bhanchett

Thanks Tom for bringing the subject up. Just from your posts, I feel like I've doubled my knowledge of marine electric outboards...and I've been using an electric trolling motor on my dinghy for years. I didn't know we had large capacity lithium batteries providing competition for lead-acid. With all their operating advantages, how do they compare cost wise?

The manual, Interlux Boat Painting Guide & Color Card is also available online as a PDF.

Thanks Dale & Hirilonde, I guess I have to remember I'm not building a house here where all my strength comes from the fasteners and cross bracing. I'll try to limit my imagination and not install the hot water heater and kitchen sink.

I'm about ready to put all the pieces together and it seems that the bow and transom would be a lot stronger with perimeter bracing, additional 3/4" X ..., and provide a much larger glue surface for the bottom and sides. I seem to remember though that there is some reason not to do this that I read about last year. Any suggestions?

I have the calibrated pumps from Graham but often want to mix odd size batches of resin. I picked up a small digital platform scale from Amazon for about $15. and have had no problems using a 2-1 weight ratio instead of volume. Apparently the specific gravity of the resin and catalyst are about the same. The scale would weigh up to a gallon but of course I wouldn't want to mix a batch that size.

It's been a while since I logged on and with the cold winter wind blowing around the house tonight your very well done visualization of an evening at anchor behind the island is just what I needed. Any more stories you're ready to share? We are going to have a lot more cold nights to get through up here in Michigan before warm evenings are a reality again.

Hi all, In the midst of a snow storm now but spring is close so just getting started on my Spindrift 10 dinghy. I've been thinking of it as a small boat which it is, relatively. I put together my work table yesterday, 4' X 12', and that looks huge so I guess the Spindrift is more of a project than I thought. Anyway, I intend to put a sail rig on it but will use mechanical power part of the time. I have a 30# thrust Minn...... electric outboard. Will that push the dinghy at 2-4 knots or is a small gas outboard a better option? I doubt I'd ever use the dinghy for more than 8 hours at a time so wouldn't use the battery's full charge. I'm 250 lbs so either option wouldn't put me on plane. Thanks for your opinions, Michigan Bill

All building product costs are shooting up due to the surge in new house construction. I picked up some 2x and drywall last week and paid 40% more than last year. I'm paying $$30. for 1/2" BC plywood. I'm glad my garage is about done. Bill

Mitch, I recently ordered Meranti and received the Hydrotech / Meranti. Though what I received looks good, I payed double what you're seeing it for ($27.50). What's your source? Thanks, Bill

They don't say on the Devlin website but I calculate about 6.5 knots unless you overdrive it with the motor, Honda 9.9 recommended. The website is (http://store.devlinboat.com/litlcoot--fullkeel.aspx) I think Devlin sounds a lot happier with the full keel version rather than the shoal draft he originally drew up. I have a fiberglass Gloucester 20 that I'd like to adopt to a keel vs. the present centerboard since there is no room in the cabin presently. I purchased the boat and trailer very cheaply after the previous owner put a charcoal grill away in the cockpit locker while still hot. The grill rekindled and started a fire that burned away the cabin interior headliner. The Gloucester hull profile is very much like the Little Coot and I had high hope to go with the shoal draft underbody on it but I guess that's out. I'd also like to go with the pilothouse topsides on the Gloucester. Com-Pac did that with their 23', shown below, and it looks great. I also like their Scheel keel. As always, any comments appreciated. I don't know if my ideas are too far out. Bill

I just received a mini-magazine from Great Lakes Boat Building School (GLBBS) in Cedarville, MI. They have a group of four cocktail class racers being built. They are using the CLC kit, called the Skua. It's an 8' mono hull powered by a 6-8 HP outboard. Looks like fun. GLBBS is strictly a wooden boat school for people wishing to learn how to build small craft. Bill If anyone is interested in the school's info, their website is www.glbbs.org & phone is 906-484-1081.

We took the Ten-Tom route and arrived in Mobile a couple of days before Christmas, about 75 days from our start, met with family, and then went over to Slidell, north of New Orleans on Lake Pontchartrain. We left the boat there over the hot-hot summer and came back to Michigan for some contract work. In the fall we headed back on board and then went on the inter-coastal to Florida. After a hellish trip across the gulf, we stopped in Tampa for a while, the keys, and then came back up the east coast and have stayed in Michigan since. I sold the Nauticat a couple of years ago. She's in Oregon now and has been to Alaska without me. It was all a great experience, one of my best. By the way, my girlfriend is still with me though there were some problems when I asked her to jump from the bow to the pier with a line once. Bill

I decided to follow Scott's suggestion and ordered two sheet each of Meranti & Okoume so I can have the toughness and the weight saving as far as possible. I also decided to order from Noah's. This has been a really interesting and educational thread. thanks, Bill

Howard, what is SYP? Thanks, Bill

I had a 29' Bayfield Cutter and decided when I retired in 1996 I'd like to do the Great Loop trip. We needed some life jackets went to the September Mt. Clemen's In-The-Water boat show. I ended up buying a 33' Nauticat Pilothouse Ketch. We planned on going up the east side of Michigan, through the Mackinaw Bridge and down the west side of Michigan before going across to Chicago and into the river system. We started two weeks later on October 14th and unfortunately most of Michigan's state marinas closed on October 15th. The Nauticat had a lot of bells & whistles we weren't used to and it was a scary trip just because I knew if anything went wrong, I probably couldn't fix it. We also had a hard time finding fuel and food though when we found a place to stop, everyone was friendly and loaned us cars for shopping trips and we found a few private marinas where we could still buy fuel. We reached South Haven, MI, across Lake Michigan from Chicago, in early November. The next day, 'the Gales of November' started and that means big storms on the Great Lakes. The waves on the lake were about 14’ and spray routinely went over the lighthouse at the entrance of the channel. After the first week, we thought we were stuck there for the winter so I had the masts pulled and fastened them on the fore & aft deck and pilothouse top. Then we had a day of lowered wind and only 5’ waves so thought we’d try to get to Chicago, about 68 nm. We went out through the South Haven channel and were out about half a mile when the masts started to slide around. I told my girlfriend to take the wheel (for the first time ever), keep the bow into the wind (how?), and I ran out to secure the masts better. I was able to refasten the masts, ran back into the pilothouse, and we spun around and headed back into the channel where we surfed back into town on 8’ waves. The channel walls seemed like they were only 10’ on each side of the boat. I still remember the exhilaration and fear of that ride. The next day waves were back up and then we had 8”on snow on the deck that night. That was the same night that Buffalo, NY received 49” of snow. On the 12th day, the waves were down to 3’ and we took off again. By the time we arrived in Chicago, the water was glassy. The next day we entered the Illinois River system and started another part of life. Yeah, we have waves. Bill

No problem, Regan. The more questions and answers we get in here, the more we all learn. Thanks all for the input on the Hydrotech. I hadn't thought much about the weight, which should be a factor for me since I plan on car-topping the Spindrift, but I don't think another 10 or so pounds will matter too much. I can get it for $43./sheet/6mm plus shipping which is quite a savings over Okoume. I'm worried about the bow bend but will take it slow. If Howard, with all his experience, is using it for his build, it'll be fine for the Spindrift. I found a thread on the Wooden boat forum discussing the weight and the following site give weights for most of the common boat building plywood, http://www.noahsmarine.com/Canada/Plywoods-can/plywoods-can.html Thanks, Bill

I'd like to put some plywood on order for my Spindrift 10 so I just need 4 pieces. According to the ad, "Hydrotech" Meranti /Keruing Mahogany is a marine plywood, engineered to BS1088 standards. The cost is about half what I'm seeing for the more traditional marine plywood. Though even at that, it is still about $98. per piece shipped for 1/4" (6 mm). I punched the name in the 'messing-about' search field but nothing came up. If you have any history with this material, can you please post? Thanks, Bill

There are full keel and shoal draft versions, approx. 18 feet long

I had a motorsailer for 11 years and liked the visibility and livability of it. The Sam Devlin Lit'l Coot is small but I like it's looks and it doesn't look like a major project. It wouldn't be a fast boat but without the full keel option, would it be a comfortable boat. I live on Lake Huron so it can kick up but there is usually warning before she blows hard. I'm interested in your opinions. Thanks, Bill

Hi John, I just received my Spindrift Plan package a couple of weeks ago and it is for a beginner boat builder. There aren't any full size drawings of components except knees but there are adequate measurements on the drawings for laying out any part - though some of them may be hard to find. In order:There is a Material list with totals of material types required (nice touch), tool requirement sheet, a general construction guide though this is brief, most of the details are in the drawing sheets. There is a separate hardware list and material source lists. Everyone has assured me that B&B is the most economical source for most of the supplies such as epoxy, hardware, sails, and especially the plywood if you are close enough to pick it up. There are 12 large plans sheets. There is also a DVD with photos showing all construction details. Best of all, the members of this bulletin board have been very helpful and you'll pick up a lot if information here. I am very pleased with the plans and my purchase, Good Luck, Bill

I used to have one of the 10', 2 seater fiberglass boats called a "GW Invader". It would take up to a 35 HP. It was a lot of fun but kind of useless except for going fast and jumping waves, kind of like the PWCs now. While I enjoyed it, now I have to live with the reality that each boat I have takes up a lot of space so they have to be usable for multiple purposes. Geez, I sound just like my father! Bill

Thanks for your responses. I learned a lot and won't waste my time.

Edward, I doubt if I could get the plywood wholesale but I could at least save the shipping cost. I think I'm looking at about $65./sheet of Okoume 6 mm and only need four sheets for the Spindrift. Though when my lady gets to the big city, who knows what it will cost. We don't get out of our small town all that often. I looked at your CS17 blog. Your boat and your website were both very impressive. I'll have to spend some more time looking through it. Is the software for that easily available? Bill

As a newbie, maybe I can get away with asking a dumb question and hope someone else has tried it. Last year I had some extra epoxy so I coated a piece of regular 1" building construction styrafoam. I did one area with resin alone. As you could expect, the surface was much stronger but still flexible. On another spot, I used fiberglass mat with the resin. That appeared to make the foam about bulletproof. Now the question: Could you use foam planking over your conventional frame in building a boat - or at least use it building a lightweight cabin top & sides? This question has been bothering me for a couple of years and if it's feasible, I'd like to try it.

Thanks Howard, I checked out the online plywood website you mentioned. That gives me the reality of shipping cost. I guess the driving trip of about 200 miles each way to pick up some marine plywood looks a little cheaper now. I read some threads promoting epoxy precoating the interior side (and edges after cutting) of your plywood before assembly to eliminate inner areas ever wetting out when you have water in the interior. Is that pretty well agreed upon as the best way to go now? Bill