Hello everyone,
I've just subscribed to the association,and become the proud new owner of a twister. I'm very pleased with it. Its the composite version and I have lots to do. Purchased on 15th Jan this year after being layed up for over two years. So far I have..
Replaced the Cockpit sole,and glassed the new one in (no hatches)
Renewed the self draining gear throughout, including a new marelon seacock and through hull in place of the seized and corroded gate valve
Serviced all the siezed blakes valves and replaced the blakes heads outlet (like for like,those suckers are expensive).
Repacked the sterngland.
Next on the growing list are the classic coachroof leak repair I think, and servicing the seized mast winches. Then reconstitute the gas system.
Plenty of other jobs that I'll leave until next winter. Having been layed up for so long,I think it's important to get her bottom wet again ASAP, lest she forgets her place and purpose. I'm enjoying the technical forum! My coachroof leak solution may be a little different, I'll document it and post it as I go.
Fair winds and following seas,
Justin
Hi Stephen,
I've seen your YouTube videos with Helix, great to watch. YouTube is my preferred medium so I will be posting links when I have time to edit my material. Roquetta was purchased from a fellow in Mylor, where she was successfully raced, before coming into the hands of the person I bought her from. I have a huge folder of paperwork with various letters and magazine features that span her entire life. I'm afraid I haven't had time to go through it all yet. From what I can gather she's a pretty standard boat, re powered with a yanmar 1gm10 10 or more years ago, lovely little engine. Its clear that a great deal of money has been spent on her upkeep over the years, this has included harken winches and a new main sail, but sadly, the two year lay up has been hard on her. She looks a mess and the neglected maintenance problems have just multiplied.
My plan is to get her seaworthy so that I can enjoy this summer on the water before doing a more comprehensive refit next winter. In a yard closer to home ideally. She's currently at St winnow boat yard in cornwall and will be moored on the Tamar. I plan to launch before May if I can get her in sailing order. I bought her as a solid, seaworthy cruiser for me,my wife and our 4 year old. They've never sailed before. I don't intend to race her. The list for next year includes resheathing the coachroof and having a new mast step made. Pictures to follow at some point when I've got cleaner hands!
Justin
Hi Justin,
Actually the youtube films were with a former owner Malcome Collins and his trip to the Azores in 2009. Helix was then sold and eventually ended up with no windows and in a very poor state at a boat salvage yard partly dismantled. They had removed the fuel tanks and ripped the winches off and were just about to crush her.I went to see if I could purchase the engine for another Twister and ended up buying her.
I hope you enjoy your journey.
Stephen
Hello Justin,
Welcome to the forum!
Mariner had a leaky coachroof when we bought her coming from the deck joint. Is this where yours is leaking?
We ended up removing the interior glass tape and the exterior gunk, breaking the joint all the way around then replacing it. We had a local shipwright add a really chunky quarter round of mahogany to the exterior which was glued and screwed from above and below. It did the trick and she hasn't leaked since. We also added a deckbeam forward of the forehatch that added strength to the deck as we found that the excess movement wasn't helping the deck joint either. If you want any advice or pictures then please let me know.
Good luck!
Katie
Hi Katie,
Apologies for hijacking the post but please could you provide these pictures? I have a similar concern with Wild Girl, in particular regarding the joint on the foredeck. She has been undercover for some time now so I'm not sure I actually have or have had any water ingress (as far as one can tell without removing interior joinery/trim etc.), but the joint between deck and coach roof appears to have opened slightly across the foredeck and along the corner pieces joints with side and front elevations of the coach roof.
Basically any pictures/diagrams you have of the joint construction would be invaluable to me, I always find it very useful to have an understanding of an assembly design when it comes to future fault finding or predicting potential issues.
Many thanks
Ian
Hi Ian,
Your post reminded me of some information I was given a couple of years ago. If you click the Twister Tab, then click Twister class technical archive, then click Hull, you will find a really good write up on the deck joint by Lawrence Weldon. it has good pictures and he was very helping giving me advice. Hope this helps.
Stephen
Hello again,
Sorry for not getting back to some of the comments, I've been totally swamped with boat fixing and moving house.
KATIE -my leak was over the chart table, and to a lesser extent in other areas. I have fixed it. i chiselled out the existing 1/2 inch round beading, then glassed the joint with a fillet of epoxy with glass cuttings in it followed by three inch wide woven roving tape.then I had some iroko coving made up, 32mm by 12mm with a radius on opposite corners. i sikaflexed that in with bronze 10 x 1 inch screws. Looks lovely now and no leaks anywhere along the join.
However, whilst I was at it I also replaced the butt blocks that join the coachroof sides to the Cockpit coaming. I found alot of rot in there and I have concluded that the source of the problem was more to do with water tracking through from the Cockpit seats to the cabin via that horrible joint. I deliberately left the boat uncovered during 'the beast from the east' to test for leaks. No leaks yet. Well see after sea trials! I need to reseal the cabin windows for my continued peace of mind. I feel like I've pretty much done all I'm prepared to do this year, I launch on the 18th of next month. I can't wait, such a pretty boat
🙂
Justin
I saw the mast step you made in your YouTube video. An impressive piece of work.
I have replaced the two aft corner posts; the forward ones were OK. It must have been about 20 years ago. I cut them out of a solid chunk of mahogany (which I probably bought from Robbins Timber), then screwed and epoxied them in place. The adjoining coachroof sides (mahogany) and main bulkead (plywood) were rotten so I cut back to sound timber and fitted new pieces in place. I did the job in high summer and quickly learned the advantages of using "tropical hardener" with the epoxy.
I made the corner posts in two pieces; it would have been impossible to fit them onto place otherwise. I bought a length of square section mahogany and sawed it lengthwise diagonally to produce two triangular cross-section pieces. Then the bevels were planed so that the pieces fitted snugly into the angle between the coacroof sides and the bulkhead where they were secured with screws and epoxy. All that was left then was to fit the outside pieces which hide the edges of the coachroof sides and the bulkhead . These were also epoxied and screwed.
By the way, somewhere in the archives is an interesting photograph of the Twister "production line" at Uphams showing coachroofs being built on a bench before being fitted to the hulls.j
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Anne Kidd and Mark Shallow
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