REBUILDING
A WOODEN DRAGON
Donald. M. Street Jnr.
Edited by Richard Rycroft.
Classic Boat Representative, British Dragon Association.
Wooden
Dragons vary tremendously in price and there are plenty of them around. Some of
the really fancy and beautifully restored Dragons are for sale for £10,000 or
more. There are a lot of Dragons in very good shape for sale at about £5,000 to
£6,000 and others that although their hull may be reasonably sound, the boat
has not been sailed for many years. Dragons of this type can be found for
anywhere from £1,000 down to a gift to be taken away as they are taking up
space in a yacht yard.
If
the buyer is willing to spend a lot of hard work which would not require any
very great carpentry skills, a wooden Dragon can be put into shape and be
competitive in club racing for no more than the price of a good 470, Fireball,
or even a new Bell special Mirror.
What do you have to do to a
wooden Dragon to get to the stage that she can be raced competitively at club
level?
Editors Note:
[The first thing you must do is
to ensure that the boat will remain in class, otherwise you will not be able to
race as a Dragon. You could also
find that all the time and effort spent on your restoration is to no avail as
the boat could be virtually worthless should you ever wish to sell her.
You can obtain a set of class rules from the International Dragon
Association (IDA) website: (http:www.intdragon.org).
This is an excellent site with links to National Dragon Association sites
and also wooden Dragon pages on which advice and chat are exchanged.
If you are carrying out an
extensive refit, you must discuss what you intend to do with the IDA Technical
Committee. Contact Graham Bailey, the Chairman of the IDA Technical committee,
e-mail, gbailey@elbornes.com,
who will then refer you to the Chief Measurer.
It is also essential to contact the IDA if the boat's certificate is
missing.
Some very fast 1970s boats,
which would not measure to today's tighter rules have recently been rebuilt as
grand-prix racers keeping their original certificates.
To prevent any more of this, a boat subjected to a major restoration is
now presumed to have been changed during
that process. You can guard
your existing measurement certificate by proving that no changes have been made
to the boat's shape.
If errors in restoration put the
boat out of class, she can only be measured under to today's rules: and she
will almost certainly fail. However if it is simply a matter of taking the boat
down to basics, refurbishing and re-equipping there should be no problem.
You should religiously record each stage of the restoration process so
you can prove that the boat's shape has not been altered during the
restoration. This is particularly important if the deck beams are to be
replaced.
Also, be very careful if
you are contemplating any extra stiffening or reinforcement. Some of Don's ideas may not comply with the rules!
Ed]
The
recommendations below are on the basis of what the Street family have learned
regarding wooden Dragons. Having redone both our family 1937 Johanssen-built Gypsy
and my son's 1936 Johanssen Fafner,
and looking over the shoulder of my son Donald III, a shipwright and boatbuilder
(who trained at Lowestoft International Boat Building school) in his major
refits of five wooden Dragons, I think we know a fair amount about restoring
wooden dragons to make them competitive in club racing.
First
and foremost: knock the two bolts passing through the stem holding the jib stay
in place. For reasons best known to the builders these bolts usually have quite
small heads. When the wood gets a little bit soft around the heads, despite the
fact that the rest of the wood in the stem is sound, the bolt pulls through the
stem. The result is either, the jib furling gear tears up the deck and the mast
goes over the side, or the mast is bent.
Knock
these bolts out and replace them with bronze carriage bolts, with great big
heads. The new bolts should be one size larger than those they are replacing.
If you cannot obtain bolts with really big heads, recess a small metal
plate into the stem and then re‑bolt with the bolts counter sunk into the
metal plate. If the jib stay fitting is far enough aft so that it is below the
waterline, or if the boat is painted, finish off the plate with thickened epoxy.
If the boat is varnished and the jib stay is forward of the waterline, you may
want to fit a Dutchman over the plate to seal it.
The
next job is to knock out the bolts holding the floors to the fore keel and after
keel. Knock out the bolts, starting at the mast step, working forward, check as
you go the condition of the bolts. If the first one comes out looking good,
replace the bolt with one size larger and leave the rest.
Often
these bolts come out looking like stalactites. If the bolts are bad, replace
them all with bronze bolts (avoid stainless), carriage bolts (with large heads)
one size larger than those coming out. Bronze bolts can be ordered from
Jamestown Distributors 1. Amazingly it is cheaper to order bronze bolts from Jamestown
Distributors, pay for air parcel post, pay the duty and VAT than to buy silicon
bronze in Ireland or the U.K. Also, they have a complete selection of silicon
bronze bolts and screws, which are very difficult to find in either U.K. or
Ireland.
After
the centreline bolts, take a look at the keel bolts. Knock one out (see note at
end on how to do this) and take a look at it. If they need replacing knock the
keel bolts out, no more than two at a
time ‑ alternate bolts ‑ and replace them. Then knock out the
others. When replacing keel bolts, they should be wrought iron or mild steel. DO
NOT use stainless or bronze. Mild steel keel bolts will be good for 20 to 25
years. [We have just replaced Logie's
keel bolts in wrought iron coated with bitumastic paint.
Some of the originals, which were also bitumastic-coated wrought iron
could have gone back in which isn't bad after 42 years.
However, we decided to replace them all for peace of mind. We dropped the
keel right off so that we could remake the joint between the deadwood and the
keel as it was beginning to show as a crack in the epoxy fairing covering the
joint. Ed].
If
the keel bolts come out and appear to be in good shape, the best thing to do is
put them back in and tighten up as tight as you can get. But when doing this
operation back off the nuts of all the keel bolts. Clean up the nuts, clean up
the threads and put an extra washer under the nut, then finish up tightening the
keel bolts as tight as you can get them. [If
keel bolts are more than about 12 years old, it is worth drawing and inspecting
them on a 3-yearly rotation. Ed.]
When it comes to painting the keel get out the power wire brush, with goggles and a dust mask. Then grind away. Then follow the directions for painting iron. Paints available today allow you to clean off the iron keel and do a good job of fairing it, and if the preparation of the basic painting is done properly and you follow the directions carefully you will have no trouble in years to come. [Logie's keel was faired with epoxy about 17 years ago and was it just beginning to show a few blisters and to crack along the join between the iron keel and the deadwood. Dropping the keel also enabled us to extend the epoxy coating to the faying surface. Ed.]
The
next job is to check the condition of the frames especially at the tuck of the
bilge. Here we discovered an interesting fact. Both Gypsy and Fafher were
built by the same builder, Johanssen, one year apart. Gypsy was screw fastened and all the frames at the tuck to the bilge
were split longitudinally. In the case of Fafner she was copper riveted throughout and the frames tucked to
the bilge were fine.
The
solution to Gypsy's problem was that
we made patterns and laminated up frames that went from the keel up about three
planks over the tight tuck in the bilge and fastened the sub frames in with 1
1/4inch No. 12 screws from Jamestown Distributors. At the same time we
refastened the bottom. Gypsy was
bought cheap, but had a reputation for being leaky, on examining the bottom we
could see that the bottom planks were definitely loose.
Refastening completely cured the leak problem.
The correct method of refastening the boat is to take out the screws and replace them with screws one size larger. However, this is not always possible. Gypsy is bronze screw fastened. In Europe ‘bronze' is a very variable description of the metal. It is like the English who say, "oh the boat is fastened with gun metal". It is my experience that in Europe if a boat is fastened with Gun Metal or Bronze, they can be fastened with anything from good silicon bronze right down through lower grades of bronze to English Cheddar Cheese.
Gypsy's
fastenings were somewhere between a poor grade of Bronze and Cheddar Cheese.
When I tried to pull them the heads broke off. Life is too short to try
and drill out every fastening and replace it. Thus we doubled up on the
fastenings with 1¼ inch No. 12 silicon bronze screws from Jamestown. 770 of
them! We did not do the entire bottom only about 2/3rd of them.
Refastening
the bottom is not that difficult or expensive. From Jamestown you can order an
all-in-one drill bit which will drill the hole for the screw, also a slightly
larger hole for the shank and a hole for the plug.
We drilled for the screws, then set
the screws most of the way in with a big ratchet Yankee screwdriver then
followed that up with a brace and bit. At that point my other son Richard was
only fourteen and not big enough to set the screws down. 1 would drill the
holes, he started the screws and I finished them.
We
used straight slotted screws. In this day and age you would be better off to buy
Phillips head screws as then the screw driver blade is less likely to slip out
of the head of the screw. They can be set as described above, with a Yankee
Ratchet screwdriver and brace and bit, or by using a battery powered electric
drill/screwdriver.
In
the years gone by the screws were counter sunk and each hole was plugged. It may
be better to use 1½ inch screws only counter sinking the heads. Countersinking
1/8 of an inch and then covering the heads with epoxy putty, wiping off all the
excess epoxy putty as it is very hard to sand. For glazing up on topsides, or
working epoxy putty into screw heads don't use a putty knife, but an old phone
card.
1½
or 1¼ inch screws should be used to secure the planks to the frames. For
securing the planks to the fore keel and along the keel, dead wood and horn
timber, 1 would advise using 1½ or 1¾ inch. You must remember that a wooden
Dragon is going to be 25 or more years old, so the refastening of the entire
bottom will be worth the effort. Tightening the whole thing up, once done, will
not have to be done again for another twenty-five or thirty years.
The
fastenings go below the waterline and unless there is significant signs above
the waterline and on topsides, I would not worry about refastening the topsides,
except on the stem and forward two or three frames, as that is the area where
wooden Dragons flex.
If you decide you want to pull the fastenings instead of just doubling up as we did on Iolaire, there is newly invented in the United States, a screw removing tool that is considered excellent. It may be obtained from either of two sources:
T&L Tools: http://www.tltools.com Gales Ferry, Connecticut 06335, U.S.A.
Phone: +1 860 464 9485 Fax: +1 860 464 9709 Email: unscrew-ums@tltools.com
Or: Jamestown Fulstrol125 and following numbers depending on the screw size:
Jamestown, 500 Wood Street, Building 15, Bristol Rhode Island 02809
Phone: +1 401 253 3840 or order on line: http://www.jamestowndistributors.com
If
you examine the framing and discover some of the frames are broken, of course
the perfect solution is to remove the entire frame and steam bend a new frame:
an expensive and time-consuming solution. A simpler solution is to laminate up a
sister frame, going at least three planks above and three planks below the
break. Then secure it to the planking or cut your sister frames from natural
crooks. These can be sourced from John Barchard 2 of North Ferriby in
West Yorkshire.
In
boats where there are laminated frames you will sometimes discover the
lamination is coming apart. If it is only one or two lamination layers, it is
fairly simple to lift them off the plank fastenings, put epoxy glue in them and
secure them back in place. Screw them from the inside out with screws placed in
the middle of each plank. Thereby missing the existing fastenings. If it is
badly delaminated, it is a case of trying to pull the small screws, replace such
that the fastenings will miss the screws that are holding the planks from the
inside out.
Butt
joints and scarfs can be a problem. On Fafner
we discovered there were only two butts to the entire boat. Both of them had
properly butted; copper riveted to the butt blocks. They were no problem. On
Gypsy the entire boat was absolutely full-length planking, no scarfs or butts on
the entire boat. However, on the Borresen boats that my son has worked on he
discovered that below the waterline there were butt blocks, which did not cause
any problems, but above the waterline the planks were scarfed rather than butted
and numerous scarfs were becoming unglued.
He
repaired the scarfs in an interesting fashion. The boats were in a shed one side
close to the wall and the other side close to the other boat. He cleaned out the
scarf as best he could. He injected epoxy glue and then, by placing a timber and
wedge against the wall, he was able to wedge the scarf back together again. They
were held in place by a strut and a wedge until the glue went off. An
interesting method but is not always possible. If this is not possible, use a
hypodermic needle, get the epoxy into the joint and then temporarily fasten the
scarf back together with round head wood screws with washers underneath them.
Once the glue is gone off, remove the screws, plug the holes and sand it down.
Planking
on a Dragon – Later boats are mahogany, but the early ones are pine as pre-war
rules stipulated that the entire boat had to built from European-native timber.
I think I am correct in stating that all were built with glued seams. The
state of the seams varies drastically from boat to boat. Especially in the pine
built boats, if they have not been in the water for many years, the seams may
have opened out quite wide. Caulking should be avoided if at all possible. If it
is necessary, the caulking should be done with a caulking iron sharpened almost
like a knife-edge, and done with a very light hammer. I discovered on Gypsy
the best method for fixing wide seams, is to take a putty knife and shove it in
with just a single strand of cotton. Then shove in Sikaflex on top of the seam,
with the putty knife. Then grind it
all off and when in the water at the end of a week or so, it will all seal up.
[I've discussed this technique with other boat builders including Tony
Glaze, we all agree that we would sooner use red lead putty than Sikaflex which
sets hard and could damage the planking as the hull takes up.
Surplus putty can be scraped off at the end of the season and you will
have a super finish in subsequent years. Planking
was edge-glued on mahogany boats and gaping seams are best filled with glued
splines of the same timber. If this
is done well, the boat will still look good with varnished topsides. Ed].
The
one place the Dragon is usually caulked is at the hood end of the planking along
the garboard, the deadwood and horn timber. If the caulking in this area is
loose pull it out with a reefing iron made by taking a small file heating the
end, hooking that over and filing it really thin. Remove the old caulking. Then
LIGHTLY caulk the seams with a fine caulking iron and cover the seam with
Sikaflex. 1 say lightly caulk it as an old Dragon has probably been sitting out
of the water for years and will swell considerably once back in the water. You
don't want to caulk a seam so tightly as to cause stresses.
STIFFENING
THE OLD DRAGON UP
Because
of the flat sections up forward many wooden Dragons tend to have a sort of
washboard effect in the forward planking. Needless to say this will be minimised
by refastening this area. Many of us feel that the forward end of the Dragon is
basically structurally weak. The great American designer and boat builder,
Herreshoff, always insisted that there be a floor at every frame, the floor and
frame be tied together and tied into the fore keel, stem, deadwood and horn
timber. However, this is not how the Dragons were constructed. Like the IOD's
and other Scandinavian designed boats, the Dragon has a floor next to a frame
and then two frames, as 1 describe, "hanging out in the breeze", then
another floor and a frame. On Gypsy for the two intermediate frames that were “hanging out in
the breeze" we laminated up a floor across the fore keel and out about five
planks. We then bolted the floor with bronze carriage bolts (with the big head)
to the forward keel and then screwed the planks. Doing this stiffened up the
forward end of Gypsy so much that when
Tony O'Gorman was sailing with us on Gypsy
one day, and we were slamming into a head sea, he said, "my God Don, you
have stiffened her up so much forward she sounds like a fibreglass boat rather
than a wooden one, when pounding on the waves."
Back aft the intermediate frames
have been tied together across the horn timbers by a flat ¼ inch stainless
steel plate.
We did the above to Gypsy
about 17 years ago and it changed her from being an infamous leaker, to being as
tight as a tick!
Unfortunately we have discovered we
are also illegal! However, I am working with the Technical Committee and feel
that within eighteen to twenty four months this method of strengthening the
intermediate frames for and aft will be legal.
In many old Dragons you will
realise that the deck is beyond repair. Take the deck off completely and check
the deck beams. Any bad ones should be replaced with Douglas fir or Oregon Pine.
The two main beams by the mast are
best replaced with Iroko or Oak. This is admittedly heavier than Douglas fir or
Oregon Pine, but in this area the strength is needed. First take the deck off
and install a structural bulk head, forward of the mast. Screw and epoxy glue it
to the frame. An extra deck beam should also be installed to carry the upper
edge of the bulkhead so that it can be securely fastened to the deck. When
laying the plywood deck, there are four options.
1.
Scarf the plywood together with epoxy glue ‑ a special "Scarfer”
tool can be purchased from Gougeon Bros 3 and the job is no problem
with the aid of this tool and a good carpenter's plane.
2.
The other method of joining ply panels is to butt the plywood on to the
deck beams and fasten the plywood to the deck beams with screws and epoxy glue.
This is not as strong as the scarf joints.
3.
A third method is to fit 9 or 12 mm ply butt blocks, screwed and epoxy
glued under each joint in the ply.
4.
A final method is to put down two layers of plywood, epoxy glued together
with the butt joints staggered. When laying a plywood deck with two layers, you
must use epoxy glue. To be really
effective, a resorcinol glue requires a tremendous amount of clamping pressure
which you won't be able to apply when laying two layers of plywood deck.
Needless to say, if you really
want to have a beautiful Dragon, a teak deck laid in epoxy glue on top of the
plywood is beautiful. Unless you are an extremely good carpenter, or have deep
pockets, forget about the teak deck and go to a plywood deck and paint it. [I
re-decked Logie with two layers of
epoxy-saturated ply rather than teak as a) painted ply looks more similar to her
original canvas-over-pine and b) the money saved on not using teak could be
spent on a lot of high-quality blocks, string and sails.
The new deck reduced the boat's weight by about 100 kg and stiffened
her up considerably Ed.]
Chain
plates have caused a lot of problems on Dragons. When the Dragons were built
they never expected them to be driven as hard as they are today.
Borresen chain plates are mounted in a vertical plane, bolted through an
over sized frame with four fore and aft bolts through the frame. The problem
with this is that those bolts are pulling across the grain of the wood. In heavy
weather the bolts have been known to tear the frame apart resulting in either a
lost or badly bent rig. I remember back in the early 1990s in a very heavy
weather South Coast Championships (possibly the Nationals) in Kinsale, 7 wooden
Dragons lost their rigs and Gypsy
picked up something like six broken frames.
If
your chain plates are secured in that fashion, the solution is to lay a thin
metal plate of stainless or bronze on top of the frames which is then through
bolted through the planking, frame and metal plate. This will prevent the frame
from splitting and the chain plates coming loose [Logie has massive stainless fabrications similar to this and shows
no distress whatever in this area despite having raced continuously for 42
seasons without a break. Ed].
If
you have installed a bulkhead after taking off the deck, you can install a big
hanging knee [or ply ring frame] aft of the mast. Then run a tube, ask my son
Donald M. Street Ill (D III) 4 for this dimension in diameter, with
holes along the pipe. This pipe then becomes the chain plate. Then drill four
more holes, and run wires from the fore and aft tubes, down to the mast step.
Whether
or not it is worth while to install a bulkhead at the aft end of the cockpit, I
am not quite sure. If the deck and
deck beams are in good shape, and you have decided you would like a bulkhead, it
is possible to fit a bulkhead without taking the deck off. D III has done it.
First of all a deck beam has to be installed in line with the frames, so that
the bulkhead can be secured to the frames and to the new deck beam. Exactly how
you fit this bulkhead 1 don't know, but D III can be contacted as to how to do
it or can do it for you.
An
example of what can be done with a wooden Dragon is Jimmy Whittaker's Alphida.
D Ill went to work on it and installed a structural bulkhead without taking the
deck off. He installed two big hanging knees, fore and aft chain plates with
diagonals down to the mast step. This improved the performance of the boat so
much that Jimmy cleaned house in Glandore in 2000 to the point that he gave up
the idea of buying a glass Dragon as he was doing fine in his wooden Alphida.
When
it comes to masts a new mast costs a fortune, but there are plenty of second
hand masts around that can be bought for a reasonable price. Also, with the
number of Dragon masts that have gone over the side, breaking off at the deck,
it makes me wonder why anyone insures a Dragon! Needless to say one broken off
at the deck can usually be picked up for free.
Contact Tony Glaze at Dragon Marine in Burnham on –Crouch 5,and
he can make up a sleeve [as well as importing Borresen parts and Nordic spars,
Tony also has a vast stock of second-hand Dragon bits. Ed]. The mast can be
sleeved making it a perfectly acceptable mast for all except the very top-notch
Dragon competitions [I sleeved Logie's
10 year-old mast about 3 years ago under Tony's supervision and she's still
blindingly quick. Ed].
The
boat probably has a boom, but if it doesn't you will probably have to buy a new
one. Second hand booms do not often come on the market. The same can be said for
spinnaker poles. You should also
note that spinnaker poles of the older boats may be shorter than those used
today as the rules were changed some years ago, and you will certainly want a
longer pole of approximately 2200 mm. in length.
Regarding
sails, a lot of the very hot racers in the Dragon class use their sails no more
than eight or ten races. Then they sell them for about 75% of the new price.
Others use them for a season and at the end of a season will sell them for
roughly 50% of the price of a new sail, and often less. Certainly these are good
enough for Club Racing. Finally, by
the time sails are two or three years old, some boats will practically give them
away to an up and coming sailor who is restoring a wooden Dragon.
Regarding
the bits and pieces and tweakers. If you look at the brand new boat the number
of fine-tunes or tweakers is absolutely incredible. They are set up so that
everything can be done from the weather rail. However all the bits and pieces to
set up all those tweakers, will set you back two or three thousand pounds and
possibly more.
[I
always advise prospective owners that it is sensible to upgrade in stages,
prioritising control systems as one gets increasingly used to the boat
Ed.]
For
instance, look at the jumper struts. For many years jumper struts were
adjustable, then someone upped the ante and made them individually adjustable,
so that when you were coming off the starting line you could take up the
starboard jumper, stiffen the mast, pull the top of the mast a little bit to
windward, supposedly allowing you to pinch up a little bit, point a little
higher and work out to windward of the fleet, starting on a starboard tack.
However, now the latest Dragons have fixed jumpers ‑ no adjustment!
Similarly,
for many years the vast majority of Dragons had full width main sheet
travellers, originally with tackles, that had to handled by the skipper while he
tacked to properly place the lower main sheet block. Then Harken came in with
the self tacking traveller, which certainly is a great asset. However, now the
Dragons are going back to the original installation, The original installation
on a Dragon's main sheet was sheeted to a post in the centre of the cockpit.
Many of the latest Dragons now have a very short main sheet traveller, which
allows you to walk fore and aft on either side of the traveller. Though it has
not gone the full circle, it's approaching the old centreline traveller.
On
Runners, originally most Dragons had levers, or the backstay ran on a slider
along a track. Then the back stay was led through blocks on the deck almost all
the way back to the stern and led forward to a wheel. About ten years ago the
wheels were thrown away and a block and tackle system was set up with coarse and
fine tune. This was effective but expensive and had a lot of complications with
shock chord, lead blocks etc. [It
is however very easy to adjust, and even allows the crew to reduce the tension
momentarily to power up the rig when slamming through a powerboat's wash. The
schematic below shows how to set it up. Ed.]
On Gypsy we
have the world's most simple method it is the same method as the many Six
Metres had before World War II. The runner goes through the lead block back aft,
runs up under the deck to a double lead block bolted to the deck. It comes up
through the double lead block to the sheet winch.
When
we tack one person throws off the lee jib sheet, grabs hold of the runner, takes
it round the winch and cranks it up. On the other side of the boat, the crew
throws off the runner, then takes the sheet around the winch and sheets the jib
in. Dead simple, infinitely adjustable and 1 honestly think quicker than
handling the block and tackle arrangement on the backstay.
Each
to his own. I have sailed Gypsy for
many years with this rig, and have sailed probably 30 races on my son's Fafner
with the block and tackle rig. 1 still prefer Gypsy's
rig. Among other things for the guy starting up in the class trying to minimise
expenses, the Gypsy type rig is by far
the simplest and cheapest.
How
many tweakers do you need? First of all the extra tweakers are expensive to
install and often there are so many of them that I am firmly convinced the crew
gets confused.
All
too often I have had it happen to myself, while racing and I have seen it happen
to competitors, where they will be going up wind on one leg and the boat is
going fast. We cannot catch them on Gypsy.
However, thirty minutes later on the next windward leg if the weather conditions
have changed slightly the boat concerned does not have the trim repeatability of
the first windward leg and all of a sudden we discover we are with them or even
passing them!
The
Dragon is very much a team boat. A good helmsman is necessary but he also needs
two crew up front who really know how to trim and make the boat go.
A
favourite story of mine is of an old friend, the late Glen Foster, winner of the
Irish Nationals in Kinsale in 1991 and the 6 Metre Worlds amongst many others.
We raced against each other in University in the U.S. in dinghies in the early
1950s. Then we raced against each other in Dragon's in the late 1980s and 1990s!
Glen was heard to bellow on the starting line more than once, "boys, I am
in trouble, trim me out of here".
I
remember the first time when 1 was racing against Glen on the Dragons, needless
to say he was winning. I felt the thing to do was to start quizzing Glen on the
correct trim of sails on a Dragon in the various conditions. I got absolutely
nowhere in my enquiry as all Glen could say was, "heck I just twiddle the
stick, steer well and try to go in the right places. The boys do everything
else. I just say 'give me height and
they will trim for height, or I will say, 'I want speed' and they trim for
speed.
When
you buy an old wooden Dragon the first thing to do is buy a really good electric
sander. Orbital ones with stick on pads seem to be the best. But you must have a
soft rubber pad that will compensate for the curve of the hull of the boat. If
the paint work is in really bad shape of course it has to be stripped off and
how to do this 1 am not going to go into. The choices are dry scraping, sanding,
heat gun or paint remover: There are various types of paint remover some of
which will damn near kill you and others which are supposedly ecologically
friendly; what method to use will vary as to who is doing it and the condition
of the paint. I would advise
writing to Classic Boat or Wooden Boat to ask their advice on the best method of
removing paint as many new products have come on the market in the last few
years.
Most
Dragons will only need a really good sanding on the topsides. Once the topsides
are sanded, do not go whole hog with really hard epoxy or acrylic finishes. No
matter what you do to the wooden Dragon structurally to stiffen it up, it is
going to flex slightly on the topsides. That will crack any really hard paint.
The best thing is to use a good oil based or polyurethane paint. Put it on with
a really good roller and follow it up with a really good three to four inch
paint brush and you will end up with a finish that is just one step down from a
fibreglass boat. Needless to say,
it is the old story - preparation is the hardest part of the job. The actual
painting of the topsides only takes two people with a roller and a brush an
hour. But there may be days or even weeks of preparation.
For
filling dings and dangs you should get the International Paint Company glazing
putty that comes in a toothpaste tube, a couple of old phone cards and fill in
all the dings and dangs. Do it carefully.
A
really good painter says that sanding after glazing is only an excuse for poor
glazing. The more care you use in glazing up the dings and dangs the less
sanding you will have to do.
When
it comes to bottom painting, on most wooden Dragons you will discover the only
thing to do is to strip it back to bare wood. There is too much old encrusted
paint that will be flaking off and too rough to really establish good finish
over. If you take it absolutely back to the bare wood the best thing to do is to
give it two coats of clear epoxy before you start painting with bottom paint.
This will minimise the water absorption.
Many
years ago 1 discussed this subject with the Fleet Captain of the Rochester New
York, (USA) Dragon Fleet. He claimed that careful weighing of wooden Dragons at
the beginning of the season vs. end of the season the water absorption was in
the region of 500 Ibs. This of course could be minimised if the bottom and the
bilge were stripped and sealed with epoxy.
While the
bottom is stripped, that is the time to refasten as it is easy to find the
location of the old fastenings. If the bottom is stripped, even if it is
believed the fastenings are in good shape, 1 feel it is well worth while putting
a single extra fastening in each plank between the two existing fastenings. This
will tighten everything up and you will be able to forget about additional
fastenings for 20 years!
On
the interior of a Dragon with the deck on, work is pretty hard if not
impossible. Amazingly in many cases, the varnish on the ends of the boat under
the deck is in pretty good shape and if so you can do a light sanding and give
it a coat of varnish. In the region of the cockpit it is probably completely
gone. There you have a choice of cleaning it off and re-varnishing it, or giving
it a good sanding and painting it white. The latter of course is much quicker
and easier and much simpler to maintain.
As
for the bilge, take a good look at it and especially if you have cleaned the
bottom off and epoxy painted that, it would be well worth while to take out the
heat gun and remove all the loose paint in the bilge. Then you should put on
three or four coats of clear epoxy paint to minimise water absorption.
[I would advise against epoxying the bilge unless you virtually dismantle
the boat. You are likely to seal in
damp leading to possible rot as you won't be able to reach round the back of
any ribs that may be standing proud of the hull or which are not sealed to any
floors they lie against. Nor will
you fully coat the inside of limber holes.
A better idea is to epoxy the outside of the hull below the water line
and make sure that the keel bolts are sound, so no water comes into the boat.
Keep rainwater out of the boat with a well-fitted and well-ventilated
cockpit cover and use the boat sufficiently often that the boat stays pumped
dry. Otherwise, fit an electric bilge pump as now allowed by class rules. Ed]
When
getting an old Dragon and preparing it for racing, one thing to do is to measure
where the rig is. This Dragon rule is rather odd, as the only measurement
regarding the fore and aft position of the rig is the distance between the jib
stay and the mast. Other than that the rig can be put anywhere that you want.
The variation between positions is considerable. When I purchased Gypsy
the rig happened to have very little rake in it. It was in the era when all
Dragon's had tremendous rake in the mast. When I quizzed all the hot shots in
Kinsale, no one could give me any reason why there should be so much rake in the
mast. However, Gypsy balanced well and
went fast, so why put a lot of rake in the mast? It was only after I had owned Gypsy
for about eight years, that Tony O'Gorman pointed out that you can put the rig
anywhere you wanted.
1
started thinking about it and measured Dragons to discover Gypsy's mast 11 inches further aft than the modern Dragon's. Of
course as a result she did not need a lot of rake to make the boat balance.
Further, I measured Melisande the only
Dragon built in Ireland, by Crosshaven Boatyard. Melisande had. the standard large rake in the Dragon rig. Maeve
Murphy and the crew had complained that she had tremendous weather helm when
it blew. I had noticed that when racing against Melisande
you could see how she was fighting heavy weather helm. I then measured Melisande
and discovered that like Gypsy her
mast was 11 inches further aft than the modern Dragon, so with the rake also
thrown in of course she had a lot of weather helm.
If you have
the deck off the rig can be moved. But, where to move the rig to, I am not going
to guess. [I took the opportunity
to upgrade Logie's rig to the
current state-of-the-art when I redecked her. She now steers with a finger-tip
in almost all kinds of weather and is competative in a fleet of 20+ modern
dragons at Burnham.
Petticrow's
8 and other sailmaker's tuning guides show the ideal set up for the
position of the mast and shrouds relative to the underwater profile of the keel.
as well as giving guidence on rig tension and rake.
However all measurements are taken from stations 4 and 8, which should be
marked on the covering boards with exposed screws (as should all the station
marks). It is very likely that
these marks have been lost over the years (especially if, like me, you have
re-decked the boat without appreciating the mark's significance).
The crucial
station in No 8, which is 1317 mm forwards of the after edge of the keel and 30
mm above the top of the iron keel itself. It
should be marked each side with a round-headed screw in the deadwood.
All the other stations are
measured from this. Petticrows have
a drawing showing how to re-find the stations and once these are re-marked, the
rig should be set up according to their tuning guide.
Finally, before putting your
beautifully restored dragon back on the water, remember that you must register
the change of ownership with your National Authority as the old certificate is
invalidated by a change of ownership. Ed]
NOTE: Bolts
in the fore keel and horn timber. First of all, with a hacksaw or a grinder, cut
off all excess thread on the bolt or nut so that you are absolutely down flat to
the nut. Then outside the boat pull off the plug underneath the bolt. With the
aid of a small cold chisel or punch remove all the loose rust at the head of the
bolt. Then fit a timber and a wedge in tight underneath the fore keel right next
to the bolt. Hammer the wedge into place so that when you pound on the bolt on
the inside, the fore keel or horn timber will not move at all. Then go inside
the boat with the hottest portable torch you can buy, or an acetylene torch.
Heat up the nut hopefully until it is red hot or at least until it is good and
hot. Then wind the nut off. Put the nut halfway back on, find a big punch of
hardened steel, just smaller than the diameter of the bolt. Get yourself a good
persuader, (short-handled 51b. sledgehammer) and have someone standing outside
the boat watching the head of the bolt, then start pounding. Hopefully the bolt
will drive down. If so, as soon as the nut comes flush with the wood, take off
the nut and continue to bash out the bolt. However, if the person outside the
boat says the bolt is not moving, then it means the bolt has broken. At that
point you must stop pounding immediately, wind the nut back down on the bolt.
The bolt will start turning, keep turning the bolt until it is turning quite
freely and then with a vice grip pull the nut and bolt out, taking the broken
bolt out of the wood to the inside of the boat. The remainder of the bolt will
still be in the hull. Take a bolt or a punch the same diameter of the broken
bolt and start banging away on it. That should drive the broken half still in
the hull, out. Needless to say, once you have done that, obtain a bronze
carriage bolt with a big head, one size larger than the bolt you have removed
and install that.
Keel
bolts ‑ again as per the bolts in the fore keel and horn timber make sure
the bolt is cut off dead flush with the nut. Once that is done, heat up the nut
and in this case, if at all possible get an acetylene torch so it is absolutely
red hot. Once it is red hot with a correct size wrench it will probably back off
very easily. Again back the nut halfway off, put a good big steel rod on top of
the bolt, just about the same diameter as the bolt. Knocking the bolt out is a
three-person job. One person underneath the boat, watching the head of the bolt.
One person holding the rod and the third person swinging a 10Ib sledge. Don't
mess around with a hammer, or 51b. persuader, get a 10Ib. sledge and start
swinging. If the bolt moves, both top and bottom, all is well. Back the nut off
and drive it out. If the bolt starts to go down on the inside of the boat and
does not move outside, stop immediately.
Write to Classic Boat and ask them to send you copies of all the articles they have written on knocking out keel bolts. If the top moves and the bottom does not, the bolt is broken and you have real problem. The solutions to this problem are too long to present in this article. If the bolt moves both top and bottom, you are all set. Drive it out, make a new one of mild steel or wrought iron, NOT stainless steel or bronze.
The rules have been changed allowing centreline fore and aft bulkheads from the mast to the stem. From the aft end of the cockpit to the stern, and five athwartship partial bulkeads.
An article on the various ways of doing this will
appear in Classic Boat in the near future. The article will be republished here.
A number of yacht designers who have raced Dragons both wooden and glass fibre,
feel that a good wooden Dragon stiffened according to the new rules will be
stiffer than a standard Dragon. They feel the stiffening will make the wooden
Dragon a rocket ship. Stiffen up your wooden Dragon and stuff the glass Dragons!
Useful addresses:
1.
Jamestown Distributors, 500 Wood Street, No. 15 Bristol Industrial Park,
Jamestown, Rhode Island 02809. Phone: 001 401 423 2520; Fax: 001 402 423 0542.
2
John Barchard, 56 Woodgates Lane, North Ferriby, West Yorkshire HU14 3JY,
UK; Phone: +44 (0) 1482 631765; Fax +44
(0) 1482 634845.
3
Gougeon Bros Inc, 100 Patterson
Avenue, PO Box 908, Bay City, Michigan 48707-0908, USA. Phone: 001 989 684 6881
4
Donald M. Street Ill (D III)
‑ Fax: 00 353 21 4776269
5
Tony Glaze, Dragon Marine, Laburnum Cottage, Mill End,
Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex. UK.
Phone +44 (0) 1621 776397 (office) +44 (0) 1621 773667 (workshop) Fax:
+44 (0) 1621 773667,
6
Classic Boat, Focus House,
Dingwall Avenue, Croydon, Surrey CR9 2TA, UK. e‑mail: cb@ipcmedia.com
7
Wooden Boat, P. 0. Box 78,
Brooklyn, Maine 304616, U.S.A.
8. Petticrows Ltd, Belvedere Rd, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex UK.