Balancing Sails

Balancing the sails may be viewed by some as sailing Nirvana, a perfect state which you know exists but can never quite reach. The truth is, balancing your sails is very simple.

When a sail fills with air, it begins to power up as its shape takes on the form of an airfoil. When the sail is properly trimmed and shaped like an airfoil, it will generate lift which will be transferred to the sailboat via the rigging and in turn move the sailboat through the water.

Perfect trim will have the air flowing evenly and smoothly over the both sides of the sail. This state will produce the maximum amount of power out of the sail. This is why when sailing, you want to trim the sail until the tell tales are streaming evenly on both sides of the sail. 

There are various sails on the boat, located in front and behind of the mast. If the sails are all powered up to their maximum, balance will probably not be attained.  The combined force from the sails will be localized into the "Center of Effort" or CE. This force is going to be counteracted by the "Center of Lateral Resistance" or CLR which is produced by the underwater profile. If the CE is ahead of the CLR, the boat will have lee helm and veer to leeward. If the CE is behind the CLR, the boat will have weather helm and veer to windward. If the CE is directly in line with the CLR, the boat will be balanced!

For purposes of balancing the boat, the rudder will be locked midship and not altered. This will keep the rudder in line with the keel and thus keep drag to a minimum. With the rudder center lined and locked, the CLR will not change. The relationship of CE to CLR can be altered by trimming the sails.

If the boat wants to turn to windward, this means that the CE is behind the CLR. 
If the boat wants to turn to leeward, this means that the CE is ahead of the CLR.

These are the only two options present when the helm is locked, and it no longer seems that complicated when you break it down to just two choices with no gray area.

Your sails will generally develop more power if you sheet them in, and less power if you ease them out. This means that you can generally alter your CE by either sheeting your sails or easing your sails.

If the yacht wants to turn to windward, you need to move the CE forward to meet the CLR and balance the boat. To do this, simply ease the main. Easing the main will reduce its efficiency and cause the CE to move forward as the headsails have not been altered. 

If your yacht wants to turn to leeward, you need to move the CE aft to meet the CLR and balance the boat. To do this, simply ease the headsails. Easing the headsails will reduce their efficiency and cause the CE to move aft as the main has not been altered.

That's it! Doesn't seem so complicated now does it?

If you ease a sail to the point that it starts to luff or develop leach flutter, you should sheet the sail in a bit until it calms down and then sheet in the opposite sail.

For example, if you have lee helm and you ease the headsail until it flutters, sheet it in a bit and then sheet in the main. Easing the headsail will move the CE aft, but flutter will destroy your sail. Sheeting in the main will also move your CE aft, and not cause premature destruction of your headsail. In the end, you can move the CE aft until it meets the CLR and the boat becomes balanced.

After you achieve perfect balance and are sailing along with your rudder center line and causing minimal drag, you may feel inclined to look at your sails once more. You will probably see that your sails are trimmed terribly. Tell tales will probably be twirling on one side of the sail, indicating that the sail is not trimmed to utmost performance. You may feel the urge to go trim the sail until all the tell tales are flying perfectly, but that would upset the balance of the boat by moving the CE either forward or aft. 

You need to remember that sails are an individual component that is tied together into the rest of the boat via the rigging to form a sailboat. The goal is not to have a perfect sail, but instead a perfect boat. If an over trimmed sail is needed to balance the sailboat, then that is what is needed to sail along properly.

Being able to zoom out and see the big picture is an important ability. This will show you that the tell tales don't really matter, and what is important is that the boat sails along through the seas.

Choosing Siding

Siding is the outer layer of the tiny house, and a large variety of materials are available for your choosing. Popular materials available are: Vinyl, Fiber Cement, and Wood.

Vinyl is famous for being maintenance free! The vinyl siding is available in many different colors, and you install the color that you want to use. It never needs painting or coating, as the vinyl is its own color. It is also very light weight, which is a wonderful bonus for a tiny house. The big weakness with vinyl siding deals with impact damage. Since it is made of weak plastics, it dents easily. It also doesn't hold up very well to strong winds.

On a tiny house being towed down the highway will expose the tiny house to hurricane force winds (64 knots or 73.6 mph) and road debris impacts on the siding. If you are never going to move your tiny house, vinyl may be a very simple option for your choice in siding material.

Fiber cement boards are much heavier than vinyl, but they are also much stronger. They hold up to impact and high winds much better, making them a wonderful choice for tiny house siding. Fiber cement does require painting, and this paint needs to be maintained over the years of the life of the tiny house. While this is added maintenance over vinyl, it does give you the ability to change the color of the tiny house over the years.

Lastly, wood siding is a wonderful material with the same benefits of fiber cement, but it is much more expensive. Wood siding can be finished with oils or varnish, letting you keep the look of wood that you can't have with fiber cement. Different woods can be troublesome to maintain painted. Some oily woods will be harder to make paint stick, and these woods will be condemned to paint peeling off the house.

If you decide to use wood siding, be sure that you select the correct species of wood for the finish that you want to achieve on your house.

Connecting the Sheer and Shelf Clamps

On our little dinghy, we are tying the frames together with stringers. The sheer and shelf clamp are being riveted to the frames. Copper rivets offer a lot of resistance to corrosion, offer the same benefits of through bolting, and are less bulky. 

The head of the nail lays flush with the planking on the outside while the head of the rivet is pounded smooth with the inside of the hull. There are no hex heads or nuts to get hooked up on, instead only smooth rivet ends. 

A pilot hole is drilled through the sheer, frame head, and shelf clamp. The strakes need to be in their perfect final location as there will be no moving once the hole is drilled. 

The copper nail is tapped through the wood members until it projects out the other side. This nail will be used to create the final rivet that will connect these stringers. 

The rove was driven over the copper nail using a modified clamp. As pressure is applied to the clamp, the rove is driven all the way down until the strakes compress over the frame head.  

The copper nail is then cut short and the end of the nail is mushroomed. 

At this point, the clamp can be removed as there is no risk that the rove will slide off the nail. With the clamp off and out of the way, the end of the head can be mushroomed to tighten up and finish off the rivet. I like to secure another regular C-Clamp next to the rove and over the head of the nail. This will keep the nail from backing out while I shape the head and will tighten the boards together and produce a very strong connection between the frames and the stringers.

Life Aboard vs. Life Ashore

People often ask us how safe it is to live aboard and to go long distance sailing. While life aboard can have its risks, life on land is not devoid of dangers either. 

We woke up on the winter morning of December 17, 2016 and found the boat covered in ice. The deck was a bit slippery, but we were able to walk on the deck by chocking our feet into the toe rail. We held onto the lifelines and grab bars as we worked our way to gangplank. 

The gangplank was completely covered in ice, and traction was non-existent. Thankfully, the rat bars offered a way to hold our feet in place and keep us from sliding down the gangplank onto the pier. While this entire journey was not the most graceful nor quick, it was also never risky to our safety.

Walking down the pier, our neighbors wooden yawl had gorgeous icicles hanging from his mizzen boom. The ice covered everything and made the boats look like a magical wonderland! I decided to go visit my parents this morning, so I made my way to the car and found life ashore to have a completely different outlook to the winter wonderland.

Cars in the city were spun around and smashed into light poles and walls, but city drivers swerve around the city streets like madmen. The fact that they may have spun out on a patch of ice was of little surprise to me. I continued to make my way towards the country, where my parents live, when I came upon a massive disaster on the highway!

In the early hours of the morning, a fuel tanker slid on ice and went over the barrier wall, exploding into a blaze of fire that engulfed the highway. Approaching traffic slammed on their brakes as they approached the inferno, but they slid on ice and began crashing into each other. By the early morning, the cars and trucks had been turned into scrambled eggs as they kept compacting into each other.

When people question how safe living aboard or cruising is, I must ask, how safe is it to live on land and commute on crowded highways traveling very fast and close together. If a driver error were to occur, the consequences could be dire! This mornings collision involved more than 50 automobiles and caused at least 2 deaths!

Sailing in the exact opposite, everything happens very slowly and you always keep plenty of space between you and the next yacht. When we are in the bay, we set the proximity alarm on our AIS receiver to 0.25 nautical miles. In the ocean, we increase the alarm range to 2 nautical miles! If someone were to come within that distance, we begin to worry as we are getting "too close for comfort". Yes, on a sailboat traveling 6 knots, 0.25 miles is too close for comfort, whereas on a highway, cars traveling over 65mph are only a few feet apart!

When landlubbers seem concerned about the safety of sailing, I wonder what they think about the safety of driving.

Siding is Magical!

As you build, the tiny house will take on various appearances. When the wall frames are raised, the tiny house looks amazing. It just transformed from a flat trailer to a stick figure outline of the house!

Then the sheathing goes on and the house looks smaller all of a sudden. You can no longer see into the house and all of the internal components. Now it just looks like a small box on wheels.

Then the roof goes on and the windows are cut out, and it begins to look like a tiny wooden house on a set of wheels. At this point, the neighbors of the property you are building on will come over to see what you are making and tell you how awesome it looks! It seems that everyone has seen a tiny house show and they have enjoyed watching you build so far.

Then the wrapping goes on the house, and everything changes. Your cute wooden tiny house now looks like a black smudge in the yard. Neighbors will no longer ask to see the progress, but instead ask where the tiny house will be stored after it is completed. 

The black tar paper will begin to fade in the sun and make the whole tiny house look like crap. I got married after this step and was not around for almost a month and the tar paper faded while the tarp on the roof began to tear. 

Once I returned to construction, I cut the tar paper over the window holes and set the windows into the frames. At this point, the neighbors approval of the project returned slightly, but they were still not thrilled. Then the magic of siding was realized.

All of a sudden, the tiny house looks magical once more! It only took a few hours of work to transform the tiny house from a fading collection of tar paper to a gorgeous tiny house. 

The siding I am putting on is coated in primer, which gives it the gray appearance. Even though this is not a very pleasing color, I received many positive comments on the choice of color for the siding because it was such a great improvement over the aging tar paper.