Thanks to our member Panicos based in Limassol for these ‘before and after’ pictures of his Iroquois MK2, Kalypso.
Also, please take a look at his Youtube videos of Kalypso.
post2iroquois
Nov 202011
Thanks to Andrew in Florida (boat and username ‘Misty’) for this Post.
Misty, an Iroquois Chieftain.
Only her main sail is taller and larger than original main. The jibs are all the same as original Iroquois. Ive changed from centerboards to daggerboards for ease of building a replacement, they’re also much lighter.
I have found when running aground the centerboards would not swing up do to side loading from the sails and if they break. It’s a whole lot easer to drop a daggerboard in than a centerboard.
Misty and Cat Tracks (an Apache).
Here’s the funny thing:
Misty belongs to Lynda an Andrew.
Cat Tracks belongs to Linda an Andy!
Good morning from Cote Azur !
Some great photos from Alain of ‘Idylle’ Iroquois Mk2 on the French Mediterranean.
Alain lists his port as Golfe Juan, a small French locality near Cannes.
Oct 282011
Here is a photo of MARTES, Sailcraft number 274, owned by Jim Barden and Lori Klaidman.
This photo was taken at Catalina Harbor in the mud flats where an 18 inch draft keeps her one foot off the bottom! This little place tucked into the already protected cove is one of the best reasons to own an Iroquois.
Catalina Island, California is just a five hour sail from Los Angeles, but it is a million miles from the rest of the busy world.
For a link to Catalina Island, click here
Oct 282011
This Post courtesy of Jim Barden. Many again thanks Jim…
While in Catalina [three years ago] I dove MARTES to see how the new bottom was holding up from the previous work while on the hard. To my surprise there were 5 inches missing off of the starboard rudder! This must have happened while surfing swells on the way down from San Francisco to LA. Maybe that is why I felt she was not as responsive after traveling halfway down the California coast in 2007. I had her hauled in.
June, 2007 and spent six days rebuilding the rudders and reinforcing the board cases. The photos show the condition of not only the missing rudder piece, but also the “good” port rudder which was water logged, worm-filled and ready to split apart as well.
Sailcraft had designed their rudders out of solid teak wood using eight 2.5″x2″ vertical teak boards overlayed by three eights inch plywood fastened together using bronze screws, which after years in salt water looked more like bronze nails. I am sure there was an adhesive which bonded the T&G teak boards together at one time, but it was long gone by the time I took these apart. I could pull off what was left of the veneered plywood with two fingers. Once the plywood was removed it then exposed little white worms living in the cavities. Ugh! I now realized I needed to do something about this which would require some major renovations.
So I did it right and tossed what I had in the trash. I rebuilt my rudders from new, using marine grade 1/2″ plywood fastened together using zinc screws every two inches on center. Each of the four 1/2″ plywood laminates was glued together using an epoxy adhesive held tight by wood clamps overnight. I also used 12″ Stainless Steel bolts to attach the plywood rudders through the stainless steel horizontal straps, which were originally welded onto the rudder posts. Now I will have a stronger rudder! Oh, and I added four more inches in length, giving each rudder a new length of 24″, from the original 20″. I am not an engineer, but I had read a ton of material about rudders and this seemed to be the right thing to do. The result? I could not have been be happier. If these last another 31 years I will be pleased.
Separation of the original 8″ sections comprising the teak board rudders.
Plywood was like pulling splinters apart. I abandoned the idea of rebuilding these using the original teak panels. They were beautifully crafted, but did not last subjected to salt water and stress.
Not much was left of the rudders when taken apart.
The teak skegs were the same problem as the rudders, but its teak was still in good shape because it was overlaid with fiber-glass at one time. I re-fiberglassed these and set four 2″x 12″ stainless steel flat bars across the laminates for added strength.
It was amazing that these lasted as long as they did. MARTES had sat for a long time in the northern San Francisan bay and I believe this, along with a build up of marine growth had added to its deterioration. The old saying of “Use it or lose it” sure applied here.
Two 2″x12″ stainless steel straps were welded to the rudder post.
The skegs were soaked with water and had to dry out with a fan for three days. There was no horizontal attachment for the vertical 2x rudder supports, so the 2x’s were loose and could be easily moved by hand. I installed a Stainless steel 10 inch lag screw and an 8 inch SS lag screw through each skeg to hold the 2″x2″ teak boards together. Afterwards I fiber glassed the entire stern support before adding a two-part primer and three coats of bottom paint.
This shows the final ply of the four laminated 1/2″ plys with the bolt throughs in place. The outer edge along the SS rudder post was magically performed along with lots of fairy dust and a west epoxy system.
These were shaped and sanded to the contour of the past rudders. This is the first of the three layers of fiberglass overlay.
The first of many laminating resin applications. The sanding, fairing and re glassing was exhaustive.
The finished product.
The faired out and reinforced rudder posts with new gudgeon pins and bolt attachments ready to be installed.
It “almost” fit perfectly. After removal and refitting (about four times) I was able to fit the re-contoured rudders in place.
The rudders are four inches longer and boy what a difference they make in reverse as well as reduce the over-steering with the autopilot on more turbulent seas. I will know in a few years if what I re-engineered had worked and if it put too much of a strain on the rudder posts.
UPDATE: This was written for my Log/Journal and it has been three years since then actively sailing MARTES. I recommend for Mk2a owners to haul and check their original rudders for separation as I had. I welcome all comments and suggestions. Fair winds.
Jim Barden
MARTES
Iroquois 32 Mark 2a
Marina del Rey, Ca.
Hull 274
Oct 202011
(From Martin Corrick)
New rudders for an Iroquois Mark 2A – part 1
The Iroquois Mark 2A (my boat, Ambler, dates from 1971) was originally built with longer stern lockers containing two petrol engines with outdrives set into the transoms. Whether any of the boats still have this layout I don’t know, but Ambler’s engines were removed long ago (though not the twin fuel tanks, which are built into the crossbeam behind the cockpit).
Ambler is now powered with the ubiquitous Yamaha 9.9 high thrust outboard, and when I bought her she was steered by twin rudders mounted on large skegs under the hulls, placed something like a metre forward of the transoms. These rudders were abysmally ineffective, even when I had made improvements to the wheel-and-cable steering system, so I decided to replace them with transom-mounted rudders with long tillers.
Looking for ideas, I first scoured the area where I sail (the Solent, on the UK south coast) for other Iroquois, and found only one other boat with underhung rudders (Antares, now being rebuilt with great care and skill). I was surprised to see that her rudders were mounted much further aft than mine – I guess she never had the inboard engines, but had retained the longer sterns. The majority of the Iroquois I found had transom rudders, mostly the kick-up dinghy type, though one or two had the blades sliding vertically in a hinged rudder box. Most of these boats were Mark 1s with raked sterns. While these sterns look attractive, the heavily raked rudders are not very efficient – as well as turning the boat, such rudders will tend to depress the sterns, creating drag and increasing the rudder loads.
Ambler’s sterns are raked the other way – aft at the top – and I decided to fit new rudder posts which would bring the rudder hinge line vertical for maximum efficiency. The rudders would be surrounded with new ‘sugar scoop’ sterns to improve the water flow from the transom and enhance the look of the boat.
The following picture shows one of the new rudder stocks fitted temporarily in position on a new wooden rudder post which is bolted through the transom and bonded with epoxy fillets. The old rudder shaft, yet to be removed, is visible in its supporting tube inside the locker. The outer skin of the sugar scoop was moulded on a former consisting of a piece of perspex wrapped under the stern and secured with ropes around the hull. It was reinforced with epoxy fillets, and later a foam-cored reinforcement was added along the after edge.
My next post will show how the new rudder stocks and blades look when mounted on the transoms.
Jim Barden has kindly submitted a further two excellent technical articles about board case and rudder repairs. All of this work was conducted over a 4 year period. Here is the first:
From the log of Martes…
THE BOARD CASEMENT EDGES:
I did what Rod Downing suggested to do with the board cases to reinforce them at each end. Instead of a round fiberglass mat I made them rectangular. Ever try to cut and laminate wet fiberglass as a circle? It is impossible for the threads come apart when trying to resin them in place with a squeegee. So I bonded them on to an overlapping pattern which should give the more strength than what Mr. Downing had proposed.
First it took a lot of grinding to get down to the last fiberglass layer. Then building it back up using alternating fiberglass cloth. I used four layers of new cloth, sanding each one to a smooth finish, cleaning each with acetone before applying the next layer.
This, of course, was done to each side of the board cases on each hull. I took a rubber mallet to test the new re-enforced areas to try to create a stress rack, but it was solid. Only the sea and God knows if it will work when it needs to !
Jim Barden
MARTES
Iroquois 32 Mark 2a
Marina del Rey, Ca.
Hull # 274
Aug 222011
This is an excellent technical Post kindly submitted by Jim Barden. There are many photos, so please be patient if the page takes a few seconds to load.
Dear IOA Members,
I had read many stories by Iroquois owners of problems occurring from the drop board casements; how the drop boards cracked or ripped the outer hull.
Several years earlier I had heeded the suggestions of the designer who had provided a diagram how to reinforce the weaker areas of the board slots. I had performed what was suggested (photos of the work may have been lost, but I am still looking for them). In doing this work I would add; Rectangular fiberglass cloth pieces were so much easier (stronger?) than R’s original round cloth design (sorry). I doubled-up on the cloth and the amount of resin used and then faired the built-up areas to an almost unknowticable bulge at bow ends of each slot. Be that as it may, it worked well, without any noticeable difference in speed or manueveability. Knowing how much stronger the new re-enforced areas were gave me more confidence to push MARTES harder through challenging sea conditions. Note: I normally do not drop the boards more than three quarters of the way down, yet there are some conditions where a full board is necessary.
Another problem had occurred, however. My drop boards on my Iroquois were rattling more than normal before completely becoming detached from its original pivot pin. Both floated in their slots, yet I was able to lower them and was able to sail with them this way for a while, but since they were not on their pivot pin they moved could around in their case, slapping against the slot with a noise I could no longer tolerate. I knew I had a job ahead of me. I began this project with much concern not knowing what I would find and if I could indeed do the required retrofitting.
After going on the hard in the work yard, I hauled each board out of their slot using my the mast winch and halyard (both boards came out quite easily since they were already detached from their pivot pins. Good thing!).
Here is what I did:
The worn area above allowed the pivot pin to work its way out of the 3/4″ pivot hole. The problem would be a reocurring problem if all I did was to refiberglass the area before reinstallation.
I had a bronze bushing fabricated and then glassed it over. This required a 1.25″x1/4″ seat routed into the plywood as a guide for the new bushing to sit in.
It took time to get the right tight fit, only an ant would appreciate.
I ground down the surrounding fiberglass and refiberglassed the both sides with the new bushing in place.
After this came was the finish sanding, painting and finishing. But this was not the hard part…
My original pins had sheared off at the base of the mounting bracket. YOu can imagine the force it would take to shear a 3/4″ pin from a forged 3″ square mounting bracket. Over time and with the board dropped to its lowest position along with the added pressure of several beam-sea voyages, the pin gave way. So, I knew I had to consider a new type of attachment, least I would have to repeat this process again.
There is an IOA drawing provided of a re-enforced pivot pin bracket which is excellent and I highly recommend. The sides of the pin had gussets added for the strength it requires.
I had the new pivot brackets made up in the boat yard I was at. The drawing looks a lot neater than the actual piece I had fabricated in bronze, but it worked well.The welder must have got his apprenticeship at Ben’s Tow Shop, for he was certainly not neat. But, since this is buried in the lower forward cabinets no one uses or views, I did not mind. Getting the new holes to line up with the original factory bolts (embedded into the fiberglass) was not easy and took some time.
I did away with the pin’s “tapered to give lead in…” for I wanted a tight fit on the sleeve to pivot pin connection; something which would not wear both the sleeve and pin again. This caused me the most challenging and difficult installation of my life! [Two paragraphs and two photos further ahead].
It all looked so precise and easy before the actual installation.
Would I do anything differently if given the chance? Maybe I would have added the suggested taper on the pivot pin, but now that this project is complete, I am glad I took the time (and patience?) to have a tighter fit. It took two Mexicans holding the board above deck while I held a walkie talkie below deck and cramped into the incredibly tight space as I explained which direction to maneuver the pin to fit the bushing. A tapered pin would have helped align the two during installation, but as I mentioned, it would be at the sacrifice of a tight fit. The process of alignment took over two hours each and something I was elated (and exhausted from) when completed. The sealant used is a 3M product found here in the states. It says it is guaranteed in any condition for life, and if that means “my life” then it should last twenty years or so, for I do not wish to do this during again during my lifetime!
I had discussed the board pin bracket installation with several IOA members. Bernie suggested he would fabricate and mount the pin to extend to the outer hull with another bracketed end so that there would be an enclosed pin at both ends. I had considered this, but if the board were to hit a solid object and something were to have to “give”, I would rather it broke off at the board’s pivot pin, rather than tear out the outer hull. As it is, the pin is very tight with little or no clearance to the inside of the outer hull, and achieves its strength from the original factory mounting bolts. In my case previously it was not the bolts which failed, but the pin itself. Reinforcing the bracket, yet leaving the attachment using the original design was what I had considered.
I am sure there are many thoughts on how to redo the pins and brackets and this is just one of them. I would like to hear from our members about what had worked for them. I don’t envy the person who has to do this repair, but once it is done it will give you a new confidence sailing your Iroquois in any condition.
Jim Barden.
MARTES
1977 Iroquois 32 Mk2a hull #274
Marina del Rey, California, USA.
1977 Iroquois 32 Mk2a hull #274
Marina del Rey, California, USA.
Aug 072011
Many thanks to our Hawaiian member Samuel Chapin for providing information about the Pacific Voyagers Polynesian voyage from New Zealand to California (summer 2011).
Note. Wikipedia has a detailed entry about Polynesian Navigation.
Polynesian voyaging canoes are relevant to modern multihulls because the canoes are the antecedents of today’s catamarans… M.Corrick.
These pictures are of a visit to Kauai by seven Polynesian
Voyaging Canoes. They are now enroute to San Fransisco… S.Chapin.
Aug 022011
A beautiful picture and short note from an IOA Member in Ireland.
Cheetah 304 is an Iroquois Mk2a, with fixed keels, very much a cruiser rather than a racer. We bought her from Gearoid Flanagan in 2007. We are based in Mountshannon on Lough Derg, on the river Shannon, in Ireland.
Dermot Mangan
Jul 062011
(POST UPDATED 07/07/11)
This Post is on behalf of an IOA member Jon Jakobsen from Norway. Here he tells us about his boat Vouvray and the Vestfjordseilasen Regatta. Jon has also kindly submitted some great photo’s and archive material which we will add to the site…
I have just participated in a regatta 36 nm north of Bodø, its called Vestfjordseilasen, going from the mainland in Nordland, Northern part of Norway, Nordskot up to Kabelvaag in Lofoten, 90 sailoboats, amongst them in the multihull category, Dolce Vita, a Fountaine Pajot 36, “MAHE”, and mine little Iroquois MK I, Dolce Vita sailing with gennaker and mainsail, and me sailing with an old spinnaker and mainsail over the fjord..
The result in mine class with only 4 hulls! Click here
Link to Bodø Seilforening Click here
About my Cat.
June 10th, 1999, a friend of mine and I got on the plane at Bodoe airport, destination Heathrow, then some miles west by a motorway, westbond for Penarth, Cardiff.
I bought Vouvray after an inspection of the cat all over, also submerget inspecting 15 cm under the hulls with scuba gear a half hour, after this day, the 11 of June 1999, we sailed in 3 weeks up Northt to Bodø (as said former, in the Northern part of Norway), underway in Scotland, through 2 channels, the little Crinan Canal, and through Scotland on the big Caledonian channel from Fort William to Inverness.
From there 83 little hours over the little fjord from Scotland to Norway, with windy conditions shifting from near gale to windstill, blank sea, as we call it, the Northsea to Florø, and 1 week sailing up to Bodø. The route from Cardiff…Oxwich Bay, Milford Haven, Arklow, Howth Marina in Dublin, Adrishaig in Scotland through the Crinan Canal one day, Oban, Fort William, several days on the Caledonian Canal to Inversness, then the Fjord to Noway…North sea, Florø, Hitra, Brønnøysund, Sandnessjøen, Bolga, Håkjerringvika near Bodø, and then the destination, my hometown Bodø.
The highest GPS-speed I ever have reached with Vouvray, was in much more that gentle breeze from west (near gale), when we set course for Fort William from Oban, with 2 other monohulls trying to follow us, we reached 20 GPS-knots inbound to Fort William, and with nearly silence from behind, and after that stunt, those members from the 2 other sailboats following us up the Caledonian channel called us, those crasy Norwegians, ps. we gained 1,5 hours on them on that short trip from Oban to Fort William…
Vouvray has sailed about 1200 nm every year from the summer of 1999. Of course a lot of going with engine, at least nearly half of the time, its not so windy in the Northern part of Norway as You might think.
The old Yamaha Bigfoot 9.9 that came with Vouvray is gone, drinking too much oil, and I have replaced it with a Honda 20 HP, 4 blade propeller, giving 7 knots maximum engine speed, at 6 knots its drinking about 3-4 litres of fuel in the hour, at 7 knots it is drinking 6-7 litres of fuel.
I do use my Cat all the Year around, we are blessed with the Golf stream, giving us non-icing conditions the hole year, of course we have much snow in the winter, but with gps and AIS it is no problem sailing in those conditions.
This photo is taken by me at my family country cottage, 14 nm south of Bodø, the place is called Haakjerringvika, ( Haakjerring translated to english: Greenland shark, and vika means bay)
Jon has sent us some classic Iroquois material which is contained in our Archives section.
Jul 052011
Catsailor from Norway needs our help
(he sent this Post via post2iroquois@gmail.com).
I am a New member in IOA – Catsailor – a Norwegian citizen and just bought a catamaran in Norway.
I am also a owner of a Fountaine Belize 43 which go in charter in the Med.
I need a sailboat in Norway and i like this one.
It looks like something from Mc Alpine Downey, maybe somebody can help me to idenify ?
This Cat is home made of a guy who came from Netherland and live in Norway. Work on shipyards in Norway.
I have no complete history, but work is started in the eighties.
She is not finished, but i have started my work. Some interior is not done yet.
When i read on your forum, about keep the vessel light, i start worry.
My cat is about 4 Tons !!! include 2 X heavy Norwegian Sabb 10 Hp 1 sylinder diesel. Can she sail at all ?
Mast is 11 meters from top of roof.
10 meter long
4 meter wide
Is this boat close to Iroqouis or Apache or Comanche or Cherokee ??
Other pictures:
If you can help, please leave a comment.
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