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Sandy Dancer

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Everything posted by Sandy Dancer

  1. I entered Sandy in the Manteo Wood boat show this past Saturday. She was one vote short of the peoples choice award, I think mainly because many of my family and friends showed up to vote. There were about 18 boats, many from the Eadenton area a few hours from here. Anyway, a lot of people came by and some were familular with B & B Yacht design. One showed be pictures of his Ocracoke 20 build, another was trying to decide between a shaprie and the Core Sound and another from Beauford NC worked for a boat museum that was gifted a Core Sound 20. For thoses whom I talked to who knew nothing about a Sprit Rigged Cat ketch were mystified by all the spaghetti and I think it put them off. My reefing is rigged like that on Carlita with a main downhaul and a second downhaul used for the frist or second reef. by stalling the boat with mizzen centered, the main loose and rudder tied off center I can go forward and switch the downhaul to the second reef position pretty safely, then get back in the cockpit and do as you have mentioned. Aparently what wins boat shows is lots of varnish and a simple masthead rig.
  2. Wind blew hard again all day from the NE. I decided to give it a go and double reefed the main and left the Mizzen full. The first big gust made me turn around and head back into the cove. There I hove to just like ya'll said and put a reef in the mizzen. That was a pretty good set up except that both sails very loose and sheeting in was not a good idea. I am guessing the wind was 20 to 30 and honestly I I felt that I was not prepaired for sailing in wind over 20. Comments for sailing the cat ketch in these higher winds would be great.
  3. Well until a new "sailing attributes" thread comes along I will keep on posting my sailing adventures. All comments will be appriciated and hopefully, to those who have not finished there build, the posts will add encouragement to finish by next sailing season. I'm not a big cold water enthusiast but i think we have some more good sailing days comming. The weather is forcast to improve.
  4. Par, Drew proposed a sailing thread. Most of the threads are about building and I learned a tremendous about from you and so many others. Now I realize that there is a lot of good sailing experience on this forum as well. It would certainly be nice to have it all in one place.
  5. JP , I would love to sail together. So far I'm the only one on the water every time I'm out. Well, maybe a crabber or two. Today it feels like fall, rainy, windy and chilly. Sandy is dancing on her mooring and wondering why i haven't come out to play. Maybe tomorrow?
  6. Yes, a thread on sailing tips would be great. I have gotten some good feedback on "Sailing the CS17". Thanks Alan for your tip on close hauling in light air on this thread. I often find that searching the forum is not as productive as i wished so having all these sailing tips in one place would be really nice.
  7. Sailing report for yesterday. The wind was 10-12 kts from the SW to start but then moved to the south. This gave a confused chop of 1 to 2 feet. I sail the very eastern end of the albemarle sound so there is a long fetch and even in light wind it is always chopy. With both sails up full it was a very pleasent sail up wind at about 4-5 kts. Looking up at the main, I noticed that my topping lift was too tight. I sheeted in the Mizzen, centered the tiller and let out the main and just like you'all said, sandy pointed into the wind, stayed there and slowly sailed backwards. This gave me plenty of time and stability to go forward and fix the problem. Back at the tiller I angled it and presto, I was sailing again. On the downwind run home she did a little surfing (not planeing). Since that was so much fun I played a little too long and and then had to make my way back up wind. This is a fun boat to sail.
  8. Wow, Great job PeterP A few years back I went to Bayboro and talked to Graham about the Princess. Alan was just starting to work on refinishing Southbound (it was yellow then). After that I was hooked on a CS17 and am very happy with mine. If I had seen yours at that time, I would definitently been hooked on a princess instead. Afraid I won't make the Messabout since it will be my wifes BDay and we have other plans, But hope I see you on the Pamilico. Jeff
  9. You Aussies are great. I know this because I married one of your countrymen and we are still together (see her picture). I regret that i never joined a sailing club when we lived in Sydney. I was way young and wanted to travel. We went from Sidney to South austrailia wine country then across the Nullabor Plain, Dirt road with limited gas and repair stations when we did it. We left Austrailia from Brisbane 3 years after arriving in Sidney. I loved your country, just missed out on the sailing. Now I'm trying to catch up here in the USA with very few sailors. Like Ken points out, we have mostly motor boaters as well. Thanks so much for your helpful sailing tips. Today was another light wind day and would have bee a good one to work on backwards sailing, but, work got in the way and then, we drove our son and grandaughter to the Airport so they could take off to Paris for the week. Travel seems to have become infectious in our family. Tomorrow Maggie and I take off for Atlanta, so no more sail practice until Monday. I know you'll understand this! Jeff & Maggie Cox
  10. Thank you Ken. I will try to live up to my sailing responsibility. Today the wind was very light and I had other things to attend to. I might try sailing backwards as a technique to backing into a slip. Could come in handy! Has anybody perfected that? Also I am wondering if anyone has a suggestion for how to hove to in a cat catch?
  11. Todays sail report. Wind was out of the South at 15kts to 20kts and there was a 2ft to 3ft chop. I decided to try going out double reefed for both main and mizzen as you can see.I was not sure how high to raise the sails up the mast so I set the downhaul at about the same place where it would tighten the full sail. What you can't see are the numerious white caps outside of the cove. With sails up I paddled out to the wind line. I have a very short canoe paddle and it works fine in calm water. I was really glad that I had double reefed. Immediately i let out both sheeets and fell off the wind. On that reach I was pretty stable so I turned on the GPS to find I was doing 7 kts. I fell off the wind a little more and Sandy wanted to surf which was a little scary. considering she was doing over 8 kts. I was beginning to think "what am i doing out here" but after a little while I got the feel of what was going on, sheeted in and headed up wind. Boat speed dropped down to 4kts to 6 kts but now the ride got to be quite wet. One thing that felt really good was how Sandy lifted over the 3ft chop. Sometimes I though she might bash into the next one but no she just rode over it. I had a bit of a problem tacking. She would go into irons and then go backwards. I suspect my sail trim and heading had something to do with that. The gusts sometines wanted to lay her over farther than I was confortable with and he sails were out pretty far out. Even though the teltails were streaming aft, I wasn't holding a very close course to the wind. Anyway it was a really fun ride today. I felt more confident than ever about Sandy however 15-20kts seemed like a lot of wind. I just dont know what the sail plan for 20-25kts would be? Still just learining.
  12. After 2 years of building Sandy, I finally put her in the water at the end of August. At first I kept her on the trailer, go out for a sail, ,then come back to the trailer. this was not convienient and i only went out when I had plenty of time which was not very often. I'm lucky that I live on the water so I was able to put out a mooring. Sailing is a lot more convienent now! Building Sandy was a great experience and I got a lot of inspiration and great ideas from the forum. My goal was always to build a boat to sail, not just build a boat and now I'm hoping for some help on how to sail a cat ketch. As someone said, "there is a lot of spaghetti" and a lot of sail adjustment options. I have been out about 6 times. the first few times i reefed, then i sailed mizzen only. then we had about a week of 20-30 kts and no i did not go out. The second picture was taken a few days ago. It was blowing 10 kts and my GPS showed a boat speed of 6 kts. Yesterday it was blowing a solid 15 to 20 kts. I went out with full sails up and for me that was too much sail. I did hit 8 kts on a reach however. I'm hoping that other sailers will share their sail trim experience in various wind conditions. I look forward to meeting some of you at the messabout.
  13. Only 1/2 hr to stich her up! You are making this too easy and now we will all have to build one. Noticed that you are using zip ties, will you be able to get them out after epoxy?
  14. Lennie I have been following on raceowl.com. Looks like Alan and Paul have caught up with swimboy. Seems that Bill spent a fair amount of time at checkpoint 2
  15. Lennie, Good to have you back. How cool is it that Peggy-o is doing so well in the race. I followed her build and got much inspiration from it and your posts. My Sandy Dancer is ready for paint and hardware. I would love to enter her in the EC next year. Are you still in Fla and if so will you be at the finish line with camera in hand? Jeff Cox
  16. Wow, these are great posts. I have ordered the Mizzen staysail from B&B but had no idea what I was in for. At this point I just painted the bottom of my CS17 and am ready to flip it back over and finally finish the inside, so I haven't sailed it yet. I'm really looking forward to some great sailing on Currituck and Pamlico sounds. Of course any pictures of the rigging would be appreciated.
  17. Jim, The seat filler boards look great. Can you share the width of the ones you plan to leave installed. i think it was Mister Moon who suggested that a good rowing position was forward so I'm thinking that those filler boards would also make a good rowing thwart. Just install some oar locks 11 inches aft of the aft edge. I played with the numbers and it looked like about a 13 inch filler. I've not been in a finished CS17 and haven't finished my build so I don't know how this would work out.
  18. Graham, On the CS17 Mark 1 would you recommend drilling a hole in the mast base just above the fore deck and installing the sea dog plug into the fore deck? Jeff
  19. I used 3 coats of epoxy and no cloth everywhere. My experience with other builds is that the cloth is good for abrasion but a hard hit will will break thru the cloth and the plywood anyway. It is just as easy to repair abrasion with epoxy and some cloth if necessary. If a big wind blows the boat over on a 2x4 the cloth isn't going to protect it. If you hit a piling to hard and it cracks the wood, again the cloth wont prevent the break. Hey the boat is lighter and it's less work. I build boats to sail not for show, so a repair does not have to be perfect. Maybe this is not for everyone. My friend built his 36' cat 20 years ago with this same philosophy. He and his wife just got back to my dock from 6 months in the Bahamas and yes the boat has some bruises but we will fix them. They have done this trip many times and there is to cloth on the hull.
  20. Thank you for bringing back the original. Remember, Graham did win the EC with this boat also. I have had a lot of fun reading the post of the Mark3. Many great ideas have come up and I'm glad that I haven't finished yet. I wasn't planing to put a motor on but there it is. Oh and a boarding ladder as well. I was definitely not going to have my anchor mounted on the bow but now it seems like a great idea. And a cooler, seemed like it should have one just like Carlita. Thanks to everyone I'm still not finished. But I have my oars on board and my flip flops and swear that Sandy Dancer will get wet in June. jeff
  21. Mister Moon, I really enjoyed following you on your spot readings. Thank you for posting how to follow you. I'm building my CS17 and ready to glue down the seat tops but I keep thinks of things I want to add. I have installed a cooler similar to the one Graham did on Carlita. I have put 2" pipe into the forward locker to be able to stow my oars. I have installed oar locks forward as you suggested. I have run a conduit forward to be able to have a masthead light. Now I'm thinking about a bilge pump location. Do you have a suggestion? Maybe opposite the Anderson baler?
  22. Lennie, This the first time I have tried to upload a picture. It this works out I'll post a few more latter. Jeff
  23. Lennie, I'm building hull #372. I have not made many posts but I do look forward to reading the days comments when I get home from work. I have followed your build and have to say I will really miss your input unless of course you decide to build another of Grahams designs. I don't aspire to be a great craftsman. When I'm in the shop building my "Sandy Dancer" I see myself on the tiller and often stop building and pretend to be sailing. Yes, I have sailed a lot and love it. This is my 3rd boat, not because I love the build but because I I want to build the best small boat to sail the North Carolina sounds. I don't know how you feel about model boats, I tried them and they were not for me, probably because I couldn't sail them, but you may like them. I recommend that you pick up a copy of the "Dory Model Book" by Dynamite Payson. This is real boat building on a small scale. I have build a 12 ft Dory designed by Reuel Parker and Payson's Dory models are true to form with lots of accurate detail. They will put the skill you have already learned, to the test.
  24. I have been working on my CS17 for a few weeks in a row after a long unplanned break. The framing is finished and it was a good excuse to drive down to Bayboro and pick up the new masts. This was my second trip. The first was to pick up the kit. I was able to spent 2 hrs with Graham. The shop is unheated and he had on his carhartt overalls and jacket. He is a wealth of information and freely shares it. I always learn something like in answer to my statement about bubbles in the epoxy he says "use a heat gun and they will disappear". He was happy to give me the "Carlita" tour. The hull is almost the same as the CS17. He has won a lot of races in the CS17 and he is also a cruising Sailor. So Carlita is going to be a fast cruising boat. It looked so well built that it inspired me to tighten up my work, slow down and spend a little extra time to do a good job. Graham talked about a lot of his designs and his experience sailing them. We looked at Alan's UFC canoe which at this point weighs just 40 lbs. Both he and Alan like to win. How great is that to have these 2 guys designing the boats we are building. I mean.. if you are out on the water and there is another sail boat don't you put out your best sailing effort. Anyway I'm sure Carlita is going to be the boat to beat in Florida.
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