Andrew

Your right Jeff - there aint a lot of big water around here, just a few little man made lakes - I live around the corner from one of them - there is a large lake (Lake George) but it has a weird habbit of emptying itself!!??? I'm hoping it'll ready by MY winter, but who knows the way I'm going it might take 'till next christmas!! A

Hi all, It's has been waaay too long since I posted about having done any work on my weekender 'VAZTR'. That's because it's been waaay too long since I had actually done any work on her I broke my wrist over Christmas!! But the good news is that last week my 14 year old son helped me roll her onto her roof and I have been spending most evenings filling, sanding, fairing, fixing and generally making her ready for the fibreglass. I've also booked time off work over Easter so I might get some real time to spend on her!! I might just be ready for the middle of winter!! Andrew

Dingo I've got a better idea... Stop halfway and drop in on the east coast - I may have a boat in the water this year :shock: I was hoping for an Easter finish, but it looks like I'll be ready right in the middle of the snow season here!! Andrew

Hi Peyton, I'll be listening with baited? breath to all the views on how to turn your boat - I'm up to the same point. I was thinking of checking out the charity bins for an old matress to do the roll on (I'll give the matress back when I'm finished). Andrew

Darrell, This all depends on what brand and type of epoxy you are using. Epoxys come in lots of different mixes, I personally have seen mixes from 1:1 through to 5:1 (resin to hardener) then there are slow and quick set hardeners and thinners to make the epoxy 'bleed' into the wood. If you could let us know what brand you are using I'm sure one of the great builders on this site will be able to fill you in on their experiences. Hope all goes well with your project Andrew

Phil You remind me of when I holidayed in NZ some years ago (I have Maori friends over there and I was best man for their wedding). One of the best foods I had over there was smoked fish, cold, between two slices of bread. They lived near the water in Auckland and would go down to the smokehouse at the docks and pickup 4 or 5 fish, wrapped in newspaper and bring them home to eat straight away. I'm sure it tasted better because of the fact that it was 'simple' food - you would simply grab a slice of bread, pick the fish off the bone with your fingers, put it on the bread, whack another slice over the top and voila - a meal fit for a king! Andrew

I've seen a couple of the shuttles in my travels... First on the back of a 747 very early on in the program - it flew over my (parents) house in Manchester (UK) on its way to Manchester airport on a publicity tour. Second time was when I was living in Bega NSW Australia - it was just a bright dot streaking across the sky at a kagillion MPH. PS interesting fact - the US govt (or NASA I forget which) helped pay for one of Sydney airports runways - it's long enough for a shuttle to land on (just!) if they have to come back half way through an orbit. Dave - maybe you could start a fund to try to increase the length of Rochesters runway :wink: Andrew

So i'm almost at the 'turn her over and glass the bottom phase' but I'd like to know if it can be 'too cold' to glass. Here in the ACT it's just starting winter and the overnight temps are dropping to just about 0C (32F), is this too cold? Should I put the heater on overnight? Should I wait 'till spring? Am I paranoid (you bet) Thanx Andrew

Tis a funny world we live in I have been through Brunswick many times when I was in WA (a lovely little place) - but now that I'm in the ACT I long for the water WD is having. My folks are still in WA but 'up north' in Two Rocks and are enjoying the rainfall We are in level 2 water restrictions in the ACT (on the east coast 3000kms away) and a town called Goulburn 100K's north has been on level 6 for almost 2 years - their damn is due to run out of water by Christmas and they are about to begin a $3m AU pipeline to a lake that will provide water for 4 more months, after that ?????? Maybe I shouldn't be building a boat out here!!! Or maybe I should go the whole hog and start on the 50' for the ocean cruise :shock: A

Stump Maybe you're just worried that once the project's finished, you'll have nothing to do! Sounds like it's time to start looking for some more plans...for a bigger boat :wink: In the 2 years I've been building I've found that I've had 2 MAJOR 'pauses' during the build. One when the deck was 4" short and I thought I'd screwed the whole thing up (so I just left it and moped around a lot) and the other when my parents drove across the country to visit the grandkids for 3 months (I had a funny feeling that if dad helped it would end up being a catamaran!!). Now that I have the boat almost to the fibreglass stage I find that I'm getting more and more eager to get it finished and sailing...but I have a funny feeling that this will be that first of many sailing boats for me :twisted: Andrew

Wish it was a sailing report!! Picked the trailer up on the weekend. Left on Friday at lunchtime, Me, SWMBO and the three kids - drove for 8 hours - SWMBO and the kids had lots of 'drive thru' food (I can't, I'm a coeliac [celiac US]). We stayed in a motel overnight, the girls (7 and 9) thought it was the best, just like being on a holiday!! Went to get the trailer @ 9.00am the next morning. Trailer looked a little rusty (it's only surface rust so it's no big problem), when the guy tells me that one of the bearings is shot and will need replacing - thanx a lot buddy!! So I pay the cash, hitch up the trailer and start to think about how I'll be able to replace a bearing with NO TOOLS, NO WHERE TO DO IT and NO BEARING, with SWMBO and the 3 kids in the car! So an executive decision is made - we'll stop every 30Ks if we have to, and we'll be back in Canberra by July. First stop - Bearing feels OK... No, bearing feels better than OK - it feels fine, maybe I just got lucky - Kids get some more drive thru Second stop - Bearing still feels good - I'm feeling a little better - kids want more drive thru, but I am strong Third stop - bearing temp hasn't changed - I feel good about the bearing, but a bit miffed that I've been stopping every 30Ks for no real reason except to let the kids whinge about wanting MORE drive thru. Fourth Stop - Did 100Ks this time, bearing is behaving better than if I had changed it :shock: - I give in and the kids get drive thru Fifth stop - did 300Ks, obviously the guy didn't know what a shot bearing was! I picture him sat at home, comfy, relaxed, watching the footy, drinking the beer that he bought with the cash I gave him and laughing his head off at the guy who's taking 2 months to do a 700K journey :x . About 60Ks out of Canberra the kids have realised that we haven't had drive thru for a while AND its getting dark - 'Dad, why don't we book into a motel and you can have a rest?' :roll: - Nice try. Home - 9 hours after the journey began. It's dark, I'm grumpy, SWMBO is mumbling something about '...that bloody boat...', the kids have spent 17 of the last 32 hours in the back seat of a car. Was it worth it? Morning - and there in the carport is a trailer sat next to a pile of plywood that looks like a boat Damn right it was worth it! So now I've got some trailer work to do - which distracts me from VAZTR once again, but at least it's part of the same project, and I can see how good it will look when VAZTR gets to sit on it.

I lost my first piece in much the same way. I had pre drilled the screw holes in the ply and found that the ply failed right at the centre hole, so for the next piece I pre drilled all the screw holes except for the middle one and one either side of that. Single handed and using a rachet 'tie down' around the whole piece she went on a treat.

Firewalls Every time I try to post to this forum from my work machine, I get a message that the page cannot be displayed. So I 'back' to my message and try to send again. Eventually after 7 quintrillion tries (6 or 7 in 'real' numbers) the message gets through. Maybe it's the boss telling me I should be doing some real work instead of dreaming about THAT boat Too Bad HAHAHa

I've been looking and looking for a trailer for Vaztr for months - I've checked Ebay, the paper, the local trading post, garage sales and NOTHING has come up (except a few on ebay for $1000AU - how can I justify that for such a 'cheap' boat). So I end up forking out $34US for the Glen L plans and book for the 1000 series trailer. 2 days later a trailer appears on ebay with a $250AU 'buy it now' - so I do - and it's registered - and it's only 7 hours drive away. Ah well - when all's said and done, I can see that the trailer will need some mods anyway, so maybe the book and plans aren't a waste after all A

Steve I think Dingo is a LONG way away from Brisvegas (4000ish kilometres) I also have relies in Wagga Wagga (sister in law) they are about 3 hours away from where I am and Brisvegas is a good 12 hour drive. I used to live in lovely WA with my folks (they're still there, in two rocks), but work took me to the east. It's been a long long time since my last post, and Not much had been done to VAZTR between Christmas and March (my folks drove over to see the grand kids, and if I let my father work on the boat it would come out as a catamaran!!!) Since then I've got the roof on, and put in the half seat arrangement (photos to come soon). I guess I'm two weeks away from turning her over to glass the bottom - but I've got to invite the soccer team I play for over to help me! Glad to see Dingo's been bitten buy the bug (Dingo's been bitten - that's almost a joke over here HAHAHAHA) Andrew