Tom Lathrop

Ray, Surely you can get juniper (Atlantic white cedar) nearby. Much more rot resistant than spruce and more resistant than Douglas fir. Plenty strong enough for glue strips although I don't like to bend it a lot. Western red cedar is a good choice where it is reasonably priced. Cypress is also good where available. These are the common names for the these woods, no scientific nomenclature corrections necessary. Poplar is as good as spruce. That is, not very resistant, Robb's thoughts to the contrary.

Now, we're both out of the closet.

Graham is still not here so I will try to guess what he might say. Try clamping a temporary batten (about 3/4 by 1 inch) on the outside of the sheer. This will help draw the sides in. If you then pull the sides in to the bulkheads, the batten will help keep the sheer in a fair curve. If you just pull in the sides without a batten, you may distort the sheer permanently. The inwhales may do the job, as Charlie said, but they are pretty small. I use a hot melt glue gun to tack bulkheads in place until they are epoxied in. Don't use any more glue tacks than necessary and they can be covered with epoxy and glass tape with no problem.

The Moccasin was originally designed so the cut parts could be shipped UPS and this set the max length. The Birder is the same basic hull but stretched to the max length that can be had from a minimum number of sheets of 4X8 ply.

I take responsibility for the epoxied line on the leading edge of foils. I had our Bay River Skiff centerboard hit a rock at full speed in a lake in Ontario. Hit was hard enough to strip the outer braid off the cleated hold down line. No repairs necessary, only a minor nick in the paint. Had the same thing happen on the daggerbord of a 26 foot sailboat under power in our creek when I hit what was either an old engine block or some other long lost kind of mooring anchor on the shallow bottom. Brought the boat to an immediate stop. Had an epoxy soaked piece of dacron line on both leading and trailing edges of the DB. No damage whatever. I have a leftover piece of the line laying on my workbench. I envite unbelievers to hit it with any of several hammers. I also put this epoxy soaked line on the bow of suitable boats.

Every once in a while Graham and I have a disagreement. This is one. I think the thin coat of epoxy will easily be flexible and stretch enough that the plywood is not stiffened in any significant amount. The key is that the epoxy is put on as thin as possible with a rubber squeege so that it is just driven into the grain around the fibers. The purpose is to give the individual fibers some strain relief. In this case where there is an extreme amount of stress at that junction, Graham's solution is undoubtedly the best.

I wasn't thinking about the period soon after a tragedy, such as the one you experienced, but the long term. In particular, any of the groups that have formed associations and keep the reasons for their grief on the front burner for years and decades. It just doesn't seem good for mental health to me. But then, that's just me. Everyone is entitled to their own personal feelings on the matter.

Yeah Frank, It's real easy to do something insensitive these days when you only wanted the opposite. I'm as guilty as the next person since I think we go about all such issues in the wrong way. It's good to not forget the past but just as wrong to emphasize it, in my opinion. I've seen cases near to home where kids have been traumatized by keeping tragedies, real and sometimes imagined, in front of them constantly until it becomes the focus of their lives. I felt exactly like that this morning as The Morning Show featured interviews with kids who were very young at the events of 9/11. I know from personal experience that such young children will rather quickly adapt to life without father or mother if they are allowed to. To some, that may seem callous, to me it's the right thing to do.

The earliest stitch and glue boats were made with polyester resin and many very successful racing sailboats were done that way. It required very careful procedures that are not needed with epoxy. Also, Ray is correct that polyester will not cure properly over epoxy so you should not even consider that. Use your polyester somewhere else.

Just looking at the map posted above, it was agreat surprise to me to realize that I have done most of the great loop without thinking about it. Still need the Erie Canal, Lake Michigan, Chicago and Mississippi rivers down to the Ohio and I've done it.

Here is another hint that will save a lot of time and energy. When you coat plywood the usual way, the forst coat comes out very rough and needs to be sanded smooth. Doint this after the boat is formed up is the hard way. Sand the panels with 220 grit when they are flat. Vacuum off and squeegee on a THIN coat of epoxy both sides except for the seam bonding areas. When cured sand lightly with 220. I sometimes jump ahead and forget to do this. Always pay for it with extra grunge work.

Ha! This sounds so simple and obvious but stuff happens. Some years ago Graham and I were building a quick and dirty boat in the Sika Callenge contest at Georgetown, SC. The two guys next to us were blazing away at great speed and blew their completion whistle at about 1 1/2 hours. Problem is, they had cut out two port side panels. We have all seen twisted boats but this was a new record. The bow went port and the stern went starboard. Make sure you have the scarfing layout prominently marked with P and S (check it about 4 times) so you can't screw up.

The reason that the stern shape is different from the bow, as in the Moccasin, was to get better tracking. I added a small skeg on the stern also but am not sure how much they help. I sometimes use the paddle extended over the bow as an air rudder when running downwind. Since we are not dealing with white water maneuvering here, a small keel would aid tracking and help protect the bottom at the same time. You are not the first to have breakage at that point. I have had success in preventing ply breakage when tortuing plywood by coating the outside of the bend with epoxy only. Just a thin coat squeeged on. It binds the surface fibers and helps prevent the breaks from starting. In the case you are talking about, there is a lot of stress concentration at the end of the cut. A bit of glass just behind the end of the cut could not do any harm. Common practice in industry is to drill a hole at the end of cuts and breaks to distribute the stress. That would help also and with the addition of a thin coat of epoxy might be all that is needed. If you are thinking about glassing the bottom, Xynole is far superior for abrasion resistance. I ran some tests several years ago and found that Xynole was 6 times as abrasion resistant as a single layer of 10oz glass. Since it requires more epoxy to cover it, it is heavier than a single layer of glass but a bit less than two layers of 10oz glass and still three times as abrasion resistant. The Pettingill paddles are vey light as they are. Not sure you could gain much by making them bird's mouth and the diameter might need to be too big for comfort unless you have really big hands.

Hi Charlie, You will love the Birder. Just stable enough to to use birding binoculars without worrying about tipping. Named for Liz who is an avid birder. Here are Birders #1 and #2 at St Michaels, MD WB festval. http://www.bandbyachtdesigns.com/bird.htm They came out at 34lbs each using 4mm ply. No glass sheath. If you found a rock around here, you know that someone brought it from somewhere else. The knock down canvas and ply seats designed by Graham are good. The double paddles designed by Marc Pettingill are the best. Cheap, light, easy to make and excellent performers. The reverse hook in the blade makes a very useful boathook for grabbing limbs and stuff.

Scott, It's an interesting idea but doesn't sound doable within your parameters. The main problem is with mixing the motorsailer idea and the speed you want. A semi-displacement hull like this will need mucho power to make 15 knots and that doesn't jibe with long range, low cost cruising. A full planing hull will not be the best sailer. Bolger has a high speed motorsailer but he uses a big motor, about 140hp, I think. There is the Mac 26X if you can tolerate the ugly looks you get from others and be careful not to turn around when you walk away from it.

Scott, Smart move with the portable stove. I have been using prtable propane stoves on boats for many years. The best rig was one I built containing the stove, propane, utensil drawer and space for a pot and pan. This allows cooking in the cockpit without running in and out of the cabin for things and keeps cooking smells outside. We also arranged for up a portable in Graham's new van for camping.

The basic answer to your first question is yes, you can scarf 1/4 ply to 3/8 for twisting to the bow shape. This is how the CS 17 and CS 20 are built. You may want to add 18 oz biaxial glass cloth on the interior of the thinner forward part (I did this recently on a runabout) which will make it very strong. Oyster probably has some designs in mind for you. There are also plans for flats boats available that sound just like what you want.

My sympathies Doc, but I don' use no stinkin' straightedge. As old Strother Martin might say, what we have here is a steering problem. I tried to do away with the end of a finger also, but on another machine. :oops: More seriously, I sometimes lay down a black marker line on the cutting board that can be seen through the cloth and cut to that. A plank or 2X4 held down nearby will keep the cloth from creeping. The backing board can be most anything that you don't plan to use in a critical job later, MDF, CDX or whatever.

Charlie, I'm surprised you had not heard of that little gem. It's worth the money to get the carbide wheel version which I suspect you have. When It comes to cutting heavy stuff like roving and biaxial, the advantage is even greater. Actually the wheel doesn't cut the fibers, it breaks them, but the result is the same. An indispensible tool.

I did this experiment 30+ years ago with a daggerboard. The deflection was measured with the bare wood daggerboard with about 50# weight suspended from the end. Then one layer of 10oz cloth was laminated on each side. With the same 50# suspended, the change in deflection was not measurable. Does this prove anything? If the experiment were repeated with unidirectional or biaxial glass instead of woven cloth, I think the result would have been different. Because woven cloth threads wander about in the weave, very little tensile stress is placed on the longitudinal fibers in the experiment. No tensile stress, no bending resistance. I have found laminated biaxial glass to have a lot of rigidity. Whatever, go figure.

Here's an interesting experiment. Take a piece of wood about 2 or 3 feet long by 3/4" thick and fix one end to a workbench top. Hang a weight on the end and measure the deflection. Now lay up one layer of glass cloth on the top side. After it sets up remeasure the deflection the same way as before. Now cut a new piece of the same wood and dimensions except make the thickness the same as the total thicknesof the other including the glass cloth. Measure its deflection and report all the results. I expect you are going to be surprised.

Nope, had not seen that particular Windmill but do think mine could outrun it. The site did inform me that I was the one millionth visitor and have won an absolutely free plasma TV so thanks for alerting me. PS, you are welcome to come over and watch it.

Should be pretty good. There are a lot of odd shaped bits sticking out to grab things or stick in the bottom. Besides, he said that he always loses the auction in the last minute. Should realize that the gods are really favoring him. "Not that there is anything wrong with it."