Designer

This subject keeps coming back. There are many ways to measure strength and one of plywoods greats properties is that being a low density material it's stiffness to tensile strength to weight ratio is close to ideal. For instance, if we were building an aluminium Spindrift and trying to keep it from being too heavy, we could look at 16 gauge which is a cigarette paper thicker than 1/16" or 1.651 mm for our mathematically challenged European friends. Now if we compare it's weight to 6mm okume, it comes out at about twice the weight per square foot or meter. That already is a pound or kilo too far for me to cross already, not to mention that the bottom would probably need stiffening with a couple of stringers, compounding the build by a lot of extra welding. We do not even need to factor in that aluminium does not float. The Gougeon Brothers used to have great display at boat shows.They had every material that you could build a boat out of. Each piece was cantilevered 12" past the edge of the table and was exactly 1" wide and weighed the same. They varied the thickness of each piece so that the weights would be exactly the same. When the same weight was placed on the end of each piece, people were amazed to see how much stiffer wood was compared to the other materials and compared to steel, which we all know is very strong. The only way to beat wood is to lower the density further and that means to use a core material. As we have seen that can work but a little more resin here and there and we have lost the weight battle. A little extra weight is not a big deal in a work boat but in a tender that has to be manhandled a lot in often awkward conditions, it is a big deal.

I have no problem with a few worts. I would rather them than than have nothing. It is the beginning of the learning curve. I also subscribed to their channel because I love to see their Spindrift living and doing what I intended. I have sailed those waters and it is a lot of fun to see what has happened with the yacthing explosion. In 1975 I cleared into Pukhet in the commercial harbor. The chief of police strongly recommended that I not stay in the harbor as thievery was a problem and told me about a good anchorage, there were no marina's. I was the only sailboat in the area.

I will add my 2 cents worth for plywood versus composite materials. I built my first Catspaw stitch and glue in the late Sixties. We could get thick epoxy for gluing but the the only resin available to me was polyester. She was used for full time cruising which meant that she was in the water if we were not under way. By the end of 1970 the glass tape was de-bonding from the ply even though I used isothalic no wax laminating resin which bonds better that orthothalic resins. I cross hatched the bonding area with a piece of saw blade and primed the wood before laminating. She even got marine borers and had to row with our feet over the borer holes or we would have a tiny fountain. I did the obvious thing and built a masonite female mold and laid up a fiberglass hull. I stiffened the bottom and gunwales with foam. She was a bit shorter to save weight but she came out heavier. It solved the problem with water but it was not as tough as her wood predecessor. While the glass boat was better against sharp objects, she could not take hard use and abuse as well as the wood version like getting crushed at the dock etc.. By 1980 she getting tired and looked like a patchwork quilt from repairs so I decided to build a new 4mm okume plywood Catspaw but with epoxy this time. She was much better than her fiberglass sister and served me well, became the boatyard work dinghy after I quit full time cruising. Around 2005 a friend borrowed her and lost her in a hurricane. She was no great loss as the ply was getting soft. She was not sheathed and spent all of her life in the weather. Don't get me wrong, I love composites and will use them in a flash if I think that it will be better. I like to see experimenting. Plywood has the advantage that it is cheap, user friendly, light and tough. I sincerely hope that you can hand your carbon Spindrift down through generations but only time will tell. Here is a picture of a Spindrift 9 nesting, working hard for her owners. They are about two thirds of their way around the world and I suspect that after they finish, their Spindrift will be ready for another lap with a just a modest refresh. https://sailwiththeflo.wordpress.com/our-dinghy/

I have gotten pretty intimate with the 5.80 plans recently so I will attempt to answer these questions. I have seen and created all or some of the above suggestions but I think that Don has struck the right balance for this boat. It not a gunkholer and never will be. It is a no compromise deep water boat. The keel profile is a heavy steel plate that also has the bulb profile. There is a heavy steel flange curved to the hull rocker which he wants welded by a certified welder (there is so much weld length that I would be very confident of my welding). This flange is bolted with 5 pairs of bolts through 5 heavy oak floors. The lead bulb is made in two halves with three large bolts bolting the three parts together. The bolt holes in the lead are counter bored for the heads and nuts, and faired with a soft filler so that it can be dug out. The idea is to have a simple strong structure that is the ultimate in simplicity, strong, reliable with the maximum righting moment for the weight and not interfere with the limited interior. It can be trailed but needs to have a deep ramp to launch. I have trailed a J22 which was possible but restricting. The keel can be all easily unbolted and man handled if necessary, say to get it into a container or long term storage.

On looking a little closer I see that the 3/4" x 1" cleat that tops the side bulkheads is not installed yet. it connects the side bulkhead to the seat.

You are still going at an incredible pace and with very nice results. I see that everything is done for installing the seat tops real soon but I see one omission that I hope that you just have not gotten around to yet and that is the cleats on the forward bulkhead and the transom. They support the ends of the seat tops and go between the side stringers and the side tanks.

It is interesting that I am finishing up installing a fuel tank under the cockpit and moving the battery forward on the Original OB20 hull #1 that Chick built. The reason is because I bought an almost new Etech 50 that sat around for 10 years and have finally installed it. Remember that after this version the bottom was redesigned with more volume aft for bigger engines so that my need to get weight further forward is relevant to to just this boat. The old fuel tank was about 15 gallons set on the port side back to the transom. I cut a big hole in the cockpit and put in a FT35 35 gallon tank set against the pilot house bulkhead. I hate the idea of burying the fuel tank forever but I wanted the keep the cockpit watertight. I hope that I never get a wave into the cockpit but I want to be able to hose out the cockpit or what if debris clogged the cockpit drains and it rained a lot etc.. I installed the tank with the fuel gauge fuel pickup and filler forward and made a rabbeted kidney shape hatch rabbeted to take 6mm lexan cover which I will set in mastic that I can pry out to access the hardware, like replace the fuel gauge sender or clean out the tank. I do not have access to the tank vent as it is at the other end of the tank but I have the exact dimensions so that I could put in a 4" diameter lexan hatch if the need ever arises but I doubt that will happen. With the fuel pickup forward, the engine will quit if I am on plane before I use the last few gallons, this might not be a bad idea as I will have somewhere between 5 - 10 mile range at displacement speed to get me somewhere if I am stupid enough to run her out of gas. I put the battery on the forward side of the bulkhead with a lift up step to give me instant access to the battery. As the battery (group 31) is heavy and the space is too tight to lift straight up, I put a sliding front that lifts up so that I have more room to work inside the compartment. The battery is held by a screw down base and the wood bar across the top locks the battery down and the screw through the starboard cleat holds the bar in place. The three way battery switch is over kill but it is one that I had. I put her in the water yesterday and she trims out well.

I adjusted an eyestrap to fit the bolts of the lower rudder gudgeon and fastened an eyestrap to the aft end of the trunk about 3" up from the bottom. I put grommets in some 2" webbing. I used some 1/8" cord to connect at each end and used the cord to adjust the tension to suit.

I am sure that the new Marissa will have a happy owner. Thanks for all or your posts, you do not realize how important it is get good feedback so that we can continue to create, especially someone with your level of craftmanship and to see you add your own interpretation to our designs.

We always strive to make our kits as good as we can and any constructive criticism is very welcome. Without feedback it is hard to improve. The fact that we design and use and cut our kits we can very easily make changes. One of the problems is like with the daggerboard change. Finding and fixing the instructions which can go back many iterations to avoid confusion.

I would call it smart rather than cowardice. If in doubt check it out. I often see builders misinterpret and go down the wrong hole and make it difficult to dig back out. I see that we missed the fore deck beam. Unfortunately, you are the guinea pig as this is the new updated kit. You are correct, follow your directions. Your other question about the daggerboard. That is a new refinement by Alan and I believe that he intended that there be no extra handle, just clean up the hand hole so that it is comfortable.

Jan I am sorry about the confusion. The S12 is the only Spindrift that has no breasthook. You do need an anchor point to attach the forward end of the gunwales and that is the mast collar. It runs through the forward bulkhead to the bow and doubles as a king plank supporting the foredeck and needs to be installed before the gunwales so that you have something solid for the gunwales anchor screw. You do need to install the forward bulkhead deck beam before the mast collar. The reason the above mentioned Spindrifts had laminated gunwales is that they nested. If they were not laminated the gunwales would have straightened out when the boat was cut in halves. You do not need to laminate the gunwales as your boat will not be cut. Having said that, there is a lot of stress on the wood and boat as it is forced in place and they can break if there is a lot of grain run out or some other defect. The advantage of laminating is first, reducing a lot of stress and second, it is unlikely that you will have the same grain defect in the same place in the laminations, You need to take care to sort through the laminations and end for end every other piece if they come from the board. Because you will not be cutting your boat there is no reason to do three laminations. Two will be easier to do and the forces will be reduced to about a third. Whenever I put on gunwales I always study the grain of each piece and put the straightest grain forward where there is the most bend. It is important to install both sides at the same time on the boat to keep it twist free but you may put on one lamination at a time. You could apply glue to one side and bend the unglued partner at the same time so that the bending stress on the boat is equal while the first side is curing. Remove the unglued gunwale later and glue it on. The advantage is that if you you do not have enough clamps you can put most of them on the gunwale being glued and it is easier when short handed. I always pre-fit the gunwales and drill and install the anchor screw as it is easier to get it right without the glue making everything slippery and you are not burning up your curing window of the epoxy and keeping your tools clean.

You are making great progress and I see that you are getting some character building as well. Not that I am suggesting you need any more. You have the right spirit for this group, when plan A does not work, there are another 25 letters in the alphabet. I am glad that you are having a well deserved rest tonight because I suggest that you do not tape the inside of the boat until the transom is fitted. This is because the stern shape will change with the transom in place. If you look at the keel where it will meet the transom, there is a small gap. If you look at the keel rocker from the side you will see the keel curving up until about a foot from the stern where the curve starts to bend down. You need to put a prop from the floor to lift the bottom at the aft end of the keel line until it is tight. Then position the assembled transom in it's place assuming that you have trimmed the inwales and side stringers. The transom will force the bottom and sides into their correct shape. It would be a pity to lock the chine and keel into the wrong shape. This does not mean that you have to fit the transom in permanently, you can still take it out again if that suits but you do need it in place when epoxy is curing in the stern area. Keep up the good work but don't get too far ahead, you are putting us to shame.

You have been given good advise, especially regarding the need to stow and have ready access to stuff. If you will do much sailing it is not a matter of, if you will capsize but when. Remember that during a capsize, everything not stowed or tied down will be gone. Follow Joe's advise about practice capsizing but look at his capsize video first. The Spindrift is an excellent boat for recovery so you are off to a good start. Make sure that your bailer is tied in with enough length so that it can be used without having to untie it. A gallon bleach bottle with the bottom cut off at an angle is about as good as any. I have not had personal experience with that hatch but I have had too much experience with other brands of similar hatches and they all leaked. That is what forced me to create a better mousetrap and design our now standard cockpit hatches. They are a lot of work for a Spindrift, I would use the 8" hatches that Alan suggested and put them on the vertical faces. If you choose the screw in type, I would make a 3/4" plywood spanner to undo them as they can be hard to undo if you tighten them so that they will not leak. Drill a hole in it so that it can be tied in. I once sailed the Small Reach Regatta in my 12' Amanda which has the same cockpit as the Spindrift. I had the same screw in plastic hatches in her and I was able to stow everything that they required to meet their safety rules as well as a set of dry warm clothes and food. A compass was mounted to the trunk and the ground tackle was also lashed to the trunk and oars too. It worked great.

We have used many options for the keel but now we use 3/4" stainless steel hollow back because it is the cheapest and it is pre-drilled. Most of the keel wear is at the front and back and in between, in other words cover it all. On Carlita I ran 1/2" from in front of the keel to the bow eye to prevent chafe against the bow chock and and bumping the back of the trailer. I am really glad that I did. Because the hollow back is hollow, you need to plane the corners off of the keel so that it has more bearing and put it down in thickened epoxy.

I do not have all of the gear that Alan carries. In fact I am using one of Alan's hand me down jackets with pockets. It does meet the Watertribe rules with the PLB, VHF, knife and whistle. It is really cheap insurance. Last year at the OBX120 I talked to someone who is alive because he did the EC and had to buy a PLB. He was doing the OBX120 a couple of years go when he capsized west of Portsmouth Island and started having chest pains, he could not re-right the boat in this condition. He set off his PLB and a few hours later he was in a hospital in Elizabeth City being treated for a heart attack. He did a have a stress test before participating in the last OBX120.

I did compare the cost of a Beta Marine diesel and the cost is near enough to the same by the time you add up the cost of tankage, shafting and wiring etc.. It is like comparing apples and oranges. There is a lot more energy stored in a tank of diesel than a charged battery, which means that you cannot run at full speed for say 24 hours. You can run for long periods at low speed with sail assist and almost no sound or smell. The Torquedo will regenerate at sailing speeds above 4 knots. The larger battery capacity will allow for more pleasant living aboard running a refrigerator laptops and cell phones etc.. The boat will carry a small Honda 2kw generator for the times when the sun is not shining or you have to run the Torquedo long and hard. The boat will have more space and no diesel smell. I suspect that the running costs will also be awash if you consider replacing the battery in 8-10 years compared to diesel maintenance and fuel.

Welcome to the forum and I hope that it will be a pleasant experience. There is not of solid wood in the boat but I consider the gunwales to be the most important. If you look at the fiberglass tenders with some age, besides being very heavy you will see that some have the gunwales rotting out under the fendering material. The fender is very important on a tender as we do not want it to tear up the mother ship. And it is not very polite to come along side someone else's boat without protection. The fender keeps the gunwales wet and it seems to be impossible to prevent moisture from penetrating around the fastenings. I have had such good success using treated pine for gunwales that I will not use anything else. It is inexpensive and readily available. The trouble is that if you are building a nesting version you need a table saw to rip the lamination's. The rest of the solid wood is based on dimensional lumber that you can obtain from box stores as others have said. It is better than available hardwoods and lighter. The only caveat is that it must be dry to get a good bond. It is often wet when it reaches the store. It is so readily available that I would go to another store until I find some dry wood. If you go to a wholesale lumber yard that supplies the building trade, they have different grades including very clear wood as you do not want knots. I would buy a 10' 2x4 and take it to someone with a table saw and have then rip 6 laminations, 5/16" thick. I would do this early in the build so that those thin laminations will dry even further. I would sneak them into the house and stack them so that they get some air flow and they will be perfect by the time that you are ready to install them.

Steve, Seeing that I was responsible for positioning the board and moving it forward, I will tackle your question. There is an enormous amount of pushing and pulling, balancing and compromise in creating a new boat. One of the tough decisions was the positioning the centerboard so that the boat would balance under a wide range of sail combinations and not interfere with access to the port bunk. I moved the rig as far aft as I could and you may recall that I put a trimming board forward on Carlita. The trimming board may have helped but it was too small to be able to feel it. I found that I always reefed the main first and when I reefed the mizzen I put the second reef in the main. As wind pressure goes up by the square of the speed, once the boat cannot absorb any more power you must reef, therein after the windage of the boat increases while the power of the rig cannot, at the same time drag increases. This is so with all boats but the windage of this boat being more forward, there can be some lee helm when the boat is reefed proportionally unless you sheet the mizzen in close and ease the main. I never had any real issues in heavy weather but if I did I planned to rig a line to haul the mizzen slightly to weather. During my trip to the Pacific North West, I lived on the boat for about 5 or 6 weeks and had plenty of time to think about this issue and to try out ideas with the interior ergonomics. I don't know why it took so long to come to me that I could move the board forward by the length of the step and even slightly more if the top was rounded without hurting the interior. While at the Port Townsend Small Craft Festival, I must have heard it a hundred times, " I really like this boat but I need more headroom". I had felt that many of the clever ideas that we incorporated in the assembly of the boat like building the cockpit module first, actually made the boat tiresome to glass in place and required more diligence to make sure that there are no leaks through the many intersections of the baffles which were also structural members. On the long drive home I decided to redesign both versions. Raise the free-board 2", move the board forward and eliminate running the baffles into the tank. Instead the ballast tank would be made like a tub and glassed in one one shot before adding the baffles. Alan was less than enthusiastic as we had put in more than a year perfecting all of the files and the plans were very comprehensive. It took another year to be back where we were with what I call the mk3.2. I think that Mark was one of the many wishing for more cabin height and I believe that he got the first 3.2. Will the boat have weather helm with the change? It can but it can easily be eliminated by raking the board aft. What about boats already built. There are two choices, adjust sails as necessary or rework the trunk. I have had it on my list to make the change to Carlita but I have not felt that it is important enough to put it at the head of my other needs yet.

Don, I am confused by the question as there is no glass involved in gluing the joint together. I prefer to call them finger scarfs rather than finger joints. Finger joints are typically parallel sided and equally spaced fingers. This means that roughly 50% of the joint is a butt joint which is not very strong. We used to use step scarfs which gave us a strong joint but the edges were vulnerable to handling and were often damaged by the time it was used. The other problem was quality control. We used 9 steps in 6mm ply which gave us steps of .013" . If the end of the sheet was not perfectly flat to the table the scarf was rejected which messes up a good sheet of ply. If a new shipment was 10 or 15 thousand's off in thickness our cut file did not work and we had to make another one until the next batch. Most of our competitors went to a puzzle joint. We tested them and realized that up to 2/3 of the joint was a butt joint. I made up all kinds of joints and tested them. I discovered the worst part with them is that to assemble, you have one part on the table and the other part is positioned above it's partner and lowered and pressed place. A lot of the glue gets squeezed out of the joint. When I cut the joint open I felt that if I was lucky, 60% to 70 % was effectively glued. The finger scarf edge gets loaded with glue and the joint is brought together horizontally compressing the glue and squeezing out the excess glue with 100% glue contact. While a small part of our finger scarf could be called a butt, it is minimized by keeping it to the bit diameter, typically 1/4". We have tested it on lots of different applications and it is working well. We like to think of it as scarf turned on it's side. we do not usually glass the joint at all. Any joint in 6mm ply is fine if you are going to glass the joint. As with all joints it is not perfect. It does not automatically align the joint. When the joint is brought together you need to look to see if there is any gap at the at the end of the fingers at one side of the joint. If there is, you need push the panels together with bias to the side that is open. On wide panels it is hard to get it wrong but if one is careless with narrow panels it could happen. Another possibility is that if the fingers are not in plane and level with each other when you bring the joint together, the wedge effect lock them together out of plane. Usually you can tap a piece of wood with a hammer over the fingers and massage them back to being level with each other. You do not need to use much force for the joint. The main thing is that 6mm ply is not perfectly flat and you are bringing two pieces together that need to be flat in the region of the joint. We have a bunch of 2 1/2# lead weights that we put down wherever they are needed. Clean off the excess glue and you should have a fine joint.

Amos, We do, here is that link.

You cannot go wrong if you follow the waterline method that Alan illustrated for putting on the WL and boot top. It is one of the most critical cosmetic components you will add to the boat, get it wrong and the boat will look sad. The most common mistake that I see is that the boot top is measured up the slope of the hull instead of vertical. On boats that have flare forward at the wl or have a counter stern, it causes the boot top to look narrower at the ends giving the boat a frown rather than a big smile that says "look at me". If you do not get the boot top right, leave it off. On high sided boats it will make the boat look longer and sleeker. The proportions of the boot top have to be just right and are different for each type of boat and freeboard height. We give the dimensions on our boats as to where it should be. As Steve said do not put it too low . Small boats are almost never in perfect trim and the water is rarely flat. Small ripples will make the water appear higher on the boat than it is. If you put it exactly on the DWL, part of it will usually be underwater. I prefer the scum line to be on the bottom. I prefer to put the waterline on with the boat upright as there is always some sag or catenary in the string or tape and it could look hogged if it is put on upside down. A tiny bit of rocker in the WL always enhances any boat. I long ago gave up on the string method because you have to do the job twice and best way to put the tape on fair is to pull the tape out a long way as you lay the tape on the hull, why not use the straight edge as a guide? As the illustration shows, put on the stern straight edge on first because you can measure it accurately at both chines to make it truly level to the boat athwartships. Remember to position the straight edge down by the width of the tape. Then position the forward straight edge at the right height forward and make sure that it is in plane with the aft one. It makes sense to do the boot top right after you mark the WL because you have the setup and it will be more accurate than trying to re setup later on. 1" masking tape works great and it is easier to apply if you have help because the tape will slide down especially forward and you do not want that to happen. I put a step ladder or sawhorse etc to anchor the aft end of the tape positioned a foot or two beyond the stern so that I will have enough length as I pull the tape in to the stern. I want the tape pulled out for the whole length of the boat parallel to the boats CL with the lower edge kissing both straight edges and held vertical. I do the bow first and holding the roll out a couple of feet forward of the forward straight edge, start moving the tape inwards with the bottom kissing the straight edge while trying to keep some tension to reduce sag. As soon as tape touches the hull have your helper touch the top edge of the tape and continue touching the as you move inboard. When you go around the chine forward there will be a bridge where the tape will hit the bottom 6" to a foot forward of the chine, this is normal, keep going until you reach the bow. If it looks good you can pat the tape on to the hull pushing the bridge horizontal to keep it fair. While you are concentrating on three things at once it is easy to get the bow wrong by rotating the tape on the vertical axis causing the tape not to be straight. Just pull the tape back out for as far as you need and fix that section. Only after you are happy with the line should you pat the tape down to the hull. Repeat for the stern half and do the other side. If you are going for the boot top follow the directions for setting up the short angled straight edges. Taping the boot top is identical to the Wl with one exception. For the WL you want the top edge of the tape to touch the hull first. On the boot top you want the bottom edge of the tape the touch the hull first. This can be accomplished by holding the tape roll horizontally and rotate it as you move it along the straight edge so that it touches the hull with the bottom edge. This sounds more complicated than it is. While a laser is a valid method and appeals to the gearhead, you still have to put on the tape smoothly and when you factor in where to remount the laser in space to get the right curve to the boot top and get it exactly right again for the other side of the boat is harder or less accurate where as the sloped straightedge method is mathematically correct. Do not forget to really press down the tape edge that meets the paint or the paint will bleed under the tape messing up your beautiful work. I usually run the blade of a putty knife along the paint edge of the tape and run my thumb nail into any tape joins that will make a tiny bridge. Or you can spring for 3M's fine line tape.

I have been thinking about this a lot today and after seeing the last picture I think that Joe's last comment is exactly right coupled with an overtight snotter for the strong wind gybe. If you look closely at the reefed main, you can see that the clew grommet is a lot further above the sprit than on the mizzen. If the main snotter was released and the reefing line was tightened until the clew grommet was close to the sprit, the downhaul is eased 6", the halyard re-tightened and the snotter tension set for the right sail shape the sprit angle would be close to the same angle as the mizzen sprit, there would be a lot less load on the top slide. Alan is also correct with the zipper effect. Once the load went above the breaking strength of the top slide it would fail, passing all of the load to the next slide for it to fail and so on. By the time the rest broke there may have been enough slack introduced into in the sail for the next slide to quit breaking. This is not to beat up on Bones because he just proved Murphy right again. "If it can happen it will". Here is my first shot at solving the problem. The drawing on the left shows a cross section of the sail track with a standard slide like Bones and the rest of us have. The one on the right shows my heavy duty top slide. It is thicker and has an eyestrap screwed into the slide. Harken rates that eyestrap at 1600# breaking strength with 2 # 10 screws. I intend to make a couple and test the breaking strength of a standard slide and then test the new one. We happen to have plenty of track, slides and eystraps.

I am stunned. I have used nylon sail slides for the better part of 50 years and a lot of sea miles and do not recall ever braking one. Carlita has a lot of miles and age with the identical batch of slides. Because it is on the main and the broken slides are from the top down I think that they came under unreasonable abuse. My only thought is that because the main is in a tabernacle which means that mast cannot rotate. If the main was over tension-ed by the snotter when close hauled, the sail tightens as it is let out. I have to ease the snotter from close hauled to a run especially if I ease the main past 90 degrees. In fact in light airs the sail will not go out without easing the snotter. Not to be pedantic, slugs are cylindrical and are meant to go into a track designed for a boltrope.

I have been bothered ever since my earlier post on his strange behavior and wracking my brain over various scenarios. Unfortunately we will never know what actually happened. I would like to see some photos from the Coast Guard before they capsized the boat to see what sail combination he had up, was she in a hove-to position or was there any discernible damage or issues? I too looked hard for the centerboard in the capsized picture. It cannot fall through the cap as it is 3/4" solid wood sandwiched between the trunk sides with a fillet and glass coming from one side across the cap. There should be a rubber shock absorber near the aft end of the cap that keeps the leading edge of the board flush with the bottom, perhaps it was not installed allowing the board to retract out of sight. We have discussed drilling a small hole in the lead tip and attaching about 3 feet of 1/8" line for this situation, It would cause very little drag. I believe that I could push a loop of 3/16" line down the trunk behind the board and lift it out. The tip is tapered and there is room to get a line around the board, although not as convenient as the 1/8" line, you have got to do what you have to. I can understand him pressing the OK button, I would have done the same thing if the boat was upright and dry to let everyone know that even though I was not making good progress I was fine. Why would I want to be taken off my perfectly whole boat? As Joe pointed out, why did the Spot quit transmitting after the last OK? I do not wear mine as it works more reliably when sitting flat but I do have the PLB attached to my life jacket as well as the VHF which I do wear when I am offshore. Perhaps he was wearing his Spot when he went overboard and the waterproofing failed.