Steve Tarry

That's it, Frank; preserve your purity of essence at all cost.

Man, Russians... First there was that whole communism thing and now they're hacking into the Messing About website. Next thing you know they'll be putting flouride in the vodka to sap our precious bodily fluids!

From the look of the posts on the "Sail Talk" forum, poor Paul is up to his eyes in confusion and late deliveries. This may all eventually sort itself out, but in the meantime, is there anyone else who has been making sails specifically for the Stevenson designs?

Chris, that's gorgeous!! Are the vertical boards that are painted white some sort of sheet material you've bent into that shape or are they individually laid up? Either way... Wow!!!

Yeah, what's with that? I was getting ready to cut a check for sails, but now I'm not so sure. Is Paul a hobbyist, a business, or a scam? I hate to assume the worst about anyone I don't know, but two years is more than a bit of lead time. Who else has had experience with Ulta Sails and how has it been?

Seven inches of rain in one day? Good gravy! We don't get seven inches in a month. Here it just clouds up in mid October and stays that way until the 5th of July, with a bit of mist here and there to keep things green. Seven inches in one day would wash the moss right off the north sides of our trees, houses, and cars.

My old Santana had the pins facing the same way, so the rudder could be easily removed, and then it had a loose pin that locked it in place while in use so it didn't float off while underway. You can imagine what a pain that might be.

Florin, as much as I hate to say it, I wouldn't touch the whole idea of school kids anywhere near a boat with a barge pole. Sadly, we live in an era when everyone sues everyone else at a moment's notice. I teach high school, and we've been instructed not to pick up one of our kids with our own car, even if they're hiking along the side of the road in a driving rainstorm in January. The last thing you need is to get caught up in some sort of suit because a kid slips in a wet spot on the dock and the parents think the school district's pockets aren't deep enough. Isn't that sad that we can't think in terms of doing something nice for someone, especially for children, without worrying about such stuff as legal issues?

Frank, you da man, as they say. You're the guy who's gone to the trouble of giving us this forum in the first place, so if anyone complains about computer snafus as you make the changeover in systems, let 'em eat cake.

Greg, the kind of weather you're talking about is more a function of your part of the country than in the Northwest. Though I am a bit of a straight-up sailor myself, I agree with my Spokane cohort that if you pay attention to what you're doing such a crisis is unlikely here. Our lakes and the Puget Sound just don't get freaky winds like the Great Lakes incident you refer to. The only scary moment I had in years of sailing the Sound was going through Deception Pass right next to a grey whale that got lost during migration. There's nothing like a forty-foot whale a few feet off the port side to make a sailor truly aware of the size limitations of his boat.

Great job, Jake -- compliments to your mother for a fine job. Was the eagle carved separately and added later or was the head part of the keel assembly, only extended? I'm still planning on a figurehead for Svenska Flicka, but want to do a blonde lady instead of a bird. I figure it makes more sense, given the boat name.

I favor big, historical novels for extended reading binges. Sarum and London are a good set, though neither depends on the other. Michener's early work, like Hawaii, can be fun and the ineptly named Merlin trilogy (four books) is wonderful. Speaking of ineptly-named trilogies, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a hoot. Huckleberry Finn is still the best American novel ever written and worth a look if you haven't seen it since school. Dare I suggest a collection of Shakespeare's plays? Enjoy the cruise, whatever books you decide to take.

Nice pix on the MSN website, Joel. Goodness knows, you're ahead of me. One question: how deep into the keel do those bolts go? Has anyone else tried this approach? Do you anticipate a significantly better attachment under use, or do the bolts just make things hang together better under construction?

Now, that's a good idea, Barry. As one of the aforementioned old timers (with a bad back, to boot) I'm going to remember that one when I get to that stage of construction.

By all means, make the transfer. In fact, if you haven't sent my plans yet (just ordered last week) and the DVD is coming soon, hold up and send it with the new technology. I can't imagine how helpful it would be to be able to pick a certain procedure off the DVD menu and head straight to it, rather than fast-forwarding through a couple hours of video to get to something you want. If the DVD is a ways off, will you cut a deal for those who've already bought on the old system?

Never underestimate the power of plywood to take you places you don't intend. When I was in high school, we had a major windstorm over night and there was stuff clogging the streets of my home town. My dad was a cop who had been working all night and who came home to get me up so I could help him haul the biggest obstacles out of the way. At some point in the process, I grabbed a 4X8 sheet of 3/8" plywood out of the street and was carrying it away when a gust picked me up like a kite. (Okay, I was lighter in those days.) Halfway to Canada it finally struck me that letting go might be a good thing. Here's hoping that if I take the same ride on the boat at some point, that I have not forgotten that essential survival skill.

It's true; Washington is the boating capitol of America, but I suspect that is more because of access than anything else. We have several large lakes, lots of little ones, and the relatively protected waters of Puget Sound, with the San Juan Islands and the BC channel islands above that. Our worst problem is not weather, as most of the rest of the country perceives, but lack of it. After all, if man was not intended to sail in Washington, God wouldn't have given us Gore-tex. No, the real problem is that the best winds come in the coolest weather. In really nice weather (and no place has better weather than we do from July 5th until early October) there's often not enough wind to battle the tidal currents. And the waters here are only about three degrees above "brrrr" regardless of time of year. You get a nice sailing breeze in December coming across that frigid water and you'd best be ready to heave to with the Kleenex. No, if our weather itself were so awful, we'd have never been Californicated so thoroughly. Most of the big plastic money tubs sailing the Sound are piloted by expatriots from other states who came here for the beauty of the place and the fact that at least our water isn't bobbing with used hypodermic needles. I guess it shows that I'm a proud native, huh?

Ah, but would one glass over such an uneven surface or glass up to it and epoxy the stuffings out of it from there out to the end? Perhaps Johanna could lend some observations on that eagle and how it was done?

Hmmmm, and I was thinking that lighter wood -- like cedar -- would be easier to carve. I saw a nice eagle head carved by a builder in Texas on the Weekender picture pages. It looked good from every angle, but I suspect a human face will look much better in profile than from head-on. The more obvious question is why am I worried about carving a figurehead on a boat that isn't even started. Mercy! Talk about doing things backward... Steve

Sorry I missed the show in Olympia; had I known such a sharp Weekender was so close, I'd have ignored my poor sick wife and gone anyway. I had the pleasure of exchanging e-mail with Barry a few weeks back and largely because of his encouragement, I have just ordered my plans. Here's hoping that "Svenska Flicka" turns out as nice as what the rest of the Puget Sound crew has done. "Svenska Flicka" translates as "Swedish Girl" and is named for the aforementioned wife, Inga. I plan on carving a gorgeous blonde lady as a figurehead and having it match Inga's profile, as much as my minimal artistic skills allow. It sounds like most of the folks who were at the Oly show are still in the building stage. Does anyone have actual Puget Sound sailing experience in a Weekender to know if the boat has the mass needed to manage the chop and currents that show up here? I had a Santana 21 some years ago and it did just fine, but it was a much heavier thing. I also had a little twelve-footer that couldn't come about in high winds because it was too light to fight the waves. ...just curious. Best wishes to all, Steve