
DAY 10
APPLE PIE DINGHY TENDER.
I build a tender for my Tanzer 22.
DAY 10 of building the Apple Pie Dinghy tender for my Tanzer 22.

Rain rain go away...

Tried sanding but the sand paper gummed up right away. It's too wet and the paint is not dry enough.

Making the Mast
I had a spruce 2x6 that had a good central section. I cut around the knots and got an almost knot free area. Cut the corners off to make an octagon and smoothed out the edges. I have no intention of making a perfectly round mast. It will stay roughly octagonal. The little block plane helped curve the edges. I then sanded.

I'm using dowels for spars. There were nice straight and quite cheap dowels in Rona's. I got 2, 6 foot lengths. Made holes at both ends of the dowels, and the at the top of the mast, rounded the ends and sanded. The mast is 7 feet and just fits in the hull.


I wrapped the bottom with a layer of fiberglass to cover a knot, plus just for good measure I wrapped a bit of fiberglass cloth around the top at the hole. Both spot were wrapped in plastic film, to give a nicer surface. Saves on sanding.

Winston supurrvises the cutting of rudder pieces. These get cut, sanded and tested for fit. It will be swing up rudder. I think that is overkill but I'm interested in doing it. The transom is not vertical so it makes it more complicated.

The rudder is in the down position. I have removed the top part to show the innards of the rudder.

Here the rudder has been pivoted up. The left of the image is actually the top of the rudder assembly.

pivot holes in the 2 rudder cheaks and rudder blade are carefully marked and drilled.

The rudder blade gets shaped. The leading edge gets a round provile while the trailing edge is longer. Meranti plywood is much harder than the Okume I used for the Skerry.

Detail of where cord will be strung inside the rudder and through these holes to pull the rudder down or up. There is a second hole from the edge of the blade to the larger hole. I will thread the thin strong cord through the edge hole to the larger hole in the face of the blade and make a knot. This cord will then fit in the channel made in the assembly and come out at the top where I will have a cleat. The central hole is the pivot hole and will have a bolt through it.

The rudder parts of the apple pie pram and the daggerboard all get a coat of epoxy. I sanded the top of the blade a bit thinner so it will pivot easily within the assembly.

Designing the rig and sail is not as simple as I thought it would be. It's hard to get a balanced rig and enough sail to move this boat. In the end I decided on a balance lug. The polytarp sail will have an area of about 27-30 sq feet!! It's tricky to get enough sail on a 7 foot mast. The usable length is reduced because the sail can only starts above the gunwales. I also had a design for a sprit with a small jib. The trick is getting the rig balanced. The distance between the mast and the centre of the daggerboard is only 18 inches. A gunter sail would work but it would be a smaller area.

White polytarp on sale at Rona's will become my first Apple Pie sail. Its size will be roughtly 5.5 feet x 5.5 feet.
NOTE: The sail turned out to be too small to be effective.
I have now spent a total of 73 hours building this dinghy and its sailing rig.
email: Christine
This web site reflects my personal ideas and doesn't represent anyone else's point of view. I'm not an expert boat builder and don't suggest that how I'm doing this is the best way, use your head.