Classic Pond Yachts
W J Daniels XPDNC design, the design was called 'Expediency'. This one a 30 inch long version. Originally designed as a full sized 10 rater, and the most successful 10 rater design for over 20 years. Maybe this one was a 5 Rater ?
I have been feeling really guilty about this yacht, I have had her for over a year, she needs a lot of work, but I have not found time to start her yet, I don't know why I have not loaded her page up here though, she is a great boat, the most difficult thing is to repair the keel which is very loose. Not sure what class she is for, she is 30 inches long so maybe a rater class ??
I think she is an old model, the pictures below are the best I could get of the inside, when these boats were built the glues available were not very good, hoof and Horn glues from boiling down animals bones!, they were not waterproof and needed help, they used to 'sew' the lifts (that is the name for the timbers/layers used in bread and butter type construction) together, in the pictures you can see where the lifts where sewn together, that is the zig-zag lines you can see, I think that makes it pre WW11 ? Having said that the glue from the deck join looks newer, so maybe she has already been worked on ?
A really nice model yacht, I have taken her apart, but may put her together for display until I can get started on her.
13 Nov 21 - In spite of saying it will just re-rig her !! I have decided she needs so little done, that I may as well do her now. The keel and skeg are the biggest jobs required, the lead wobbles on the timber keel and the skeg is out of true, the rudder bearing is also out, that will be to hard to change, so I am just making good. The deck looks like it is quite old, but looks nice so I am only going to tidy the deck a little, just keep it looking as it does.
This is where the keel joint moves, there is no access to the keel bolts, the only one I can get to is seized solid. My plan is to open the keel joint, and fill with epoxy. Here I am opening up the joint slightly.
Here I am cutting along the joint to open it up and make it deep enough to take the epoxy.
Box of different Epoxy glues and fillers.
Mixing epoxy ready to fill the keel joint, I only did one side, I did the second side after the epoxy had cured, this is so the epoxy did not run away while curing.
Once the joint was opened, I covered the open joint with masking tape. I then mixed the epoxy and brushed it into the open joint before mixing the fillers, then mix the fillers/micro balloons and apply the filler to the open joint.
Filler being applied keel joint.
Filler applied.
I removed the masking tape while the epoxy was still a bit soft, makes it easier to remove the tape.
Deck sanded ready for varnish, also tidied couple of bits of deck where there where some small bits of damage from a couple of the old deck fittings, also tried fitting the rudder to see what I do about the angle of the rudder tube, which is out, I think it will have to stay, it has been like it all its life, now part of the history !
First coat of varnish applied.
Removed the sails from the spars, sails looking pretty old, to some they would be prefect, sorry to me they look old and tatty, not sails anyone would want to be seen sailing with, but were obviously nice sails in there day !!
Spars have been sanded back ready for varnish, nice spars the boom has bent over the years, but will be great for the new sails.
Varnishing the next job, and order the sails.
17 Nov 21 - Varnished the mast and spars, also had a look at the deck gear, stripped the paint off the mast deck fitting, also the deck hatch fitting, they are made out of copper, show a lot of lumps and bumps but are clearly old, so I think I may just lacquer them and keep the warts and all, the mast deck fitting needed to have the tube the mast goes through removed so I could strip it down to tidy and repair. Also gave the blocks for the running sheets, to lead to the brain system, a clean up and free off the pulleys, again these are old. Pictures below.
Mast and spars varnished, ready for rigging when sails made.
Deck fitting for mast cleaned up, now needs a wire brush to give a final clean, solder the tube back on, it is currently only sitting in place.
Deck ring for deck hatch having the paint removed, also needs a clean up with wire brush and a little bit of tidying, I will then spray with Lacquer. I will also make a cork plug and fit the timber hatch to it.
Running sheet blocks have been freed off, now a wire brush and polish.
She is looking a lot better, still old, some wire brushing and lacquering will be nice, I can start refitting deck gear then. I think she is fairly old, I don't want to take that away.
21 Nov 21 - More stuff started, I have been thinking about the skeg, and the rudder tube. Both are a long way out of true, to the extent I think it will be like having a degree or two on all the time, the rudder will have to go the other way just to keep her straight, hard with braine steering, I think I am going to replace the skeg and move the rudder stock!
Here you can see how far out the skeg is, the picture from aft has the rudder fitted, it is further out then the skeg, also the aft end of the skeg is damaged, the rudder tube originally ran down the aft end of the skeg, but has been broken.
I have also mad a new deck hatch and a cork plug to try and make it more water tight.
Cork plug to fit in the deck hatch being cut out and fitted.
I had been given an old board of Oak timber, I cut it into 2mm thick boards for later use, one of them I used here. I super glued two strips together to make the width required.
I then glued the pieces together with epoxy, timber grain running at 90 degrees.
Once the glue has kicked off, I marked out the diameter and cut it out on the bank saw.
Sanding the outside to shape.
I sanded a radius around the edge and fitted it on the hatch. It now needs varnishing, try to match the deck colour, then glue the cork plug to the bottom, I will fit a fitting for securing the hatch to stop it being opening if caught by a running sheet etc.
Next job to varnish the new hatch, and figure out what to do with skeg and rudder, picture showing poor condition of the skeg, rudder is fine, but the rudder tube out of position.
Before !
After, skeg gone also removed rudder tube.
Rudder tube removed, opened up the hole in the hull to get the rudder to line up with the keel.
I took a template of the skeg shape before cutting it off. I then cut out three sections in 1.2mm ply and sanded them up ready to glue together.
New skeg epoxied together and under lead weight.
New rudder tube made up, brass washer fits on deck and will be silver soldered in place when ready to fit.
New rudder tube wedged in place to check rudder alignment with keel, not bad ! I will make up a timber plug to glue into the hole in the hull over night, then drill the hole tomorrow, ready to fit the new rudder tube. I will open the hole up with a conical drill and glue the tube in with epoxy.
Marked out the best position for skeg, when the epoxy has kicked of over night, I will shape the skeg up and mark out the hull, then cut out a slight rebate to locate the skeg, shape everything and glue it in position. I seem to remember saying there was only a little amount of work required !!!
First coat of varnish on the hatch, mixed a little stain with the varnish, it will need to be a little darker, but looks nice.
22 Nov 21 - More stuff done to skeg and rudder tube.
Skeg shaped up, I have glued a piece of solid Mahogany to the aft end of the sked, needs sanding when rudder re-fitted.
The hull is quite thin, so I don't want to make a rebate in the hull to take the skeg, there was not one originally, I decided to fit stainless screws to locate in the hull, the epoxy will do the main job, the screws will help to hold the skeg in position while the epoxy is curing. Here drilling holes in the mill.
Holes drilled, these are some think stainless bolts I found in EBAY great for this, holes are about 15mm long, fit the screws and cut the heads off leaving 10mm. The lines on the skeg are there so I could mark the hole positions on the hull, to drill the holes, and line up with the lines.
Holes in the hull drilled, now fitting skeg to check position.
Rudder tube fitted, lining up rudder with the keel, better than before !
Bottom of sked being machined to allow room for lower rudder bearing.
Skeg fitted to clear rudder blade, allowing room for paint ! and a space in the skeg for lower rudder bearing.
Skeg has been glued to the hull, epoxy bead along outside port and Stbd. The clip is holding the skeg in position while epoxy cures, I am really please I decided to do this, and not just live with what was there before, she will sail better.
I have also opened up the cracks where the keel joined the hull and applied epoxy, much stiffer now, sand it all up when cured tomorrow, then final fill and blend skeg to keel join, the XPDNC drawing shows it is a radius, I will try to match that.
One of the joints in the lifts and opened up slightly, I opened the crack with a small cutting saw.
After opening the joint, I masked along the crack.
I then worked some clear epoxy into the joint to soak into the timber.
I mixed up micro baloons into the epoxy and worked it into the crack, then removed the masking tape to allow the epoxy to cure.
29 Nov 21 - A few more jobs done pictures below.
I have sanded back the epoxy bead around the skeg and keel, I also filled and faired the skeg to keel joint as per original drawing, here the first coat of primer applied.
Here the primer sanded back, we now need to do another fill.
Ready for filler.
I have made up the main and jib sheet tracks, the original ones were made out of steel, most of the deck gear is copper and/or brass, so I removed the painted cars from both tracks, removed the paint, made up new copper tracks ready to lacquer and glue to the deck.
One other issue was the model did not sit upright in the stand, this picture shows how far out it was.
Here we can see the problem, the part the keel sits on is out of center.
I took the stand apart and made a new fwd section and uprights, here with its first coat of varnish.
I have also cut out a section of Cambric for the sails, it has had a wash, soaked it with waterproof water repellant, the Cambric we used on my Clyde Craft did not like saltwater, hopefully this will solve the problem, Catsails to make the sails.
06 Dec 21 - A few more jobs done, pictures below.
First coat of paint on the bottom.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
The new stand. Also first coat of paint on the bottom.
Main and Jib sheet tracks fitted, other fittings in place, but not yet fitted, lacquering to do still.
Another couple of pictures with the deck gear in place, she will look great!
Second coat applied to the bottom.
Some pictures below of recent progress, she is looking great, I am keen to get her finished, and have a goo sailing her.
I have lacquered the deck gear and most now fitted, I think it looks old which is what I wanted, I have always liked the fact that she does not look like she was built last week.
Here are the original sails, they are in quite good condition and well made, the shape is OK, but I don't like the stains!
Here are the new sails, they are a bit of an experiment, the material is cambric, which worked really well on my Clyde Craft model, until she sailed in the salt water on Hamble River, which distorted the sails, I sprayed the sails with a waterproof spray for dock shoes! I then got the wife to iron the sails and tried again in salt water on Gosport lake, all good. So I have treated the new sails before Catsails made them, we will see. I was unsure how to finish these sails, I did not want the luff hooks which look obviously modern, so decided to make something that I thought looked OK. Also no eyes stamped into the corners for securing the sail, the sails were held in position using string, the jib clew has a loop of string sewn in, I will do the same.
I used a length of thin brass rod and bent out as per the drawing below.
I then started to sew the fittings into the luff of the mainsail.
One hook sewn in, once hooked into the jackstay it looks OK. As can be seen with my sewing, I am no sail maker! Normally use Nigel at Catsails!!
First offer up of sail to boat, we (my wife!) very careful when we ironed the material after it was treated, to leave some age on it, very pleased so far, wait until the first salt water gets on it!!!
Not much to do to finish, a few more pictures below, more to follow. I will get some video of her sailing on the Hamble, when the weather improves!!!
More work done, she is now about ready to go for a test sailing, just need some nice weather. Very pleased with her, she does not look like a new build, kept her looking old, I think anyway, see what you think pictures below.
Pictures above of the sails being bent on, the wrinkles are to keep them looking like they have some age, I think it works??
These pictures show the mainsail beating and the brain gear running sheets being fitted and the jib sheet fitted, also the elastic control for the steering.
So here she is ready to go sailing, I am going to remove the green shrouds I have some line that will look better, otherwise ready to go sailing, pictures and hopefully some video to show soon.
I took her to a VMYG day at Gosport with a few other boats, a lovely day, this picture of her with Laura
(5 tonner) WaZp (Stan Witty Wasp) and a couple of toy boats.
The pictures I took at Gosport did not look very good, so took her down to the Hamble River and sailed her there, took pictures from our launch.
She sailed really well, looked great on the water, will take a lot of practice to get the brain gear working, but good fun. She will go to more VMYG meetings.