A class yacht – Serica II

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

After a few weeks delay caused by the weather and a brilliant holiday on South Uist, Serica took to the water today, approximately 60 years after the hull was started by Arthur Levison. She only has her interim set of sails at present but they are good enough for test purposes. She sailed very well and was surprisingly manoeuverable given that she was designed to sail in a straight line. After a successful trial in the pond at Goole we will unleash her in a bigger pond this week, now we know everything works OK. Hopefully the full sized sails will arrive in time for the CADMA show in Doncaster, two weeks this weekend.

Gareth

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Looking very nice Gareth and most rewarding in your case

An excellent renovation

Can I put forward a novel idea?

Certainly, Bob

Could you possibly fit all that beautiful contraption in it's correct position above the rudder and control the rudder, using the contraption, but control the contraption via RC control?

It would be nice to see it working

Bob

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Bob,

I could fit the vane gear when the rudder is being operated by the radio controlled servo. The rudder linkage would then back drive the vane gear (when I get round to making the linkage which will probably be next week). I am not sure this would really show you how a vane gear works. If you want a proper demonstration come along to the CADMA show in Doncaster on the 3rd/4th June and I can show you more effectively.

Gareth

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

As a penultimate addition to this blog, Serica has now sailed a couple of times with its own set of sails. The rigging still needs a bit of tweaking and the mast is not yet in the optimum position, but we are getting there. It looks impressive, sails beautifully and handles really well, despite being originally designed to sail in a straight line rather than as a radio controlled racing yacht. Once we have the rigging optimised, the final step will be to unleash it on its own with just the vane steering to guide it. Here are a couple of photos of Serica sailing at Allerthorpe this morning.

Gareth

Edited By Gareth Jones on 02/08/2017 21:07:56

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