JeffM

Thanks for all the experiences, ideas and links! I may try making some cheap (but solid) oars about 10' long, and find out how much of my problem was technique, and how much was my flimsy oars. I sometimes need to have a tent up at anchor, so I'll try leaving some board and rudder down to steady the motion. As far as all the privacy ideas, the shelters look good for shore, but I'll need to work something else out afloat. (Duckworks also has a good-looking one.)

Scott, from the numbers you just gave, I expect you were planing! Hull speed can't be more than about five-and-a-half kt, and, considering the current, I have you doing about 7kt through the water! As far as the sanity thing, it seems to go with the territory. When we were courting, I took my wife out for an invigorating ride on a Sunfish in a good breeze. Only later she confessed she'd been convinced we were totally at the mercy of wind and waves. As we planed along I sat cross-legged on the aft corner and yipped with delight--only reinforcing her opinion of my mental state. She was sure we'd only survive by blind luck--until I had to maneuver smartly to retrieve a dropped bailer. Scott, when you've had time to do a little overnighting, I'm going to ask you to report on JenJor Renea's abilities as a cruiser. I'm thinking I might want a cabin boat someday.

I've given this some thought as an important safety issue in the case of falling overboard or capsizing. I have a strong handle bolted to my aft deck, and I have both the boarding step and rope boarding ladder from Duckworks. I find the step (which I have mounted about as low on the transom as I can get it) is too high up for me to get a foot on. The rope ladder, on the other hand, simply goes under the hull when I put a foot on it. While anchored during my recent cruise, I had to go aboard at high tide to prepare for a possible storm. The water--once knee-deep-- had become chest deep. I managed to get a knee on the boarding step, then sort of flexed myself gradually onto the aft deck--an ordeal that left the fronts of my thighs a mass of bruises. I'm now looking into something like this, http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/06/columns/rob/index5.htm, but I know it would uglify my transom something terrible. Certainly some kind of low and rigid ladder or step is the only way for me to go.

Terry, what have you got for oars, and what length are they? One of my problems may have been that my homemade oars were too floppy--made of ply blades screwed into extendable paint roller poles. (The idea was to have oars short enough to stow easily, then extend them to 10 feet or so for use.) These flexed a lot with every stroke. I finally broke one when the protruding blade caught between the oarlock and a jetty as I hit. I need to decide what to replace them with. Eventually I might have to spring for a motor, but that will mean I have to register the boat (not a requirement for unpowered boats in Mass.) Anyway, I figure I'll learn how to handle the boat better if starting the "iron jenny" isn't an option.

Joe, at anchor I'm thinking of leaving a little cb and rudder down. I can't see leaving the mizzen up flapping in the breeze. Also, I move the mizzen to make room for the tent. I hear you on rowing, though: I keep some cb down to steer around. I had the hardest time simply getting the boat moving. Isearle, that's good advice for my all-boy crew, but I'm pretty sure Beatrice won't buy it.

Thanks, Charlie. After an hour in pouring rain and then a storm scare, I was afraid they'd decide they'd had enough of cruising. But they seem to remember mainly the good parts!

My recent cruising has left me with a few questions to share. While anchored in a well-protected harbor, the boat slewed from side to side almost constantly. The motion was very noticeable. We had a boom tent up, and the cb and rudder were both fully up. What's the best way to lessen this motion? What experience have you had going to windward with the mizzen in the reefing step? I noticed that the big distance the sheets had to go from sprit to thwart required a lot of tension to trim the sail in much. I haven't gotten around to trying the main in the reefing step yet. I have no motor, so use the oars in some close-quarters and upwind landing situations. I'm finding the boat to be a beast to row, but I also have no other experience rowing. Any pointers? Finally, has anyone come up with a workable way to avoid making a public spectacle when using the head? It's especially hard when the crew are not all very good friends!

Welcome to Messing About, Chris! Good luck!

A forecast north wind provided an excuse to do something I only dreamed about when I was a teenage Sunfish skipper on upper Narragansett Bay, RI: to sail across the 8 nautical miles of open water between Point Judith and Block Island. A 5-10kt north wind would enable me to make Block Island on one tack, shortening the trip and simplifying navigation. The following days would see the more usual southerly 5-10kt winds, making the return trip just as easy. I and my two younger boys, 9-yr-old Trevor and 6-yr-old Stephen would make a nice size crew for overnighting aboard. I raced to get the boat provisioned and ready, working into the wee hours on Wednesday (departure day). Then we left at 6:30am for the 2+ hours of trailering to Narragansett to a rare ocean launch ramp I

How did it go, Laura? Did you take any pictures? Everyone will want to see your new boat!

Dewey, I sail my Core Sound 20 in Narragansett Bay. What are you building? Maybe we'll see you out there someday! Jeff

Garry, I took advantage of your link to have a look at your Spindrift--nifty innovations! I did a double-take when I saw your amidship storage, and had to go back to see how you had connected your halves. Very cool. I'm thinking maybe Spindrift 10N or 11N for my next build. I wonder if you could have made those lockers and still bolted the halves the original way? I suppose you'd have to open the hatches and get your hands in there and do it partly by touch.

John, is yours a Bolger Micro? Speak of the devil! I brought up that design (though not by name) on the "hull speed and waterline length" thread in the Design forum. How does she sail?

Thanks, Paul. That's easily the nicest thing said about Bolger in my hearing. I don't know much more about boat design than I learned from Graham and from Ted Brewer, but I find many of Bolger's "Boats with an Open Mind" to be refreshingly weird. With all the designs he has in the water, I figure he has to be pretty good. And the world would be a less interesting place if all boats looked like, well, boats!

A four day trip and that's all you've got to say? Details, man! I've now tried reefing both around the masts, and by moving mizzen to the third step. With the mast stepper, doing the moving on the water was not hard, but I was at least anchored! I can't seem to get good sail shape reefing around the mast, but I'd like to keep it as an option, since its quicker to reef, and shake out. I'm wondering if there's a simple fix for sail shape; maybe throw a sweatshirt into the middle of the sail as I wrap, to take up the slack in the belly.

On the bright side, it fell apart ashore!

Just curious: I'm familiar with the idea that a longer waterline gives you a higher displacement hull speed because it allows the hull to span the more widely-spaced waves generated by a faster-moving hull. But it seems to me that relating waterline length to hull speed this way is an oversimplification: doesn't the effectiveness of the waterline length depend on the bouyancy of the ends of the hull? For example, could a hull with a very narrow bow with little floatation really go as fast as a hull with a more bouyant bow? To take a more extreme example, the Bolger Micro has a waterline length of (I think) 15 feet, but its watertight envelope is only about 9 feet long since bow and stern are just free-flooding anchor and motor wells. Anybody know much about this?

Here's a useful number: the length of my mainsail luff is about 19'2". (Unfortunately my main is not on the mast right now, which would give a more accurate measure.) My step is over 24" deep and the end of the sleeve comes to about 41" from butt end of the mast, but my step and mast are a little different from spec. I wouldn't scant the length of mast in the step: the mizzen has a shallower step, but is also a smaller sail.

Hard for me to imagine all the work you've put in to get her sailing just right -- and then putting her on the market. That Montgomery 17 must be a very special boat. That fixed keel/cb arrangement I expect means the cabin is more spacious, but I suppose your days of beaching to go camping are over.

Try thinking of the cockpit (or cabin) as a contained play space...

Nice work! This is an intriguing design. I'll be interested to hear how it sails and how it works as a microcruiser.

I always did like firm buttocks! -huh? Were you calling me? No, of course I'm not in a chat room! It's all about boats OK OK I'll get off the computer

Beauty! Am I imagining it, Joe, or did you do all this practically overnight? Also, is she a centerboarder?

So pretty! It really shines in that last picture -- having no peer.

Nice idea, Frank. But how bout I just keep my boat in my "signature"?