Florin {VACATIONER}

Congrats!!!! You're waaay ahead of me. I still can't figure out how to cut oval portholes on the bandsaw :-) Looks good Cheers Florin

Tim, great pics and great looking boat eh. I'll bet the two of you have had a good time at Cristina Lake. We were there a few years back an it was great, temps in the mid 30's. Unfortunately we've had to stay at the campground... you guys are lucky to have camped right in the wilderness at the other end of the lake. Too bad a long weekend is only 3 days. Unfortunately from Calgary it's a 8-9hr drive and this trip can't be done too often since one needs to be on the road for 2 days or nights out of a 3 day weekend. Chances are we'll be there next summer if all goes well. If its allright with you we'll give you a holler before we go... see if we can get together. It'll be cool to have two Stevenson's boats on that lake (and good company). On our way there we'll stop in Creston and pick up some Kokanee fresh from the source hehehe. Cheers Florin

Craig, that looks a bit scary looking at the angle of the boat trying to get on the trailer. Was the trailer hooked up to your truck? What I don't get yet is how did the floor jacks roll along with the boat.... and after the boat got partially on the trailer, and the jacks were past the centre of gravity, did you have to slide the boat on the bunks? With the keelbox there you wouldn't think one culd get the jacks under the keel... Just wondering. Mike, Is your triler so high that the bottom of the boat can sit on the kitchen chairs? Thanks Florin

I haven't got a sketch of the trailer just yet, but I'll be making one shortly. I am planing to make it just like a regular boat trailer out of 1/8" thick wall HSS square or rectangular tubing. I think we'll go with 2x3. The shape will be similar to yours, but we won't have the crossmembers in a "v" shape 'cause I don't have the equipment to bend it like so without kinking the material. There will be 1 or 2 sets of bunks and a keelbox. I don't think we'll have any rollers at all if we can help it. We may make some higher bannister rails at the rear to help guide the hull in, but we'll see about that. There will be a winch at the front of course. I guess marine carpet is the way to go then on the bunks. It looks like we'll be buying the steel this week and start building the trailer possibly on the weekend. I couldn't do it this past weekend for I was gone on a 2 day canoeing and fisning trip down the Bow river... it was great. Cheers Florin

Did you use the outdoor/patio/porch type of carpet on the bunks, or did you get the marine type? I was under the impression that with that much area of the boat contacting the bunks/carpet and the weight of the boat pressing down on it, the paint would get damaged or scuffed up which worried me. I am pleasantly surprised to find out it isn't so. I've started the other day making a taffrail. Started with 1/4" pieces of fir which were previously ran through my planer... I will be laminating these to make 3/4". They are really easy to bend now, so I'll make a jig with the shape of the top of the lazarette and laminate them on top of it. this way I'm sure it'll be a lot easier to install. Every piece of brightwork is getting the stain and spar varnish now. I should have gone with sand for non-skid... the wallnut shells are too rough. There was no way I could sand them down a little for they would come dislodged before the paint was on.... Oh well, something to keep in mind for the next time I build one hehehe. We'll have to buy boat shoes. Thanks Florin

That was funny! I'll be sure to tell Barb to hold onto the mooring lines when we do that. Am I to understand that you have rollers on the bottom of the keelbox? Thanks Florin

How did you manage to get the boat off the dollies and onto the trailer without wrecking the paint? We're getting closer now and I am trying to figure this out. My trailer won't have any rollers, so it'll have to go on the carpeted bunks. I'm not sure if we can slide it on the carpet.... or can we? Thanks Florin

Thanks Craig, we're busy staining the brightwork now. Not sure if we'll get to paint 7 coats of spar varnish this year, but we'll get at least 4-5 on it anyways. Going to pick up a mig welder and a chop saw. If all goes well I should have the HSS tubular steel for the trailer by the end of the week. This will keep us busy cutting, fitting and welding on the trailer this weekend, with light coats of varnish on the brightwork in between . Gotta get started on making the sails too. Lots of things to do still. Trying to beat the deadline at the end of July ya know. Unfortunately I still have to work for a living in the meantime... THAT SUCKS!!!! Florin

Well, we've finally done it. She's painted top and bottom. We now just have to get the trailer built, the rigging done, and the the brightwork stained and varnished. It's amazing the amount of work we put into the finishing and prepping the topsides and it still didn't come out as perfect as we'd expect it to be even though we've used (off ) white paint. Oh well, I think she will float anyways. We're really glad we're over this hurdle and looking forward to having her on the water this year if all goes well. I'd post some pics but we're fresh out of space on our site and can't add anymore pics (sorry). Cheers Florin

Frank, we found our white tarp last year @ Home Depot. They also had orange, green, black, brown, camo, blue, and translucent. It is also available in a lot of different sizes. Florin

Yes, I did use Frank's mast math formulae and it worked out great, (thanks Frank). I couldn't see why it wouldn't work out for the tapered mast as well as long as the rules are followed. (I think Craig made his hollow and tapered and it looks great)... . I could weigh in my straight hollow mast, but we would need someone's solid mast weight for comparison's sake. I'm quite curious about it too. I'm reluctant to entirely believe that there are significant weight savings as well, but it sure is a more economical method to build the mast. The two 2x4 I bought were $80, in comparison to $260 I would have had to spend on the 4x4 if I could find one worth spending the money on. Not to mention the theory of the hollow mast not warping in time due to the grainof each stave working against eachother. Me thinks going with the hollow mast would be a better choice, but then again, it is just my opinion and we all know opinions are like a$$holes, everybody has one and they all stink :-) It is quite obvious the solid mast has been used for centuries and it definitely works well, so either which way one decides to build it should work out just fine. Florin

Adla, We've made our bird's mouth mast a couple of months ago. I made a trial one (2' long) last year out of some scrap lumber I've had just to confirm that I have it in me to build it. It was actually relatively easy to make. Ours is straight (not tapered). Instead of buying 4x4 we bought a couple of 2x4, 16' long. Why?. Easier to find with straight, close grain and without any wobbles in them. They were a lot cheaper as well, and easier to handle. A few things to consider (the lessons we've learned) Make sure the tablesaw is perfectly tuned up! Mine wasn't.... and I did screw up the first stave a little, but luckily I cut it a bit bigger because I really wanted to use the new delta planer I bought hehehe. Then I spent about an hour making the necessary adjustments. Make sure you have in-feed and out-feed supports on the tablesaw 'cause the staves are quite bendy and they will ruin the cut. Probably the most challenging part in making this mast was assembling it. It's virtually impossible to put together without at least one helper. We also made some V blocks to support the mast while assembling and during cure. These v blocks were glued on a 4x4 piece of 1/2" ply each, which we alligned and glued with a hot melt glue gun on a level surface on a line made with the chalk line, just to keep things straight, afterall you want a straight mast, don't ya. We had one about every 2'. Some of the builders have used radiator hose clamps to keep the staves together, but I found them to be pretty expensive for a once in a lifetime experience, so we substituted with inexpensive plastic cable ties. They worked well. Also, these you can't really overtighten 'cause you don't really have the leverage. We put a footlong plug at the bottom end, and a 2 foot long plug at the top end. The one at the top end sticks out about a foot I believe and we rounded that on the lathe before we put the whole thing together. Hope this helps and good luck making one either way you go. Cheers, Florin

This is one sore city today.... sure got a good a$$ whooping at Tampa Bay. I guess that's what you get when you slack it off for two periods and expect you'll still win the Stanley Cup. Still mourning here, and we've painted all the Flames flags in black now. Cheers Florin

I wish we had so much sun around here to worry about too much UV damage Craig. And as far as I know the poly resin in not quite as susceptible to UV damage. The epoxy we've used is "hidden" inside the keel, hopefully that is the part of the boat whe the sun don't shine hehehe. I'm more concerned about water getting in somewhere and freeze up during our long cold season. That's the kind of damage I really don't care for fixing the next season. Like I think I've told you already, we're done fiberglassing a couple of weeks ago, now we're prepping for paint. We're hoping to have her ready to spray this coming weekend. Still got so many small things to do. Cheers Florin

Yep, we've got the same problem... Never figured out how to solve it, other than "should have made the side panels taller to start with". I'm kicking myself now, for it was a bugger to do the fillets. The toerail sticks up at the front about as much as specified in the plans, but at the aft end it is about 3/4" like you've got it (measured under the inner toe-rail). Fibreglassing was a bugger at the aft end as well for there isn't much room there to push the cloth in the corners. We're now in the sanding/prepping for paint stage, and it is still a bugger to work in there. It isn't impossible, but we haven't found a power tool which would get in there to ease the process, so there's a lot of elbow grease involved in there. How were we to know about this before cutting the panels? For us cutting the sides flush with the deck was not an option; Wanna keep as many critters on deck as possible if we can help it. Good luck Florin

Sounds like you've been very productive lately. Not sure about the mushroom type, but the danforth which is what we will be using, you divide the length of your boat by two, and that is the weight of the anchor, ex. 20' boat-> 10lb anchor. According to the experts you can get by with a lighter anchor if you use a danforth for it is very effective. But then again, it all depends what types of sea bottoms you're trying to stick it into, I've heard the mushroom works better in muddy bottoms. I suggest you do some research on this. The bowsprit bitts should be strong enough to hold the anchor rode. Good luck Florin

Wow Craig, I didn't think that awning stuff was sooo bloody expensive. I guess that was a bad idea. At least I know I won't be planning on ever making anything out of that stuff. It's probably heavy as hell too. What is "Sunbrella" fabric, I don't think I've ever seen the stuff? Florin

You'd almost think that fabric used for awnings on motorhomes would work great. Looks pretty tough to me. Cheers Florin

Thanks guys, I guess I have to look for a long shaft. Florin

Great job Capppy! We are all proud of you. Enjoy Florin

Could someone please tell me what is the approximate length difference in inches between the short shaft and long shaft.... I would assume I need the long shaft for the vac.... Thanks Florin

Mike, get him to e-mail me am and I'll try to help him out. Cheers Florin SV-BARBARELLA@Shaw.ca

Thanks guys! I will definitely use the test patches idea before I glass the hatches. They will definitely get uv protection.... it is built in the spar varnish I will slather on when they're done. Cheers Florin

Ooops! I guess I forgot to mention I will be using polyester resin and not epoxy! Without opening another can of worms which I already have done last year... The whole boat is covered in poly resin now and I don't think the hatches will make a huge difference if they were done in epoxy now. Would this change your explanation in you last post Frank, or will it all still stand true and all of the above will apply? Thanks a bunch Florin

Well, there are only a few parts which I would like to keep bright on the boat... and cover with glass cloth because I'm worried about checking; The forehatch, the sliding hatch, the companionway doors, the lazarette hatch and the taffrail. All are made of fir ply with the exception of the taffrail which I am making out of 3 laminations of 1/4" solid fir to make that nasty bend everyone is griping about. Since I don't want to have to re-finish these every season, I'd like to do this once and right. So just to clarify this once more before I start.... Stain with water based stain only. Then sand and glass. Then sand some more and apply more resin, etc. until its glass like finish. Then varnish and sand and varnish again etc... Did I miss anything? I would assume oil based stain is out due to delam problems, right? Thanks Florin