Andrew_Butchart

You might want to look at a folding boat instead of an inflatable - http://www.porta-bote.com makes one.

Mike - I've got pictures of my Weekender that I can send you - how can I get them to you?

I know of a number of MiniCups built with wooden spars. The mast is actually pretty short - it's the gaff that is the long one. Depending on how you want to balance looks vs ease and getting out on the water, there's no reason why you need round spars for the gaff and boom. I'd suggest rounding off at least the base of the mast so that it will rotate in the mast box. I believe the instructions also suggest you could use PVC pipe if you stiffen it by shoving in some wood to stiffen it. Just sayin ....

Try an industrial metal place and make sure you call it tube, not pipe. 11 years ago when I built mine it was $2.63/ft plus another $2.00 for them to cut it to length. I bought it from a branch of these guys: http://www.metalsupe...INUM/TUBE_ROUND

For instructions on proper handling of rum and rum corks - I strongly recommend Farley Mowat's book - "The Boat that wouldn't float" - http://www.amazon.com/Boat-Who-Wouldnt-Float/dp/055327788X

While you're there, you may want to consider installing a cockpit drain. Mine is made from a couple of pieces of galvanized pipe run through the keel and glued into place. For a drain plug I use the cork from an empty rum bottle when sailing. With the drain at the transom I can still get a few inches of water in the cockpit as it pools at the front of the cockpit when the boat's on the trailer. Putting the drain at the front of the cockpit might be a better option. I also get some water that will sit on the seats. Last winter I invested in a good heavy-duty tarp and had hardly any water in the spring.

The "plan" that I have is to use a pair of 6 volt lantern batteries wired together for 12 volts to power the nav lights etc. I have this in place with the batteries mounted in a small box in the forepeak and it works quite well for me and was dead cheap. For potential future electric motor I've run 6 gauge wire from the forepeak to the transom (reclaimed battery booster cable). I'll put an appropriate battery in the forepeak for this and use a relay kept in the transom that I'll activate using the smaller batteries and a switch to turn it on and off. I still have to save up the money for the motor yet and in the mean-time I use oars and hope for a calm day or the wind to blow in the right direction.

I used "tarp tape" - which is different than duct tape to put an "X" on both sides of the tarp when I was going to install a reef point. I then hammered a grommet in the middle of the X. Seems strong to me but I haven't used it too much.

Hurray! My request got played - he picked a Pirate Jenny song that I hadn't heard before but fit the spirit of the request well. I haven't listened to the whole show but he's keeping mostly with the "pirate Christmas" theme if you want to get into that sort of spirit - I got a bottle of rum as a Christmas present that should help me out with that. The show's available off his website or from ITunes

We all enjoy boats and I'm sure many of us enjoy music. Quite some time ago, I discovered the weekly online/podcast of Bilgemunky Radio - http://www.bilgemunky.com/ (show link is on the right under http://www.bilgemunky.com/radio/ Every Monday evening (US time) he hosts a 2 hour show dedicated to "pirate" music. The criteria he has usually requires some reference to boats, booze, or wenches and he has to permission from the copyright holder to broadcast (read on the site if you care). Some of the music is quite horrible (to me), but there are quite a few gems in the mix too (to me). He also does reviews of books, "pirate gatherings", and of course Rum. I download it every week and listen to it while I drive. Why am I sharing this? Well, in part because he's a small business that has a product we boat-builders might be interested in and would be happy to have more listeners. The other reason is that I'm trying to get a request played so if I get him more listeners, he might be more inclined to doing it without me sending a hefty bribe (which he accepts).

My wife tells guests when they use the upstairs bath to be cautious of my collection of "knotty books" 8-). My well thumbed copy of Ashley's Book of Knots has been my friend for many years. Vince - a nice little pamphlet. I find Turks Heads to be a bit challenging for myself but I still think of myself as very much a novice in this. Wall and Crown knots are nice decorative ends that are easy to tie and you might want to consider including them. I have a few personal favourites that aren't in yours such as the bloodknot - mostly because of the "magic trick" way it seems to come together and it makes a dandy cat toy. I also have my own variations of some of these. For my Monkeys Fist I first tie Ashley's "Oysterman's Knot" in the end of the line and use that as the core. That way I only have a single line leading out from the finished knot. I actually almost always use the Oysterman's Knot instead of a figure 8 these days because it's a much bulkier stopper knot. It's a shame it's not more well-known.

For the last few years I've been dressing up myself and my Weekender for Halloween. I had a great time as did the kids who came by for some of my "treasure".

DAMN! My daughter's boyfriend is serving on an aircraft carrier ..... I'd better put a stop to that pronto!

A lot of people will install fairleads on the deck for the jib sheet. Personally, I like having my blocks attached to my turnbuckles - less holes in the deck. If you have a thimble on the shrouds though, you should be able to put a quick-link or shackle there and just move your blocks up.

I noticed you put the chine logs on before you bent the sides. I've always done it the other way - which is a bit of a pain. Do you find that method works well for you or do you hear ominous cracking sounds?

In those conditions given a choice I do what my sailing instructor called a "chicken gybe". In other words, round up into the wind, tack, and then come off on the other side. On a good day it doesn't take much sea-room and it's certainly safer in stronger winds.

I put reef points on my tarp sail about 2 feet up from the bottom. I put an "X" of tarp tape on each side of the sail and hammered a grommet into the middle. Short pieces of 1/4" line are sticking out of each with knots to hold them in place. Seemed to work OK for me - but I'm not too fussy about appearances.

I had similar issues myself. - For the gaff chewing up the mast, I cut out the inside portion of the gaff jaws, rounding those instead of the mast. To check it, I held the gaff to the thickest part of my mast lifted at an angle as if the sail was up. As I rotated it around, I was able to see how much material to remove - it was a surprisingly large amount - I almost made new jaws. - I was told by Peter Stevenson, to let the jib out to tack and then pull it back in aftwards. Seemed to work for me when I had my boat out for it's second and most recent launch. - My halyards were a pain to get right. I ended up moving one of the blocks for the peak halyard down to be with the throat halyard. Since I run the halyards down the shrouds I also had to look carefully to make sure that the block were pointed in the right direction and to get things to finally go right I ended up decreasing the size of the line for the halyards so that they wouldn't bind in the blocks themselves. - I suspect you do have "real" turbuckles. Pay no mind to people who believe that everything has to be bought at a "boat" store. Much of my hardware came from the farm supply store which sells things to people who don't have a lot of money but need reliable equipment. To lock my turnbuckles, I added a nut and lock washer to one side. After I set the turnbuckles (and when they're loose for trailering) I tighten the nut up snug and they stay put. I also used 2 cable clamps at each connection not 1. - I did my own "spring" blocks by going to an industrial supply shop and getting some compression springs that fit over the eye-bolts. I have a large washer on the bottom to protect the deck and a pipe cap on the top that the block sits through. Good luck on your next adventure. I hope this helped.

Looks like you had a lot of fun. I'm amazed you had 2 full sized guys in the cockpit of that tiny boat.

I agree - a topping lift is a requirement on these boats. One thing I've also done with all of my lines - sheets and halyards is to tie a figure 8 knot in them at the point where they have gone out as far as they every should. I've had the mainsheet and halyards unreve themselves at ackward moments before I learned to do that.

Sounds like you're missing an "adventure" like the one I had on my maiden launch last year. http://byyb.org/forum/index.php?topic=2371.0

I have a turnbuckle on my forestay - in part because I'm too fat and lazy to haul it forward under tension and it works well for me. I added a nut and lock washer to one side of all of my turnbuckles so that I can lock them in place after tensioning them. When I built my mast, I built the top and bottom parts separately (really bad idea). I ended up using body filler to get a tight fit between the two sections.

You can also adjust the angle of the mast with the forestay tension too.

Congrats on the launch! It can be a big and rather nerve-wracking day. I've only managed to launch once last year and have finally done all the mods and repairs that came out of that - http://www.messing-about.com/forums/index.php?topic=6901.msg60413#msg60413. I'm now waiting for an "almost perfect" day to relaunch. Being paranoid, I carry spares of the things that can fall overboard including the mast pin. In fact, I recently finished a spare rudder that I've tossed into the cabin against the inevitable time that I back up with the rudder down. As far as raising the mast on the water goes, that would require an adventurous sprit and a fair amount of agility. Also, spare shackles (or tie a string to them) for the ones that you'll lose overboard. At a dock, I can see it being do-able but run up on a beach or sand-bank might be better. The boat would be more steady while you're standing on the cabin and you'll have a better chance of being able to find anything you drop.

I used American Elm (sometimes called piss elm) to make some "Butler" jam cleats for my pirogue. They worked well but are a bit bulky. I have 2 giant slabs of it still - might make a bench. The heart-wood rots easily but the sap-wood is quite rot resistant and has the interlocking grain you want for a cleat but hate for firewood. I found the designs on Criag O'Donnel's "Cheap Pages" - http://www.thecheappages.com/boat/matl/cleats.html