JeffM

Joe, you're asking a lot for a little dingy to carry 500lb. You'd need to displace at least 8 cu ft of water. For the ideal shape for displacing the most water with the least draft--that is, a flat bottomed box--and keeping the draft to, say, 6", the boat would have to have a bottom surface area of 16 sq ft. (And a flat bottomed box wouldn't tow, row or motor too well, either!) Even my 11' pram would, I think, be past its capacity with that load. Gotta see how it tows, though...

I'd imagined beaching my cs20 routinely, but found that either the pounding it took in breaking waves or the risk of grounding as the tide went out forced me to anchor more often than beach. For a short stay, I try to anchor in as little water as possible so I don't have much wading to do. For a while I considered putting a little two-paw on the foredeck, but decided it would be a logistical nightmare even if I could get it to fit. Now I have an inflatable kayak. I carried it on my last cruise (stuffed under the starboard bunk beside the cb), but never needed it. It's a good little boat for me and my (100#) son; I don't know how easy or difficult it is to enter and exit from the larger boat. My desire for a lighter (cartop), really beachable boat with a good capacity has me hard at work on a Michalak Piccup Pram. But at 12' long and 4.5' beam, its too big to tow efficiently. A proper (Birder 2) kayak is also in the works--I expect it would tow very nicely!

As always, I second the thanks. Garry, I love your article--an unusual blend of science (like the bit about getting energy from the interface between air and water) and very affecting poetry.

Dave, I assume you aren't thinking of moving the mast aft. Seems to me someone on the forums has talked about modifying the bowsprit and whatnot with the idea of carrying a second headsail. Try posting this on the main forum.

Credit where due! That's a beautiful boat, Peter! The deck positively glows. I see you put the hatches in the sides of the seat lockers. How do you like them?

Scott, that's a good-looking rig on a nifty little boat. David Nichols (The Working Guide to Traditional Small Boat Sails) cites evidence that it very close-winded, as well as handy. Off the wind the sprit needs to be prevented from twisting forward, though that's easily done. Was it hard to get the sheeting angle right on different points of sail? I wonder how hard it would be be to draw a reasonable spritsail for the Piccup that would keep the ce over the leeboard, and still have good sheeting angles that would keep the sheet forward of the transom? I've thought it might be possible to mess with the balance lug on the water if I had a drift anchor that would keep the boat head to wind while I raised the sail, reefed it, or dropped it. I've become rather spoiled by the cat ketch rig I now sail: at any moment, in just about any wind, I can head up, sheet the mizzen in hard and loose the main, and the boat will just sit there bobbing like a duck (drifting downwind, of course) while I mess about with reefing, check the chart, or use the head.

Well, let me tell you... I was one of the "I'm building a boat because I want to get back on the water" group. Now I have my Core Sound 20 and have been all over Narragansett Bay with her in the last two seasons. But I've probably spent even more time tweaking and improving and experimenting than actually sailing. And to make matters worse, I now have Birder 2 kayak parts laid out in my garage, and a Piccup Pram a little behind that. Me, an addict? Nah, I can quit whenever I want!

I took Charlie's advice and epoxied all panels while flat (2-3 coats, if I remember). I had a devil of a time pulling the bow together, finding inovative ways to get more and more mechanical advantage both to draw the bottom up to the forward bulkhead, and to pull the bow in so I could wire it. I've always suspected that the epoxy made that job so difficult, but I can't say for sure because I have no other experience to compare with.

Hawk?

Your PC sounds like a wonderful boat. I'm going to get aquainted with a new rig soon, myself: I just received plans for Jim Michalak's piccup pram, which has a balanced lug as its standard rig. Seems he uses his own piccup for testing various rigs, and has managed to do it all without moving the mast (though that would be fairly easy to do). After a bit of polling, I expect to buy a proper lug sail from Duckworks. Like your gaff, it reefs well without much change in the center of effort.

Good deal! Your friend gets a boat, and you get to do only the fun part!

Thanks, Scott. Sounds like your PC rudder is simply a good, effective one--balanced or not. Regarding rocker, I was thinking "all other things (including waterline length) being equal." Your description of a highly rockered hull riding over waves brings to mind an image of a rocking horse! I wonder if that's all there is to it.

I'd like to know, also. The biaxial should be nearly twice as strong as straight tape of the same weight, since every fiber crosses the joint.

Good on ya', Frank! I am a long-time devotee of public radio, where nearly everyone is polite to a fault. But it's hard, even on a listener call-in show, to hold anything like a real conversation. I might just have to register even if I mainly lurk!

God loves a cheerful heretic! But may I ask why you want a slab-sided cb and rudder?

Welcome aboard! From a sea kayak to a 26ft cruiser, eh? Wow! (I shouldn't talk--having myself ignored others' advice to start small!) It'll be good to enlarge the little P26 fleet.

Many thanks, Paul! That was a clear and precise explanation. Two further questions occur to me when I read your post. First, my understanding of a balanced rudder is that it makes it easier on the muscles, but that should have no effect on weather helm. If you have to take a significant fraction of the boat's lateral plane on the rudder (Bolger's Cartopper, for example, has a cb set far forward in order to clear more of the cockpit), you simply need more rudder in the water and a good foil shape so it doesn't stall readily. (And an end plate on a rudder would have the effect of increasing its effective size.) Not true? Second, what is the point of rocker? Flat-bottomed designs tend to have a lot of rocker so that the boat meets the water with her bottom rather than stem. You mentioned that good rocker keeps the pram's bow transom from plowing. What little I've learned of design suggests that "easy buttocks" reduces drag and therefore increases speed. From this I gather that the more the rocker, the greater the drag. Aficionados of the Weekender have commented that their deep forefoot aids in lateral plane. Have I got it basically right?

That's beautiful work, Jan, and very artfully designed. Can you get into that opening to work in there? I've had to get head and shoulders into mine many times to mess with gudgeons, add backing blocks for cleats, etc.

Thanks, Paul! I can't believe that this is still a matter of art, rather than science. Given a clear set of priorities--in my case, good carrying capacity in a car-toppable package, self-rescuable, uncluttered cockpit, able sailor in bumpy bay waters, cruising rather than racing speed--it must be possible to draw a design that would perform reasonably well and predictably. So what, exactly, are the "bad manners under certain conditions" of a beamy hull with enough sail to move her along? And exactly what causes these bad manners? Is it the asymmetry of the hull's wetted surface when heeled?

Thanks, Ray. You're the second person on this forum who has had something nice to say about a Bolger design. I'd thought about the Elegant Punt for other applications, but I want to sail. (Actually, I want to do a lot of things!) Scott, it is true that it's hard to get capacity from a boat still light enough to car-top. It seems to me that you displace the most water with the lightest boat if the boat is basically a square box (even a little better still if its round) --that argues in favor of a punt. Your point about it being easier to car-top a long boat is well-taken, though. And I, also, admired that clever telescoping roof rack. Thanks for your input. I've just bought the plans for Michalak's Piccup Pram, which is 11" long with a beam of 4'6", multichine, and weighs in at around 100lb. Besides good capacity, the design boasts fore and aft flotation/storage lockers, and a cockpit long and wide enough (thanks to the leeboard) to sleep one person. (As I said, I want to do a lot of things!) It's meant to be equipped with Michalak's favorite rig: a balanced lugsail. Sailing it will be a new experience.

I've been looking hard at boat designs again. (Yes, I know, I'm about to start a couple of birders. One can't look too far ahead, though!) I'd considered a Bolger Teal because it would be completely different from my cs20, small enough to car-top, and a quick and cheap build so I wouldn't feel too bad if I didn't like it. I talked myself out of it on the grounds that it would have too little capacity (as a small, narrow double-ender) to be good for much. (Also, double-enders are hard to get up on a car roof.) This got me to thinking about length vs. capacity: the boat would have to be moderately short and light enough to put on a roof rack, but had to carry me and one other person (or maybe me and two kids). To me, that translates into beam, and/or a pram shape with a bow transom. And that, in turn, got me to wondering why so many of the designs I've looked at feature fairly narrow hulls. It seems to me that you get the most bang for your buck with something like a pram or a broad catboat style hull. With that shape comes capacity, roominess, and the stability to carry enough sail to overcome the cat's resistance. The only drawback I know of is that a good angle of heel changes the underwater in such a way as to make weather helm severe. Learned opinions, anyone? How about the pram shape?

Yes, I tabbed between the wires, let it set pretty hard, pulled the wires, then completed the fillets. It doesn't involve any thumb-twiddling wasted days, since I would be tabbing today's stretch of seam, and then pulling wires and filleting yesterday's stretch. I was advised that I could fillet over the wires, then use heat to melt the wires loose, but I found it easier to tab instead. Any wires that got a bit of epoxy on them could be pulled with a little extra leverage.

I expect that its the metal that might do more swelling and shrinking. Either way it sounds like an unnecessary risk, given how easy it is to remove them.

Peter, your folding schooner looks like a whale of a lot of fun! I like her name, too. Am I right that you have sleeve luff sails raised by halyards?

Would heavy wooden masts affect the boat's stability? A few pounds on deck may not seem like much, but those masts are very long lever arms. By the way, that's a pretty mast section you have there! I gather the teardrop cross-section is mean to be aerodynamic when sailing to weather. I'm curious about the section of pipe or tubing in the aft part--what is it for?