Andrew_Butchart

Has anyone heard from Brett? I'm just a bit worried - he lives right around where that tidal wave hit.

My "favourite" is the time that I had to completely disassemble the VCR because it had a crying little boy's hand stuck in it. - He was trying to change the movie by himself.

I made some cleats out of elm for my pirogue that work as combination fairleads and cleats that might work for your jib sheets. I wouldn't use them for a halyard though. These were based on drawings from Craig O'Donnell's Cheap Pages which currently seem to be off-line.

When I assembled mine, I attached all 4 pieces of the cockpit together and before installing it on the hull - I've never been good at following instructions ;-) If you've already attached the aft and and the sides, your plan sounds like it should work. I believe that Kris Nicholas used a ratchet strap as a clamp to attach his bulkheads. I used pipe clamps but had problems with them slipping off. Good luck.

I've scarfed together stringers before with few problems. Just make sure that where the joint is isn't where there is a lot of bending if you can avoid it. I'll often put a screw through the scarf joint as well to hold it together. If you but-joint them, the won't lay fair on the curve - but if the section where the joint is is pretty straight then it doesn't matter.

I did some browsing and you can order back-issues from the publisher I have no idea if they have the issue in question available though http://www.popsci.com/popsci/contact#back

I thought I'd seen a posting of the original article, but the only thing I was able to find (on the byyb.org board) was a posting by Ray Frechette saying that he has a copy of the original article.

Looks good - they're certainly a fun little boat. This is what they look like with some wind to go with the water.

If memory serves correctly, the burgee flys from the mast-head and the ensign flys from the end of the gaff. Of course finding a "proper" red ensign is quite a challenge - I make do with the Ontario provincial flag with the regular Canadian flag flying above it.

Dandy - you should be proud of your accomplishment. I've certainly found it to be a fun little boat myself.

Well - I've run out of room for boats and need to sell the MiniCup. It's sitting on my front yard in Neustadt, Ontario (about 1 hour north of Kitchener/Waterloo). I'm asking $500Cdn or best offer. It includes all the necessary hardware and launching dolly. For more info about the boat, check out my web site at http://www.floatingbear.ca/

I hold the main-sheet loosely in my hand when sailing. Where I sail there are often un-expected puffs of wind and this allows me to just spill the wind until I can deal with it.

Guillermo: Figure 13 of the plans shows the rigging details. You will need: 1 halyard single pulley block (at the top of the mast) 2 single pully blocks for the mainsheet - one in the forward part of the boom and one on the "traveller" (rope tied to the stern) 1 double pully block for the end of the boom. When rigging my mainsheet, I run it first through the forward block on the boom, back through the one side of the double block at the end of the boom, down through the block on the traveller, back up again and through the other side of the double block. I then tie a figure 8 knot in it to keep it from coming back out. Theoretically you could get by with a single block there as well, but you would need a place to tie the end of the mainsheet to the end of the boom. Make sure you have enough line in your mainsheet so that when your sail is blown forward you still have line in the cockpit. I tend to tie a figure 8 knot in the mainsheet at the point where it will stop the sail from going completely forward and then another one at the end that I keep in the cockpit. Hopefully this makes sense. If you take a look at http://www.floatingbear.ca/sailingfiles/minicup/20040619_Mini_Cup.jpg you might be able to see the lines in action there.