9 months in the planning and just 24 hours to make and the magic wand is finally here..

Jonnie and I became retractable wand converts last year and since then have sworn by them. Thanks to Mike Lennon for pulling that one out of the bag (I know the Aussies seem convinced that Luka was the inventor)

What most people don’t realise is that out on the open sea it is almost compulsory to have one or it’s pretty certain you are going to stack it downwind.

With the paddles getting bigger and bigger, the problem we had was how to stop the wand from twisting and going upside down. Well we bandied ideas around along the lines of cutting a groove into the wand, flattening one side and using a screw to keep it straight, cutting out a channel in the tube and screwing a bolt in to the wand to guide it but they all had flaws, either in terms of a weak point or just being impractical.

We then agreed that a square section would be the way to go. The big problem I had was how to build a square section in to a round rod.

Jonnie had said ages ago that we should just mix up some bog, cover the wand and then sand it in to shape. I argued that if we did that, it would take so much work to get a perfectly true and square profile that it wasn’t worth it. Then our main man Jordi from the Spanish Moth Flyers inspired me with mold making and it came to me that a couple of aluminuim L-sections from B and Q would work to get an exact square section which would run smoothly through the square tube.

Plenty of release wax later and we got a perfect square section on the wand running about 36 cm for a full range of motion.

I then built a square tube by doing a wrap around the rod. The first effort failed as I had made it too tight and had to dremmel it off!

Now it won’t matter how rough the seastate or how fast you are going, the wand won’t twist off and the paddle will stay connected to the surface.

You may ask why we didn’t just use a square section rod and tube? Answer… I couldn’t find an 8mm one anywhere for love nor money!

I’ve also been busy fitting out the hull with blocks and getting everything in shape for the final push to get done and dusted this week. The Aardspars high modulus skinny mast and boom arrive in the next few days along with the bits needed to get the gantry finished. Also a load more fittings are coming along with my new number which has been ordered from IMCA.

The wings are back on now, tramps and footstraps fitted and all in all shaping up for a possible completion this week with a view to getting on the water over the bank holiday weekend.

Jonnie has very kindly offered to do all the rope work and splicing which should speed things up.