dropbear68
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2013
- Messages
- 199
I have three boat all of which are in various states of being worked on, last year I was given a small gaffer, she is 16 foot long, timber, runs a timber mast and boom with a single gaff sail, she is very very aged, Im unsure how old it is but construction techniques and style of boat Id take a guess and say she is 1930s or 40s, I wouldnt call it a trailer boat either I cant imagine what a trailer for it would look like, during the process of cleaning the hull I found copper anti foul on the bottom, you wouldnt anti foul a trailer boat, the guy I got it from thought she may have either been built in Scotland or New Zealand, Im guess the latter the frames look to be made of Kauri Pine, the mast Im thinking is Celery Top, boom and gaff Im sure are cedar there very light, sail is nylon, the rudder is massive and strongly built, the pintles that hold rudder to the stern are solid bronze and half inch pins, all the nails and screws are bronze, a little bit of modern stuff is present, lots of bronze and copper fittings, she was pretty tired when I got it , she had been stored out in the open and over time the weather got to it, it needed a little bit of rot removal, at the moment Im still repairing the keel and the bottom as it will need to be fibre glassed below the water line, its a very unusual looking hull, Ill get some photos up soon, I have many questions on rigging, I know it had a bow sprit but I didnt get it or the tiller handle I need to fabricate these up, I want to run a small jib, I have found an antique snubbing winch ill fit on the fore peak at some stage, is there a rule of thumb for length of bow sprits?, the mast has two small pulleys either side of the halyard, on the transom are two bronze chain plates so Im guessing it had back stays to flex the mast?, it has a primitive boom vang, the keel on the insid eof the boat at the rear about one foot in front of the transom is a bronze U piece thats fitted to the keel with a big bronze through bolt Im assuming the boom tackle was fitted to this, I have a track with a running car Ill use in place of this, old is nice but ease of use is practical to me lol, it has no bouyancy at all, simple plank seats, Ill make some practical modifications but try and keep things aged, I have questions about the gaff itself and rigging it but pics will make what im saying make sense. Just incase any aussies who have been around the scene may know of it, her name is Puffin and she was bright yellow and red cedar coloured
