Frank Hagan

The MSN community sites work great as a place to keep people advised of your progress. More people should investigate using them for boat projects, especially since they allow you up to 3mb of photo space. Are you using Okume plywood? I'm getting close to buying the 1/4" Okume for my Spindrift I want to build.

Yep, geographically its close to Salinas ... but philosophically, its a million miles away! Click the link and zoom out a bit, and you'll see Carmel is about a 20 mile drive from Salinas. Carmel on Mapquest

Mike pops in from time to time, so maybe he'll see your post. You can always email them too. They live in Carmel or Monterey ... somewhere up there in God's Country (it is absolutely stunning up there ... I love to camp at Big Sur just south of there).

OK, so maybe there isn't half a million of us registered here, but we do build boats out of WOOD STOCK, so maybe the song fits anyway. Look at this milestone reached this very day: Seems we have our 100th registered user, Ambler. Welcome aboard, Ambler! An extra round of Grog for everyone! :drinking:

Well, the forums are supposed to work with Netscape 4.7. In fact, I have it open right now to the forum in another window. I remember I had to find out why the pictures posted with messages didn't work, but found the reason finally (Netscape 4.7 is very picky about how HTML and CSS tags are structured, and there were instances in the photo-posting mod where the tags were not in the required sequence.) I could be one of those "unexplained features" of the new version of Windows XP which, for some unexplained reason, just doesn't work with another company's browser. Imagine that! (Gee, do I sound paranoid?)

The Weekender capsizes tend to be with new skippers, although it can happen to anyone. I don't think it is any more or less prone to capsizing, although I do think that the wheel steering robs the captain of some of the feedback sailing a little boat gives you.

Angelfire, Geocities and the like are notorious for adding unwanted stuff to your computer. Plus all the pop-ups and flashing banners ... I rarely go to those sites anymore. But I understand why people use them ... they are free and easy to use. I just think the MSN and Yahoo group sites are better suited and less intrusive.

PhotoPost will integrate with phpBB with the username and login with the instructions they give you. Then, there is a hack to phpBB to keep the "session" open when they leave the forum and enter the PhotoPost folder. That hack requires you to edit the login.php script with the following: /* /////// Find in login.php /////// */ if( $session_id ) { if( !empty($HTTP_POST_VARS['redirect']) ) { header($header_location.append_sid($HTTP_POST_VARS['redirect'], true)); exit; } else { header($header_location.append_sid("index.$phpEx", true)); exit; } } /* And change it to: //////// */ if( $session_id ) { if( !empty($HTTP_POST_VARS['redirect']) ) { setcookie( "phpbb2uid", $row['user_id'], time()+2592000, "/" ); setcookie( "phpbb2pw", md5($password), time()+2592000, "/" ); header($header_location. append_sid($HTTP_POST_VARS['redirect'], true)); exit; } else { setcookie( "phpbb2uid", $row['user_id'], time()+2592000, "/" ); setcookie( "phpbb2pw", md5($password), time()+2592000, "/" ); header($header_location. append_sid("index.$phpEx", true)); exit; } } /* FIND /////////////// */ if( $userdata['session_logged_in'] ) { session_end($userdata['session_id'], $userdata['user_id' ]); } /* And change it to: ///////////*/ if( $userdata['session_logged_in'] ) { setcookie( "phpbb2uid", "", time()-3600, "/"); setcookie( "phpbb2pw", "", time()-3600, "/"); session_end($userdata['session_id'], $userdata['user_id']); } This is shown on the PhotoPost support forum in this message. You'll need your password to access the thread. Also, this works for phpBB 2.0.3, but not 2.0.4 ... some have used the 2.0.3 version of login.php for 2.0.4. Obviously, with all of this you need to make sure you have a backup copy of your login.php file in a safe place! Also, here is the code in the header file (HEADER.HTM) that works with Netscape 4.x, and as seen here in the My Gallery: <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#006699" vlink="#5493B4" /> <a name="top"></a> <table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10" border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td> <table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> <tr> <td valign="top"><a href="http://www.messing-about.com/photopost"> <img src="http://www.messing-about.com/templates/subSilver/images/gallery.gif" border="0" alt="My Gallery" vspace="1" /></a> </td> <td align="center" width="100%" valign="middle"><span class="maintitle">messing-about.com</span><br /><span class="gen">"There is nothing - absolute NOTHING - half so much<BR> worth doing as simply messing about in boats."<br /> </span> <span class="copyright">Kenneth Graham's "Wind in the Willows"</span><br /><br /> <span class="mainmenu"> <a href="http://www.messing-about.com" class="mainmenu">Home</a> | <a href="http://www.messing-about.com/forum" class="mainmenu">Forums</a> | <a href="http://www.messing-about.com/homeport" class="mainmenu"><i>My Home Port</i></a> | <a href="http://www.messing-about.com/links/linkster.php" class="mainmenu">Links</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.messing-about.com/weekender" class="mainmenu">Weekender</a> | <a href="http://www.messing-about.com/smallboats" class="mainmenu">Small Boats</a> | <a href="http://www.messing-about.com/gaffrig" class="mainmenu">Gaff Rig Page</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.messing-about.com/store" class="mainmenu">Gift Shop</a> | <a href="http://www.messing-about.com/books" class="mainmenu">Boatbuilding Books</a> </span> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table width=100% border=0> <tr> <td valign="top"> Hope this helps!

Ed, I think I missed your cut off time! (Bad choice of words, I meant "cut off" from the forum, not ... well, you know). We'll all lift a glass of grog, healthy thoughts and prayers to your speedy recovery! Hurry back!

Does she have a sister?

Looking really good, Derek! I noticed you didn't cut the holes in the forward bulkhead, and I was trying to think why they are there. They do allow you to put longer things in the cabin, but there isn't much you would have on board that couldn't fit in the space between that bulkhead and the portion under the seats that is accessible from the cabin. And it might make it look nicer without the holes.

Ive been using fast drying polyurethane lately, so it makes it a bit easier. I'm such a slob that varnishing has always been a problem. I use mineral spirits as the final wipe after sanding, then using the shop vac like Barry says. Because my shop is so dusty, I usually take a break after using the shop vac because of fine stuff in the air that it has kicked up. Then a wipe with mineral spirits, and the next coat goes on. The final coat is the only one I get obsessive about. If the part is small enough, I take it into the bathroom (no dust, it closes off fairly tight from the rest of the house, and my wife never uses that bathroom so I'm safe from Konrad-like incidents!) In the shop, I'll clean up, wait, then start in just in time for the garage door to open and stiff breeze to blow through. That's why I'm getting to like the fast dry polyurethanes. I know they aren't traditional, but I end up with much less stuck in them.

Looks like a boat, Joel! I loved this stage of the process, because people could start to see what I was seeing. Bill's right about the shop. Way too clean. You're throwing the curve off for the rest of us!

Vinylester is fine for fiberglassing. It is used extensively in the home-built airplane field, and is what the Stevenson's prefer for glassing. It actually is more waterproof then epoxy (although I think as a practical matter the difference is not that great). It also has adhesive properties, so will bond nearly as well to epoxy to the plywood. I don't know if you can use it for a general wood glue like epoxy (ask your contact about that; I haven't heard it used that way ... the airplane builders I've talked to use Weldwood or Roursicinal - or however its spelled - as the glue and then vinylester as the glassing resin). Polyester resin is a cheaper alternative, but doesn't seem to adhere as well to the plywood. There have been some delamination problems using it, although I've corresponded with several wooden boat builders who have older woooden boats with polyester resin with very few problems. Still, if you can get either vinylester or epoxy from your contact, go for it! You will need to use fiberglass cloth and resin on the hull to prevent checking of the ACX plywood if it is douglas fir. You need about 20 yards of cloth 40" wide or so ... so if your contact has that available for less than $3.99 a yard, that's a deal also. But you are a long way from that part of the project!

Hey Dingo, I didn't even notice what does look like water coming out to the saw. I did see the Wood Shark, and like every sailor and boat builder, sharks of any sort are unwelcome guests. We would do well to heed tdrown's admonition to beware the wood shark! Tdrown, I think you may have found a new way to not only borrow tools, but have people deliver them to you ... with cake! Amazing! I should have told people I was building a boat in the early stages. Did your contractor neighbor see the smoke you were generating cutting on the old saw? Its also good to see someone with a shop space about like mine (some of these guys have shops that could double as fine dining establishments, just put a tablecloth over the tablesaw and start serving the escargot!) The Wild Dingo is right about safety though, you want to make sure before you go to cut a piece of wood with a hand tool that you can carry the tool all the way through the cut, without the cord getting tangled or trapped under your foot (happened to me ... couldn't figure out why the damn thing wouldn't cut past a certain point). A good tool to borrow when you get to the point of evening up the edges of the keel is a power plane ... it will even things up faster and with less dust than a belt sander. Its more aggressive, so you have to be careful, but it takes the wood from all three keel "plies" down to a uniform surface pretty quickly.

Hi Russ, Are you using Netscape 4.x? I'm having trouble configuring the main pages to work with Netscape's earlier versions. Right now, the home page at http://www.messing-about.com will come up blank after loading. But the forums at http://www.messing-about.com/forum are working. I don't do anything unusual in the pages. There is a link to the Boatbuilding Ring at the bottom of the home page, but it follows the same type of configuration as the links on Google do. The Forums do try to write a cookie, which your IT department may not allow. Check to see if the My Gallery link works too: http://www.messing-about.com/photopost I have it working with Netscape 4.7 now. I had one user tell me my hosting company, Page-Zone Web Hosting was "blacklisted" by their server for adult content (they were on the blocking software's list in error, as they never have had and don't allow adult content).

Here's a pic of the Weldwood tub:

Welcome aboard, trdown! You've gotten over "first cut fever," made your first mistake (and realized its not the end of the world), so the hardest part is over. For inexpensive glue, go with DAP Weldwood Plastic Resin Glue (the label will say its urea-formaldahyde glue in the ingredients). You can sometimes get it in 1# tubs at Home Depot for about $5 ... look in the glue section that is near the paint department where they have carpenter's wood glue. If you can't find it there, there are some on-line places that sell the 4# tub of the stuff ... it runs about $20 for the tub. I bought two during my project, and almost used all of it. Check Aircraft Spruce ... last time I checked they were about $15 for the tub, but another $5 for shipping. Plastic Resin Glue is not "waterproof", in that it doesn't pass the boil test. If you plan to boil your boat, don't use it. But if you're like most people, and the boat will spend most of its time on the trailer, then it works fine. Epoxy is another choice, but more expensive. Like Plastic Resin Glue, its not truly waterproof, but it does pass the boil test and, if thick enough, is close enough to waterproof as the technical difference doesn't matter. You would need about 4 -5 gallons of epoxy to do the gluing and fiberglass the boat, and that will run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 - $200 through someone like Raka Epoxy.

I use a car cover, a generic one sized for a mid-sized car like the Ford Taurus, which fits OK (but doesn't cover the entire bowsprit). It does allow the boat to "breath" so mildew doesn't form, but it will also allow water to leak in if it pools on top (semi permeable, like a tent I guess). So now I have ... a blue polytarp stretched over the top of it. Jake might have a concern with the blue color telegraphing onto the surface under it, which happens with some of these tarps (especially if it is in hot sun). So the car cover thing works well to protect the fine finish of the boat .... yeah, that's it, that's why I have two covers on my boat. Yeah. :wink: