked in paranha pine on karri ribs withjarrah keel, stem, etc. Peter's launch dayphotos for the 6 Dec, 1953 included shots oftowing the j inker through Perth streets toreach the river and the tediousness oflaunching on RPYC's original and inadequatelaunching ramp. Although cut down to amasthead rig (originally fractional with twospreaders and diamonds) she is still afloat andsound today.

Peter's own first building project was adinghy which was entirely appropriate as fewyacht club members had pens and almost allkept their yachts on moorings. This wasfollowed soon after by the building of a Gwen12 when Peter was still only 13. Evenallowing for parental assistance it must havebeen a big project for such a young teenager.

"Flame" was replaced as the family boat by aDavid Beech-designed launch in the early

'60's. This boat was originally bui l t with aconverted car engine as an inboard but waslater adapted to an outboard motor. Anotherdinghy followed, this time with interestingoutrigger rowlocks, before Peter acquired anolder yacht, the 26' rater, "Tuna" which hadbeen drying out for a couple of years. Thiswas an unbal las ted , open cockpitcentreboarder with even the rudder lift ing inits own centrecase - great for shallowbeaching! Recaulked, "Tuna" became anexcellent, lightweight racing yacht.

Eventually, probably under pressures of ag r o w i n g f a m i l y , the more s o l i daccommodation of a van der Stadt "Primaat"beckoned and "Buccaneer" was purchased.This offered an excellent compromisebetween racing and Rottnest cruising.Final ly, eighteen years ago now, Peteracquired his present yacht,"Restless III".This is a Swanson 31, "Carmen" class double-ended mast-head sloop, planked in 1 1/4"jarrah and Oregon on karri ribs. She is idealfor the cruise to Rottnest and as a twilightracer her visitors' book now boasts over 500different entries. Although Peter himselfretired recently, this is clearly not an optionhe's prepared to offer to "Restless 111".She's going to go on providing pleasure formany years to come.

And so ended our second "Show and Tell"evening. Once again the time passed all tooquickly and we are left looking forward to thenext occasion in about a year's time.

HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES - LUXURY MOTOR YACHTS.

On Saturday 17th Feb we were treated to atour of two projects at the Egmont St worksof Oceanfast Shipbuilders in Henderson,courtesy of President Geoff. It was all a farcry from backyard boatbuilding, believe me.Available for our perusal was a 30m Sports

Fisherman and a 55m yacht being built for aGreek owner. The predecessor of the lattervessel was the victim of the infamous fire ofabout a year ago. I don't think the owner willbe calling his yacht "Phoenix" because ithasn't risen from any ashes - it's entirely new

LUXURY MOTOR YACHTS

Geoff {far left) addresses some ofthe group in his office.

Scaffolding hides the bow of the55m yacht.

On the stern deck of the 55m.Overhead beams will all be boxed in.

Rudders for the 55m. They're smallbut shafts are massive.

OCEANFAST, HENDERSON

Stern area of the 30m. And this is supposedto be a small boat!

Scaffolding also obscures the sideof the 30m.

A workman fits a concealing panelat Ihe stern.

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Secondary cosmetic t i l l i n g on the 30m.That's detail attention for you.

- even the unharmed engines were abandonedin favour of new ones.

The Oceanfast design team, of which Geoff isdesign manager, has expanded rapidly sincethe company became a subsidiary of AustalShips, in line with Austal's policy of doing asmuch work "in house" as possible. The teamnow numbers 32 and designs anything largerthan 30m on the premises. Smaller projectsare still designed out, usually by Dave Woodsof Sydney. Most projects are tank-tested inan appropriate tank in Europe, usually inVienna or the Netherlands - not even Austalis ready to build a I00m tow-tank yet.

The two vessels we saw had many features incommon, not the least being their twin tunnelprop drives. Basically each prop operates ina half-tunnel scooped into the bottom of theh u l l . This allows a generous gap betweenblade tips and hull, to minimise noise andvibration, while still allowing a reduction indraft. The only difference between the twoarrangements was that whereas the largerboat's tunnels terminated well before thestern (rather more abruptly than they started,in fact) the smaller one's ran straight throughto the transom - a much better idea, onewould think, at higher speeds, and even thelarger yacht does a healthy 25 knots despitethe props being geared down to about600rpm. The smaller yacht has a nattyretractable bow-thruster whereas the largerhas a conventional bow thruster but extendsto the luxury of three ride control fins tocontrol pitch and roll - we don't want to spillthe martinis, do we?

Another feature the two had in common wasthe super light panel material used in theinternal fitout to save weight and improveperformance. It's based on an aluminiumhoneycomb core faced with a compositeplastic material to which is glued a thin

natural wood veneer for appearance. I wouldthink plywood panels would be at leastdouble the weight and less stiff.

But perhaps the outstanding feature commonto both vessels was the attention to detail andstandard of finish displayed. Unlike thecommercial ferry we earlier viewed atWavemaster, these are personal possessionsintended to let the owner tell the world thatHE HAS MADE IT. After grinding off allhigh spots generated by welding, each hull isentirely sprayed with bog/filler, often morethan once, and entirely hand sanded withtraditional torture boards to create the perfectfinish. Bathrooms and shower recesses arelined with fake (lightweight) marble, or insome cases where performance is secondary,the real (heavy) stuff. On the bridge of thelarger yacht the five (count'em, five) videodisplay screens were each mounted insurrounds trimmed in real leather.Unfortunately neither yacht was close tofinished in the internal fitout so the full extentof the luxury finish was denied us (but wesaw a lot of complicated wiring and plumbingthat will later be hidden); however Geoffmade available brochures of the company'searlier vessels and believe me, the plushhotels of New York and Paris have nothing onthe internal finish of Oceanfast's products.

Geoff told us that engine fitting was a tadmore complicated in vessels in the luxurymarket than in the commercial ferry field - inthe latter "soft" deck areas are providedabove the engines, which can easily be clearedto allow the engines to be hoisted out foroverhauls which are fairly frequent incommercial operation. In contrast the yachtsdon't do many hours of running and sooverhauls are infrequent. The decks abovethe engines are finished according to theinternal designer's prescription and aregenerally quite unsuitable for engine removal.

Instead, while on the hard, a hole is cut in theside of the hul l and the engine removed andinserted through that. The hul l is then weldedup and repainted. In effect the hul l side is asofter option than Ihc dcck(s). The largeryacht was in the process of having this donefor the initial tilting of the engines, in fact.

The fire which earlier devastated the works(and the 55m vessel), although probably aone-off, has led to at least one change. Nowhulls arc fitted with their working sprinklersystems at the earliest opportunity so that

automatic fire fighting can commence straightaway should a fire break out on board. It's asensible precaution with lols of f in i sh ingchemicals, fillers and paints around but let 'shope it's not needed again anyway.

Once again the visit gave fascinating insightsinto the world of commercial boat bui lding{and also of luxury yacht ownership; it didsuggest some options for when I win Lotto)and we are indebted to Geoff for organisingthe visit in an otherwise restricted area.

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ADMINISTRATIVE

MARCH EVENING MEETINGTuesday 27th.

Our first guest speakers for the year will be asteam buffs, Doug Baker and Lindsay Adams.Doug operates a small engineering businessfrom his home in Scarborough and is makingthe steam plants for Alan Maffey 's and hisown Victorian river launches. We saw Alan'sboat, almost finished but sans engine, somemonths ago at his home in Como. The enginewas not available to us at the time. Doug isbuilding a boat out of the same mould as Alanbut because of the time he's spent on theengines his hull is not as far advanced. Nowwith at least one engine complete he isprepared to bring it along to an eveningmeeting and talk about it. Yes, I've warnedhim about the stairs and he says that's OK,but 1 don't think we'll be seeing the boiler thesame way, somehow. Lindsay wi l l assistDoug and the pair wil l also bring a smallcollection of working steam models whichwil l be steamed on the night.

This would appear to be a fairly specialisttopic but steam is an energy source withmuch more character than anything else andeven for those who don't intend to dabble init there wi l l be much of interest to learn.

GENERAL

Members Clive Jarman and Peter Leggatt willhave returned from ES forays by now. Cliveattended the Traditional Boat Festival atGoolwa and Peter did the same in Hobart.Perhaps they'd make a double act at the nexteveningmeeting?

Geoff and John wil l select library books onthe subjects of catamaran design and gaff rigsand bring these along for borrowing on the27th March. In the meantime we're told that"Wooden Boats, a Maintenance Manual" byJohn Scarlett has been purchased and is intransit. We're also expecting a donation fromDoug Baker in the form of a book onpropeller design and selection.

APRIL TOOLBOX VISITSat 7th April, 2pm

Our toolbox visit this time will be to theprivate maritime museum of Barry Hicks at49 Lacey St, Cannington. Barry, togetherwith his son, Robin, is a traditional ship riggerwho has turned his backyard workshop into amuseum oftraditional nautical memorabilia. 1was lucky enough to see it in its early stagessome years ago and much has been addedsince then. These days (he collection runsfrom 6' double ships' wheels th roughbinnacles, lamps, ships' bells, spars, modelsand rigging blocks in a huge range of sizes. Avery extensive collection of traditionalwoodworking tools is also included. I 'm toldmodel builder, Brian Lemon will also be onhand with some more of his exquisite modelsfor us to see.

U n l i k e some folk museums one can seearound the country, the presentation is to ahigh professional standard and a groupbooking such as this is the only way one canview the collection. This could well be youronly chance, so make the most of it.

CALENDAR

Tues 27 March.Doug Baker and Lindsay Adams.Small Boat Steam Power.Mounts Bay Sailing Club.Upstairs, Perth end.7.30 for 8pm.

Sat, 7 April.Toolbox Visit, Hicks' Maritime Museum49 Lacey St, Cannington.From 2pm.

Monday, 16 April.Committee Meeting, 7.45pm.