JeffM

CS20#65 is now rather graceful, but completely flat, slabs of plywood on my garage floor. But that hasn't stopped me from sailing her many miles with my wife & 3 boys, anchoring to camp near shore, and so on. Which leads to a whole bunch of questions. At risk of getting WAY ahead of myself: (1) I'm thinking of eliminating the hatches on the aft deck and seats in favor of simpler access through the bulkheads (basically just holes). Any thoughts or experience out there? (2) what are the pluses and minuses of the 3 different sail attachments (sleeve, laced & track)? The sleeved look easiest, but how do you reef them? Would it matter if I wanted to use the sprits to support a tent? (3) I'd like to avoid motoring in favor of rowing. (No experience -- maybe just romaticism.) But I'd like to be able to do it without moving the mizzen. Has anyone actually tried it with oarlocks moved aft, and a removable seat, etc? Thanks, everyone! I follow nearly all your threads, whether or not I respond. This is a real community, and very inspiring!

Thanks, Scott. Graham, just back from a wedding, agrees. I was also able to straighten out with him my misunderstanding of that detail in the bow section of the sides. Progress! And I haven't made a really bone-headed mistake (that I've found yet) in an entire day! Now the bottle neck is the shipping schedule for Maine Coast Lumber (thanks, all!). I may actually have to eat, sleep, and get reaquainted with my kids while I wait for lumber so I can do the seat stringers. Jeff

I just mixed up my first batches of epoxy, and let me tell you, your work looks better and better.

Ok, finally started work. Didn't get far. Bone-headed mistake #1: cut a 3/8 ply in half before realizing that I'd need the whole thing uncut for the bottom. Now I'm faced with either butting it back together, or buying (ouch!) another. If I butt it, should it go under the stern, or amidships? Thoughts? PS: My lesson for the day: Don't mix the epoxy until EVERY little thing is ready, at hand, and in position!

OK, I took Frank's advice and tried to get lumber locally. Boulter Plywood is less than an hour away and stocks sitka spruce. But it turns out to be completely unfinished, and they have no thickness planer. I haven't even a woodworking tools. Even as I contemplated mind-numbing hours with a block plane, so itchy was I to get my hands on lumber that I was only saved by having forgotten my wallet. Once home, I came to my senses. (Sometimes stupid is smart.) Now I am taking Ray's advice, and talking to Maine Coast Lumber. They sound like reasonable folk to me. Jeff

Ray, I also hope to be stitching my CS20 in a week. My cradle has angles taken from the plan (supporting at the two bulkheads and the temp frame). Would it do to simply put blocks at the ends of each support so that only the chines are supported, and the rest of the bottom and keel hang? Jeff

You raise the windward board, which has the added benefit of placing extra weight on that side to reduce heel (the leeward board, being submerged, is approximately weightless). I expect a Core Sound would need substantial side reinforcment to accept leeboards, and maybe there'd be little gain in interior space (from loosing the CB trunk), since the center thwart is structural, and also supports the mizzenmast step.

Thanks, Tim. I have a similar instruction, though without a specific measurement. Maybe that 3/16 refers to that. I can't find any other dimensions, overall or otherwise, for working out the length past that last station.

Just a thought: Could a Core Sound 20 work with leeboards rather than the design centerboard? I'm about to begin building a CS20 now. I first became interested in cat ketch beach cruisers when I admired the Sea Pearl 21 (by Marine Concepts) I have read good things about them (performance of assymetric boards, reduced heel caused by weight of raised windward board, ease of maintenance), and seen no drawbacks except asthetics. Jeff Michals-Brown

Thanks, Scott. As to running into each other (figuratively speaking!), Narragansett Bay, RI, my teenage stomping grounds, is a wonderful place to explore. I don't know what your part of the Connecticut coast is like, but I expect to trailer about an hour to reach it -- well worth the time. Let me know when you're coming (maybe sometime in July 2006), and I'll put the coffee on (gas stove in forward cockpit). Jeff

Thanks, all! Since the plans imply it, I figure I'll cut the sides from different ply panels rather than ripping them and stacking the halves. I think I've got a local source of spruce, so I plan to go with that for most of the dimensional lumber. Graham seems to be out of town, so I'm banking on you other Core Sound builders out there: on the Hull Cutout Sheet, on the side panel drawing, the bow appears to go a few inches beyond the last station. But there's no number telling how far. Also, I don't know what the dotted line on the bow and "add 3/16" means. Is it adding that much convex curve to the bow? As soon as I get a long enough piece of small lumber (seat stringer), I want to begin work. At the moment I don't have anything I'd trust to draw the curves with. With a little luck I'll have a few sunny days for butt-joining the sides and bottom: they're long enough to poke out my garage door. I'm trying to avoid putting a shelter on to extend the garage until it begins to cool off.

Thanks for the encouragement and advice! Now, as a teacher I've always told my students that the only stupid question was the one they were afraid to ask. Of course, I was usually the one answering, not the one asking. So here goes: (1a) The sides are measured and cut ENTIRELY from 1/4 inch ply, so ONLY the bottom panels are combined 3/8 inch and 1/4 inch. Am I reading the plans right? (1b) And since the 3/8" portions of each panel only total 13'8", I need to cut one 3/8 sheet in half to supply the partial sheet for both bottom panels, right? (1c) And does it make the best sense to cut both side panels from one hunk of (butted) ply? (2) When I match my bottom panels, does it matter whether the uneven side of my 3/8-to-1/4 butt joints are inside or outside? (If it matters at all, I expect they ought to be hidden inside.) (3) For the wood technologists out there: how does the white pine we have in abundance around here compare in strength and weight to the spruce and fir Graham mentions as appropriate for most of the solid wood? For me this is partly an environmental question: one of the lumber companies I checked with mentions that their fir is "old growth" -- the cutting of old growth forest is a sin in my book. Whew! That's probably enough for now! Jeff Michals-Brown

Scott, you take great pictures! I'm going to cheat by seeing how you do each step before I try it on the CS20 I'm about to begin.

Got home last night from the family vacation. I'm proud to say I unloaded the car and got the kids into bed BEFORE I opened the envelope that had been waiting for me. I was up until the small hours puzzling over the lists, drawings and unfamiliar terms. I THINK I can handle this boat-building stuff -- with a lot of help from Graham, Carla and you all! I'll appreciate all the advice I can get -- especially from other novice boat-builders who have already recovered from the mistakes I haven't made yet! (I expect the professionals long ago learned from their mistakes and have forgotten them.) I feel like a little kid on Christmas Eve -- can't wait to get my materials and get going! My plywood arrives Friday, epoxy about the same time. Right now I'm cleaning out the garage, looking at tools, and wondering why my local home store stocks little large lumber except white pine.

Thanks to all! I was beginning to have some second thoughts after measuring my garage last night (20ft will fill it corner to corner with little or no room to walk around the ends), but your responses have helped me feel much more confident. I mailed the check this morning! Jeff

Oyster: P.S. I just discovered your helpful links right under my nose. Pete Birch's thread was right on target! I am going to order CS20 plans right now! Thanks again. Jeff

Oyster: Thanks for the advice. My trailer weight issue is really three: (1) whether our Toyota minivan can pull it easily, (2) how hard it will be manhandling it (single-handed) off and on the trailer, and (3) how hard it will be to step the masts (again, single-handed). I expect to sail it either in Narragansett Bay, RI (where I spent my teenage years adventuring in a sunfish), or around Boston Harbor and environs. --and if this boat is as seaworthy as I've read, maybe farther! My boys are now 9, 7 and 4. The older ones have been out with me a few times Cape Cod Mercury 15ft sloop with fixed keel) and liked it. They can follow directions fairly well, and have helped with the jib. The littlest I'm not willing to take yet until there're an extra pair of hands to keep him inboard. Jeff

Oyster: Thanks. I haven't found anything useful in other threads, yet. Maybe I'm not searching right. Jeff

I would like an easily-trailerable beach cruiser/camper for my family (incl 3 youngish children). Roominess and speed argue for the CS20, but it weighs nearly twice what the CS17 does. Can anyone tell me what its like to handle trailering and launching/retrieving of boats of these weights? Thanks! Jeff