Andrew_Butchart

Jim: As usual, your craftsmanship puts us wood butchers all to shame. Great job!

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. The important thing is that you're safe and among us still. Anything beyond that is a bonus. Good luck with everything else.

Very clever. One suggestion - putting outdoor carpet on the pieces will help things slide better and prevent scuffing of your paint. I did something a lot more complex with my Jeep using a trailer winch and more lumber - http://www.floatingbear.ca/MiniCupLaunches2001.htm#20010628 The rig made me look like something from the Beverly Hillbillies going down the road, but it worked. :-) For my launching dolly I used PVC pipe and actually made it more like a cart. I've found that small wheels quickly get bogged down in sand so also switched to bike wheels.

Actually I'm figuring on building another Mouse (or maybe two). They're starting to get a bit tall for the One Sheet Skiff and the smaller mice take about the same amount of materials and effort. And yes - thost are mushrooms on the boat. I had a couple on the keel strip of the Cheap Canoe as well where it had been beaten up a fair bit. I'm planning on cutting out the rotted section there and replacing it as the rest of that boat is in pretty good shape still. Fortunately the mouse and the sailing pirogue which were stored in the same place have nothing growing on them.

I built a One Sheet Skiff in 2001 in part as an exercise in how long a cheaply built boat would last. Now I know - it's about 5 years. I pulled the tarps off the boats this past weekend and this is what I found. The boat was built with bathroom underlay, white poplar (the cheap stuff) for gunwales and chine logs, glued with PL premium. For coating, I just applied latex paint. Last year I had some delamination of the plywood on the bottom which I just patched with body filler. The boat cost about $150cdn to build, about 1/3 for the wood and the rest for body filler, paint and glue with lots left over. I doubt that I'll try to patch it up although this is my kids favourite boat. I do need to figure out how to dispose of it as the dump charges for painted wood and won't let me toss it on the burn pile. http://www.floatingbear.ca/OneSheetSkiff.htm

I think that I'll need to cut a hatch into each of the "behind the seat" chambers and fill them with pool noodles and also do something in the forepeak. I was spoiled by the MiniCup. When it capsized, it would float on it's side in about 5" of water - not enough to fill the cockpit. The only scary time I had with it was when I was sailing in larger confused waves that kept spilling into the cockpit. I always imagined that the Weekender would be similar in that floating on it's side that the water wouldn't be up very high on it. I can see how the cabin could trap a lot of water though. I wonder what could be done to have that drain as the boat rights itself? With all the "propeller heads" out there, does someone have one of those computer programs that will actually tell us how deep the boat should float on it's side both with and without the cabin filled with water?

I remember Adam Plourde did a capsize test a number of years ago and was quite happy with the result. Has anyone else tried it? I know that one of the experiments I'm planning on is to pull my cockpit drain plug to see where the boat ends up settling.

Keep in mind that the keel/hull joint is not intended to bear more weight. You might be better off having the ballast inside the boat.

Looks like he's trying to figure out the measurement at Station 13

There's actually a building Stevenson fleet up there. One Vacationer and at least one Weekender. Greg Miller (Vacationer) and Keith Shergold (Weekender) post on the BYYB board from time to time and will undoubtedly give you a warm welcome. Keith moved his Weekender up first from Toronto up there so he could probably give you some advice on transport. I know that Howard Anthony had some issues with the way the company the Forces contracted to move his Pocket Cruiser from Nfld to Ottawa so you might want to drop him a line as well to see what he ended up doing. Good luck with the move. Yellowknife is supposed to be a beautiful place but the water is hard too much of the year for my taste.

Ray: That's right - I forgot about the existing weatherhelm. I am interested in the mizzen for when at anchor though. Has anyone ever done something like a temporary mizzen? Or just tie a kite on to the stern cleat :wink:

Or would it be a yawl? I can never get that straight. I'm thinking of adding the bracing necessary to be able to add a small mizzen mast to my Weekender. The purpose of the mizzen would be to assist in keeping the bow pointed into the wind while anchored or raising the sails and who knows - it might also help the boat point higher. I have already put in the support for two steel brackets (salvaged from a bed frame) that I'm planning on using for a motor mount or reboarding ladder on the port side of the stern post, or possibly I could put the mizzen beside the stern post. I presume though that it's not absolutely necessary for a mizzen to be on the centre-line. My questions are: - should I even bother? - how solid of bracing should I have? - How large of a rig should I put up (I'm figuring on some sort of sprit sail). The easiest thing to do would be to have the mount for the mizzen on a separate piece that I would mount on the steel brackets that I already have in place. Your thoughts? Has anyone else experimented with a similar rig? 2 inch blocks inside to support steel brackets.

Don't discount the lateen - it was the preferred rig for pirates in the Mediteranean for a long time. I quite liked it because it was very easy to use and store.

I "in the club" too - here's my port side panel that I cut about 3" too short and didn't notice until it was in place. I was using construction adhesive on a hot day and the glue had already pretty much set up - I was committed! Fortunately wood is a forgiving media. A backer piece, lots of glue and once the paint is on no one will know.

The 3-in-1 is a nice little boat. Howard Anthony has a nice web page about the one he built at http://howard4010.tripod.com/default.htm and he was quite happy with it. Howard's a great guy - I'm sure he'd answer an email if you had questions. One thing to keep in mind with a car-topped boat is the weight. 120lbs doesn't sound like a lot, especially since theoretically you're only lifting half of it at a time, but after a long day it can be quite a lot to get up into the air. When I had my MiniCup and Jeep, I actually used an overly complicated (but that's just me) winching system to load the boat up. Don't worry about already having the plans and being "committed" to the 3-in-1 as a project, if you're anything like the rest of us, you'll soon have to clear off a bookshelf for the plans that you'll accumulate :-D Personally I'm a big fan of the Stevenson's plans, they're designed so to be easy to follow if you're good at following instructions (I'm not) and allow you to go your own way too. I've worked with other plans that are nothing more than a set of dimensions and you have to figure out how and in what order to do things yourself.

I also used 2 sheets of 3/4" plywood for my keel although in my case I used "select" plywood rather than marine. Yes, there might be a couple of voids in it, but it fit my budget. When I built my keel, I did a few extra things at the same time as well. Rather than do the deadwood separately, I just included it in my layout. In the middle layers, I put in a wing-nut to hold the bottom pintle (eyebolt) for the rudder rather than drilling the hole later. I also put in a large eyebolt to use for trailering. I put a bit of grease on the bolts, then slathered on the construction adhesive. Finally, I also measured and drilled for my cockpit drain feeling that it was easier than after assembly. The finished keel was fiberglassed and then I added a strip of steel along the bottom of the keel for added protection.

I flush trimmed the sides to the top of the deck and then fiberglassed it after installing the side rub-rails but before installing the cabin trunk. I'm planning on putting on a gunwale with holes in it (scuppers?) on. I liked the idea of doing it this way as I thought it strengthened and waterproofed that joint. Time will tell. I'm a looooong way away from launch.

I've finally managed to track down some of the songs I heard in the Master and Commander movie and that Patrick O'Brian refers to in his books (which I'm re-reading again). Many of the songs were composed by Richard Leveridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Leveridge The ONLY available CD that I've found that includes these songs is by Jerry Bryant http://www.filbert.com/pvfs/artists/JerryBryant/Default.htm. I emailed him and he suggested that I could buy his CDs from CDBaby.com. With express shipping, I hope to be listening to them by early next week. The previews of the songs online seem pretty good.

I put the drain hole in the keel when I built it and then drilled up into the cockpit. I used galvanized pipe for the drain and found that the cork from a bottle of Scotch (empty bottle first) fit just nice. I have some nylon plugs as well. Mind you, I haven't launced yet, or allowed the cockpit to fill with water.

Since the angles at the deck and hull are different on the Weekender (at least they were on mine, I "cheated". I left the gussets square and test fitted them. I then used a pencil to mark where the deck and hull met the gusset. I used my table saw to get close to the mark and then my hand block plane to finish. It was quick, easy, and matched up quite nicely.

Jim: Thank you for your kind wishes. We're all doing quite well, including Trueman. With all the new restrictions at the border though, we may have to change our plans for the wedding. But, then again they're only 12 so things may improve again. I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas, and all the best for the New Year.

Jim For my Weekender I have cast some weights that I am planning on installing in the forepeak - if I can figure out how to make sure they stay in place. I made a form out of scrap lumber and then added weights a handful at a time. My soldering torch then did a fine job of melting them down. I would pick out the clips as I went along. I also suspended an eye-bold with a washer and nut in the form so that I ended up with an eyebolt in the weight if needed later. One thing I liked about this method is that it was a lot safer than getting the entire batch of lead to melt - only a small amount of melted at any time so I felt that reduced the danger. "Of course" I made sure there was lots of ventillation.

I've often thought about getting an old container or the body of a transport trailer and using it as a shed. But then I've thought about trying to explain that to my wife ... :roll: One thing that I found out that may be only in my area is that there are VERY different rules for "buildings" as long as there is an axle under it. A charitable group that I was working with lost their gift shop in a fire. It turned out that while we couldn't get permits to build again on that site, we "could" park a decorated construction trailer.

Depending on how much effort you want to invest, you may want to consider a Mouse. The plans are free, they're cheap to build, they come in a bunch of different sizes, and they're a lot of fun. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mouseboats/

I've looked through my copy of "The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor" - published in 1808 (reprinted by Lee Valley) and can see no such mast described. Perhaps it was only in the merchant service, or after that time?