Charlie Jones

Greg- water had entered the mast head due to a clevis pin scoring the wood. Ran down and stood along bottom of main halyard sheave box. Rotted a small bit, but enough. Laura took her out sailing one day, hoisted the jib, sheeted in and the mast head came off. Fortunately the shroud jammed into the broken top and held the mast up. I bought the boat back from her and repaired. Launched her again in October, better than new Hey- the mast is 52 years old A few pics

Hey Mike- been a while for sure. Doing well. Got the boat back. Bought Laura out last May. Right now it's way too cold for me - hoping this one is the end of it. Been a nasty cold winter all over seems like How you doing these days? Getting any fishing done? And when my old phone crashed I lost your phone number.

Interesting thread. Having built a Princess 22 before, I'd say a 4 stroke outboard engine of 6- 8 HP would be perfect On my Meridian 25, I have a set up exactly like Hirilonde. Engine in a well just forward of transom, prop in water always. Tehani is 5300 pounds dry, loaded for cruise I figure 7500-7800. I use a Yamaha 8 hp 4 stroke, with a standard prop and have for years. Back then, the 6 HP was the same engine. Would have been great, but none was available.. NOW the 6 is a single cylinder and much less smooth running. I get hull speed at the "start" setting on the engine throttle control. And over some 8 or 9 thousand miles of travel, have averaged about 15 mpg in flat water. I love the Yamaha for this application since the shift is on the tiller so it sticks out and is simple to use. MUCH simpler than an inboard, and WAY cheaper Here's how it looks from the cockpit. I have since shortened the actual handle as it used to interfere with the latch on the cockpit locker. Never gets moved anyway- engine is locked tight on center. The only change I would make is I would LOVE to find an alternator to mount on the engine. The brackets are already there. But that hasn't been a real high priority since my solar panel does a good job.

Howdy Greg, and all. Been away so long I had to re sign in That's too long I guess, but I haven't done any building in close to a year now. Did some repair work on my 25 footer,Tehani, repairing the broken mast. Otherwise, nothing.

I've always put the weather stripping on my boats on the under side of the hatch lid. Did it on the Princess 22, the Core Sound 20, the Core Sound 17 and both of my own boats.

Yep- makes things go much easier. As I said, I used the trick to glass the hull of a Princess 22, by myself, in a shop that was sitting at 104 degrees. Be certain the container is straight sided- a tapered one will give you a bad ratio. I've used pretty good sized tin cans for the purpose. Mix, pour it on and squeegee it out. Even then, best hit the head before you start, cause in hot weather you gotta MOVE. Which brings a story ( maybe from here) of a guy glassing a hull and his pants fell down - belt broke. They fell down, he stepped out of them and finished glassing, a little less dressed :D

I've used Zinc Chromate primer on 5 different masts- works quite well. I did a 21 footer's mast about 10 years ago- and over coated with 2 part poly paint- still looks great except where it's been scraped You can buy (at least here you can) Zinc Chromate in spray cans at our Ace Hardware

Oh man- I would never pump that amount!! 6 or 8 maybe 10 pumps is about my limit- past that I measure with a marked stick. And as I said in an earlier post- for LARGE jobs, I pre pour the resin into many containers, so all I have to do is measure in the hardener. DO remember to add the hardener- I forgot once and glassed 6 feet of deck on a 35 foot tri, without- made a HUGE mess

Yes, definitely. I just pour in almost boiling water, which cools really quickly,, but does the trick

LOL- When I HAD a spouse here, she would get involved in things like this- WE, rebuilt the carb on the out board, in the kitchen And the dinghy in the living room was HER doing. It was really windy and was messing up her varnishing, so she brought it inside.. Kinda wish she was still around

LOL- just point out the cost savings on those rollers Of course, I don't have a wife around anymore, so I don't worry about it.

DON'T use acetone. Acetone will screw up things inside the pumps. Use white vinegar. Vinegar is acetic acid and will emulsify uncured epoxy. Then you can flush with water and dry. And no, they are not that short lived, normally. I've had some go a year or two, in warmer conditions You can clean brushes in white vinegar also. I keep a can full on the bench, and just drop the brush in between uses. Shake it out well and it's good to go, for at least a few days. After that, toss and start a new one. Rollers I stick into a baggie and shove in the freezer over night. Works for a day or two, then they need to be tossed. I find very few uses for Acetone

I've been reading this thread with interest, and use some of the techniques mentioned, which I'll talk about further down. But I really really do not understand the dislike of pumps. I've been building boats using epoxy since 1976, and have ALWAYS used pumps. First from the Gougeons, then MAS, and RAKA and SYS 3, and epoxy from Graham for the last 8 or nine boats, and many repaIr jobs, with absolutely zero problems, unless I myself did something stupid ( and I HAVE done that ). I do check the calibration often, and if the pump isn't putting out what it should, I scrap it and put in a new one- They aren't but $10 bucks. I've never weighed a batch in my life. So I'm at a lost as to the dislike. Now- on the other methods. I use the clear cup, marked with 2 parts then one more, or 5 and one more (West), for small batches Works quite well. Another method is using a straight sided container (MUST be straight sided) and marking a stick with the ratio. Pour resin to the first mark, hardener to the second, stir and go. And I have mixed TINY batches that way- the little cup that's found inside the lid of a spray paint can is perfect.. I've used as small as 1/8 and a 1/16th on a very small stick. On larger batches, like when fiberglassing a hull, I'll use washed out tin cans, and maybe 4 or 5 inches or more of resin. Yes- with a 2-1 ratio this gives 6 inches or more of resin once mixed. If on a large job I'll pre-pour 6 or 8 (or more) cans with just resin, so when I need more it's simple to add hardener, and keep going. I glassed the hull of a Princess 22 this way, working alone, in a shop that was at 104 degrees-- and believe me, ya gotta move FAST

might as well buy as much as you think you'll need all at once, depending on pricing of course. It doesn't spoil. I've used epoxy that was 5 years or more old, no problems. Now the hardeners may darken, West fast in particular-it'll turn a dark purple. So if trying for a clear finish, don't use that. But for gluing, etc, or coating under paint, no problems. When I was building the 35 foot tri, I was ordering WEST 10 gallons at a shot- was cheapest way at the time. Lately, I've just ordered from B and B. I'm totally happy with the product.

I don't think it was all about Tim leaving, although that certainly didn't help. A very nice guy, who LIVES on a classic Plastic boat ( a Pearson Ariel), and is running several other forums about boats, building and sailing picked it up and is running it. But they chased away several very knowledgeable folks with nastiness and some of the folks seemed to have the idea that if something was just "good enough" it was fine. And seemed to heap scorn on those who didn't agree Personally, I still visit, but I'm not involved in restoring a plastic Classic anymore- I'm sailing her, so don't have much to say. I do totally agree about Frank- a jewel of a site, which I don't frequent as much as I used to anymore either- busy USING the boat-Grin

Most of us are doing stitch and glue boats. How do you cut the wires ahead of time, and get them the same length. Here's how I do it, or PI is your friend To make 3 inch (roughly) long wires, wrap the wire around a 1 inch dowel or hunk of PVC pipe, slide the wraps off, and cut down one side with tin snips. Now you have wires all the same length and it takes just a minute or two

Here's some pics of my table saw scarfing jig. It runs in a miter gauge slot.

An addendum after using the boat for several trips- I wound up using a loop of line through the bow, with the line wrapped to prevent chafe. I then used a double sheet bend to secure the painter to the loop. You folks were right MUCH less to mar other boats. Funny thing about those oars- I was gonna buy some, then remembered I had an old one in the shop rafters, so figured I'd just copy that. Looked in the rafters and I had TWO oars up there, just alike, and sized exactly right for the Mini. So I sanded and painted them and they work great. LOVE it when things happen like that-Grin Oh - and the MiniPaw is every bit as good as the first one, and the dry stowage additions worked great. Here's how it traveled on a 3300 mile trip this May, June, July to Florida

For cutting long pieces, you can use a piece of ply wider than the saw base, attach a narrower one to that on one side, use THAT as the guide and ride the saw along, cutting off excess.. This leaves a piece exactly as wide as your saw base (to the inside of the blade) that you can then clamp (or nail) to any long piece and just cut. You'll get a clean straight cut every time, as long as you use THAT same saw. I have a guide like that, made professionally, with an aluminum piece attached with adjustable knobs. On is 4 feet, the other 8. And for long cuts on whole sheets of ply, I just toss the ply out onto the grass, set the blade draw to JUST cut through and cut away. On many sheets of ply, you can crawl around on the wood while cutting- makes it easy to see the lines.

Wish I could join you, but not to be. The 27th is my mother's 93 rd birthday. I'll be with her instead. All you folks have fun

A point I'd like to add. I beat this "use quality wood" drum all the time. A few years ago I built a 22 foot sailboat for a customer- all up, it cost him about 22 grand, sails, etc included. I priced the plywood materials using Fir Marine, and again using BS 1088 quality stuff. The cost difference for the entire boat, would have been $700 which is a ridiculously small amount to try to save in a $20 K plus overall expenditure. And the bad taste from using cheap stuff lingers forever. Use the BEST materials you can get- Your TIME is worth so much more than the wood is, and you can Never regain that time.

And I do exactly what Chuck and Wkisting do, using a flush trim bit, then a round over

Sorry to hear that Ray. Best wishes in your new endeavors, from a (sorta) retired boat builder

I use nothing BUT foam rollers for epoxy. A hint on tipping off. Just use your gloved finger(You ARE wearing gloves?) to hold the roller from turning, and drag it back lightly across the area in long straight passes. No need for a separate brush.

I typed the above with paragraphs, and it simply refused to post- Strange things. Had to go top "More reply options" and hit "add reply". Same thing with this reply . What's going on?