Frank Hagan
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Posts posted by Frank Hagan
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The 2hp Honda 4-stroke I tried was nice but for a little more weight am going to buy a 3.5hp not sure what brand.. With the very strong currents I fought today I would like a little more speed without having to go full throttle. The 2 did push the boat really really easy.
Check with Graham on this ... there's no reason to buy more outboard than you need, and the extra weight on the transom will slow the boat down in light airs.
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I removed the "Boatbuilding News" forum as the number of blog posts and news items just seemed unmanageable for a forum. The excerpts of the feeds are available daily at our news page, and I will soon incorporate them into the bottom half of the home page.
The script I am using to import the news items relies on the expected knowledge of the content publisher to know what he is publishing. Previously, if the content publisher pushed out his content via RSS, the script didn't argue with his decision to either publish excerpts, or the entire article. What I am finding, though, is that many bloggers don't even know that they are granting non-exclusive rights to republish their content by having full posts in their RSS feed. The legal requirement is that the re-publisher provide attribution, with a link back, as my script does. One content author did object to seeing his post here.
Legal issues aside, I don't want to offend anyone. I removed all the posts this morning, and then reset the subscriptions to exclude the site from the publisher who doesn't really want to publish (he really should edit his RSS settings!) I edited the script this morning to publish only the first 200 characters (give or take a few, depending on where the word breaks are), and added yet another link to the original content. The purpose is to drive traffic to the original sites and expose their content to the wider boat building community. Readers coming to messing-about.com will be able to quickly scan the most recent articles from subscriber feeds to find new sites of interest.
messing-about.com's forums currently get 6,200 unique visitors with over 50,000 page views, with 42% of that traffic from search engines. And that's just in the forums. As we create more news and other content, that traffic will only increase. Google lists more than 27,000 links to our content currently:
Link backs from our News Feed will improve a site's listing in search engines, and drive traffic to their site. Republishing an RSS feed excerpt is not treated as "duplicate content" by the search engines due to the indexing tags I use in the script.
If you have a blog or site with an RSS feed you would like included, let me know. As I find sites publishing their content via RSS I will continue to include them in our News Feed, and will continue to honor any publisher's request to have their feed removed.
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My brother bought a Grizzly 8" jointer, and I think it is probably the same as the Shop Fox. He likes it.
I scored an old Craftsman 8" jointer, and it is sitting on the new jointer base I made for it ... still have to put a hole in the base and mount the motor.
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If you're only worried about liability insurance, you can often get a rider on your auto or home insurance policy to cover it. My insurance company covered sailboats with outboards under 10HP at no extra charge.
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Time is usually your friend with cleaning up after Bond-type activities. I would start with a little bit of dishwashing soap like Dawn in a bucket of water and use a car washing brush to apply it, mist it if you have to in order to keep it moist, and then wash off after 20 to 30 minutes. Trying to clean up without allowing things to soak and soften often leads to using stronger chemicals and more elbow grease.
Or, make a rule that anyone who pukes on your boat has to clean it up themselves!
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Sorry I didn't catch this earlier, sooncome. We have some illustrations of typical gaff rig rigging on our Gaff Rig Pages. You have to go to the page for the thing you are looking for, i.e., halyards, etc.
There are a couple of books that have more detail, John Leather's "The Gaff Rig Handbook" and Tom Cunliffe's "Hand Reef and Steer", both available from some on-line bookstores if you can't find them in your local library system.
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I have family in Missouri, and they are melting too. Some of them farm and they are looking for more rain (that's what farmers do ... complain about the weather!)
It's looking good for an under-$100 boat! On the Weekender, we used 3M 5200 sealant along the inside of the seams that are under water. It works really well to keep water out but is messy to work with. Are you using something like that, or PL construction glue, etc. for the bottom?
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I have added the ability to embed the shortened "Share" button shortened link for YouTube Videos.
Click the "Share" button to reveal the shortened link. Copy the link to the clipboard and paste it into your post where you would like it to appear. In the editor, it will look like the link, but when you post it will embed the YouTube video. You can click the "Preview Post" button at the bottom of the editor to see how the video will look in your post.
I pasted in this link:
http://youtu.be/KCM2bizpQOs
To have this video displayed when I clicked the "Add Reply" button:
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I'll have to give Jeff the directly link to his forum for his site!
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Thanks for the clarification, Mike! In all the times we had our Weekender out, I never went into the cabin. My wife did, abandoning me at the tiller to nap contentedly in there. But I'm thinking for day sailer use, the larger cockpit is probably a good addition.
I was thinking you would save about 1/4 on the materials, so the material cost might be about 75% of the Weekender, but I didn't state it very clearly. On the modified aft portion is it beamier? I always thought the Weekender was just a bit cramped by the tiller, and would have better trim with heavier sailors if the aft was wider (similar to the Potter 15, an ugly little boat but a fun one to sail).
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YouTube videos will embed automatically, assuming you use the right type of URL. Using the URL from the address will not always work.
Here's how to embed a YouTube video into your post:
On YouTube, right click on the "Link" or "Embed" selection and choose "Copy video URL":
Back in the forum editor, paste the URL into your message:
(Note: I modified the code to accept the shortened "Share" link, as noted in the post below).
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Mike Stevenson posted a link to the YouTube channel for Stevenson Projects, where they have a few new videos. The Super Skipjack looks interesting:
Has anyone built one of these? I'm wondering how much easier the build is than a Weekender; I'll bet you trim off about 1/4 the materials and time to build one of these. (Maybe Mike can comment on that!)
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New options for "View New Content" link:
Now, when you click on this link, you get a page of the new posts and a control sidebar in the left column. Want to only see the new posts in one or more forums? Click the bottom link, "Filter by Forum" and select the forums you want to follow. The system will remember this setting for later visits.
Note that you can filter for content you haven't read, content posted since your last visit, within the last 24 hours, etc.
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The "Like" system, where you can give a thumb's up for a particularly helpful post:
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A quick video showing some of the new features of the editor:
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There's a post in the Website Q&A Forum with some of the new features, including where the heck your avatar went.
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The forum upgrade is mostly complete. There are some important changes that were necessary to fix some of the oddities we had.
Avatar vs. Profile Photos
Instead of using your avatar photo, now all sections of the site use your Profile photo. The software has been updated to crop rather than stretch the photo to fit. To access your Profile and add your image, click on your username at the upper right and select My Profile.
Calendar Improvements
The calendar has a few new options. One is a "download as iCal" link at the bottom. Along with that link is one for the RSS feed of the calendar for those of you using RSS readers. Finally, you can set up an event on the calendar with a RSVP function. Clicking the "Add Event" button allows you to add your mess-about, meeting or other event. To enable RSVP for the event, simply check off the appropriate box.
Chat Issues
The chat room is having some kind of issue; I will try to get this fixed soon.
The chat room has been fixed!
Editor
The new editor is an adaptation of the popular CKEditor. It has some nice features:
- Change edit mode, from WYSIWYG to plain text, by clicking the "Toggle Edit Mode" icon (top row, left).
- Autosave - designed to prevent losing your long post if something happens. Refresh the page, and most of your content will reload
- My Media button - to insert photos, videos, etc. you have uploaded previously in a new post
- Special BB Code button ... to the left of the "Font" box ... has additional formatting options
- Change edit mode, from WYSIWYG to plain text, by clicking the "Toggle Edit Mode" icon (top row, left).
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The forum software has been upgraded, and I'm still tweaking the interface. Later today, I'll have a post on the differences in the Website Q&A forum.
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Can I stick little bits of video on here? For some reason, the only shots of them I got were as part of a video note I made for a friend.
You can embed YouTube videos easily using the "insert media" icon (last one that looks like multiple pictures).
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Hey Mike, how does the Vector do on sand (like in the Mohave desert?)
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Thanks, Pete! I will get it added!
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We hope to increase the amount of useful information here for amateur boat builders.
If you have a boat building related blog or other site with a RSS feed, I can add it to our News page. An excerpt of the feed is published, with a link back to your site. This is a good way to have free content links to your site on messing-about.com, a site with in excess of 40,000 page views each month. Please reply to this message and let everyone know your blog or site's URL, and I'll add it (unless it doesn't meet our very low standards around there).
Have an article, tutorial, or other content you would like to share with the amateur boat building community? I need content for the Articles section on messing-about.com. Right now, I have converted one of Bob Smalser's excellent forum posts on oar building to an article. I am looking for any content that would appeal to a fellow boat builder, including hints and tips, construction techniques, etc. You can include a link to your site or business in the article. Submit articles via email to frank@messing-about.com
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I am in Green Bay, WI. Home of the Super Bowl champions! Oddly there are not a lot of companies dealing with plywood, considering the majority of business north of here is lumber mills.
Frank, thanks for that info. The guy at the plywood shop said the plywood I bought is often used for exterior finish projects like sofit and such.
What about abrasion resistance on the keel when beaching? We have a lot of rocky beaches here (I should say, razor sharp zebra mussel shells)
The exterior ply should work. I used a pretty low grade of exterior ply; one side of it looked like the surface of the moon. I put the good side out, and just filled/painted the insides.
Glassing the keel has led to a lot of problems, but you can put a "shoe" on the bottom of the keel without too much trouble. One builder used a strip of UHMW plastic, while others have used aluminum and stainless strips screwed to the bottom. BTW - this solution can be done after you sail it for a while, and see what kind of wear you actually get. You can get some issues with screw holes starting to rot, but they are easily filled with epoxy and re-drilled. If you really wanted to get fancy, drilling 1/4" holes for each of your screws, filling them with epoxy and then pilot drilling them for the attachment screws would eliminate that problem.
But its a lot of work for a boat that is usually kept for about 5 years, and then given away (there are exceptions, but most people get "bigger boat fever" after about 5 years).
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The 1/4" ply does seem very flimsy until you attach it to the bottom and put the deck on top. Then it becomes very strong. A comparison would be a shoe box, something that is strong enough for a kid to stand on, but an individual side of it would bend under its own weight. In woodworking, its called a "torsion box". A hollow core door is usually 1/8" plywood (or even thinner) over a frame, and the door is very stiff. Same idea.
The Weekender is a boat-shaped torsion box.
Water resistance is less of a concern if the boat is going to stay on the trailer most of the time. If you're planning on leaving it on a mooring or in a slip then, yeah, I would avoid using anything but the best marine grade materials. If the boat is on a trailer most of the time you can use any exterior grade plywood. You can expect 5 - 10 years life out of a construction grade material boat.
The main enemy of these boats is rot from the inside when leaves or other debris, or rain, is allowed to collect and sit. Keep it covered and you'll be fine.
And, I'll add not to glass the keel. The Stevenson's knew what they were doing by leaving the keel un-glassed. Because of the construction of the keel, the seasonal wood movement causes gaps between the glassing and the wood, water collects and the keel rots. Keep the keel un-glassed and just paint it.
Question on wind gusts
in Main Forum
Posted
I dipped the rail a couple of times in my Weekender. I'm more of a flat water type of guy, so I can't say I enjoyed it! I always found sailing in a local lake the most challenging because the winds would swirl down different canyons and blast you from different directions. I always thought those guys sailing lakes in the midwest should have an ocean put in near them.
You can dump a lot of wind by releasing the peak halyard and letting the main sheet go. I had reef points on my Weekender but never really used them. The boat doesn't have a lot of canvas to begin with, so if it was too hairy for my liking I usually did what maligno does: douse the sails and fire up the "iron ginny".