Another Navigator nearing completion Down Under

Lester Searle is nearing completion of his Navigator yawl Leighton.  Lester is building his Navigator in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, which is on the East coast of Australia - about midway between Sydney and Brisbane.

Lester named his Navigator in honor of his father and his service during World War II.

"Shes called Leighton which was the name of the British merchantman out of Liverpool my Dad was serving on in WW2 when he met my Mum in Fremantle West Australia."

 

Lester tells me hes "given the plastic a workout at Duckworks" and has "got to the really scary bit for me - the rigging."

"Still no rub rails  but think I will get her in the water sometime in the next few weeks."

"I am not an experienced sailor so this is the most mysterious part of the whole thing.  I am not an experienced boat builder either - gardener by trade and latter day pen pusher - so the building thing has been great fun."

 

Looks like fine workmanship to me, Lester!

"...sometimes I just go down to the shed (4th one so far in a seven year build) and look at her and feel happy. "

For his yawl rigged Navigator, Lester rigged his mainsail as a sliding Gunter main, but with a sprit boom in lieu of the conventional boom.  Ive seen this rig many times on other Navigators, but I havent heard much discussion from those who have used this setup.  Im very interested in hearing how he likes it.

Congratulations, Lester, on your accomplishments thus far.  We are all looking forward to your upcoming "splash", and wish you many, many years of joy and adventure aboard Leighton.

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Navigator Tacking angles

On the JWBuilders forum, Robert asked a very good question about tacking angles.  More specifically, do the 120 degree tacking angles that he measured with his compass coincide with those experienced by other Navigator yawl owners.

Ive often wondered the same thing.  It is widely accepted that yawls do not point quite as high as sloops, but make up for it on other points of sail.  So I uploaded the tracks stored in my Garmin GPS to have a closer look.

Looking at the tracks I quickly realized that I spend very little time tacking upwind.  This time of year the wind tends to come from the N or NW.  When I have a Northerly, I like to take a lap around Hat Island.  When I have a Northwesterly, I enjoy a reach down to Mukilteo and back rather than sail upwind to Hat.

But on closer inspection, I did find some good examples of Ellie tacking.  Here were tacking North inside  Jetty Island back to the boat ramp.  The wind is from the NNW.
 

 And heres a bit of tacking into a Northwesterly.

And finally, tacking into a Northerly, while fighting a little bit of counter current from the outgoing tide.

I dont know what the tacking angles are in these examples.  Ill let you be the judge.  I know that if I try to pinch Ellie any tighter than the angles you see, her speed drops off dramatically.

I hope this helps answer your question Rob. Comments are always greatly appreciated.

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Sailing with Andrews Navigator Wren

Sailing Ellie alongside my friend Andrews beautiful Navigator Wren at the Port Townsend Pocket Yacht Palooza Crooza around Marrowstone Island, Washington was a real treat.

 

Andrew did a magnificent job building Wren. Her beautifully varnished seat tops and laminated tiller are especially beautiful.  I love her colors, and envy the batten arrangement in her mainsail, which allows the main to be dropped without removing the battens, unlike mine.  Comparing boats was a learning experience for us both, as we pondered  each others ideas.  There are more photos of Wren here.

The Palooza and followup cruise were both fantastic.  We had every kind of weather, which made the trip quite interesting.  It was great meeting John Welsford again, albeit briefly, as John was quite busy tending to his Scamp Camp.

For more photos of the Pocket Yacht Palooza and Cruise, click this link.

Cant wait to do this again next year!

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Navigator Mast Handling

Theres been a bit of discussion on the Welsford Builders forum lately about stepping the mast on a Navigator or Pathfinder. How difficult is it?  Can it be done unassisted by anyone, regardless of age or physical capability? Is a tabernacle necessary? How about stepping the mast on the foredeck or the front thwart instead?  Should the mast be built hollow or solid?  From wood or aluminum tubing?

It all depends on the abilities and desires of each individual builder of course, and that is one of the big advantages of building your own boat.

I built my mast hollow using the birds mouth technique. This technique is a bit more work, but results in a mast that is up to 40% lighter and equal in strength to a solid wooden mast.  The technique is well documented at duckworks.  Its well worth the additional effort in my opinion.  A lighter mast is not only easier to step and unstep, but reducing weight aloft also improves a sailboats performance.

Here is a short video that shows how easy it is to step, unstep and handle the mast on my Navigator. My mast weighs 17 lbs (7.7kg) not including hardware.  It is not difficult to handle, and as you can see Im no athlete. If youre a Navigator builder, I hope this video helps you decide how to build your mast.

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Navigator Setup Times

A while back, someone on the JW Builders forum asked how long it takes to rig a Navigator for sailing after arriving at the boat launch.  Most owners replied that it took between 20 and 30 minutes, but one owner said it only took him 15 minutes.  It takes me about 30 minutes, but if it can be done in 15, Id really like that!

So I set up a camera to record myself rigging for this mornings sail, hoping I could spot which steps could be done more quickly.

Ive only reviewed the video once, but already I see room for improvement.

• Ive got a lot of clevis pins that use split rings.  Split rings are a pain and time consuming to attach and remove.
• I didnt realize how long it took to set up my roller furler.  Room for improvement there for sure.
• Too many lashings and bungee cords.  They take a significant amount of time to remove.

If you have any suggestions, please post them below.  Help!

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