Nixe
Hello from Nixe
I am sailing again. I took off the self made roller furlers. They do not work properly in strong winds, when I really need them. So I sail now with hanks on the luff of the genoa. That is a lot of work when I shunt, not really a pleasure. Here in the Phang Nga Bay, the bay behind Phuket Island there are a lot of islands, many of them steep and high, long and narrow, so the wind shifts sometimes around up to 180°. Two times I was not prepared and got caught aback when the wind suddenly shifted and increased to about 20 knots. The genoa I could take down before the gust reached me, but the main was taken from the wrong side. The stays and the aluminium sidepole are strong enough to take that but I could not bring the boat around until I started the outboard. Then slowly she moved around. As I was alone it took me too much time to take down the genoa. That means I really have to buy roller furlers. Then she will be easy to handle and safe.
I made just some rough measurements concerning the speed. Until now I can say she nearly reaches windspeed with a windangle of about 60° towing that dinghi you see in the videoclips. I have to put it somewhere to really measure because it fills with water in a short time. Every half hour I had to stop and bail it out, if not it had sunken.
I made some very short video clips and posted them at youtube. I will make longer ones but I have to make something to fix the tiller before.
http://youtu.be/fWOiF49logI
http://youtu.be/l_5c26zwzk4
http://youtu.be/Ru2oQekEx5A
http://youtu.be/oLuUMYEK-Zg
These days I so some small jobs inside and outside the boat and move from anchorage to anchorage. It is raining a lot this week, so I have time to do some work.
Alexander
Congratulations with a large dose of envy.
Cheers
Skip
As I needed a daggerboard I looked around and found Fritz Roth’s Vector Fin. It is easy to build and install, no daggerboard trunk and only one line do hold up. I did not mount it at the small hull as Fritz does, but at the end of the cockpit. So I don’t have so much power to prevent capsizing as the original but my boat is not small and not a racer and I do not get more beam.I have to correct the angles I built in but then it is perfect. You can see it in the first clip in the post above.
Thank you Fritz
Alexander
Hi Skip
There is no need for envy. You made great boats already
Cheers
Alexander
Thank you for posting the videos. It made my day to see such a beautiful boat in action.
Looking Good, Alexander! And you can’t beat that scenery!
Thanks for keeping us posted!
best,
chris
Hello
Here is a video clip from the inside of Nixe. In the next days I will make one from the outside, but it took two and a half hour to upload that short clip, so I have to do it ashore where I can plug in the charger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1YuVCl_rPk
Cheers
Alex
Hi Alexander,
very nice video. Thanks for showing us your boat!
All very well planned and thought out. Congratulations!
Cheers,
Peter
A very practical and comfortable cruising layout. A good liveaboard boat.
Hi Alexander,
thanks for posting the sailing videos.
I was really surprised to see what looked like a vector fin, under your cockpit. Surprised since I was not aware that you were planning for one. so I had to go back through your posts to check. And then I saw your comment that you have one of Fritz’s fins. Very interesting!
I’ll be very curious to hear about your experiences with it. Really looking forward to.
Cheers,
Peter
Alexander,
Beautiful boat, I am looking forward for you to pass by Singapore, or close enough in Malaysia for me to have a look!!! ;o)
Your short videos are already showing a lot for someone who is looking carefuly (read: several times with pauses).
So here are a few questions;
I notice that your tillers are on the windward edge of the cockpit. Which makes perfect sense on a utilisation of space point of view, but do you find it to be ergonomically OK when you steer? On one hand, your upper body needs to rotate towards the windward side of the boat to have a good grip on the tiller, and on the other hand, you want to look towards the leeside to see the bow of the main hull going through the waves… Or so I guess…
One can also see on the beams that you have relocated some deck hardware and winches. Can you show more details on this and explain why the relocation?
The inside of the boat is lovely and very well laid out for a couple cruising for a long time.
I am impressed that you were able to fit a 4 seat dining area; how far are the seats facing each other? From the edge of one seat to the edge of the opposite seat (knee room, basically…) and from one back rest to the other?
I knew that you had a lot of flare on the sides of the main hull, but I did not realize it was sufficient for such a set up.
How is the weather helm, when steering? Isn’t the dinghy tied to the ama adding even more weatherhelm?
We can see the whole steering mechanism, all on deck, I like that; easy maintenance and check. I do not see the autopilot when you are filming under sail with nobody on deck… What is your autopilot set up? Are both rudders always “down”? If yes, do you swing the front rudder 180° when shunting? And then let it loose, or you lock it in place?
And like everybody else, how is the hinged board working? Can you measure the gain to weather with it, compared to without it? How much angle to the wind gain?
Looking forward to more videos…
Laurent
Hi Laurent
Good questions. I try to answer them.
The steering position is comfortable as I sit in the direction the boat is moving. The tiller I have on my side with my arm or hand relaxed on it. Even in strong winds she steers without a lot of power as the rudders are preballanced.
Yes. the winches and easilock clamps I relocated. Further out on the beams they were closer to the tiller but all exept the genoa sheet had to go around 90° what took some power. It feels better now.
The distance between the seats is between 73 and 57 cm (at the door to the shower room). The seats are between 40 and 38cm wide (with cushions on).
With the genoa up she is slightly going away from the wind with the front rudder completely up, even with the dinghi on the sidehull. I will have to improve the daggerboard, a vector fin proa (you can find some words about it in an older reply), then I think it will be o.k. That dinghi I lent from a friend until I find one that fits me and Nixe. The small blue one is too narrow to use it in waves.
I don’t have an autopilot. I was just letting go the tiller, took the camera and filmed. That is why the clips are so short. It was o.k. for half a minute but then I had to go back steering. I want to try if I can get her self steering if ever possible. On my old boat I had a Simrad tiller autopilot that used a lot of power and stopped working after one year. I need something to fix the tiller and try it with lowering the second rudder a bit.
The rudders are not always down. The front one I pull up completely but will try to play with it (see above). They are preballanced so I can not have the front one all down. But when it is pulled in slightly it is blocked inside the hull and only acts as a daggerboard.
That board under the net is a vector foil. It works quite well and really reduces the drag. But I have to improve it because the angles are not correct. I will show later here. I added a picture of it when raised.
I have the genoas on hanks now. Simple and cheap. But it is too much work when shunting, so sometimes I did not shunt but to go by example just around a small island, took down the sail and motored around untill the wind was right again. Too lazy. I am looking around in the internet to order roller furlers now. I look forward shunting easily.
Until now I built a catamaran (6.50m) and two proas (6m) in Switzerland. That was quite easy and changes were quickly made, cheap and not a lot. I underestimated the problems when you go to 12m. It is no more possible to just give a part a pull or give a push with a paddle. Things are away from the cockpit and changes are more complicated and expensive. But it is interesting to develop solutions and I like that.
Cheers
Alexander
Hello everybody
I had time now to sort out the cost of Nixe and make a list of all my expenses. The numbers are in Thai Bath so you have to convert yourself to your local currency.
I made three groups: - Material bought by Mr.Him for which I had to pay 10% comission. He can get it sometimes a lot cheaper than I could (foreigners pay more).
- Material I bought or ordered myself
- Wages for Mr.Him and the other workers. 15% I pay for taxes, insurance and social e expenses of the workers
Material
—————-
Plywood 91’162
Wood 40184
Epoxy, fiber, thinner, filler 151’376
Paint, thinner, rollers, brushes, sandpaper 60’841
Steel, outside steelwork, screws, bolts 117’603
Other (Tent, hoses, ropes etc.) 64’515
Tools 19’234
+ 10% 54’491
—————
599’406 Bath
Material bought or ordered by me
————————————————————————
Sails 124’434
Blocks, clamps, fairleads 71’251
Lights, wires, switches, valves, pipes, hoses 23’904
Hatches, hinges, locks, etc 132’098
—————-
351’687
Engine
—————
Secondhand Tohatsu 9.8hp 20’000
Wages
—————
Total August 2012 - March 2013 725’790
+15% 108’868
—————-
834’658
Total expenses until march 2013 1’805’751 Thai Bath
——————————————
- For the Thai boat papers I spent about 20’000 Bath
- In July 2013 I decided to replace the roller systems Mr.Him made me by two Plastimo roller furlers. The cost for them was including customs and sailmakers work about 55’000 Bath. If I had decided for that in the beginning, I could have saved some money.
- Dinghi and second hand outboard were 17’000 Bath.
Sure I have forgotten to include some small things I bought here and then or have lost some small bills.
The cost of the completed boat is higher than I thought, but I think that is normal. On the way I thougt this or that would be nice to have and nice to build in. The interior could be built a lot simpler (look at Wharram Flexi Space Interior), but I am getting older and like a little bit of comfort in a narrow boat. And I don’t know if I am building another boat again in this life.
I made a few measurements (just a few, I was lazy) and could only use handheld windspeedmeter and gps, as the system I bought secondhand did not work and after repair also did not work.
Windspeed Speed Angle to the wind
knotws knots
3,4 3,0 45
11,5 7,5 45
4,5 5,0 90
5,0 5,3 90
I have only a block on deck for the genoa sheet. So with the sail tight in its upper third is not correct, flapping a bit. Next time I go to Thailand I will change to a genoa track and sliders. That will bring a bit more speed. The mainsail is o.k.
She will never reach speeds as Cheers has because the big beams and the cockpit have a lot of windage. That is not so important for me, I wanted a boat that is sailing at reasonable speed in light winds. In that point I am satisfied. The windage I feel strong when pushing the boat against the wind with the 9.8hp Tohatsu outboard. In a 20 knot wind she is standing, above that moving backwards. So I think about the longtail motors with bigger and slower turning propellers fishermen have here on the smaller boats. Also I could use diesel fuel then.
I take two month holidays from mid of mai to july next year. Then I want to sail the boat to Indonesia and leave her in Lombok for the next years. I have seen Thailand for some years and would like to explore Indonesia.
(Laurent, when I pass Singapore I give you a call)
Alex
I am sorry, before I made the preview, the lines and tables were nice and moved when I clicked on the preview button. I don’t know how to correct it.
Andrew from California came in March 2013 to Phuket to look at my boat. He likes it and will come in February 2014 again and is renting a space and a house near the Chalong beach to build a sistership to Nixe. He will build a different interior and also he is thinking about building a A-frame mast.
I am looking forward to see it when I go there in May.
Alex
Andrew from California came in March 2013 to Phuket to look at my boat. He likes it and will come in February 2014 again and is renting a space and a house near the Chalong beach to build a sistership to Nixe. He will build a different interior and also he is thinking about building a A-frame mast.
I am looking forward to see it when I go there in May.Alex
Hello Alex! I am andrews friend, Gus. Greetings from Los Angeles.