Paul356

Great to see your progress, Steve. Obviously your daughter is a fan as well.

Looks terrific. Excellent work. Happy to hear you're so happy with her.

Looks terrific.

all good. can't wait to see the photos.

I'm fortunate to get non-ethanol gas at the yacht club, where we have it in the fuel pump specifically for the marine engines in use there. It does seem to make a difference. I know I'm tempting fate, but I put some stabilizer in last fall (both in the fuel tank and ran it through the engine when I ran the engine dry) and everything worked this spring. Fingers crossed.

I noticed you had the Suzuki back on board at the messabout and meant to ask. Suzuki seemed to do ok? I know it's a different issue, but my Suzuki ran almost like a different engine after I ran it through the first gallon or so, i.e., after it was broken in. The manual advised a break-in period, but I was surprised at the difference it made. After that initial period, it now idles like it should, including running at low speed to allow shifting without a big thump. Also starts reliably and predictably, like it should, without undo fussing back and forth with choke and throttle. Basically a one-pull engine now. So, maybe after you get your new fuel pump on the Tohatsu, then get a chance to run it for a few hours, everything and everyone will be happy.

When kids find they're capable of taking the boat out themselves, it opens new worlds.

Looks like great progress. I bet your kids will want to get in on the action soon.

Excellent work on the coaming. I couldn't get my head around that, so I squared off the corners. Yours looks great.

Here are a few more photos from the messabout. First we see Joe and Sally skimming along on Sunday afternoon in their 22. It's such a fast and weatherly boat. They were headed down the bay and camped out overnight. Chick's famous Summer Breeze, doing what she does best: This take-apart-boat was a winner: Such a great setting: Heading out on CarrieB, CS17, on Friday afternoon:

For higher winds, and assuming you mean sailing upwind: Reef, of course. Then try to sail the boat flat rather than heeled up on its ear. So head up into the puffs, rather than trying to drive through them. And don't pull the main in too far. Keep the main sprit out at about the coaming edge or a little inboard. The mizzen can be tight. It takes some concentration to keep the boat from getting caught by a puff but it's so responsive you can head up a bit into the puff if you're paying attention.

Got back to Milwaukee yesterday afternoon, after a stop to visit cousins in Virginia. Today it's 41 degrees, gray, blowin'. These pictures bring such good memories of some great days with the B&B family. I'll post some more shots soon. It was wonderful to meet everyone and spend some time in the B&B home waters. Great boats, great folks.

A sailing tips thread would be great. I'm looking forward to some good practice time with tips at the messabout.

Beer, cheese, brats (no Vienna) all on the provision list. Looking forward to it.

Leave the hole, I say.

Ok, we're coming. Road trip! Driving from Wisconsin. This 17 needs to see its ancestral roots. Planning to arrive Friday in time for the pizza. I will be hanging around until Monday, then leaving Monday afternoon or early Tuesday, probably depending on the weather. I'll be camping on the grounds Sat, Sun and poss Monday nights. My wife, Elizabeth, is making the trip down with me, then flying home early Sat, so we are in a hotel Friday night in New Bern. See you all there. --Paul

On reefing, you either move the downhaul up to the new grommet or add a second line and hook and leave that placed in the reef grommet so that all you need to do is haul it down when you ease the halyard. The second is far preferable for the main mast. I need to add that to mine.

I took my 17 to the canvas shop yesterday for a cover. I will be glad to weigh the masts when it comes back thurs or Friday. I made them with the aluminum tubes per graham's plans. On the uphaul, see foto for what I did. Similar to Chick's, not as elegant. It's just a line from the trailing edge of the rudder to a cleat on top of the rudder stock. Needed for shallow water, storage, stopping flopping, etc.

What a great day, eh?

Brilliant!

Your posting gave me a good excuse to go visit the CS 17 in my garage. Like you, I prefer a tiller that pivots up. It seems right for tacking, to make room when at rest and to sail while standing up and eying the far horizon. Also gives more options for storage and packing. My rudder is in the bottom of the boat under a bunch of stuff right now, but the picture shows the rudder head and tiller attached. The picture is upside down, in that the rudder extends off the top of the picture. I left the rudder head a bit long, straddled it with the tiller, used a long bolt and wingnut at the rear as the pivot. The tiller is 3/4 mahogany, horizontal (rescued from my previous build), reinforced with new 3/4 vertical strips along each side, to make a U that fits down over the rudder head. You can see the blue uphaul cleated to the top of the rudder head and the white downhaul emerging from the rudder. The arrangement works swell. On the hatch, I drilled a tiny pilot hole for each screw, dipped the screw in 4200 and screwed it in. Heresy to some, I'm sure, but we'll see. I used the tiny #4 1/2-inch (I think) flat head stainless wood screws recommended with the piano hinge, and they are amazingly strong.

I ended up with vertical seams. As far as I remember I used 50 inch on the CS 17. Some of the seams show a bit, some don't, although nothing shows from "8 feet". Making them not show can be done but it takes the usual to make them disappear: extra care, extra epoxy/fillers, extra sanding. I'm guessing you'll hear from PAR and others on this.

I'm not sure how clear the picture is, since it's a clip from a larger photo, but what I'm trying to show is that I used the same DW bracket Docpal shows and was able to position it so that the motor flips up without any further modification to the transom and yet still allows reversing the engine with full clearance underneath. It is offset to about halfway between the centerline and right edge. I added a block to the aft side of the bracket so the engine would sit as far back as possible, and to maximize the angle I was seeking. The bracket is very solid on the boat. No worries on that front. I did epoxy another piece of 3/4 ply inside this half of the transom as a stiffener. (Basically filled in the area between the top, side, bottom and mid- 1-bys.) This is all on the CS 17. Like you, after initial problems with hydro lock, I now find "Miss Q" dependable, largely due to removing crankcase oil down to the lower level allowed. The shop had overfilled it and then some. Also the engine is running noticeably smoother at low, idle and shifting speeds after a few hours break-in. Final note: I tried to position the bracket so the motor in the up position would lock in place. I can get it to lock with some tugging, but I found that it stays up nicely without locking in normal sailing conditions, so I've just been pulling it up and leaving it. To use, give a push and down it goes, no need to tussle with the lock lever.

Also good to know that dropping the mast on a hard edge does not result in damage to the mast. I was unstopping my masts by hand and over balanced a couple of times. I caught myself, but had visions of dropping the spar on something hard and seeing the tube dent and bend; sailing over. I do not plan to experiment, but your experience suggests there is substantial strength in the assembly.

Here's one for Alan, who likes spaghetti. As my son-in-law the Thistle sailor said, "There's a lot going on here....."