Phil Garland

If anyone had trouble pronouncing the river in Biloxi that Riggs is on.......Tchoutacabouffa is "shoot-a-ca-buff. Spent many hours of my youth on that River, Back Bay and Mississippi Sound in anything that floated....what a great place to grow up messing about in boats. Real nice job on the Marissa Riggs, enjoy.

Hi Guys,. On my CS17 La Perla and our Presto 30, the masts rotate (we have wishbone booms) so it's not possible to use a fixed masthead tricolor light....I just have an anchor light up top. Do the sprit booms not tend to rotate the masts or do you stop the rigs from rotating somehow? Phil

Swimboy must be one tough guy to do so well singlehanded. But to answer the question of how the turbo rig does against the standard rig in heavy air, there shouldn't be much difference as both boats would be reefed down anyway. I could not do the race this year due to a conflicting event but our CS17 La Perla was sailed by Nomadic (Alex Mehran) and Rover (Drew McMillan). The "turbo" rig is about 300mm taller than normal and the sails have a small fat head. In the big wind on Sunday they had a tough beat down by Sanibel but with deep reefs in they had no problems other than getting soaked. Their original plan was to stop every night which they did, sometimes in good style, the first two nights. After that they camped on Indian Key and then Highland Beach (they woke up to low tide and the boat 100' from the water....blow up the rollers). At Flamingo they decided they needed to do a nighttime run to make it to Key Largo or be late for the party. While running west out of Flamingo to go the long way around in deep water Alex spotted a light just before they jibed to head south. Looking again he saw it was signaling SOS. They sailed back to find Capt Bones in the mangroves without his Hobie Adventure Island, hypothermic, dehydrated and a bit delirious. They drained his dry suit which was open and got him into the boat. Then getting no sign of help from CG or Park Rangers, they sailed him back to Flamingo....Bones was then transported by Rangers to an ambulance and spent the night in the Homestead Hospital. At one point that night I texted Alex to see how they were making out not knowing this was going on. His reply was "your boat is an ambulance right now". Great thing they did saving Bones.

The sheet should lead from the end of the sprit to the mast then down to a cleat. Rigged that way you can trim mizzen and staysail together and the loading will not adversely affect the sprit trim.

David, I saw that you were going to replace your clam cleats with cams to prevent them from recleating when releasing the line...they make a nylon "keeper" that prevents that...part #814 or #815 depending on the size. Check the clam cleat website for a number of cool accessories. We can order if you can't find them locally. I've added them to all my clam cleats. Phil

NRS makes a very robust oar lock we used on our CS17. I glued in G10 tubes to the reinforced deck and we used 10.5' oars. We rowed the last 12 miles of the 2014 EC on a flat calm night and averaged about 2.5 knots.

Graham, great report on your EC voyage...we hope to be there next year with La Perla. I've always been intrigued by Matt Laydon's chine runners he used on Enigma and other designs. He used those with no boards and they seemed pretty effective. Those would be a relatively easy modification as opposed to a longer centerboard. Owning 2 cat ketch designs (Presto 30 and CS17) with good sails and spars, going to windward is not its best point of sail, however it reaches and runs very well. When we did the EC in the CS17 we rigged a bowsprit to set a small jib (from a Thistle) for light air. It certainly helped going to weather but it created lee helm...we also set an assymetrical spin from the sprit and the boat was planing in 14-16 kts of breeze. Overall I have been very impressed with the performance of the Core Sound design and it's a perfect craft for expedition/adventure races and camp cruising.

For sleeping under the dodger, we used sleeping bag inside a bivy bag, which I found on eBay....mil-spec, goretex material, very high quality and about $50...it would be on my list for that race to Alaska.

This dodger we did for the EC has worked great

If my boat weren't 1200 miles away I'd measure it for you.

I think the plans show location for the aft position relative to the seat...I would start with that distance aft from your fwd location/seat. I temporarily taped on blocks of wood with oar locks in them and tried them out with oars in the garage to confirm the location.

Check Sam's website and go back a few years for pictures of the boat...if that's the one

This might be the boat, I remember considering buying this before I built my CS17. If it is painted a bright blue/green that's the one. The link to craig's list doesn't work. Members 182 posts Website Posted 01 July 2013 - 02:05 PM http://hiltonhead.cr...3905298175.html Boat has recently upgraded aluminum masts and rigging. 843-240-9287 Sam

Hi Hal, Great job on your new Core Sound. very impressive...will you be test driving in the EC '16? Perfect boat for lurking in the Everglades. Phil, aka Sambasailor

Congratulations David! Your CS looks great. That building cradle started life as a shipping container for aluminum booms made in Argentina. Good luck to the next builder!

Hi David, On La Perla, #351, we opted to just bring coaming around the forward part of cockpit and we have a nice dodger that snaps onto that...it comes back to about where the cleats are for the halyard and control lines for main mast. Look forward to seeing you hit the water! Phil

With the Dyneema braid in the small sizes, I tie a figure eight knot or bowline, depending on the need, then put a few drops of super glue on the knot to seal it...also works to seal the ends of the braid rather than burning or whipping.

La Perla is not a real lightweight build...she has all the standard design plywood and most hardwood is WRC and CB trunk is Douglas Fir. Taping was overdone a bit for added stiffness. Hull and deck weighed 300 lb (no blades, masts,booms, rigging or sails). Didn't weigh it all up but would bet it's about 400 lb.

For the 2 Everglades Challenges we have done with "La Perla", our CS17 #351, I would estimate we had an all up sailing weight close to 1000 lb with boat, crew and gear. Maybe a little less the last time as it was lighter conditions and we carried less water ballast. The first time we had about 130-140 lb. water in jugs tied around the base of the CB case and the boat seemed to handle the heavier conditions well. We were still quite fast downwind and when we rounded up to reef the sails in a squall, the boat hove- to nicely and the extra weight in the bilge probably helped that. I would imagine that 1200 lb all up would be ok for sailing around in protected waters.

Downsizing and simplifying is a good thing as we get older and wiser. I would stick with the sprits for ease of rigging unless you plan to keep the boat rigged all the time. We have the wishbone sprits on our CS17 for performance reasons, to have smooth, undisturbed sail shape. I am in the process of making some spruce sprits for use day sailing as the wishbones take too much time to rig up. Don't tell my sailmaker.

My advice would be to wait till spring and rig it up on land to check the geometry...with sprits and proper length rigs you should have no headroom problems...it sounds like your old boat had a short mizzen mast. If you do need to lengthen the mast you will need a splice piece inside the tube at the join...you can do as outlined by others above....I would recommend a splice piece of 18"-24" min. length in the lower alum. sections. If your mast is short, adding length down low saves messing around with the track and other fittings on the mast up high.

Is that the waterproof gasket material?

Joe, I think that's correct...a lot of folks on boats are OK sleeping on board and a lot of the islands one might anchor of or pull up on the beach are well away from the chickees and campsites. A lot of people stop at Pavilion Key just south of Everglades City...it's an outlying island and not close to any camp sites. There are a number of people who do the Everglades Challenge that cruise among the Ten Thousand Islands regularly and don't seem to have any issues.

Ron from WCTSS confirmed yesterday that their cruise to Cayo Costa will be March 20-22. It is a state park so camping is only allowed on their campsites so protocol is that the cruisers must sleep on their boats in Pelican Bay. This timing might work out for those doing the EC and want to cruise after. Mid to late Feb might be an opportunity to have a messabout in the Pine Island Sound area for those that might want a shake-down prior to the EC. Maybe those that are interested can chime in with their preferences for time and place.

The West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron has a couple of trips out of the Pine Island Sound area with an overnight gathering at Pelican Bay on Cayo Costa Island. Last year they did the Cayo Costa trip in mid-March. There are several good launching sites on Pine Island and the Charlotte Harbor/Pine island Sound area is wonderful for small boat sailing and is protected fairly well in the event of a big "norther." Unfortunately I will not be able to do the EC this year due to a conflict with another regatta but I would be interested in a "southern messabout" and we have a place on Pine Island with a big yard that could be used as a staging area and trailer storage for the event. Before or after the EC would make sense but could be a little cool that time of year. CS17 #351 "La Perla" is down there and ready to rock.... Phil Garland