Dale Niemann

Scott I think your wife has the best spots picked out. I see the loop route has two choices in the northern section. I would definitely not miss the North Channel of Lake Huron. I have been there and it is a beautiful place. I believe August and Sept are supposed to be the best but it would be great anytime (be prepared to fight many many of those pesky little insects that like your blood). I was born and raised on the Mississippi River and I thought it was great when I was a kid. However, now that I live on the west coast of Florida and have been to Maine and other cruising areas, I think I would skip it. The river is very muddy and from what I hear there are not too many spots for fueling and resupply for small boats. However, having said that I know all the townsfolk are very nice and will help you if they can. Also from what I hear from friends I would take the Kentucky lake, Tenn-Tom waterway. Towboats and barges are not much fun in small low powered boats. I know you already know this though. The west coast of Florida has a lot of nice spots to cruise but also has a lot of condos. Our club the West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron will be happy to help you. We trailer all over Florida for daysails, weekends and week cruises. Check it out. http://members.ij.net/wctss/wctss/index.htm

One other thing you might consider. Once I finished planing the birdsmouth top section on my CS17, I put a small drum sander (1 1/2 inches diameter) in my portable drill and inverted (turned inside out) a 24 inch sandpaper belt and used it to sand the spar. It worked very well. I think I started with about 80 grit and just increased it until I was satisfied with the finish. I then epoxied and varnished it.

Hi Mike, Welcome to the forum and to Core Sound Land. I have my CS 17 about 95% complete. I am not very close to you but if you have any questions that I can help you with, please send me an email and I will be happy to share my CS 17 building experience. I have been so busy this summer I can't seem to get my boat finished. Oh well, our best sailing season is coming in October.

I second Gary's comments. In Clearwater, FL, even if you live in the city they have a 3-5 year waiting list to get a slip. Then the cost per foot is an ungodly amount per month. All the old marinas are being sold for condos so you can not find a place to haul out even if you could afford it. However, my nephew has a 31 foot Farrior tri that he trailers all over the US. He lives in CA, has trailered to Great Lakes, FL and PA and many places in between. Interior space is limited but boy does he fly. His son sailed it to Bahamas and cruised the area for 7 months. Sometimes he stores it for several months at zero cost at home or friends homes. So I vote for a trailerable boat.

Graham/Tom, In a separate post Tom mentioned Grahams conversion of a van for camping. I am curious? Please show us some photos or tell us about it. I have been debating doing something like that myself.

In response to your head question. Here is a site that has a product which may work to help privacy. It is called a PUP. Not sure if it would work on the boat but should work on shore. I am planning to try their WAG system which some other sailors here are using. Their products are available at REI.com and other sellars at lower prices. http://www.thepett.ca/ Dale

Last year I took an course in building the Caledonia Yawl. The instructor brought his 19' Caledonia. It has a Lug rig. It sailed very nicely. However, I did not have other boats to compare it to. It was nice in that the masts and all the rig fit inside the boat. We were told that the lug rig is self vanging due to a line that runs from top to bottom on the forward edge of the sail. It did seem to work in this way when sailing off the wind. I think it would be interesting to see one on the CS17.

Thanks guys for the additional info.

Thanks Charlie & Ray. Glad to see everybody in agreement. I will go with the nylon 3 strand. Charlie, do you splice the rope directly to the chain? Do you use a thimble? Or do you use a shackle to connect rope to chain? I am assuming you use a shackle to attach the chain to the anchor. Are your chains what I think they call proof coil hot dipped galvanized?

Anybody have any opinions on the cost vs benefits for using double braid nylon instead of three strand for anchor rodes? My understanding is that the double braid is easier to handle & coil, stronger with less stretch and about twice as much.

Thanks Charlie, I will re-check it out.

Thanks Charlie, I will re-check it out.

Brent, Kentucky Lake is on my list of must sails. I have a niece that has sailed there many times and she just loves the area. Maybe I am missing something but I went to the site you provided but have not found anything about the Party In Kentucky Lake event. It does not show on the calendar. Is there a specific article about it? Thanks

Great Site Tom & Frank. congradulations. I need to find more space to build the 24 but may eventually do it. After my experience visiting you and actually seeing and handling the boat, I concluded that it is a fantastic boat for its size and money.

Scott, Yes I want to get active in the WCTSS again. Before I started building the CS 17 I was very active with the club sailing in "Bananas" my 3 meter tri. The club has really gotten more active recently. It would be great if you could make it down to Florida for some of our events. We welcome everybody to sail with us and join the club if they wish. I am planning to go on the New Years Everglades trip this year. Brent, Sounds like you got the likes of a new trailer. Did you ever go to NC sailing this spring?

I forgot to mention I have a 17ft Continental tilt trailer.

Because of the current Hurricane Warning around here I decided to spend the day getting "Lively" ready for towing. I moved the bunks and the axel and set up the winch with proper allignment. I ended up with 118 lbs tongue weight and the axel is about 5 inches forward of the mizzen mast. I will wait and let experience dictate whether these are proper. I will adjust later if it needs it.

Thanks Graham, Tom and everybody. I will rig it as you suggest Graham. Thanks

Here is a photo of Graham's Green Heron that I took at the WaterTribe race start. I didn't realize my question until recently when I started thinking about the sprit and its rigging. It appears that a hole was drilled through the sprit to accomodate the line which goes to the sheet block. Am I seeing this correctly? If so what size should it be? and the line size? Also, what is the extra block in the middle for? Thanks

Thanks everybody for the nice comments.

Hatch cutout & Removal of Temporary Support Once the first

Hatch Backplate & Beam The backplate is necessary for three reasons. 1. Since the foredeck is curved the quarter inch plywood would not maintain its curve once cut out if it was not laminated to an inside backplate. 2. It adds strength. 3. Spreads the pressure generated by the bungee cord evenly around the hatch. The backplate also causes complications in construction because it must be screwed to the deck frame before the deck goes on but in a temporary manner so that when the deck is cut out its support also is cut so the hatch can then be pulled out. Then the temporary supports are unscrewed from the hatch. The backplate is glued to a support beam, which has the same shape as the deck.

Construction I kept all the same structural framing Graham has shown in the plans. However, I did widen it slightly because I wanted the hatch opening to be about the same area as his original. The ellipse is a stronger shape by being curved, backplated and beamed. The measurements I used to create the hatch using the calculator below are fore/aft direction of 6

I would like to propose a different hatch for the CS 17. I have constructed one on my CS 17

Here are a couple shots of my third mast hole cover. I had a very small piece of zebra wood so thought I would use it. The underside wood is the plug I cut out from the mizzen mast hole. The bottom side shows the cut up wheel weights I inserted to give it a little hold down weight. Sorry Graham, I know you would not allow any extraneous weight on your boat. If she goes over, I have got more things to worry about than a lost cover. These shots are after two epoxy coats and before any varnish.