Brett:
Where does the drawing come from? I haven’t seen that one before and it looks like one I might have a go at. Clearly skiffs are a more practical proposition at 24 inches rather than 6.
Russell
Russell , the plan comes from the Wooden Boat Association of NSW ISBN0 646 14012 4.
The cost of the plan is dearer than the Bug book!
I found some pictures of older 18 skiffs at this link:
http://groups.msn.com/historicalskiffs/aucklandregatte.msnw?Page=1
There are three pages of pictures.
Take care,
Brent
Russell,
If you would like to build a Bug (and who wouldn’t?) I’ve got the lines of a six and twelve inch boat as well as the lines and rig of Ozone, the 24 inch boat.
These were printed in the magazine of the Wooden Boat Builders of NSW, which Steve Crewes sent over to the UK, where they were reprinted in the Jan 2002 issue of an obscure magazine called ‘The Turning Pole’
I wish you well finding a copy.
Ian
PS snigger snigger smug smirk gloat giggle. (sorry, well just a little)
Ian
Grr!
I can’t be expected to remember things in the TP. Especialy as I probably wrote it myself. My only excuse is that I’m growing old.
Russell
Steve, Russell, Ian, Earl, anybody know the typical displacement of a 12 inch Bug?
I’m guessing they must have been around 6-8 pounds, but I’d sure like more definitive information.
Thanks…Bill H
I haven’t found any weights for the 12” Bug, but working off the drawings in TP, I get a displacement of 930gms say 2lbs, with around 70% or more in the ballast.
Scaling the Two Footer down to 12” gives 1313gms -2.9lbs, so some where around this area should be ok?
With the same sail/displacement ratio as the 2ft boat, you get 325 sq in. on the 930gm weight, that seemed a lot until I saw the One Foot Bug sail plan with 1516 sq ins.
I used to carry that area on a 36R in around 4kts of wind - this is so wild, I have to build one and sail in zero kts .
The 2 footer plans that I have are for a boat displacing 10kg, or about 22 pounds. That’s why I thought the one footer might be more like 6-8 pounds. I can’t imagine a 3 pound boat carrying the sail area needed for a bug.
I could just go ahead with a 2 foot design, but the huge sail area makes transport more of an issue. So I’d prefer a “vintage footy.”
Anyone have more definitive data for a one footer?
Thanks…Bill H
BTW…let’s move this to the new thread Ian started, so we don’t take up space on the Footy forum.
Rather than give you pie in the sky stuff here , let me give you some actuals from a correspondant from Auckland in New Zealand , by the name of Glen.
He says"that he rebuilt his 6" model skiff as near as possible as he could get to the traditional style and what he ended up with was A sliding keel and a large round rudder. No Radio control. Rigging and deck fittings something like the photos in the book.
Performance :On the wind with the keel slightly astern of mast , it sailed as well as I expected from a 6 inch yacht.
Down wind with Main and spinnaker both same side, sails fairly straight.
Weight of keel: All up weight is 645 grms or (1lb 6oz). Weight of lead of keel 360 ( 13ozs). Free board 3/8th of an inch. off wind with keel right back stern sinks so that about 1" under water.
Plans: I don’t know if I will build another but if I did, do you know I could get a traditional 2fter plans.
Now What I think is that he built this to try out the theory and it works but a 2fter would be better.
Steve
Now in one of the posts I read of someone thinking of using foam and I thought would be a great idea. You know these old shipwrights from years ago would have used it also “if it was to hand”.
Perhaps we could cut a ply frame (Longatudinally) to take the mast and bolt the plate for the keel to it and build the foam hull around it. It opens great possibilities , shipmates.
Steve
Bill
In scaling a design you have to remember that all dimensions are reduced - half the length, half the beam and half the draft.
So that’s 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 =1/8 of the original displacement .
The stability falls even faster so smaller boats tend to be heaver than a ’pure scale’ version. Life is cruel for tiny boats.
I’ve gone back to my 12” lines (Bill Bollard from Wooden Boat Builders of NSW by way of The Turning Pole) and giving them a 3/8” freeboard (!), the displacement is now 1910gms or 4.2 lbs (!!!). Add 50gms if you sail in salt water.
A solid Balsa boat should be under 250gms, call that 300, gives up to 1610gms of ballast - 84% ballast ratio
Best thing to do is carve it and see.
If nothing else, it’s going to make a lot of kids happy, running round the pond crying ‘hey mister your boat’s sinking!’
Thanks iandunmore,
I’m well aware of the scaling effect, which is why I wouldn’t take 20 pounds from a 2 footer and assume a 12 incher is 2.5 pounds. The 12 incher needs to be designed on its own, not scaled down…which is why I’m trying to get good data.
I appreciate the work you did to calculate the displacement from your 12 inch design…that’s really helpful. I was just very surprised that a 3-4 pound boat could carry as much sail as I see in the Bug photos, so I was initially skeptical. I apologize.
Bill H
Just wanted to share a thought that occurred to me while I was out running this morning. Please feel free to make suggestions. This might be a simple way to sort out the kinks of a design before committing to a bug of more beauty.
Take care,
Brent
Well now it is 2010, and while I’m new to the Balmain Bug, it seems to have come and gone on this thread. Have more people built and sailed their Balmain Bugs? Have they modified or kept them according to Stephen C.'s plans? Would like info, and would like to collect data for a shot at building one or more during the winter.
Cheers, DickB
I don’t think, from what went on before on this thread, that the Balmain Bug had it’s day here. You’ll find in this reply the following: A plea for construction help, and photos and full-sized plans for building the Balmain Bug. The plans are from the Australian National Maritime Museum. Here goes.
- Here’s a link to an Australian antique site that shows, in color photos, and older Balmain Bug. It is beautiful! I would like to build one, like this, using planking. Several questions for you all – a) would you set up a series of removable forms, insert a keel structure (wtih slot for keel) & stem/transom, then bend planks about all that? b) then would you steam tiny ribs and use tiny brass escutcheon pins to nail plank to ribs, to stem, to transom? and, c) assuming a 12" Balmain Bug, what size brass pins…and where do you get them?
http://www.huntersandcollectorsantiques.com/galleryItem.php?id=1066&back=browse&page=1&category=45
2.Here is a link to photographs of a race of Balmain Bugs, near Sydney, Australia, in 1947. Lots of great photos! These little boats sail.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anmm/se...7622661348031/
- Anyone for plans? David Payne is the Curator of the Australian National Maritime Museum and he drew these plans of the Balmain Bug.
http://anmm.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/model-racing-skiffs-make-a-comeback/
The webpage’s first photo is enough to incite all to build one. Scroll through this site and you’ll find 3 sheets of drawings for building the model. The sail rig is apparently designed to make sailing possible, not a mess. The intent seems forthright: learn to sail with the conservative rig and then build up to the improbable.
The plans are for a hull made of “lifts” of cut out wood. My interest, as stated earlier here, is to have a planked hull. I assume, and help me here!, that the hull needs to be air tight, that the mast will fit on deck and be tensioned by back and fore stays. The keel will need a through hull trunk that will be a slot running pretty much from the mast aft toward the rudder.
OK! Please offer me some kind assistance. And build a Balmain Bug!
http://www.huntersandcollectorsantiques.com/galleryItem.php?id=1066&back=browse&page=1&category=45
Thanks for the new material, Dick. I think Brent and I were the ones most interested, and we were primarily toying with the idea of radio control.
I suggest you contact Steve for copies of his books on the bugs, and study the pictures on his website. The construction of a planked bug is illustrated there. There are a number of other sources for more info on building and rigging model yachts that you would probably find helpful, though they won’t be specifically about Bugs. This forum is a good start, and Google is a great tool! Take a look at the US Vintage Model Yacht Group site for a wealth of material.
The formers/ribs/shadows used in building are typically sawn out of something like 1/4" ply. In a boat of this kind they would probably be left in place inside the hull.
To hold a mast vertical with just fore and aft stays, it would typically be stepped into a tube. Stepping a mast directly onto the deck requires the addition of side stays.
I believe the keel usually clamped on to a track fastened to the bottom of the boat, rather than passing through a slot.
Hope that gets you started…Bill
What’s the track-keel detail, Bill? Tube from deck to keel sounds good
– Cheers, DickB