JeffM

Beautiful workmanship! Jim, how bout a sailing report? I'm trying to find something in this nifty design I DON'T like.

Um...I'm still puzzling over the concept of a yacht and tractor club. I suppose a tractor might win if the course were shallow enough... and a keel boat would make a pretty good furrow if pulled behind a tractor... Hmmm....

Great! Just remember the old adage: check the plans three times, measure twice, and cut once! I'm guessing you've only had the plans for a week or so.

Seawater weighs about 65lb per cubic foot, so anything that displaces 1 cubic foot of water will produce 65lb of buoyancy. That comes to 26 cubic inches to produce 1lb of buoyancy. Do the lengthXwidthXthickness thing to get a good idea how much you have. However, your foam under the foredeck won't produce any buoyancy until it displaces water--I'm betting you don't want the deck awash like that, so your foam needs to go lower in the hull (but high enough to provide a little righting force) , balanced fore and aft, etc, so you could reasonably float high and level enough to bail yourself out of trouble. Keep in mind that the foam isn't weightless, so it must float itself as well as boat and crew. I suppose it wouldn't take much foam to simply keep the boat from sinking. But if the water's not warm, you want the boat to have enough buoyancy to allow the crew to get out of the water. I would think covering your foam would be a mistake for the very reason you give: if it deteriorates, you'll want access to it. Anyway, sealing up any compartment permanently risks hidden rot.

Re: stove safety. I bring a Coleman two-burner dual-fuel stove on my trips. Worried about getting a lap-full of boiling water some day, I cut and bent some pieces of flat aluminum and screwed them with wingnuts to the sides of the stove. A separate fitting clamps to the grate between the burners. Theyre custom-fit to my tea kettle and saucepan, and keep them in place fairly well. (As an added precaution, I generally cook with the stove on the cockpit floor to minimize spill range.) They come undone pretty quickly so the stove will close for storage. To be fair, I haven't amidst big boat wakes, though I have made tea underway.

Steve, does this boat have a full keel, rather than the shoal keel/cb in your drawings? Looks like a full, solid keel in the photos.

I immobilized one of the joints by simply screwing a couple of plates across it. It's a bit crooked now, but much more stable. One problem that might be unique to me is the proportions of my triangle: the lifting rack is 8' long, but it hooks to roof rack crossbeams that are only 3 1/2' apart (the minivan has a short rack). It works ok--much better than the methods I'd already tried--but the boat is pretty tippy on such a narrow triangle. If I didn't have the center of gravity centered right, the boat could easily go one way or the other while lifting. For insurance, I've been tying the upper gunwhale to the rack while lifting.

Started putting together a quick-and-dirty version of Gary's last design. After I had the leg and rack hinged to the 3-piece pivot block and hooks and eyes in the ends, I set the thing up to test the geometry and got a nasty surprise: the end of the rack can swing back and forth by almost 6" while the pivot block wiggles on its hinges. Gary might not have encountered this with his larger vehicle, but my roof rack is a rather short one, making the triangle it forms with the lifting legs a long, narrow one. The fact that the pivot block has 2 hinges parallel to each other allows this movement. I began to wonder why it needs two hinges in the first place: why not fix one lifting leg rigidly to the pivot block and let the other lifting leg do all the moving? That should reduce the wiggle considerably. I'm going to try it and see. Oh, also, I decided that using 2x3s for the lifting let and a 2x2 for the support leg would lighten the load but still be plenty strong.

Paul, this one's a keeper. (And I'm not talking about the boat.)

Duh. Belchertown! Where do you have enough water for a 20ft sailboat? Have they started allowing sailboats on the Quabbin?

Hi, Chad. I live in Brockton, MA and trailer to various ramps. The nearest ramp to me is probably in Fall River by Battleship Cove. I find it hard to plan daysails much in advance, but I'll sure keep you in mind. Where do you live now? Jeff

Quite an experience, Terry! Glad you're all alright. As Graham has often said, Howard, ALWAYS keep the mainsheet at hand. I moved the mainsheet cleats aft from their design position because I found I often had to reach behind a passenger to get access to them. Then I installed a duplicate set farther forward, so I could sit on the side decks and still reach them. Then I installed yet another on the center of the coaming forward (which I've never yet used), so at need I could lead one end of the sheet up there and keep it in my control if someone else were at the helm and I was even as far away as the fordeck. You needn't worry about the mizzen at all: the boat will be depowered and round up as soon as you let the main off. But it is true that she'll ride the waves like a duck hove-to with the main off and mizzen in tight. With enough room to lee, you could even take a nap.

A few more.

Spent Memorial Day weekend sailing the

Wow, Tim! You move your center of effort up that far, went out in 20kt winds and STILL stayed upright??? After a few sails in much less wind with a shorter rig, I reduced my rig height roughly to the design! Single-handing in 10-15 had me constantly spilling wind. Congratulations on the new boat!

Gary, one final(?) question, if I may: I would expect too much flex in supporting a 112lb boat with the lifting rack 2x4s laid flat, and am considering running them with broad sides vertical. The rack would also make a neater package this way, since the whole would be 3 2x4s laid flat against each other rather than edge-to-edge. I could maybe hinge the lifting legs and support leg by running a stout bit of rope through all three, leaving just enough slack in the rope to spread the legs in use. Or, if that rig was too insecure, I could use barn door hinges on the lifting rack as well as the support leg. Any thoughts?

Modern medicine is amazing--so are you two.

Good for you, tnzeibig! I'm impressed that your family shares the dream. Post often so we can see your thinking and progress.

Just show me where to sign on as delivery crew...

Thanks, all. I may need to trade in the rollers for better models. The bunks already have plastic covers. I have the same roller combo you do, Ray. Chip, I'll angle the rollers up some, and make sure they're taking the weight. Dale, initially I had the same worry, but never got around to doing anything about it. Even so, I've never had any trouble just using the tackle. It doesn't show any sign of strain from what I've seen. My problem is forgetting to cleat it when I beach. For that reason, I bungeed a pool float around the trailer cross-member under the cb so it won't hit the metal when I winch it up.

Gary, that is just the coolest thing! I'll have one assembled within the week. Thanks, again!

Pretty good answers from Mr Welmer, though as a trailer sailor many don't apply to me personally. But they raise another question: how do you avoid your submarine becoming a navigational hazard to everyone else, whether underway or at anchor?

I was was so impressed with Ray's account of sailing his cs20 with Graham last year, and the ease with which he got the boat on and off the trailer, that I immediately went out to fiddle with my bunk and roller heights. Well, I evidently goofed it up: launch and recovery have gotten harder instead of easier, to the point where my trailer has to be practically fully submerged to get the boat off, and it is a real chore to get it centered and cranked aboard at the end of the trip. How do you adjust he rollers and bunks for easiest use? I suspect that part of my mistake was in lowering the front ends of the bunks so that, on a shallow ramp, the boat is nearly level and doesn't want to roll. But I know that's not the main part of the story. Also, my rollers don't roll very well and are pretty chewed up. Any advice on adjustment?

Thanks again, Garry. The cleat is on the support leg and somehow holds the ends of the pivoting part together.

Interesting concept, but-- Just out of curiosity, what does one DO with a submarine yacht? Underwater sightseeing, maybe? Is there all that much to see compared to, say, scuba diving? Where I am, at least, the water isn't clear enough even for good scuba diving. Being confined below deck while underway and peering at the world through little view ports seems a poor way to tour, otherwise.