Dave R1

This boat is for sale. I'm not looking for one and I have no association with the owner. It looks like the builder put a lot of effort into modifications. Evidently it has a mizzen and lots of fiddly stuff. I'm thinking it is an early Weekender. There appears to be a centerboard trunk inside the cabin and an aluminum centerboard in the cockpit. A friend sent me the pictures. He spoke with the owner who said he wants 4-5K for it. My friend says the boat is riddled with rot.

Oh, the bugs are doing quite well, thank you. Actually, it has been so dry lately that the mosquitos haven't been too terrible. Someone tried telling me that I was going to be doing a lot of boat clean up after the mayfly hatch but either it hasn't happened yet or isn't going to due to the weather. I'll send you an e-mail shortly. dave

Just came across a Skipjack in Oregon. Auction number is 270147826920. No affiliation with the seller. Just thought someone might be interested.

Bob, I've been using those charts for several years. I wish they had a bit more detail as far as bottom profile goes but they work well enough. Here's an interesting link that shows data from the gages on the river. This link is to the gage at Lake City which is located next to the Travelift. http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/stationinfo2.cfm?sid=LKCM5&fid=LKCM5&dt=S&pcode=HG http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/WaterControl/shefgraph-historic.cfm?sid=LKCM5

Jeff, I don't know why that link doesn't work for you. I used it yesterday at work and had no trouble. I'll check it out. When are you coming this way? Greg, Rochester is practically on the way for you, too. Where just south of St. Paul?

A molding head would probably be nice for this. I expect you could feed the work a bit faster using your tablesaw. Make sure though that the throat plate is absolutely flush with the table top or, better yet, add an auxilliary top of 1/2" MDF and bring the molder up through to create a zero clearance opening. the reason for making certain it's flat is that you don't want the work to be able to move vertically as you are feeding it. That would make for a lot of clean up. The same applies to using the router in a table and a zero clearance fence would be the ticket. If you use the molder, make the aux top as long as the saw's top (front to back) and wide enough to allow you to clamp it down front and back without having the clamps foul the work. The edge of the MDF will be right up against the fence and the opening will be near that edge, too. Depending upon the molder, you might need a sacrificial fence so you can bury the unused part of the cutter in it.

Bob, you're right of course. I was going to suggest getting down in that corner below Pepin. Near where the Chippewa comes in. Below the end of the Lake the channel can be pretty rough, especialy when there are barges and power cruisers going through. On the Wisconsin side, near the mouth of the Chippewa there is a large sand pile from channel dredging that seems to be a hang out for a lot of the power boating, beer drinking types. Just a note. If you are looking at boat ramps on the charts, Diggers (on map 18) doesn't exist anymore. The ramp at Roschen Park in Lake city (also Map 18) is a nice enough ramp but is not very nice when the waves get up. The ramp at Lake City Marina is excellent and well sheltered but they charge $10 or so to launch. I don't remember the rate for sure. They do have a brand new facility with nice restrooms and showers if you want that sort of thing.

Then you could do a small chamfer on the edges. I've used that for back panels in small cases and I like the look. The trick is to bevel the shoulder of the rabbet on the one edge. The mating edge of course has the rabbet on the back and the chamfer on the front. You might want to set up a jig to hold a hand plane at the proper angle for cutting the bevel on the rabbet shoulder. It might be just as easy as setting a chamfer bit to the same height as a rabbeting bit for the cut.

Well, Jeff, the first thing you must absolutely do is stop by and introduce yourself, show off your crew and your boat. Then, as far as Lake Pepin is concerned, plan to launch at Hok-Si-La, a free boat landing just up the shore from Lake City. I think the things to see are Maiden Rock on the Wisconsin side and a bit upstream from Hok-Si-La and then maybe work your way across to Frontenac on the Minnesota side. As far as anchoring for the night, most of the shoreline is fairly open but a number of folks anchor off Hok-Si-La park, out from the swimming beach. Someplace around here I've got a guide to boating on the Mississippi with some decent maps of the lake. There's also the Army Corps of Engineers site with PDF charts along the river. http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/Documents/MissRiver/Map017-778-785.pdf and http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/Documents/MissRiver/Map018-770-777.pdf will cover it. I can get more stuff for you tomorrow.

Frank, I would use a bit to create the bead and use a tall fence and feather boards. Make sure you make your stock thick enoughfor the beat and for a rabbet on the back so the pieces can overlap to mask width changes due to humidity changes.

Frank, another good source for router bits is http://PriceCutter.com Greg, FWIW I use a V-grooving bit for birdsmouth cutting. They are less expensive and work well. At least if you want an 8-stave spar.

Frank and Greg, I have had excellent service from MLCS Woodworking and I find their prices to be competitive. For straight bits I prefer carbide spiral bits for most applications. I usually order them two or three at a time. They also have some great bearing-guided bits that come in handy for template following and flush trim jobs. I bought one of those sets once and was given another as a gift. There seem to be few bits in there that I ever need. I came to the conclusion that they aren't that much of a deal for me. The bits I do use end up dying quickly and the the others go unused. And like you Greg, I prefer 1/2" shanks and buy them when the bit I need is available with them. I have the Eliminator Chuck on two of my four routers which makes for quick bit changes. Changing bits can be a bit tedious with 1/4" shanks and the adaptor.

Hi Jeff, I heard today you've got a "new" sailing companion. Does that make two Weekenders on the lake?

I did a projection of the bottom and deck surfaces and measured them. For the bottom I got 42.804077 Feet

Thank you Greg for both the congrats and condolences. It was kind of a sad time to see the boat going down the street. I still come home and look where the boat used to sit to make sure it is safe. Kind of like looking out the front door for the dog to come home even though you know he's dead. :'( I've been looking for the next boat design to build. I won't start it until winter at the earlies but there's so many I want to build and only so much space, time and money.

Yep. And there was no haggling. ;D

I'm guessing you're referring to drawings I made. Would these be what you're thinking of?

Bob, it looks pretty good. I watched that thunderstorm from the other side. Thought we were gonna get it but it went off to the east. Gust front came though and temps dropped a good 10

Oh I was sad to see her go but she went to a good home and I have visitation rights. The woman who bought her said she knew she wasn't just buying the boat, she was adopting her. As a condition of the sale I told her she has to bring the boats to the messabouts Bill Paxton organizes. I expect I'll see Julie K again.

Interesting. The guy who was with the gal who bought Julie K this afternoon builds gliders. He said they also have a gelcoat on them. He was telling me that to restore the shine to the flat gelcoat areas to clean it well and then use a 50-50 mix of penetrol and mineral spirits. He said to wipe it on with a lint free cloth. He said don't rub it. Just wipe it on. After letting it dry for a couple of hours he said to come back and wipe on another coat. When there's enough penetrol on there, the cloth will move very easily. The areas that need more will cause the cloth to drag. Guess it doesn't help with Joel's question but it's interesting to me to see Penetrol mentioned just a couple of hours after this guy mentioned it.

Julie K just went down the road to a good home.

Frank, that was the first drawing I sent to Chuck. As you can see in the photo of my new rudder box, the lower boat-side gudgeon is the same as the upper. It works very well and because I used a similar clevis pin through the stub tiller to link it to the steering mechanism, the rudder box can be removed very quickly and with no tools. Here's the drawing of what we actually ended up with. Ignore the clip in the clevis pin. I used split rings instead.

This is for those who are building the Weekender although I'm sure this would be applicable to other boats as well. It's a new setup from Duckworks. http://www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/p-g/weekender/index.htm

;D Well, you could add some stiffeners and wear a football helmet.

Well, it's good to see you got it out to sail, Steve. As far as your butt getting wet, maybe you should think about John's little orange Mouse boat, Goldfish. He cut off the legs of a resin patio chair which also gives him a place to sit on the beach.