Pieter's Page

Hi Pieter,

I got an e-mail from you regarding cutting the third beam, but I can't find it on the group discussion board and can't work out how reply to the whole group.

My Tiki 31 had the third beam cut short. This was done by Paul (Tiki 31 group founder) before I bought the boat. I then added an enclosure over each of the two cockpits, leaving the central deck open. At this point I cut the beam even shorter and extended the chocks on which they rest inwards so that the beam did not protrude into the cabin at all. I'll try to make a sketch of it and perhaps I have some pictures too. This seemed a perfectly good solution to me.

Regarding the position of the mast: I never sailed her as a schooner. She came to me with a slightly enlarged mainsail (approximately 50% by area) and bigger jib. Also, she had a bowsprit that extended the tack of the jib further forward. The boat looks very front heavy in this configuration and perhaps upwind performance was slightly reduced but I had no basis for comparison and she felt easily balanced. On one of my early solo trips (before I had the wind vane working) she held her course for 6 miles with simply the tiller lashed off while I was at the bows sorting out a tangle.

I sold the boat this summer because I moved to Germany (my intended solo voyage to Australia didn't work out). But if I were to buy her back for a second attempt, I would rig her as a schooner. My main motivation would be to improve the ability to hove to in a storm. Storm tactics were the one thing really missing from my preparations. In this case I would move the current mast onto beam 3 and make a slightly taller mast for beam 1. I don't think there is any structural concern with stepping a mast on the shortened beam 3. My main aim in extending the mast would be to raise the foot above the level of the cabin tops. The main sheet blocks did a fair amount of damage to the surfboards lashed to the cabin.

The other possibility that you have also alluded to is to place the forward mast further aft, between beams 1 and 2. This would have advantages for sail and anchor handling because it would allow you to stand ahead of the mast. I would be more inclined however to address this issue with a wider gang planck under the bow sprit through which the anchor rhode could be lead. Also, the chain plates are where they are. Moving the foot of the mast aft would decrease the angle of the shrouds. You could I suppose move the shrouds to the forward chain plates for the aft mast, but they are a long way aft and that would reduce how far you can let the main out on a downwind course.

:)

Richard