How to Do It

All the engines Dragon Design fit to its rebuilt Luggers are Mariner 4 HP 4 Stroke engines with a long shaft and Powerdrive propeller. Consequently for whatever reason there is always an issue with the tip of the leg fin clearing the transom and allowing the leg to rise sufficiently for the lock to click into place. The second picture shows the tip of the fin hitting the underside of the transom.

To overcome this problem Dragon Design make a neat pad out of Iroko and with 4 brass screws this is screwed to the engine mounting bracket, so throwing the engine head further away from the engine bracket. Consequently this enables the lower leg fin to clear the underside of the transom.

This picture shows the clearance achieved. In this position and with an adjustment on the locking bar we have the lower led standing off the end of the keel band.

For security Dragon Design always fit engine locks to its rebuilt Lugger. These will not fit as standard but will have to be cut in order to slide the tube into the well.

Another great job achieved by Dragon Design

The capping rails that JLJ make are from Iroko. We do all the machining and processing ourselves, from receiving the sawn boards from the importer, thicknessing, machining the scarf splice to achieve the length, and the underside groove to take the Gunwale lip on the boat. This scarf splice join is set up in a jig and resin bonded with West Resin, absolutely bomb proof!

To achieve the curvature of the Gunwale profile we steam treat the critical area of most deflection. This is then formed in our jig and left to dry out, this curvature when removed from the jig is set and will arrive with you to more or less this shape and ready to fit.

This shows the rail ready for its final fitting on Katerina. We have pre-oiled it using Rustin’s Danish Oil, a product which has proved its credentials over the past eight years in the South Ionian Sea. Both rails on Katerina were pre-fitted and the bow stem head cut in. With all the fixing holes pre-drilled and countersunk it’s a straight forward task for 2 persons. In order to avoid the sometimes bad original holes in the boat Gunwale lip, we have used a different spacing.

Before the capping rail is oiled I pre-cut the housing for the stem head fitting. In the case of Katerina it the original, repaired and buffed up. It still has its ID number stamp clearly visible, 1120.

The second picture shows the capping rail in late November before the making and fitting of the new pair. Not a good state!

All ready now for applying the deck and rail fittings

After a summer in the sun of the South Ionian Sea, with a little regular care these capping rails still look good. The second picture shows Angie, our March 2021 rebuild, being enjoyed by George and his wife this past summer. This is what he said about our beautiful boats.

These blogs on ‘How to Do It’ are indeed built up after a number of years of actually having hands-on experience of manufacturing, with continuity through to the present day. If you need help or guidance you can speak with the guys that make all of this fine joinery

There would have been a restriction plate fitted originally, but not one now. There was evidence of a place it could have been top face fitted and not recessed. The task now was to create a slot below the top face so we could glass in this brass plate to act as a stop for the arm of the centre plate.

Having now got the slot cleaned and down to a flat surface ready to glass in. The next picture shows the plate glassed in and just slightly proud of the underside of the casing top board. To get this flush we had to produce an indent in the underside of the top board so the restricting plate sat into it.

So all done and the final picture shows the surface mounted plate fitted on the casing top board to correspond with the restriction plate.

These are not an essential piece of joinery for the Luggers. However, after 40 odd years of use, sometimes abuse and neglect, the centre plate case which is quite an active part of the craft can suffer serious damage due to it being the fulcrum pivot position of the centre plate.

Please note how the Mk 1 Lugger just had a bare structure of glass fibre ribs to support the trunk, however in this instance getting at the pivot pin for the centre plate was easy.
The second picture of Mk 1 Angie image was of her with her casing completed and looking very much the part.

The kit comes complete with all holes drilled for the screws provide. You will note the fairlead and jamming cleat on the port side will require longer machine screws. We can supply these once we have information on your present fittings size. It’s all removable for cleaning and maintenance, but doesn’t it look so much more a professional piece of work?

For the MK2, in our case Katerina, it became a MUST to use this facia panel kit from JLJ. You will have followed the glass fibre repair works and replacement of the centre plate pivot pin with the strengthening side plates and new pin. To gain access to this area it was necessary to cut away a small area of the outer skin of the casing. This is purely an outer casing and not the centre plate trunk. But aesthetically it certainly needed a full side and forward facia panels to be fitted. All new fairleads and jamming cleat were then fitted through the facias with machine screws, nuts and washers. Again, all fully removable if needed.

This is another worthwhile task and not expensive to achieve.

The original 1970’s Honnor Marine tube was mild steel galvanised, and very often the tubes were galvanised in longer lengths then cut to length, not a clever idea. The result is that the cut ends lost the galvanised coating and the process of oxidisation starts, i.e. rust marks would appear in the entry hole in the side wall. Compare this old galvanised tube with our new stainless steel one.

The pictures above illustrates the location where the traveller tube has to be inserted. To achieve this one has to use a timber brace to push the two Gunwale faces apart in order to get the second end in. Be sure to use protecting pads to prevent damage to the gel coal / paint finish. The process to get the old one out is the same as to fit the new one. In essence one has to use the brace to spring the 2 sides apart and so creating that additional length to slide the traveller rail into. With a little more pressure the tube will clear the surface and slide in, and finally yes, it’s in.

This for me is the final final touch that makes the job, the Iroko face cover plates which I have designed. They are not structural, but I have had so many old Luggers with badly damaged hole placements, and these small plates cover all of that.

This is Lugger Angie, rebuilt by Dragon Design April 2021, out for another day of swimming and leisurely sailing in the South Ionian Sea.

We are making great progress with Katerina, the graphics have been delivered and shortly the refitting of the Gunwale capping rails will commence.

A question was asked last week, why pre-fit all the joinery and woodwork only to take it all off again and at a later stage re fit. Well now you can see the reason why. All the holes are drilled and the new spray paintwork is completed, so it’s just a matter of a very clean and easy assembly process, no damage and it’s quick.

The JLJ transom engine mounting bracket is made to fit the existing well. Whilst I have plotted the positions of the 4 holes on the face of the bracket, from experience I have found that the drilling through for the 10 mm holes into the stern well moulding has not been standardised, i.e. this original process had been carried out without a jig set up, resulting in the holes produced in the stern moulding not corresponding to a template format.

Our brackets are drilled on a jig, but due to this variability in stern drilling inevitably there could be a little out of alignment to deal with when fitting. This just requires a 10 mm drill bit to run through the bracket into the stern moulding.

Have a dry run first getting the alignment right. The short bottom bolts are more likely to be a close fit, it was the long 2 top bolts that run through the wedge backing that were originally done by eye. It is visible on our dry run the new holes that we have drilled into the stern transom moulding. This is not an issue, with a sealant applied to the existing holes and large ‘Penny ‘ washers as backup behind there is no loss of strength.

This is a 2-person job. Also to get into the stern Lazarette on one’s side to apply the washers and nuts needs agility. The nuts are tightened up from inside the Lazarette with your assistant on the outside keeping the eye bolts straight.

I have used ‘Penny ‘ washers and standard washers behind the 10 mm nuts, you will note the small corner of an original hole below the stud, this I will fill with a marine sealant later when the Lazerette is fully painted.

Yet another task completed on Katerina. Her time left in Wales is coming to an end as she leaves to join the charter fleet in mid April.