How can you improve an old Javelin?
by John Meacham
A good number of older Javelins are mouldering in various dinghy parks and gardens sometimes for no better reason than that their owner has become convinced that they have no future racing potential. This need not be the case, if they fall into the hands of an enthusiastic sailor willing to make an effort, the reward can be tremendous in terms of the performance and the modest amount of money needed to achieve high speed sailing. Due to the one design nature of the class, the shape has not been tweaked or manipulated over the years and an older Javelin will be the same shape as the newer examples and with a bit of effort it should be capable of much the same speed.
The following guidance is intended to help anybody that might have recently acquired a "mature" Javelin or those that are considering such a step. Firstly congratulations on your choice you will be a member of a class that sails on rivers, lakes, estuaries and the open sea during the course of a season and if you make the journey to an open meeting you will be welcomed. If you have done a thorough job of preparing your boat you might cause a few surprises but if you tum up with an unreliable relic it might take a while to establish any credibility.
Underwater
Starting at the bottom, look critically at the foils, imagine yourself as a water molecule and try to visualise how easy it would be to slide past the centreboard. Would you pass gently by or would the furry tip bash you roughly aside in a turbulent state ready for further assault by the serrated leading edge of the rudder blade? A small tin of P38 (or one of it's cousins) and a few hours work will really pay dividends if your foils have become battered, remember that they are below the surface and that the tip is operating in a zone of higher pressure than the other areas. If the foils have musical tendencies put them on the stage- they do not belong in a racing dinghy. The usual causes of this malady are a lack of symmetry or a twist. Symmetry can be restored but a twisted foil is bad news, you can rework the shape sometimes but if there is a change in the conditions of storage or use the factors that caused the twist may be removed and the twist may unwind itself and reverse the effect of your endeavours. If the foils are beyond redemption buy some better ones or try your hand at making a set; you will soon be convinced that professionally made foils are a bargain!
Hull
Moving to the hull: check for leaks around the self bailers or through the screw holes that attach the keel-band to the centreboard case, fix any that are found, fill any gouges in the gelcoat and clean and polish the bottom of the boat. Take a critical look at the rudder fittings, there used to be a widespread belief that the Javelin had to have a large rudder and a number were almost a metre long, the leverage that these enormous rudders exerted had a lot to do with the contemporary reputation of the boat for devouring rudder fittings. Look closely for cracks in the fittings and make sure that the bolts attaching the fittings pass through sizeable washers inside the transom. Stretch a thin piece of string along the centre of the boat and check the alignment of the mast step, a small error in the length of the fitting is magnified enormously at the end of the spreader and you probably won't sail fast on both tacks. When the boat is off the trailer and supported try heaving hard on the toe-straps below the thwart. The bottom of the boat may deflect as it will while you sit out, the dimple in the hull will do nothing for the speed. As a further test, grasp the thwart or the centreboard case firmly and try to move them from side to side, some show no sign of movement and some are alarmingly easy to deflect. The options are to reinforce the rib on the inside of the side tank to support the end of the thwart or to fit a frame below the thwart which will also take care of the distortion caused by the toe straps.
Spars and sails
It is worth making arrangements to tie the deck to the mast step as there is a tendency for the deck to lift in response to the rig loads. As you will now have a watertight, stiff hull with well finished foils you can give your full attention to the rig and it's controls. Check the mast to make absolutely sure that the halyards are not twisted around one another and that all the sheaves turn freely. Take a critical look at the ends of every piece of wire rigging and if broken strands are found, discard the offending piece and be suspicious about its twin on the other side of the boat. Give the gooseneck a close look as they have been known to break and if at the foot you find a cast heel plug with three sheaves you may feel that action needs to be taken as such fittings have been known to crumble (Steinhude , Lowestoft and other events). Booms have very few inherent problems but check pop rivets and locking screws on sliding mainsheet blocks, spinnaker poles need to have all moving parts checked and that concludes spar matters.
Sails have a one way trip from the sail loft to the dustbin; with care, the dumping phase can be a long way from the moment of satisfaction when a perfect, new sail is first hoisted but usually a new sail will beat an old sail. If purchasing an entire suit of sails might upset your bank manager or other parties some alternatives may be considered, the classifieds at the back of Yachts and Yachting might be helpful or perhaps somebody in your club has just bought new sails and relegated a set which might have some life left in them.
Controls
The layout and operation of sail controls is entirely a matter of personal preference. The single over-riding criterion is that the systems should work reliably. Look at other boats, talk to lots of people and make up your own mind about what type of systems you prefer. Make absolutely sure that sheets can be freed in a hurry and that they can only be released when you intend them to be; every system must work first time, every time. Be absolutely ruthless about discarding worn or unreliable cleats, if in doubt take the cleat in question to a deep body of water, good cleats always float...
Transport
Having transformed your venerable Javelin into a lean, mean racing machine you will need to ensure that the road trailer is up to the task of transporting it to the varied selection of interesting venues that host open meetings. You wont need to be told that severely corroded frames are bad news or that wheel bearings wear out. It has even been known for hitches to become unhitched in transit so make sure that yours is in good order. You may be prudent enough to travel with a spare wheel but do you have any idea of how difficult it is to change a trailer wheel without a suitable jack? Try the trailer lights to make sure that all combinations and permutations work correctly, all too often, brake lights and indicators have been wired by malevolent gremlins and it confuses following vehicles. You won't win an open meeting if you spend the interval between the ten minute gun and the start extracting your transom from a crumpled bonnet.
If you make it to one open meeting there is a grave risk of becoming addicted, there are no health warnings on the boat to alert you to the risk and there is no cure- be warned!
John Meachen
The following guidance is intended to help anybody that might have recently acquired a "mature" Javelin or those that are considering such a step. Firstly congratulations on your choice you will be a member of a class that sails on rivers, lakes, estuaries and the open sea during the course of a season and if you make the journey to an open meeting you will be welcomed. If you have done a thorough job of preparing your boat you might cause a few surprises but if you tum up with an unreliable relic it might take a while to establish any credibility.
Underwater
Starting at the bottom, look critically at the foils, imagine yourself as a water molecule and try to visualise how easy it would be to slide past the centreboard. Would you pass gently by or would the furry tip bash you roughly aside in a turbulent state ready for further assault by the serrated leading edge of the rudder blade? A small tin of P38 (or one of it's cousins) and a few hours work will really pay dividends if your foils have become battered, remember that they are below the surface and that the tip is operating in a zone of higher pressure than the other areas. If the foils have musical tendencies put them on the stage- they do not belong in a racing dinghy. The usual causes of this malady are a lack of symmetry or a twist. Symmetry can be restored but a twisted foil is bad news, you can rework the shape sometimes but if there is a change in the conditions of storage or use the factors that caused the twist may be removed and the twist may unwind itself and reverse the effect of your endeavours. If the foils are beyond redemption buy some better ones or try your hand at making a set; you will soon be convinced that professionally made foils are a bargain!
Hull
Moving to the hull: check for leaks around the self bailers or through the screw holes that attach the keel-band to the centreboard case, fix any that are found, fill any gouges in the gelcoat and clean and polish the bottom of the boat. Take a critical look at the rudder fittings, there used to be a widespread belief that the Javelin had to have a large rudder and a number were almost a metre long, the leverage that these enormous rudders exerted had a lot to do with the contemporary reputation of the boat for devouring rudder fittings. Look closely for cracks in the fittings and make sure that the bolts attaching the fittings pass through sizeable washers inside the transom. Stretch a thin piece of string along the centre of the boat and check the alignment of the mast step, a small error in the length of the fitting is magnified enormously at the end of the spreader and you probably won't sail fast on both tacks. When the boat is off the trailer and supported try heaving hard on the toe-straps below the thwart. The bottom of the boat may deflect as it will while you sit out, the dimple in the hull will do nothing for the speed. As a further test, grasp the thwart or the centreboard case firmly and try to move them from side to side, some show no sign of movement and some are alarmingly easy to deflect. The options are to reinforce the rib on the inside of the side tank to support the end of the thwart or to fit a frame below the thwart which will also take care of the distortion caused by the toe straps.
Spars and sails
It is worth making arrangements to tie the deck to the mast step as there is a tendency for the deck to lift in response to the rig loads. As you will now have a watertight, stiff hull with well finished foils you can give your full attention to the rig and it's controls. Check the mast to make absolutely sure that the halyards are not twisted around one another and that all the sheaves turn freely. Take a critical look at the ends of every piece of wire rigging and if broken strands are found, discard the offending piece and be suspicious about its twin on the other side of the boat. Give the gooseneck a close look as they have been known to break and if at the foot you find a cast heel plug with three sheaves you may feel that action needs to be taken as such fittings have been known to crumble (Steinhude , Lowestoft and other events). Booms have very few inherent problems but check pop rivets and locking screws on sliding mainsheet blocks, spinnaker poles need to have all moving parts checked and that concludes spar matters.
Sails have a one way trip from the sail loft to the dustbin; with care, the dumping phase can be a long way from the moment of satisfaction when a perfect, new sail is first hoisted but usually a new sail will beat an old sail. If purchasing an entire suit of sails might upset your bank manager or other parties some alternatives may be considered, the classifieds at the back of Yachts and Yachting might be helpful or perhaps somebody in your club has just bought new sails and relegated a set which might have some life left in them.
Controls
The layout and operation of sail controls is entirely a matter of personal preference. The single over-riding criterion is that the systems should work reliably. Look at other boats, talk to lots of people and make up your own mind about what type of systems you prefer. Make absolutely sure that sheets can be freed in a hurry and that they can only be released when you intend them to be; every system must work first time, every time. Be absolutely ruthless about discarding worn or unreliable cleats, if in doubt take the cleat in question to a deep body of water, good cleats always float...
Transport
Having transformed your venerable Javelin into a lean, mean racing machine you will need to ensure that the road trailer is up to the task of transporting it to the varied selection of interesting venues that host open meetings. You wont need to be told that severely corroded frames are bad news or that wheel bearings wear out. It has even been known for hitches to become unhitched in transit so make sure that yours is in good order. You may be prudent enough to travel with a spare wheel but do you have any idea of how difficult it is to change a trailer wheel without a suitable jack? Try the trailer lights to make sure that all combinations and permutations work correctly, all too often, brake lights and indicators have been wired by malevolent gremlins and it confuses following vehicles. You won't win an open meeting if you spend the interval between the ten minute gun and the start extracting your transom from a crumpled bonnet.
If you make it to one open meeting there is a grave risk of becoming addicted, there are no health warnings on the boat to alert you to the risk and there is no cure- be warned!
John Meachen
