Dave R1

Bill, did you just replace your halyards? Dress warm and waterproof tomorrow.

Kristen, Welcome. As a matter of fact there's been at least one messabout every year. the next one is coming up the first weekend in June. the details are here: http://lakepepinmessabout.com/Welcome.html

I haven't really given up. I want to build another boat very badly. No, wait. I very badly want to build another boat. There's no room in the shop to build anything very large though. I've got plans for Oughtred's Feather Pram and at 7' it'll just fit. Time is the other factor right now, though. Between my day job which I am thankful to have, I've been busy teaching and drawing for various clients. I am preparing to teach a couple of classes in Port Townsend, WA in June and I should be able to get a nice infusion of wooden boat stuff there. Cheers, Dave

Thank you frank. Bill, I'm with you on that. The C-27 is committed to get new bottom paint this spring but the old stuff isn't completely off yet. Hopefully there'll be time before it has to be in the water. Otherwise, I'll be begging to go with you.

Greetings all. It's been a hundred years since I've been here and it feels like 200. Glad to see there are still a bunch of the old timers around. I've been incredibly busy with stuff. Too much of it isn't boat related, unfortunately. I need to get back to the boat stuff, though. Hope everyone is doing well. Cheers, Dave

Good enough. Take pictures.

So something like this, then? Put the cross piece on the back side or it won't clear the deck properly. You'll have to cut off a bit to follow the curve. You may need that for clamping to, though. At only 5-1/2" wide, I would worry about the vertical piece being too narrow to spread the load well. I didn't draw it but I was thinking you might add a piece across the lower part of the vertical to help spread the laod. Maybe a bit of the 8/4 stuff. I don't think you'll need its full width for the top part. I drew the vertical piece at 18". I think I drew this with the top too high but I can't remember the dimensions of the clamp.

How big are those pieces of wood?

That'll work well. Don't go crazy on the motor mount. A single piece of wood will work fine. What you can't see in the pictures of the mount I made is the wide notch--just wide enough for the motor mount clamp. I figured that if the screws on the clamp came loose the notch might keep the motor from sliding off into the drink. I never got around to adding it but I was going to put a narrow strip of wood on the forward face of the mount, just above the clamp pads. I found that with the motor turned 90

AS I recall, the 6 ga. wire was what I calculated I needed for the length of the run. Smaller could be used but you get loss due to the higher resistance.

Yeah, Chad! Oh and get the waterproof plug and receptacle, six gauge stranded wire, battery terminal lugs and battery box while you're at it. When I installed the receptacle on the boat, I made a small plate of cherry (a scrap I had on hand) that was drilled to fit the receptacle and was mounted to the laz bulkhead with a pair od small machine screws. It made a nice looking plate and I didn't need to worry about tearout from cutting the hole in the plywood showing. I ran the wires up under the port side deck to the forepeak. I also built a base on which the batterbox sits so that in the off chance I got water in up there, the battery wouldn't be sitting in it. I did a sketch of the mounting arrangement for the battery but can't find it. I sent a copy to Bill. He might still have it and be able to post it.

You'll have to play with it a bit and see. The only time I had any problems with the motor coming out of the water was if someone was on the foredeck. Usually I would just sit up on the stern deck which gave me better visibility anyway.

I think that'll work fine, Chad. A couple of years ago I made a run down the lake into a pretty healthy headwind to beat a storm. Just over 3 statute miles in about 50 minutes. I didn't figure that was too bad.

I forget which shaft was on mine but I think it was the longer one. I could have reduced the height of the motor mount by an inch or so but it was never an issue as far as keeping the motor in the water. I initially thought about making a motor mount that moved the motor back a bit but there was already too much weight in the stern end compared to the bow especially with my lard at the helm. I figured it didn't make sense to shift weight any further back. Having the battery in the bow helped a lot but I could have stood to put another battery's worth of weight up there for trim. Even with the rope horse across the back, I never had any problems with things snagging on the motor. I usually kept the handle pointed down as you can see in the center picture.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/weekender410/Weekender/528336506_ea76a5b046_b.jpg[/img] Motor mount 3/4" white ash because I had it and it looked nice varnished. Plywood pieces with fender washers and locking nuts on the inside end of stainless carriage bolts. Receptacle in forward face of lazerette bulkhead for power. 6 ga. wire to battery in battery box in forepeak locker. 54Lb Minnkota because it was on sale for less than others in stock at local Gander Mountain.

When I built my Weekender I added 3 feet to the length of the mast. About 9" of that additional height was used for additional clearance under the boom. I liked not have to duck under the boom when tacking. The rest was used to spread out the hardware aloft. I used softeyes for the shrouds and forestay so there were no holes for tang mounting. I had two holes in the mast, one at the level of the softeyes for a eyebolt that was long enough to form a crane for the throat halyard block. There was another eyebolt farther up for the peak halyard block. This gave a better lead for the peak halyard and I rigged both halyards to the same advantage so it was easy to pull the gaff up horizontally until the slack was out of the luff. Due to the distance between the jaws and shrouds there was never any conflict there. FWIW, I also extended the bowsprit to maintain the same foretriangle shape. I ended up putting the jib on a roller furler mounted at the same point as on the plans with the jib halyard block the same height above the deck as called out on the plans. At one time I thought about adding a stays'l and could have because I didn't have the jib on the forestay. I decided there were plenty of lines to manage without adding more. The roller furler was a great addition as it meant there was no need to go forward to raise or strike the sail.

Been away a long time. Sorry about that. To answer your question, no, the halyards never impeded the movement of the boom or sail. The aft shrouds did but not the halyards.

Ken, we can't look at pictures on harddrive. Post the pictures somewhere on the internet--here in the gallery or on Photobucket. Then you can link to the images. Or, if the images are small enough you can upload them directly by clicking on Additional Options below the text window in your post.

I did one for my Weekender using four 8 foot 2x6s, joist hangers and a few scraps. If you want a plan I could surely draw you one. In the meantime, here are some pictures. The last one shows the boat immmediately after being inverted onto the dolly.

Nice. Looks like you're getting her polished up pretty good. I could use a guy with your expertise. Feeling like a road trip? ;D

Take a look at this from Walter Simmons, too. Rhodes Wherry. 10' 6" Oh, and the grey and red Christmas Wherry is from Walter Simmons not Simpson.

Scott, it's a bit like trying to herd a bunch of cats into a gunny sack at first. After you get a grip on 'em, you can do it. ;D When I did the birdsmouth gaff for my Weekender I made some extra pieces so I could make up a manageable section. I used that to fit the plug stock. I made the plug stock with my router and a jig which allowed me to work to thickness which would be a bit harder to do with a tablesaw. The jig held the work and let me rotate it in 45

I can heartily recommend the Duckworks hardware. The photo there is of the prototype hardware which is on the Weekender I built. (I can't say my boat because I sold her.) The drawing below is not the right hardware, though. I drew that to show chuck what I needed to have happen. The photos show the right stuff. This hardware provides a better hinge than the eyebolts as called for on the Weekender and I'm sure would be much stronger than the barrel bolts for the Mini Cup. I also liked the fact that I could remove the rudder box without any tools.

I got a call from Jeff today. They're sailing on Lake Pepin working up the lake from the Hok-Si-La. Sounds like they got going around noon and at around 4:30 when I talked to him they were near Maiden Rock on the Wisconsin side. That's about 5 miles up the lake from the campground. They were beating up into a gusty north-westerly wind. With the winds forecast to become northerly he was planning to find a place on the Wisconsin side to camp for the night. They plan to head back tomorrow and will get on their way back east. Unfortunately due to work, I'll end up missing them but I wish them well. Hopefully there'll be pictures soon enough.

Ray, you're right. You ought to go see if you can pick it up. You're probably the closest one to it.