DAYDREAM
time was spent in my thinking chair as on the
construction of the boat itself.
One of the many interesting problems was how much
lead to use, and what its exact shape would be, so the
boat would float on her lines. I had only the line
drawings and had no idea what the boat would weigh
without the lead. When the hull was complete I had it
weighed by the folks who weigh aircraft and added to
that my best estimate of rig and gear. The longitudinal
centre of gravity of the hull was found by lifting her
slightly in her building cradle with a jack, moving it fore
and aft until it balanced. Naval architect Matt Smith,
who had her lines on his computer, was then able to
calculate the longitudinal centre of gravity of the lead
ballast and its total weight.
During construction the wide centre floorboard was
left removable, giving access to the keel. Floor timbers
were already bolted separately in place. The lead keel
was delivered with slightly oversized keel bolt holes,
from which I made a plywood pattern. Holding the
pattern upside down under the wood keel I marked the
holes for the keel bolts, then drilled up vertically through
the keel. With help from a block and tackle the 3,300lb
lead keel was rolled on a carefully engineered carriage
under the boat, gooped up, then lifted up flush with the
wood keel using two short bits of small I-beams and fourAbove l-r: the jib
is on a Merriman
drum furler for
ease of use
single-handed;
yawl rig will give
added power of
the wind,
including the
ability to fly a
mizzen staysail;
bronze port.
Below: the
3,300lb lead keel
ready to roll
under the boat.
Opposite: eastern
white pine used
down below to
keep things lightcar jacks. The bronze keel bolts were then driven down
through from above and fastened with nuts and washers
above and below. The last keel bolt was just driven
through, with difficulty!
It was a struggle to decide between a gaff and marconi
rig. The original plan showed a gaff rig with a single jib,
but from everything I can determine Crystal II was rigged
from the beginning as a marconi yawl. There is nothing
like sailing off the wind with a big gaff mainsail boomed
out and a topsail above. And the gaff rig has that
romantic something. But in the end the decision came
down to handling ability. I knew I would be sailing this
boat alone much of the time and I have a very small area
in our outer harbour to get the sail down and muffled.
Handling two halyards with a gaff swinging across the
boat was more than I wanted.
I also needed to be able to reef her alone in a bit of
wind, and reefing a gaff main is definitely more
difficult than the same operation for a marconi sail.
The gaff sail has much more strain on the clew – the
boom often has to be lifted before getting the clew
cringle down, more reef points have to be tied in (one
often has to lean off the boat to get the outboard ones)
and once the reef is tied in, two halyards have to be
tightened. So I designed a large marconi yawl rig for
Daydream (which, as I found out later, was almost the
same as what was originally fitted). The mainsail, at
260ft², was about all I wanted to handle in my
seventies, especially as I knew I would be reefing it
often as winds exceeded about 12 knots.
Daydream is a good sailor, often reaching her
theoretical hull speed of 6 knots and sometimes more
with her spinnaker and mizzen staysail. She is well
balanced, and carries her way, never missing stays. I
rarely use her Yanmar 2-cylinder 14hp off-centre diesel.
Because she is heavy for her waterline length, she needs
light sails to get her moving in about less than 7 knots of
wind. The bowsprit end is too far out to reach and hank
on a sail, so I had a light headsail made with a free-
standing, non-stretch luff, which gets her going in light
air. A dedicated line pulls the tack to the bowsprit end
before raising the sail. To lower the sail when sailing
alone, I put her dead off the wind, engage the tiller pilot