Craig

These are nice airplanes. Many years ago I did some contract work on the wiring in a B24 slurry bomber working some NM fires. The Forest Service had a permenent loading/mixing station at Kirtland AFB in Albq. The sister ship was an old Navy P-5 with the little Jet mods. D model I think it was. Nice tin. That 24 and 17 come through here every summer and offer rides out of Bob ikes Airport at Crestview.....[/i]

This is the one I was talking aboout also. Thanks.

At the rate you are going you could meet us in Michigan in July Florin... Happy building

Mike have you ever used a rope ladder? Watch your toes. People with little upper body strength may not be able to use that ladder. The problem with them is that you have to climb out as well as up as the boat heels and the shoulder and upper arm stress is very large.

Trey is right. I have had my Vac, the Saralee, out in the gulf and it just isn't the smart place to be with these boats. The intercoastal and the bays are fine, if not always safe. You can go all the way to Maryland with very little open water sailing from Texas if you wish but you will really want a bigger boat than these for extended time aboard. Trailer down and we'll all get togather some where mid way. Trey and I have been trying for about two years now. What say Capn?

I'm from Muskegon. Mi many, many years ago Ey. It took me years to learn to talk goouder. (The Mate says;" Ey it ain't too hot yet ya hoser".) I think they still take the money 1:1 up home. When I was a kid the banks never batted an eyelash at the Canadian coins. I suppose with the exchange rate that is diffrent now. I have worked with a lot of Canadian companies over the years too so the Hoser stuff is never very far away. Hell Bruce I've only been here ~21 years now. My plates say "Not quite a native" It takes 25 years to get e "Semi-Native" plate.

Florin look at Phil's site for conventional hinges with a hollow mast. He had a solidly engineered design I think.

Florin I have seen drawings of that with an oval or teardrop mast section. Seems it was in some Bolger stuff but possibly some of the others recall. It was a solid section at the rear of a boxed mast structure with a bolt rope pathway machined into the block. Help here please with Mr. memory you younger guys and gals. You too Bruce! I have sailed older boats with this configuration and prefer the lashings or a metal track. None of the boats I sailed had tabed masts.

Listen you OLD HOSER! Who are you calling old??? What? oh, ah,,, never mind, that was just the wife reading over my shoulder. Please have a nice time in your dive boat.

Florin, Phil, With my sailrite main I have trouble getting the gaff to fall when she is peaked up tight. My gaff is birdsmouth and I wish I had made it solid. I many times have to use the flag halyard as a dousing line. Keep the solid gaff, the diffrenece in weight on the Vac doesn't matter IMO. Phil, will you carve one of those fine name plates for me? v/r Craig

The dowel will work fine Florin.

Having been caught in a few electric storms I have found there are two options: The first is to run for a sheltered place to get off the boat (that has never worked as shore was too far away and storms move fast down here) the other is to ride it out. Heave to, let her drift, go into the cabin, and enjoy the show. Shut off all the electronics but leave your running lights and mast head lights on. If in a skinny place where you can't drift send everyone else into the cabin, don your personal flotation device and enjoy the show from the helm station. Keep you hands off the metal rigging and out of the water and you should be fine. The first year I was down here I had a cat's rigging light up like a Cristmas Tree in a storm. It didn't get hit but scared the hell out of me.

I raised the Saralee's rig 18" and left the plates alone. The angle of the pull is off a bit, but, with the small stress that is there it isn't woth messing with them IMHO

I raised the Saralee's rig 18" and left the plates alone. The angle of the pull is off a bit, but, with the small stree that is there it isn't woth messing with them IMHO

What an excellent accent to an already unsurpassable project. Sharp!

Oh HOSER, how could you? But then the Jap motor is Ok I guess. That bath tub though, the horrors, the horrors...... :wink:

One of my kids lives in Jacksonville so this is a real possability. We have to go up north in July to see the old folks so that is shot and I am snowed under at work right now. Too many project too little $$. I an fixing to dump some of these dogs and cats. everyone thinks I can feed a crew on fee-for-sevice. You ever see 10 mad wives on a friday with no paychecks? Not pretty, really not pretty! :roll:

I think the kerfing and hot water ideas are good. I believe I would kerf, soak, and try to get as much of the warp out as I could before I added the epoxy filler. Once it is filled that's it. Russ has a great idea for pulling any remaining warp out but don't attach more than 4 inches or so beyond the end of the stem or it will just bend the sprit. Bending the sprit some may be the final answer to get the last of the missalignment out however. Do what you can with the stem and the pull the rest out with the chains and turn buckles. Fixed to a krantz iron at the tip and you can walk out the chains to work the head stay. Look at some photos of the o;ld schooners and youwill see similar rigging.

Russ the Saralee wa built and finished to use. And use her we do. The paint is lumber yard latex for quick touch ups and I don't worry about mar and tar from the dock pilings. And hit them we have. Sara made a direct hit with tthe sprit on a piling a few weeks ago. I hollered "bulls eye" and she smiled like she had done good. I keep the can of white on the bench for times like that.

Mike one mans maniac is another idiot. I wish you could have been here it was tireing but fun. It would be really nice if some one around here would build one of these. Dan has a Wkndr but he is still up North selling the house. Frank the added ballest is ~265 lb cast in overlapping plates to surround the mast box. They are held in place by a wedgeboard that keeps them from going forward. I raised my rig 18" and the ballest is to restore the righting moment and to retrim the boat after the addition of the big motor and my fat a... Russ you need to come up here and sail with me some time. We really need to have a weekend at some mid point this summer. Kurt, My sail suite (suit?)was cut by Sailright and assembled by myself. The design is Stevenson stock except my foot is fuller and flown loose. The peak is also a bit higher. I asked for two reefs to be added and they are ~ 20% if the area each. I guess about 36" from the foot and 36 from the first reef. I only used the first. I tied in the front and back reef points and ladder laced the in betweens with 1/4" rope. Easy to shake out that way. The outhaul was chinced as tight as possible and the foot left loose. The jib is std Stevenson and is about 60-70%. Working jib I think it is called. I am 57 but would have guessed 70 Sunday morning. Slept like a rock. In seas like that I take the waves on the quarrter bow if possible. A well trimmed Vac will take them head on but it is a real pain if the nose is high. You will get wet either way. Be crareful with the Vacs and a following sea. That wide stern wants to wallow and if you are not watching she will jibe or broach.

Send Berry the phioto and after we look at it we will all try to help. THis is not the end of the boat by any means.

A quart and a spray can work great for a Vac rudder.

Yesterday was not too promising. Winds 10 to 15 at 0900 to build to 20 with higher gusts by 1600. Two others and I went out anyway. The waves were 1.5 with some at up to 4s. Strong 15kt wind out of the SSW running right down the bay. I put the first reef before we left the dock. Damn good thing, as it was so rough I wouldn't want to go up on deck with no other sailor aboard to handle the boat. People have the hardest time keeping them into the wind. We had a blast, we ran NW-SE from about 10:30 to 14:30. The GPS said a pretty steady 6.2 to 6.4 kts. Coming down the backsides of the big waves the speed would hit 7 kts for a little bit! Not bad for an overweight 7 kt hull. I could lock the wheel with my knee or foot and steer with the main sheet. The seas stayed OK till mid afternoon when the waves were more 3 - 4ft than lower. The winds were building and starting to gust so we went in. The nice part of the sail was that I was getting that speed with the boat nearly level in the water. No more then a 15- 20 degree heel most of the time. These things will go like hell when you get them trimmed out right. I had the wheel braced with my foot and when the puffs would heel us over the lead kept her up and the rail out of the water almost all of the time. When it did dip it was only for a second and she came back up as she tried to round up. The puff would die and she would work right back to her course. I am sold on that ballast. That a the wide beam make these very well behaved boats I have to tell you all that I am feeling my age today however. I really didn't feel like the boat was beating me up but you have to watch them close with the wind that high and I didn

A mouse sander. They look like a flat iron. Nice point on the front end. Everyone sells them.

Good point Mike. You could lay the weight of the mast on deck and never notice the diffrence with the Vac. Photos please....