kydocfrog

Anybody seen the pictures of the listing autocarrier off Alaska? Appears to be a new theory of stability being demonstrated her. Normal side up, port-side down stability, and --one might assume--starboard side down stability. Hard to tell if a fourth mode, bottom side up, also exists for the design. If I were the naval architect, I think I might be a bit embarrassed :oops: by this photo... DocA

Over time, the stormy rainy scary parts will morph into the REALLY HEROIC GREAT parts of the story when they tell it... DocA

Well, my laminated rudder (oak, vertical strips) that came with the hull delaminated along the glue seams. A glue problem, although the moisture darkening was very visible at some of the fault lines. I've got the replacement carved, drilled, and two coats of epoxy on. I went with a very clear 1x12 pine plank. Mahogany or something more substantial would have been nice, and I might well have used marine ply if it were available locally, but hopefully the pine will last for a while. I will make sure that I don't leave the rudder down when she is on the bouy. We shall see. Trying to get back in the water next weekend. DocA

There was an article on Duckworks recently about stripping for fiberglassing, or maybe stripping off bad epoxy; I don't remember for sure, but I do remember it used a fairly innovative approach to heat stripping. DocA

I've wondered about that myself in some applications. Before there was all this epoxy and glassing stuff there was canvas and paint, particularly on decks, and it seemed to last for years... DocA.

Hey, Dave. Thanks for asking. Well, on the one hand, I did get out again solo, and I think that the "oversteering" had a lot to do with it. I will also put the flaps on, and I think I have the problem with the uneven set of the gaff and shrouds fixed. The bad news is that to add insult to injury, my rudder (came with the hull when I bought it) completely delaminated. It was laid up strip stye of oak. I noticed a crack, and when I took her out of the water this weekend for odds and ends, it just disentigrated along three of the laminations. I'm making a new, solid rudder now. I'm off for a few days of vacation, but CGII will not be going with us since rudder is incomplete. More to follow.

I've had Charlie Girl on a mooring for the last month. No problem except for bottom fouling. Definitely need bottom paint. And a small, reliable dingy... DocA

Fantastic! DocA

Weekender Charlie Girl II There will be more. Everyone know your current boat is always the one you have before your next boat. BTW, I think it is great that more and more variety is appearing. Some really neat stuff -- Tidbit, Oyster's remarkable projects, that awesome canoe... DocA

Thanks for all the advice. Like Adla says, this board is one of the pleasures and "great encouragement to all (Weekend) Mariners" that comes with the boat.

I put about 6 plus extra inches on the mast too, but frankly I thought that was now part of the problem. By increasing the mast height and raising the stay while keeping the design rig of bringing the shrouds off of an eyebolt on the forward side of the mast, the actual effect is to make the angle between the mast and the shrouds more acute, not less. I figured that's what is driving me to spreaders. DocA

The gaff did seem free when I slacked the halyards a bit, although it did make the sail a bit slack at the tack.

Got a lot of experiments here to try. I may haul her out tomorrow and do some quick checks and fixes and try getting on a slightly larger lake. Somehow, Adla, I would not have associated the adjective timid with you. Don't even... I will have to admit, though, that I did feel a bit foolish running her hard aground with Ellen on board. (Gee Dad, neat. Is this the normal way to slow down and change directions... :oops: ) At least there weren't any bass boats or jetskis in view at the time. DocA

Okay. Sounds like maybe I am oversteering. I guess my previous boat habit of putting the tiller hard over may not be the way to go with this one. I'll try to do a quick fix on the gills on the rudder box too. I know I have to do a tension check on the steering lines, but the 30 degree limit is a new thought. I also appreciate the comment on backing the rudder if forward motion stops completely. I might have figured that out with a tiller, but I haven't gotten the full feel of the wheel yet. I think that might actually have swung me enough to have stayed off the rocks. The weather helm has been there since the start. I don't think it is excessive. I'll go back and look at plans, but I'm pretty sure I have the rudder installed properly. I'll have her out again this week, I'm sure an will work though these suggestion. THANKS PS. There apparently was an incident in KY of some dude with a brand new pontoon party barge affair backing in, unhitching the trailer and motoring off. When he came back, apparently he was all upset about not being able to get any speed out of her., DocA

Okay, need some advice. Short version of story is I put Charlie Girl on the rocks today. Long version: Background: CG has 25 pounds of lead in the focs'l; no other ballast yet. When on the bouy she sits with her chines in the water at the bow and the stern maybe 2 inches out of the water right at the transom. Pictures indicate that her bow chine may be slightly out of the water when I am on board. Sailing to date had impressed me at how nicely she came through irons and tacked smoothly in light and moderate air. She has a distinct weather helm. I normally sit on port side, I suspect because that keeps the wheel at my right hand. I have had no particular routine of swapping sides during tacks up to now because air has been very light. Today I went sailing with my daughter. She weighs in at 110 maybe. I weigh in at 195. She was sitting starboard side at the cabin bulkhead handling jib sheets. I was port side, mid bench. Air was variable, 5 to 10 with but relatively steady. There was a fair amount of wind swirl toward the banks as the sides of the lake are treelined and the lake relatively narrow. She absolutely refused to answer starboard helm. Initial fix was to note that gaff was still hanging on shrouds so head of sail would not come around. Spreader is coming. I slacked the halyards slightly, which made the luff of the main a bit ugly and baggy but freed the jaws and seemed to help at first. On next tack to starboard (helm to port was relatively effective) helm full starboard produced no results. Came up toward the wind on weather helm the refused to go anywhere further. I was backing down wind on lee shore with the helm full over starboard. She wouldn't come up even enough to heave to. I waited to long to jibe out of it and put her hard on the rocks. Distrubing crunch, but the big forefoot is at least a good rock rammer. The odd thing was that the problem was mainly with starboard helm. My looks over the stern seemed to indicate that the rudder was going hard over. We got some correction by both moving to starboard side as I put the helm over, but that seems like a self limiting solution if the wind were any stronger. Took me twice to shoot my bouy because she wouldn't answer to starboard even at almost a drift. Tacks to port remained relatively effective, althoug I failed to get through the wind once with helm to port. Bow too far up with two on board? Side to side bias of weight distribuiton? I haven't really checked the rudder swing, but I think it is even -- port and starboard. Bad jib handling? (Jib is clipped off on eyebolt right at bowsprit, sheets run through pulley at fore shroud) Any other suggestions? Doc(Puzzled)A.

I love it... Thanks for the pics. I feel similar mods coming on. DocA

This is an interesting thread, as Tim said. One thing that I did not bother to do was the lower rub rail. You can tell that in the pictures of Charlie Girl. As far as on the dock, that's what fenders are for and the way she sits, the rub rail wouldn't have been much help without fenders anyway. I suspect I might have lost a bit of hull stiffness, but not so as I can notice yet. And after hearing all the horror stories of trying to bend them, plus the cost to match the mahogany toe rail the hull came with, just seemed like a lot of effort for ornament.

Adla; have you (or anyone else) got a picture that shows your spreaders? I'm thrashing with that now. I ginned up a very small thing, but I'm still having some conflict between jaws and shrouds. Along with a fully rounded mast, the spreaders are probably definitely a "what I'd do different" thing. Doc(David)A

Hey, great to see you back. Man, that is a great looking lake. How cool to have it that close. On the other hand, I just read your account of loosing the rig on your website. :shock: Cowabunga, Buffalo Bob!!!! Doc(David)A

I heartily second the comment on rounding the mast. I quit too soon on that phase, and even with partially rounding the corners still had trouble with the set and performance of the gaff jaws. If you are going to use a solid stick, round it. DocA

Oh, man....that's one beautiful boat. DocA

You might take a look at the Scintilla 25 at www.scruffie.com for some ideas in the same range as the Princess 26. It's an interesting boat DocA

There is a neat little folding dingy called Oragami on Duckworks. DocA

Background -- I just sent Ken StJ some more detail on the slot top cabin approach I mentioned in my reply to "doing it over." Here is a view of the slot top. As you can see, the detailing is still a bit messy at the companionway end. The companionway frame was in place when I bought the hull and was too nice to chop up. I will probably evenually shape the ends of the new coaming, fairing them down to fit. The green chest that barely shows is an old camp kitchen that I have been using as a holdall locker. It's not permanent. I am going to put a soft tonneau and a soft companionway with snaps and zipper arrangement for sailing and a hard companionway board and a solid box top that will drop over the coamings for storage and extended trailer time.

Well, good question. I bought my hull semi-complete, so I didn't make many major changes. I did extend the cabin hatchway to the forward cabin beam, making a semi-slot top. I am delighted with this mod. I can walk all the way forward to the mast, halyards, etc. I still do not have a fitted cover, but that is coming -- a soft sports car style tonneau for sailing and a hard fitted hatch for storage. (You can see this slot top on my recent posts, particularly the one titled Back to Captain Bob's. It isn't as traditional as a sliding hatch, but it sure is nice to to have to climb topside for all manner of line handling.) If I were building the hull from scratch, I would forget the wheel thing and design both the transom and the blocking at the rear to take a rudder on pintles mounted parallel to the slope of the transom and fitted with a real tiller. The wheel is too sloppy and slow in response for the boat. (See Adla and others.) It would also let you close that hole in the transom. The tiller also would allow you to sit further forward when single handing which would improve the way she sits on her chines. You really have to sit pretty far back with the wheel. I'll leave the ballast and dagger board question to others. See Tim Diebert's postings and website. Now that I have sailed her, there is one more really radical change that I would make. I would bob the cabin off at the middle beam (between the two portlight on the plan) and then extent the seats forward with a bit of a bridge deck. The cockpit is just too small in seating room and foot room. It's crowded with just me (5-11, not all that huge, but clumsy) and with two it will get very tight in any kind of wind. That would cut the interior space obviously, but it really is just a cuddy. Proportionately, the appearance would be fine; many friendship sloops -- the obvious visual image -- had really short deckhouses anyway. The trade off would be that the seats would then be long enough to put a folding plywood berth filler between them and use an honest boom tent if you really camped in her. I don't think I would eliminate the cuddy completely (there is one fully open undecked weekender on the board), but I sure would enlarge the cockpit. Your work looks great on your website DocA