Paul356

Heading out to Cockonoe last night. Got a late start, but thank you, GPS, made it thru the dark. Odd little voyage. (Photo by daughter)

Anchored in the bay at Cockinoe Island, near Westport. Some rain came up so I huddled under the dodger for breakfast until it passed. 8-foot tides here.

Wow, Joe, what a trip. Congrats.

Taking action videos singlehanded is difficult, but here's a stab. I was on the great big pond at East Harbor Campground, Catawba Island, Ohio. Plans to go out on Lake Erie thwarted by headwinds, high winds, surf in channel. Speeds I'm reading are in mph, mostly 6-point-something. Note there's a reef in. Starting from hove-to. What a boat. 20190825_155747.mp4

Yup, jetboil. Boils 2 cups in 2 min.

20190822_185801.mp4 20190822_185908.mp4 Okay, the trip begins. I'm in Spring Lake, Michigan, near my daughter's. Stayed out on the boat two nights, once in a corner of the lake and once under the bridge and up the bayou. Couldn't resist sailing under the bridge when I had a fair wind.... 20190822_185801.mp4 20190822_185908.mp4

Congratulations to you both, Amos and Lara. Well done.

Well, sorry about the super sized video. Not sure why it came out that way.

CS17 and I are heading out on a road trip soon to see the kids, check out some new waters, and do some camping. I wanted to test everything, so last night I launched at the public ramp at the north end of Milwaukee harbor and sailed south 5 mi to a protected along the shore at the far south end. Motored back this a.m. into a light northerly. Had a great overnight. 20190818_185725.mp4

Sorry to be late. I had to get to the boat and see what I'd settled on since I've tried it both ways. I'm attaching the sail on the outside of the sheave, hauling down on the inside next to the mast. So that's what trial and error showed me worked best. Also, like Hirilonde, I just tie a bowline, no shackles.

That's just great, and to be able to share it with your daughter is double good.

Congratulations. That's a big day.

This is really a modification to improve trailering recovery, not sailing performance. That's in keeping with the principle that most of the time we spend fussing with our boats seems to have to do with systems other than sailing, such as trailers, motors, electronics, and so on. As you probably know, the front end of the keel on the Core Sounds is about two inches thick and rounds up to the hull. But this bump always hit an unfortunately placed cross piece on my otherwise handy Karavan trailer. The cross piece was a ubolt that held the tongue to the rear frame, so I smartly figured it ought to stay in place. I put a roller in way of the cross piece, so the boat no longer scraped over the ubolt and associated sharp edges, but the leading edge of the keel refused to roll up the roller. This meant backing the trailer into the water sufficiently to submerge the roller, which also seemed to mean submerging the tail pipe and lower reaches of the rear tires. Grrr. So (and without consulting Graham, so this is all on me), I carved back the keel bump into a 1:6 slope, in hopes this will now roll up the roller, alleviating the need to submerge the roller. I should be able to crank the boat up onto this and more forward rollers without the need to back so far into the water. I will be on a solo road and boat camping trip soon and will need to have easier recoveries. I got stuck at a ramp once, and it was not pleasant. Pictures follow. I assume boat performance will not be affected by losing the front 6" of the keel, but if I am swerving all over the lake, I will have no one to kick but myself. The offending cross piece, with protective roller I installed (from stbd side). You can just see the top of the ubolt that helps to hold the tongue to the frame. It only sticks up a little, but it created a real obstacle. The plywood pad was an earlier attempt to ease the boat over the ubolt, but it helped only a bit: This is the forward end of the keel as built (from port): Here's my cut line: And the finished product. As you can see, the brass protective strip gives me problems at every step of the way. I have never mastered that thing. Will see what happens, but at least now I think the boat will roll up on the roller in the first picture.

It seems like that could work. Another option would be to bevel back the existing ply, then lay in a tapered piece of hard solid wood such as doug fir or hard southern pine on the bevel, pare everything down to match, then put your glass over. It might be hard to force enough epoxy back into the laminations. Whichever method you use, the epoxy in the patch or forced into the laminates needs to be thickened.

Fun to see. Thanks.

I'll jump in and say that, yes, the main sheet is the one you want to have readily available and in your hand, especially in gusty conditions. My CS17 uses the same swivel-cams as Dave's lapwing, and they are well worth it. So, when sailing in any sort of breeze, generally the downwind end is in its cam and the upwind end is in my forward hand, tiller in my rearward hand. You can leave the mizzen cleated, and if there is a gust, it will head you up into the wind, not knock you down. But the main will try to knock you down in a gust, just as on a sloop, so that's the one you want to be able to ease or dump in a hurry. If you can make your boat look like Dave's, you'll be in great shape! I have a double ended sheet on my mizzen, with the tails coming forward through a couple of turning blocks to swivel cams just shy of the cockpit lockers where I can reach them from either side.

I did a centerboard on a different boat using the method Amos shows. As I recall, I made the cuts about half an inch apart, instead of as close as Amos did. More handwork, but it's not too bad considering you're going with the length of the grain in easily worked wood. Obviously you want to be conservative on the depths of your saw cuts, and then trim to the foil shape using some combination of chisels, plane, spokeshave, random-orbital sander and other tools. It's really pretty fun.

Happy launchings!

Yes, I've been flicking, and can continue to do so. It's a long reach back, tho. I guess in terms of a mockup, I can try lashing a sheet attachment forward and see how it looks before taking the plunge permanently. . There was also someone who rigged a ring on elastic to pull the sheet slack forward out of harm's way, but I don't think that would work so well close hauled. Could try, I guess. But, I have been close hauled when reefed and have not noticed any bowing or other stress. While in opposite directions, I think I'd say the strength of the forces are the same as they would be unreefed when moving the sheet in while leaving the sail clew outboard. In the reefed configuration, all seems very strong. So I'm not too concerned. And when reefed, the new, inboard sheet attachment would actually be very close to the reefed clew attachment, so stronger still. Thoughts from Alan or Graham? I really am not interested in a boomkin or well, not at this point. That's too much reworking on a boat I'm very happy with.

Same problem. I'm going to move the attachment point for the sheet forward on the sprit. I hear you about shearing off the tip, but I think (hope) it's up to it. The good thing about the sprit is that it flexes, not like a stiff boom. I'll report.

Eagerly awaiting photos and vid.

Nice to see this great little boat ready to go. I like that rowing seat.

What a thrill. Congratulations on completion of a beautiful build.

I sailed a Tartan 27 for many years. It was one of the first fiberglass designs, and it had a short heavy keel with a centerboard launched therefrom, similar to Matt. It was a really good design. The keel kept it upright, and the CB really bit hard upwind. It pointed well. I think this is a good approach for the boat designed for these uses.