Andrew

Barry The enthusiasm is growing daily - because OTHERS can see that it's becomming a boat. I seem to be making lots of progress at once (which is good), but I'm waiting for the 'slow down' when the fiddley and finer details need to be taken care of. I promise that the piccys will be here on Sunday (aussie time)

WoooHooo My 'no longer undersized' deck went on last night I hope to bombard you with piccys this weekend. Just a quick note - I have found that when kerfing the stringers, it is best NOT to kerf at the mid-point of the bend. This seems to make the stringer bend only from that middle kerf and then snap! It didn't seem to be a problem for stringers attached to bulkheads etc. but for those that just were, like the bottom to transom stringer and the bottom to lazarette stringer. Andrew

Hi again Just a quick note to let the whole world know how myself and VAZTR are going...(VAZTR comes from the first initials of all the families name) After thinking how stupid I was :x at mis-measuring the deck (4" short) and now having trouble with the top lazarette stringer and being sooo worried that I wasn't 'following' the plans, I've decided - bugger it! Its MY boat and all these 'modifications' make her more and more MY boat and less and less a Stevenson's boat (no disrespect intended Mike et al.) I was truely worried :cry: that I was messing up so early on in the piece, so I took a couple of days away from the boat, then re-read Franks build diary (thanx again Frank) and realised that the only person who saw this as a big deal was me - and if the 'great' Frank Hagan (Forum Guru and Weekender officianardo ) had similar problems and overcame them then surely I could too. Special thanx to Barry for his words of wisdom and for trying to help me work out where I had gone astray. And for all the help he will be providing me in the future :wink: Now back to the 'boatshed' to add some more 'personal touches' (but not too many, I hope) Andrew And I thought boat building was going to be therapy

Very nice lines knut I looked at lots of your photos and was very impressed. By the by, why do some/all builders put a coin under the mast? Thanx Andrew

Barry Fortuneately I haven't built my keel 'upside down' - all my angles are good but my deck measuring isn't I've found that I'm 2 inches short on the front deck panel - I misread the 7" length as 7"-2" for squaring off at the stem - and my mis deck pieces are about 1 1/2" short due to the ply sheets not being a full 8' long. I'm still planning on adding a 4" piece on each side of the deck at about midpoint - this shouldn't interfere with the deck curve too much. Here's hoping that this is as much trauma as I go through with this baby Thanx for your help

From what I've read on the forum, Capt Jake doesn't build boats - just expensive lawn furniture (just joking) If you can get a boat anywhere near that level of finish you're doing a fantastic job - but I'm guessing that the 'getting it wet' day is a pretty fine day for all the builders on this forum Andrew

Barry today will be 'remeasuring day'! I'm not terribly worried (yet) after all this is a lot easier to correct than to find out that none of my centrelines meet (sorry Frank) And looking at it another way - maybe I'll end up with the worlds longest on deck weekender LOL

Steve Sort of proves that you can do anything doesn't it? I had much the same experiance a couple of months ago and it's amazing how good it feels to get the first job done and what a sense of achievement it brings. Now on to the good bits, making it look like a boat - my family/friends/workmates/casual aquaitences used to sit and laugh at me when I would show them the keel and say 'this is the start of my boat'. As soon as the hull bottom went on they all started to change their tune. It starts to look impressive at that stage, and I think that even the 'landlubbers' can begin to imagine a boat. I had a builder friend come over and lift the deck on for me yesterday for a 'dry fit' and I think he'll be ordering his plans before the end of the year!!!! Keep it going - your the best boat builder you know!

I've just tried the deck as a 'dry fit' on the bulkheads and it don't fit :cry: I seem to be 4 inces 'out'. If I fit to the transom all is fine 'till the front bulkhead - then the 1x4 deck joiner is the wrong side of the bulkhead. If I fit from the stem, all is fine 'till the cabin bulkhead, where it doesn't meet the deck cutouts. I've been ummming and arghhhhing all night over this and think that the only thing I can do is to add another 4 inch deck piece on both sides of the cabin. I think the reason I'm out by sooooooo much is that the angle at the front of the keel must be tooo big. :x Ahhh well, another day in paradise . By the way, I've managed to 'test sail' VAZTR for the first time this week (just to see how I fit in) and I've found that I don't need the seat cutouts in the cabin bulkhead to lie down in her (I'm only 5'2") so I may put doors here for lockers and then if someone taller is staying overnight they can be removed (the doors!). Andrew

Steve Get plenty of pictures! I recently got the keel glued - and very close to the measurements required Its just such a sense of achievement AND even if you don't show them here (I don't - we've all seen the keel before and some of the guys have great 'construction' sites) you've always got them for you and your family. I know that I'll be going back to them time and again when shes finished. And it also lets you 'prove' to all those at the mariner that, "yes I did build it actually" Andrew

Fintan Does your family roll their eyes back collectively when you do this? Mine do I had a two month hiatus after doing the keel while saving up for the plywood and all I could do was watch and dream. I've watched it so many times that the kids have started to hum the tunes! I love it!

After about 2 months of not doing anything on the boat, I finally saved enough pennies to go and get the plywood for the hull bottom and deck (still can't afford the sides yet :x ). I then spent half of today lofting and cutting the hull bottom, forward bulkhead and cabin 'bulkhead' out. After all that time of sitting and looking at a keel with nothing to do, it finally feels like I'm getting somewhere . Tomorrow I'll loft and cut all the 3/8" ply pieces for the deck, transom and lazarette. Then for the big day of glueing it all together - thats probably next week. Just thought you'd all be as pleased as I am to know whats happening!! :oops: Andrew

Joel Looking good! I notice that you cut the transom at the higher of the two versions and am wondering if you are going to trim this later and add the taffrail or keep it 'as is'? Has anyone else done this? or is it simply easier to cut to size (for the taffrail) first? Andrew

Florin I believe that once the rudder passes about 30 degrees it 'stalls' and becomes ineffective, so having the rudder go no further than that could actually be helpful! Hope that gives you some hope :wink:

Richard I was thinking much the same thing myself - I've just finished putting my keel together - but a few things have kept me from doing this... these are 1) permanent weight - it makes the boat harder to move when building and trailer 2) I don't live near the sea, and the lakes I am near are small and shallow so I doubt that extra ballast will be of a lot of use to me - (when I do sail around the world it will be in my home built 40' :shock: ) 3) I'm doing what the Stevensons tell us - try it before you start to mod it too much. Just my 2 cents.... But remember - it's YOUR boat, YOU can do with it as you please :wink: Andrew

Barry You should get a job doing this for a living! What a great diagram, woodgrain and all! Maybe the stevensons could emply you to re draw the plans Keep up the great work - and don't use up all your drawing skills before I get to the bits I need help with :wink: Thanx Andrew

Please pardon my ignorance, but how do you get the Genoa to 'jibe' (hope thats the right word :oops: ) when tacking :oops: etc? I guess I could ask the same question about the Jib. I realise the clubfoot takes care of most of this on the 'original' weekender, but how does the rigging work for a 'real' setup Thanx Andrew

I realise I'm getting wayyy ahead of myself again, but I would be interested in any comments that you have with a seating arrangment I've been toying with. It's sort of half 'enclosed' seating (as per the plan) and half 'exposed' seating (as per some mods I've seen on the site). I'm thinking of doing this for 2 reasons. 1) Its cheaper? I don't have to cover the aft vertical with wood 2) It still gives 'foot room' for those in the cabin 3) Improved drainage for the cabin/under seat area Any thoughts will be received with the normal scepticism Thanx Andrew

Frank et al. This is exactly where I started some 6 months ago now.... I was looking into building a Volksplane (VW powered plywood aircraft) but just couldn't bring myself to trust my building ability at 10,000'. So I figured why don't I try something as adventurous, but not quite soooo life threatening :shock: Then I found the Stevproj site after looking for a boat to build and PRESTO here I am. Thinking back I'm kinda sorta glad the plane project never made it 'off the ground' so to speak - yous guys are a top bunch, the boat looks like a hoot - the lake's only a couple of minutes away - I don't have to deal with HEAPS of RED TAPE, the kids can join me, the kids can even steer/sail, the dog can come too, I can camp overnight........etc.etc. :wink: Now i'm thinking of canning the whole plane project after the boat is finished and prehaps look into making a bigger boat at a much later date - to do some serious cruising up the coast. So thanx all to the Stevensons, Frank for this site (and his other one) and to all yous guys that give the words of encouragement when I need it, critisism when I don't (LOL) and the help when I ask (ALL the time)

has anyone ever tried 'lounging' on a net behind a W/E or vacationer? I remember that the tourists in Cairns used to sit on a net being towed behind the boat. It was said to be fairly relaxing at low speed, but quite scary if things really got going!!

Sorry the fire wall won't let me send the attachments (I'm at work). Try the glen-l site - find the book and check under the page labelled 'Chapter 3 - Masts and booms' I'll post the pictures later today when I get home

Florin These pictures are from the Glen-L book 'Rigging small sailboats' - its readable on-line at Glen-l.com. I copied and pasted all the on-line pages into a woed document so I have the whole book when I need it and I can print it any time. It's a fairly large word doco (>1MB), but if others show interest I'm willing to zip it up and e-mail to those who want a copy (If I'm not infringing anybody's copyright!!)

I realise that I've missed the deadline, but this site seems to have lots for us 'salty' folk, including Mr Slocums book try http://www.arthur-ransome.org/ar/literary/ardocs.htm they're all free!! (well done Cap'n Cheap) Andrew

Jake Any chance of a quick sketch of what you've done? A picture says a thousand words - and I don't read real quick :wink: Thanx Andrew

Trey I've often wondered how others go about mounting their antennas for their marine radios and how this would affect conductivity for lightening. Andrew