[Arcb]

Your money, your time. Personally I don't see the point of such things. Maybe a chainsaw would do better.....

You don't understand the point of raiding? Its a type of racing that involves small light boats, light enough to drag up on the beach and over sand bars, no handicaps, long distance. Its fun, most boats are either home made or heavily modified stock boats, light enough to be dragged up on a beach and effectively rowed. If I go ahead, this would be my third raid boat build. I have learned through experience that a boat with a cabin is a big plus because you can sleep at anchor and savethe time of setting up camp.

Heres an explanation on wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_(boating)

So I am wondering if any one has practical experience with a water ballast conversion

 

[Arcb]

I just looked up the Cal 21, wow, what a light boat! Without the keel it looks like it would weigh about 750 lbs and would float in 8" of water.

Maybe even less, because all interior wood has been removed. Its a bare hull inside.

Just add a couple canvas cots for sleeping, jet boil or similar for cooking.

Oars, or a pedal drive would be cool.

 

[Arcb]

Yes, the wing tanks and transfer pump might be a terrible idea. Complicated and power hungry. Thought I would throw it out there in case some one knew something I didn't.

In fact, the whole water ballast idea might not be practical.

Which doesnt rule out a Cal 21 as a raid boat, it just makes it a heavy raid boat.

I was reviewing this years Race to Alaska line up and they include;

A Junk Cat Ketch Bolger Chebaco
https://r2ak.com/2019-teams-full-race/team-auklet/

And a Pedal drive stern paddle wheel Macgregor 26.
https://r2ak.com/2019-teams-full-race/team-r2ache/

As well as a bunch of different entries that make you scratch your head.

Somehow a stripped down Cal 21 just doesn't seem that radical to me.

 

[Arcb]

You want to go raiding, go for a small dinghy that can be portaged by two people easily.

I already have that boat, 2 of them actually. One of them has been retired because its too uncomfortable. Its cold and it hurts.

The other one, my sailing kayak is my currently active boat. Its a great boat, and its more comfortable than my first. But, I still need to get to shore and set up a tent to sleep and it feels pretty small on big water, it's a 61 pound boat.

My next raid boat is going to have a cabin, whether its this one or some other. Sleeping exposed to the element s in a dry suit is only entertaining for so long. There are 3 major North American raids that I know of right now, none of those require a portage (although portaging certainly allows for some interesting short cuts).

Since water ballast, Macgregors and the R2AK have come up, here is a great shot from leg 1 of the R2AK. This was taken yesterday during Leg 1/qualifying. Looks exciting. I borrowed it off the R2AK Facebook Page.

 

[Arcb]

Thanks Jeff,

That brought some concepts into focus for me. The pulley and the rail concept reminds me a little bit of a type of boat I have read about but never seen called sandbag schooners, or something like that.

It seems to me, that the tank trolley concept could be used together with the swing keel for even greater stability.

You have given me a starting point for further research. It seems to me, the logical steps, would be pay my dollar and try sailing the boat as is, see how the keel repair stands up, try beaching the boat (possibly with the assistance of a big anchor and 12 volt winch) and see if the weight is manageable with the swing keel.

Then figure out where to go from there.

 

[Arcb]

It seems the current owner has carefully documented the repairs to the keel and trunk and sent me some of the photos. It looks like a fairly thorough repair job has been done.

In which case, ripping out a perfectly good keel probably doesn't make any sense.

It seems to me, the Cal 20 and the Cal 21 are the same boat, with the main difference being, the Cal 20 has a 900 pound fixed keel and the Cal 21 has a 360 pound swing keel.

The difference in displacements means the Cal 20 has an SA/D of just over 20, while the Cal 21 has an SA/D of just over 29. Should be a fast boat in light air.

However, if I go with some variation of Jeff's tank track idea, then that should mean I am able to keep more sail up and point higher in a greater range of wind conditions, without carrying around a bunch of extra weight in light air and for rowing.

This boat might follow me home tonight.

 

[Arcb]

I see what you mean about the hull shape when I hold images up side by side.

I very likely will have some questions about how to power up the sail plan. Although the current owner has already purchased a new Cal 21 mast for the boat that comes with it, so I may stick with that.

 

[Arcb]

First go, I went off sailboat data.

Then I found a metrics calculator on line and plugged the numbers in, using 1100 lb displacement and sail areas taken off sailrite. It does seem like the SA/D is correct using: SA/Displacement in cubic feet)^2/3.

100 sq ft main + 95 sq ft 117% working job comes out to 29 and change.

100 sq ft main + 115 sq ft 130% genoa 32 and change.

Using zedboys idea of adding my weight and say a weeks worth of rations it does drop to a practical SA/D of 24.9 with working jib.

If I am 2 up with a weeks worth of rations it drops even further to 21.9 with working jib.

At least those are the numbers the calculator are feeding me.

 

[Arcb]

I bet you could work supply bins into the trolley system so that when you tack all your rations go over to the high side.

Absolutely. Was chatting with a SCAMP racer who used his water ballast hold for bottled water. A little less dense than a tank of water due to stowage factor, but it did provide low down ballast with no free surface.

 

[Arcb]

Well, cosmetically the boat is pretty rough. However, it is solid. I was surprised by how solid this neglected 1969 boat is. There are no soft spots in the deck or cockpit, not that I could find. I thought the repairs on the keel trunk looked thorough. I think I will put a strut under the mast step though.

When I got there, the boat was out in the bush at a farm, under a tarp held down by timbers. This was the hardest part, getting the collapsed shelter off the boat, I was naturally on my own. I came from work, so dress shirt, dress pants, and dress shoes- no overalls of course, smart move. My biggest concern with getting the shelter off the boat was the expected hidden bees nest, or racoon nest or what ever, as luck would have it, there were no vermin.

I couldn't assess the boat in the bush, the mosquitoes were brutal, couldn't get around. The trailer tongue was buried in the mud. I had brought a hydraulic jack for just such an occasion. Jacked the tongue up, backed my two wheel drive grand caravan into the bush and got the hitch on and dragged it out. It came out surprisingly easily.

Did a quick survey, there wasn't much to survey as the boat is gutted. But, no soft spots, no sepereation at the hull deck joint and the hull clearly held water, as there was about 300+ litres of filthy brown water on board. I had a knife and made a bailing can out of a 1 gallon jug that was discarded on board and set to bailing.

Then the trailer. The trailer is pretty nice. Full size 5 stud tires, proper suspension, solid and the lights worked. What! Yes the lights worked. Bizzarro.

The tires had been sitting so they needed air. I brought an air compressor for just such an occasion. Pumped the tires up, they held air.

Then, I ratchet strapped her down and began the 50 mile drive home, country roads fortunately. Bearings stayed cool, boat trailered great, like I said, nice trailer.

Now, my $1 boat sits in my drive way awaiting refit. Within 30 feet or so of my air compressor, my band saw, my tools, lighting.

I think this is going to be fun.

 

[Arcb]

Its important to understand that properly calculated SA/D is based on the dry weight of the boat (tanks and storage empty but with its normal operating equipment on board), the mainsail triangle without roach, and the 100% foretriangle. You would never calculate an SA/D using the area of the boat's genoas, mainsail roach, or with the full load weight since the idea behind SA/D is to have a non-dimensional apples to apples

Makes sense Jeff, I still found the exercise to be informative.

Zedboys idea of working up the SA-d did make me think about the true power of the sail plan, because I have considered the idea on my Fireball and my P16, which both rate in the high 60s, but realistically, when you load a 200 lb guy and 100 lbs of rations on board each, it does radically change the metric.

With regards to the tank track, Minnesails idea gave me an idea.

I am going to have to race this boat 2 up, because my wife will not allow me to go alone on overnight races. Which I think is reasonable.

So, figure 2 guys carrying enough water for 7 days. At a gallon each per day, that works out to 14 gallons or about 120 pounds of water. Refill empty bottles with sea water marked with an x with a sharpie and you have a constant 120 pounds or so of water. That gives you a constant weight of a small person on the high side.

It does kind of work.

 

[Arcb]

Here is a head scratcher. At least it was for me. The keel is over 4 feet deep, but when trailering or beached, it folds up completely inside the boat, leaving no exposed stub keel. It has a decent sized bulb on the end.

In order to achieve this, there is a large open slot in the cockpit sole. The cockpit doesn't have any scuppers, I take it draining occurs through this gap.

When beached, or trailering the bulb extends above the cockpit sole. It looks kind of wild, I don't recall seeing something quite like this before. There is a big hook on the end that the keel pennant attaches to.

I think I am going to name her Indomitus meaning untamed.

 

[Arcb]

Here is a shot of the keel hook. Looks like something from a dungeon.

A set up like this would never be allowed to be invented in 2019

 

[Arcb]

Makes sense, who doesn't like stubbing their toe on a steel meat hook and then tripping down the companionway

I am not sure if the previous owner has the plug or not. She has a bunch of stuff stored in her basement that I haven't seen yet; deck hardware, winches, boom, sails.

The mast is at a third location. A 7 hour round trip. Which, really when you consider the cost of a new mast, isn't the end of the world.