Bill Jones

Frank, In Virginia, boat registration is handled by the Dept. of Game & Inland Fisheries. There is a pretty good explanation of the process at their site: http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/boating/registration/procedure.asp From that site: "If watercraft was homemade by you, an affidavit must be provided stating this fact in lieu of a Manufacturer's or Importer's Certificate of Origin. Copies of receipts from building materials must be submitted with the Application. (Your watercraft may be subject to inspection by a law enforcement officer.)" It has been a few years, but I recall that the process took a few weeks by mail but was not particularly difficult, and no one asked to inspect the boat. The affidavit is just a signed statement, I don't recall needing to get it notarized. The receipts are used to calculate the 2% sales tax as well as proof of being home built. As a separate issue, I did go rounds with our Hanover County tax assessor, but finally convinced them to use the building material receipts as the tax basis (rather than some generic and inflated valuation that they came up with!). So definitely keep copies of the receipts! Bill

Thankyou everyone for the kind comments. I'll try to respond to the questions: tdrown: I'm 6'2", and the cabin has sitting head room, but just barely. There is a lot of sprawling room though - two people could sleep comfortably with about 6'6" of length fore and aft, and the sloping hull sides are nice to lean against. I did not do a lot to finish the inside other than to leave the carlins and rafters bright as it will be used primarily as a day sailer (and I wanted to hurry up and get on the water!). She is quite light for her size and draws less than a foot with the board up, about 3 feet with the board down. Frank: Siewer's is pretty good to work with - everything was high quality and in stock, and prices were in line with local supply. They didn't take too much of an interest in what I was doing with the wood, but they are usually pretty busy. Anyway, I'd recommend them. Building the mini-cup was pretty much vital to my success, I think. The Stevenson's provide extremely well detailed building instructions that eased me into the building process, and the mini-cup experience gave me a real idea of what I would be getting into with a larger project. One of the major hurdles with the Chebacco is the lack of detailed written building instructions - earlier builders provided a couple of pages to outline the general process, and there is a fair amount of information on the web, but with out having built something else first I don't know if I would have gotten done - it would certainly been more stressful without previous experience! Adding to the common body of knowledge for Chebacco construction was one of the primary motivations for the web site. Barry: I've had her out three times so far, but the wind has been light and variable each time so I have not had a chance to see how she handles when things kick up. So far though my expectations have been met - the Chebacco is an unballasted daysailor and seems to perform that task quite well. Bill

Hi all, Just wanted to post a note about the launch of my new Bolger Chebacco, the Carol Leigh. Hopefully I'm working the image commands right...in any case, many more photos and building info can be found at www.people.vcu.edu/~wmjones Bill

I recently used epoxy spread with a notched trowel on a Chebacco I'm building, but it used ALOT - about 16 oz per side, and the area was well less than 3/4 of a sheet. Consider using a fiberglass butt joint with spline, which which how I joined the bottom and side panels. Route a 1/4" rabbit in the edge of the 1/2" ply, cut a spline from 1/4" ply to fit, and glue it up. I used 4" biaxial tape on the each side of the ply and got a very strong joint. www.people.vcu.edu/~wmjones for some photos. BTW, I tested the joint by standing on a 2" wide section of the bottom that I cut out for the centerboard. It held my 250 pounds without a problem. I'm not sure that the spline is really necessary, but it did help with alignment. Bill

The forcast for this weekend does not look good - thunderstorms Friday and showers Saturday - so this might be a bust. If the weather clears I'll be there, but the wee Minicup is not meant for foul conditions, and neither am I .

Sure, no problem - so far everyone is sail powered, but a boat is a boat, eh? Actually, we will probably be the only sails in the area, so you would fit in quite well! Bill

Weather permitting, some of the Richmond Virginia area builders will be getting together for a day sail and informal messabout on the James River. This will be very informal, just oggle each others boats, drink beer, and do some sailing. So far, we have a Skipjack, Minicup, and a Bolger Chebacco coming. We would love to have more boats there, so if your interested come on down. We will be at the Chickahominy Riverfront Campgrounds: http://www.jccegov.com/recreation/chickahominy_park.html I'll be there by 9:30 on Saturday, Sept 13. If you are coming, send me an e-mail and I'll keep an eye out for you. wmjones56@yahoo.com Bill