mustangermatt

I just finished stiching with aluminium electric fence wire. I had a couple of miles of it left from when I used to have a small herd of purebred limosine cattle for breeding. The wire is very heavy guage. What we call in the northwest "new zealand fence" wire designed for much longer runs without posts than we normally use around here. I got it to hold April, my hunter jumper cow. That cow could clear a five foot corral panel pregnant. Anyway, the heavy aluminium wire was plenty strong enough, and the extra diameter helps keep it from tearing through the ply even if I get a little heavy handed tightening it. But it was very difficult to work around the tight corners etc. Next time I might not be so cheap and try the plastic ties. I am only saying this because I still have all the cuts on my hands from that heavy wire. Once they heal I will probably use the "free" stuff I aleady have again:-)

Yep, I just did mine a few weeks ago. I marked the line the stringer should follow from the plans. Then with the outside down on several saw horses I clamped the after end on the mark, and drilled a small hole all the way through. Being on saw horses I could then put the screw in from below (the outside) and move up to the next hole. Once I got all the screws located I removed them, applied epoxy to the stringer and side, and then replaced the screws. I removed the screws after about 10 hours to avoid stuck screws. Worked great.

That is the way I did it. Since I laminated the frames instead of sawing it was alot easier fair things out with a hand plane on the work bench than the boat. I also cut notches for the seat stringer and inwale before installing. I measured where I thought the notches should go and then compared my marks to the side with the stringer attached to make sure it was right. When the boat went together I only had to fair the notches a little with a file here and there. One warning, if you are building the aft deck version don't install the aft bulkead yet since the keel batten has to go under it first. Don't ask how I know this, just trust me :-) Good luck getting there, I found the best part was bringing the bow together. It has taken me five days part time to finally get everything wired so after the bow it was just routine working on the boat. Kind of anyway :-)

Finally got everything pushed and pulled together, and hog tied with wire. I will get some pictures up pretty soon. Now to start gluing :-)

I finally got around to getting some pictures, we are going to go 3D this afternoon so I wanted to get some before shots. Sorry about the quality but my digital cam is REALLY cheap. In fact it was free for sitting through one of those vacation club sales pitches. [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

As you noted the only mention of a capsize I have ever read involving a coresound is the intentional experiment that Graham did. On the other hand I was reading several accounts from different owners of the Bolger light schooner. Out of the four accounts of sailing the light schooner I read, all four owners have dumped their boats at least once, most of them several times or more. There was great discussion about how to keep the boat upright. A very quick look at the hull of the light schooner shows a narrow flat bottom and straight sides. There is very little form stability in such a shape. Compare that to the moderate V and flared sides of the coresound boats. I think one reason you don't see discussion about coresound capesizes may be the boats are stable and manageable enough to keep them on their bottoms. Have you ever heard the story about putting a fence at the top of the cliff instead of an ambulance at the bottom... :-)

Thanks for the info, that will be good to know in the future. And I will watch out for the center board thing :-) Luckily the area I had to redo was only 12 inches. I just checked the new joint this morning and it cured great. Two sides down two to go before unfolding the boat :-)

One of the last jobs I had on a ship before switching careers was mate aboard the WC Park Responder, a 240 ft oil spill response vessel. We used a two part paint (interlux I think) on the mooring bits and chalks which got VERY severe wear from mooring lines. The paint held on AMAZINGLY well.

I am just getting the bows glued on CS 17 #97, and hit my first two mistakes (probably in a long line of mistakes to come :-) First I mis-measured the heights on two bulkheads. One too tall (an easy fix) one too short (not so easy). I did them both on the same day so I am thinking it would have been a better day to watch a movie. Second was trying to glue the bows yesterday. It seems the temp in my barn which is heated only by a couple of portable heaters dropped below the 55 degree minimum for my hardener in the cold snap we are having in western washington. I wound up pulling the partially cured tape and resin off and redoing the joint. Live and learn :-) I was hoping to go 3D this weekend but waiting for the new joints to cure will set me back to next weekend.

I am just getting ready to go 3D with my CoreSound 17. I will look forward to seeing your boat bumming around the NW :-)

When it came time to cut deck frames for my cs17 I was faced with a choice. It looks like the plans are specifying the curved frames to be sawn out of a 1 X 4 board. But I found some really nice clear douglas fir 1 x 2's that looked like just the ticket for a bent frame. I was going to steam bend like I did when I was building dog sleds years ago but I don't have any of the pipe etc. anymore. So I ripped them into thirds and epoxied the pieces. I created the forms by tracing my bulheads right onto the work bench and driving large nails into the work bench on the edge of the tracing. (In case your wondering about my sanity, the bench top is just an old piece of plywood that was here when I bought the house.) The fir I have is quite hard so there was no marking on the edges by the nail shaft, I would recommend a wood form if your using something softer like pine. The result is some very pretty and strong frames that are a perfect fit :-)

Also Fiberlay in Seattle sells graduated waxed paper cups by the sleeve for a few bucks that work very well without the marking or cleanup hastle.

Being an old Sailor I did stability calculations on the CS 17 along with a few others before choosing plans. What I came up with is the CS hulls righting moment continues to increase dramatically up to about 13 - 14 degrees of heel, then drops off equally dramatically at around 17 - 20 degrees. This depends alot on the weight in the boat of course, and does not take into account "dynamic ballast" (people;-). As for sail area, I will be using the standard sails for convenience on hull #97. But I am also adding extra halyard blocks for a staysail or fisherman to handle the frequent "light and variable" here in Puget Sound and San Juan islands. We have very strong tidal currents, and winds that amount to no more than a puff from time to time in the summer. (But 25 knts is also common, hence the standard rig :-) And also no outboard. I guess I would rather have the wine ;-) But seriously with four kids weight is a concern on a camping trip. And the whole idea of the boat is for them to learn about the marine environment and how to coexist with it and its peculiar schedule. An engine won't help there. But after read a few posts from you guys I think I will reinforce the transom just in case I change my mind on that one...

I should have mentioned that I have three daughters as wellwho have been helping with the measurement, curves, and planing. My wife can't help commenting on how similar building a stitch and glue boat is to making a dress :-) My son is the one who is excited about getting to use power tools though;-) Graham, do you think switching the grain orientation would be necessary even with glass and epoxy on the seat tops? Thanks for the advice and encouragment.

I know this is not the huge milestone like going 3d, but for my 9 year old son it means he gets to drill all the holes for the wires :-) We are using marine grade douglas fir plywood, douglas fir frames and western red cedar for coamings and hatches. We chose the fir because it is a common and time tested boat and shipbuilding material here in the pacific northwest, as is the cedar. Red cedar is also one of the prettiest woods finished bright (in my very subjective opinion :-) So far I am really happy with the choice of marine grade fir and System 3 epoxy. Both are a dream to work with although I expect to have to work harder when it comes time to bend the hull pieces. Of course the down side is that fir is heavier than okoume, and all surfaces must be covered with glass to prevent checking. But this is a boat that I will have for a LONG time, and maybe my kids and grand kids after me.