Designer

Don, The missing hatch sides and back were in the original drawings. You definitely have a builder modification. The good news is that what is built looks like it is to plan and shouldn't require any alteration to bring it up to spec. I would add some sides and modify the back to clear all of those nuts. Then put a straight edge on the deck across the hatch to measure the gap above the coamings for the gasket and adjust if necessary. I think that you would be better off with a mizzen staysail. It will give you the most bang for the buck. It is mostly in the cockpit and easier to take down if conditions suddenly get ugly.

I agree with Ken, I am glad that the Bondo has not failed for Reacher. I am quicker than most to try and save a buck but most of the time it bites me in the butt. I built my first stitch and glue Catspaw tender in the late Sixties. The only epoxy that we could buy at the time was as thick as molasses on a cold day. I was aware that polyester resin not a true adhesive so I used isothalic polyester which was the best at the time. I cross hatched the surface under the glass tape with a piece of saw blade and primed under the tape with thinned resin. She lasted a little more than a year of full time use before the glass tape started to delaminate. I made a female mold from masonite and built a fiberglass Catspaw. She was heavier than the plywood version and the hull panels were not as stiff. She was well patched when retired at about 10 years old. The next dinghy was like the first but built with modern epoxy. She was the best of the three and was still going at 25 years when I loaned her to friend who lost her in a hurricane.

Hi Viktor, You are in luck. We have had a number of requests for the Amanda rig on the Spindrift and I have been working on it. The problem with just sticking the Amanda rig in a Spindrift is that the dagger board needs to be moved aft about 6" to balance properly. This is not a problem with the offset board with the trunk going through the side tank. If someone wanted to use both rigs they could just make the trunk 6" longer and have a plug positioned forward or aft for the rig they wanted to use. This may not have much value except for nuts like me that like to experiment. I sailed the Small Reach Regatta in Maine in an Amanda a few years ago and was well pleased with her functionality and performance, beating the whole fleet except for a pulling boat rowed by Tom Jackson to the lunch time beach one day including a Caledonia Yawl. If you have the plans for your CY you should be able to measure what size boat she can carry.

Don, You bring up one of the advantages of creating your own boat, you can fit it out to make it work the way you use it. I have a tricolor masthead navigation light on the main mast which works very well. To remove the mast from the boat I have to have a "weatherproof" plug near the base of the mast. These plugs become troublesome over time due the corrosive environment we operate in. I find that if I smother the terminals in dielectric grease and mount the plug under the foredeck out of the weather I get trouble free service so far. The plug has to be polarized which means that it can only go together one way. With the screen removed I can reach through the port and view the plug so that I can plug it in the right way. It is very awkward trying to plug it in reaching in blind kneeling on the foredeck.

Hi Viktor, We have done most of the modifications you want on different boats over the years. Here is a link to the "Kendrift 9" build log. She is a Spindrift 9 that we modified for Ken to be a lightweight tender for his OB26. Ken said that she weighed in at 66#. If you want the S10 or S11 modified so that it has the dual rowing station and offset dagger-board I would be happy to modify the plans.

Borrowing R&D (research and duplicate) from Steve who unashamedly stole it from Jay. This is not earth shattering but when I saw Amos' neat mosquito screen installation on the forward side of his bulkhead I thought "dummy, why didn't I think of that?" When I was thinking about making my screen I was looking from inside the boat. I made a thick ply frame and glued the mesh to the face, it works. The down side is that every time I get under way I take it out so that I can screw the 6"plastic hatch in. It is not hard to do but it takes a screw driver and I have another piece of clutter to store until I need it. Every time I get under way I make sure that the lockers under the berths are dogged and the hatches are sealed just in case I get knocked down. It has not even come close yet but if it did It could end badly as I am regularly far from help. I now have a mast head float which should add another layer of safety. I carry my canned food and tools under the bunks and my battery is just in front of the ballast tanks and I cruise with the ballast tanks full. I intend to capsize test her again in her current trim. I have driven her hard. One of the things that I really like on Carlita is her white paint above gunwales. It is always cool even on a hot summers day with the three hatches open. The red hull is mostly in the shade. Unfortunately we cruise in one of the buggiest places on earth. With screens in place of the companionway wash boards and both hatches closed and the screen over the 6" hatch forward I am good. Often after I tidy the boat after a days sail I grab whatever I want out of the ice box to eat and dive down below and try to kill whatever came in with me. The 6" screen might not seem like much but I have 12V Hella fan that clamps to the deck stringer just aft of the screen blowing air at me when it is hot and venting out through the companionway screens. The forward bulkhead on the mk3 has the 6" hatch tucked up under foredeck to the starboard side and stays dry even in driving rain. The green lines mark the forward tabernacle and the anchor well. I drew a square of 1/4" 6mm ply and chopped off the corners. I drew five strips of 6mm ply with two at the bottom staggered about 3/16" to form a rabbet which holds the screen in place. A washer under the turn button at the top should make it easy to turn and allow for easy removal.

I think that it is good idea to use your CS17 as a motor boat. We used my BRS15 a lot with a 6 hp motor without rudder and rig. With 3 adults, 2 large dogs and picnic gear she ran at 7 knots. Running solo and trimmed out it seemed a lot faster. We did not have Navionics then, It was generally hard to find an accurate measured distance on the spur of the moment. As best as I can calculate for your boat using a 10 hp motor. @ 600 # all up weight I get 10.3 knots and @ 1000# 8.9 knots. Take this for what it is worth because this is operating at hump speed and calculations can be way off. The ideal way would be to try and borrow a motor for a trial run.

You can go either way with glass taping the inside keel seam. I think that it is strong enough without and that was the way that I designed it. There are a couple of points to consider. First, the boat is rather fragile at this point which means that you cannot hog down on the keel batten too hard to force it into place. It would be a lot stronger if the seam was taped. If the keel was fitted nicely and you don't go crazy with props wedges and a hammer, you should be good. there have been a lot built without tape. The second point is not be too frugal with thickened epoxy under the batten. I have seen a couple of older boats get some rot in the keel over time. There was insufficient squeeze-out and the boats were put away with water in the bilge and those voids being at the lowest point in the boat just stayed wet. I would plane or use a round over bit in a router on the top of the keel batten, at least 1/4" radius except where the trunk touches it and at the mizzen mast step. I would use that squeezed out epoxy to lay in the biggest fillet I could in that corner at the keel batten/ bottom junction so that it could be made smooth. The sealer coats of epoxy resin that you will coat the boat with will give you an excellent protective coating. Not to mention that it will look great, be easy to clean and hopefully have a long happy life.

Steve, It sounds like a great challenge. The big unknown quantity is the weather, at that time of the year it can be excellent or horrendous. Your boat is at least 10% faster than mine which will increase your cushion. I like the idea of trailing the boat south to give you more time but it would be nice to save unrigging, loading the boat and then reverse it when you are all ready to sail off. The fact that you have a get out jail card with your friend to come and get you if time runs out, I think that I would just go for it. I presume that the friend is going to drive down and bring you home. I can recommend Amos as having the best pit stop on the coast. The 6 hp motor will be nice. I hope that you have some solar power. I would also want to have an autopilot.

Paul , Thanks for the feedback. It does not matter how many times we test something, there is nothing like a real life situation with Murphy watching for a chance to get us. I do not need to know how or why you capsized. Most of mine have been my screwups.

There should have been several layers of glass sandwiching the bushings. I don't see why you can't just add them now and sail on.

Yes everyone is correct. You want the out side of the bottom transition to be smooth. It may seem obvious but pay attention, making sure that you pair the bottom panels to make sure that you do not end up with two left or right sides. You would be surprised by how often that happens. It was the very important lesson that this first time 15 yr old boat builder made with 2 left side centerboard trunk sides. I became obsessed with pairing parts ever since. That measurement is different for every model. We do not usually use it on CNC cut boats because the panels are accurate and fit together without any slack. We use tapered finger joints to join our panels rather than puzzle joints like our competitors because it is a stronger joint. You do need to approach the glue-up differently. After buttering up both sets of fingers with epoxy, you can slide the joint together but leave some slack before you clamp them down flat, then tighten up the joint by hammering against a scrap of wood protecting the panel end. If you do it in the reverse order the fingers get so tight that it is hard to get the top and bottom surfaces to be in plane. When tightening the fingers I try to tap evenly across the panel to make sure that I am applying even force across the panel and do a visual check to see that the glue line is even across the sheet.

Yes you can but you need to add a piece of wood to to tie it together. See the red piece in the 2d drawing of the mast step.

I finally got around to putting a mast float on Carlita for my recent trip. https://www.sailingforparkinsons.org/home Did it do me any good? Well I did not need it on this trip, fortunately! I sure would have looked foolish if I had really needed it because, all I needed to get one was to say cut one out for me. As it turned out, I ended up out in some pretty big weather alone. I got knocked down to 40 - 50 degrees several times and it did make me feel better knowing that it was there. To improve my odds I made sure that every time I went out I dogged every hatch and port to keep all that gear locked in place and as low as I could get it. It came out at least as light as Nicks. Mine came out a bit tail heavy and I wanted mine as close as I could get to being balanced so that it would take a tiny bit less drag to keep the float pointing exactly into the wind when heeled. I cut a piece of lead and hammered in to the shape of the nose and glued it on. It still came out slightly tail heavy but it is close enough. If I can twist Alan's arm I think that we can get the cut file perfect. Who wants to add lead to a float? I was going to paint mine yellow for fun but when we had a run of white Awlgrip paint, expedience quickly won. Could I tell the difference with the float up there? In rough conditions, I imagined that the mizzen top was dancing around a bit more but I could not feel anything.

Hi Aphers, Thanks for giving us the two year review, I really enjoyed it. All too often a boat that we have watched emerge from some plan sheet and ply on this forum, just fade away without ever hearing the rest of the story. I can think of another positive, reparability after someone crashes into your Spindrift. Anyway I hope that you will keep us in the loop. Good luck with your voyaging.

Hi Robert, I can see what happened. The mast step broke out on port tack, with the mast falling over to starboard and levering up the thwart on the port side. The first thing that I would do is to check around the mast step for rot. I use a dull blade without a sharp point (you can poke a sharp point into perfectly good wood) and poke the sound wood just hard enough to not hurt it. Then use the same force on the suspect wood. If the blade does not dive into the wood it is probably okay. Over the years we have made that mast step longer and wider and widening the keel batten on the port side by way of the mast step to give a bigger connection and margin of safety especially as we had no control of the build quality. There was also supposed to be four screws thru the step down into the keel batten. If the thwart is sound and you want to be the least invasive, you could make two skilsaw cuts parallel to and by the mast hole to the port side to cur away all of that splintered wood. Fit and epoxy in a new piece. Or you could just cut out the old thwart and fit in a new one. Without seeing the rest of the boat it all looks like a very simple job. If you need any help don't hesitate to ask. We do not use a traveler on the sheets because the sprits act as traveler's. There has been much discussion on this forum on a non fouling mizzen mizzen sheet.

On May 21, 2023, I will turn 80. I plan to do a celebratory cruise in my sailboat “Carlita” around the whole of the Pamlico Sound. A distance of 500 nautical miles (see my route). It has been just over 10 years since I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I never expected to make it to 80, let alone still have the desire or feel fit enough to attempt this cruise. I believe that Rock Steady Boxing has played a big part in that. I thought it would be good to try to give something back. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause which means so much to me. Rock Steady Boxing is a non-contact, beneficial fitness class for people with Parkinson’s Disease that helps with mobility, coordination, flexibility, and voice projection in an upbeat, positive atmosphere ...surrounded by energetic and fun coaches and volunteers. Check them out on youtube here. My idea is to use social media to promote my “Sailing for Parkinson’s” cruise to raise funds and pass it all on to the New Bern chapter of Rock Steady support group which is part of the Michael J Fox Parkinsons’ foundation. Parkinson’s has been around for a long time and the rate of new diagnoses is ever increasing. There is no cure and there have been no real breakthroughs in fifty years, just treating the symptoms. Specialized and regular hard exercise is about the best that we have right now to slow the progression. In 2021 I made a cruise circumnavigating the Delmarva Peninsula. Here is the link to the trip report from that cruise. I plan to do the same for this cruise. Here is the link!

Steve, I did not bother to build a new centerboard for Carlita. I just took off the lead tip and put in a faired spacer and triple glassed the two joints and called it good. That was at least 5 years ago now. I tested it thoroughly back then and I have given it a lot of abuse since.

Placing the flotation at the keel is the worst place to put it. It raises the CG of any water on board and it encourages what is called "free surface effect" which is all the water rushing to the lee side when the boat heels causing the boat to heel further and possibly capsize. It makes it harder to board a partially flooded boat without re capsizing. As has been stated, the standard Spindrift layout is the best. As you have a S11N that is not possible. What Starboard did is the best that you can do, which is pretty good . Look at the pictures of a standard Spindrift on it's side, you will see that the water does not enter the boat. When righted you should only get the water that is scooped between side seating and the side which should only be a couple of gallons. In the real world that might not be the case as the dagger board is forward of the heeled CB causing the boat to trim down by the bow as you lean on the dagger board and taking a fair amount of water on board. Having capsized Spindrifts a lot I found that they are small enough that I could could put an aft twist on the board before pushing down and eliminate the problem. With the layout that Starboard has, you should be able to right the boat with a fairly dry bow section but a quarter to half full aft section which puts you into a lot better situation than you are in now. you should have a tied in bailer ( modified gallon chlorox bottle. Probably the best thing in the world for kids is having a Spindrift. I would give them plenty of practice capsizing and self rescue. It is easy to right with the boat on it's side but much more difficult if inverted. The will invert without mast head flotation making it difficult to right. It is often too shallow to completely invert, risking mast damage or at least a very mud stained sail. I never felt the need for mast flotation because I got onto the job of righting the boat. I have seen plenty of people dither taking too long and getting inverted. I see that Aphers responded while I was writing this so some of this is duplication.

I created the Spindrift transom for a short shaft motor. I measured my Suzuki 2.5 at 17 1/2" to the cav plate. Of course with a small boat it is easy to get it out of trim. It is up to the skipper to arrange the crew or cargo for proper trim.

Steve, I am sure that we can find enough okume ply scraps if you want.

Ken, Thanks for sharing the gaffs as well as the perfect sails. Now that you brought it up you have given us permission to dump on you. It definitely was not your crews fault. She was attentive and trying to be as good and helpful as she could be. She was familiar with a larger boat, not realizing how these light dinghy hulls have no lateral plane with the board up and slip sideways and go out of trim when you move forward. Next time she will ease the board up more slowly. It is impossible for the skipper to foresee every thing that can go wrong, especially as you are just learning the boat. While it might be argued that it was not really your fault. The fact remains that as owner skipper, the buck stops with you. On the positive side there appears to be no damage so there was no foul. You will not forget this for a long while and keep some board down for as long as you need in the future. The reason that we do the rope leading edge is to be able to leave some board down longer than we would normally dare because we can scrape on the bottom without hurting it. On your boat with a handle on the board is is very easy to judge how much board is down. If I am driving I prefer to control the board myself as I can judge how much leeway I am making versus how far I have yet to go and how deep I judge the depth to be. If I see the handle move I know exactly how deep it is and raise the board some more. If I am sailing in and discover that I am coming in too hot. I leave the board down and use it as a landing brake. Murphy is always in attendance ready to catch us when we screw up. To help prevent a line around the prop or jamming the centerboard I use the dinghy braid that you have on your sheets because it floats. You might have noticed it on Carlita and the OB20 when you visited.

Chick is right. The CB was in place just for a test fit. Installing the board later is easy but it it is better with two people. I would hate to find out after the job was finished that the CB would not fit or there was something wrong with the pennant. Also you need to glass the inside trunk lower edge to the bottom, which cannot be done with the board in place. To install the CB I lower the pennant through the trunk and tie the stopper knot in the board. I like to be inside the boat and have my assistant raise the board while I take up the slack in the pennant. We know that there is only about 3/8" clearance in front of the board and the leading edge of the CB is about level with the bottom when raised. The key is the permanent marker X that you can see in the photo. My assistant raises the board flush with the bottom and as far forward as he can. I am looking through the pin hole with a light for my X. I can then direct slight movements watching the X until I can see the hole. I am ready with an awl or #1 phillips screwdriver to poke into the hole. I can then wriggle the screwdriver to properly align the holes. I have the pin ready, I holler to my helper to not move the board and quickly withdraw screwdriver and replace with the CB pin.

You are doing good work Don. Having done this mod to Carlita and observing the Chiefs mk3 trunk extension, I am enjoying following your turn. Here is a pic of Carlita's trunk extension with the outboard trunk side installed and testing the centerboard fit . I chose this pic to help answer Steve's question about glassing inside the trunk extension and to show the downhaul that I added following Steve's catastrophic capsize. It is important to glass the inside of the trunk. It is easy to glass the inside of the trunk halves on the bench. After the board was removed following taking the picture I glassed the vertical seam inside the trunk and glassed the bottom of the trunk to the boats bottom. The inboard trunk half is more fiddly. To glass tape the inside butt joint I wet out a length 3" glass tape and compressed the glass between two flat surfaces and plastic release to make the glass as thin as possible and smooth as I did not have a lot of room. After cure I sanded the faying side for a good key and glued it to the trunk half butt edge with 1 1/2" left out for bonding to the old forward trunk joint. Before gluing in the final side I rigged up a backing board and wedges while I could still see inside. After reading this I cannot remember if I glued the tape to the original part of the trunk or the new part first. Remember a taped butt joint is stronger than the ply. If the tape is on one side only it is strong when loaded on one side and worthless when loaded on the other side. It worked well and you will have to look hard to see that the modification was not original. Was it all worth the effort? For me there is no question, I did the mod before my Delmarva circumnavigation and blessed it many times. Carlita is definitely more weatherly under a wider range of sail combinations. The line in the picture that goes thru the lower cheek block is the standard uphaul and the line thru the upper block and going forward to the newly drilled termination hole is the downhaul. Does it work? I do not know because I have not come near to capsizing her let alone turtling. I have been working on a gold fish mast float. We intend to do a capsize test in the spring.

Driving in a drywall or a self tapping screw with the modern cordless drill or driver is giving us all bad habits. Beside the obvious job of holding two parts together, the smooth shank of the wood screw allows you to draw the two parts together. The self tapping screw will thread its way into the work piece and thread its way into the main part leaving no way to draw them together without stripping one of the threads. If I am doing something quick and dirty like on the house and I can't be bothered getting the drill and drilling a clearance hole in the work piece, I will start the screw in the work piece and then hold it away from the house and run the screw all the way to the head and keep driving until I strip out the thread. I then put the work piece in place and drive it home. It can draw the work piece tight because there is no thread left. The other important job of the wood screw is to carry sheer loads. In carvel planking the screw gauge is unusually large. Nevens' rules for wooden yacht construction calls for 2" #14 screws for 1" planking. The reason for this is for the sheer loads. because the wood is relatively soft we need lots of bearing area to prevent the hull from wracking under load. While that might not be of much interest the modern boat builder we can learn from it. The Goejeon brothers came up with a clever way to spread the sheer loads in the wood for a self tapping screw when mounting hardware, yes it involves epoxy. If you are using a 1"# 8 screw,(I am ignoring the the thickness of the hardware in this example) drill a 3/8" hole 3/4" deep, fill hole with epoxy and hand drive the screw just snug. This increases the sheer carrying capacity and waterproofs the wood in one go. When using this method I wait as long as I can after filling the holes with epoxy before driving the screws because the epoxy sinks as it soaks into the wood the screw will displace some epoxy. Of course this can't used on vertical surfaces.