Klaus

Howard, looking at your high aspect design, a few desirable things come to mind. Try to locate the pivot pin at or just above the water line, it removes potential leak problems with the CB trunk. I would also round the top forward corner of the board to avoid wasted trunk room forward of the pivot point. Also the top aft corner, to lower the trunk height. Then, have you considered a board that's deployed somewhat swept back rather then with a vertical leading edge? This gives a huge advantage in seaweed choked waters and with lobster pot ropes. I just sail straight over the ropes with my swept back board, the rope gets pushed down and resurfaces AFT of the rudder blade :wink: . Another advantage of swept CB's is that the lifting tackle can be fully within the CB trunk, eliminating hum and drag there. Do round the lower edges of the board, especially the forward one. Klaus

This discussion is interesting. I have been through all that motor in a well stuff with my NIS26 and perhaps you might be interested in my findings. Closing the well bottom while sailing is very desirable, from a noise point but also drag with my boat as the openings aft end does tend to scoop water if I'm sitting at the helm. Travis's well opening is, IMO, far too wide. It would benefit from a lip all way around so a well closer can be fitted. The opening only needs to be just wide enough to clear the prop diameter. My motor lifts on vertical slides so I do not have the tilt room problem, the well closing board slides athwartships in alu channels. It is operated via pull strings and a push stick from above. There is a 45 deg bevel on the fore/ aft sides of the well opening and a matching bevel on the cover. This stops it from popping down beyond flush with the boat bottom. I drop the raised motor skeg onto the shut cover to stop water pressure trying to push it up. The comments above about the tell tale water exit under the cowling are unfounded, the warm water just sprays onto the well side and exits at the bottom. It is only a small part of the cooling water anyway, the major part leaves through the exhaust hub. I never had a problem there. The relief exhaust hole near the top of the leg did cause a smoke problem in the well, I fixed this by fitting a hose barb fitting to the hole and a hose from there out the transom. No more smoke in well while motoring now. I should mention my motor well is completely enclosed and if I have to motor some distance I close the front access hatch too, to shut in the two stroke noise. The well has large air exit vents on the transom and two computer fans ( brushless) blowing in fresh air through hatch grilles. I have rigged my motor to steer with the rudder and it made a HUGE difference with marina manouverability. My boat can now claw off sideways off the ramp jetty without having to gather sufficient way first for rudder steering. I can also motor in extremely shallow water with the rudder blade ( vertical drop kick type) down at minimum draft. Motoring in reverse is no longer a tiller slamming hard over affair. Linkage motor to tiller is via ropes and pulleys from a hook screwed to the aft end of the motor cowling. It automatically disengages when the motor is raised, removing the extra tiller load of the turning motor. I have completely removed the motor tiller handle (so the power head can easily turn inside the well, I get + - 30 deg) and now operate the motor via home made morse control.This motor ( Mercury 9.9) had a combined throttle/gear shift arrangement that made this task relatively easy. Klaus

Hi Antony, you might also check with Spunspar in Sydney re your masts. They can spin alu tube to many sizes, even tapered if they have a suitable mandrel. You would get the correct alloy if you tell them its for a yacht mast. Klaus

For my NIS26 sharpie I cast the ballast in 12 slabs of 5"x2"x36" lead. I used upside down steel channel with ends welded on at an angle as molds. There was far less shrinkake across and lengthwise than I would have thought. Quite minimal. Certainly nowhere near the dimensions mentioned by the designer above. The shrinkage all occured on top of the surface, which would crater deeply unless I played a gas torch on it to prevent the rapid solidifying of it. Even so, I later refilled the hollows and dips with more poured lead. I needed a reasonable flat surface for mounting the slabs. I then had the tip of the centreboard cast in lead. Professionally done in a sand mold, using the cut off portion as a pattern. I glued a 3mm thick plywood bit to the pattern where the cut was made, to allow for the thickness of the lost cut. The part came back and fitted perfectly, again showing how little shrinkage had occured. I was prepared to use a lot of bog for fairing but almost none was needed. My personal experience, yours may differ. Good luck with your casting and take care. Klaus

What also helps is to build the boat in the head, well in advance of the physical progress. When I built my NIS26 I would first figure out the best sequence of putting it all together, right up to the final finish. Not all designers actually BUILD the boat, mine certainly did not as was obvious from the suggested building sequence. Tinkering with a scale model quickly showed that access to various locations gets progressively more and more restricted, in lots of places it will be impossible to epoxy coat or paint, once the building had progressed beyond a certain point. I also had the advantage of seeing a part finished boat where the builder did NOT foresee access restrictions, devaluing the whole project due to large uncoated areas in a plywood boat. Sadly, a boat in progress nearby at present is also heading that way as the builder follows the plans from page 1 to the end in exact sequence without looking and thinking ahead frequently (and not willing to). Klaus

What I did with the rudder blades on my NIS26 and the nester dinghy is cut a section off the lower end from the blade blank and epoxy it back on. This leaves an epoxy seam preventing water wicking up all the way on the staves should the glass I have on the blades rub through. Klaus

Very neat Charlie, is that a high pressure, low velocity spray gun or a low pressure, high velocity? I never thought of spray varnishing, perhaps because most varnished parts are in situ on my boat and there would be too much making off. Klaus

Yes, and mix it when it's not too hot or it will start foaming up in your mixing cup :oops: . You only have seconds to stir it before pouring. BTW, I still think air is the lightest type of flotation. Foaming spaces up makes it impossible to access them later if the need for repair should arise. If moisture should get trapped in there it might cause mischief later on. On my boat only a small space at the bottom of the engine well was foamed in between two plywood skins. I cut several 1" holes in the top skin to pour it in and let the excess foam out. These ' foam mushrooms' were later cut off. All the other flotation on my boat is sealed but accessible ( for inspection) by screw type hatches. Klaus

Brent, I'm also interested how you rig the clew of your staysail (could not see it in the pic). On my NIS26 the clew block snaps to a special outhaul that runs the length of the mizzen boom, to get the block out to the end of the mizzen boom. The tack attaches to a fitting on the cabin house, about 2' back from the mainmast base. And Travis, there's no way I can see to tack a staysail . I have to drop it completely, unhook the staysail tack & clew, tack the boat and re - hoist it . If anybody knows a better way I'd be very interested :wink: Klaus

Michael, copper wire is way too soft and it conducts too well for hot wire cutting. if you can't get hold of NiChrome wire ( as used in heating elements) try ss wire. Ideally, you should have some means to control the voltage and hence the heat of the wire. Klaus

Nice pictures Rob, but where are the sails? I thought you were out sailing :wink: so, how about it, show us what she looks like under sail. Klaus (in Perth - WA)

What kind of paint? Easy! just use a good quality two pack paint. Anything else is not hard enough for use on a foil and its a waste of paint & effort to put on something like single pack paint - it just rubs off. my 2 cents :wink: Klaus

Mention was made above of adding graphide powder to ALL epoxy. I would say it's perhaps better to use just plain epoxy for the first wetting out of the glass cloth. If there was graphite powder mixed in at this early stage it would be very difficult to see if all the glass fibres were thoroughly wetted out. With plain epoxy, the fibres become translucent when fully wetted out and its easy to spot the dry areas where the remained white. Regarding the glassing process, I have always glassed my foils in one go on both sides. For that one needs a little jig that holds the blade between sharpened screw points horizontally to the table top. The jig should place the screw tips high enough above the working surface so that the board can completely rotate on the screw tips. Why screws and not nails? Screws can be fixed through a hole in the jig and adjusted for the right distance, then locked in place with a nut or two. I had first drilled shallow holes on the top and bottom side of the foil for the tips to bite into. These were filled after the board was finished. For the glass cloth I found that either getting a bias weave (the fibres run diagonally) or cutting the cloth on the bias (possible for smaller foils) it will drape much easier and smoother around the foil. I leave the cloth to extend past the trailing edge by at least 1 inch and clip both sides together with plastic cloth pegs to prevent slipping while applying the resin. Letting the epoxy cure with the foil suspended leading edge up allows one to eliminate any runs easily. After curing the glass cloth is trimmed to about 1/16" past the trailing edge, to give a glass filled edge. I never tried that leading edge rope trick, which sounds interesting, but have always had a shaped hardwood stave at that location instead. If one is worried that frequent dragging on the bottom would wear the glass layer through to the wood core and, thence, water can ingress it, try the following: Before any glassing takes place cut off a section from the bottom edge and epoxy it back on. This provides an epoxy layer, stopping any water wicking up past it. The cut is made a little higher on the leading edge, so from a side view it looks like a wedge. Good luck. Graphite powder filled epoxy makes for a very slick surface but at the expense of it being hell (and messy) to sand smooth :wink: Klaus

I should add that there is no centre skeg at all on my dinghy. Klaus

Steve, I will soon know if the alu strips, fastened with countersunk ss screws will do the trick. The idea is they get bashed up first when dragging the dinghy up the beach. My Cameleon dinghy is designed to have twin skegs on the aft section. They start about halfway along the aft section and increase to about 2 1/2" heigth. They are spaced about 16 - 18 " apart. Twin aft skegs keep the dinghy upright on the hard, they seem to help it track in a straight line very well while towing or rowing. Even for sailing, for those last few feet to the beach when the board has to be raised. Klaus

Garry, the CB plug that popped out and provided the spectacular water fountain was closing up the slot at the bottom. I made it very light, from western red cedar wood and it was just a frame of about 1x1" pieces with no centre at all. There was a cap board of 4mm plywood that was held by a thin shock cord, cleated in a clam type cleat. It was the cleat that let go of the shock cord, resulting in an easy water pressure push to expel the plug out through the top CB opening. I now have a much more secure retaining method with two different cords holding the plug down. The plug is also much heavier but, alas had jammed up with sand. It now has two shallow grooves routed all round the bottom part in the hope to trap the sand there and not at the tight fitting places. I will see on my forthcoming cruise how successfull that idea was :wink: I have also fitted alu half round strips at the keel line and on the two skegs as my dinghy had suffered epoxy abrasion by being dragged on the sand. After rowing 100m against a 20 knot breeze to the beach, one has little incentive to carefully lift the dinghy Klaus

Garry, the CB plug that popped out and provided the spectacular water fountain was closing up the slot at the bottom. I made it very light, from western red cedar wood and it was just a frame of about 1x1" pieces with no centre at all. There was a cap board of 4mm plywood that was held by a thin shock cord, cleated in a clam type cleat. It was the cleat that let go of the shock cord, resulting in an easy water pressure push to expel the plug out through the top CB opening. I now have a much more secure retaining method with two different cords holding the plug down. The plug is also much heavier but, alas had jammed up with sand. It now has two shallow grooves routed all round the bottom part in the hope to trap the sand there and not at the tight fitting places. I will see on my forthcoming cruise how successfull that idea was :wink: I have also fitted alu half round strips at the keel line and on the two skegs as my dinghy had suffered epoxy abrasion by being dragged on the sand. After rowing 100m against a 20 knot breeze to the beach, one has little incentive to carefully lift the dinghy Klaus

Steve, you are probably right, the CB plug does not have to close off all of the slot. Its just the way my mind works, it does not look right with just a cap, even if only the fish will notice it :wink: . Klaus

Just spotted your drawing which makes the design crystal clear to my muddled mind. I also notice that you use two of these 'hooks'. Is that really necessary? I would imagine a single 'hook' at the centreline would be easier to 'engage' and it would certainly be strong enough as there is no load on it once afloat as a whole dinghy. Klaus

Hi Garry, this design looks neat, do you have a pic of the two parts on their own? How does sand affect the un-nesting of your idea? What I find annoying with the mortise type lock on my dinghy is that any sand that gets into it makes it rather difficult to un- nest. On a cruise I never disassemble the dinghy, it gets towed complete. There's no room for it on the fore deck anyway. and, at 10' its big enough not to worry about flipping in the conditions I sail in. So, after a few beach landings the sand gets in the join, it also gets into the dummy CB plug, it jams things solid and makes the removing of it a very trying job. If you can convince me that your idea is 'sand proof' I might copy it next time my nester gets an overhaul. Klaus

Yes, there is a time when enough is enough with regard to fairing and sanding. It all depends how fussy you are :wink: . In my case this was after 3 weeks of longboarding and fairing a 26' sharpie hull :shock: . But, then I'm rather fussy with the appearance of my boat . If I had to do it again I'd be able to complete that same job in half the time by just applying the fairing and sanding tricks I've learned since . If you want a high gloss finish you *really* need a perfect prepared surface as even the slightest dimple and flaw will show from close up. But, from dockside to boat observation distance, minor imperfections might not be so obvious. From shore to anchored boat distance its just the colour that matters, never mind the brush strokes :wink: . Its your boat, have fun 8) Klaus

Hi Garry, nice pictures of your nester's progress. The method you used of sawing full size dinghy in half seems to be easier than the one my nester employed, where the sheets were screwed together with temporary butt blocks. It did make it possible to build a 10' dinghy out of 8' ply sheets without scarfing but it was a pain of a method to make stiff connections and yet bend fair during the stitching stage. What I am curious about is how the forward half is supported inside the aft half during transport, while nested. I did have problems of the rail rubbing, as would happen with yours if it is just supported there. I ended up fitting cleats in the bottom half to keep the half shells from rubbing agains each other at the gunnel. The other problem I found was the placement of the oar locks, the ideal place was where the nested hull made it impossible to place them, since it would not nest properly then. keep at it and have fun, Klaus, down under