Joe Sundstrom

I think that building wooden boats in this age of high technology is a very worthwhile thing. And hanging out with your dad is even better. Keep writin'. Joe

Congratulations. I just can't get enough of that cat ketch look, i'm glad you had the sails raised.

It is Gregg Carlson's free Hulls program. It does just what i required (see first message in this thread). Go to website: http://home.clara.net/gmatkin/softwr.htm Select "Hulls software." Select "Hull Design." Download both Hull Designer software and Gavin Atkins' tutorial. Grab your lofted plan with offsets (or create your own offsets from the drawing) and go to work. Joe

Sweet lookin' card, GB.

A very, merry Christmas.

I am looking for an inexpensive or free computer-assisted design software application that will convert a traditional. lofted hull plan to a two-dimensional layout for plywood stitch and glue construction. I have plan with a single, hard chine that was almost certainly designed for plywood construction. It includes keel, chine and sheer dimensions at regular stations as well as the half-breadths at those stations. I would like to be able to enter those dimensions into the program and then have it produce the two-dimensional layout for transferring to plywood sheets.

i have not seen any problems with outgassing or workability with the Silvertip epoxy, it seems to be very forgiving from what i've read about other kinds on this board. Also, the EZfillet is great, no mixing with wood flour. Just mix and go. Joe

I chose this design for two reasons: 1. The sail plan and standing rigging: I hate flogging headsails and love to singlehand, but still want to be able to balance the helm, so i knew that a cat ketch was the rig for me. Many years of catboat sailing also make me very confident in using an unstayed mast. 2. The wife does not like long passages Thus, the desire for a trailable boat. The PS22 is the best i have found to fulfill these requirements; there is nothing commercially available that comes even close, as far as i know. So i get the plans and see all of those curvy lines and exotic (to me) materials and my crest fell. So the wife sez "why don't you build a small boat first?" (so glad there is one smart and sensible partner in this marriage). I recalled reading a child's book which featured a young girl who sailed a small pram called a Puddleduck to my young girls, lo, these many years ago, and Googled it. The illustrations in the book revealed a lovely little, all-purpose sailing pram with a lot of rocker, very sea-worthy. Turns out to have been designed by R. H. Baker in 1951 and put in production in 1953 (my birthdate as well). I am currently laying out the bottom and side panels in 2-D for stitch and glue using the method of Sam Devlin as the plans from Baker Boat Works, while drawn for plywood construction, require lofting (Sam Devlin, Woodenboat Issue no. 106, May/June 1992 ""Converting to Stitch and Glue"). I plan to build at least two of them, one each for my girls, who are already fighting over who gets the pram. Should be a plywood boat-building monster by then, and since my science career is not too satisfying, who knows where it will go? I want to give special thanks to Charlie Jones, who tutored me on the use of the block plane. Also, source of Okume plywood in the Greater Seattle area and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state is Edensaw. Really easy to use epoxy products are available from Seattle-based System Three (go online and get their Epoxy Book).[/img]

The noise/drag created by the Princess Sharpie 22 motor well as specified in current plans disturbs me. There must be an easy modification to minimize or prevent this and i would like to have it before i begin construction of hull #22. I will be researching this on my own, of course, but i can never be as smart as all of us put together.

Let's discuss the taping of the OUTSIDE seams. I have seen commercial sources of stitch and glue craft tape the outside of hull seams both before (Chesapeake Light Craft) and after (Devlin) completely fiberglassing the hull. Which one is advantageous?

I hope that you recover from your fall down the stairs. If you have any visions of boatbuilding as a result, feel free to come back.

Good to see a PS22 in a stiff breeze.

since one must adjust the sole plate so that the blade does not cut the grid, tighter curves can be cut with the circular saw.

I, and i am sure others, need to know what weights and widths of biaxial fiberglass tape are available commercially and who retails all of these different weights and widths for the amateur? I have some 15.5 oz tape from Jamestown Distributors, and it is far too heavy for my application Joe

I have searched and searched for fiberglass tape, especially biaxial, and i do not believe i have scratched the surface of available types, weights, etc., and their best uses for stitch and glue boatbuilding. It is interesting that Devlin likes to cut tape from fiberglass cloth, but that sounds like a lot of work. Probably saves him a ton of money (he doesn't like the work that selvaged edges require, either). I would appreciate information from the experienced ones among us, as well as retail suppliers. I am building an 8 foot sailing pram, then graduating to a B&B Yacht Designs Princess Sharpie 22. :shock: Joe

otherwise might not get anyone to join me for an overnighter. Anyways, i've singlehanded on some big water since i was ten with no problems, don't anticipate sinking at all (although friends saw a gray whale breach in Puget Sounds two weeks ago, that is rare and i'll have to watch out for the big fellows!) Ciao, Joe

A berth that is completely enclosed, and must be entered feet first (unless you are an acrobat). On the PS22, that would be under acockpit seat. My guess is that it is called a "coffin" berth because in an emergency situtation, such as sinking, slow egress could be life-threatening.

I haven't studied the PS 22 plans carefully enough yet to make my own assessment, but i am thinking about a coffin berth (or two), to stow the junior crew. I still want cockpit storage, of course! :wink: Graham did such a nice job on showing an alernative layout, that i could not resist this post. PS Hull #22 plan owner Joe

The article is not available on the SMA website, as far as i could tell. Do you have a link? :? As a future PS 22 owner (hull #22), it would be great to see. Joe

An easy destination with small children. Me and the fam used to show up at the Chittendam locks at about midnight for our weekend excursions. Our boat was so small that i usually had to get out and walk to the lockmaster's office to get their attention.

One time, crossing from Oak Bay, Victoria to Port Townsend, with wind and tide opposing each other all the way across. A long, wet day and i got pushed down onto the Dungeness spit, man, the waves really pile up there. I should have known that the largest pod of orca i had ever seen heading the opposite direction, (and ahead of the approaching storm) was not a good omen. I was out of money and out of time so i went for it. It ended funny though. When i moored in Port Townsend and begon throwing all of my wet clothing and bedding out onto the dock, the fellow in the next slip said "so you crossed the strait today? Man, you must be one helluva sailor." to which i replied "Buddy, if i were a good sailor, i wouldn't have been out there." I was just fortunate to have had a very good boat/rig that day, a Cap Cod Shipbuilidng Co. Cat Boat (looked very much like the one in my signature photo). That was the beginning of my total disdain for headsails and dreaming about the cat ketch. Most of my crossings have been uneventful, even boring, however, as the winds in the summertime are fluky,

I do love the look of the cat ketch rig!! And the bark-colored sails are so salty. Congrats, have a ball sailing her. Joe

And just what i thought i would hear, but empirical evidence in a case like this is best. I will be sailing my PS 22 across some ocean straights (Juan de Fuca in Washington state, and the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia) and it can get rough. Tavis, please don't bury the rail, that would be an act of vandalism with such an apparently sweet sailing vessel. I hope to join you in PS 22 land in about a year or so. Joe

I've seen pictures of the PS22 in a cupful of wind, how about some in some real weather? Anyone out there got photo evidence? Joe

I have received a sampler kit of their various epoxies and am really impressed with the SilverTip EZ Fillet (epoxy and wood flour, premixed, almost no smell!). They have paint, too, but it is not recommended for "continuous below waterline use." Joe http://www.systemthree.com/p_wr_lpu.asp