New Firefly Website is open.

Please use this area for off topic conversations and banter
Michael Brigg
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Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:11 pm
Location: Gosport, UK

New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Michael Brigg »

The new site is up and running and should hopefully be free of all is past troubles with dodgy viagra and worse which had taken over the forum membership.

Without the spammers it's membership will now be real sailors again. They had to stop it being possible for new members to post because of problems of lewd pictures, so it has for a while been a site rather lacking in activity.

It needs new input and enthusiasm to get it going again. Old members need to re-register.

http://www.fireflysailing.org.uk

For those of us who have fireflies there is a rather good boat register section which allows members to post a brief potted history (+ perhaps a favourite picture) of their boat. Might this be something that can be developed on this site?
Michael Brigg
Rupert
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Location: Cotswold Water Park

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Rupert »

Saskia is now on there, with the old picture from the original Roadford regatta of Fireflies on the sail past! Well, I look 10 years younger that way!
Rupert
Garry R

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Garry R »

It's not allowing me to register for some reason - I complete all the forms and then I get chcked back to the registration form again.
Pat
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Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 1:42 pm
Location: West Wiltshire (Wessex)

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Pat »

The cvrda boat log is under development - the database is done, with most of the boats that have ever entered a cvrda event, but I need to make the pretty front end pages.
(Half Cut and What a Lark Removals Ltd)
Garry R

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Garry R »

Seems to have sorted itself and Vivette 937 is up there. Rupert can you confirm the details about Mk 3 conversion for me when you have read them.?
Rupert
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Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:40 pm
Location: Cotswold Water Park

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Rupert »

She was already a MK3 when AT bought her - all I did was tart her up a bit and make her more useable.
Rupert
ACB
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Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:45 am
Location: Woodbridge, Suffolk

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by ACB »

I cannot get the website to work. Same problem as Garry R.

F 3163 "Aquarius",
IC K229 nameless for the time being
I14 K377 "Mercury" - long term rebuild project
ACB
Posts: 223
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:45 am
Location: Woodbridge, Suffolk

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by ACB »

Could someone straighten me out on Firefly Marks?

I thought:

Mark One : Fairey Marine, with side decks, low camber to foredeck and breakwater (steel centreplate?)

Mark Two : Fairey Marine. with wide gunwales, high camber to foredeck and no breakwater (alloy plate?)

Mark Three : Fairey Marine. with wide gunwales, high camber to foredeck and no breakwater, no built in bouyancy tanks.

(Rondar boats not in this list?)

Mark Four : new layout, all tanks, no bags

Is this right?

F 3163 "Aquarius",
IC K229 nameless for the time being
I14 K377 "Mercury" - long term rebuild project
Michael Brigg
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Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:11 pm
Location: Gosport, UK

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Michael Brigg »

...Or quite a few combinations. There is also a Mark 1a and a 3a as well, as I understand it with some modifications in the camber of the foredeck which make it easier to build as an amatuer and make for a bit more room at the front of the boat.

This is perhaps just the kind of question to launch onto their technical area to get the measurers teeth into.

Guy Davison boat has a non standard mark3 layout, and Mark Tait's Dido is also slightly modified, so they might be persuaded to enter a discussion.

The login for the site seems to need a new password, as well as perhaps words and figures, or maybe no spacing on the registered username. I tried all the combinations until I got in, but can't remember what did it for me. Happy hunting!
Michael Brigg
Rupert
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Location: Cotswold Water Park

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Rupert »

The Marks only refer to deck layout, not to masts, centreboards, rudders, bouyancy or anything else you might find in this "strict one design...".
The MK1 is the original, with the low camber breakwatered 9" wide decks, sweeping up to the foredeck in a curved kind of way.
The MK2 and 3 are the same shape as each other, and they can have tanks, bags, whatever. The MK2 sidedecks are solid wood vertical laminations, shaped to be comfy, (ish!) about 4" wide, The foredeck can have more camber than the MK1, but can also be built on the old deckbeams if converting. The MK3 fordeck is identical, but the sidedecks are made from plywood, not laminated. Saskia is a MK3 with the low camber foredeck.

The MK1A is built on the mK1 deckbeams, but stays at 9" wide right up to the foredeck, which it meets ar an angle, rather than sweeping in to the centreline. It was designed to give the crew more space but not ship water in roll tacks or in waves like the 2&3 do.

Rondar's layout appears not to have a Mark appendaged to it.

The MK4 is based on the Rondar shape, but without the back tank.

MK's 1,2,3 and 1A can have a bowtank (full or 3/4 height) if wanted, and a stern tank too. Side tanks tend to be in the MK2 & 3 converted boats but not in the ones built as MK2. None of that changes the Mark.

And, finally, fairey's made a GRP boat in the late 60's which doesn't comply with much of the above at all, but as they weighed as much as a small house, doesn't really matter that much!

Hope that helps!
Rupert
Rupert
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Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Rupert »

Oh, when I registered it sent me back to the registration page, but it had registered me already, so it may do it to everyone. Have you tried logging on?
Rupert
Michael Brigg
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Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:11 pm
Location: Gosport, UK

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Michael Brigg »

I was the OUYC bosun in 1977 in charge of maintaining thier fleet of fibreglass fireflies on the Thames at Port Meadow (where Ed used to do his imitations of Mr Toad in a skiff when he were' lad)

I can confirm they were as heavy as houses, but they outlasted the Alpha's of which there was little more surviving than their little black rubber noses.

I thought Vic Lewis (From Birmingham) was the builder for a while in the 70's and 80's and also made a few fiberglass prototypes along the lines of a mark2/3. There were big problems with stiffness and weight distribution.
Michael Brigg
Michael Brigg
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Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:11 pm
Location: Gosport, UK

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Michael Brigg »

but it had registered me already, so it may do it to everyone.
Yup, it did that to me too. Then I saw "Hello michael" in the top Left hand corner and realised I was "in."
Michael Brigg
Rupert
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Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:40 pm
Location: Cotswold Water Park

Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Rupert »

Vic Lewis built GRP boats with MK2/3 shape didedecks. The history of the GRP Firefly is a confused one, and not too happy a tale, considering the curved hull should have made construction pretty straight forward. The problems arose because up until the Rondar boats, they had to fit in with the wooden boat rules, wich meant either lots of mouldings or wooden bits bonded in, which then fell off...
I think this string now has more posts than the Firefly site forum in total...maybe we should try and use that site for conversations too. Maybe some non cvrda sailors would join in too...Or maybe they have lives!
Last edited by Rupert on Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Rupert
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Ed
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Re: New Firefly Website is open.

Post by Ed »

Beautifully put Rupert.

But why stop there? :twisted:

You could go on to explain the 3 different legal masts....the two rudders....the two (or more) centreplates?

Now there is a point.....My understanding (though it is only what I have been told) is that for the Jollyboat/Swordfish/Albacore, you could specify a 'bloody heavy' plate at around 65lbs and a 'very bloody heavy' plate at 85lbs. Both Galvanised. For what it is worth, the Jollyboat my family had as a kid had a bronze plate, which was god knows how heavy, but I have always presumed that could be a non-fairey part.

Anyway.....Was there ever a choice in plate weight for the galvinised plate?

Must admit....and don't quote me on the Firefly site!! But I have always found the Firefly class a good example of a good set of class rules that is well supported by the association. A one-design will a million variations. Only about half of the boats would actually measure if they were really strict about it and yet the character of all the boats is so somehow.....equal.

love em to bits.

photos of mine will go up on the Firefly website shortly.

I wonder if we should all put 'CVRDA' in the Home Club field along with our club?

Might show how many there are....and even interest a few more freddies turning up

cheers

eib
Ed Bremner
CVRDA


Jollyboat J3
Firefly F2942
IC GBR314 ex S51 - 1970 Slurp
MR 638 - Please come and take it away
Phelps Scull
Bathurst Whiff - looking for someone to love it
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