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Here are a couple of newer pictures. We are hoping to be sailing at the messabout.

PLYWOOD

 

The most asked questions have to do with plywood.

·        You must use ‘good’ plywood if you expect your boat to last.

·        Exterior grade plywood IS NOT good plywood

·        Good plywood is expensive

·        Good plywood is hard to find.

 

The quality of US made plywood has fallen to the point I will not use it anymore. Sadly the only good plywood I can find is imported. While it it is not cheap the quality is vastly superior to US plywood.

 

EXTERIOR PLYWOOD: Don’t waste you money! The exterior grade plywood varies wildly in quality but it was not made for marine use. There are always voids (holes) inside that you can not see. The faces are rough. The glue used is not waterproof. It warps badly. Need I go on?

 

The best plywood I have used is Baltic Birch. It is made in Russia from Birch harvested in Baltic region. It has multiple thins plys of birch, not some filler material,  making it very strong. The face it not a thin veneer, each layer is the same thickness. It is very high quality plywood.

 

Baltic Birch typically comes in 5’ square sheets instead of 4’ x 8’.  I have heard that it is made in 4’ x 8’ sheets but I have never seen it. It is not the same thing as Birch plywood that is sold in most home improvement stores, so don’t be fooled! If it is US made IS NOT Baltic Birch.

 

MDO is another good choice. It is made for outdoor signs, so it is very weather resistant. I believe it is US made and the one exception to rule of quality.

 

Marine plywood is not what it used to be. US made ‘marine’ plywood is typically made from Douglas Fir and the quality has degraded to the point it is not worth buying. It splinter badly when you cut it, there are voids in the center and it wants it not that strong. On my most heavily used boat I have seen two frames start to fail. The plywood doesn’t break but just degrades becomes flexible till it finally fails. I used it for a long time but I now refuse to use it

 

Yes you can buy cheap plywood and slather it in epoxy to seal it, but all you have is a pig with lipstick, it’s still just cheap plywood. Buy the good stuff and save the epoxy for something that really needs it. My boats don’t need epoxy.

 

PRICE: Good plywood is expensive. Expect to pay 50 to 100 dollars for a sheet of plywood. Yes that is a lot of money but keep it in perspective. As of 2013 you can build most of my boats for around $350 for a nicely equipped boat. So what if you plywood cost $100? Look at the total cost of the boat, not the cost of one item.

 

SOURCES: You will not find good plywood at Lowes and Home Depot. You will probably not find it at the local lumberyard. You will have to search to find it and you may have trouble finding a source. Your best bet is to find who the cabinet shops buy from. Most people assume these are wholesalers but they are really just a dealer that deals with specialty shops. I have never had a problem buying from one nor needed a Tax ID number.

 

Sign companies use MDO for outdoor signs sp it may be easier to find than Baltic Birch. Check with local sign companies or sign supply companies in your area.

 

There are several companies around the country that will ship plywood it to you but because of the size it has to go by truck and shipping costs can be as much as a single sheet of plywood.

Any more progress? Pictures? This design is the one I'm most interested in.

Take Care,
Steve

It has been a long time coming. We have finally started prototyping the CS20 kit. I am calling it mark 2 because I have done a major revision in preparation for the tool pathing for kit production.

I have had a lot of requests for a cuddy cabin and a self draining cockpit. I raised the freeboard 2" and gave her more deadrise. The extra freeboard helps the make the cabin work better and allows the cockpit to be raised allowing us to fit water ballast. It also raises the point of vanishing stability which will be further enhanced with ballast. Here she is.

Alex I made a birdsmouth mast for my CS 17, couldn't source Spruce at resonable cost so went with Fir. Long story short mast came in at nearly 30 lb, able to manauver horizontaly but trying to step
 
ordered the Aluminium items from Carla/Graham, came in at 12.7 lb before any hardware. At an advanced age still somewhat difficult to step main (wish there was tabernacle design) but doable.
 
MM

makenmend - with doug fir you should have reduced the scantlings. Opinions vary but one should be able to reduce stave thickness by 15% to 20% with fir since it is stiffer.

Hi Ralf,

 

Did you make your hollow masts by the birdsmouth method or by some other way?  I will start building my coresound 17 soon and was wondering which way to go, either hollow wooden birdsmouth or aluminium. What has everybody else done, wooden or aluminium spars?

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

I took a different approach to making it easier to step the forward mast in the mast tube  by installing a mast tube that extends about 4 inches above the fordeck with the aft 1/2 cut away from top of the tube to the deck (see attached photo).  From the cockpit I insert the mast base in the above deck part of the tube & simply walk it forward until it slips down into the tube.  Its much easier stepping, but un-stepping still is problematic, so I added a 1/2 sphere to the base of the mast to help hold the mast base in the above deck part of the tube.  My fordeck also has non-slip added to the varnish so I don't slip.  Splash water also stays out of the mast tube (although the tube bottom has a drain through the foreward compartment into the cockpit .  I still plan to replace my heavy 21 lb. aluminum masts with carbon fiber ones.    Does anyone know which New England carbon fiber mast fabricator has already engineered them for a CS 17  with regular 4 oz. dacron sail cloth?   Both my masts are about 1 ft. longer that the plans specify.     CS 17 # 307  OSPREY sailing on Nantucket & Pamlico Sounds.

Phil Thien has a design for a "chip collector" style dust collector that seems to work really well. Plans are on his site at http://www.jpthien.com/cy.htm

 

I used a similar "trash can" set up for my planer, but had a side entry and then a box on top for the exhaust that took a 20" furnace filter. It worked pretty well, but the comments on Thien's forum show that his chip collector does a superior job.

If you aimed a leaf blower anywhere in my garage you would be instantly buried in a cloud of dust = cedar, Okoumi, and a dash of epoxy. Everything is coated with sanding dust. My go-to sander has a dust bag but it isn't very efficient. So I( got a small Shop Vac with a 4' hose, added another 8' of hose, and rigged it up to the sander.

Test time tonight: Okay, more electric cords to dodge, and it is a slightly more clumsy to handle, but I sanded, and sanded. The air was clear. The sander itself was still clean, not coated with dust as usual. I was clean! I ran my hand over the sanded surface and did pick up dust, but not much.

The new me - dragging an 1 1/4" hose attached to a Vacuum along with the DeWalt sander, well worth the annoyance of cords and hose . . .

This is one of the newer acrylic LPU's on the market. It can go over epoxy directly, though the manufacture only suggests going over it's primers or a tie coat (naturally). It will work well over the System Three primer. Over regular or Silver Tip epoxy, provide a good tooth and make sure the epoxy is well cured (at least a week), so shrinkage doesn't cause issues. This particular paint has very good gloss retention, but isn't as tough as the more traditional solvent based LPU's. The advantage of a primer is you can smooth the surface and provide a good tie coat for the finish coats. If straight over epoxy, you have to smooth the epoxy and provide sufficent tooth, which is tough to do on a clear epoxy coating.

I forgot to add a picture of Terry Dunn using his mast assist device in my post above. Maybe Terry will read this and help me out.

 

I just don't see how the mast stays in place as you lift it to place it in step.

 

Anyway, thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

Bob

 

 

Boy looks great. Lots of work but it looks like a great job. Is that your wife checking out how her basement is coming. Ooops. Check out these running lights I am putting in my t top. They are flush mount and incredibly bright. I am making a solid top. I am not putting radar or anything crazy up there. I think I am going to have a couple of days next week. Tempted to shut off the phone. Keep up the good work looks great.

http://www.cpperform...-light-kit.aspx

PG

If I am using a brush on and off for a couple days I freeze it in a baggy between uses.

Using a brush to apply epoxy is not a very effective way, of laying down a uniformly even coating and it's pretty wasteful. Applying epoxy with a brush, even with the bristles cut down 50% (the only way they work reasonably well), usually just leaves a pool where the brush first hits and tapered streaks, of ever decreasing film thickness, in the direction of each stroke. Admittedly, there are occasions where only a brush will do, but for the most part, you don't need them very often.

Since I painted my hull, I just left them in, using brass screws. I used White Oak for the keel, screwing them directly into the wood, which was bedded into thickened epoxy. I think the screws are there because it sure would be tough to clamp.

 

Take Care,

Steve

Hello everyone! I'm the new guy on the block and I hope to learn much on this forum! I live in the Pacific Northwest about 3/4 mile from the Columbia River and have been boating on "The Mighty Columbia" since I was 12 years old! (building rafts out of pallets and polling through lowlands when the Columbia would flood in the spring). I have owned boats from 14' to 25' and currently own a brand new 15' Smokercraft Alaskan with a 20hp Tohatsu 4-stoke motor.

 

No, I don't fish! When I tell people what I own, they always ask "Do you fish for salmon?" My log-in name says it all. I just love to be "on the river". I spend most of my time just "messing about" on the Columbia exploring islands and sloughs and looking for anything valuable or useful floating down the river or along it's shores.

 

My favorite boat was a 25' Macgregor sailboat which I sold about 15 years ago because of problems with my shoulders. It was difficult for me to sail so I purchased a 23' Crusiers Inc cabin crusier.Sold that about 8 years ago when gas prices started getting out of hand. Since then I have had a couple of smaller boats until I bought the Smokercraft which I intend to keep forever!

 

One reason I came to this froum is because I would like to also have a bigger boat for overnight excursions, ( I don't like sleeping on the ground at my age!).I am an avid fan of SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR magazine and in issue # 80 they had an article by a gentleman who converted a small sailboat into a displacement power cruiser and I'm thinking that might be a great way to accomplish my desire for an inexpensive to run overnighter. If anyone on the forum has done that, I would love any advice that they may have on mods, etc.I'm thinking that a 20' to 25' shallow draft, trailerable boat would make an ideal cruiser.

 

 

I found an Earlex Steam generator, which was reviewed by Wooden Boat mag a couple of issues ago (#229) for $56, free shipping.  Just ordered it today and I'm always leery of online buying until I actually get my hands on it but have been doing it for years with no problems.  We'll see.

Good question!  Best answer I can come up with is: anticipation, speculation (and possibly arm stength deficiency?).  As I'm familiar with neither the tool (spokeshave) nor the process (for that matter I don't have a lot of experience with a block plane since I try not to stray too far from power tools, but from the pictures, I assume the former is a two-handed tool and (at least I think of) the block plane as a one-handed tool), I'm trying to anticipate what I'm going to encounter when I'm trying to finish the beveling after the frames are in place on the keel, and thinking maybe a two-handed tool might be better in working from an awkward position.  Or something like that.  .....................jeez, I hope this makes a little sense!

Fishman 38, you need a spokeshave.

 

 

  Could be Miyot was just saying the spokeshave is a useful tool to have in one's arsenal, not necessarily for the beveling process. 

Also although the name spokeshave implies a curved cutting edge, I gather they're also available with a straight cutting edge.

With the rear level and the front tiedown realeased the difference was 12 mm (1/2")