Two short videos of Geodetica sailing with a crew of four

Here's Geodetica sailing in a 12 knot breeze with a crew of four and the new Dyneema rigging. All the stays have stretched a bit and we will have to adjust: no problem!

https://youtu.be/H3jXnewE0zk

https://youtu.be/PHXm0qwYFK8

 

Dyneema rigging

 As anticipated last year, in the last few days we replaced all the steel stays with 4 mm SK78 Dyneema line. The splicing (all the 14 eyes for the forestay, shrouds and bridles) was done by Rocco Sisto, a very expert friend of mine who is the commander of vey high end vessels.

 

 We also bored two scuppers in the cockpit and retouched a few abrasions of the paint.

The picture below is an enlargement to show in more details the bridles

 

Yet another video...

...showing the first tack ever of Geodetica after the launch

https://youtu.be/PuuVRUe6bfo

A video of Geodetica sailing

Here's a nice video of Geodetica's first sail taken with a drone by our friend Vincenzo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N4T5nNH0Z4

Unused plans for sale!

During the (many) years I've accumulated a lot of original boat building plans which were never used to build a boat, so I've decided to sell those at 50% of their value. Among these, there are building plans (original, I repeat) to build the following boats:

• Tiki 26 (James Wharram)
• Haiku (Iain Oughtred)
• Ness Yawl (Iain Oughtred)
• Navigator (John Welsford)
• and several others...

Anybody interested? Ask for the full list!

First impressions after the launch

Currently Geodetica is stored for the winter but we need to do a few adjustements in time for the new sailing season.

1. The tiller needs to be shortened a few cm since it interferes with the rear aka: no big deal
2. The cockip needs two scuppers (as recommended in the plans) because sea water enters from the daggerboard trunk
3. the daggerboard needs to be strapped down in place because it tends to raise in the trunk due to the flotation
4. we are considering the possibility of the replacing all the steel stays with dyneema. 
   

Launch!

In the early afternoon we launched Geodetica. Several friends gathered at the beach but we had to wait the lunch break of the X-Cat World Championship which had been organized just in front of our beach!

And finally we did it. Here's a pic of Geodetica sailing with 4 people aboard: Cinzia (friend, colleague, co-builder e co-owner), Raffaele aka "Mummolo", Filippo aka "the Commander" and yours truly.

The boat is fast even with a payload of about 300 kg, tacks easily and has a very light helm. 

Thanks everybody from Cinzia e Pippo!

Ready to launch!

We spent the whole day today at the beach to rig the boat. The christening and launch will be done tomorrow. Wish us fair winds!

The mast is on!

In this week end we cut to size the forestay, shrouds and bridles

Luckily enough the designers allowed for using ties in various places in order to compensate for difference in sizes and to allow for adjustements. One nice addition were two fancy Sta/Master turnbuckles that I had purchased many years ago for our F18 cat and never used.

We would like to warmly thank our friend Filippo Vena, aka "il Comandante", boss of Basilicata Vela (the local sailing club), who assisted (and I'm using the term loosely) us in the rigging phase.

We will soon replace all the temporary ties using Dyneema.

Geodetica finally assembled on the beach

 Just back from the San Teodoro beach where we finally assembled Geodetica. We plan to return to it within next week to cut to size the stays and to raise the mast for the first time.

...and the second ama too!

 All the three hulls are on the beach now!

The first ama is on the beach

Today we've trasported the first ama to the beach. The second one will be trasported next tuesday.

Ready to transport the first ama

Today we loaded the first ama on the trailer.  Luckily enough the beach is less then 60 km from home!

Tomorrow we will do the transportation. Wish us luck!

The vaka is on the beach!

 Yesterday we successfully transported the vaka with the akas and the seats on the beach!

The vaka is on the trailer!

 We succeeded in putting the vaka on the trailer. We expect to go to the beach early next week.

Press stop: trailer ready!

 A good new at last: on August 5th the trailer passed the exam with the new tires and rims!

Asymptotically getting there

We are asymptotically approaching the launch date.  

Our trailer, surprisingly enough, didn't pass the inspection like it did three years ago. We presented it exactly in the same condition but this time issues were found in the size of tires. So we had to order a set on new tires and rims and then we will apply for another inspection. Oh well...

We ordered shrouds, sheets, halyard, blocks and the like for the rigging. The mast/boom/sails are waiting for us at the beach: the mast has been modified following the plans by adding 30 cm at the base. We also purchased a 6 kg Danforth anchor.

 

Last but not least, today we applied the decals with the name of the boat.

Jib cam cleats

Last saturday we installed two cam cleats for the jib on the forward aka.

Forgot this...

We had ordered 9 long eyebolts but we used only 8 for the amas.We then realized that the ninth eyebolt was supposed to support the mainsail block on the aft ama! We made an hole with 10 mm bit and than cut to size with a grinder.

 

Total work time to date: 805 hours

Ready!

After almost 10 year, almost exactly 800 hours of work - i.e. the building time estimated by the designers - the boat is ready for rigging. Due to limited tools and space, we spent two hours to assemble it but disassembling was much easier. It took a bit of curse words and sweat to convince the bolts to pass through akas, vaka and amas, but we did it.

It has been a nice ride but we spent much more time than originally foreseen, mostly because either Cinzia and I, in the meantime, were called to face more responsibilities with our respective jobs. Neverthless, as we said before, slow and steady wins the race. 

The next photos shows the milestone beer

and here's to you the proud builders.

Now we have to figure the best way to transport the boat to the beach, rig it and above all how to haul and lauch it: but that's another story.