Ep29 Building a Wharram Tiki 21 4K

The tiller, wasted work, wasted wood. Time to switch to alternate plan B for tiller construction. Better that this happened during construction rather than when under duress under way. Part of boat building, the wood grain doesn't always run perfectly.

[@dominictarrsailing]

I gotta say, your videos are so detailed they are really helpful as a reference, even if I'm not buliding a tiki 21!

[@RexandKathie]

Thanks Dominic. The balloon in the window of your hard dodger was brilliant.

[@user-ym5dm9xd5w]

Sir you are 1 lucky man to have a wife that is so excited about building a boat. Basically the perfect woman.

[@RexandKathie]

You are right, I am very lucky to have Kathie as my wife. Thanks for watching.

[@blacksquirrel4008]

Oh, that’s a shame. Love watching you guys work together.
That asymmetrical tiller arrangement is an improvement on the 1969 version. Ours were straight and sometimes had trouble coming about, this would have made that easier.

[@RexandKathie]

Thanks, It happens occasionally, just have to redo it with straighter grain and make the curve a little longer.

[@blacksquirrel4008]

@@RexandKathie it’s always better to have a failure on the bench than out of sight of land, too.

[@RexandKathie]

@@blacksquirrel4008 you are absolutely correct.

[@allmomomosthomebus3895]

Even though it has a defect, it was fun to watch your method. Thanks for the video.

[@RexandKathie]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed. Projects don't always go the way we hope.

[@waughthogwaugh3078]

Nice video. Love the way your thicknesser planer makes chicken noises. Jury is still out on how necessary the Ackerman steering is in water, looks cool though. Pity about that split popping when you were so far into that build.

[@RexandKathie]

Thanks, it took us a long time to get the planer to make that sound, far easier on the ears. I have noticed that very few catamarans us Ackerman steering, we are hoping it has a positive effect. Made a few changes on the replacement rudders, thinner laminations, moved the curve closer to the rudder end like the drawings showed, oops.

[@dominictarrsailing]

oh I'm curious about this because I was am currently building new tillers for my pahi... I was gonna have ackerman steering, watching this video to try and figure out how much bend... I thought it was better! (athough on the plans the pahi just has straight steering, and I've been successfully cruising without ackerman...)

[@brianpayne301]

Sorry that happened. Is there no way to clean out and patch or would that effect the strength of the piece too much?

[@RexandKathie]

Since the piece will be varnished it wouldn't look good. It would probably be strong enough but why chance it breaking at a critical moment that could involve our safety.

[@dominictarrsailing]

I would just squirt some epoxy into that crack and clamp it back down, maybe break off the split and then glue it back. (a broken stick generally makes an excellent scarfing surface that fits exactly!)

[@dominictarrsailing]

that or I would grind it out, then glue a new piece on top of that, oversize, then grind that down to the timber dimensions, then round it again...

[@RexandKathie]

Would have been strong enough but was frustrated with it and wanted to make sure we wouldn't have problems later.

[@BensWorkshop]

It's a shame that the tiller had that fault. Still, as you say, character building!

[@RexandKathie]

Thanks Ben, will use a board with straighter grain next time. You know that not all projects turn out as well as we would hope. Just have to figure out how to coerce a piece to do what you want it to do in a way that it will cooperate with.