Ron,

My name is Larry Hill. My wife and I purchased Yankee Dolphin Hull # 129 on Sep 13, 2013. We renamed the boat RESPITE. We took her out for the first time September 9-23 this year and were impressed by her stability. After having lived and sailed on a 33-foot steel sailboat for 20 years, it's great to have a small boat with beautiful lines that sails on glassy seas. We ran into a westerly gale on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and tacking upwind with the full jib only, we never got the rails in the water. We wanted to see what she could do and now we think she can do anything. We are very happy with this boat. Thank you for the website. It has helped us with numerous issues.

Larry

Welcome aboard Larry - Standing by for pictures and more

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October 16, 2015. Larry made a post on the Forum/Technical Section regarding replacing the sheer clamp on Respite's port side. We have included this in the website's Technical Section/Repairs - Sheer Clamp/Toe Ral issues. Click here to go there.

Topic: Sheer Clamp Replaced on Yankee Dolphin 129
Posted: 14 Oct 2015 at 7:29pm

I have Yankee Dolphin 129 "Respite". The sheer clamp on the port side of the boat was rotted and powdery. I did not want to take the cabin off to replace it, so I decided to do it this way:

To keep the proper curvature in the clamp, I used a piece of Philipine mahogany which I cut into 3/8" thick slats. I slid each slat in and made the necessary cutouts for the bolts and screws that it had to slide past. After sliding them all in and making sure they were in the right order, I numbered them. I applied a thin coat of epoxy to each slat and allowed them to dry.

Later, I had my wife put on another coat of epoxy on both sides of the slats and I slid them in one by one over the bolts and screws and against the hull while the epoxy was wet. I clamped them in where I could with wedges (I used plastic wrap to keep the wedges from sticking to my clamp). Where wedges would not fit, I cut 2 x2's or 1x 2's the proper length so I could force the laminated slats tightly together at the bulkheads.

When it was all good and dry I drilled holes for the deck fittings and sealed them with 5200. I resealed all of the deck fittings. The boat does not leak and I did not have to take the cabin off.

Larry

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April 25, 2015. Larry has an update with photos on Respite's Shear Clamp project. Click here to go there

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