Converting a sliding seat plan to a sliding rigger.

[Antiqua]

I am considering fitting a sliding outrigger to a 16 foot "Whisp" wooden skiif. It seems to me that the Glen-L sliding seat plans could be adapted by having the footboard and riggers mounted on a moving carriage, using four sheaves each side, two above and two below a pair of tubular rails.

The rails would be set up so that the whole carriage (including the outriggers) is mounted between the rails. The rails would be fixed at the forward end to the exisitng fixed seat in the boat, at the after end to a cross beam.

A similar rig can be seen at: http://www.virusuk.demon.co.uk/kataram/index.html
This company also use a sliding rigger system in their Turbo II skiff.

Any ideas or comments on this?

Regards

Michael

[upspirate]

don't see why it wouldn't work....go for it!!!

[Antiqua]

Thinking about it I probably need only three sheaves, two above & one below.

[wildbillboat]

Would be intrested in your progress. I am building a Whisp and a Glen-L sliding seat.

[RayB]

This really sounds like a conversion worth trying. The only thing I would watch out for is the flex in the outriggers. Mine were built to the plans except I made them solid all the way through since I wasn't worried about weight. There is still too much flex so I will be looking for a way to clamp them to the gunwales. I understand that most builders have encountered this same problem and have found a way to clamp them. This is not a serious problem; there is no danger of them breaking. It just seems the boat would be a bit more responsive if the flex were minimized.

Good luck,

Rat B.

[Antiqua]

I stopped doing the outrigger conversion because we use our Whisp mainly for messing around on the river rather than serious rowing.

What I have done is add shaped blocks to raise the oarlocks, so that I can use 8 ft oars. The blocks were made out of 5/8" pine and they work well. I may replace them with even thicker ones later to give more clearance with two people and gear in choppy water. The objective is to avoid splashing and knee bumping. [attachment=2]IMGP0447.JPG[/attachment] An alternative is to use longer oarlocks.

I also made a footboard to give extra support for my feet when rowing. [attachment=1]Footboard.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=0]Whisper 006.jpg[/attachment] This is a picture of my Whisp, bought from the builder last year. She is not to standard spec as she was built with 6mm bottom and fibreglass taped chines so she is quite a lot heavier but still car toppable. She also has a daggerboard which Steve regards as potentially hazardous if hit by a careless rock! The rig is also non standard, with a longer mast and a higher aspect ratio sail. I use the sprit more like a boom, as reefing is done by removing some of the sail ties and rolling the sail round the sprit rather than using reef points and a snotter. The sprit is loose at the mast, so that the sail shape can be modified with the line at the forward end of the sprit while sailing. The sail is attached to the mast with re-usable cable ties instead of lacing, much easier as they can be left in place and the mast passed through them before it is set up. Another addition for sailing is a pair of 8 ft inflatable buoyancy tubes, strapped outside the gunwales. We sailed her across Loch Lomond and back last year in light winds and were very impressed. Since then we have been rowing on local rivers, the Thames and the Wey.

[wildbillboat]

This really sounds like a conversion worth trying. The only thing I would watch out for is the flex in the outriggers. Mine were built to the plans except I made them solid all the way through since I wasn't worried about weight. There is still too much flex so I will be looking for a way to clamp them to the gunwales. I understand that most builders have encountered this same problem and have found a way to clamp them. This is not a serious problem; there is no danger of them breaking. It just seems the boat would be a bit more responsive if the flex were minimized.

Good luck,

Rat B.

Is the flex a twist, or up/down, or fore/aft?

[Oyster]

These are the shots of Bill's work at present.

[RayB]

Is the flex a twist, or up/down, or fore/aft?

There is a twist at the bend in the outtrigger and a fore/aft movement at the oar lock. I suspect it is the fore/aft pressure at the oar lock that causes it to twist.

Ray B.

[wildbillboat]

I am <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fwildbillboat%2Falbumid%2F5381847295466726257%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCIGGgaiM--q5bQ%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashpl ... mbed>going to try a little carbon fiber to ease the twisting

[wildbillboat]

Well that didn't work

[Oyster]

You can load single photos right from your computer file using the Browse feature at the bottom of the reply. When you find the picture you want to upload, then you hit the add the file box. The move on to the next one if you have multiple ones and do the same thing.

[wildbillboat]

After hearing of twisting problems I decided to add a little carbon fiber.

[wildbillboat]

[Oyster]

This is the carbon fiber being used in the rigger.