Florin {VACATIONER}

Glad to hear you're doing good. Well, at least you're not being beaten by hurricanes while you're in the middle of the continent hehehe. Sorry to hear about your boat. Good thing you're alive and well, boat can be fixed. We are selling the Vac. At this point in time we aren't using it at all (or at least for the past couple of seasons we haven't) and she takes a lot of space... We ended up having to pay for storage and there's no point in doing that if she isn't being put to good use. I am hoping I can find an enthusiast in my area to find her a good home. We've sure used the driftboat a lot in the past couple of years. We've done a lot of fly fishing down the Bow River and wakeboarding and lake fishing on our Chaparral. Are you planning on fixing your boat anytime soon?

Hello Craig! You're right. Busy raising kids and doing all sorts of other things. Amazing how time flies when you're busy having fun. Not building aicraft anymore. The closer to the ground the better :-) for me. I did build a driftboat which I finished in the summer of '06. We did enjoy that for two seasons almost now. Also last spring we bought a stinkpot and spent many ours last season contributing to the "greenhouse effect". And what are you up to? Florin

Good to see many of you old veterans are still here having fun and moaning! Florin

Cabin roof has been raised 6". Many upgrades! In Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Florin

That boat looks gorgeous Adla. I didn't notice any lack of improvement on the gas mileage either. We like BIG TRUCKS 4X4 here in Calgary mostly 'cause we get quite a bit of snow on the ground for too long, so we can't afford to get stuck or be pushed of the street, and we also tow a lot of heavy C-rap. So towing a 1Klb boat on a 1Klb overbuilt trailer doesn't bother anyone... go big or go home!!! I have to admit I really dislike the clubfoot too. We did build a new larger jib last summer and had the same problem with the clublumber hanging on the bits which to say the least was annoying most times. I would really like to get a good size jib, maybe not a genoa, but something definitely a lot larger than the one in the drawings. Tell you the truth when I first looked at the boat when I got her rigged up with the sails in my front street I've had a vision of a really fat person wearing a Speedo (due to the small jib) and that's just wrong. Then when we sailed her she just didn't want to handle very well when coming about... we would always get stuck in the irons (as opposed to the little plastic sailboats we used to rent from the sailing club). So we did get a bit frustrated and disapointed because of this. Hopefully with a new and improved coat of sails we will be able to fully enjoy her this season. BTW, the clublumber is going this season. Enjoy the sailing, catch lots of fish and take lots of pics. Cheers Florin

I used Dupont Imron polyurethane. It is widely used in the marine oil-rig, aircraft and automotive industry. Very durable, and very toxic. You need good organic vapour respirators, and the knowledge of spraying (and the equipment of course). I have been using this paint for years and it is one of the most durable finishes I've ever seen. Most paints you can take a 3M scrub pad and scuff them with it... this one you can't !!! You have to use good sandpaper to get any scratches in it if you want to re-paint. It does not oxidyse, so you don't have to buff, wax or anything. Touch up is fairly good too. Just a matter of spraying the darned thing on your boat... after that, no problem. Just remember to use a sealer coat (Dupont)before paint coat. It is also quite pricy compared to domestic latex, in other words you're looking at about $350CDN/gal (we've used 2gal for the vacationer). After using this paint I wouldn't even consider anything less than this, unless you're planning on doing this every couple of seasons which adds up over the years anyway, nevermind the effort involved in refinishing. Short of this, you could use latex :-) and see how long it lasts. My 2CDN cents on boat paint. Good luck Florin

I finally found a good deal on oars here in town on some Barkley Sound Oars for my driftboat. They are 9' beautifully handcrafted oars by some good fellas on Vancouver island BC (any imput on these?). Apparently they make these out of sitka spruce and ash (laminated). They came with all the leathers, but now I have to install the leathers on them. They came with a set of instructions on how to install the leathers, but they are more like IKEA instructions and I think they could use a better technical writer. In other words they do not specify if the leather has to be wetted first or not. I remember reading somewhere on this forum that the leather should be soaked first so that after the install it has a chance to shrink on the shaft of the oar for a tighter fit. Am I going wrong here??? also, they recommend the leather should be waxed for protection... What type of wax, how does it get applied and how often? I've also seen some plastic blade tip protectors for sale at some of the stores. Is is worth buying these things, or are they just some gimmicks??? Now that I have these oars as model, I can spend some spare time (if I can find it) to build my own spares using these as templates. since sitka spruce is hard and pricy to come by, what other wood can I substitute for it, and what would go with it as a stronger wood to laminate for reinforcement (I don't remember seying ash for sale at home depot)? Thanks for help!!!

Hi Adla, had a look at the recently posted pics of your sailing adventure. I am jealous already since we've still got snow on the ground here (in some spots) and you've already gone out sailing. Although I could still go for a good day's spring skiing if I weren't busy building boats :-) We're still agonising over where to order the new coat of sails. Are yours tarps or dacron??? If they are tarps they look awesome. If they are not they still look awesome. Keep posting those pics... it makes for good primer for us without so much enthusiasm to get out there on the water. Cheers Florin

Thanks guys for all the replys!!! Sounds to me like I"m just better off to stay with a genny and a regular working jib then. We don't really get into big winds around here (we try to stay away when it storms). I would really like to be able to get away with one jib, but the one we've made out of tarp according to plans didn't work that well for us. Just by looking at it one could tell it's too small, compared to other sloops on the lake. So maybe if we would have a real one made for us at the right size would improve things considerably. I will try to stay away from the furler systems altogether then. I will now have to rig up the boat and take some measurements for the sailmakers so that they can design the new sails. Thanks a lot Florin

Hi Craig, We did get some pretty big snow snakes around here this winter. Good to see you're stil on the forum. Sounds like you've got too much wind over there...gotta slow down those hurricanes. How are you doing??? Still Working hard? Cheers

I am in luck, 'cause I have a MacGregor dealer closeby and I could go investigate their furler setup if they have any on display currently(CDI). What I am thinking is basically doing away with the jib halyard altogether. I figure if I can furl the jib all the way in, there's no need to lower the sail at all. Since we never leave the boat in the water anymore than a couple of days at a time (when we go camping for the weekend) I don't think the jib would mind all that much staying furled in the outdoors. Then, before trailering, we can remove the entire rig (furled jib and forestay with the furler), coil it up, and stick it inside the cabin away from the elements. How does that sound? One thing I have to figure out though is how to attach the luff of the jib to the furler wire so that the wire doesn't spin inside the luff pocket when furling... as you can tell, I am not familiar at all with this type of contraption. Thanks Florin

Yeah, that's why I would like to have a genoa on a furler... then I wouldn't have to have any other foresails to change... just furl it in and you've got a storm jib or whatever size jib you'd like. and since it never has to come off for exchange, why bother with another jib stay??? Am I missing something here? I'm just trying to avoid adding more rigging and trying to keep things simple if possible. Thanks Florin

I guess you're right Oyster, we do have the syndrome. Now we need the time and the money hehe. Still making dust here, have to sand and fair all the fiberglassing on the outside and inside afterwhich we install the gunnels and the furniture. Not much to do but still seems like a lot of work and a lot of itching. Looking forward to painting and trailer building. Cheers Florin

Thanks again for the help guys, I did contact Chuck and he replied promptly (as I was warned). I now have to provide him with the measurements which is kinda difficult since I have my boat stored away for the season, but will get her out soon. Plus I wanted to lower the boom about 6" or so to allow for some mods on the gooseneck setup. I am still debating between getting a genny and a regular jub.... I was thinking about getting both but I really don't wanna have to change sails on the water... Not much room on the bowsprit and I'm worried my arse is gonna end up in the drink while trying to change jibs (not good). Furler sounds good but I really don't think I want to add an extra jibstay up there. Could it not be done on the forestay???? Thanks Florin

Looks like you guys knows whatchatalking about. A lot of options and a lot of help I got from you again. I now have to decide which ones to build. Thanks a bunch guys Florin

Thanks Barry for the reply, Good to see you're still here! I did not contact the Stevensons just for the simple reason that since I've done some mods to the boat and rigging the sails may be (will be)somewhat different size than stock. I do believe they only offer stock sails as far as I can remember. Also we weren't happy with the size of the jib and we decided we'll go with a larger one i.e. maybe a jenny or maybe something somewhat smaller than that. Either way we'll have to have a furler for that probably. We don't have a sail loft locally (that I am aware of) so the sails would have to be ready to go when they arrive, nor do I want to start cutting into expensive sails for I have no clew (pun intended) what I am doing when it comes to sailmaking. Thanks for the link, I'll e-mail these guys as well and see what they have to say. BTW, I have a Vacationer, not a weekender. Thanks again Florin

I am having some difficulty finding 9' oars for my newly almost finished driftboat. Needless to say I could go tomorrow to my fly fishing outfit in town and get some composite Sawyer oars for about $900 a pair (they sure look nice) which isn't too appealing to me unless I've just gone crazy and spent $15,000 on the Clackacraft driftboat (not that there's anything wrong with that if aone had the disposable income for expensive toys like such). I was hoping I could build a pair of my own for a lot cheaper. Apparently they sould be laminated out of ash and fir, or something like that so that they are flexible enough, but tough enough to be able to resist banging into rocks going down mild rapids etc. Does anyone have any plans and instructions for building such animals? Any imput would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Florin

Dave, We are looking for a reliable sailmaker as well. We've had enough of the tarp sails. Last year we've had the darned things rip on us while on a vacation on the first day, needless to say we couldn't enjoy the sailing for the rest of the vacation which put us off of sailing for the rest of the season Basically we've put the boat away for good last july. We are now at the point where we either get real sails or we never bother with the boat again. Oh, in case you are wondering we have built a Vacationer which we've launched two seasons ago (and we love her too). My main issue is that we want to find someone reliable, fairly quick on delivery, and good (for a reasonable price). I am not looking for the rock bottom deal but good sails are a must. Since you say you are very happy with the Duckworks sails, and they sound like are quick, quite reasonable in price as well, would you mind posting their web address so that I could get in contact with them? Thanks. BTW... any tipson ordering would be great... Cheers Florin

We've been gone for awhile (sorry) on our other adventures (and family matters) but we're back again. I see most of the "veterans" are still here and happy to see new recruits are building. Glad to see the enthusiasm is spreading by the day. We're glad to see Adla has launched her boat (congrats!!!) she looks great undersail (and the boat too). We haven't done much sailing last season (maybe 2-3 times) but we're planning to do much more this year. We would like to buy some real sails this year and do some mods to the rigging which gave us many troubles last year (which is why we didn't sail much). We are about to finish the 16' stich and glue mackenzie river drift boat in about a month or so and we are really excited to take her down the blue ribbon bow river for some trout flyfishing and camping. Once you get bitten by the boat building bug you can never quit I guess. Cheers to all Florin

ROland, Good job on your boat. I'll bet you're as proud as a brand new daddy. Leaks can be fixed (that's why God gave us duct tape hehehe, kidding) The steering problem you have is exactly what I was afraid of when I was building mine. I decided to go with aircraft cable instead, and bolted it to the metal tubing (steering shaft). Also installed turnbuckles for tensioning. That was my only worry on the boat on launch day (other than the floating thing) and I still never had to tighten the cable yet, and never had any problems with the steering to this day. I read many nightmare stories about rope steering so far and my honest oppinion is that you can't go wrong with aircraft cable steering. Oh yeah, I did crimp the cable ends as well so that there is no slippage. I also don't quite trust the electric motors for auxiliary power... I think the gas ones have plenty of power (when they run) but then what do you do with an electric one when your battery is dead? Congrats again on your completion and enjoy sailing. Florin

Hey guys, you'd better get some sailing in before the season is over :-) I'm still fretting over my main sail here, GOt her in twicw this season and if I don't hurry up and do something I may not get another chance this season. I got my Sailmaker's apprentice book and doing some investigating now. Hopefully will be able to get her done this weekend. Cheers

That explains it.... I can see now what you mean... Looks a lot better than mine. Thanks

OK, I got the suggested book on order. See what I can come up with after reading it. Thanks a lot guys.

Looks real good! Now get out there and enjoy her!!!

I bought a couple of 16' fir 2x4s. These were aquired at a very reputable lumberyard here in town. The wood was straight grained and the rings were very close. I looked for quarter-sawn ones. The moisture content was measured at around 10%. I believe I paid just under 80 bucks CDN including a crapload of canadian taxes :-) I used my big-bad tablesaw to cut the staves. Due to the fact that the pieces are so long and they flex a lot while machining, you have to use featherboards to hold them down to the table and pushed against the fence... and some sort of supports before and aft the tablesaw. A helper is handy to have. I did a few trial runs with scrap wood before I butchered the good stuff. I recommend gluing should be done immediately after cutting to prevent warping of the staves. With the scrap pieces I used to setup the machine, I made a 2' mock-up mast section which I often use to show off my skills to innocent passers by when asked about the hollow mast. We made "V" blocks (about 6" tall) out of scrap ply (about 6" tall) which were glued (with a glue gun) to the shop floor about every 2' (in a perfectly straight line made with a chalk line). These are essential for holding the mast straight to prevent warpage during the epoxy cure, plus it holds the mast off the ground during setup for easier handling. We painted unthickened epoxy on the mating surfaces and let them sit for about 15 min for the epoxy to saturate the wood fibers. Then we thickened the epoxy with milled cotton fibers and painted a generous amount on the mating surfaces. With the help of my mate I set-up all the staves and tied the mast together with tie straps (this can be frustrating). We checked it over and added more epoxy or wiped off where it was squeezing out. We've left it untouched for about 3-4 days for the epoxy to fully cure afterwhich we sanded and varnished it with 6 coats of good spar-varnish. This sounds like hard work, but we've had it done in1/2 a day (painting took a whole week including drying time between coats). Good luck Good luck