Al Richardson's Page

Hi Al,

Here is an explanation from a previous email:

With the study plans in front of me, I decided to draw a more sleeker looking deck line and the obvious solution to the beams was to drop them into troughs. All beams are bolted through the outer end and lashed to the hull on the inner. This still allows for plenty of movement. The bolts were made up from 12mm stainless threaded rod and lasted nearly 20 years. I changed them last year for new ones just to be on the safe side to cross the Atlantic.

Aft beam just bolts onto the aft face of the cabin top which is 3 laminations of 6mm ply where bolted. Mast and fwd beams - I made troughs with an 18mm ply base and 2nd part bulkhead to create a parallel trough face to the bulkhead. Each trough side is 2 layers of 6mm ply and a 3rd layer where the bolt stress comes.

I will have to get some of the old build photos reprinted and post them here sometime!

The fwd beam is at same level as Wharram plans - ie. on the hull shearline and the raised deck line just comes up nealry flush with the beam to 'hide' it in within the deck lines. Mast and aft beam are 6" or more above the normal wharram placing on the shearline. This gives the advantage of making the net higher from the water.

Only problem I had with my beam arrangement is the aft beam was pulled backwards by the persistent pull of the mainsheet when going to windward so long in the Jester Challenge. My solution long term will be to have another lashing pad on the cabin side fwd of the beam to add an extra lashing to keep the beam fwd snug against the cabin top.

Don't get me wrong - I am a big fan of the lashing system especially as you can get them really tight, I used bolts just so as to keep beams inside of the outer cabin top.

Cheers, Rory

g,day Al,why may i ask are you going to raise the decks?

cheers paul.