Johannah

Captain, Just adding my prayers for you both as well.

Laura, here's an idea for you. When I was your age or a bit younger, my mother began a custom of giving me a hand tool of my own for my birthday every year. I continued this tradition with our kids. Perhaps you won't be surprised to learn that the boys were pretty careless with their tools and mostly lost them but our daughter, who is now 15, can actually find hers. We gave her a small cordless drill when she turned 14 and I borrow it all the time which is OK as long as I ask. 8)

Yo Admiral! If you share any of this conversation with your wife, Please tell her that there are some genuine, female-type worry-worts on this board, too. We will be channeling that fretting into much more productive prayer for you both. May loving, healing strength surround you. Our bodies are such a miracle and so maddening at the same time.

:shock: Happy Birthday Samuel!!!!!! We love the picture of you and your brother in the new calendar.

John, if you hadn't blown the gaff about the two-tone job, I would have assumed you did it on purpose. 8) Very nice job on the chocolate dipped banana Weekender cover. A fashion statement.

Frank, this year's calendar is a winner, even better than the first. I again bought an extra as a gift. You managed to include the world-wide community and give the kids pride of place as well. Two of the pictures strike me as art: the cover shot of Sully with her skiff and the central picture on the Kid's page of Alexander ghosting along under his square sail. I hope all these kids are saving the pics. Thank you for going to all the bother of putting together another beauty that we may enjoy.

Sorry, no one being silent at our house. Life just got even busier plus it's a bit hard to think of boats as the water is getting chilly. By Winter time, talk of boats helps to keep spirits up 'til Spring. Just a bit of local news: Tyler came to dinner last month and was just as good company in person as he is electronically. You would be in awe of the range of his interests (cars, trolleys, history etc.). The funniest revelation to emerge is that I grew up in the same neighbourhood and church as his father and aunt (he even pronounces "aunt" correctly, unlike those of you who think such persons are a form of insect). Hope Tyler is doing his homework. Freshman engineering is none too easy.

Jan, I just read your comment on another thread about your plans going to "sleep with the fishes" courtesy a restless daughter. Please don't think you have to tough it out without them! Give Mike Stevenson a shout for permission to get a xerox copy from another builder. It would probably be OK to go ahead but it would be good manners to check. I will root around for the plans that came with our boat but I'll bet there are others here who have them right at hand in epoxied glory. Whoever makes you a copy could use heavier paper so they hold up.

Also just catching up here. Great work, well done and I hope you are just popping with pride. That tiller stub failure may be nothing more than a weak pice of wood but you can always go with a nice chunk of straight-grained oak or ash for the next one. :roll: How do you like the sand bag ballast. Do you leave them in place? How are they restrained?

This stuff will happen to the most experienced sailor sometimes. Good argument for skipping the strongest adhesive, like 3M 5200. Lighter strength caulk is much more forgiving and really better for any purpose which will eventually need maintenance (almost everything).

Just an editorial note for the previous pic from the Alaskan pirates: all three Weekenders plus Alexander's Amphora are new (all '04?). Wolf is the founding pirate ship in those waters.

Is anyone keeping track of how many boats have made it into the water this year? Now don't everyone say "But mine wasn't really finished....etc." If it got wet, that's the main point, huh? Jan, I so enjoy your commentary and look forward to some good tales from the launch. We'll be thinking of you with a smile.

Celosia and Ageratum, I think. But half the fun is not knowing what on earth that plant is and seeing plants from a huge range of climate zones happily hanging around together. We went there kind of by accident as a side effect of driving from Boston to Vancouver for Chinese food many years ago (started out as a trip to Kansas City for barbecue and baseball and evolved). I dragged the crew on every ferry we came anywhere near.

We do things like this out of pure generosity so that our children will have a fresh supply of stories to tell about us. Who would want to have parents who never did anything colourful? Well, probably a lot of teenagers. That boat looks just great and will be on the water next year by the looks of it. For picnic boat purposes, try leaving the whole mast off sometimes and just motor around.

Thanks for the vicarious visit, Tim. Victoria is one of the great cities of the planet! It has ferries, lots of other boats and many people mad for horticulture, not to mention the gardens. Heaven on earth for me.

Well except for almost sitting on the fenders, that looks pretty good. How do you like the way the boat fits?

Wow. That's a much more expensive trailer than the ones you have been researching and it looks as though everything is adjustable. Probably set up for a motor boat so you will be adjusting the axle forward and perhaps the winch mount back (for clearance with a bowsprit). Since there don't appear to be any guides at midline, you're going to want something there. Great find 8) .

Your comments are saved and printed, added to my mast notebook. I will bring the edited version along to the tubing supplier (not for a while because Wild Child returns to school Tuesday so I turn back into a long-haul cab driver). I do better in "guy" shops if I have my homework with me. Clerks seem to be nicer. Works also when car shopping. We're off to go Lasering today and Monday. I'd rather be in a sharpie but on the water is better than not. Happy Labour Day to all.

Thank you Craig and Ray! Craig, after reading every comment on masts for the past year from the B&B builders, I think I will pop for the better alloy tubing. I can get it from a supplier up near Reading for not too many bucks. Ray's explanation of the epoxy/glass bearings makes sense , but I assume I would also need wood plugs, if not for a snug fit, then for reinforcing the tubing where hardware is attached. My sail is set up for lace-on use, though I prefer to use ties, maybe with beads. The tie and bead system has worked OK on a small rig on our kayak. As Ray mentions, I would just as soon be able to pull the sail down in a jiffy so will need a halyard, downhaul and place to tie the sprit boom. Our other rig that I scrounged has stays and track for a roped luff. It seems a shame to have to do lots of mods when this fancier rig would go better on another boat anyway. Also, it's in sections which are a bit tricky with the present sail. Money looks to go out the door for sail mods, or hardware so why not just pop for the pipes that would fit? Mast length will be in the range of 17 to 18 feet. Ray, what prevents the bearings from shifting up and down onthe tube? Similar fittings on our laser are riveted in place.

Craig, I am trying to picture the wooden plug. The mast would be in 2 or 3 sections and I would like it to come apart for ease of trailering but it is not crucial. Sections should fit into one another fairly easily, judging by a read through of comments from Core Sound builders, but the match is unlikely to be perfectly snug so the wooden insert sounds good. Wooden reinforcement would also be necessary, I think, where the minimal hardware will attach. I was concerned about the strength of rivets (they don't look like much) but machine screws or bolts won't work where you need a smooth surface. Braver souls than I might take a crack at building a carbon fibre mast, now that kits are available for a reasonable price. It's really funny to see the small box which holds the components for such a project.

I have been noodling about this Summer with a couple of boats and a couple of possible masts. We can make a recycled wooden mast work on one 14 footer, but I keep coming back to the advantages of multi-section tubing which would require less modification (the other mast can then go elsewhere). This boat has a mast step built for tubing and I am loathe to cut it up more than necessary, not at all if possible. Here's the problem: How do you join sections of tubing of different diameters so that the joint is strong but will come apart easily? The Core Sound builders are the ones who know this stuff, but I am asking here on the main forum because I'm not building one of Graham's boats. If the mast is left as one piece, what is the best way to attach the sections? Rivets?

It's the "grade A cluckers" line that starts the uproar around here. That and my laughing like a maniac while driving and singing. Why do they hate it when I sing and drive, and I can actually sing?

Jan, if you don't mind that it looks a bit messy, you can make do with the block/becket, just not using the becket. But it's a more expensive block so might justify returning it. Another approach is to add more mechanical advantage to your tackle by running the line differently, beginning with the becket. I like fooling around with tackle design, sort of like adding gears to a bike. You likely have good upper body strength for a woman with caring for your daughter, but the guys tend to like that "manly" feel of wrestling with the sheets. I prefer a gentle yank (contradiction in terms?).If there are other sailors around your way, try swapping any unwanted blocks via a note on a club bulletin board (the old fashioned kind). If we were a bit closer, I'd say just come on over and dig through my boxes. 8)

The spokes look great, but now you're going to have me singing "Wolf Creek Pass" and all those other crazy songs all day and my family will refuse to have anything to do with me. :shock:

Maybe it's hard to accept, but there really are a lot of wonderful people gathered here by Frank's campfire. That doesn't mean we aren't tempermental as well (with my kids, I call myself "the groutchy old lady") and we could blow up with each other over lots of topics. But we choose not to. And the result reminds us who we are. Way cool and all ages too. 8) I want to be like Alexander and his sister and the Mohawk boys when I grow up.