Judging by the editorial mail, amateur builders, starting to choose a project for their new yacht, boat or boat, one way or another refer to the pages of the collection: they use the published drawings as working ones or create new projects based on meeting the requirements and tastes of the future shipowner. In their letters, many readers not only detail the reasons that prompted them to choose one or another project, but also report on the test results of the built ship, give a description of its operational features. As a rule, receiving several such correspondences makes it possible to get a fairly complete picture of both the advantages and disadvantages inherent in a particular project.

If we talk about the independent construction of sailing ships, then the mail received by the editorial office clearly shows that the most "running" option is a mini-yacht, designed for a crew of 3-5 people. 3TO a vessel up to 7 m long, with a displacement of 0.7 - 1.5 T, with a sail area of 14 - 20 m 2. Variations of sails allow you to increase the sail (sometimes by 30%) in light winds and reduce it by half - in strong ones. It is typical that amateurs try to use ready-made paryca from

Those available in yachts are the classics of old ships, since it is very difficult to get a sailing fabric, and it is far from easy to sew a good sail without having the appropriate experience.

When building a hull, wood, traditional for small shipbuilding, is used in all its forms (sawn softwood and hardwood, plywood), but along with this, steel and light alloys are also used. The use of composite structures, in which metal is combined with wood, makes it possible, while simplifying the technology and reducing the cost of the vessel, to ensure the known strength of the hull with low weight.

It has become common to glue wooden hulls with fiberglass fabrics on an epoxy binder in order to protect against damage and decay, and sometimes to increase strength. As it turned out from the incoming letters, a typical mistake is often made in this case: amateur shipbuilders forget that it is necessary to apply at least two layers of fiberglass, since a single-layer coating filters water through microcracks in the binder (this is a disservice to the skin, and to detect and correct defects under the fiberglass layer are quite difficult).

Of the assessments and comments on individual projects, those related to the "Seahorse" are characteristic, according to which quite a few mini-yachts have already been built. So, when summarizing the feedback received, it became clear that it was necessary to increase the area of the fin in the stern - the yacht is yawling at full courses; cabin is better to do from side to side - the cabin will become more comfortable; a bow hatch on these mini-yachts is not a necessity. Obviously, these remarks should be taken into account when designing all yachts of similar dimensions.

Actually the body did not cause any complaints. The sailing and seaworthiness completely satisfied those who built the yacht exactly according to the project. The wishes mainly concerned the improvement of the “Spartan”, as it was said in the explanation to the project, living conditions.

In this regard, we can assume a partial change in the Seahorse project. Cabin from side to side and reaching the stem - will increase the volume of the cabin; it will be more convenient to sit on sofas and walk along the deck to the bow of the vessel. You can abolish the bow hatch, located obliquely. With insufficient sealing, it causes water leakage. At the same time, it turned out that most yachtsmen do not use it to work with the staysail, which was envisaged during the development of the project.

It should only be taken into account that without a bow hatch (according to the project, its cover is made of plexiglass), the illumination and ventilation of the cabin are significantly deteriorating. For normal ventilation of the bow bit, the fan is clearly not enough, so you will have to provide for the installation of any effective deflectors. It is possible to install additional portholes on the coaming or on the deckhouse instead of the light hatch.

Regarding the reproaches for the lack of mechanization of sail control, it can be said that ideas regarding the hull and armament were laid in the “Konka” project, and clew and halyard winches, a device for spinning the staysail and similar components of the ship’s equipment, each builder can use at will, using other publications on the pages of the collection.

Here is an illustrative example. The builders of the mini-yacht "Pautinka", having increased all the dimensions of the "Seahorse" by 20%, received a yacht with an undesirable trim to the stern. “Apparently,” they write, “this is a flaw in the project.” However, the "Konek" in the design dimensions has no trim to the stern. The real reason is that the increased "by 20%" version of the yacht's displacement should no longer be 700 - 750 kg, like the "Spider Web", but about 1100 kg; Naturally, the ship's draft became 40 - 50 mm less, as a result of which the center of gravity of the waterline and the center of buoyancy shifted forward, in relation to the design ones.

We bring to the attention of readers short descriptions four yachts built and tested by amateurs in recent times.

MINI - YACHT "PRIVAL". Built by V. V. Marataev from Kaliningrad according to the drawings of the Seahorse.

We selected this mini-yacht for review just to illustrate the thesis that changes in finished projects should be done very carefully. Obviously, the erroneous remark made in No. 61 by the builders of the Spider Web that the Seahorse is trimmed to the stern misled V.V. Marataev. He took measures: so that his yacht would not have this trim, slightly change its dimensions, by increasing the spacing by 20mm, and moving the heavy zygomatic keels into the nose.

This led to an increase in the design displacement by about 30 kg, which was "compensated" by the fact that the hull was sheathed with bakelized plywood, heavier than the aircraft plywood provided for by the project. In other words, the draft remained practically unchanged, but an undesirable trim on the bow appeared, which required further alterations and a “return” to the design centering of the yacht - rearrangement of the bilge keels further aft.

The hull set is made of pine, the stem and beams are made of oak; sheathing - bakelized plywood 7mm thick. A fender 40 by 40 is installed along the sides, which increased the width along the deck by 80 mm. The yacht is equipped with four berths on the sides - from the 3rd floor to the transom, wardrobes, a table, a galley.

"Halt" is armed bermuda sloop with a top (unlike the project) staysail. The mainsail from the "Flying Dutchman" was used, the main staysail - from the "Zvezdnik", genoa - from the class "M" dinghy. The boom is rotating.

According to the results of the operation of the yacht, the author noted the following shortcomings of the project: the absence of clew winches, which makes it difficult to work with sails in a fresh wind; lack of rake staysail; some inconvenience of placement in the cabin due to the ledge formed by the junction of the deck and the deckhouse coaming; no storage compartment for outboard motor; placement of the galley in the cockpit, creating inconvenience when cooking in bad weather. At full courses, the yaw of the "Halt" was noted.

The advantages include relatively high nautical qualities of the yacht: good germination on the wave, stability, ease of movement (maximum recorded speed - 6 h).

STEEL YACHT - A COMPROMISE OF HELLAS. Its author is Marina Shcherbina from the Ukrainian city of Smela. In the design of this rather original steel mini-yacht, publications on three sailing ships: 6.8 - meter sailing - motor dinghy with two rotating bilge skewers (designed by V.F. Paramonov, "Ka" No. 62); 6.9 - meter quarter-tonner "Courier - III" (designed by I. I. Sidenko; "KYa" No. 64) and the English serial 6.9 - meter mini-tonner "Sonata - 7" ("KYa" No. 68), as well as nomograms published in issue 7 (1966). It can be noted that the drawing of a dinghy is taken as the basis of the theoretical drawing (with minor changes in the aft part); the main ideas are borrowed from the two mentioned yachts general location And sailing rig.

The hull of the yacht is made of welded steel: the set is cut from an angle 2.5X30X30, bent from a strip; keel beam - I-beam from a strip 2.5 mm thick; skin thickness on the bottom - 3mm, on the sides - 2mm. The deck and wheelhouse are made of bakelized plywood 5 mm thick. Inside the body is sheathed with plywood and laminated plastic on an oak purlin.

A successful combination of a hull simple in contours and technologically advanced in design, made of materials available to builders and effective windage, made it possible to create a cruiser that is cheap to build and operate, with sufficiently high speed, seaworthiness and tacking qualities. Tests of "Hellas" at the Kremenchug reservoir confirmed that the creative use of three different prototypes (in itself - a rare option) was done quite competently on the whole.

The Hellas has two bilge skewers, cut from sheet steel 20 mm thick, with a total weight of 210 kg. The lower parts of the centerboard wells protruding from the hull are made hollow in the form of fairings into which lead is poured (its weight is about 200 kg). Pretty big total weight ballast, which is 31% of the displacement, ensures good stability of the yacht. The daggerboard wells are made more powerful than on the prototype dinghy, but they are the same in design. The spar is made of light-alloy pipes. The collapsing mast is made of 110X2 pipe, the rotating boom is 70X3.

The yacht's water resistance is ensured by foam plastic blocks (total volume 1.5 m 3 ), glued on the inside on the hull, deck and wheelhouse, and also laid under the sofas.

The construction of the yacht by two people lasted 2 years and 3 months. A powerful channel 8 m long served as a slipway. Of the technological devices invented and manufactured in the course of work, it is necessary to note the original tilter, which is two support bearings on the goats installed at the ends of the beam - slipway.

Horizontal pins with a diameter of 60 mm were fixed to the stem and transom of the hull so that their common axis - the axis of rotation - passed through the center of gravity of the hull. This allowed builders to turn over the hull without assistance, performing welding and painting work in the most convenient lower position.

The yacht is equipped with three berths, a galley, a table, wardrobes and a latrine. Height in the cabin 1.45 m lid in the center of the cabin; or equip an existing table with a sliding lid.)

In the stern, below deck, there is a compartment for installing a stationary engine. In the forepeak there is a sail storeroom.

MINITONE "THREE BOGATYRS". Built by Kharkovites S. Degtyarev and V. Drachevsky. When developing their own project, the authors set out to create a light, but with a sufficient level of comfort, a yacht suitable for both long trips and cruising.

The hull structure is composite, the set is made of light alloy: the transverse one is made of squares, the longitudinal one is made of channels. Sheathing is made of waterproof plywood 6 mm thick. The hull, including the self-draining cockpit and deck, is covered with two layers of fiberglass on an epoxy binder.

Hollow steel false keel filled with lead and cement; its mass is about 280 kg. The yacht "Three Bogatyrs" is equipped with a Bermuda sloop with a top staysail. The spar is wooden, the steps are installed on the deck. The yacht is equipped with mechanisms and devices to facilitate the work with the sails and to fine-tune them. The cabin is equipped with four berths, there is a portable galley.

Unsinkability is ensured by foam blocks fixed on the sides under the sofas. The trials of the yacht showed its reliability in operation, good seaworthiness, and satisfactory stability. With effective heeling by the entire crew, the yacht carried full windage with winds up to 6 points.

Having set themselves the task of creating a racing rather than a cruising ship, the authors made the yacht as light as possible, clearly sacrificing comfort. Practically inside, except for sleeping places, there is nothing. But in terms of the mechanization of sail control, the Three Bogatyrs is a typical racing car! In terms of handling in any wind and combination of sails, the yacht, according to the authors, resembles a racing dinghy.

According to the newspaper "Vecherny Kharkov", on June 7 and 8, 1980, the yacht "Three Bogatyrs" took part in the cruising yacht races for the championship of the Kharkov region, where it won first place among 26 participants in corrected time. In terms of absolute speed, she lost only to Konrad - 24, lagging behind him by 12 minutes in 13 hours of the race.

YACHT "SEVERYANKA". Built by N. Vesenin in Vologda according to the drawings "Sail - 2" ("KYA" No. 6; 1966). This is an example of a successful yacht built without fundamental changes in the project being implemented. The lack of bakfanera and oak at the disposal of the builder, provided for by the drawings, led to the need for a number of unprincipled design changes. The body set is made of pine.

Adhering to the project as far as possible, the author of the Severyanka managed to obtain satisfactory seaworthiness and tacking qualities of the mini-yacht and its good running both under sail and under the motor. The outboard motor "Vykhr-M" was used as an auxiliary engine, with which the yacht develops a speed of 15 km/h. The use of such a powerful (25 hp) and heavy motor on such a vessel is impractical. Contours sailing yachts are calculated for a course of about 5 knots (about 9 km / h).

To achieve such a speed with a mini-yacht, 8-strong “Wind” is enough. The use of engines with excess power gives only a small increase in speed, while fuel consumption increases significantly. In the future, it is planned to install a firebox in the cabin, which will improve the habitability of the vessel operated in the northern regions.

I already once spoke about the cost of construction, but it seems that half of them were very skeptical about this. The amount I indicated turned out to be almost 20 (!) times less than the factory price of this yacht, which cannot but arouse distrust. On the other hand, another half was overwhelmed with optimism - a yacht can be built "for free", from nothing and from scratch. Both are wrong and the truth is somewhere in between. To clear the fog from this area, I propose to consider the construction process now from a financial point of view.

I entered all the expenses into the computer and today it is possible to answer the above question with sufficient accuracy. Since the cost directly depends on the materials used, I will digress on this topic. I will indicate prices in dollar terms at the exchange rate at the time of purchase, since the crisis of 1998 and the denomination caught me behind the construction. Materials for the construction of the yacht were bought as needed, but I will give only the final figures, since that is what we are talking about.

Elling. Before us is an empty place on which it is necessary to build a slipway and build some kind of building so that water and slanting rain (at least) do not get on the hull. I planned to build the building in a very short time and did not intend to build a capital structure. As you can see in the photo, the building resembles a greenhouse and it is not able to endure a snowy winter.

However, cost estimates indicate that the cost of lumber for this openwork structure, coupled with PE film (enough for a season), is approximately $ 100. You can build something more solid, but you need to take into account that when tilting the body with a crane, the structure will have to be destroyed 😦 . Of course, when choosing a place, think about the entrances for this mechanism, remembering that any live wire scares them the most 🙂.

Lumber. The knotless pine was personally selected at the sawmill, after which it was dried at home for a month and a half to working humidity. A little over two cubic meters passed through me (including the previous paragraph) and it cost me $160. If you focus on construction bases and the line “Knotless, dry pine”, then this figure can increase greatly. it costs about $200 per cubic meter. You can reduce it by intercepting the boards to the dryer, and best of all directly at the saw.

Unfortunately, we do not saw oak, so we had to buy it in St. Petersburg at a price of $300-600/cubic meters. He went to the manufacture of all floors, stem, transom, centerboard well, tiller and various linings. Where there was "ash" in the project, I replaced it with the same oak to reduce the hassle. Accordingly, 0.15 cubes and $70.

Plywood. The main material was planned to be FSF 6 mm, but even at the beginning of construction I looked into the warehouses of a furniture factory and purchased there quite inexpensively a certain amount of FSF 4 mm and 10 mm. It was the best grade of AAB, but due to microscopic defects they were pushed into marriage and the price was very attractive. Don't be embarrassed by the 4 mm thickness, because as usual I glued them with epoxy in a sandwich with a "six" to get 10 mm. To reduce the cost, I bought the "Six" directly at the Fanplast factory from the Central Research Institute of Plywood, taking it out on a passing car.

Total: 29 sheets 6 mm, 15 sheets 4 mm and 6 sheets 10 mm. In monetary terms, all this amounted to $ 200. I must admit that I was also “given” two sheets of FBV 10 mm plywood with dimensions of 1500 x 4700, which I put on floor linings, a well, a transom, a rudder blade, a cockpit and a deck in its area. Given my digging in this area, I would not advise getting carried away with it, and even more so in its current form.

Fasteners. I mean brass screws. There are about 5 thousand of them in the case for a total amount of about $ 200. The screws are very different - from 30 mm for sheathing to 75 mm for a longitudinal set. Turkey was mainly the country of origin and I have no complaints about this. In contrast to the three hundred more Soviet screws purchased at the end of construction at the shipyard, in which the head under the “cross” easily fell apart due to the effort of wrapping.

Now there is a tempting opportunity to purchase stainless steel fasteners (especially since the price is the same), but something confuses me in this matter. I read a lot about this from Western "colleagues", and they speak very badly about him and give terrible photos. There were even references to some American regulations (one for the shipbuilding industry, the other for the chemical industry) that prohibit the use of stainless fasteners without sufficient access to oxygen (and, oddly enough, this primarily applies to high grades, such as "marine" 316- Ouch) .

In one even personally sounded epoxy resin.This is also hinted at by the fact that firms offering do-it-yourself kits (there can be any sizes there) also do not offer the option of stainless fasteners - either bronze or galvanized. Regarding the latter, it is specifically stipulated that this is not electroplating, but tinning.

They also scold brass for its low strength, but in my experience with Turkish fasteners, it bursts from the effort of twisting, and by no means breaking. And if there was a preliminary hole, then with a belated reaction and working with a drill, the hat can easily be driven half the thickness of the FSF. I believe that in dry wood (and I myself have dust and spiders in the hold) nothing will happen to stainless steel.

On the other hand, when the case is assembled on resin and pasted over with a cloth, the fasteners have the function of pressing rather and the advantage of stainless steel here is that it is not necessary to drill holes in pine. More about stainless steel. fasteners, I can only add that its marking A2 means "just" stainless steel (rust-free), and A4 - acid-resistant (acid-resistant).

Epoxy resin. On this point, I listen to the most complaints, because the amount in this line is so ridiculous, and the number is frightening, that I don’t even want to announce both once again. It’s better to assume that it didn’t cost me anything (but including it in the LMB), and we’ll calculate how much it could cost under other circumstances.

I used resin not only for the purpose of construction, but also paid with it, so to speak, "by barter". I also constantly engaged in all sorts of experiments in order to understand the essence of the behavior of the subject and the possible areas of its application. As a result, a rough estimate speaks of 150-200 kg of resin. Naturally, most of it was spent on pasting the body, the details of which I previously described and whether it was all necessary is still a moot point.

I immediately dismiss the option of purchasing resin in household stores, although not so long ago I learned about a person who built a dinghy using this method. As a basis, I will take the price at which the resin is offered by companies that produce epoxy paints and varnishes. That is, they interfere with enamels, varnishes, primers and putties, but they will also sell you raw materials. The price of a kilogram of ED-22 resin is about $3. Multiplying by the previously given figures, we have an amount of about $ 500. I agree, this is a lot, but there are other ways.

When I started building, I also looked for resin everywhere, and I found the most attractive source of it in yacht clubs. Let's say, in one of the clubs at the entrance there was such a ledger, where advertisements like "buy-sell" were placed. It was full of advertisements for the sale of resin, and the sellers asked for a price that was about half of, so to speak, the official one. Most likely nothing will happen to the resin itself from the storage time, but with the hardener, things are not so smooth and it must be dealt with in each specific case.

And in my situation, instead of laying 7 layers (of which 2 are mat), one should simply sheathe the bottom with a “ten”, where it allows death, but lay 6 + 4 in the nose. And a layer of three or four fabrics would be quite enough (although the number “two” usually appears in foreign publications).

Fiberglass. 150 meters of fabric weighing 200-250 grams, 30 meters of glass mat, 40 meters of thin fiberglass. A total of $120. And exactly half is glass mat. Based on current retail prices, a meter of suitable fabric costs about a little over $1, and for this item of expenditure the amount can be about $200 (in my case!). I have repeatedly heard that some kind of fiberglass is used to insulate heating mains, and recently took a walk along the nearest highway.

Well, the assortment there is quite rich even at a couple of hundred meters - offhand, I would say that from 50 to 500 grams (from gauze to roving). One thing I can say for sure - since this is a fiberglass woven material, it will definitely be better and stronger than any shipbuilding glass mat. If only because the fabric can be easily heat-treated and the case pasted over with it will be more even.

Preliminary result. So, on the slipway there is an 8-meter hull of the yacht, pasted over with fiberglass and costing about $ 800. Even if you are pessimistic about resin and fabric, more than one and a half thousand still does not work out.

Paints and varnishes. Here I piled all the chemistry in a heap: paints, putties, primers, solvents, sealants and even a couple of buckets of Pinotex. The amount was $150. It took 15 kg of epoxy putty to level the outer surfaces, the entire yacht was painted with epoxy enamel on the outside (EP-5297 "Epovin").

Actually, at first I covered the cabin, deck and freeboard with PF-115 enamel, but after the winter it suddenly turned out that when wintering under an awning, the enamel on horizontal surfaces began to fall off like mugs (didn’t the “bourgeois” warn about this?) and I will clean it up removed and covered again with epoxy. Everywhere the coating was applied in two layers and it took ten kilograms for everything. Epoxy putty also has a white color, so two layers of covering power is enough to make the surface even. Now about the prices.

Putty EP-0010 costs less than $2 per kilo, enamel - about $3 and tinting (the same enamel without white pigment) for the bottom - about $4. The same enamel is sold in stores under the name Bath Renovation Enamel. Look at the price and feel the difference :-).

Deck and interior equipment. In order not to be wiser, here I will also include things related to rigging such as blocks, lanyards, ropes, etc. In total, the “good things” article is worth $ 260. It, in turn, allocated blocks (Novosibirsk) in the amount of $70 and turnbuckles in the amount of $50. I took winches and a stopper from "Mikruha", I dismembered the latter for convenience and economy. Railings and handrails cost $80 (20 m of pipe), ballast (sheet 6 mm) - a little more expensive. The daggerboard cost me practically nothing, while the rudder (baller) cost $50. The total is about $450.

Rigging and sailing equipment. In fact, this is the largest expenditure item of the project, and before voicing the figure, I will allow myself a digression. Even at the stage of initial research, I looked at the LES and asked about the price. I was given an amazingly round figure "a piece of bucks" for making the mast and boom. However, they agreed to sell the profile at a price of about $30 per meter.

With my need of 14 meters (a mast with a joint and a boom), this resulted in more than $ 500, since the pieces were six meters long, and they were not going to cut them. Then I again walked around the clubs and read the ads, which offered more tempting options. There were quite a lot of such proposals, they could not only find 9.5 m per mast - at best 9 m and they had nothing on the boom. But I finally found two people.

Of course, in order to save money, it was possible to go the other way - to take a pipe and rivet a likpaz profile (the so-called "butterfly") to it. In this case, the mast would have cost nothing at all, but I immediately decided for myself that I could afford to spend $ 500 on a “normal” spar. So, for three six-meter pieces of a profile, I gave $ 350. Together with transportation from St. Petersburg and argon welding of aluminum and stainless steel, the mast with boom cost me about $400.

I ordered the sails on the Northern Lights. It was after the crisis and I could no longer afford fabric like dacron. Therefore, my genoa and mainsail are made of lavsan (this spring I still got a Dacron staysail) at a price of $10 per square. With an area of 15+16, we have $310.

Tool. I started the construction with a very poor set of tools, which, moreover, wore out or broke. Therefore, this article is also worthy of mention. Abrasive materials (mostly 70 belts for a grinder plus sandpaper and discs for angle grinders) took almost a hundred. Metal-cutting and metalwork tools (drills, files, cutters, taps, etc.) - $70. In the article "Power Tool" there is a figure of $150 for four types of CMM and a jigsaw, which I bought myself. I forgot to write in another jigsaw, drill and hair dryer, because relatives added half the cost there. Their cost is approximately known, so we will consider the total for the item "Tool" about $ 400.

Metalworking. The only type of service that I regularly used was the services of a welder. For all the time I paid them about $ 80, and half - for the spars. A couple more times I paid millers, but the amounts there are negligible. From my own experience and that of those around me, I strongly advise against pronouncing the word “yacht” in communication with the working class. As a last resort, let it be a "boat".

Weave something about a summer house, a car, a bathroom and save a lot of money. Almost any welder can weld stainless steel today, for this you need a direct current apparatus (and they don’t seem to have others) and appropriate electrodes (but this probably isn’t). I advise you to simply buy electrodes for stainless steel and in the future approach the nearest hard worker with them.

With a sober state and some experience, the seam will be no worse than when welding in an argon environment. At first, for all the seams, I demanded only "argon", but one day it was not there and I agreed to a "handbrake". The result was such that after that I completely forgot the word "argon" in relation to stainless steel. The cost of both is vastly different.

There is another option - in any car service establishment (they are now on every corner) there is a semi-automatic welding machine, with which they usually cook in a carbon dioxide environment. All that is required in this case is, again, to buy a coil of special welding wire (stainless steel) for this unit and contact the performers directly ...

I did all the turning work myself on a lathe I was born in 1938. The only "option" that he had was the ability to change the number of revolutions with a certain skill. Everything else (autofeed, thread, etc.) was faulty.

I do not think that this will turn out to be possible for many (problems are more likely with placement and 3-phase power than with the price), and it is hardly worth striving for this. There are such machines around, up to secondary schools, and you just need to agree on access. In any case, the cost will be less than when ordering parts from turning professionals.

Lack of experience is not an obstacle - I did not have it either, but I corrected it very quickly. If you decide to go down this path, I advise you to first get cutters made of P18 / HSS material, and when you get your hands on it, switch to carbide.

In case of gross errors with the feed, the steel cutter simply becomes dull and then quickly corrected on emery, and the brittle carbide cutter breaks down to an unrepairable state. It is clear that during “normal” operation, the latter require much rarer sharpening.

Once again I will repeat on the topic of the metals themselves. All this is now on sale, but usually the minimum quantity sold is unacceptable in size (and therefore prices). In order to save as much as possible on this article, you just need to become more attentive to the environment, because things of interest to us can be found everywhere even after the lawlessness of recent years. I advise you to get a small magnet and whenever the eye stumbles upon a suspicious shine or lack of rust (where it is logical), feel it - and not whether it is stainless steel. Stainless steel, as a rule, is not attracted by a magnet.

For some reason I don't understand, a hanger in the corridor of our office was assembled with M8 stainless fasteners 🙂. A fairly decent sheet of "deuce" covered a hole in the fence of the neighbor's garden. In front of everyone were two pieces of pipe with flanges, in which sat 52 (!) stainless steel. M12 bolts with nuts. And there are no number of such examples. As a result, the costs under this item are not worth mentioning.

Final outcome. When splitting into cost items, I rounded the numbers up, so something may not add up slightly. Maybe some little things I forgot to take into account. However, at the end of the table is the sum of $2700. That's how much the process of building a yacht cost me. They tell me: what kind of money is this and where to get it! Well, firstly, we are talking about a yacht 8 meters long and you should not count on a “freebie” here.

Remember for decency at least about the factory price. Even if this is a lot for you, it may be worth finding something smaller in size and, accordingly, costs. In the end, this final figure does not need to be spent all at once in one day and it does not have to be saved up for a long time and hard, like for a car.

Spread out over four and a half years, that's about $50 a month. Even with my modest income for the family budget, construction remained invisible. Some may still have doubts caused by the repeated inconsistency of the two amounts. And here's the easiest way to explain it. There is practically no article "Labor" in the table.

I was too lazy to count also man-hours, but you can do it yourself by adding up all weekends, vacations and two or three hours on weekdays. All this over the course of four and a half years. This is perhaps the most costly item in the construction of a yacht in an industrial environment. That is, I again bring everything to the idea that in order to be at the helm of your yacht, there is no need at all to have sums with a large number of zeros.

All the cases of long-term construction or abandoned construction that I saw had by no means financial roots, but rather moral and psychological ones. You just need to want and maintain confidence in the firmness of your desire for several years. Is this a big price? For many, unbearable. But it is no longer convertible in any of the monetary systems and it is up to you to decide whether you will “pull” it. Good luck!

Source: http://activecrimea.com

Long boat in a small room.

Vsevolod Belyaev.

Unfortunately, we are forced to take real physical conditions into account and, setting ourselves a specific task, somehow seek compromises in solving it. And since I old tourist and I perceive tourism not just as a type of recreation or even a sport, but precisely as a way to overcome space in an “environmentally friendly” way, then my task setting is appropriate, and the design of the vessel - a sailing and rowing boat 6 m long - is focused specifically on it.

As for the construction process itself, here I was wondering how little money can be done. Contrary to the opinion that without special computer programs for design, without laying out the plaza, without a slipway and a professional tool, nothing will work. A question that is relevant, perhaps, for all shipbuilders - do-it-yourselfers - as an idea that was born and exists so far only in the head to bring to life with minimal cost? After all, folk craftsmen have built and are still building their boats without high technology!

I once spoke with one of these craftsmen, and so it took him only about two weeks to build a boat from start to finish. Although, in fairness, it must be said that all of his boats were of the same type. And, of course, I was inspired by the examples of such people as Evgeny Alexandrovich Gvozdev, who built his “Said”, in fact, on the balcony of a five-story building. I tried to figure out what the minimum is.

My initial conditions were as follows: a room 3.5 by 3.0 m, in which I also live, the most ordinary hand tool, a stool as a workbench, time after the main work and the unlimited patience of my relatives, for which I am very grateful to them. From these conditions it followed: I can build a full-fledged boat only if it is collapsible, moreover, this would greatly simplify its transportation in the future.

So the idea arose to build a collapsible boat, three sections of which would fit one into the other. Among the essential features of the design is the lack of a set. The elements of the set include, perhaps, only the end walls of the sections, which play the role of frames (2 pieces per 6 m of length); the shaping of the hull and its rigidity were ensured by the death of the skin parts.

My "project", the prototypes of which were partly folk boats, partly tourist kayaks, was first drawn on ordinary notebook sheets. I made a huge number of these drawings in three projections, still without dimensions and specific details. Then, finally, the final form was born, captured in a sketch on millimeter paper. I think that such a sketch is the first minimally necessary step on the way from an idea to its real implementation. You can do without graphic computer programs and without a drawing on whatman paper, but perhaps you cannot do without a sketch. Millimeter is convenient because all the necessary dimensions are immediately visible on it.

Then I glued a few test models out of paper and cardboard, and finally a cardboard model in 1:10 scale, on which I finally adjusted all the parts of the body. The greatest difficulties were caused by the combination of parts of different sections of the boat with each other. If the boat was non-separable, everything would be much easier.

Creating a large-scale cardboard model, according to which it would be possible to accurately align all dimensions in order to avoid serious mistakes in the future, to see all the shortcomings and shortcomings, to understand the sequence of the upcoming assembly - this is the second necessary step, unless, of course, we are talking about a typical project, where all details and dimensions are well worked out. When the model was brought to perfection, I took the final dimensions from it and transferred them to plywood (the body structure, of course, is plywood-composite). Then I just had to cut out all the details and connect them together.

Although the lack of a set had to be compensated for by the thickness of the plywood sheathing (6 mm), this added almost no weight as a result, but made the body much more impact resistant. Still, the rigidity of the sheet material was not enough to get the flawless lines of the hull. Now, this is imperceptible in appearance of the boat, and it did not affect its seaworthiness and other qualities in any way, but the assembly did not go perfectly - plywood can bend and bend at the most unexpected times and in unexpected places, and even give “bubbles” on relatively small surfaces.

The dowel well, assembled from two pieces of plywood 3040 cm and pine slats, which during assembly I did not bother to press against a flat flat surface, led the screw by about 1 cm. This may be due to uneven shrinkage of the resin, there may be changes in humidity, the conclusion is unequivocal: to to get the lines and surfaces specified by the project, only your own knee is not enough. When building small boats, you can do without a slipway, but a flat floor is still necessary. Here, perhaps, is another minimum necessary condition.

I sewed the details of the lining of the central section with a nylon thread and then glued strips of fiberglass on epoxy right on top. The thread, of course, added strength to the connection, but air bubbles strove to form under the fabric, so I hardly won anything. I assembled the remaining two sections in the classical way on wire ties, then removed the wire. Outside, the sections were pasted over with fiberglass.

The final assembly and, in fact, the birth of the boat, took place already at the reservoir. The case turned out to be quite durable, dry, without leaks. The weight of a fully decked boat is 90 kg, despite the fact that the deck can support the weight of an adult everywhere. Six months were spent on active construction during non-working hours. If there is less "reinventing the wheel" than I sinned out of curiosity, then it will take much less time.

According to first impressions, the boat is well controlled, stable on the course. But propulsion, for which I so extreme, although quite consciously sacrificed the width of the boat, is in question. But I still have to fully understand what happened and how it meets my requirements. If suddenly the result turns out to be unsatisfactory, well, I’ll build another boat, since much is not needed for this. Now I know it well!

Source: "Boats and Yachts", No. 236.

At the same time he studied the theory of yachting. Since 1964, he read "KiYa" and built small motor boats under the engine "Moscow-10". Fished on the Angara and Baikal. And since 1986, having retired, he traveled along the rivers Kuban, Don and Sea of Azov on a paddle-sailing "dori" self-built. In 1992, in Kyiv, he built a modernized Dory boat, increasing its length to 6 m, and the whole family traveled along the Dnieper on it. And for the last ten years I have been traveling alone: my son has grown up, and my wife is busy with her own affairs.

However, about the yacht: in August 1999, she was launched on the quiet Don. As an engine, I used the stationary "SM557-L" (13 hp, two-stroke, water-cooled). Screw - two-blade folding, of unknown origin. Sailing armament from the Yala-6 is rake: the canvas is incredibly heavy, especially when it gets wet. Each navigation prompted new improvements.

Due to the small draft and the lack of a keel, the yacht did not go against the wind, it was necessary to drag it by the rope, like a horse, and in calm weather, with a weak current, I rowed for two to three hours. There was no confidence in the engine. I started it no more than two or three times per navigation: roar, noise, smoke, vibration, and the speed is minimal. If time permits, it is better to bury - it is also good for health.

Then he took out Dacron sails, equipped the boat with a gaff sail and sewed a staysail. Sailing control moved to the cockpit. Then, along the entire length of the bottom, he installed a 4.5-meter keel 300 mm high; now the yacht is in hauled wind, and is going well in gulfwind.

The cabin has enough space for five people to sleep comfortably. The galley has a two-burner gas stove. All passengers sit freely at the hanging table. There is a tank with drinking water (100 l) and 200 l of water in plastic bottles under the floorboard. It is dangerous to drink water from the Don. I use four of the eight buoyancy blocks as lockers. Cockpit self-draining; its aft part is fenced off for storing a gas cylinder and a fuel tank.

In 2006, the stationary engine was removed, and on the starboard side on the transom I fixed a cross-beam, on which I put the Mercury outboard motor (4 hp, four-stroke, with a long “leg” and a generator). Another thing: I'm not overjoyed at the motor. Starts up well at any time. For an hour of work, it consumes a little more than 1 liter of gasoline. No noise, no fire! Last year the engine worked for 30 hours, this year - already 70 hours. Not a single failure!

I start navigation at the end of April, and finish at the end of October or beginning of November. I spend almost five months on a yacht. Parking next to the house - 10 minutes walk, so I often sleep in the air. The battery is recharged from the motor, the radio is constantly on, and the TV is periodically on. I like to change my parking space all the time. And I go up the Don to Konstantinovsk and even to the Vedernikov farm, where there is silence and beauty.

Thanks to the yacht, I have a rest myself, periodically - family and friends. Looking at factory-made boats, sometimes I feel envy. However, my yacht is very good for our rivers: I can go to the shore and get out almost without getting my feet wet, and a keel yacht cannot allow this. I don't participate in competitions. I know I won't win a single prize. But in Rostov-on-Don, no one rests on the water more than me, so the mood is always good.

I am grateful to the employees of my favorite magazine for luring me with materials about building ships, traveling along rivers and seas many years ago. They gave birth to dreams that turned into realities and provided me with a wonderful old age, which I do not notice when I am sailing.

P.S. I forgot to tell you that it is not necessary to build a cabin on a small vessel using the old methods, since beams only spoil appearance and contribute to stuffing cones on the head. Now you can ensure the strength of the roof in other ways. On the bow, he equipped a platform and a ladder for going ashore, on it there are also two bow anchors that are released from the cockpit.

Variations of sails allow you to increase the sail (sometimes by 30%) in calm winds and reduce it by half - in strong ones. It is typical that amateurs try to use ready-made pairs from the old ships available in yachts, since it is very difficult to get a sailing fabric, and it is far from easy to sew a good pair without having the appropriate experience.

The preferred material in the manufacture of the spars are light-alloy pipes; the boom, as a rule, is made rotating - for winding the pair for the purpose of cleaning for short-term stops and for reefing. Mast steps are most often placed on the roof of the cabin. When building a hull, wood, traditional for small shipbuilding, is used in all its forms (sawn softwood and hardwood, plywood), but along with this, steel and light alloys are also used. The use of composite structures, in which metal is combined with wood, makes it possible, while simplifying the technology and reducing the cost of the vessel, to ensure the known strength of the hull with low weight.

Cabin from side to side and reaching the stem - will increase the volume of the cabin; it will be more convenient to sit on sofas and walk along the deck to the bow of the vessel. You can abolish the bow hatch, located obliquely. With insufficient sealing, it causes water leakage. At the same time, it turned out that most yachtsmen do not use it to work with the staysail, which was envisaged during the development of the project.

It should only be taken into account that without a bow hatch (according to the project, its cover is made of plexiglass), the illumination and ventilation of the cabin are significantly deteriorating. For normal ventilation of the bow bitten - the fan is clearly not enough, so it will be necessary to provide for the installation of any effective deflectors. It is possible to install additional portholes on the coaming or on the deckhouse instead of the light hatch.

Sometimes it happens that amateur shipbuilders who are dissatisfied with the resulting yacht attribute their own mistakes to the shortcomings of the project. As a rule, this is due to the fact that the project undergoes changes during the construction process. Here is an illustrative example. The builders of the mini-yacht "Pautinka", having increased all the dimensions of the "Seahorse" by 20%, received a yacht with an undesirable trim to the stern. “Apparently,” they write, “this is a flaw in the project.”

However, the "Konek" in the design dimensions has no trim to the stern. The real reason is that the increased "by 20%" version of the yacht's displacement should no longer be 700 - 750 kg, like the "Spider Web", but about 1100 kg; Naturally, the ship's draft became 40 - 50 mm less, as a result of which the center of gravity of the waterline and the center of buoyancy shifted forward, in relation to the design ones.

We bring to the attention of readers brief descriptions of four yachts built and tested by amateurs in recent times.

MINI - YACHT "PRIVAL".

Built by V. V. Marataev from Kaliningrad according to the drawings of the Seahorse. We selected this mini-yacht for review just to illustrate the thesis that changes in finished projects should be done very carefully. Obviously, the erroneous remark made in No. 61 by the builders of the Spider Web that the Seahorse is trimmed to the stern misled V.V. Marataev. He took measures: so that his yacht would not have this trim, slightly change its dimensions, by increasing the spacing by 20mm, and moving the heavy zygomatic keels into the nose.

"Halt" is armed with a Bermuda sloop with a top (unlike the project) staysail. The mainsail from the "Flying Dutchman" was used, the main staysail - from the "Zvezdnik", genoa - from the class "M" dinghy. The boom is rotating. According to the results of the operation of the yacht, the author noted the following shortcomings of the project: the absence of clew winches, which makes it difficult to work with sails in a fresh wind; lack of rake staysail; some inconvenience of placement in the cabin due to the ledge formed by the junction of the deck and the deckhouse coaming; no storage compartment for outboard motor; placement of the galley in the cockpit, creating inconvenience when cooking in bad weather.

At full courses, the yaw of the "Halt" was noted. The advantages include relatively high nautical qualities of the yacht: good germination on the wave, stability, ease of movement (maximum recorded speed - 6 h).

STEEL YACHT - A COMPROMISE OF HELLAS.

Its author is Marina Shcherbina from the Ukrainian city of Smela. When designing this generally rather original steel mini-yacht, publications about three sailing vessels were used: a 6.8-meter sailing-motor dinghy with two rotating bilge skewers (designed by V.F. Paramonov, “KYa” No. 62); 6.9 - meter quarter-tonner "Courier - III" (designed by I. I. Sidenko; "KYa" No. 64) and the English serial 6.9 - meter mini-tonner "Sonata - 7" ("KYa" No. 68), as well as nomograms published in issue 7 (1966).

It can be noted that the drawing of a dinghy is taken as the basis of the theoretical drawing (with minor changes in the aft part); from the two yachts mentioned, the main ideas of general arrangement and sailing equipment are borrowed. The hull of the yacht is made of welded steel: the set is cut from an angle 2.5X30X30, bent from a strip; keel beam - I-beam from a strip 2.5 mm thick; skin thickness on the bottom - 3mm, on the sides - 2mm. The deck and wheelhouse are made of bakelized plywood 5 mm thick. Inside the body is sheathed with plywood and laminated plastic on an oak purlin.

A successful combination of a simple in contours and a technologically advanced hull made of materials available to builders and effective windage made it possible to create a cheap cruiser to build and operate, which has sufficiently high speed, seaworthiness and tacking qualities. Tests of "Hellas" at the Kremenchug reservoir confirmed that the creative use of three different prototypes (in itself - a rare option) was done quite competently on the whole.

The Hellas has two bilge skewers, cut from sheet steel 20 mm thick, with a total weight of 210 kg. The lower parts of the centerboard wells protruding from the hull are made hollow in the form of fairings into which lead is poured (its weight is about 200 kg). The relatively large total weight of the ballast, which is 31% of the displacement, ensures good stability of the yacht. The daggerboard wells are made more powerful than on the prototype dinghy, but they are the same in design.

The spar is made of light-alloy pipes. The collapsing mast is made of 110X2 pipe, the rotating boom is 70X3. The yacht's water resistance is ensured by foam plastic blocks (total volume 1.5 m 3 ), glued on the inside on the hull, deck and wheelhouse, and also laid under the sofas.

The yacht is equipped with three berths, a galley, a table, wardrobes and a latrine. The height in the cabin is 1.45 m. (The layout of the cabin is somewhat doubtful - the location of the table on the starboard side; it is unlikely that it will be convenient to dine at this table, sitting on a sofa set far from it - along the opposite side.

It would be more rational to install a table with a folding cover in the center of the cabin; or equip an existing table with a retractable lid.) In the stern, below deck, a compartment is fenced off for installing a stationary engine. In the forepeak there is a sail storeroom. The author of the project considers steel to be a completely acceptable material for the construction of a yacht with a length of more than 7 m.

MINITONE "THREE BOGATYRS".

Built by Kharkovites S. Degtyarev and V. Drachevsky. When developing their own project, the authors set out to create a light, but with a sufficient level of comfort, a yacht suitable for both long trips and cruising. The hull structure is composite, the set is made of light alloy: transverse - from squares, longitudinal - from channels. Sheathing is made of waterproof plywood 6 mm thick.

The hull, including the self-draining cockpit and deck, is covered with two layers of fiberglass on an epoxy binder. Hollow steel false keel filled with lead and cement; its mass is about 280 kg. The yacht "Three Bogatyrs" is equipped with a Bermuda sloop with a top staysail. The spar is wooden, the steps are installed on the deck. The yacht is equipped with mechanisms and devices to facilitate the work with the sails and to fine-tune them. The cabin is equipped with four berths, there is a portable galley.

YACHT "SEVERYANKA".

Built by N. Vesenin in Vologda according to the drawings "Sail - 2" ("KYA" No. 6; 1966). This is an example of a successful yacht built without fundamental changes in the project being implemented. The lack of bakfanera and oak at the disposal of the builder, provided for by the drawings, led to the need for a number of unprincipled design changes. The body set is made of pine.

Sheathing is made of spruce slats 12x40 mm with water-resistant glue. Such a replacement of materials allowed the author to obtain a hull equivalent to the design hull in terms of strength and weight characteristics at the lowest cost. Adhering to the project as far as possible, the author of the Severyanka managed to obtain satisfactory seaworthiness and tacking qualities of the mini-yacht and its good running both under sail and under the motor.

The outboard motor "Vykhr-M" was used as an auxiliary engine, with which the yacht develops a speed of 15 km/h. The use of such a powerful (25 hp) and heavy motor on such a vessel is impractical. The contours of sailing yachts are calculated for a course of about 5 knots (about 9 km / h).

To achieve such a speed with a mini-yacht, 8-strong “Wind” is enough.

The use of engines with excess power gives only a small increase in speed, while fuel consumption increases significantly. In the future, it is planned to install a firebox in the cabin, which will improve the habitability of the vessel operated in the northern regions.

We are starting a series of articles on construction and operation big yachts. About what happens in the first stages of the process of building a megayacht, tells Denis Perevoznikov project manager motor yachts, author of a blog about the yachting industry.

Denis, come on. There are people who simply do not know where to begin to realize their desire to own a yacht. What do you recommend?

I think it makes no sense to talk about which yacht to choose. It's a matter of personal preference and budget.

Something like with a car: there are a lot of models - what the soul lies in, then you buy it.

- But there is a difference between manufacturers.

Of course I have. But everything is not as clear and unambiguous as it seems at first glance. If we talk about the new building, then with the proper organization of the construction process, these differences can be minimized. If we talk about used yachts, then everything depends on many factors, this is a separate big topic.

Let's not touch it just yet. If a client has a burning desire to build his own yacht, where should he go first?

No matter how trite, first he needs to choose a company or person who will represent his interests - a project manager. Each of them has their own way of working. I first meet with the customer and find out his preferences. Usually they come down to requirements for speed, the number of guest cabins, and the area of navigation. By the time of the conversation, the customer, as a rule, has in mind several models of yachts that he likes, but which need to be improved. Not here, not there.

Focusing on his wishes, we choose a designer and a naval architect. We meet with them, discuss options, discuss the conditions for their participation in the project, in parallel we select a shipbuilder and discuss options with him. As a result, in 1-2 weeks we prepare for the customer several proposals-outlines and approximate budgets for the design and construction of the yacht. We explain the differences, pros and cons, risks.

- What should be guided by when choosing a designer and a naval architect?

Basically, it all depends on the type of yacht that the customer wants. Some people are excellent at displacement yachts, some are semi-displacement yachts, and some are the best at designing catamarans. The choice is influenced by the current workload of the designer, the conditions of his work and, of course, the price.

Some ask 1 million euros for participation in the project (for a 47-meter yacht), others are ready to work for much less money. The same principles apply to choosing a naval architect.

We have chosen a designer and a naval architect and we are starting to work closely with them. Of course, everyone has their own approach to working with a customer, but usually it is divided into several stages. First, the development of a preliminary profile of the yacht and a preliminary deck plan of the yacht. During these stages, the designer works closely with the Naval Architect and Systems Engineer to avoid early problems that may arise later.

Once these steps are completed, we prepare a documentation package that includes: theoretical drawing hull, preliminary assessment of weight, speed, cruising range, stability and tonnage calculations. And at the end, the detailed study of the project begins. A list of the main equipment and technical specifications of the yacht are being prepared, a final deck plan of the project in AutoCAD and a drawing showing the section of the vessel along the DP with the indicated heights of the interior spaces is being prepared.

All of these documents are equally important. This is the foundation of all future calculations and relationships.

The main thing here is that there should be constant live communication between all project participants - "everyone's work is needed equally." All wishes of the client must be taken into account.

- What will the customer get in the end?

The customer will receive a package of documents consisting of a deck plan, calculations of speed, cruising range, tonnage and weight of the yacht, a theoretical hull drawing and a technical specification. This is enough to start negotiations with shipbuilders. You can hold a tender among shipyards or go to a shipyard you already like and discuss the price and terms of the contract with them.

By the way, the specification of the yacht is the cornerstone of everything.

What is written there, the customer will receive in the end. It is important that it be as detailed as possible in terms of describing the technical properties and performance of various equipment, and must contain quality criteria. If it says “the yacht will be painted”, then in the end you will get a painted yacht, but you will never be able to present anything to the shipbuilder if the frames are visible through the paint and all surfaces are covered with shagreen and blisters.

- Blister?

Looks like bulging paint. In general, do not be afraid to seem boring when preparing a specification. It is better to spend time finding out all the details than to swear and anathematize everyone in a row.

- What is the most difficult thing at this stage?

To understand what the future owner really wants from the yacht, to help him avoid the options imposed by the shipyard's marketers.

- For example?

For example, an opening hatch in the owner's cabin.

- What's wrong with him?

In general, everything. It can be opened only under certain sea conditions, this work is carried out by the crew, the crew will also have to bring and install a railing. This whole operation will take about 30 minutes. As a result, the moment for which all this was conceived will be missed. From the inside, the lazport and its mechanisms look, so to speak, unusual and dissonant with the overall interior design.

- Yes, there are many nuances.

There are not just a lot of them, there are thousands of them. Therefore, it is very important for the future owner of the yacht to find an attorney in this matter. Do not try to resolve the situation with your own hands or with the help of a home office. You will see the problem when you hit it, and the project manager sees the problem at the beginning of the journey. It's like wandering through a maze - it's better when someone has a map and experience of passing it. I mean that everyone should mind their own business. Remember the video Harry Oldman, where he talks about superfluous people in cinema.

The video is visual, but back to our yachts - the customer received an impressive package of documents from the architect and designer...

Then we choose a shipyard and sign a letter of intent with it (usually the shipyard initiates the signing of this document, for the legal basis of cooperation before signing the main contract). Here begins work on the final coordination of the specification and deck plan. The shipyard will always have comments, comments, clarifications. And the task of the representative of the customer is to ensure that his interests are not infringed.

At the same time, we are starting to work on a draft contract for construction. It also needs to take into account many nuances: from the cost of a labor hour when calculating changes to a contract to the responsibility of the shipyard if the yacht does not reach the specification.
At the end of this stage, we have a set of documents, including: a construction contract, a payment schedule, a customer delivery schedule, an overall project schedule, a technical specification and a deck plan.

- Who checks all this information? I doubt it can be done alone.

Checks a lot of people. In each case, a decision must be made on how to proceed optimally. If you are building a serial project somewhere on Heesen, then it makes no sense to climb up to them with a drawing board and teach them how to build. If you are building a boat to order on the same Heesen, then it would not hurt to check the drawings in more detail. But, again, it all depends on the terms of the contract and specification.

Of course, if you build somewhere in Turkey, Russia or China, then you need to control the installation of each bolt (what material, who is the manufacturer, where it was bought, how it was installed).

For such projects, a project team is formed, which includes assembly and welding specialists, electricians, mechanics, insulators, painting and interior inspectors.

- What role do you play?

I act in this case as the project director. I do the same as any director: I am responsible for the work of the entire department, for its policy and development in general.

- Is it difficult to manage a project when employees are not in the office behind the wall, but are spread across countries and time zones?

Yes, in general, the first hundred years are hard, then you get used to it. The main thing is to organize the process correctly. We have our own reporting system, we have a common documentation database on a dedicated server, we have charts, there is a desire for people to work for results with soul and spark. As a result, the project is a well-oiled and verified mechanism that moves along a predetermined trajectory, and at certain moments you give it the necessary movement vector.

The tool box is located on the lounge sofa, electric screwdrivers are at hand, soldering irons and wrenches are on the table. Usually such a cozy salon looks like in winter and spring, rather, like a miniature workshop or an amateur workshop. It will still be a few months before most of the yachts set sail again and go to new harbors. In order to pass the time before their next voyage, many yacht owners use the cold season to improve, repair and improve the yacht.

Yachting Tips

"It's just my hobby", tells us Armin Horn. The Swabian-born fell ill with yachting ten years ago and began learning all aspects of sailing in Croatia.

Along with navigating, trimming a ship, and anchoring, he learned that the ability to use a soldering iron and a screwdriver can be excellently applied to a new hobby.

Before becoming a university teacher, Armin Horn He was engaged in developments for a German engineering company, so the "idea generator", as he calls himself, has all the conditions for implementing innovations on his yacht.

“When something on a yacht bothers me, I think about what the optimal solution might look like”, — the innovator explains his approach. It checks to see if the corresponding solution is already on sale. Often you have to make things yourself.

Before starting work in the workshop, Horn draws up a plan and breaks tasks into many small operations. “Thanks to this, I can achieve a little success on the yacht every day and do not perceive the work as a burden,” says the resourceful owner of the yacht Bavaria 37.

Preparation is essential to the success of a project. When he is going to Turkey, where his yacht is located, he meticulously goes through all the items on the list. Is everything thought out? Is everything possible to implement on board? Does the yacht have the necessary tools? He always sets himself the goal of making the necessary part at home, and on the yacht to perform only its installation, because “at home I have a lot Better conditions and more time. And in the end my main goal is to sail».

Precise planning and meticulous work ensure that everything is exactly where it should be on a yacht. Often the inventions made by Horn cannot be distinguished from the parts made by the yacht manufacturer. The cutlery drawer located under the saloon table looks like it was installed in a shipyard. “On a yacht, you can make and drill a lot of unnecessary things very quickly”, - Horn shares his experience and advises starting with small rationalization solutions and gradually adding something new.

Armin Horn has another piece of advice that he also gives to his students: “You must be able to work with tools, solder, tinker and find a suitable hobby if possible. In this way, you will accumulate the knowledge gained in the course of independent work, and learn the practice better than if you just studied the theory!”

Yachting Tips

Armin Horn's ideas on how to make a yacht more comfortable

Window for inspection of the impeller

The temperature of the engine jumps, and white smoke comes out of the exhaust pipe at the stern: classic impeller failure. After opening the pump housing, fragments fall out of it, and individual blades are gone. Often no one bothers to check the impeller regularly. While you open the pump cover, you will dislocate your hands, and even then you won’t be able to cope with your two - you need an assistant to check the impeller.

A five millimeter thick Plexiglas lid will completely replace a metal lid. Every time you go out to sea, you only need to look for a check - and no wrenches or screwdrivers. However, to accurately inspect the individual blades, the dismantling of the cover is still required.

Deck Washer

Anchor device brings silt, algae and starfish on the deck, which, after raising the anchor, often looks like a spilled aquarium. Deck washing can be simplified by placing a pressurized water connection in the anchor box. With the help of a 2-way valve, the pump can either supply sea water or service water from tanks. From the pump there is a hose to the built-in connector with a firm hitchhiker gardena located in the anchor box, on which a suitable connecting element is installed.

Homemade towing generator

Sailing at night, winding miles, and anchoring in secluded bays is the dream of many yachtsmen. However, the power of the battery hinders this desire for freedom. Beacons, GPS and electronic autopilot completely drain the battery on board. There are some alternative options on the market that allow the yachtsman to do without a fifth mooring line for a long time. With some technical skills, you can independently build a towing generator.

Should be added: the construction of a towing generator is available for "advanced" DIY enthusiasts, who also have a workshop for the manufacture of parts from V4A (steel resistant to impact sea water).

Protective box for body sensors

Before starting the transition, it is necessary to place milk bags, canned food and water bottles somewhere. However the luggage compartment often remains empty: there is too great a fear that as a result of slipping of elements of equipment or provisions, the log and lot sensors may be damaged or even torn off. But the transition should not end somewhere at the bottom of the sea.

The wooden box will protect the sensors and prevent damage. With the help of a hinge and a magnet, the box can be folded up and fixed.

Anchor weighted with lead

When you try to anchor for the third time, but it does not cling to the bottom and drags along the sand of the bay, swearing is heard on the deck. In this case it may help additional anchor weight.

When using an anchor - a plow, the inside can be filled with lead. The pre-brazed V4A steel plate will prevent lead back pouring. After that, the center of gravity of the anchor will be much deeper. But remember that making changes to the anchor structure is always risky.

Motor flush

Old marine diesel engines, when viewed in detail, often present a pitiful picture. Cooling with sea water for many years leads to corrosion, rust eats through the metal. During long-term operation, with the help of a simple device, instead of sea water, it is possible to supply to the cooling circuit fresh water.

A tee is mounted in the salt water inlet. Through a hose with a tap and a connecting element, by closing the sea water supply valve, fresh water from any source can be supplied.

Anchor LED Light

The anchor light on the top is usually clearly visible from afar. But when a yacht makes its way through the bay at night, he is almost invisible. If you attach an LED anchor light to the halyard, it will be clearly visible to approaching ships.

seat back

What is always important in the stern railing is the ability to comfortably lean on your back while swimming. But the cold metal presses on the back, and after a while you have to give up such "comfort". Such a fence is inconvenient. It will be much more pleasant to lean on if there is a teak plank under your back.

steel spring

Rummaging through the lockers in search of something, supporting the lid with our heads, this picture is familiar to yacht owners all over the world. It is more convenient to use gas springs. However, for below deck applications, such as under upholstered saloon sofas, they are too weak to support the weight. An alternative would be long steel springs to securely hold the lid open. To close the locker, the spring is folded and the lid is lowered.

helm mount

Often when driving in the harbor, the helm blocks the way, so usually there is no crew in the rear aft seat at this time. Most yachtsmen are hesitant to dismantle the helm in port due to the complexity of the operation.

This will be easier if the helm nut is replaced with a teak wing nut with a threaded insert. The teak nut should be large enough to be easily tightened and loosened by hand.

Cutlery drawer

It is discovered too late that there is no spoon on the table. The captain slides off the sofa, accidentally pushes the table, and the red wine in the glass nearly spilled out. Finally, we are in the galley, the spoon is found, and the captain crawls back to his place.

A cutlery drawer located under the salon table will save you from such artistic tricks and, possibly, from the stains that red wine leaves.

Lattice for berths

Moisture under bunks can lead to mold and bad odors. No one wants to lie down in a bunk that smells musty. There are several systems on the market that provide sufficient ventilation and greatly contribute to comfort during sleep.

If you do not turn to specialists in yacht equipment, then everything you need can be found in a Swedish furniture store. The convenient slatted grille consists of curved slats and a band that holds the slats in place.

Beds become thinner over time. Since the slats constantly remain curved, when sawing them, it is enough just to take into account the desired length. You will be able to sleep much more comfortably, and you will simply forget about mold and unpleasant odors on board.

Martin Erger's advice on how to make your yacht more comfortable

Additional luggage space in the form of shelves

Luggage space on board is never superfluous: it is necessary, for example, to store staples and benzels in a safe place, or to prevent bottles of wine from rolling on the floor of the hold. Much of the space on board is not fully utilized. With the help of wood, a saw and a little varnish, such a space can be arranged to your advantage, for example, by installing an additional shelf or bottle holder in the cabin.

LED lighting in the mast slot

Pleasant lighting in the cockpit should not be blinding or look like a building spotlight. An original solution is an LED lamp located in the groove of the mainmast, which illuminates the cockpit from above - provided that there is also a groove on the bottom of the mainmast into which the LED strip can be glued.

liberation of genoa

The genoa is stuck to the railing, the afterlik is caught on the saling or is slowly rubbing. Special deflector rings are very fragile and do not impress. A golf ball with a drilled hole can serve the sail well. The hole in the ball must be large enough to allow it to be driven over the shroud or guard line, and the tie-downs to hold it in place. The sail slides along the fence and does not get stuck on the saling.

Mosquitoes protection

You want to ventilate the yacht well in the summer and not attract the attention of buzzing tormentors - it sounds like a utopia. Either you have to lock the gangway, and then the yachtsman will have a stuffy sleepless night, or he will spend it fighting mosquitoes. A plug-in bulkhead with a large mosquito net will ensure air flow into the cabin and keep out mosquitoes.

Wide teak steps

At some point, it hurts: no one can stand barefoot on the rungs of the bathing stairs for a long time, in extreme cases, just a few seconds. It is much more pleasant to feel wide teak steps under your feet. They can be additionally installed on the yacht, even without the help of specialists, since inexpensive remnants of teak wood can often be found for sale, for example, on special Internet platforms. The steps are attached to the rungs with bolts.

Compact ute fork

Yut fork greatly simplifies folding the mast for a small crew. The shackle, which runs from the top shroud attachment points to the forestay attachment point, is the bulkiest piece of equipment on board.

Yut fork does not fit in the locker, it cannot be taken home in the car. Often the fork cannot be taken apart. As an option, a self-made construction of 40 mm tubes made of VA steel with a wall thickness of 5 mm is offered, which can be divided into separate plug-in segments using a 30 mm (tube inside diameter) bolt.

Tips from Klaus Kubel on how to make your yacht more comfortable

Belt use

Sailing to windward can quickly become a defining moment in sailing. The railing cable presses unpleasantly on the back, and every minute one has to change position involuntarily. The use of harnesses in the cockpit area will ensure painless handling on the windward side. However, lifelines should not be used as strap attachment points. Either they need to be further strengthened, or all the traction should be taken over by a shortened rope of the railing.

Outboard motor holder

It starts to falter, works normally again, and eventually leaves the yachtsman to fend for himself a few miles from the port - the internal engine has served its purpose. Such a situation during a calm can quite ruin your nerves. You can continue the movement of the yacht using an inflatable boat with an outboard motor, fixed along the side.

If the inflatable boat is at the very bottom of the locker, there is another, less laborious way to quickly engage the outboard motor. Two U-shaped profiles are attached to the board, which are installed at a distance between the two rungs of the bathing ladder. If necessary, such a holder can be hung by the profiles on the stairs. The outboard motor is mounted on the board, which will allow you to bring the yacht to port.

kitty

Staples, pulleys and ropes are often scattered along with clamps and sets of screws throughout the locker. Often the staple is not at hand at the right moment. As a result - a long digging in the locker. Over the years, a bag (kisa) made of fabric or canvas has proven itself well. The inner pockets save pins and piles, while the main space is large enough for ropes, blocks and gardaman. The cord tightening the bag prevents the inventory from falling out.

Tips from Anja and Andreas Zabel on how to make your yacht more comfortable

In order not to stumble on the shoulder strap

The shoulder strap in the center of the cockpit blocks the passage, and when the yacht is in the harbor, you have to climb over it. Re-equipment of the shoulder strap to enable its dismantling is a simple task. To do this, in the cockpit at the same height against each other, two U-shaped profiles are mounted, closed at the top. The fasteners must be reinforced with a counter-plate, otherwise the device will not withstand a large traction force. The fixing bolt prevents the shoulder strap from falling out.

Clearance

The use of a large amount of wood in the cabin of relatively old yachts gives them a solid look. However, going down the companion ladder, you often find yourself in a dark cave. Large windows on top of older yachts are rare. A sliding hatch of a gangway can become a source of light here. A Plexiglas window is inserted flush into it, through which light enters the passenger compartment when the hatch is closed. At the beginning and end of the season, the cabin is kept warm and at the same time it is not too dark there.

Advice from Ralf Schwanneke on how to make a yacht more comfortable

Durability and good looks

Time leaves its traces on the bow hatch of the yacht. After a few years, the glass becomes cloudy and covered with scratches. It no longer attracts the eye, and it also becomes difficult to see through it. The old glass can be removed from the frame, and the frame itself can be cleaned of silicone residue. Then, with the help of MS-polymer, we glue the new glass.

The hatch can be given a modern look by using a sticker with the name of the yacht, some epoxy and sugar to create the structure.