Caledonia Yawl Rebuild and Refurbish

I took the new Caledonia Yawl out for its first sail, after doing the minimum necessary work to get her sailing. This is a boat I bought used locally and have had for nearly a year, waiting on other projects to get done.

It is so big compared to my last sailing dinghy that I was not exactly sure what to expect. I have owned a number of larger keelboats, but this is decidedly a big dinghy at nearly 20 feet long, with no ballast, a centerboard, and only weighting around 350 lbs.

I like it. It looks kind of huge on the trailer, but like all boats it shrinks at the dock. Moving around inside it is much more stable than the more slender sail/oar ilk, yet not so big I can’t easily launch and sail it alone. It takes all of ten minutes to rig and launch at the marina.

The rig is my favorite unstayed balanced lug, but now I have the great benefit of a mizzen (the stern mast/sail). The mizzen is mostly an air rudder, and produces little lift. It helps balance the helm, and will keep the boat into the wind when raising or reefing, anchoring, or when I need a break. This is a wonderful feature for someone who sails solo.

For anyone who knows me, the purchase of this boat was probably surprising. For many years I have been in the sail/oar camp. And if that, I strongly prefer a small sail/oar boat, to make the rowing more effective. The Caledonia Yawl is definitely not a sail/oar boat for me. It’s long, with lots of freeboard, and the widest beam of any of Iain Oughtred’s double ended beach boats. Nope, this is firmly a sail oriented craft, with outboard motor auxiliary. Sure, if there is no wind, I can row it out of the marina, but I would not get far in any wind and waves.

So why the switch of boat types? I learned a lot with my Skerry cruiser experiments and travels over a few years. I confirmed that if I want to be able to row some miles, the boat needs to be slender and lightweight, without much windage. And that combination makes for a sailboat that is very tender and physically active. And the camping at anchor accommodations are very tight. And yet, the entire thing is still pretty big and heavy to manage on a beach, with all our local tide changes. I decided that for a boat I will sleep on, I would rather anchor it out most of the time, and use my little portage pram for a shore boat. I also found my small sail/oar boat a bit too small for crossing a larger strait.

I decided to split the boat into two. One that was better at rowing, car toppable and was easier to move on shore, although requiring on shore tent camping. And a sailboat, that was large enough to take friends, and to cross a strait in some comfort, with a little motor to insure I get there. This combination is not perfect, but will be fun to play with.

I was not shopping specifically for a Caledonia Yawl. One just came up locally, at a very good price, and I figured it would do.

I enjoyed the boat on the water. It has lots going for it. Great sails and good sailing, nice stability, big enough to take a handful of people out in, great looking, an an excellent trailer. It’s a keeper.

But it had enough issues, that make me a bit nervous about using it, that I decided to just immediately fix the boat up like I want, so that I am very comfortable using it and taking other people out. And that derails my plans, because I am once again be putting off the work on my Lavro motor boat, at least for a couple of months.

There is a long list of improvements I am going to make. And I have already started. The boat is off the trailer in my shop, currently sitting on some wood blocks almost on the ground, to make it easier to get inside to do most of the work.

For & Aft Decks & Buoyancy Chambers

It is a giant tub of a fully open boat. I am installing the optional decks on each end, that are fully sealed for positive buoyancy. The mast boxes will have drain tubes into the cockpit.

If capsized, as currently configured, with its open centerboard top, these boats are unrecoverable without assistance from another boat, and probably towing it to shore. I always assume a capsize will happen in these cold waters, and know many stories of friends and family who have nearly died in capsizes. Unassisted capsize recovery is essential. Two Caledonia Yawls in California capsized nearly simultaneously just a few weeks ago, and each had a number of people aboard. The one that was fully open inside could not be recovered without a bunch of assistance and trouble. The boat that had buoyancy decks was able to recover.

In the process of planing these decks, I came to realize that Iain Oughtred, in the newer 7 plank design of the Caledonia Yawl, slightly changed the mast position and reduced the mast rake on both masts. It makes sense. I felt like the boat had too much mast rake. I will copy the newer mast positioning. I am also eliminating the second main mast position that is further astern, and designed to be used if the mizzen sail is not used. No one I know who has one of these boats ever uses it.

Outboard Motor Well

The boat had an outboard motor bracket on the back quarter. It was stupid. The motor sucked air when the boat rolled or someone moved forward. And even in calm conditions it took water over the head. So an internal motor well will be built. The brand new 2.5hp Suzuki I bought for it only weights 30 lbs, and drives the boat smartly along at just 1/4 throttle. It is fairly quiet and has little vibration. This newest version has larger internal coolant lines, reducing clogging issues. Great motor.

One of the downsides to having a motor well is that when sailing I will need to pull the motor out, and strap it down on the stern deck. Not a big deal with how lightweight this motor is. The upside is that when in use the motor is right at hand for easy control, next to the tiller, instead of hanging awkwardly, ugly, and hard to reach off the back of a transom. Transom hung motors also tend to ventilate in waves, and this one never will. We will see how the exhaust and noise are.

New Top Spar From Sitka Spruce & Refinish Spars

The rig is heavy to haul up. Its top spar is solid Douglas Fir. I think I can make one much lighter weight in Sitka Spruce. I just acquired a pile of nice spruce, reclaimed from a old 70′ long mast.

I am also refinishing all the spars and will paint them.

Carbon Fiber Stern Mast

I have a carbon fiber windsurfer mast, that is exactly the same length as the mizzen mast on this boat. Normally windsurfer masts are not good for masts on other boats. They flex too much. But when supported on their ends both of these masts have nearly identical bend characteristics. The current mizzen mast is made of solid Douglas Fir wood, is heavy, and a bit crude. The carbon mast weights about a third of the wood one. With the mizzen sail being so small, and it mostly being used as an air rudder, I see no problem using the carbon mast, painted up to look like the rest of the spars. I will glue the two carbon mast section together, and add waterproof plugs to the ends, so that it floats. And all attachments will be epoxied on.

Reshape Rudder & Center Board

The leading and trailing edges of the rudder are much too blunt. It needs a bit of reshaping into a better foil. When I pull the center board out I expect to find the same.

New Standard Tiller

It also needs a new tiller. I am fine with push pull tillers, which are standard on these boats. But for this craft I decided I want a standard tiller. So I will laminate one up that passes around the mizzen mast on one side, and it will have a tiller extender stick available on top.

Lead Ballast

I have about 200 pounds of lead bricks I am going to attach under the floorboards to slow the boats roll.

Storage Boxes & Tie Points

I am going to borrow the side storage bins idea that I installed on my modified Skerry. I really liked that for containing and strapping down anchors, dry bags and other items. There will be four bins, two on each side, just before the forward deck bulkhead.

I am also going to install tie points all along the hull under the benches for tying in dry bags, oars, and other gear.

Also, the inner gunnel on this boat is solid. I am gong to router in some slots midship. I find a gunnel that has spacers so handy for tying different things to. On my recent rowing trip, I counted that I had 10 different things tied to the gunnel.

New Floorboards

I will probably make all new floorboards. They need to be split into two removable sections, because of the new bulkheads that will be at each end. And they need to cover more width inside, in part to facilitate sleeping on. The boat has a hinged center thwart for making sleeping on the floor easier.

Repaint Everything

The boat will get fresh paint inside and out. All brightwork will be converted to paint.

Camping Tent

This will happen after the boat is launched, but I am keeping in mind the need for a tent, hung between the masts, for camping aboard. My decks will have short coamings, with drains outboard, which will make it so the tent does not need to cover the entire boat.

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Updates On This Project
Note, I am just going to keep updating this post as this project moves along, so return here for progress.

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