Editorial
British Airways One
Rally Reports & Programme
Secretarial
Race Report - Round the Island 1984
Chairwoman's Notes
Treasury Report
Letters
For Sale - Tiller Extension Hinges
Thelken
Editor - S D Fisher
Chairwoman - Haidy Blake
Once again the Iroquois Owners Association has turned up trumps. This meaty Newsletter is composed almost entirely of members’ contributions, what a splendid lot, you are, BUT; what we need is something from those members in foreign climes; how has AIRBORNE been getting on Darch, up there in the North West Pacific, and in these colder days some notes on sailing out of Tel Aviv or from the Caribbean Isles or the Bermudas would bring a warm glow to us in the UK and could even be considered as essential therapy for our Scandinavian members who have to survive without the benefit of the Gulf Stream.
How do members feel about using some of our funds to produce a glossy photo record of THE IROQUOIS, as 20th anniversary Newsletter. The idea would be to include a photo of as many different Iroquois as possible, together (and most importantly) with photos of Owners different cockpits, interiors, deck and other variation details.
Anyone who has ever seen three Iroquois together will realize that one reason for their success is that they attract the sort of owners who take an active interest in their boats, no two are the same. Black and white photos preferably please but colour if nothing else is available to the Editor.
Our sailing guide has been well received having been translated both into Dutch and French. Our Dutch friends of the CTC (Catamaran & Trimaran Club) Nederland translated the whole thing into Dutch and published with due credit and reference to the Iroquois Owners Association and explained who we were and what we did.
The French also intended to translate it into French, however, as it was explained to me, they decided to do so before asking permission and having done so then side stepped the issue by publishing it without credits so that there should be no difficulty about doing so without our approval, you don’t have to be French to admire the subtle logic of that process! So far none of the promised copies of their magazine or translation have turned up. Still, I suppose its better than admitting that multihull yachts and knowledge exist elsewhere than in France.
Multihull International also took our Barry Bucknell article without asking, although they did give a minute credit; nuisance though, I had a further use in mind for it which was scotched when MI published.
On Thursday November 8, the British Airways offshore racing catamaran BRITISH AIRWAYS ONE was officially launched from St Katherines dock and a reception was given by British Airways. The name of your secretary and editor was inadvertently left off the guest list, but, conceiving that BA wouldn’t want to commit such a faux pas I turned up anyway. After all the boat is designed by our very own genius, Roderick MacAlpine-Downie and as secretary of the Association formed from the owners of his most successful and attractive design I felt that not only would you want to be represented by that "they" would not want to be guilty of the solecism of not having your representative at this gracious affair.
For some reason when grateful thanks were being dolled out to all and sundry the name of the designer was not mentioned, rather a shame really considering his enormous contribution to the production of not only BRITISH AIRWAYS ONE but to Robin Knox-Johnston’s previous boats.
BRITISH AIRWAYS ONE is recognisably a family design not unlike a big Apache, and would fit in at any of our rallies, although at 60ft long by 30ft wide, with a 950 sq ft main and 1100 sq ft headsail and a dry launch weight of 4.3 tonnes she might be a bit more lively than even old number one. With a delivery crew of 14 on board she reached 28 knots on the trip from Ipswich to London.
First the bad news. It is with deep regret that I must draw to the attention of members that the 1984 Iroquois rally was sadly marred by the absence of Victoria and Richard Skinner who had been not brought aboard GANISA by their parents Kike & Belinda Skinner! However, on the other hand, they did bring Miles who, at about 3’ 6" high, got in such a sufficiency of very shrewd blows upon your editor that any member suffering from the slightest gruntle against said scrivener may now feel secure in the knowledge that all scores have been paid off on your behalf and in your favour.
Apart from that it’s all good news. The summer rally was attended by 10 Sail Craft boats, one Heavenly Twins and a passing Wayfarer or two. Rony & Elise Buque brought EL BUQUE and being edged onto the sand had her heeled over to an interesting degree at one stage, but no photos are available The ever mobile Blakes, Haidi & Rod and their seagoing tiny tots stopped cruising long enough to attend. Mike & Linda Cherry brought FOXY LADY, at No 317 the very last Sail Craft MKII Iroquois ever built. Mike & Linda were on their maiden voyage, they are finishing off the interior themselves in a particularly magnificent fashion, hope to see the final result at the next rally, it will surely be the Iroquois of Iroquois. Mike & Belinda Skinner came in GANISA their Mark 1 complete with young Miles, John who is their fire expert and (like your editor) can stand on his head and in addition, a large hairy dog, there’s forebearance for you: Di & Derek Morris brought classy CLAUDIA and Di’s new telephoto lens, for which we must be thankful as our cover illustrates (1, 2 & 3). George & Heidi Bone came over in their spruce Mark 1 MELODY OF WIGHT, George & Heidi and their guests came ashore for the barbeque although it must be difficult to leave their gourmet suppers and warm comfortable boat for the sand, dust, ash and burnt sausage routine. Aboard JANIE TOO the Day’s Apache, it’s more a question of live-aboard-luxury rather than comfort, what gorgeous boats they are and how well fitted out she is. The Keelers, Brian, Sue and Victoria win the prize for the longest trip to the meeting, they motored up against the wind from Brighton in TREAD SOFTLY their Mark 1 in which they have recently fitted two small diesels, prize to be awarded at AGM.
David & Yvonne Smith brought their Mark 2 CHIQUITA V which had been berthed in the Solent for a part of the summer, a useful compromise between sailing in interesting waters and having the boat on the doorstep.
The Sunday following rally Saturday must have been one of the hottest on record and around midday the wind vanished entirely leaving a huge mono racing fleet motionless in the Solent for several hours.
Next years rally programme will be:
April 5/8 Brighton Marina Rally
June 22/23 MOCRA Chichester Rally
July 6/7 Plymouth South West RBR rally
July 27/28 IROQUOIS OWNERS CHICHESTER RALLY
August 24/26 Plymouth South West Rally
In response to various requests the 1985 rally will be held on East Head Sands, Chichester Harbour.
1985 subscriptions are due! please return form and cash to the Secretary/Treasurer. Our funds are in credit but these big newsletters eat up money.
Names and addresses still pose something of a problem, would anyone who doesn’t read this please write and let the editor know!
Seriously, please notify us of changes of address and remember that the Association membership is open to all who own, have owned, or would like to own Sail Craft / Macalpine-Downie designed boats. You don’t have to resign because, perhaps temporarily or because of retirement, you are bereft of a boat. As a matter of fact the editor feels that members who have sold their boats and retired should be amongst the most valuable of our members. After all, he says, not only have they accumulated years of invaluable experience BUT they now have time to put it down on paper for the benefit of others. Everyone has a book in them, let yours be about your Iroquois sailing days.
MOCRA, the Multihull Offshore Cruising & Racing Association, are willing to offer a block Associate Membership to members of the Iroquois Owners’ Club at £5.00 per head providing we can raise 20 members who want to join in this way. In return for your £5.00 you would receive 4 copies of their glossy newsletter MULTLHULLS OFFSHORE, plus 2 copies of a Roneoed interim newsletter per year. If you wish to participate in their events, however, you would have to pay the non-members premium, please make your wishes known on the subscription form.
The Annual General Meeting and supper will be held on Friday, 4th January 1985, at the Cruising Association Library in St. Katharine’s Dock, next to Tower Bridge. As usual this is the first Friday of the London Boat Show. Your chairwoman, Haidi Blake, has arranged for Viv Bennett to bring his film of his travels and cruises in CATENA, in Greece and Turkey. There will also be a "bring and identify" table of unknown Iroquois bits and pieces, together with failed and fractured fittings, so please bring or send your favourites.
The MOCRA programme for multihull events in 1985 is as follows:
|
April 5/8 |
Brighton Marina, Bank holiday Rally |
|
May 4/6 |
Seaview, I of W, Bank Holiday Rally/Races, Seaview Yacht Club, I.O.W. |
|
May 25/27 |
Swanage Bank Holiday Rally/Race, Swanage Yacht Club |
|
June 17/21 |
UK Multihull Offshore Sailing Championships, Solent, Royal London Yacht Club |
|
June 22/23 |
Solent, East End Rally, Chichester Harbour, East Head Sands |
|
June 24/28 |
World Micro Multihull Offshore Sailing Championships, Hayling Island Sailing Club |
|
June 29 |
Round Island Race, Island Sailing Club |
|
June 30 |
Cowes - Plymouth (Into the Bays Race) |
|
July 6/7 |
Plymouth Round Britain Race Start/Rally, Cawsand Yacht Club |
|
(July 18/21 |
Scandi championships, inc. MICRO’s) |
|
(JULY 27/28 |
IROQUOIS OWNERS’ SOLENT RALLY, EAST HEAD, CHICHESTER HARBOUR) |
|
(August 3/11 |
Cowes Week; August 11 Fastnet Race, finish 13/14 by RWYC) |
|
August 17 |
CRYSTAL TROPHY, 0900 hrs start, ISC & RWYC |
|
August 24/26 |
Plymouth Bank Holiday Race/Rally, Cawsand Yacht Club |
|
September 7 |
SHAMBLES RACE, 1600 hrs start, ISC |
|
October 5/6 |
Beaulieu Rally & Barbeque ashore if needed |
Non-members are welcome to all these events, please contact the Iroqouis Owners’ Association Secretary for more information. It seems especially useful to take advantage of the Brighton Marina and Plymouth rallies so that not only can we hold our own rally within a rally, but we can exhibit the intrinsic superiority and basic bestness of our boats to a wondering, but bemused, populace.
The Iroquois Sovereign went to Richard Collier, who once again thrashed his Iroquois CHEROKEE to the front of the queue. The new organization at Cowes is not quite at perfect tick-over yet and there was some confusion, at first, as to who had won the main Multihull class race prize, but, in the end, it turned out not to be CHEROKEE.
It was a particularly gorgeous affair, with perfect weather and a marvellous, but not terrifying, run down the back of the Isle of Wight; let’s try for a good Iroquois turnout in 1985, see you there.
Another sailing season is nearly over and what a pleasant one it has been. Really glorious weather for the whole of the summer. We had a gentle cruise down to Salcombe, stopping at nearly every beach on the way. It was a bonus year for mackerel fishing our best year ever. We usually catch less than we need and inevitably there is a fight at mealtimes - no problem this year.
At Studland we hired wind surfers for a few hours to be followed by whole day hire from the Island Cruising Club at Salcombe. We had great fun in ideal conditions, light winds very necessary for my first attempt. The dinghy became the safety boat very important for beginners battling with the tide and wind. I think our boat will be heavier next year with the addition of a wind surfer.
On sailing up one of our favourite rivers the Dart we met up with ex Iroquois owner Peter Kinch who now has an Apache KASANTI. We were invited on board, such space and luxury after an Iroquois. I was very envious, I consoled myself with thoughts of cleaning 2 loos and 4 times the cabin area, not to mention the expense. I think our Iroquois will have to last a few more years.
The Iroquois meet at Newtown was enormously successful 10 boats in all. A super fire organised by the advance party and Editor followed by burnt sausages, beef burgers etc. A very friendly atmosphere. I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as we did. It seems however that we should have a change of venue next year closer to Brighton or maybe have 2 south coast meets. All suggestions welcomed through the Newsletter or for discussion at the AGM.
I have been writing to members asking about their experiences, sailing season and hints and tips and am pleased to say that the response to both my efforts and those made by Stuart is gratifying and fascinating. The Newsletter is our link amongst ourselves and we all know how interesting it is to read even the briefest note from another member. However we must not rest on our laurels, but must strain to attain even greater heights - keep the letters flowing in.
I have a suggestion that might be of interest to members. I would like to start a receipe/cookerypage, if anyone has any tried and tested favourite receipes they would be willing to share please send them in also any ideas on cooking/domestic gadgets that you have that makes the domestic scene easier. One pan that I have found really excellent is a dry roaster (often called a Harben pan). It is a pan with a raised dome in the middle which has holes in. It has the same action as an oven. It is ideal for baking jacket potatoes using a minimum of gas. In one hour it will bake a medium size potato. Also good for small pieces of meat, chicken portions and roast potatoes. It costs about £11, well worth it I think.
Do try to come to the AGM in January I am sure it will be an interesting and enjoyable evening. I hope as I write this article Vyv Bennett is editing his film of his sailing trips of Greece and Turkey. Do not forget to bring items and photographs for our interest area. I look forward to meeting you there.
Haidy Blake
Our current bank balance is about £550 (including some 1985, 86 & 87 subs paid in advance); membership is about 80 or so, depending on how many of the two or three laggards rejoin at the beginning of the year; new members are still joining us at about, or slightly better, than the same rate at which they leave, this represents twenty-five percent of all Iroquois ever sold. When you take into account those which were sold to dealers abroad, and hence have never even heard of the Association, it represents about half; not bad, but could do better!
Newsletter costs are difficult to generalize, but seem to work out, on the average, at about £200 - £225 per issue, half of which is in the cost of typing stencils and duplicating. We produce 125/150 of each newsletter, send out some as freebies to mags and other Associations, and keep some as "back_numbers". On the other hand, the sailing manual has gone out of print and we’ve reprinted that part of that newsletter for new members. In addition, the running expenses are about £100 p.a.
The AGM and Solent Rally are of course self-supporting, so the "non-present" membership does not subsidize a London juncket. We are, however, living slightly on our capital, outgoings are about £500 per year, whilst income is generally about £400, hence the need to raise the sub to £5.00 a year if we hope to keep up the present standard of newsletter. The alternatives would either be to acquire 25 new members (so next time you see an Iroquois who is not a member rope them in) or for a couple of members to VOLUNTEER to type the stencils (? and duplicate them) for us, free of charge.
From Marc Sheridan
Dear S.D.
We keep Tzatzke 224 in the Abacos, Bahamas for 4-6 months every year. We would be happy to provide any information we could on cruising the Abacos and renting moorings etc. to any interested members.
Sincerely,
Marc W Sheridan
Tzatzke, No. 224
From Amos Raviv
Dear Sir,
My name is Amos Raviv. I’m a rnultihull sailor for the last six years. My previous boat was a 28ft Tane (a James Wharram design). Today I enjoy sailing on Iroquois Mark IIa (Patriche) that belongs to my friends, Oded and Shelagh Hamer. I plan to buy an Iroquois or a similar boat this winter. Please send me all the information about available boats including prices, photographs and detailed inventory lists. Also, I’d like to know about the registration procedures, as an Israeli I prefer to register it in an open port like Panama.
My budget is $10,000 - 15,000 dollars. I’m also open to the possibility of buying a boat which is not completely furnitured. I intend to come to England in Jan. for two weeks, to buy a boat and begin sailing with my wife and little daughter.
I appreciate your help and guidance.
Sincerely yours,
Amos Raviv,
213 Aluf David St.,
Ramat-Chem 52222,
ISRAEL.
(We try to be all things to all people, naturally, but, mere may, after all be limits. I’ve passed this message onto Patrick Boyd but if any one has a boat that might suit Mr Raviv please write to him. Editor)
From Di & Derek Morris
Dear Stuart,
Enclosed for you are our photographs of the Iroquois Owners Meet at Newtown Creek 28th-29th July 1984. Please feel free to use any of them to illustrate the Newsletter. The heat of that weekend and the friendliness of everyone certainly made it a happy memory; the evening photos are quite spectacular with eight Iroquois, one Comanche and one Apache inline with the entrance to the Creek, all bathed in pink from the setting sun.
The sail back to Hamble on Sunday was very leisurely, so much so we were able to get a very good shot of Chiquita V, I think "leisurely" sums up most of our sailing this year - both of necessity and chance. We’ve had to be very careful with Derek after his hip replacement operation last December, but I’m delighted to report that he is much stronger and more agile than he has been for many years - and free from pain, thank goodness. So next year hopefully we will be much more adventurous. Many thanks for the Newsletter - we enjoy reading it very much - and for organizing the meet!
Best wishes,
Di & Derek Morris,
CLAUDIA, No. 79
From Rony & Elise Buque
Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your letter of 9th October. Sorry for the delay in replying, but we have been going through rather a rough patch recently - Rony had a slight stroke in September and we have been concentrating on getting him fit again. The doctor is very pleased with his progess and expects him to be fully recovered before too long, but as you can imagine we have been rather worried!
Five weekends away from the boat felt rather frightful. Luckily a friend at work volunteered as chauffeur a fortnight ago, in return for a sail on EL BUQUE (weather permitting) so we gratefully accepted his offer. Gareth and I did all the work necessary while Rony gave out his orders and we had a good time, it was lovely to be on board again.
Last weekend Rony managed the drive down and back himself, with a rest in the middle of the drive and we were able to spend the time on board against our pontoon, though we don’t yet feel capable of taking her out ourselves unless the forecast is very calm (and we had gales forecast).
So our lovely summer’s cruising has been somewhat overtaken by events. Hopefully we’ll be back to normal again by spring 1985. Meanwhile, here’s a short resume of our doings in 1984 as requested.
Yours,
Elise
El Buque, Comanche No. 1
We must be getting old, but we have been enjoying our ability to walk on board all the year round instead of only during the winter season We have, after more than 20 years, uprooted ourselves from Chichester Harbour and found a new parking place in the Hamble - up Badnam Creek off Mercury Marina, where the swans come up for their crusts and we have seen a kingfisher flashing around once or twice.
And it has been a glorious summer. We even started our serious cruising at Easter. For the first time ever we had ten days and the weather was so salubrious we couldn’t resist a Channel crossing - over to Alderney then down to L’Ancresse Bay on the north of Guernsey where we spent a tranquil night. From then on the NE wind began to blow and increase in strength so we sought more sheltered anchorages in St Peter Port and Rosier steps, Herm (our favourite, but don’t all of you clutter it up too much!) Our trip ended less happily, in a NE 7 from Alderney to Poole, with Elise stricken by a wrenched back caused by picking up an Alderney mooring buoy awkwardly - but EL BUQUE behaved beautifully, well reefed down, and the sun was still shining!
This meant we just poodled around for nine days at Whitsun in Poole. After a drenching sail and couple of days over the bank holiday we were able to appreciate the sunshine while everyone else went back to work. Very satisfactory.
Our main fortnight in July saw us over the Channel again, in weather which didn’t include a single gale - bliss. We made the best speed we could to St Aubin, Jersey, where we met up with Jersey friends (Roger and Carole who had had to sell their Iroquois in order to buy their house in Jersey, but who can blame them). We made pigs of ourselves in a couple of super restaurants, then made a spanking sail down to St Malo. We bypassed St Malo itself and went straight through the barrage into the Rance.
The most difficult part was waiting for the lock to open in a very crowded cut with the strong breeze funnelling in and no piles or buoys to hang on to. We circled around under low power, then tried reversing - at which point the outboard kicked up and refused to go backwards: Luckily the French people we bumped into accepted our apologies and we had done no damage to either craft, Rony now has a piece of wood to jam the motor down in similar circumstances!
PAGE 7, CONTAINING THE REMAINDER OF EL BUQUE'S SUMMER AND THE BEGINNING OF RUSS DORDI'S LETTER, IS MISSING - IF ANYONE HAS A COPY OF THIS PAGE COULD THEY PLEASE SEND ME A COPY?
From Russ Dordi
..... helping me hadn’t done this kind of thing before but I don’t believe anyone without work’s templates could have done better.
The most galling thing about the above was that we were doing this, weekend after weekend and latterly, day after day, in what seemed to be idyllic sailing weather. At times, we had to stop work during the hottest part of the day for fear of making silly mistakes and writing off sheets of expensive ply. We decided to launch, yet again, with just ‘a little bit more’ to do.
Our first trip was a three day sail to Calais and back. Trip out was a bit rough, son and grandaughter sick, but worst of all, the Autohelm (2000) packed up in the first half hour. One of the first things I did on our return was get that put right. Helming for hour after hour not for me. The trip back was done with a glittering sea and blue skies (forecast force 7) and a recovered son at the helm most of the time. (Averaged 7.6k from CA 10 to Goodwin Knoll buoy, very nice!). The most outstanding memory of this all too short a season has been how extremely well BARU has been sailing.
Shortly after our return from Calais, where incidentally, the duty free chap very nearly did us out of a bottle of gin & whisky, Barbara and I set off for a trip up the East Coast and got as far as Iken Cliff (we walked up to Maltings!). Our way was blocked by the beautiful Repentor sailing barge aground on the bend just before the Cliff. By the time she had got off it was too late for us to go all the way up. This turned out to be fortuitous as we discovered a lovely walk up to the Maltings.
In the kind of weather we were enjoying, the bars at the Ore & Deben posed no problems and we did, more or less, what we wanted to, when we wanted to. Not so often one can say that about a cruise. I have tried, after the event, to analyse why BARU has sailed so well this season, in spite of putting on a bit of weight. The two factors which I keep coming back to are:
On the wind, on a long tack if you’ve nothing better to do, a barber hauler (?) - if that’s the correct name for it, works wonders, in my case this consists of a short length of 10mm rope/sheet with a snatch block at one end. After the usual trimming of genny and main snap on block below the clew of the genny and take the tail of the rope/sheet to free winch on leeward side. Haul in until slot is parallel and true, and I swear you can sail into the eye of the wind! (Both boards down).
Saw something like five Iroquois on this trip up the East coast and were disappointed we weren’t able to chat to any of them. Some names from our log were: ‘Doodlesack’, ‘Two Much’, ‘Star Guider’ sail no. 137 and 288.
We are now waiting the haul-out once again. I wonder whether Baru will ever be "finished"?
Happy sailing,
Russ Dordi
From Gary Ross
To my Fellow Iroquois Lovers,
I address this letter to you because my "non-sailing" friends think that a 2000 mile trip at 5-4 mph equates with watching grass grow when it comes to excitement. Oh, wow, they say in flat tones without expression, but you know better and so do I, now. I can’t recall ever having enjoyed a month more. This letter is my attempt to try and share my Baltimore, Massachussets to Petoskey, Michegan trip with you - or as much as time will permit. One comment in case you contemplate a similar trip - we pushed much to hard - I’d like to do it again in 18 months.
Back in November 1983, when I started negotiations with Patrick Boyd Multihulls of UK I knew that if I bought an Iroquois, the best part would be getting it home. Outside of trucking it from the east coast or buying Bill’s boat in Peoria, there was no other way but to sail it. (Look at all the fun Bill would have missed out on had I bought his).
First a comment on buying overseas, something everyone advised against. Without a broker like Pat Boyd, I would agree, but I wanted Theophilus and I could trust Patrick Boyd who really went above and beyond the call of duty to make the whole thing work - where will you find a broker who not only arranges everything from trucking and hauling to servicing the engine PLUS personally packs up the boat and leaves little notes telling what hooks to what and when? I have no regrets, but admit I did take some risk.
She arrived in Baltimore’s Dundalk Shipping Terminal at 930 am aboard a freighter just as promised. The terminal manager, a man named Harry Dove took pity on my helplessness and led me thru a maze of customs, cranes and confusion - I knew I was in luck when I entered his office and saw walls full of sailing ships. Then thru customs - he was a sailor too, finally I got to step aboard for the first time, thinking what if I don’t like it? I left the terminal at 3.00 pm afloat after Theophilus and I dangled like a spider on a strand 25 feet over concrete, then water, as the crane gently set us in the water. I mention the time because the 7½ hours appears to be somewhat of a record. The best estimate I got was 3 days. We motored to a marina where I spent 3 days cleaning, setting up the mast and rigging and painting the bottom. I also corrected the rudders that I had reversed the first time, well what do you expect, they gave me 1½ hours to rig the boat from shipping trailer to waterborne - rudders were in the cabin and the 1l2lb outboard was flat on the floor in front of the sink, mast was UNDER the boat tied to the trailer - biggest mistake of all was I was alone - all l50lb of me.
1 met my first crew in Baltimore’s beautiful inner harbor and we had a gentle sail across Chesapeake Bay to Still Pond, which by morning was anything but. A north wind woke us and our floating bronco so we up anchored and left early and sailed in 15 knot winds for the C & D canal into Delaware Bay. It was here that I began to appreciate what manner of sailboat I had - all of you who recommended her so highly were quite modest - she makes my old Hirondelle feel like a sunrish. With one days sailing experience behind me (in Theophilus) we exited quiet scenic C & D canal into Shallow Delaware Bay with 30 knot winds and steep nine foot waves. Busy doesn’t describe the next 15 min. Neither does frantic but downwind with full main and no.1 jib with the log bouncing on 13 knots is not my idea of a proper 2nd day out. We are still trying to get my finger prints out of the tiller bar, and only the laundry will know how scared I really was - wow. Theophilus took it all in stride, never really tried to broach even when I rammed 2 feot of the starboard bow under a foot or so or water - she was magnificent, and in about 3 hours when we found shelter, I was one proud boat owner - weak, but proud.
The trip around Cape May (we went inside) and up the coast was smooth and we motored a lot - the Suzuki 25 pushed us about 6.5 knots without disturbing the peaceful scene. The only mishap all the way to New York Harbour was almost getting mugged in Atlantic City - a case of being where smart folks don’t go. On this run my most experienced crewman navigated - by reading town names on the water towers - can’t get out very far but no need for a cross bearing.
New York Harbour is dirty, crowded, and rundown, but it’s like history and exciting. The crew oohed and aahed at the Statue of Liberty clothed in scaffolding and argued over which was the Empire State Building (there was no monkey on it!) While I dodged Staten Island ferrys, garbage barges, freighters and miscellaneous pleasure craft, sailing wing and wing in a favourable 3-4 knot tide.
Hudson River was beautiful, interesting and we motored most of it - and kept a lookout for floating logs, trees and, once, a picnic table brought a hearty "Picnic Table Ho!" We dropped the mast at Castleton-on- Hudson and changed crews for the Erie Canal West - a long, hot, tedious motor trip, but not without a lovely charm. Very few boats and they were mostly pleasure craft, we travelled through lock after lock with the same six boats. 2 expensive 50ft motor sailers, a 30 ft monohull, a trawler, one home-made 32’ Tri and us. Locks lifted us up the mountains and then down the other side - question "Where does the water come from to fill the last upbound lock?" Most days were long motorborne trips that allowed us to wax, polish, and tend to Theophilus’ teak. The last 5 miles we raced one of the motorsailers to see who would be 1st to get their mast put up at Oswego, NY on Lake Ontario. Their boat beat our 7.5 knots, but the foot race that started when we docked turned the tide in our favour and by 7.30 that night we were again a sailboat - felt good too. We challenged them to a tiebreaker race under sail but they wouldn’t bite. Nice sailing to Rochester, NY where I found my 1st large marine store - I’ll bet that guy is still smiling, but I put my signature on the boat then we were directed to a 14 foot wide slip - we made it but the flag staff didn’t. Open water sure felt good - nothing to hit - and it was so clear you could drink it - you guys can keep the salty stuff our fish are for us to eat, too, not visa versa. Arrived It the Welland Canal and rafted up to a 30 foot Canadian sailboat (or ½ a sailboat) for passage through these locks. No challenge in going through a few more locks after being through 25 already - right? WRONG - these are truly formidable locks - imagine looking at a 90 foot head of water barely held off you by a pair of gates - that leaked. When they let the water in you could see every entry port by the mound of water that rose a ? above water level - it took six of us straining to keep the boats off the wall. We waited and watched a 300 foot freighter tower 60 feet over us in the next up-hill lock, then slowly drop behind the gates till only the masts were visible. When the gates opened we clung to the side as out came a bunch of water and our behemoth friend looking like a floating city sliding 100 feet past us. The sailors way up on the rail waved and I hollared for them to hang on because our wake was coming.
Lake Erie was shallow and rough with quaint Canadian fishing villages, not many tourists, but lots of gill nets to avoid. Changed crews and 1st day out my only experienced sailor crewman showed me how to fly a spinnaker - I never had. When 750sq ft of red and white nylon gulped the air (10 - 15 knots) it took my breath too - this was sailing - 44 miles that day - averaged 8 knots. Next morning a south wind blew up the St Clair River past Detroit where we had a box seat view of the Grand Prix auto race run on the water front. Now in the 3rd week aboard and 4 out from home. I forgot to worry about Red China and the election, and spent my energys on "What’s the weather? Have we got ice? Do we need gas?" I couldn’t imagine doing anything else - but we rushed on because I was anxious to reach Michigan and introduce my wife to our floating summer home - the bigger boat was my wife’s idea.
Lake Huron was a sailor’s delight - steady strong off-shore winds giving a broad reach all the way. 2nd day the wind went North and we tacked. The genny was too much as we worked to windward 3-4 miles off shore crossing Saginaw Bay, I went forward to replace it with the No.1 knee deep in water. At one point I found that Theophilus does not like to be without a headsail to windward - a problem I solved later by popping on the motor. We ended the day with one reef in the main and No. 1 jib, 25 - 35 knots of wind, 4 foot waves spending most of the time at a steady 10 knots and loving every minute of it.
My sailor-crew (13 Mackinaw Races to his credit) who had little good to say about multi-hulls allowed that Theophilus would be a contender, but commented that you’d need seat belts so the silly thing wouldn’t jump out from under you. Passed a motoring 35 footer who, we found out later, blew out his main that day.
We met Jan in Roger’s City within the 30 days she allowed me - and she, too, fell in love with Theophilus and immediately put her signature on with carpets, bedding, curtains, etc.
Theophilus was built in 1975 and sold to another yard that did the interior in mahogany - very well done, too, with built in fridge, doors on aftcabins, and head liner everywhere. If you want to see GRP you have to look inside under bunk hatches. Outside, rubrails are 3" teak, hatch and doors and rudders are teak. She didn’t hit the water till 1977, Hull no. 228 - sail grey topsides, depth sounder with alarm, log 0-32 knots and distance, scanner VHF - all channel, locator RFD, Tillermaster Auto pilot. Well cared for boat - storm jib, no. 1, 150%Genoa, main and 750 sq ft hood spinnaker and gear, 35lb plough and "dig this" 125 foot of 3/8" chain with windlass, and the 25 hp Suzuki outboard (double longshaft).
The question is, was it worth buying a boat outside of this country? I have kept all receipts which I’ll be glad to share with anyone, but the bottom line is; after all costs, shipping, hauling, customs, etc. - not including costs from Baltimore, I’ve got $32,000 in her - I’m happy with that and the boat - and I got a fine English teapot in the bargain.
My very best to all of you, and I thank you for the welcome into the Iroquois Fraternity - that’s worth the price - isn’t it?
Gary Ross,
Theophilus, No.228
From Mike Wyatt
Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your letter of May 1984 and the application form which I have completed and enclose with membership fee.
Dennis Pymm and myself have owned Orenda (originally Lillibet) for three seasons now, and have cruised her along the south coast, Channel Islands and Brittany coast. It is planned to take her to Portugal for the 1984 Christmas and possibly on to the Caribbean for the winter season arriving in Florida prior to Hurricane season. These plans are dependent on business, etc. but our experience with Orenda so far has proved her to be well suited for our plans although we have reinforced the dagger board housing on the advice of Reg White and are fitting a lightweight masthead float (21 lbs) also supplied by Reg.
I look forward to meeting you at sometime and thank you again for inviting us to join the Association.
Yours sincerely,
Mike Wyatt
Orenda, No.285
From Alan & Barbara Lloyd
Alan has suggested that I write something for the Newsletter. I’m afraid you won’t get many technical details from me, but I’ll see what I can do. We’re very sorry to have missed the rally this year. At least, to be honest, sorry not to have met all you nice people again, but otherwise not too heartbroken, because we’ve had such a lovely holiday on ‘Los Ninos’ this year; (Not to say that last year’s wasn’t pretty good, even if we did collect enough hailstones in the cockpit to keep our ‘Cool-Bag’ functioning for 24 hours, as we sailed across Bournemouth Bay on our way back from the rally!).
This year we’ve been swimming in clear pleasantly warm, blue waters, over golden sand twenty or so feet below us. We’ve even swum in the dark, enjoying the fluorescence sparkling around us in the waters, watching fires burning in the distance at all night beach parties. Our daughters, old enough to know better, invented a spitting competition to see who could produce the best fluorescent display in the water while cleaning our teeth in the cockpit at night, (I won’t say who won!).
We’ve caught enough fish to provide quite a few free meals. We’ve seen seals close to the boat, and shoals of jelly fish, from beautiful blue ones, to gigantic pale pinkish cream ones, at least eighteen inches across slowly sliding past our hulls. (Chrysaora hysocella, or Compass jelly fish definitely, the blue we think, were Cyanea lamarckii, and the large ones Rhizostoma pulmo).
On warm evenings we’ve walked among masses of wild flowers, explored deserted beaches, and crept into a wild old garden, full of tropical plants and flowering shrubs. Some evenings the river boats would chug past our quiet mooring places, playing pop music, and flashing coloured lights, disappearing into the blackness, and leaving us to a peaceful night.
We’ve had some good sailing, but on days that you don’t really fancy going to sea, (at least I don’t, until I’ve perfected my plan for escaping from the cabin of an inverted Iroquois!), we’ve sailed or motored gently up tree lined rivers, and lain alongside an ancient stone quay, in the very heart of a beautiful old cathedral city. One day we pottered up a smugglers creek, being forced to take to the inflatable to reach the very top, because of the width of the creek, not the depth. ‘Los Ninos did look strange waiting for us, dwarfed by huge old trees, that dipped into the water’s edge.
We have to admit to some very cold and wet sailing on a few occasions, a very fraught time trying to get the anchor up in a muddy creek, and what seemed like centuries trying to anchor in a bay over well-endowed with attractive (looking) weed. We recovered the anchor eventually, when all else failed, by using a winch. We were using a tripping line, and came to the conclusion that the problem had been simply that we were very well dug into the mud! The weed problem we tackled by trusting to luck, and kind weather and tide conditions, and fortunately both held! We were too tired to do any more, and accepted the possibility of ending up high and dry on a sandy beach as a fair exchange for some sleep. Where did we go? Perhaps you are thinking of Brittany, or The Scillies. But I expect by now you’ve guessed our secret..... we were never more than about twenty miles from our moorings in Cornwall. We must confess that it was more from necessity than design, even taking into account our inherent laziness. Alan has been busy planning and working on a new track for the mainsail, to replace the one whose wooden mounting split on our way to the Isle of Wight last year. Also new mountings for our new Honda outboards. We have two of them now, and are very pleased with them. People seem very impressed with our manoeuverability, especially in confined space!, and approaching and leaving pontoons. One of the engines has survived happily two immersions in the sea, caused by the collapse of our old mounting, although I have to admit that there was quite a panic on the first occasion. Luckily the safety line held fast, because it was a pretty hefty task getting a heavy engine back into the cockpit in a heaving sea. Then a frantic rinsing of salt water off and out of the engine. (A hastily emptied detergent bottle came in handy). At first it wouldn’t start, until Alan drained the carburettor (quite simply done with the drain screws). Anyhow, we all relaxed when it burst into life, we had naturally feared the worst On the second occasion we were in calm inland waters, so tried to appear nonchalant, hoping onlookers would think we intended to test our engine for buoyancy?
There is a scattering of Iroquois in Cornwall. Last year we spent a very happy few hours with (I think) Tony, on a Mark I, in Cawsand Bay, Plymouth. Could it have been ‘Moonduster’? After a convivial evening, Alan went on deck to see Tony safely back to his boat. On hearing a strange noise, I rushed out of the cabin to find Tony had casually lifted one of our plates out, to illustrate a point he had been trying, unsuccessfully, to make with the aid of diagrams; I never did understand what he and Alan were trying to prove, but I’m pleased to report that the plate works as well as it ever did.
Seriously though, why don’t we see more of you in the South-West? I suspect you all speed past on your way to The Scillies, or foreign parts. It is beautiful in Cornwall, and the Iroquois is ideally suited to exploring the rivers and estuaries, and mooring off unspoilt sandy beaches, not easily accessible by road. Dare I suggest the rally might shift a little in our direction?
In any event, we hope to see some of you when our improvements make us more mobile. For those who met us in 1983, we’re still very pleased with our hydraulic steering. This winter, because of laying up problems, we may keep ‘Los Ninos’ on the water. Has anybody any useful advice about this?
For your list of Iroquois owners, it might be of interest that ‘Los Ninos’ was capsized by her previous owner. As far as we can gather she was righted by the lifeboat, because of the mast-head float, but blew over again immediately because the sails were still up. Unfortunately the second capsize broke the mast, and tore it out of the deck. We have a dirty cream patch on the cabin top to prove it.
Alan & Barbara Lloyd
Los Ninos, No.59
Moored on the Penryn River, Flushing, Falmouth, Cornwall
From Doug Gutteridge & Dee Elliston
Dear Stuart Fisher,
Thank you for the membership forms for the Iroquois Association, we would very much like to join and enclose filled-in forms and cheque.
We have mislaid your notes for the next newsletter so I will give you a few relevant details. Doug Gutteridge and Dee Elliston are the joint owners of ‘Habicat’ which was previously under the name of ‘Normandee’ and owned by Dee and her ex husband. Following an accident to her hulls before we took over ownership last year, she has been out of the water at Jarman’s boatyard, Conger Creek, Kent.
We have given her a good overhaul, replaced rigging with stainless steel halyards -restitched the trampoline, and found on inspection that the pivot pins for the lee boards had sheered and needed replacing. We hope to have her in the water in a couple of weeks time and are hoping to head for Brighton as the harbour will be much more convenient for us.
We found the newsletters fascinating and have read and re-read them - it’s great to know there are other Iroquois out there with the same problems as we have. The amount of information in the two copies of the newsletter is enormous, they have given us so much to think about.
Thank you for your help on the telephone, I expect we will be phoning you again soon with some query or other.
Best wishes,
Doug & Dee + their twelve year old crew, Dominic
Habicat, No. 277
From P B M Roes
Dear Mr Fisher,
This is to let you know further about our experiences with stopping the leakages. Since using silicon rubber to seal the bolt holes, water has come through the windows again. Therefore, I finally decided to take one window out last winter, initially this was done with the intention to replace glass and aluminium frame by perspex. We kept on putting things off. At some stage I was convinced that the best solution would be to use both rims in the frames and make double glazing. We rejected this idea in the end as it would be very difficult to do. Also, it would not really stop condensation since early in the morning the temperature is low inside also. In the mean time we got good advice about these things from several members of our national multihull club (CTC). We finally came to the conclusion that perspex is strong, easier to seal, expensive and ugly. Further, although the windows are leaky, the aluminium frames are rather well made and add character. Originally, the glass is sealed in the frame by means of a two component rubber paste in which there are many neoprene pieces which keep the glass in place. Apart from being quite expensive, two component rubbers do not stand up against ultra violet light too well. Indeed, the filling between glass and aluminium was very crumbly at places. With the advice of one particularly knowledgeable friend in this field I have managed to repair the windows satisfactorily as follows.
Take out all bolts and remove the aluminium strips in which the nuts are situated. Remove the windows by pressing them out with your feet against the frame. This requires at least two people and a lot of force applied for a prolonged period, as the sealer between the skin and the aluminium is still in top condition and very sticky indeed. One cannot make use of screwdrivers and the like as these would damage the frame. Once a frame is out it can be disassembled by taking a few small screws out; most have Philips heads. Some may not come out so easily; one can drill them out instead and replace them with bolts which are better equipped to take the strain. After cleaning all parts with a plastic scraper to take off most of the putty sealer, white spirit is used to remove the remainder, one can even get the silicon rubber off using Scotch Brite. This amazing material really gets your frames shiny again without damaging the thin protective anodised layer. A final treatment with silicon rubber remover is said to be necessary, but I am not sure that I was sufficiently thorough with it. Instead of two component rubber I was advised to use foam rubber strips 1/3 x 1/4 inch (9x6 mm), it being very cheap. The original neoprene pieces should be used again also. When one now starts to reassemble the windows don’t be discouraged too quickly. After struggling for an hour initially, I left it in despair for a few days, but in the end we were able to assemble a window in half an hour. It is quite a job to get it all into place as the foam rubber is counteracting all along the frame. When one gets to the stage that the screws have to be put in again a large sash cramp or two is a big help to align the screw holes. Once the four screws in the sides are in you will appreciate that the vertical aluminium posts will never be anywhere near the frame using the original screws only, due to the strong pressure of the rubber foam. Here the vices can be used once again and four small and thin stainless steel strips fitted on the inside with two tiny bolts each. The result is a stronger window frame; green water on them will never push the glass through the aluminium now. The foam rubber naturally does not fill in all the space between the glass and the frame. Also, the rubber has to be protected against ultra violet light. This is done best with thiocol sealant, a two component sulfur based compound which is applied with a paint scraper. It remains more elastic than silicon rubber and also is supposed to be more stable and far less sticky; after setting remains can be rubbed off with your finger. The final job of putting the windows in again and sealing them properly is easily done using sealant strip, available in rolls of approx 15 feet long ½ inch wide 1/16" thick packed with thin paper strip.
Another source of leakage we found is the deck to hull connection. This is particularly easily rectified for the time being with polyester filler. I intend to take off the wooden strip this winter to look after this problem properly. We may get to the cavity in front of the anchor bun then also. At times we can hear water moving there. One final problem in this context are the condensation drops one sometimes is subjected to early in the morning. I have heard this could be taken care of by applying a cork paint to the relevant part around the porthole in the aft cabins. If anyone has suggestions I would be very grateful.
Here I must really stop and wish we will finally meet at next the annual general meeting, after failing to trace you at the time of last year’s Southampton Boat Show.
Yours truly,
Piet Roes
Drakar II, No. 212
And another from Piet Roes
Dear Mr Fisher,
In reply to your kind letter I must admit that I never knew about the existence of brass front window frames; we have aluminium ones all around. So far I have refitted the two front and the portside ones. We have only one window which can be opened and that particular one still has to be dealt with this winter. With regard to the sealing of leakage near the deck to hull connection I should probably add that polyester filler was applied to the inside, taking away the padding temporarily where necessary.
I do agree that it is a good thing to have a substantial number of letters on improvements and the like in the newsletter. Now, there was a questionnaire sent out by Ted and Suzy Loder back in February 1982. Would it be feasible for you to get hold of the answers? There is at least one which is most interesting. It describes in detail improvement of the reefing system, leading all halyards and reefing lines to the cockpit, increasing tension on the fore stay, means of bending the mast as desired, etc. etc. In short, two and a half densely typed pages of goodies of the best kind. So far I have taken its advice on ventilation by means of Tannoy ventilators, lining the helm bar with shrinking pvc tube and installing tackles for lowering and lifting the rudder blades.
An improvement I have more or less copied from another Dutch Iroquois owner concerns the placing of two swivel chairs on the rear end of the cockpit coamings. These are a great comfort to the helmsman, as one can now see in all directions from a seated position. Also one does not get a stiff neck but can position oneself to suit the wind, rain or, on those rare occasions, the sun. I have fixed a sort of peg shaped piece of hardwood so as to obtain a horizontal rectangular surface (preferably large and square 16 x 16 inch). On its four corners I have screwed nylon plates and there is a hole in the middle in which the swivel axis is situated. The latter consists of a ½ inch stainless steel bolt which is fixed in a circular piece of 4 inch plywood, 22 inches in diameter. This is specially treated plywood in use in the building industry for concrete shuttering and glides easily over the nylon plates. On this there is fixed the seat of a standard cheap plastic terrace chair. These are available with steel legs on which the seat is fixed with four screws in knobs of plastic underneath the sitting area. As these screws are put in under an awkward angle I have fixed the seats so the plywood with thin stainless steel plates. These can easily be bent to line up with the plastic seat and the wood.
With regard to sails, I have recently acquired a 200% light genoa bi-radially cut called Windseeker and I am most satisfied with it. It was made by "Zuiderzee" in Volendam under license of "Champion Sails", USA, from Bainbridge 1.5oz ripstop spinnaker cloth. Especially made for light weather, up to Force 3, it makes for most interesting sailing. Gone are the days that we had to smolder in the sun on the Ijsselmeer in the unpleasant company of thousands of flies waiting for the breeze to return. Also, where previously we had to give way to monohulls in this type of weather, because of our larger wetted area, we now have again an edge over them.
In another development, I heard a lot recently about a new jib which has the same area as the main. Several Dutch Iroquois have them already and I am sure I will follow soon as our genoa is in very bad shape and needs replacement. It is cut like the stock no. 1 jib approximately with a lower triangle added on. A good friend of mine recently sailed one in a force 8 gale with reefed main and was elated about it. Also, in lighter breezes he assured me that it did not perform less than his 150% genoa.
The tunnel behind the cockpit is the source of leakage in the aft cabins. I have reluctantly followed the advice of yet another Iroquois owner and drilled two small holes in its bottom, one on each side of the wooden partition, as it appeared quite difficult to properly seal the motor cable holes. Also in the tunnel, I have installed a heater, which blows hot air in the captain’s cabin. It seemed a neat way to use an otherwise disused area.
One alteration I have seen on an Iroquois consisted of an extended stern. Here the hull’s skin was continued for about one foot and a few inches over the waterline, leaving a narrow V shaped space for the rudder to move. The purpose is to decrease the loss of energy due to the turbulence left behind. Also, the spade shaped extensions are beneficial in a following sea as they are pushed under and so help to lift the bows in time.
A subject on which I myself would dearly appreciate advice is on how to install a rollreef for the jib. It seems to me quite difficult to fix to the front beam as there appears to be not enough room for the drum. Surely there is someone who had one fitted professionally; I would very much like to have a photo of that particular detail.
Looking forward to the next newsletter.
Yours,
Piet B M Roes
From K Hayward
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My last boat being a 27’ bilge keeler, I came to ‘Karma’ in July this year with some excitement. Although originally purchased in 1974 as a hull and deck, the boat is still only ¾ completed and in parts very poorly. Anomalies such as a VHF and radio/cassette player fitted, but genoa sheet blocks secured with lacing eyes and no backing pads, not even washers, exist throughout the boat!
The first month was spent making her basically seaworthy and getting the existing equipment to function correctly, and fitted an Autohelm 1000, Rutland Wind Generator (excellent) and a 15kg Bruce anchor permanently at the bow with miles of lovely 16mm multiplait - the boom was converted to slab reefing and plans made to revert to tiller steering. There’s much more to do, but at least she’s now sailable - and does she!
It would seem that 5½ knots is a minimum speed, on any point of sailing, without any effort whatsoever, with the windward hull starting to lighten at around 7½ knots. Perhaps it’s just me, used to my monohull (over on my ear), tiller under my chin and arm muscles about to give out, really screaming along at 4½ knots!! I find myself now on occasions jumping up and down in the cockpit and shrieking with the sheer delight of multihull sailing.
The open plan interior, largely trimmed with mahogany panelling (think of the weight!) I find attractive. The heads compartment occupies the forward half of the port hull - this works well, is spacious and who needs all those berths anyway?
Problems? the "closed cell" foam in the bows is sodden and has to come out. The bow rollers are too small and the coachroof mounted winches most awkward to walk. Why no kicking straps - the mainsheet reach is not sufficient?
That’s all!
K Hayward
Karma, No. 208
From Wil L J M Laane
Dear Mr and Mrs Loder,
The last question of your enquiry puzzled me most and actually led to an enormous delay. I have owned 3 Iroquois (6, 81 and 201) and made so many improvements, small and large, that I could not say which was most satisfying. If I ever buy a fourth one I surely would repeat most of them. (Less satisfying experiments partly faded away!). Not knowing which to choose, I decided to list them during our summer trip and comment a bit on them. You can decide for yourself which may be of interest to others.
One of the most important improvements I realised included a new boom. This is about 5 inches shorter (to put to an end the rubbing of the mainsheet against the rudderbar) and mounted about 4 inches higher (to allow a boom vang and more safe headroom). I abandoned the roller-reefing system, the s.s. wire halyards and mast-mounted winches. I replaced them by 10mm rope halyards, halyard cleats on the coachroof (2 triple Easylock II, mounted near the sliding hatch on starboard) and a single little winch (Gibb 6a, mounted between the starboard sheet winch and the hatch). To get sufficient tension on the halyards I take them one turn around the small winch, which is aligned with the cleats, to the starboard sheetwinch.
The halyards, the reefing lines, the kicking strap and the main outhaul are all led to the cleats via blocks around the mastfoot. The simplest, strongest means I could find to mount these consisted of a s.s. oval plate, 5mm, with a number of stainless rings welded around, six of them in a vertical plane, the front and back ones inclined 45o (to allow mast lowering and in the direction of the kicking strap respectively). The flat oval ring is mounted between the aluminium mastfoot and the deck. All the loads are taken by the mast and there is no danger of leaking or pulling bolts through the deck. The changes described above allow me to hoist, reef and trim the sails from the cockpit. No more tricks with two handles on a wet coachroof under rough conditions; an enormous gain in safety and comfort. Essential to accomplish this is a sophisticated use of the reefing lines. They run from a fixed eye near the end of the boom as usual through the leech of the main to a sheave in the boom on the opposite side, through the boom forward and then again up along the front of the sail to a ring (mounted on the side of the sail with 3 straps), then down to the block near the mastfoot and over the coachroof backwards to cleat and winch. The 3 straps are long enough to permit the ring to be pulled around the boom to the underside where the reefing line is leaving the boom. After easing the main halyard I pull the reefing line, which will first pull the front of the sail down until the ring is positioned under the boom around the hole where the reefing line is coming out. (It is necessary to restrict the number of slides in the mastrail; otherwise you have to go forward to take them out.) At that moment the reefing line starts to pull the leech of the sail to be boom as usual.
My main outhaul is doubling as a flattening reef via a small block on the end of the boom. This makes it easy to trim the mainsail from the cockpit with the same winch. Of course separate lines for outhaul and flattening reef are possible as well.
A second set of important improvements, but much cheaper, concerns the standing rigging. Very effective is a 6 part tackle between the two backstays. I used a small kicking strap-type tackle with 5 foot s.s. wire at a height of about 6ft above the deck. It allows me to tension the frontstay up to more than 500kg and by doing so pointing about 5o higher than otherwise. In races this worked out only a few weeks, because it was quickly imitated on most of the Iroquois but I would not like to miss it anymore. Pointing better pay all the time. I do not like high tension all the time because I have to lower the mast frequently. Under high tension it is difficult to undo and refix the pellican hooks on the backstays. But permanent high tension would bend the boat which, like most cats, is not stiff enough to stand this. Tensioning only when beating gives the boat time to restore and better tension as well.
To get a stiffer mast and better trimming possibilities I added a diamond-stay on the front of the mast and a little wheel on the bottlescrew of the babystay. Together they make it possible to bend the mast exactly as much as wanted and to prevent bending more than you want.
Harry Faulkner asked for advice about battens for a fully battened mainsail. I shared his experience: sailing with an inexperienced crew costs a set of battens if you use wooden ones; very annoying and costly. My solution is pvc plumbing pipe. It is cheap, easy to obtain everywhere and very strong especially if you use the sturdy type of material. I use 1" of 1¼" diameter. Heating, for instance under a grill, allows to flatten the pipe as much as you want under your soles on the floor. The most flexible front part of the battens, about 1/3, I flatten completely, the stiffer rear end only to 1/4 of the normal diameter, the middle part tapering gradually. I completely close both ends, so the thing stays afloat when falling overboard. Altogether cheap, easy and very satisfying.
A practical device to keep the cockpit clear of the mainsheet (very long to allow mast lowering) is a pocket, 50 x 35cm envelope-type, neatly fixed under the mainsheet-track with the aid of two reefing hooks and a sail batten (through a long sleeve along the top) which protrudes to fit in the hooks on both sides. The flap of the envelope prevents too much water and dirt to enter, a few draining holes help to get rid of water.
A number of devices help to trim the genoas better. About 2’ of track on both sides along the rear edge of the coachroof allow to close in the genoa II better when sailing closehauled in light airs. But, because of the dome-like form of the coachroof, this is only possible with the help of a Barber-like device, which holds down the sheet; otherwise the leech would spill the air. I use s.s. wires, lined with strong (high pressure) plastic tube. These cross over the sheet about 1’ in front of the track. They are fixed between two hooks each, one on the coachroof next to the sliding hatch, one under the side windows. They can be tensioned with a tackle of the kickingstrap-type. These tackles, positioned over the side windows facilitate exact trimming of the leech even when the sheet is under heavy tension.
Much simpler is my favourite Barber-device on the genoa sheet on a broad reach - a simple line from the stanchion base over the sheet, back to the stanchion-base and through this to the cleat of the lee centreboard (which is always up under these circumstances).
Both swivel blocks and the deckplate-eyes on the corner of the coachroof did not stand up to the stress and were replaced by stronger items. The alum cast top of the boom is not foolproof under heavy load for instance when lowering the mast under difficult circumstances like passing low bridges in the wash of a tug or with a fresh breeze against the current. I used to secure the s.s. topping lift with a safety line to the mainsheet block; on my new boom I was able to fit a stainless ring around the boom that takes both the sheet and the topping lift. Heavy loads are avoided by preventing the mast from jumping during lowering on bumpy seas. We fix the genoa halyard round the front beam and keep it tight with the winch.
Very useful when manoeuvring the boat under engine in marinas and other crowded places are a couple of simple tackles to turn the outboard with the rudders. They run from a fixed point halfway between the rudder axis and the pivoting pin on the helm (on a standard boat) to a simple block on either side in front of the outboard (25cm in front of the axis on a Yamaha 20) and from there through an eye in the corner near the hull to a clam cleat on the wooden rubbing strake aft. These clam cleats allow easy tensioning and undoing.
More easy handling both of centreboards and rudder blades is allowed by simple tackles as well: 3-part for lowering the rudder blades and lifting the boards, 2-part for the opposite movements. A clam cleat of the flat-mounted type on the helm makes for easy fixing and quick release when necessary.
I provided the helm-bar with a lining of shrinking pvc-tube, This makes for a comfortable and firm grip on the bar and proved very strong and resistant. Both comfort and safety are served by a stainless 4-bar ladder next to the rudder fitted on the transom. Safety under heavy conditions is served by a very, powerful sea-anchor, consisting of a second-hand parachute of the small and immensely strong-made variety used to pull out the brake-parachutes on military aircraft. These chutes are used only once and then sold in secondhand shops at about one pound each. Throwing such a thing overboard has an effect like hitting a wall. I once used it as an emergency-brake entering an unknown harbour on a leeshore in the Skagerrak during the night in a force 8 gale. On that same occasion I experienced how useful it can be to stream lines behind the boat to slow her down: 80 metres line kept her perfectly manoeuvrable in heavy ground seas.
One of the most important changes to improve comfort inside concerns ventilation. I had the standard extra ventilation through the front lockers fitted but added Tannoy Ventilites on the rear end of the cockpit-coamings to improve air and light in the double cabins. I also replaced all the mushroom ventilators by Tannoy’s as well, which gives much more fresh air and less moisture.
Very simple and very effective was the ventilation of the rear locker where I keep all the petrol and oil for outboards and generator. I glued 6 little pieces of wood, ½" thick, under the hatch lifting the hatch enough to provide continuous fresh air all around. This completely stopped all bad smells in the aft-cabin, which a few layers of epoxy-tar on the bulkhead failed to prevent.
I keep the tank of my outboard in this locker pretty high on the wooden frame. Removing part of this frame allows me to stow 2 or even 3 jerry cans under. Comfort and ease of handling were greatly improved by a Handy-Par oil pump fixed high on the front-bulkhead of the locker. This allows filling of the tank from the jerry cans without spilling or manoeuvring with tank and cans.
Simple and very satisfying was the enlargement of the pigeonholes. Two inches proved sufficient to prevent things falling out under all circumstances (but capsize, I presume) and the wider the openings are the easier they are. I consider it important to have a gas stove with safety valves.
I could continue this enumeration about heating (AGA gas stove in rear end of aft cabin with fluid circulation system), isolation (with 10mm styrex foam), interior decoration, electronics (how’ to place them all properly) etc. I put a lot of thinking and sweating in all of them but I don’t think I did find solutions everybody cannot find for himself.
Yours truly,
W Laane
Mallemok, No. 201
From Ian & Noreen Greer
Dear Mr. Fisher,
Greetings from Comanche ‘NISA’ sail number 16, and of course from her crew. We sail out of Port Hope on the North shore of Lake Ontario, which is 50 nautical miles east of Toronto. We are members of the Port Hope Yacht Club there; in fact we are the only charter members still sailing in the club which was started in l962. We have owned the Comanche since 1979, having had an Iroquois (No. 131) from 1971 until 1979.
When we purchased the Comanche from Jim Playfair, who, sad to say, died this year, she was equipped with the long/long shaft 25 HP Suzuki outboard. Although the motor itself was quite reliable I found that it left a fair bit to be desired for a boat such as the Comanche, so I installed two little BUKH diesels, one in each hull, naturally. They are the DV8 Sail Drive models. I mounted them under the after berths, only having to raise the top of the bunks 4 inches. One of the stipulations that my wife Noreen laid upon me before I started the installation was that I wouldn’t "wreck" the boat and leave an awful mess. Putting aside modesty, we are very pleased with the way they fitted in with nothing to show in the after cabins that they are there at all. We adapted two Outboard Marine gasoline tanks to serve as diesel fuel tanks by installing return lines from the engines to the filler cap of the tank. For the connections I used Mercury Motor fittings so this way it is impossible to hook them up incorrectly (on some dirty dark night with a Force seven blowing). We have placed the tanks in the area where the outboard used to be and the fuel lines and the control cables run aft through the cockpit floor "tunnels" to the stern lockers, then outboard to the hulls, then downwards to below the level of the bunks, and then forward to the engines. These lines are 28 feet long but they work excellently. The control levers and cables were made by Kobelt of Vancouver.
I have studied various engines and the methods of installing them over a period of two years before deciding on the BUKHs and I had a Naval Architect do a computer run to see what sort of performance could be expected from them.
It took me two and a half months to do the installation and we had our first run on them on July 1st 1983. They are a great success, with the speed under power being just about what the computer predicted. Each engine alone will give 5.2 knots (digital knotmeter) and the two together will give 6.4 knots. When motoring through the sort of slop that is left when the wind drops after blowing briskly, she motors along beautifully with none of the cavitation associated with the outboard, and of course the handling in crowded marinas and harbours is like day from night. Running at full speed of 6.4 kn, we get a full ten nautical miles to the Imperial gallon of diesel fuel, which is exactly twice what we got to the gallon of gasoline.
If anyone is further interested in hearing any more about the installation and performance of these engines I would be pleased to help them out with any information I can supply, if they drop me a line. Oh, by the way, her performance under sail does not seem to have suffered measurably; the units have Gori folding propellers.
While still on the subject of performance, I wonder has anyone experimented with "bulbous" or "torpedo" type of bow extensions. I read within the last year or two somewhere (perhaps in Multihull Magazine U.S.) that someone had had very good results with them as an aid to cutting down on the amount of pitching catamarans do when heading into the seas. If I remember correctly the person writing had good results with these extensions.
On the lighter side, we are still very much enjoying our Comanche, she being fast and comfortable. In a recent club race in a force six we were the only multihull. We were the second boat to the weather mark and then it was us all the way with the knotmeter steady around the l3kn mark. One of our friends passed the comment "and you weren’t even leaning over going to the weather mark."
Our very best wishes to you and the members. Please say hello to Harry Faulkner whom we met at the AGM in London and to Patrick Boyd whom we met there and at the Multihull Symposium in Toronto.
Sincerely,
Ian & Noreen Greer
Comanche No. 16
From Ron Newton
I bought my Iroquois 2 years ago with the intention of using her as a skippered charter boat on the East Coast. For this role she has proved almost ideal with the standard cabin layout providing plenty of good berths.
However there have been teething problems some of which I have overcome and some which I am still struggling with. I list below some of these solutions and improvements, a lot of them I have copied off other boats including Madam President’s well sorted example (no. 116 KATIKI).
I have a 20 hp and a 15 hp Yamaha outboard on "Seventure" and like most outboards, they are somewhat unpredictable. Many times I’ve been grateful for having 2 engines when one or other has refused to start, or worse still cut out at some crucial moment. Improvements to the engine reliability has been achieved mostly by waterproofing the electrics, encasing HT leads and coils in rubber tubing and liberal spraying with ignition sealer, also I have blocked up all but one of the drain holes in the engine case with mastic, the engines however are still not a patch on a properly installed marine diesel and I would not consider an outboard for my next boat.
The boat when I bought her had several leaks above the water line, the worst being a leak into the starboard aft cabin which I have managed to slow down but not cure. I have tightened up the cockpit drains, sealed all through hull and deck fittings with "seak and seal" which is a free flowing liquid that follows the catenarys the water takes and then goes off, hopefully sealing the leaks. On my boat the cables for charging and starting, plus engine control cables, go through the athwartships bulkhead at the back of the cockpit. I have managed to seal this major leak source with a combination of sink drainer, inner tube, self amalgamating tape and plasticine, I believe the sketch tells all. This arrangement allows lots of movement of the cables whilst still keeping watertight and it’s cheap!
A leak which I haven’t managed to do more than cure for a few weeks at a time is the shroud plates which leak after a hard sail no matter how much mastic is put on the outside joint.
I think some sort of shroud cover may be the answer here, perhaps an owner who has overcome this problem will let us all into the secret!
My advice on this is, unless it’s absolutely necessary, DON’T. If you do have to lower, try to arrange to do the necessary work without moving the mast from the ready to raise position. This is because of the enormous overhang of the mast when lowered, making moving of the spar away from the tabernacle very difficult.
I have fitted an excellent pushpit that runs across the cockpit in front of the rudder bar making for comfortable leaning when steering, especially if the stainless bar is covered in pipe lagging. The pushpit was designed by Rod Blake and made for me by Tom Symes (0329 833353) at a cost in 1983 of £50.
Our Colnbrook roller reefing gear seized solid in spite of regular application of WD40, even though I took it apart and freed it off with great difficulty but could not really find the cause of the seizure.
I refitted the gear but it seized up again whilst we were on holiday in Holland. A friend we met with the same gear suggested it might be salt crystals in the stainless steel to brass bushes. Considering that the furling drum was now impossible to turn, even with leverage, I found this hard to believe. However I took his advice and poured a couple of kettles of hot water over the drum, Hey presto it started to free off.
On return to England the makers advised me to drill out the bushes so the salt crystals could pass straight through, this I did and have had no further problems.
I removed the lee boards just after I bought the boat and was rather shocked to find that both pivots were broken away from their back plates. The original pivots were bronze casting and my cure was to make up pivots in stainless steel with the pivot taken through the plate and welded on the back, Another mod was to fit a ¼" thick rubber washer under the plate to provide some degree of flexibility and hopefully avoid further breakages.
I would suggest that the Lee Boards are the Achilles heel of the design and should be used sparingly and checked frequently; another precaution I take is never to cleat them in the down position.
In conclusion, I would say that for the purpose I use the boat, i.e. weekend chartering on the ultra shallow east coast of England with 4 or 5 weeks cruising in Dutch and Belgian waters, mostly with very novice crews, she is more or less perfect, or at least by far the best compromise available.
Ron Newton, 167 Cavell Rd., Cheshunt, Herts.
Seventure, No. 275
From Ken Pack
Reflections on your Dream Ship CHEROKEE
Dear Stuart,
Thanks for the drawing - like having a good fresh drink and POW! you look at the world anew. The drawing’s great light, friendly but to the point. It will be difficult not to ruffle some feathers. The insistence of a 4’6" berth with unimportant headroom over is a clue to the client’s priorities, another thing, when you sit down to dinner your bum depresses the cushion and precludes the necessity of a flat head.
The trick will, of course, be to get the best out of MacD. inflexibility in the brief or dominance in the design - well I’m sure you know.
I have put the enclosed layout together to really get inside the thing. I find the sides very high and 3’0" under the bridge deck pushes the whole boat up high - stand the rig on that and you have an increased overturning moment.
I am personally of the opinion that a Sailaway version with the maximum latitude and sailing capability is what is required. Then a series of standard units up through to a luxury version.
The points for me are:
The items I’d like to reconsider:
* The original ‘Snowgoose’ had an outboard that lifted straight up the steering console with rubber lips that it went down through.
Sincerely,
Ken Pack
Thelken, No. 86
And another from Ken Pack
Dear Stuart,
I was encouraged that my epic voyage from Shoreham to Brighton Marina did not go un-noticed. The boat’s main use this year has been for swimming and fishing parties and a base for sailboarding and diving.
My short Naval career satiated all my latent desires for a sailormanslife in storms before the mast and this year slopping up and down on the tide with no wind and awful visibility has been enough of that. I can almost recognise the bottom pattern off here as well as the Powerhouse chimneys!
Sometime ago when it was fashionable to tighten up one’s cockpit drain holes to relieve leaks of rainwater in the after berths I applied an alternative theory and drilled two ¼" holes, one in each of the outer stiffening gulleys in the underside of the bridge deck and promised to let you know the outcome.
When I did the job a pint or so drained away and it is a safe bet that if there is water there, there is more in the central nacelle but since the object of the exercise has been thoroughly successful I am rather loathe to make anymore holes in the underside. Even when she sits on water I doubt much water enters and would certainly quickly drain. For what it’s worth that has been my experience.
Yours sincerely,
Ken
From Doug Mackay
Dear Stuart,
I have put together a few notes on this "very curious" corner of the Thames Estuary - please feel free to exercise the editorial pencil.
Kawa (Iroquois MkII, home finished) has lived at Hollowshore since 1976. Before that she spent 3½ years in Sevenoaks being fitted out and rigged. Hollowshore lies about 1½M from Faversham on the N Kent coast, at the junction of Faversham and Oare Creeks. Both creeks are narrow and muddy although Faversham Creek sees 300 T coasters regularly these days. She (and Janet and me) likes Hollowshore. It was known to the Vikings, the Romans built the sea walls hereabouts, and generations of cockles, fishermen and oysterers have worked and still do, these waters. Although the Estuary itself abounds with moving but iron hard sand banks, our local rivers, the Swale and the Medway, as with their relations on the N. side of the Estuary, are blessed with soft mud bottoms, superb for anchoring, embarrassing for sloppy navigation and above all kindly to boats of all sizes and shapes. Mud may be most unwelcome in saloon, cockpit, and on polished GRP decks etc. but for anchoring its unbeatable.
The monos around here generally outnumber the multis by at least 10 to 1, but there is a healthy population of multis, mainly cats; Iroquois, Prout, Rangers, Catalacs, Snow Geese, Heavenly Twins, the occasional Telstar, a couple of Home brew tris and, of course, several peripatetic Wharrams.
Our area, the E Swale, is not really part of the Medway yachting scene, although the Medway is used for rallies. The local clubs are Hollowshore Cruising, Conyer Cruising and Whitstable Yacht and enjoy very good relations. The first two are solid cruising clubs with about 100 boats, each of which 50% will visit at least France each year. Half of that number will get to Holland and a few to the Baltic. Others head down Channel to Brittany or the Scillies. Whitstable Y.C. is the biggest and most active of us all. They race, but they also have an enthusiastic cruising section made up of very friendly and hospitable people.
These 3 clubs have a lot of dual (and even some triple) memberships and do their best to organize club events to avoid clashes and meet once a year in a friendly and popular Interclub Match - a team affair sailed over a course of about 15 miles, handicapped by P.Y. Unlike elsewhere, the multis don’t take all the honours because the P.Y. system works so rnultis and monos and their crews live and play harmoniously.
We all have rallies during the season - on both sides of the Estuary and there is always a welcome for visitors, from the local clubs, or from further afield, and our friendliest visitors seem to come from Holland. The essence of these clubs, as one of my friends said recently, is to enjoy good sailing and companionship with one’s friends. That’s how it is in this part of the world.
Yours sincerely,
Doug Mackay
Kawa, No. 153
I have a number of blank sets of bronze tiller extension hinges for sale. Each boat needs 2 sets, one set for each rudder, holes are clearly indicated but the blanks need a bit of filing or grinding and drilling for bolts or screws. S.C. Ltd. used to charge (I think!) £90 a set or so; I can offer pairs of sets of blanks at £32.50 for the 2 sets of hinges.
S.D. Fisher, 157 Sackville Road, Hove, Sussex, BN3 3HD, U.K.
Ken Pack has decided to take positive steps towards altering his standard Mark 2 Iroquois to Mark 2A length, and doing away with the drop rudders. His fascinating progress will be described in our next; in the meantime, the drawing on the following page illustrates his proposals. Ed
