Blkskmr

Reefing and Snakes We went for a short weekend cruise to Swan island. The track is below. Very pleasant with a single surprise. We were getting ready to go on Sunday morning. Michele was raising the mizzen when I noticed a 3 foot snake tangled in the reef we had left in the sail. He was kind of stuck and not happy. We were anchored so no place to go. I got the paddle and helped him out . He grabbed the handle. I got him off the handle, then to the back of the boat. After attacking paddle a couple of times. He left. He did not look poisonous. Still, a 17 foot boat seems small with a snake on board. Anyone else have a similar experience? Any thoughts on prevention? Also I had spent the night in the cockpit so he could have just as well curled up with me.

Good question. I plan to cut a form from OSB . I will lay out the curve. At intervals I will use a hole saw and cut hole just below the outline of the curve. I will laminate the beams. I will use the holes so I cam clamp the layers to the curve. There will be three layers of white wood from Lowes with layers of glass in between and on the outside. That will be the hard part. I will then cut front head and the tail. Epoxy and glass them together. I have never done this before so all of this is an experiment. Let's hope for the best.

Thank you for the comments. Yes the idea was to reduce friction. Since the sails stays on one side of the sprit it is possible to have the reef lines on one side and not through the grommet. I attached my reef blocks on the sprit in according to B&B drawings. I co-opted this set up from my Wayfarer. We use similar kind of set up on the boom when we use it with reef-able main. I think it is an improvement, but there are always better ideas.

Reef lines: The purpose was to reduce the effort required to reef. This is my mizzen sprit. The reef lines are on one side of the sail. They attach to the reef point with a ball with a figure eight knot. Also I used a block on sprit to lead lines to the cleats. Not a big change from original set up. It is better not perfect, at least for me.

Thank you. Yes i will post photos. Need to find them. Yes the new sprit will be a wishbone. I thought I had posted a pdf. I did but it is in the text for some reason. Will fix that. I will be back..

Just to follow up on a few things finally. My final changes to the reefing system did work. ( I have the reef lines on sails on the sprit side of sail, tied to balls on opposite side of sail.. will post picture if anyone is interested) It is also matter of technique. I have found it is best to lower the sail and snotter until very slack then push sprit up as the reef line on the sprit is being tightened. I have done this several times on the water and works well. ( Last time with winds gusting to mid 20's in a chop) As always, plan ahead. I have posted a sketch below. It is my perception the boat points better on a port tack when the mizzen sprit is to windward and sail has full shape, despite centerboard being offset to the port side. I feel like the boat has more drive. I understand this is subjective and have read all the comments to the contrary. There is also a large body of data out there suggesting sail shape matters. I'm not racing the boat but I would like it to better if it can be. I will build the mizzen sprit first. I don't see it will complicate rigging or reefing. It will take some time due to other projects in the way. I hope to have it by fall messabout. I would appreciate any comments on shape, dimensions, or designs or other sprit builds. Kind Regards to all sprit drawing.pdf

I while back I posted some photos of changes I made to the sprits for reefing. It did not work well and did not solve the problem. Note: Please do not copy that idea. It did not work. We will play around with some other ideas. But want to be sure no one tried to follow me down and dark path. Best Regards

I wanted to follow up on this. We were sailing on Sunday, we reefed both main and mizzen and would like to have put another reef in the main. Unfortunately the turning system I put in did not work well. I think the sprit is turning during the process and the very small cheek block on sprit angled and therefore causing the line to get caught. I will change that just a small block. I may also put a ball with a block on the sail at each reef point on the leach. Lines will run on just one side of sail( sprit side) for the reef. We will experiment and tell all. The other thing to note is that when we decided to try for a second reef on the main, the boat was completely wet and very slippery and the boat was bouncing around a lot. I think our problem is part equipment, trying to gear it to our strength, and technique. Reefing a sprit which moves is different from reefing a boom which is fixed at one end. We plan to make some changes, practice in the drive way and then on the water in easy conditions. Thank you

tfrei, Good afternoon. Two weeks ago I was sailing with my wife, with the standard set up on my Core Sound 17, and she could barely get it reefed in. So we did a modification and added a turning block. Last Sunday I was sailing with my daughter, she was driving and we needed to reef. Even with the turning block it took some effort to get it done. But less force. Also the boat in those conditions is rocking around and nothing is easy. My fear with your systems is that you may not be able to reef when it is important, and or the line may get cut. Kindest Regards

Don, Nice to hear from you. The RF 58 are the answer no doubt. The placement of the compass looks odd but it is actually perfect for visibility. And the numbers are big enough that I can actually read them. I hate to admit but I could never get working with a regular round compass right. So digital is better for me. I have attached two photos below. We had to do an on the water reef and my wife, aka long suffering crew, had a hard time trying to reach and tension the pendant lines on the sprit. She came up with the idea of the turning block to pull the line through the cleat. Also we moved the cleats back on the sprit to make reaching them easier. This I think is an improvement and will make reefing easier and will take less strength.

One of the questions that seems to come up a lot is, how does the boat sail? The boat is comfortable and secure in relatively heavy wind. Please see the attached photo. We sailed yesterday from 10 to 4.( RH side of charte.. 10 to 4) These are wind measurements taken in Oriental. We were out in the Neuse. As you can see there were some puffs and the wind was pretty consistent in the high teens. In my dinghy this would have been very nervous sailing and in fact we probably would not have chosen to gone out alone. Conditions were predicted to be 10 to 20, so we put a reef in the main from the start. We had two people onboard and water ballast in. It was never worrisome or uncomfortable. I have a good video but it is too big. 24mb versus the allowable 16mb. If you want I will send via email. Please excuse dumb hat in video. All in all the boat allows us to sail when we otherwise would not.

Many thanks to everyone.. This is kind of an omnibus response... Wile E... I like the motor. It is light, easier to use than a gasoline outboard, fits in the seat compartment for storage. I am concerned about battery life. As long as you are content to move at 2 to 2.5 knots there is plenty battery life. If you need the motor for an emergency run, then perhaps better to stay put. I think of it as being a replacement for rowing. My primary use will be to get down a creek to the wind then back. I will plan on sailing out of any other predicaments. Chick, I unfortunately will not make the Appalachian mess about. My trailer although perfect the boat, is used and has rust in all the wrong places and I have yet to figure out how to move boat without damaging it on a long trip. Also I need to stick close to home for a while to build up some political capital. I am gone most weeks and home only on weekends. I will be at the fall messabout. My apologies. Thank you for the kind words on the boat. Drew... It was a mistake but our boat shares its colors with IKEA stores. I originally wanted to make the boat a cream yellow but we had so much leftover blue paint from a prior project that it seemed wasteful not to use it. A friend made a comment that the sheer strake(?) was overly wide and large, so we painted it bright yellow just to be sure no one would miss it. The deck is a white blue.... looks very white to me but it is supposed to be easier on the eye in bright sunlight. I think blue with a varnished shear would be a better combination . Our boat when seen up close is workman like quality... not furniture quality... but it works very well. We are very pleased. However I am open to offers from IKEA for a sponsorship. I would gladly promote disassembled furniture and meatballs all over the sounds of North Carolina. Steve JW & Steve W Thank you. I appreciate the comments. I am fortunate to have a wife who likes this sort of thing. We work well together and when we don't there is cold beer. The hard part for me was allowing her to take over a part of the project and then letting her do her part without me constantly interjecting. She did her parts well. And unlike me, she did not have any redo's Pete... It was nice to motor about. I wanted to see if there were any leaks without being in the middle of the river and then having real problems. Fortunately no leaks. I would recommend a quick splash n dash once you get to that point. It was a great motivator and relief without having all the line tangling around your ankles. Best Regards. AmosSwogger... We do understand about motivation and the constant effort. It seemed like for a while we would work our day jobs 8 to 10 hours then 3 to 4 more each night on the boat then 16 or so more on the boat over the weekend. I think we did that for the first year then did nothing just about for the second. We had some moves etc and I am sure what I just said is an exaggeration. I am gone a lot and am generally prone to complaining. We are slow workers and we would spend as much time talking about what and how to do the next part as actually doing it. It can be a struggle. Toward the end we adopted a just get it done attitude. It has been worth it. The boat was amazing on the first sail. Focus just on the next task..not the big picture. That seemed to work best. Craig and Paul... last but not least... Thank you for posts. It is nice to get it done even better to have folks cheer you on. I appreciate it. Best Regards

Don, Thank you... It has started well... I appreciate the encouragement along the way... Best Regards

I was expecting the first sail to be chaotic, due to our inexperience with the boat, and a major fist bumping event due being finished. I'm not sure I could actually land a fist bump but it was neither. It was unbelievably pleasant. We sailed 9.2 miles, averaged 4.2 had speeds up to 7.9. The most interesting part was the feel of the boat. It felt secure and sedate despite the occasional puff from no where. The boat tracked very well. Winds were 10-12 with just small white caps. Conditions were near perfect. The boat was stiff. Masts would bend and unloaded nicely. Both my wife and I wanted the winds to kick up just to see what else the boat could do. My wife felt comfortable driving the boat, something she is not on our dinghy. There are a few changes and adjustments to be made. Please note the boat will not live on a lift, but it is a nice photo. If you are building and are getting bogged done, hang in there, the boat you are building will be much better than you can imagine. We are done, except the sailing. Many thanks to Alan at B&B who was always willing to listen and help formulate solutions. Best Regards

Everyone, Thank you very much!! I appreciate the warm welcome.. or re-welcome. With luck it will be rigged this weekend and we will sail. I hope to have new photos next week. Best Regards to all.

It has taken a long time but the hull(#6) and spars are complete. We took the boat for a test motor this last weekend, filled the water ballast and emptied it. Only a small drip from bottom gudgeon which was an easy fix. If all goes well, we will sail this weekend. It has been two years, three houses, two job changes, three sanders, acres of sand paper, and cases of rubber gloves. ( and we need more rubber gloves now) Most important, without my wife's hard work, patience, opinions, and sound advice, this boat would not be complete. She has been a willing co-conspirator. Richard Johnson

"Chick, Very nice to see you this weekend. I hope you were able to get a cruise in. The weather got chilly Saturday night but Sunday was lovely. I appreciate your allowing Michele and I to take a good long look at your boat. We are back to work on the boat. I need to order some parts but we really need to get this complete. We won't have the concours finish of your boat but I think it will float and sail. Best Regards and travel safe.

Finishing by end of August is a hope...