Fintan Murphy

Dave, if I am reading you right, you have the lines coming from the blocks on the top of the mast, to turning blocks at the front of the cabin. I think others, and the Stevensons video, have turning blocks on the mast base, (level with the top of the cabin). In this scenario, the lines lead down the side of the mast, whereas in yours they come out from the mast, which is causing the problem you report. You ask if you should move the turning blocks to the corners of the cabin, my suggestion is to move them to the side of the mast. Hope this helps

Thanks Bill, it broke a smile on my face. I can almost picture it :shock: I like running across guys like his father - who seem to make it their lifes work to defy conventional wisdom.

Suaimhneas Ken, you're right, it's Gaelic. It's pronounced SUVNESS I was pondering for quite some time on a name. I am not alone here I'll bet, as it is probably one of the most important things (in my opinion) about the boat. After all, if you have built it, it embodies part of what you are, feel, or believe in. (OK I'll lighten up again - it's Monday morning, and it's raining). It can be translated to mean a feeling of peace, or calm. And it's the sort of feeling that descends on me when I'm in the middle of the harbour, with a light breeze, sitting back with the Sun setting, sailing past Cobh with the cathedral off port, and Haulbowline Island off starbord. Off the stern you can see Monkstown, and the entrance to the Lee River, and off the bow, the harbour mouth and beyond.

It's a three horse race. Suaimhneas is nearing completion. I finished the cabin and fore hatches, and put on the non-skid (coat of epoxy, playsand, vacuum off, and seal with a coat of epoxy) last week. I have to paint the deck, cabin top, and cockpit, varnish the spars, set up the rigging, and make the sails. Plus the loads of little jobs that will spring to mind that I've forgotten. :roll: I hope to be in the water mid-August, wife willing.

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. The current thinking is that I will create a semi-circular shelf and attach it to the (rear of the) mast, I'll round the mast for about four inches up from the shelf, and wrap leather around the rounded part. I'll make the boom jaws, with leather around their inner edges, (and beads on the retaining string). I don't think there is a need for the small swivel (horse?) in the middle of the jaws as the boom does not run up the mast, and should not lever in a vertical plane, both of which happen to the gaff. I think that the weight of the boom sould negate the need for a downhaul, and be enough to keep the luff tensioned. If this is not the case, I can create a downhaul later.

Ray mentioned on the BYYB that he would go with boom jaws rather than the gooseneck fitting if he were to do it over. Well, I'm in that position in that I have to either make the gooseneck, or now have the option to make boom jaws instead. (Thanks for the thought Ray). They certainly are appealing, as well as being easier than getting all that stainless drilled. I could make a circular collar on my (square) mast to accept the jaws, and easily attach them to the (square) boom. What are the collective thoughts... pro's and con's. ?

Yep, If I remember correctly I had enough with the two side panels. A lot of head scratching (bad idea with epoxy on the gloves :roll: ) later, I decided to fuggetaboutit, and moved on. I did have much bigger pieces on the cabin top though (than were shown in the video), and there was no way I would get two portholes between the two rafters (again as shown in the plans). At that stage I wasn't worried as I had realised that, as the Stevensons say, sometimes the little mistakes cancel each other out, sometimes they bunch up together. At the end of the day it doesn't matter. She'll still float and sail just fine.

Yea, only do the minimal sanding before the glass cloth. I just took out any bumps or high spots left over when I filled the screwholes with thickened epoxy. The cloth will cover anything else, and as Frank said, you will have a lot of sanding to do after the epoxy goes on. :roll:

Congratulations Tyler, hopefully I'll be joining you in the very near future. They've started a betting pool in the office as to when I'll be finished. :roll: The pressure's on :!:

Thanks Lads!, it makes a Monday more bearable to know that I am not alone in my clod-hopperness

is to prove to you what a shite woodworker you are :roll: I spent the previous two nights cutting out the pieces for the coming between the cabin and cockpit. Talk about wobbly :oops: ! I'll be spending the next few nights sanding and fairing them to make them look anyway presentable. Part of the problem is the fact that they have to be cut at the same angle as the seatbacks. You look at the cut along the marked line on top, and it doesn't look too bad, then you look at the underside and it's all over the shop. Slight changes in pressure on the jigsaw create large variations further along the blade. :evil: I'm glad I bought more epoxy and fairing powder now. :shock:

Joke for all you parents of teenagers out there Johnny leaves home to move into an apartment. After a month his parents invite him home for a meal. All the time during the meal, he keeps going on and on "Do you realise the price of food, and meat!, it's so expensive I'm thinking of becoming a vegitarian!" And his mother says "I know, I know" "And do you realise how much washing powder is!, and toilet paper", And his mother says "I know, I know" "And the bill came for the electricity, and the phone!, I couldn't have made that many phone calls!" And his mother says "I know, I know" At this point, Johnny looks over at his mother with an exasperated expression and says......... . . . . . . . . . . . . "How would you know!, you're still living at home!"

Welcome back Shane, hope winter isn't too bad down under. My brother, wife, and three hoons are coming from Melbourne next month for six weeks. He never lost his Cork accent, either has his wife, but the kids (who were all born in Oz),... it's like listening to an episode of neighbours :roll: People in Melbourne, on hearing his youngest, who hasn't started kinder yet, know he has Irish parents. They can hear the Irish accent he got from Conor (my brother) and Kay (his wife), but all I can hear is Auzzie. I'm just back from the Chandlers after buying more epoxy. Jeez, I should have bought a bloody boat, it would have been a lot quicker, and waaaaaay cheaper! :cry: Kick 'er in the guts!

Hi all, I would like to ask the general wisdom of you all on the best time to add the non-skid on the deck. At the moment the deck is epoxied, and another coat would not hurt. So I could add the sand onto the next fresh layer of epoxy, then paint over that when dry. Or I could add the next coat of epoxy, and add the sand to the paint primer, or the undercoat, or the top coat. Or should I put on another coat of epoxy, then the sand, then a sealing layer of epoxy over the sand? The only reason I can see to adding it to the paint is that it would get renewed if I ever sanded and painted again. But that is probably not going to happen. If I repaint, I would probably do so over the existing coat, rather than sand it off. It also appears that the non-skid gets better with a few coats of paint on it, i.e. it is not as rough. I also have the option of buying one of those rubberised additives for the paint, but I already have the playsand. What did y'all do?

Yea, flymo is a brand (the original) of the hover lawn mowers. What I've always wondered is how they hover by blowing down air, and still manage to cut the grass at the same time? Some type of wizardry me thinks!

My vote is for sailing. Building, and repairing - that's what winter is for.

Born on the nose! - that must have hurt :shock: Congratulations Konrad, and now America has it's own Weapon of Mass Distruction - a pint sized Konrad. :roll: And you can tell your wife "We need a bigger boat"

Yeah Frank, I was suprized to find out that bilge keel boats are not common (or in some cases unheard of) in America. Just another incidence of me assuming that everybody has the same stuff. ( remember the Flymo lawnmower ). They are quite common in Ireland, and more so in England, and I saw quite a few in France, as well as a lot of centreboarders. The idea is that they are easy to trailer, and drying moorings are much cheaper than deep water ones. It also allows you to walk out to your boat in your wellingtons, get everything setup, and wait for the tide to come in. It also allows you to sail to a lot of places that a deeper draft boat couldn't reach. As far as sailing ability, one school of thought is that they are not as good as a fin keel, but the other school is that the advantages above outweigh that fact, as well as the arguement that, when the boat is heeled over, the leeward keel is vertical and therefore effecient. No doubt there is a wealth of info on the net under "bilge keels".

I reasoned that the variation in tide was due to the volume of water. As tide is a product of the moons gravity, the amount of water pulled through the Atlantic would be rater large. Hence the large tides on Irish coasts. I also noticed, when we were coming back, that the tides on the east coast of France (the same side as Portugal and Eastern Spain) where as big as our own. The Med, on the other hand, has a smaller volume of water , so the amount being pulled would not be that great. Hence the smaller tides on the west coast of Spain. However, as has happened before (and will no doubt happen again), I could be talking out of my ass, and there is some other reason for this phenomonon. :roll: You could be on to something with the latitude however, as my argument does not count for the Irish Sea (between England and Ireland), which would hint towards small tides on the East coast of Ireland, and West coast of England, which is not the case. A measure of the various tide heights down alond the coast of America would point some way to an answer. If they diminished as you head towards the equator, you would be right about the latitude affecting them. No doubt the someone will chime in.

I was wondering why time flew by on the holiday Ok, so it's the Mediterranean :oops: What's an ocean between friends. By the way, it's odd to see a tide rise of about one and a half feet, when you are used to about ten (in the Atlantic). It's hard to know if the tide is going out or coming in.

Well, I'm back from my hols in Spain and France. Probably the best holidays we've had. 3 weeks is the only way to go! Anyway, there we were, on a little beach north of Barcelona, motoring around in a glass-bottomed boat, and what should I see on the water? Could it be?, are they actually Blue polytarp sails out there? As we drew closer I could make out the lines, Yes, a STEVENSONS MINI-CUP! Two guys enjoying themself out in the Pacific, in a Stevensons boat. Made me all mushy inside (and a bit jealous :? ) There and then, I informed SWMBO in no uncertain terms that the Weekender WILL be finished in July (that is, if she doesn't mind terribly :shock: )

Hello all, I haven't posted for a while so I thought I'd check in. The boat hasn't seen the light of day for a while as I finished my first year project for college, which I submitted this month. I am off tomorrow for a three week motorcycle jaunt around France and Spain, especially Barcelona, with my Good Lady Wife. That is, if I can ever persuade her to reduce her desired clothes packing pile by about two thirds so that it will actually fit in the panniers :shock: I have also informed her that the diary has been cleared for July, and the boat is going in the water, come hell or high water! It doesn't need that much to finish it, with a few shortcuts along the way, and some non-essential jobs left until the winter, but By God!, I'm going to be sailing in August. I also have some holidays left which I can take then, and work all day on the boat. All this of course assumes that the weather gods will smile on me this time, unlike last year. No doubt you will hear from me in July, when the questions will begin again.

Denis, the Stevensons do not fiberglass above the lower rubrail, but some people have done so. The two methods are to either fiberglass a strip between the rails when they are in place, or (as I did) fiberglass the whole hull and apply the rubrails afterwards. I think a lot depends on the width of the cloth available to you. My cloth width allowed me to fiberglass the full half of the hull from keel to top, whereas some widths will just go to the lower rubrail. I would not think that fiberglassing over the rubrail is a good idea as the curve between the hull and the rail (side) is too steep, and the glass will get beat up rather than the rail.

Frank, tell Jan not to worry, it was a nice night and I really enjoyed the spin home, with a bright moon, clear skys, and the heated handlebars turned on. I think I found the bird your daughter was describing (The black and white striped bird). It is probably the Pied Wagtail, also called a Willie Wagtail. They are quite common and very distintive. They are about the size of a finch (as she said), and when they land on the ground they wag their tails up and down (hence the name). They are fly and insect eaters and have a hunting method thats fun to watch. They will walk around in the grass flushing out the insects. When an insect takes flight the wagtail will launch itself in a flurry of loops and twirls to catch it. It was the only black and white bird I cound find in the bird book I have, and I didn't think of it at the time as I remembered them as being grey and white (my mistake). Have a good flight home, and if you are reading this after arriving back, I hope you had a good trip. Let me know what you think of the whiskey by the way.

Well, I'm delighted to say that we managed to meet up. They were coming down to Kilkenny yesterday (Tuesday), I managed to get out of work at 3:30 and drove up to meet them. A good time was had by all, and it was great to finally meet the maker of the best web site on the net, his long suffering wife, two lovely daughters, and son-in-law. We had dinner and sat in the pub talking until 10 o'clock when I regretfully had to bid farewell, and drive the two hours back to Cork (no speeding tickets on the way back Frank!) :oops: It was great getting to share opinions and stories face to face and I enjoyed getting an American view of Ireland (apparently we're a friendly bunch). I hope I was able to enlighten them about various Irish idiosyncrasies. When I arrived back my wife asked if we spent the whole night talking about BOATS (her emphasis, and not complimentary :? Funnily enough, they were hardly mentioned. I think Frank and I should claim the moral high-ground and say that it was in deference to the company present.