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Wow Don, thanks for the offer! My parents snowbird some seasons, I may send you a message in the future! Yeah, the Messabout in October just doesn't work for my schedule. The kids are back in school and I save my "only me" vacation time for my guys ski trip. It would be invaluable to walk around and see the different rigging options everyone uses!

I agree. I'm not great shakes with paper and compass, but I can use them in a pinch. And, as mentioned above, I think they are great for keeping on a course even when day sailing. One of my proudest dad moments was having a 13 year old son get us from bouy to bouy, about 12 miles, using only paper and compass.

When I started flying in the Gulf ‘O Mexico, the compass, chart and windshield was the primary and only source of navigation. When LORAN came about and we had to type each set of “numbers “ into the box we thought our navigation days we were over! NOT! Get a good compass, good charts and learn how to use them, they will never fail you. The stuff with wire hooked to them…..

We just got home from “The Skunkworks “ of boat design……. Sure is a LOT of parts. Some little, some not! Our entire game room is covered with 18 inches of boat! So far each and every part has fit perfectly, hope to keep that trend going! Plan is, one more trip to pick up engine and deckhouse. I have been messing about with boats for nearly 60 years, my first with a “power boat”, both Carol an I are excited!

Hey, wait. I built a nifty little storage box for that compass. I think I’m done!

@Andy B— If you know of a snow bird headed south for the winter, have them swing by here each way. I’ll make the cuts, and they can pick it up on the way back north. I can offer a free overnight stay on either side. Cutting through the mountains at Knoxville only adds about an hour to the drive, depending on where their winter roost is. Oh. And I am planning on cruising in FL in February, as well. Just trying to think outside the box.

I built a new tiller out of some Sapele I had, leftover from the trimaran build. The rudder is the old, original one. I had to use my table saw to cut them apart. A multi-tool would also work, but there are other intricate cuts involved. Bring your boat to the messabout, swing by here on the way home, and I’ll perform the surgery. (I know how long a drive this is for you, and how much time you’d need to take off work, but still…) I’ll post photos probably tomorrow. Epoxy is oozing all over the place right now, so it’s not very photogenic.

Don, are you salvaging the current rudder, just replacing the tiller? How did you get the tiller off? And is that the old tiller that you are modifying, or did you build a new one? As you know, this is a bit down my project list.

Tell me about it! I was in Austria last month, and visiting with a friend. I had forgotten my hat, which protects my dome from the sun. He loaned me this hat: I had to turn it around, but at least I didn’t get sunburned.

“Pro advice”— HAH! The problem with asking for advice here is that you get too many answers. (Probably a good thing.) Now, you have to sift through the mire and decide for yourself. It’s all good.

The snotters were attached to the sprits. I like them attached to the mast, and clipped to the snotter. I’ve done my lashings. The blocks and clips are waiting to be attached to the masts. The sprits have been prepared for varnishing. (No photo) I’m converting the tiller to the pivoting type, as this is my preference. The new tiller blank will get the most attention today, and be prepped for varnishing. The masthead float just needs some sanding. I’ll paint that when I paint the rudder in a day or two. The hurricane kissing the coast right now is dumping a lot of rain on us today. (I’m six hours away, up in the Appalachian foothills.) This keeps me from working on the installation of the boarding ladder, or taking photos of the completed centerboard reinstall.

Thanks guys, you've all given me a lot to think about and a few more options to consider. Thanks for the pro advice.

@Peter HK— The real weight addition with a glass sheath is that the thickness of the glass cloth requires more epoxy to fill it up. It is the weight of the additional epoxy that adds weight, not the glass itself. With Dynel it is worse. In addition to the epoxy filling the gaps in the weave, the fibers actually absorb the goo. It sucks up a lot of epoxy, but it makes for a bulletproof skin. @TooManyHobbies—My Two Paw 8 has taped seams and three coats of epoxy inside and out. She’s 5 years old, and doing fine. In the second photo, I’m adding a rub strip of ash. This came unglued after one season. Since then, I’ve replaced it with an epoxy-soaked piece of nylon webbing. I included it here so you could see how the bottom is holding up without a sheathed bottom. To me, the most important thing you can do for durability is use a two-part polyurethane paint, inside and out. The cost of it is staggering, but it wears like iron. I used to get a lot of paint scuffing from nesting, when I first painted Two Bits with Britesides. This doesn’t happen, now that I switched to two-part poly. And don’t apologize for asking questions. Yeah, your question might have been asked a few years ago, but good luck finding it! Besides, we love giving free advice. Just remember that the advice we give is worth every penny you paid for it.

The trimaran I just built (for someone else) called for 4 oz taped seams with a sheath of 4 oz over that. The thin fabric “tape” required little or no sanding of the edges. I cut the “tape” from a bolt of glass cloth. Instead of microspheres, I use West 410 filler mixed 2:1, epoxy:filler by volume. This is applied with a 3/8” shaggy nap roller. I learned this from an OffCenter Harbor video by Russell Brown. This is now my go-to method. Here’s how it looks on my masthead float. And here’s a link to the video. I don’t bother with the foam roller. https://www.offcenterharbor.com/videos/mastering-epoxy-russell-brown-part-8-fill-coating/

I'm not sure if I'm following your pix, exactly, but if you have your downhauls and reef lines anchored on one side of the mast and bring them back to be pulled tight on the other (port) side, that should work. then you can walk forward on stbd side deck. That's more or less what I have, just with the sides flipped. I added a little tent to my dodger this winter. I should have taken a picture. I'm hoping to be able to adjust anchor from cockpit, after setting anchor before I put up the canvas. Heading north for sail camping on Friday. Stay tuned.

Centerboard Issues! First, I noticed that one of the bolts securing the padeyes for the raising and lower mechanisms was loose (explanation: On the part of the centerboard that sticks up as a lever to raise and lower, there are padeyes on both sides for blocks; on mine, these are on opposite sides of the lever so two bolts, each going completely through the lever, are used to hold the padeyes). I had a pliers on board and went to tighten it, and the bolt broke off. I removed the bolt at home. I am thinking this is an area of high loads, so my plan is to drill out a larger hole, fill with epoxy, and then drill a new bolt hole. While I'm at it I might as well do this for the hole for the other bolt holding the padeye. I don't know if this is overkill--I know epoxy gives waterproofing, which might have been the culprit, though I doubt it in this area of the boat. Does expoxy give better holding power here? Second issue. The centerboard is wiggly, meaning you can move it back and forth when it is up. It also vibrates as certain speeds and points of sail. However, when you lower it, it does stick a bit. Then, under sail, it is very difficult to raise up. I learned this as I was experimenting with raising the board a bit on a broad reach. I think, but I'm not certain, that the board was tight because the slackness side to side lets the board get wedges on a slight diagonal as the boat is being pushed sideways. Does this make sense as a cause? And is there any danger here, seeing that it has been this way since the initial build 20 years ago?

Thanks, Don, glad to provide inspiration! I really, really, appreciate all the technical building questions and posts here (and goodness knows I have a lots of questions and will continue to have them!), but we need the "look at these boats sailing" posts, too! I can also report that these boats come with a "make Dad swim" feature. Simply go to the foredeck, hang your towel on the overhang of the sprit, and then jump in the water. Next, after your swim, begin to enter the boat via the aft ladder. This will make your Dad hustle to the front sprit to get your towel to reduce the amount of water you are bringing into the boat. At this point, your old, clumsy Dad will grab the sprit for balance as he reaches to get the towel, bringing the sail abeam to the wind, causing the boat to heel and the sprit to start pushing Dad off the deck. You can help by leaning to the side while on the ladder. At this point Dad will have no choice but to jump in the water!

I'll throw in my 2 cents. If you're going to sheath the outside of a spindrift technically you should have at least 10 oz on the joints same weight as the tape so there is the same weight cloth on both sides. The minimum for 6mm ply for the joint to be as strong as the ply is 10oz. So if you use a lighter cloth like 6oz or even 4oz then you need to tape the joints too. Personally I think the biggest advantage of glassing the outside is to eliminate the fairing in of all the tape seams on the outside which significantly reduces sanding for a smooth exterior. Though how much less sanding i supposed depends on how good a job you do. It could easily make the job harder than just fairing in the tape if you do a messy job. But If you have to use tape too then that benefit is a bit negated and I'd just use the tape. So it's really 10oz cloth or 10oz tape. If your argument is you want extra "abrasion resistance" on the bottom (which glass doesn't really provide much of) then you could just put the 10oz cloth on the bottom panel and overlap the chines 1 1/2" as the tape would and leave the sides bare. Then you just need to add a piece of tape up the stem and on the transom edges. That would be a lighter choice but still with tape seams that need fairing in on the topsides. A better method for adding abbrasion resistance is to add rub strips out by the chine (pic below). Graham mentioned recently he prefers these. Bronze works for them and you can drill and tap holes and screw pieces on from the inside of the hull sealed with butyl rubber caulk so they can be removed for refinishing. Or glue a strip of wood to the outside and cap it with a piece of metal or uhmw with fasteners isolated to that outer piece of wood. But for a sailing dinghy that won't be pulled up on a beach all the time i probably wouldn't bother. When glass sheathing 10oz I usually just wet it through the glass over bare ply as Paul said but the sides especially on larger boats are harder because the surface is vertical. In that case rolling epoxy into the wood first helps speed up the wet out process a lot. If you do wet the ply first do it with a roller for an even coat before rolling the glass back out so theres no chance of puddles under the glass. It does speed up the wetting out process which can help a lot if you're glassing in colder temps like below room temp. Higher than room temp i'd just pour it on the cloth over bare ply. We like to spread a microspheres and epoxy mixture over the glass a few hours after wetting it out once it gets tacky so fill the weave in one step. This mix is lighter than straight epoxy and sands a little easier. importantly, we don't use cabosil for this as that would be very hard to sand.

Not that much Light cloth (6 oz/200gsm) for a spindrift would be about 3 sq m by 200gsm = 600gm. The resin weight is about the same for a hand layup so that adds up to 1.2kg (2.6 lbs). Proportionally less for lighter cloth. I've glassed a few dinghies and it does make them more tolerant of abuse. Pros and cons I suppose. Cheers Peter HK

Honestly as I first time builder I was following suggestions in the designer recommended video. The instructions gave a decision of glass or just epoxy and tape, but glass seemed to be the more common path and what was shown in the video. This boat will be used as a small sailboat for local lakes and not as a tender. I don't plan to be leaving it in the water overnight, but I can imagine it will see it's fair share of scuffs and dings, so the extra protection of a layer of glass seemed appealing.

I will apologize in advance for adding confusion to your plan. Why are you glassing the outside? Three coats of epoxy and taped seams is all you need glassing just adds more weight. It all depends on the service the boat will be subjected to. If it is going to be dragged o to rocks a lot, then I’d go with Dynel, but that will really add weight. Some coat the bottoms with epoxy thickened with graphite powder.

@Murray— Those are floorboards that can be relocated up to fill in the forward area. I still haven’t sailed her yet, but I think my First Mate will appreciate them. The attached photo shows her favorite sailing posture. To me, they’re a little heavy and clunky. (The floorboards, that is.) I might replace them with prettier ones, but that will come after the messabout. (Still talking about the floorboards.)

Thanks for sharing this, Andy. I’m slogging away on my refurb. This is inspiring.

I appreciate the info Paul. That makes a lot of sense and also confirms my suspicion about using thickened epoxy as a top coat. As you suggested I'm planning to paint so that will work fine. Thanks again.

Thanks, Paul. That's a pretty deck! My trunk cabin is the reason for my custom rig. But now I'm unexpectedly finding the mizzen a bit short. When I hung the new mizzensail from the new mast it didn't clear my head by as much as I'm used to, and came pretty low over the cabin entrance. Hmmm...