Windows

Probably the riskiest part of the whole build is the windows.  I want big windows.  The biggest thing the design gives up is the cockpit and this is the best way to get some of that open feeling back and move away from the submarine/coffin experience.  I think it is also the thing that will help the most with sea sickness.  Good visibility is also a safety thing but generally small windows are considered safer from a strong solid structural point of view.   Big windows are going to add substantial weight to the top of the boat which I am particularly concerned about.  Then you have to add the choice of whether you can open any of the windows.  I do not want to give up any of the seaworthiness of the Enigma as that is core to the nature of the boat.  I just know that an open window or just an open-able portion of a window will be something I will really value.  I would like to keep the inside of the top of the cabin free from sharp edges/corners that I might hit my head on.  So I might end up settling for no openings on windows.  Matt has spec'd passive roof vent on the hatch cover.  I have a bunch of 1/4 inch Lexan which seems a little overkill and heavy but again I'm inclined to work with what I have on hand.  I will experiment with this and buy some other material if it doesn't seem suitable.  The cabin top seems solid but appears to be of very thin marine ply with a little fibre glass on one side.  I've gimped up, some window layouts some of which are outlandish but one thing I have learned working with industrial designers is to play with things in order to see where the visual appeal lies.

Stock window arrangement, Wiley windows, One particularly ugly option

The stock window layout is absolutely workable and a safe fallback option should the weight indicate smaller windows.  When I heard about Wiley windows I thought "that would work great" however in a small boat reality seems to be about as bluntly obvious as possible I think the use of internal space and the head cracking likelihood doesn't favor the design on such a small craft.

Enigma with windows maximized doesn't really look right.

 I started of drawing the biggest windows I could on the boat.  Not that I think this will work well but it is a starting point.  I will need to do some weight calculations and I can work backwards from the weight of the windows maxed out.  I'm glad non of these have major appeal although the last 2 don't look bad.  They thought is the smaller back widows might be workable as windows that open.

These are the max windows scaled down somewhat the last 2 seem close to being visually balanced to me.

I like this array the best particularly the last two.  I might have to try some slightly trimmed back versions and see how they come out.  I might need to figure out exactly how much actual window is left once cabin top overlap for mounting is considered.  Not totally sure how much overlap I will be happy with.

I did these to eliminate the concept.
 

These actually looked a little better but I hope the weight doesn't drive me here.

Sometimes pushing the limits helps to cement a direction so I pushed these a little far.  To each his own.  I suspect this could look better with slightly radius-ed corners.  I can see somebody liking any one of these but in order to choose I need to amplify the distance between what I prefer from those I would rather avoid.

Ballast

  One of the things I really like about the Enigma is the ballast is easy to remove and in fact the design is such that you remove the ballast when taking the boat out of the water.  This allows the boat to be car top-able if needed.  It also allows you to play with the trim of the boat to suit gear you have and the crew.  If designed for it you can even make it adjustable while sailing to help with rounding upwind.  When I saw the first Enigma Dave showed me the various ballast options he had.  They included a cement floor pad and sand bags which came with the Enigma and some bagged lead ingots that Dave had built and which he seemed to prefer.

Concrete floor pad ballast for Enigma

Sand bag used for ballast and Dave's green lead ingot bags

I thought for quite a while about what would be a good ballast approach. I rather like Dave's approach but don't really trust my sewing to adequately contain lead dust.  It seems the boat needs somewhere in the neighbourhood of 64 kg (140 lbs).  I worried about the other approaches because one clumsy mistake and you could damage the boat by dropping a weight from the hatch and have it fall to the floor.  I don't like being one clumsy move away a serious problem although it is unlikely I would be moving the ballast anywhere but in shallow water.  The lead bags seemed the most elegant and easiest to manage but still struck me as an awkward shape to have at the sides of the cabin.  Any of them would be a hazard if they came loose at the wrong time.  Lead had some appeal but I am over cautious about lead dust as I certainly could see the boat having kids in it at some point and it is a nasty substance.  Any container needs to form an incredibly good seal.  Another good quality for the ballast would be the ability to take on more weight as the food and supplies are used up.   That one is likely where the sand ballast idea came from.  The easiest source of lead for me is automotive tire balancing weights.  It occurred to me that a hose filled might serve as a good base ballast with another hose that can be filled with sand, rocks, or even water to allow for variability at any point in the trip.  I did my calculations thinking I could get hose with 2" internal diameter and it would work out pretty well but that is not as easy to get as I thought.  I have some 1.5" so I might experiment with that for now.  I like the idea of recycling this hose for the purpose.  The good properties about the hose weights is they lay tight along the side of the boat, are easy to secure, can be moved up and down the boat with some pretty simple mechanisms.  If they are dropped they tend to distribute the force along their length and break fall and they do the same should they get loose when the boat is tossed about.  They are also easy to carry around and to create a durable seal.  The position for this ballast according to Dave is towards the mid area of the boat to compensate for the aft weight of the captain (doesn't really have a complementary sound to it).

The Plan

Original Enigma Rudder

 Even though almost all the stuff I would have considered risky, heartbreaking and messy have been done there is still quite a bit to figure out to get this boat in the water never mind all the things I would like to add.  Here is the shortlist of essentials:

• Removable Ballast
• Floatation
• Yard/Mast/Boom
• Sail
• Control Lines
• Windows/Cabin Top
• Rudder (partially done)
• Paddle/Yuloh
• Chine runner shaping
• Seating
• Waterproof hatch install
• Internal storage

Whenever I face a list that will take me months of work it is helpful to accompany the list with the things I really like about the project.

• Small easily transportable sailboat
• Simple elegant design
• In cabin sail and rudder control
• Rough weather capable
• Beach-able
• Shallow Draft
• Sail rig Stores in boat
• Portage-able
• Lots or room for innovating
• For the moment one of a kind (good and bad)
• Ideal for weekend sail camping
• Matt Layden Design
• Great looking craft