Andrew_Butchart

Well - my old "Cheap Canoe" that I built in 2002 has hit the end of it's life. Water got into the plywood in 2007 causing some tree fungus to take root. I patched it (poorly) at the time and let it sit becuase I actually haven't gone canoeing in a couple of years. There's a trip planned next month so I pulled of the sheet of plastic that was covering and started repairs on the bottom. A lot of bondo later, the bottom was fine so I flipped the boat over only to find that the inside was badly delaminated as well. The boat was originally coated with (I believe) 2 coats of epoxy and then latex house paint (yes I know ....) but interestingly it really only lasted a year or so longer than my One Sheet Skiff that only had latex paint and no other water-proofing. Since the boats were stored together, they were subjected to the same environmental issues - they even had the same variety of tree fungus growing out of them. The good bit of this was that it hasn't ended up in the landfill or burned like the skiff was. Within 15 minutes of putting it at the side of the road, 1 truck slowed down to look and one stopped. The second truck took the boat and is going to use it as a flower-bed.

All the best Charlie and Laura. Thanks for all the advice over the years.

The internet's a wonderful thing some days. I did a search for Dauphin Island on Google Maps and then a search for "Metal Supermarkets" - a chain of metal suppliers. That lead me to - Cameron Ashley Industrial Metals 9310 Waring Rd Pensacola, FL 32534 (850) 479-5925 Give them a try. Aluminum tube varies widely in price and metal people speak their own special language so tube is not the same thing as pipe. I've found it's easiest to go in and talk to the guy at the counter whenever I've had to buy metal. Usually after I've explained it, and it's been discussed by the usual crowd that hangs out in such places, I end up getting what I need regardless of what I asked for - :

Konrad - if your's is a reading family - pick up a copy of Swallows and Amazons. Your boys appear to be at the exact right age for that.

There have been a few people that have had success with a wooden mast. It does create more weight aloft but the mast on a lateen is pretty short anyway. The gaff and boom might be a harder to source. Taking a quick look at the plans though I see that there is only 6' of gaff that is unsupported so you might be fine with a 2X2 of some clear wood rounded over.

Also - with regard to having the Weekender just sit on bunks. During a test run where that was the way I was set up - the boat slid around a fair bit and one of the bunks shifted.

Here you go .... For this trailer I used some angle-iron to hold a roller at mid-keel position and then ran some 2X4s as keel guides. The hull just barely kisses the bunks with the boat mainly supported on the keel (there's a lot of debate about that).

I would have done a better job doing prep before fiberglassing. There's parts of the boat that I don't want anyone to see. I also would have kept working at it more consistently. It's been a (very) long build starting in 2005 and I probably would have been launched in 2007 if I would have just spent more time on the project.

I used flat bar steel on mine and had a heck of a time putting in the countersunk holes. I wondered after the fact if I should have used cap head screws but was worried about them getting torn off. I bedded it in roofing patch compound. I was able to get a 20' length that did the entire keel from the top of the stern post to the tip of the stem. I've painted it with rust paint - which I used on the rest of the boat. Sitting on the trailer for 2 years - and it seems fine.

If you check, in the plans they have you drill a monsterous hole through the side of the keel for winching and the painter. For me - when I built the keel I embedded one of the long welded eye eyebolts that they use to attach guy wires to hydro poles (from the farm supply store). It goes right through the keel with a wing-nut in the middle (no comments please Konrad) and a nut and washer on the inside. To "waterproof" it, I filled the hole with roof patch compound. Afterwards I found that the eye was too small to hold the hook for the boat winch which I "solved" by adding in a large quicklink for heavy chain.

What about borrowing a couple of engine hoists - depending on the size of the boat you could put one at the bow, one at the stern, lift and turn. On my Weekender I installed a solidly mounted eyebolt at the stern for just such purposes.

http://home.att.net/~schmidttl/boat_yard_24.htm http://home.att.net/~schmidttl/boat_yard_25.htm http://home.att.net/~schmidttl/boat_yard_26.htm

My wife often remarks how much better off she'd be financially if I wasn't here. Fortunately for me, she's also the one that's insisting on excess floatation in the boat too. I'm not "quite" a novice having been sailing since 2002 although I didn't get out at all last year. I had my MiniCup for a few years but found it to be to agile of a boat for my agility. I've been sailing a canoe for the last couple of years (CSD pirogue) and am really looking forward to the Weekender. This will be the biggest boat for me so far, and one that I can't just drag across the beach and into the water.

Well - I'm a better engineer than I thought... I went out (I'm on my 2nd last day of vacation) to fiddle with the trailer, thinking of lowering the bunks, raising the bow roller etc. As I was working trying to decide what step to take, I discovered that the mid-ships roller was installed just forward of the centre of balance of the unloaded (without mast as well) boat. When I pulled the bow down, the hull lifted off the bunks and is sitting parallel to and just almost touching them - the perfect scenario. After all that angst, it turns out I did it right in the first place. 8) Now if only I could get over my angst about launching which is keeping me from finishing off the last half dozen or so pre-launch jobs.

Unfortunately these bunks aren't (very) adjustable - to adjust them, I have to lift the boat off and add/subtract lumber to the height. This is a 2 person operation even with my teenager's muscles involved. I think that for now I'll just put a shim piece between the bow roller and the keel - it's only about 1/2" - and that will take the weight off of the bunks.

Well - I lifted the boat off the trailer on Sunday and installed a second keel roller and keel guide. Since the vertical supports are angle iron, I covered everything with some outdoor carpet. The boat slid back on OK although now the bow is about 1/2" up from the bow roller. I also took the time to move the axle forward about 3" reducing my tongue weight from 140 to 120lbs. The sails are in progress and I'm hoping to get the taffrail on today...

Thanks for the vote of confidence Paul - it helps quite a bit. I'm going to work on the mid-ships keel roller today and attach a 2X4 to each side to act as guides. No bottom though so it won't be a "box". I'm really feeling the itch to launch and am going through my list of "that can wait" items.

Frank: Thanks for the advice. That picture is my nightmare - not so much because of the obvious problem, but the guaranteed crowd of people that would gather to helpfully explain to me how stupid they thought I was. I checked yesterday and the bunks can't be lowered. Right now the mid-ships frame is 2" away from the bottom of the keel. On a positive note, it makes it easy to install a roller there. I think because of the distortion of the tiny car beside the boat, it might seem higher up than it really is. I just measured it and the bottom of the hull is 28" above the ground. One of the reasons I went with a "V" bottomed trailer in fact was so that the boat could be as low as possible. Also my bowsprit is about 2 feet longer than spec so that might cause confusion as well. Using the picture I posted, I made some "guestimates" of how far I'd have to back in. On a 6 degree ramp, the rear wheels would be in about 3" of water with the bunks covered. If I were to try to put the entire boat in the water, Konrad is right and the water would be about 6" up on the doors. On a 10 degree ramp (which looks pretty steep), the entire tongue of the trailer is between me and the water when the bunks are awash and my muffler would just be starting to bubble in the water if I put the whole boat in (although the cockpit would be underwater if I forgot to unstrap the boat). My driveway has a slope of probably a bit more than 6 degrees and the car pulls the boat up it with no problem - barely even notices it. Fortunately I don't think it would be necessary to immerse more than the bunks to load and unload and in a pinch I could probably wet even less than that. My bow eye is extremely solid (throughbolted) and I remember how slippery a hull can get when wet. I was at the car dealer today putting 4 new tires (traction to get moving) and new front brake rotors (traction to stop) on the car so I think that part is as prepared as possible. I also think I've got figured out how I'll install some guides - right now I'm figuring on bolting a 2X4 to the roller frames on each side of the keel from mid-ships to the bow sitting just above the rollers. Having it farther back makes no sense to me as that part of the boat will be well above any guides when launching/retrieving. With the V bottom on the trailer, bolting directly to the frame wouldn't work the best and would interfere with the rollers.

I'm going to try to work on a keel box this weekend. I've got some pieces that I think I can use as a keel roller about mid-ships so the boat would rest on that and the bow roller and then I'll attach some 2X on the sides of the midships and bow roller to act as a guide. I don't know that I can lower the bunks any further. Right now the boat is sitting on the bow roller - the only thing I could possibly do would be to angle the bunks to make them lower at the stern. The two problems I see with that is that it would give the boat a tendancy to slide off which is good on the ramp, but not on the highway, and it would also have my bow sprit pointing up to the stars. If I move the boat aft that would defeat the purpose of the bow roller and I'd have to build another frame for it to rest on.

At long last I finally have a trailer (new) for my Weekender. This has been a monumental leap forward towards launch - I'm much more motivated to get done. My tiny little car seems to pull the boat/trailer with lots of power to spare and I've tried out the steepest hills I can find. As you can see in one of the pictures, the boat is sitting on the bunks. These bunks appear to possibly shift although I've tightened them down. Also, I have a concern about the stern of the boat drifting around on the highway and especially while re-loading. It's been suggested elsewhere that the weight of the boat really should be on the keel. There is a gap of about 7" between the bottom of the keel and the trailer frame at the back bracket. I can't find a stock bracket that tall. My questions are: - Should I worry about this? - Could I make a taller than standard keel roller mount using some angle-iron U-bolted to the frame or would it collapse under use? - Would pieces of wood attached to this rear roller be sufficient to act as a guide? - Should I do this at the centre frame which is roughly midships? - Should I do something completely different? Thanks

Page 20 - top right They're shown in figure 15 at the bottom right - 2" wide, 4 1/2" long.

I've signed up - unfortunately now my alter ego is no longer secret ....

Konrad! Good to see you back again. I still remember the One Sheet Skiff you and a friend tried to put a motor on. Fatherhood definately changes things. My own are 16 and 14 now.

Greg - no this is at Home Hardware. It's pre-packaged in lengths of 100ft. It "looks" like it would work but .....

Also - consider putting in a cockpit drain. I put mine into the keel while building the keel and it's nice to not have to worry about rain-water building up. There's drawings on the Stevenson web site. As usual, I didn't do things they way they suggested, but used a length of galvanized pipe http://www.floatingbear.ca/WeekenderBuildLog.htm When I (finally) launch - hopefully later this summer, I'm also planning on taking the plug out in safe conditions and see how low the boat will go giving me an idea as to whether it would be a good idea to remove the plug if the boat gets swamped.