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Another Spindrift 12 goes 3D...Yippee


Greg Luckett

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It was downright scary as this was the first time using the butterfly method.  There were crackling, popping, scraping, and wheezing noises as the boat was folded out...and the boat was making some noise too. ;D

Edith, my sweet wife, helped me fold it out and took my picture with it.  Sam and Ben are in bed and have not see it yet.

More stitching is needed but I think it will be okay as is for the night.  I am bushed.  Worked all day at Whirlpool then out in the cool/cold shop.  It is snowing outside again....brrr.

Here are some of the pictures taken this evening too.

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Greg,

What I can remember from my Spindrift is that there is a lot of stress on that area. I also saw some separation on that joint. If it is getting too bad, you can screw a reinforcing block in that area to relieve some of the stress, but it appears you got there without having to use the reinforcing block. I didn't have to use it either, but I was a mite worried for a while.

After everything gets a set in it, you can re-glass that part of the joint without too much trouble and it will be fine.

Congratulations on getting her 3D!!  :) ;D You now have a "boat shaped" piece of plywood in the shed.  ;) The next step is to get her to where she will keep the water out.

Steve

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Once the wires ties were all in, the major stress on the glassed sections was spread out and shared, thus reducing the stress on the glass.  I kept working on it late last night to reach that point and I could then sleep w/o worrying.  It has been about two years since I did any boat building and I had forgotten little tricks of the trade and how tiring it can be too.  On the other hand, I very much love boat building. 

The hull is a little out of square, about 1/2 inch from prow to transom corners difference.  My guess is the hull is slightly twisted.  I cannot figure out from the plan set exactly what the beam at the sheer should be, nor what the horizontal distance from chine to chine should be, but the temporary panel is too wide by about 1/2 inch, at the widest beam point between the chines, and the side panel angles do not quite match up to it either.  The transom went right in sitting on top the two bottom panels and aft the side panels.  There will need some slight trimming.  I wonder if Graham has profile view, plan view, and body plan he could share for this boat?  There is a profile and plan view in the plan set, but they are not the lines drawings, and since I have not actually seen one of these boats, I am often guessing as to what I might be doing wrong.  The pictures are a big help to me, on the other hand.  I am having a lot of fun puzzling things out, but fear I am calling Graham and Carla too much, not that they have been anything but charming and helpful.  My hope is that I get trained enough as to how to build Graham's designs that when I tackle the bigger boats it will make better sense to me.  I really like his designs.

How flat, or rather, what should the V on the bottom shape out like?  I wonder if I need to push down more on the bottom panels to flatten them a little more?  I am reluctant to do that since everything seems to fit up correctly except the temporary panel.  I do not know if the bulkhead panel will fit this shape as it should as I am waiting on the sloop plan sheets.  I have put a couple of spreaders to push the sheers apart, on at about the 30 inch bulkhead postion and the other at the widest beam position.  Pics attached.

I thought all this time that I had ordered and gotten a sloop rigged plan set, even ordering the sloop sail suite, then really looked at the rigging in the plan set and realized I had the cat rigged plan.  Fortunately, at this point it is easy to shift to the sloop rig, only costing me the loss of some materials and time.  It was either that or eat the cost of a set of sloop sails and reordering the cat sail.  I chose to do the sloop.  Graham and Carla are bailing me out.  They are such nice and neat folks.  I hope someday to get to meet them and buy a round of drinks or two. :)

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I was looking over the shape of the boat last night and really like the rake of the sheer to the spooned bow and the way the sheer rises to the prow.  This should be a relatively dry boat and would make a nice motor fishing boat.  This is a very nicely shaped boat.  My wife, who usually just tolerates my madness, likes the boat shape and size too.  She likes to fish. :)

I am at a standstill for the hull work until the sloop plan sheets get here, so now is a good time to make spars, center board, rudder, etc.  I need to cut strips for the seating and gunwhales too.  Ben and I planed a couple hundred board feet of white oak and sassafras last fall and now is a good time to start ripping it. :)

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The inside of the hull is now glassed at the seams.  First the wood was painted 2 inches out from each seam, then epoxy filler with West System 406 Colloidal Silica and Maple wood flour (from Duckworks) was put into each seam, then the 3 inch tape was placed over that, and epoxied in place.

Here are the pics.

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I'm guessing that first you will want to match the Center of Effort for the designed sail plan. Second you want to match the amount of flex that Graham has designed into his sail plan to achieve the same reactions that his sailplan has.

The farther off your optional mast and boom are from Graham's design, the more you are on your own deciding if it will work or not.

My Spindrift 11N has a three piece aluminum mast with each section 1/4" smaller than the one below it. On my first sail, I was anxious about the amount of flex the sail plan had in it because I'm used to a fully stayed cruising mast design which has little noticeable flex. It seems to work though because I had a great time sailing it!

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Garry,

Oops, I forgot to mention that Graham has already said that AL mast will work.  I will need to shorten it a bit, but otherwise is fine for the fractional rigged S12 sloop.  It would certainly shorten the time to splashing if I use it, but I have had wooden spars on other boats and liked them too. 

Garry, is your S11 a cat rig without shrouds or stays?

Graham has suggested I do a birdsmouth mast if opting for the wooden mast.  That is something I will probably do in any case as I have wanted to build those sorts of spars for a while now.  I just do not have any hands on experience with the birdsmouth spars.  I did buy some router bits a while back in preparation.

Thanks for your input and it is appreciated. :)

I am wondering if anyone has built these sorts of spars for a mast this size and what experiences and/or learnings they might share.

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Yes, my S11 is a cat rig with no shoruds or stays. Does the S12 that you are building have them?

If I was in your position, I would use the aluminum mast since Graham says its okay. Then if you really want to do the wood mast later, you still could. Unless there are some decisions if you go with the alum. mast that make it more difficult later to change to the wood mast.

I also am intrigued by the birdsmouth masts and from what I've seen from others on this board, they wouldn't be too hard to build. And somehow much more satisfying than an aluminum mast.

Greg, I think this is a personal call that you're going to have to make yourself. Thats one of the beauties and curses of building your own boat!

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Yes, the S12 sloop has a forestay and shrouds.  I cannot recall at the moment if there is a backstay...the plans are out in the shop...I just came in for a cup of hot tea to warm me up. 

I have been out cutting 3/4 white oak and sassafras lumber into sticks ranging from 3/4 to 1-1/2 widths.  The gunwhales and the keel will be white oak, as will any place that looks like the strength or durability is needed.  The sassafras will make good seat stringers.  The transom boards will be white oak too, as well as many of the other details.  White oak is heavier than the sassafras, but I like using it better for its durability under daily use.  I can find white oak easier than the sassafras too, but the latter is also great boat building wood.

I think I will use either ash or sassafras for a birdsmouth mast.  Ash was running about $0.50 a bdft a couple of years ago but I did not stock up then.  Thousands of healthy trees were cut down to stop the Emarald Ash borer...which did not work.  That sort of preventive effort never works.  It made for a lot of inexpensive Ash lumber for a while.  Now Ash is scarce locally.  I need to explore the other wood types again and refresh my learnings.  Maybe another local lumber would work well for spars.

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I think you will find ash is a bit heavy for spars.  Sitka spruce has been an all time favorite, but can be pricey.  Douglas fir is quite good, only a little heavier than spruce and available mostly every where in North America at reasonable prices.  People have been known to cull out virtually clear stock from the framing lumber at local yards with a little persistence.

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I have not had much luck finding either of those species here abouts, but will keep my eyes open.

I just noticed you are in RI.  I use to buy stuff for myself and for my ship in Newport, and bought camping gear in Providence, some of which I still have over 30 years later.  I was over your way about 15 years ago the last time.  I envy how close you are to the boat and lumber suppliers.  Sailing Narraganset Bay was a lot of fun too, as well as biking and hiking all over RI.  My favorite hang out was Skippers Dock in Newport until it burned down.  I was at sea when that happened and was deeply sorry upon returning to find my hangout gone.  When I tranferred over to Davisville (Seabees) I did a lot of biking, then left for other parts of the world.  Lots of memories from there. You live in a really nice place. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

We have been busy figuring out the front bulkhead and seat locations, but have now fabricated and installed the bulkhead and two of the stringers.  This is a sloop rigged S12, which has not been built often according to Graham.  Go figure that I would pick the unusual...LOL...again. :P  Thank goodness Graham and Carla have been so available and willing to handle my questions.  This is fun for me, but it looks like the chances of having my S12 ready for the Duckworks mess about is looking slimmer every day.  We still plan to attend with or without the boat.  Oh, and we have given up on making the Lake Pepin mess about this year.  It looks real slim anyway as I am trying to get the RV ready for Texas and the S12 built in time to hit the road on June 8th.

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