Craig

That will make a dandy project John Dingo, what the hell is this "just see me out there at the 5 mile reef droppin the crayfish pots overboard"? It Crawdads or Mudbugs! Mudbugs is better English. What kind of Birate are you anyway. Palmy bugger you almost sound like a Brit! Ducking now See PM for the rest ofthe joke un printable here....

I am supposed to work M-F; however, flight test takes what it can get and I put in many 12 hour weekend days. Building time has been scarce the last few months. It should slow down after the first of the year.

My vote says stay, and get him off that plank!

I love it Charlie! One of my sons worked for NASA. They always go with the most complicated and expensive solution. One of my old professors was a full time EE building exotic weapons fusees for penatrator bombs. He said that what ever you were building to KISS and complicate only as required to make it work. Then quit and leave it alone! Good advise.

This is a very interesting thread. I through bolted the Saralee using 1/2" ready rod, backing washers, jam nuts, and one of those big Galv eyebolts. It has served me well these 6 years; however the rod is badly bent from the trailer winch, the bob stay stresses, or the combination of both. One of this winters mods is to replace the bolt with side straps that will mount the bow eye and the bob stay chain. I am going to a cutter rig with top sail and I doubt the rod will be up to the task. I have not observed any delamination with the hole but it has been recaulked at least every two years. The redrilled epoxy holes for the strapping will preclude the need for this step. I am beginning to see delamination in the stem now due to the number of holes for the sprit and it's extension. I have the new spars but never finished the mounting this season. A little water goes a long way with riff sawn SYP. I suspect from this thread and my own observations that drilling slightly oversize holes and filling the holes around the rod with epoxy is the way to go with any rework at this stage. The drier you can keep the wood the longer it lasts and the less requirement for rework there is. I wish I had used epoxy on the keel. The urea glue is OK but epoxy is fool proof if used correctly! IF wishes were horses.....

My God but you guys would eat S___ and bark at the moon! Yuck!

The Cape is nice Ken. You might give the Destin Fort walton Beach area a look.

Thanks Barry. I had seen this article. He is using 1.5", 12v bulbs. My fixtures need the ~7/8" size and I can only get two of the led bulbs in the smaller housings for the mast and tail light. MY side lights are big enough for this though. I wonder if anyone makes the festoon bulbs with the leds pointing in diffrent directions???

I have been reading LED sites all night. Has anyone converted their PERKO running lights with the small festoon bulbs to LED? There seems to be two schools of thought on powering these. Resistors are the easiest but waste the dropped voltage as heat when running off the 12vdc battery. DC to DC converters are a more ellegant solution but drive up costs and add another risk factor to the reliability chain. I really don't want to reinvent the "light bulb" here so if any of you have made the conversion and wish to share the design I would be forever in your debt. The premanufactured nav lights offered today are just too expensive and none specify a replacement bulb. Thanks

Yes Adla I did get a chance to recharge the old batteries. It was a wonderful day. I told the customer that all the aircraft were chartered up over the three day weekend, (bad boy, bad boy) so that is my next window if the Wx holds. I have much I want to do on the boat after lay-up but really want to get out one more time this year. Next summer is the seventh season on the Saralee and she will have met her design life requirement that I set before building. It was actually 5 years but the keel rework made me add two more years. At this time next year she and I will be even on time and $$ and everything after that is profit! ( Just a game I play with myself, an engineer thing about cost benifit and life cycle cost. I know I'm wierd so just bear with me.) If I can stay ahead of the routine maintanince and continue proper storage techniques on the off seasons this boat could last forever! The latex house paint on the hull could go a couple more seasons if I'd quit running her into things, oh, Mike you say thats what them plastic tube things in the cabin are for? I through them at the dock just before impact?? Now you say.... Anyway I am more than pleased with the longevity of these boats if well made and well maintained. Damnit, I have forgot the question again........

GregI just talked to my Mother in Muskegon and she says the weather is just fine. No snow, cold, nor ice in the nursing home! Can't imagine what's wrong with you. I launched at 1000 and sailed to 1530, wind light 10-12 all afternoon, changing from SSE to SW at 1430. No chop on the bay with temps in the mid seventys. I did have to wear a long sleved sweat shirt over my Build your Dream club T-shirt with my shorts though. The sandwiches were excellent and the beer cold as, well, SW Michigan in November. Tastey! Now the other side of the coin is I can't go iceboating nor ice racing motorcycles anymore so it all evens out. Tell yourself "Spring is just around the corner", "I must finish my boat building tasks." "Spring is almost here." Hell the TV is full ov Christmas adds so winter must be nearly over, Ask me why I left Michigan Greg.

8.3 flight hours logged today. Seven trips to Slema, Al and back. The data rushes don't look good so it's going to have to be reflown after some radar adjustments. Tomorrow I sail come hell or high water. You are right Jake, comparatively the water is never cold here. That is until you've been her for 20+ years.

Fly today and sail tomorrow. The water is getting cold down here now. It has droppecx about 10 degrees in a week or so. My boat is a real wet launch so not much fun to be wet and cold all day.

That experience is not the exception down here now. We came out OK over here ;however, from Pensacola west it is real bad. It will take years for everything to get back to normal. That and every year more storms. I have to admit to checking the OPM website from time to time. The hurricanes were more pain in the butt then anything else til the last couple years, but now... I recall living in NM and watching the storms on TV and asking Sara how anyone could live with these things. Her mother was raised partially near Tampa and she just hates Florida from memory of the storms.

Funny you should say that. If it was up to Saralee we would be in Tucson right now! A neighbor asked just before the last storm what I was going to do to keep the boat from being damaged again with this storm. I said we were going to wait til the wind hit 50 mph, then go out and raise the sails. When the water cleared the power lines I'd cut the trailer straps. Fla has a 2% deductable for hurricane damage over and above the normal deductable. If you have an average house in this area that can get to be quite a bit to have to eat with every storm. If you have six claims a year you eat the 2% every time. With even moderate damage this can become a big burden even for folks not on a fixed incomes. Glad I didn't buy that waterfront I wanted so bad. This is a wierd year for Wx, I am beginning to wonder if the season will really end...... :?

I'd love to come up there to sail. I guess that will have to wait for retirement.

Here you go Jake, however, they are both on the opposit end of the country from you. That said don't let that keep you crom comming down. I love to meet you in person. Here is the line. Look for my last two or three messages... http://byyb.org/pn/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewforum&f=2&sid=faa1b82ddd891f4344799b6b762f9e65&POSTNUKESID=de2945da9de852cb6eab781669d31012

Please see the BYYB board for a couple of new events sponsored by the Trailer Sailor group. We have all been invited to both.

Now that is a rail. Reminds me of Charlie Three Horse's boat.

Look in here Bud. Mine work well and stores in the truck whill I'm sailing. A gallows is a hoped for mod for this winter http://members.cox.net/bb343/index

Alda, This link has some rigging photos. I have also changed the halyard attachment to the gaff jaws to a bridle arraingment. How is your main attached? Out hauls at the gaff peak and the main boom? I'll post some photos for you tonight for main sail attachments and out hauls etc. You will get better power out of the main if it is loose footed and cut with a bow in the bottom. Always buy too mucg line. It's hell to streatch very far. :) http://members.cox.net/~bb343/index

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Now I know most everyone is using iron, but I have to have wooden spreaders for the top mast. what is the consensus of how to mount these and where. To the detachable topmast, to the topmast mounts? Angle brackets? Screwed to the mounts? Ideas please, over

Normally the hinge will hold the mast until the forestay is tightened. Yes , I think everyone used turnbuckles on the forestay. They are really handy to trim the mast rake. Some folks have made deadeyes for the shrouds but most just go with the turnbuckles. I never liked the gate hinge idea and made a custom tabernnacle for the Saralee, it is a modified tenion and grove set up. Phil Gowing used a recessed hinge on his boat that worked very well. Konrad used a sissors set up with a mast laminated up from 2x timbers. You may try grinding off the end of the hinge pin and putting in a bolt or custom turned pin of slightly larger diameter. Look around at some of the sites and get a feel for what is possible. Happy building....

Two Hosers now and one is really a hoser With a big red truck even!!