Steve Day

Charlie, Sorry to hear about the bad weather, but glad to hear that you had a good time. That's a nice looking Weekender! See any dolphin? Steve

I am not a kayaker, but the Diva looks pretty good to me. I would be interested in seeing comments and builder's reports on the boat. I may be looking for another project and the Diva may be it. Steve

Such are the joys of fine tuning a boat! I went out on the local pond today and found that my seats were not perfect. As you know, any boat design is a series of compromises. I want to retain the ability to nest the boat, so I have to be careful how I set up the supports for the "side seats" I put in. As it turns out there is enough seat hanging over the edge of the support to necessitate the addition of a bolt to hold the seat in position. I found this out while test sailing the boat today. :shock: :oops: Nothing was hurt, but I am glad I was in the middle of the lake where no one saw the problem. On another note, I have the design of the plug for the CB trunk finished and am working on the varnish now. There are a couple of photos of the plug and one of the boat on the pond this afternoon. Ain't boats FUN!!?? Steve [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

Graham, Would you like detailed pictures and/or dimensions for the additional seats? Steve

Jake, Sounds like you and Stump had a lot of fun. Wish I could have been there. The balance of these boats is an interesting issue. As one of you was mentioning, the weather helm is designed into most boats as a safety issue. My 40' Beneteau is set up for the charter operation with about 125% of Genoa and an unbattened main as both are set up with roller furling. This is really great as we don't have to worry about handling a lot of sail on the deck when setting and taking in sail. When the winds get to about 20 knots or a little more she develops a LOT of weather helm with this setup. The 125% Genoa just does not have enough area to counter the full main and the rudder stalls out and she turns to weather. I find that if I roll the main in to the equivalent of the first reef point, I can make 7 knots or better with carrying just a little rudder to counter the weather helm. She heels over and GOES. (Of course we have a little over 6000# of ballast and we draw 5'6". The point of this is that you have to work with sail shape and size to balance the boat for the conditions. Gusty winds just make it more interesting! When I get onboard and put up the racing sails, I have a 155% Genoa and a battened mainsail with a full roach on it. We cannot use the roller furling on the main at that time and have to handle all of the sail in the more traditional manner, meaning a bigger crew and sailcloth all over the place when the sails are down (close to 900 square feet of sail in both sails). I have not had the opportunity to sail the boat with this setup in 20 knot winds, so I am not sure how the balance works out, but I expect we will have to take a reef in the main at about the same wind speed to keep a decent balance to the boat. One of these days, we will be at the boat long enough to get those sails out and fly them. A lot of words to say that you need to play with sail configurations to obtain the best performance and the most comfort. As you gain experience with the boat, you will get good at it. That is one of the things that makes this sport so much fun. Ray, My image is shattered. I expected a guy in boating clothes or boatbuilding clothes. I see a guy in a suit and tie. Unless you wear that when you build and sail boats. :shock: In any case, it is good to see what we look like. Putting a face to a name is pretty cool. Steve

Shaken -- Not stirred! Steve

Ray, You know, a fellow gets to think of someone by the visual image they project. I suppose I am going to find out you don't look anything at all like Beaker and that is going to shatter my visual image of you. (I'm going to lay that one out there and see if Jake is going to have a comment .) Jake, Looks like you may get an opportunity to see if the reef points on your sails work. Might be a day to wish you had some ballast (other than rail meat) on the boat. :wink: Now that I've stirred you both up, I'm going to sit back and watch the action. Should be interesting. :twisted: Steve

Adla, You do nice work! That bowsprit looks way too cool. We hadn't heard from you for a while and I was wondering how you were doing. The next time you came on line with progress, you had the rubrails done and now the bowsprit. All of that in the desert. You are truly amazing! Keep up the good work and the great progress. Steve

Hey Ray, What happened to your little logo (Looks a lot like "Beaker" from the Muppet Show)? The last couple of days, I have been getting a blank spot where he usually showed up on your posts? Jake, that looks like an interesting place to sail. How are the winds there? Steve

Thanks for the encouraging remarks. That is indeed high praise coming from you folks. You are the greatest. 8) Steve

Is the world ready for you two in the same boat?? Have fun! Steve

Here is one more. Steve [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

OK, here are the pictures. The names should give you an idea of what you are looking at. The seats have not been varnished yet, so the finish is not up to snuff. Sorry about that. Steve [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

Very nice work, Bob. They will enjoy that little boat. It looks quite beautiful. Steve

Garry, I found out that the location I needed to sit when sailing the boat was just in the gap between the athwartships seat and the floatation compartment/seat in the after hull. Graham's comments some time back about the non-nesting Spindrift being better set up to sail also had me thinking about seating along the sides of the boat in that area. I decided not to build those seats until after I sailed the boat to see what would actually be needed. The gunwale was just too hard and small to suffice for seating on a long tack. :shock: When I got home, I looked at the situation and decided to see what I could do to fill that gap. I decided to put a block on the forward surface of the floatation box and another on the aft part of the athwartships seat. It was not too difficult and I am now putting the finish on the seats and the blocks. The seat supports on the athwartships seat were designed with this in mind, so it should make a pretty solid seating arrangement. The next "test drive" should happen this weekend, so we will see how it works. I will try to get pictures of the setup this evening when I get out to the shop. Steve

Thanks for the good words, guys. It's nice to get those comments from a bunch of boat builders such as yourselves. I have a couple of modifications I am doing to add seats on the sides between the athwartships seat and the after floatation compartments. I found that was where I needed to sit when sailing the boat. I should have these done sometime in the next week or so. Also, the official christening is coming up in the next week or so. Steve

Charlie, Very nice work! I like the way the legs fold up. We had a great time sailing around the Pensacola/Mobile Bay area last weekend. Ingram's had no less than 11 boats anchored in it. Most of them were 35' or larger, so we gave up and sailed on over to Pirate's Cove and anchored off shore there (lot's of boats in their bayou too). Sailed over to Perdido Key and messed around with the dinghy while anchored up next to the dune on a superb day. The winds were a constant 15 knots or so from the WSW almost all weekend, so we were able to sail all of the way east and west in the Intercoastal, except for the ditch. Pulled the boat up to Lulu's on the way back west on Sunday and had a very nice dinner, though a little expensive. That was the first time I have been able to take my boat to Lulu's (She draws 5' 6"). Had a roaring good sail both up and down Mobile Bay with one reef in the main and all of the Genoa. Was pushing 7 knots all the way both ways. The little Spindrift followed right along, just like she's supposed to. I promised to leave you some good sailing. Believe me, it is still there! I wish we had been albe to be there at the same time. Maybe next year. Steve

Swamprat, I just completed my Spindrift 10N and sailed her for the first time this past weekend. The boat was a great project and it has proven to be a great little sailer too. (You can see some pictures of her on the B & B Forum). I don't have any experience with the other boats except what I have seen in these forums, but IMHO you won't do much better than the Spindrift for a small sailboat that can be used handily for other things. As far as I am concerned the stock rig is just fine. Powerful enough to give some excitement on a breezy day. Get some plans and go for it! Steve

We took the Spindrift down to Alabama where we keep the big boat and used it as a dinghy over the weekend. There were no problems with the dinghy. She did very well, and I collected a lot of compliments about how she appeared and sailed. I have attached pictures of the boat for your viewing pleasure. The main comment I have is that I had forgotten how tender the little sailing dinghys are. After sailing bigger boats for the last several years, I had to re-learn how to sail this little one. I managed to stay upright, but it was close a couple of times. All-in-all, it was a very successful trip and the little boat is a roaring success! (And it took a lot less time than Jake's launching! :wink: :wink: ) Steve [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

Frank, I like the new look! I am getting the impression the move to the new server went well. The system seems to be working well. BTW, I am using Internet Explorer 6.0 sp 2. We try to keep up-to-date here at work and I follow right along with my home computer. I was always intrigued by the ranks. It was interesting to see how we progressed up as we added messages, but it was just a diversion to the discussions. I think boat name is a good use for that field. I wouldn't want to lose the location either. Steve

We are planning to stop at Lulu's on the way through also. Now that she has moved, we can get the boat to her place. "Day's Dream" draws 5-1/2' of water and the bayou she was on was WAAAY too shallow for us. Your trip doesn't sound a whole lot different than throwing the new dink in the back of the pickup and driving 1200 miles to our Beneteau. We will get 4 days on her before we have to turn around and head back up here. Kinda silly, isn't it? I just need to find a job down there. I'd build boats, but I'm afraid I would starve. Steve

Oh Yeah, That's a Hartley. The double chine is really cool. I remember she sailed well and emulated a rounded hull. She sailed quite well and I remember many times out on the Indian River near the St. Lucie Inlet with her. Even got her outside in the Atlantic a few times. She handled the Atlantic swell very well. You may be a lot better off using the 3 board door. It's really easy to store those boards on a bunk, under the mattress where they are out of the way. Besides that is a potential place to show off really nice brightwork. Using the brass fittings and hardware will give her a really nice "classic" look, too. Best of luck with her and good luck to her new skipper/owner. Steve

Bob, What model Hartley is that? I built one about 28 years ago and it was a great boat. Mine was an 18, but I don't remember that particular cabin door configuration. The centerboard looks just like my memories of the one on my boat. Thanks, Steve

Charlie, Do you get over to Pirate's Cove and into such places as Ingram's Bayou to anchor for the night? We are planning to spend one night over that way on Memorial Day weekend. (Just west of the AL/FL border.) We particularly enjoy playing around over by Pensacola Inlet and Perdido Key in the bay behind the barrier island just west of the inlet and Fort McRee. Don't know if we'll have enough time to do that this trip. Have a great time. Too bad we'll miss each other. It would have been great to meet you. Steve

Thank you all for your votes of confidence. I appreciate the support. We are leaving for Mobile Bay, Alabama Wednesday and the boat should be on the water Friday morning. We plan to use the little boat as a dinghy (imagine that :wink: ), but plan to sail it a lot while using the big boat. I suspect my son will spend most of the time on the little boat sailing circles around us on the big boat. I'll have a full report after we get back next Wednesday, complete with pictures. You're right Ray! I'm going to get mine in the water a lot quicker than Jake. I bet I'm traveling further to put it in the water, too! :? Ready to travel to the south, ya'll. Steve