Vintage Merlin Diabolo

nprice · Post by **nprice** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:08 pm

Thanks Garry. I've spoken to Mike who was a member of Ranelagh in the distant past. I believe he started his sailmaking on the Club floor! Have to see how I get on with the rig now. Lined up a small spinnaker and short pole so should get there eventually.

davidh · Post by **davidh** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:25 pm

Nick,

Both Mike Mac and Dick Batt have the skills required for this so in the end it comes down to price - and who you feel most comfortable dealing with.

But........... are there any pictures of the 'work in progress'?

Do you think Diabolo will be at Netley in July? We could escoprt you over to Cowes, scene of her Championships victory!

How about.............. as well as the Sandtex scow, sorry, Unit 7 (it will get an inferiority complex at this rate) I've also got a cruiser. If some want to do a trip like that as part of the 'Netley Nationals' we could lay on a club rib - but also take the Beneteau over so that 'spectators' can come and then, mid Solent, we'll stop and act as a floating photo platform!

D

nprice · Post by **nprice** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:54 pm

There is a picture at
http://www.nickprice.org.uk/diabolo1007b.jpg
I have only sailed it once in a good wind on November 10th and managed to get into a death roll and capsize! I was paying too much attention to the kicker tension to try and get the batten to flick over and not enough to sailing, so too little kicker and mainsheet out too far and over we went. Unfortunately as we righted it the current (3+ knots) pushed us into the river wall and bent the brass nosing. Tried to fix it but was doing more harm than good so took it to Laurie Smart who fixed it while we went and had lunch. Great job!
Unfortunately we're away in the Summer from Mid June to Mid September so miss a lot of events. I've been trying to do as many Vintage Merlin events as I can outside of those dates but would love to do some CVRDA as well if it can be arranged. As Commodore at Ranelagh I have to be around for Open Meetings etc so doesn't always leave a lot of time for travel.

nprice · Post by **nprice** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 9:22 am

Got home at 11 last night with a wooden mast. (hog stepped) Itâ€™s about 18 inches longer than my deck stepped ali mast and about the same length as a wooden (deck stepped) mast that was off a tall 25â€™ rig. Itâ€™s covered in bird poop and looks a bit fragile at the top so will have to strip it and sand it down to see what it looks like. Cost me two pints of beer though so not expensive. It has diamond stays that start quite low down the mast, and run almost to the goose neck. Shrouds seem to run from the same upper location to the deck with no spreaders. There is a pulley bracket/plate on a wire strop which must be for the jib and forestay.

chris · Post by **chris** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:54 am

Well done! A good method of payment too.
If Diabalo was built in 1950 (according to the yearbook) the rig rule had changed the previous year from 25' to 22'6 by then. On the other hand the sail area which was originally 100sq ft was increased to 110.

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:20 pm

This (these?) may be useful for something:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DINGHY-MAST_W0QQi ... dZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DINGHY-MAST_W0QQi ... dZViewItem

Best Regards,

Nigel

RichardB2 · Post by **RichardB2** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:12 pm

Nick

Boat looks great.

Would there be any chance of some pics of the king post (the bit that supports the deck step) on Diablo as I was half thinking of converting 908 whilst is am in the process of my renovation. Reason being it will be esier to obtain 2nd hand deck stepped merlin masts than hog stepped. Does anyone know of any negatives with deck step conversions?

All the best

Richard (email: richard.battey@curriebrown.com)

nprice · Post by **nprice** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:51 am

Hi Richard,
I'll take some pictures this weekend and post them online.
Nick

RichardB2 · Post by **RichardB2** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:27 am

Nick,

That's great.

The mast I have is an old gold Proctor without spreaders would I need to do anything to the mast if I deck step other than cut it down to size?

Many thanks

Richard Battey

Garry R · Post by **Garry R** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 10:43 am

That's what I have on Gannet more or less but it was already a deckstepped mast. You are in a better position than I am because the mast had come from a newer boat which had a curved foredeck which meant that to get the lower black band measurement correct the mast was pretty short. When I put it on Gannet the boom was very low as she has a very flat foredeck. Initially I was having the lifejacket removed from my back on every tack (and the gybe was something else!!). I got over the probem by mounting a very thick block of teak on top of the foredeck and hence artificially increasing the height of the mast and getting the black band to sheerline measurement within bounds!! You won't have this problem but there may be issues with the halyards for jib and main depending on how you tension them. You will need to adjust the halyard length if you have a Highfield lever when you cut the mast down. That's what I had to do when I cut down the GP mast which I used initially. This can involve opening up tracks and shifting sheaves so do watch out for that. I have got spreaders too but they were already on the mast. You may (most likely will) have to change the shrouds to fit or get a set of length adjusters. Hope this helps.

RichardB2 · Post by **RichardB2** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 11:02 am

Garry,

Once again very sound advice. Thank you.

I just need to look at Diablo pictures of the king post to see how it is set up. I have many pictures (very sad) of modern merlin deck step arrangements from my Merlin Mag editor days but nothing of old/vintage boats. The intention was to fill the mast gate/slot with a mahogany infill and then epoxy two mahogany struts from the underside of the infill to the hog, similar to that Laurie Smart does on his modern merlins. Any thoughts?

Thanks

Richard

Garry R · Post by **Garry R** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:28 pm

Gannet has a single piece of mahogany running from the underneath of the foredeck to the hog. It also has a couple of "wings" on either side to hang your halyards onto when coiled - they did think of everything in the days when weight was not important. If you go to gallery on this site and then new gallery there is a series of gannet's rebuild and you will see the king post. I don't think the rig tensions should be too high on these old boats. Never measured but tend to err on the safe side. She has been out in some pretty rough stuff but the worst noise came in a flat calm when a shackle on the halyard had got out of line and suddenly sprung free into line and I lost what little rig tension I had - it certainly went off with bang!!

RichardB2 · Post by **RichardB2** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 1:14 pm

Ah I see. Very useful images.

I tend to forget the loads will be pretty low.

Thanks

Richard

nprice · Post by **nprice** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:33 pm

Richard,
Took a few pictures this afternoon.
Have a look at http://www.nickprice.org.uk/diabolo.htm
Nick

RichardB2 · Post by **RichardB2** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:52 pm

Nick,

Excellent photos, extremely useful, thank you. She's an absolute beauty as well, you must be very proud.

Best wishes

Richard