vinegar joe

yes, garry!!!! that's the hardware. it works so well and the schematics are really easy to follow....well done, sir. i remember that someone suggested that he was going to use the five bolt connecting method based on the "KISS" theory (keep it simple stupid). that sure wasn't my experience. but with your connecting hardware, you can sit in the aft section (in the water, of course, and in fairly rough conditions, too), pull the forward half to you, push down, and bingo, you're 90 percent of the way home. the all bolt system requires assembly and disassembling on land, and really requires two people. thanks again. (sorry about the poor quality of the original photo, perhaps the attached will be better). v.joe

the switch to the connecting hardware suggested on this forum (instead of the 5 bolts used in the building plans) made all the difference in the world. joining the two halves together is now an easy one man job versus the two cussing guys that were required to join her with the bolts. thanks. v.joe

i went back and measured the gunwales/chines....same length on each side. also measured the angle where the sides attach to the stern, and to the bow....same angle each side. i think perhaps i have entered the twilight zone and am defying some basic laws of nature. the boat sides look pretty fair without the bulkhead in place and maybe a little more fair with the bulkhead in place and rope tensioning the starboard side flush to the bulkhead...but in neither case does the boat look obviously out of whack. i wired and rewired three times when initially stitching her together and thought i had pulled her together in a "fair" manner. perfection again eludes me. hmmm..... anyway, thanks for all the input/suggestions (and thanks b&b for the forum). v.joe

garry- i guess i didn't describe the situation very well....all of the seams are taped and glassed at present. on the nester, the center bulkhead (actually two mirror bulkheads with a ~3/16" space between) is then glassed in four feet forward from the transom (amid ship). again, before glassing the seams i measured diagonally across the boat and things were even and the boat looked balanced...it still does. also, i can force the starboard side to lie flush against the edge/side of the bulkhead, so while things may not be perfect i'm hoping that the final product will be acceptable. if i had it to do over, i would have cut the bulkhead out at the start of the project and wired everything together with it in place (instead of using a 2x2 to spread the beam), then i could have made sure everything was dead-on before taping/glassing. oh, well...... v.joe

slowly progressing on my catspaw nester (8 footer). i'm now ready to install the center bulkhead(s)...have cut them out and when placed in boat, the port side profiles perfectly while there is a progressive gap on the starboard side that measures about 5/8" up by the gunwale. by tensioning a rope around the hull i can pull this side flush to the bulkhead and i plan to glass them (the bulkheads) in with the rope pulling everything into shape. it takes a surprising amount of force to pull everything tight, but i am thinking that once the dingy is cut in half the underlying resistance should be significantly less. i don't know if i'm asking for advice or just venting. the bulkheads are very symmetrical and the dingy appears pretty "true".....diagonal measurements from stern to bow are very close (within an 1/8 of an inch), but i can see that the starboard gunwale swings a hair wide compared to the port. have others experienced similar? any suggested solutions besides my rope "clamp"? v.joe

thanks much for the replies and info....this board is really great. will be repairing my bubbles this weekend and then on to the gunwhales. thanks again. v.joe

help! after stitching the pieces of the dingy together, i glassed (epoxy and 10 oz cloth) the interior seams without apparent problem. i thought the exterior seams would be easier.......however, as the epoxy set up, several areas of the tape/cloth lifted up and cured in that position (i.e., there's a gap between the tape and the hull. question: i can cut the problem areas out i with a utility knife without difficulty. should i just retape/glass (with slight overlapping) the problems areas and then fair down the overlap areas, or attempt to take the entire tape off in the problem areas? or? also, i'm thinking that the problem must have been caused by not wetting out the surface well enough before laying the tape/cloth down....is that right? is there something else i could have done? thanks for any/all input. v.joe (btw....wire ties were a little labor intensive. but cleaned up nicely prior to glassing and the shape of the boat seemed very symmetrical from the get-go.)

slowly moving forward on my catspaw II....presently i'm in the midst of wiring the bottom on to the sides/bow/stern. have ended up using 16 gauge wire exclusively. i like the ability to loosen and tighten things as i go along. also, it seems 8) with the bottom that after attaching the two bottom pieces together, tying and weighting it into place for a couple of days before actually wiring has made it go a bit easier (so far). would be nice to have an extra set of hands at times, but again so far no major problems (knock wood repeatedly). v.joe

thanks for the input.....sounds like a combination approach of plastic ties in low stress areas and bailing wire in others may be the way to go. v.joe

just started my first stitch and glue project this weekend. bought the plans for catspaw 2 about three years ago, but never seemed to find the time to get going on it until now. anyway, accomplished this weekend were the measuring/drawing of the side and floor/bottom panels and then cutting them out. based on various things that i read in this forum, i decided to use my little black and decker circular saw with an undersized plywood blade to cut out the panels. that really worked well for me (definitely a much smoother, cleaner, and accurate cut than i would have gotten with my jig saw). question: looking down the road to the stitching steps of construction....i thought that plastic wire ties might be easier to use than wire. is there any reason not to use them? thanks for any input. v.joe