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Tom Lathrop

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Tom Lathrop last won the day on June 6 2020

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About Tom Lathrop

  • Birthday 09/17/1931

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    Oriental, NC
  • Supporting Member Since
    10/08/2019

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  1. I have finally had time to run quickly through your pages of construction. You are making my little boat into a much bigger project that looks very impressive. It is far too much to adequately discuss after a cursory look here but many thing you have done are quite extensive and beyond the simpler concept of the original. Robust is one term that I would use for much of the construction and I can see the boat cruising comfortably and easily on any coastal waters that LIZ and her mates have encountered. I hope to follow the progress as you develop a new Bluejacket.........Tom
  2. Oyster is right about a fuel tank. In addition to being a very good choice, a fuel tank made to fit the chosen space will allow for far more fuel to be carried which can be significant on long cruises when fuel supply spaces may be distant from each other. The volumetric difference can be significant if that is a problem for you. I would be very interested in seeing your initial design requirements as well as the changes you made. It is sometimes quit a surprise to see that a Bluejacket has been built or is being built that I was not previously aware of. Your build is one of those that was not known to me and that is very interesting as well as it should make a great cruising vessel. The largest Bluejacket that I know of up to now has been a 29 footer in South Carolina. That particular BJ is also of wider beam than the original design and runs well. I do not consider twin outboards to be a great factor in safety as modern outboards are very reliable. I also think that a smaller kicker is the better choice as long as it uses the same fuel as the main engine. The greatest issue with most any motor reliability is the fuel or battery and most that choose multi outboards use a common source for one or both of these. If reliability is thought to be an issue, multiple motors make multiple sources for whatever mechanical problems that might occur. Experience of Bluejacket builders for 20 years show the above to be true. On the issue of transom width. The outboard powered Bluejacket has proven resistant to the danger that some low power or shaft driven boats can have when running down wind in waves where they often have a tendency to broach. The outboard thrust is easily steered to counter any tendency for the boat to broach so I have widened the stern of later Bluejackets. The stern was originally narrowed to avoid broaching running down large waves as a safety factor that has proven to be not needed. Can you take any advantage of that at this stage of construction?
  3. Hi Alan, experience is usually the best teacher. Actually I've had no problem with well sheathed plywood rudders on small boats although Joe shows what can happen when an adequate sheath might have prevented it. We did have a glass reinforced foam rudder shear off approaching Ocracoke is a strong wind in a Grand Slam 26 footer though. It was the same mode of failure as well. The glass sheath was inadequately strong and was rebuilt much stronger than the original one by S2.
  4. Plywood is a wonderful material that is better than lumber in many applications. A cantilever that is loaded across the thickness like a foil is not one of them. I started sailing life wit both a plywood daggerboard and a plywood rudder. The DB failed while righting a capsized boat and the rudder was replaces by a more stable solid wood one. Many plywood foils do not fail but none are as stable as a laminated solid one would be. I suggest you make a new one in teh manner that C&B recommends.
  5. Dave has the most useful location for a wind indicator. I now use the mast main head which is the most accurate and best. I needed racing help on lakes when first starting sailing and made a small one mounted on the bow. Not the most accurate wind direction but better than yours and allowed great vision which showed wind changes well and was in the line of sight without looking at the sun or causing neck pain.
  6. Many years ago when I developed the idea of an impregnated synthetic piece of line on the leading edge of foils, keels, bows, etc., I did not consider using three lay line for this purpose. I always used braided Nylon or Dacron line with the thought that it would have greater non-directional strength and resist damage from blows better . I hope this line will be fine though if well impregnated and covered with sufficient sheathing.
  7. Neither website or email are working yet at 2100 today.
  8. Frank,  I'm trying to hit all available bases in getting my website back on line after being left out in the cold.

  9. Frank, I am still ambulatory, sort of. My email went kaput last Saturday and have not been able to get it working again. It may be that the problem you bring up may be the culprit as I use the website as my email, but I'm stuck not knowing . Will take the computer into New Bern this morning and have them fix that and another problem. Please hang on to my address while I gt this fixed. I don't remember getting a notice about this. Either I'm getting dumber or computers are getting more malicious as this used to be easy to manage.
  10. It looks like you did a very good job on the bow. The photos I gave show just about the limit of what can be done in achieving a deep knuckle on the bottom panel with plywood that survives this much bending. I wanted an extreme bow knuckle on this boat which resulted in getting up the learning curve. Graham has also had similar problems and has worked out how much bend he can have on the plans for amateurs to have success. We experienced some of the early plywood breakages with Graham years ago as we learned how much the wood can be forced.
  11. After having a couple of plywood failures (explosures really) in bending panels to difficult curves at the bow, I gave the problem a bit of thought. The photos attached show how a much more difficult shape was made in complete safety for the plywood. The side reinforcement battens are all in compression to the side panel and need only enough dry wall screws to hold them in position so the big bolts are unnecessary. A C-clamp or similar is the best thing to draw them together and allows plenty of adjustment as you go along. The piece added on the outside is to give the clamp a needed fixed place to draw the panels in with no slipping. This is the only piece that needs to be plenty strong to take the force. If you need a clamp at another place to even the bow shape, add another batten on both sides. The pictures should show everything well enough. Never had a problem since on much heavier plywood where stop gap measures almost always failed before. Good luck.......Tom Lathrop
  12. Paul has, sadly passed on but his words remain as clear as when written and will be forever so. Dories evoke some wisp of reverence in many boating souls but those that bear the name are most always significantly modified to hide their worse tendencies that made them especially useful to Banks fishermen and their masters. It's just a boat, crafted from common materials for a special purpose with some good boat design characteristics ignored in favor of those that were more important for the task. That later dreamers imbue the banks dory with magical properties is not the fault of the highly practical designers, builders or users of the originals.
  13. I'm happy to stand (or sit) aside and have other builders advise and work with you on planning and building a couple smaller boats before taking on the larger work of a Bluejacket 271. I think the BJ271 is just about the top of my desirable list for a small family cruising boat. The BJ28 has attracted more interest and builders though. One thing that impacts this decision is that there is at least one builder who is using the thinner plywood scantlings of the of the smaller boats for the build of a BJ28. This is perfectly acceptable as the thinner scantlings are plenty tough and strong enough as well as delivering a very little heavier boat than the BJ271. On the matter of using CAD and CNC for cutting out the hull panels is that, in my opinion, it offers little savings in time or effort. In my experience using CNC for the full size boat parts adds both time and effort to the task for a one off build. Building a large number of any design (or kits) utilizes advantages that CNC can have . It's pretty simple to build in the somewhat earlier method that Oyster advocates which is how almost all BJ's get built. Much of the questions about the procedure will be resolved in building of the smaller vessels and they will be a great help in that way as well ad useful in myriad other ways. Tom
  14. This beautiful boat is a credit to all those who contributed to her the dreaming, planning, design, and building in bringing her to the launch. Many boats suffer set backs in their realization and Rough Point is no exception as large bumps appeared in the road along the way to completion. Rough Point will take a proud place in the North Carolina fleet and look the part of her pedigree.
  15. Don, I sent you a note on your site.
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