Charlie Jones

Graham and I have talked about masts for the Princess 22 I'm building for Travis. His thoughts are that with the aluminum you get a known, predictable mast bend, whereas with wood it may turn out way too stiff and not bend off at the top of the mast correctly, or conversely, way too limber.. His feelings and what we intend on the Princess is to use aluminum on the lower half - 2/3rds of the mast and a tapered birdsmouth section above that. Actually, a birdsmouth mast built to the sizes shown for the Princess 22 wouldn't be much trouble to step, since they are mounted in serious tabernacles. My own CLC Sharpie has solid wooden masts, 20 feet long and I can pick them up and stab them into the mast steps with little difficulty. And I'm 63 I built a birdsmouth mast for a customers Weekender which was just over 12 feet long and I could carry it around one handed. Needn't be all that heavy.

That drawknife is a really handy tool sometimes, for both roughing out and for smoothing cuts. Here's a pic of one being used to rough down the bevel on a keelson matching it to the stem piece on a B and B Yacht design Princess 22. And by the way- I was using a spoke shave today on this same boat:) [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

Just spent more time reading this thread. Wow!! First - an enclosed space, coated with multiple coats of epoxy isn't likely to "rot" I have built and still build, tanks from plywood and epoxy to hold both diesel and water. They don't seem to have any difficulties with rot. On the Princess I'm building I have made 4 individual "sealed " compartments One on each side of the motor well, under the cockpit and under the rope locker in the bow. Each of those was heavily coated with epoxy , then filled with foam. Each also has a screw in drain at the low point that can be removed when the boat is being stored on her trailer. More to allow condensation (if any) to excape than for any other reason. Since the lower edges are all filleted and taped, and the UPPER edges are also, I really see no way water can ingress save for condensation. Another thing I have done is make the bulkhead at the mizzen mast a water tight bulkhead, plus the two larger cockpit lockers are totally sealed from the remainder of the boat. The settees inside are also sealed off (filleted and taped) from the center of the boat. Therefor, this boat has, by my count, nine seperate water tight sections, spread bow to stern. I'm not worried, nor is the owner, about this boat sinking Plus the centerboard trunk runs through one under bridge deck space and would take 18 inches of water in it to flood over. I guess that would make 10 spaces There are multiple methods of obtaining floatation and part of them can be useable for other things ya know :)l

Yeah- He was a boat builder - still is I think. He's the guy that built the "Tugantine", the sailing tug boat that worked around Norfolk back in the 80's. Dylan was a quite nicely done ferro boat. helluva sailing machine. Did the mouth of the Chessy to Bermuda in record time once.

Really!! Did you ever chance to meet, or see Howdy Bailey on his 45 foot cutter Dylan? He kept her at Willoughby Spit which is why we anchored there for a day- to visit him- he's an old friend.

Garry- if I may make a suggestion here. When I was cruising I used a steel cable to lock up the inflatable and also our plywood dink Note- cruising on a 35 foot tri gives you room for several dinghys . You can see both of them in this picture, taken by the way in the Elizabeth River moving from Willoughby Spit to Waterside in Norfolk just days before Halloween in about 1983. What I did to stop chafe was strip the core from a length of double braid and insert the wire cable through the cover. Then I made a loop on each end with Nicro-press fittings and I seized the braided cover over those nicro fittings. The only thing uncovered was the loops on each end. [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

Klaus- 'zat you from way down under? Good to see you here .

Very nice, clean work Dave. Looks like it's going to be a great first boat for your coming crew:)

ccareman- I agree with Oyster. Since I have no first hand knowledge of the boat I can't answer. Unless someone actually is building that boat it's very hard to answer a question about it. Call or Email Graham. He's a great guy to talk to. Garry- glad they worked for you. One time in your life you can afford all the clamps you need huh?

Haven't totally decided yet. Most likely we'll use some 2 inch butt type hinges, although a piano hinge would work. A stainless piano hinge is SOOOOOO costly though, especially with 6 hatches. So I'm really leaning towards butt type, in stainless of course. Salt water ya know

I'm not at all surprised the mast split with that set up. You have a nice lever applying force to the two inline bolts, prying the grain apart. Also the upper bolt is contributing to trying to seperate the grain- they are all in one line down the center of the mast. When you are hard on the wind, all the pressure on the spreader is downward on the weather side- it didn't have a chance of holding. Yes you should put a band around the mast at the spreaders- something to help the wood stave off that spliting force. That's what traditional gaffers would have. Would be best if it was directly under the spreaders with the spreader bolts going through it fore and aft. Or at least a metal plate on each side running beyond the spreader top and bottom, but then you get two MORE holes in the stick. I'd pick the metal band.

Haven't decided as yet. Most likely something that has provisions for a lock. At least on the two center ones.

sorry about the multiple posts. I've been having all kinds of problems with these forums the last few days. In this instance it never showed me that it had posted, or even that it had started to do so. The other problems I'm having is that it sometimes won't load a complete thread - gets part way through and says "DONE". Then I have to reload and reload to get the complete thread. Or it just won't load at all- just sits there. Yesterday I had to give up totally because I couldn't get this or the main board to load at all.

The way I do it is to slice off rings on the table saw or radial arm saw, then cut the ring open on the band saw. I've heard of people running a length of pipe through a table saw lengthwise to cut the slot, then cutting the rings. I use 2 inch, 3 inch and 4 inch pipe - depends on what your are clamping. The width of the ring is varied depending on how strong you want it. I usually cut 1 inch wide rings. The 2 inch pipe rings will open to about 1 inch max. Also- you can put a 2, then a 3 over that then a 4 to reach in deeper. I do that sometimes when repairing veneer on furniture.

Wish I knew the guy who dreamed up using rings of it for clamps- I'd buy him a beer for sure [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

I afraid I don't understand why you would want to use Peelply on a boat that wasn't being glassed? The reasons for using peel ply are several, but getting a finsih on an unglassed boat isn't one that I would think of. I would use it in a situation where I needed to prep a surface for later bonding to another surface. The Peelply contributes to a much better secondary bond. Another reason would be in vacumn bagging to allow excess resin to bleed through and be removed when the peelply was removed. This could also be done when squeegeeing the resin into the glass, by squeegeeing the peelply down, then lifting it once the epopxy cured. Seems to me a waste of money and effort, when you could just roll on thin coats of epoxy and finsih sand. Am I missing something here?

Yep- I think we're in agreement. As I said earlier- I can't conceive how the plastic applied over wet glass can give you a surface that is ready to paint without at least SOME fairing. Particularly when using a high gloss finish. It has GOT to have some waviness in it. Now if they were using something with some stiffness to it, like a heavier Mylar I could see it. That would be somewhat like a mold. But they show plastic on a pretty small roll, and all the heavy mylar I've seen would take a much larger roll. But I intend to give it a try when the right application shows up. It IS an interesting concept.

Barry - Chopper gun use doesn't necessarily denote "el cheapo" If it is used correctly by someone who cares about what he''s doing, a chopper gun does a great job. Some very good boats used a partial layup done with chopper gun in between layers. It's a sad note that a relatively few incompetent builders gave the equipment such a bad name - It's rarely seen anymore except for small part layups. And Jack- no- not referring to Peel ply. There was an article mentioned recently I think on the B and B board about someone using 30 mil polyethene rolled on over the wet glass/resin layup and carefull flattened that gave a truly remarkable finish.

They are necessary. Don't leave home without one. They were designed that way for a reason. The rear ones act somewhat as a backstay when sailing down wind- that's the reason for the drift aft. The forward ones offset the downward pressure of the mainsheet ON the wind, along with the headstay. Besides that - rigging with just one would complicate things at the mast head- you'd need tangs rather than what the design calls for.

first- you can't spray fiberglass. it's a cloth or a matt like a roll of cloth. Ya gotta roll it out or spread it out. Picky HUH? I think you mean the difference between polyester resin and epoxy resin. Both use fiberglass. Second - Polyester resin can be sprayed with the right equipment. Usually the guns I see doing it are set to draw from a 55 gallon drum and inject the MEKP from a 5 gallon bucket as it's being sprayed - BIG bucks. Third- the manufacturers of common boatbuilding epoxies - such as WEST and MAS strongly recommend AGAINST thinning it enough so it can be sprayed. You would lose strength in the cured resin. The plastic technique is really interesting - I intend to try that myself next I get a chance. I already use somewhat the same technique doing repairs on small holes. I can't conceive that it will totally eliminate sanding prior to paint or varnish but it looks like it will certainly minimize the work.

Scott- Try posting your question here- http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=handtools You'll get a ton of answers. This is the Hand tool section of Woodnet Forums. You'll have to register but there is no personal stuff required.

Very good. Glad to hear it Laura. Next time you'll all know about pumps Right?

Mark- that will most likely do the trick. The only other thing you could do would be to wash the wood down with Acetone. If you are working in a relatively tightly closed space you probably don't want to do that. The small amount that was absorbed shouldn't really hurt you. What you suggest is the most you can do now- just wait til it cures and try it out.

looking very nice Scott. How large is the work space you are in there? Is that a standard 2 car garage?

Mark and Greg- overcoating a bad mix with a good mix will do nothing but waste the new epoxy. It ain't gonna cure. All that will happen is the new stuff will cure over the bad and you'll STILL have partially cured epoxy under there with no strength. Epoxy isn't like Polyester. The Hardener isn't a catalyst- it's a required part of the mix to allow proper crosslinking. Polyester will eventually cure even with NO MEKP. Epoxy will not. Sorry Mark- you best clean the uncured epoxy off and reapply proper stuff. One thought- do YOU want to spend the rest of the time you have those boats, wondering if THAT join is gonna come apart or not? Especially with one of your little dolls IN the boat?