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What do you all do about fenders on your Weekender? I bought some that are 4 or 5 inches in diameter, I think, and they turned out to be pretty useless. (I'm going to trip myself up on terminology here, I know) The angle of the side of the boat (topsides? sheer? what is it?) is so steep, that the fender wasn't fat enough to keep the rail away from the dock. So the rub-rail is doing its thing, rubbing against the dock, while the fender hung uselessly below it. I tried hanging the fender higher, from the shrouds, but the fender wouldn't hang straight, so it just got pushed aside. And on the back, there isn't anything to hang it from at all. Now those of you who have SEEN my boat, know that this is mostly an academic discussion. :wink: But I am curious if other people have had a similar problem, and how they solved it. (aside from buying fenders the size of a garbage can) Noel

I also use the "four part mainsheet without traveler" as pictured above. I like it for the most part, aside from one minor annoyance.... I have found that as the boom comes across the cockpit, I get a lot of loose line briefly laying about on the lazerette, which sometimes gets hung up on the motor (top part, not the prop!). Generally it is pretty quick to untangle, so it hasn't been a super high priority to fix. Plus I am not sure of a good way to fix it. I might go with some kind of traveler arrangement so I can use a 3-part or 2 part mainsheet instead. 4 part seems like overkill. Or I might relocate the motor aft and down some. Noel.

I have found I do not like the club foot. It's simpler to operate, but I find tacking easier with separate sheets, even if it is an extra couple of lines to handle. The ability to back the headsail while tacking helps keep me out of irons in light air. I put some bullseyes and spinlock cleats on, and it sure is slick. haul in the leeward jib sheet tight prior to coming about, and let the spinlock cleat hold it. Hold the rudder over, and the jib backfills before the the bow comes through the wind, and pulls the bow around for me. Once the boom come across, I give the cleat a slap and it comes free, and pull in the other jib sheet. Noel.

Thanks Tony, but I was actually looking for information on the wooden boat fair in Olympia. Not that a battle cruise wouldn't be a lot of fun, but Coos Bay is like an 8 hour drive for me. :-D I did get to see Lady Washington at the Tall Ships last August. Noel.

Mainsheet/tiller questions are pretty common here. Not that we aren't all happy to answer them, but perhaps this should be a "featured article" on the "Weekender" section of this site? I would be willing to write it... Noel

Hey, the Open Classic 17 looks pretty close to what you want, if you finish it bright. http://www.boatplans-online.com/proddetail.php?prod=OC17 Noel

I am hoping to make it to this. Do you know, is there a schedule of events available online? Noel

Joe, Keep posting the pictures, please! Who is the builder for Tidbit, then? I didn't build my boat either. I was seriously considering building a Weekender-sized boat, when I found a Weekender on Craig's List for a song. While I would love to build a boat, and I may still, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Noel.

Nice whisker pole! A good use of indigenous materials in your boat. ;-) Regarding the pictures too big to upload, maybe it is the file size that is too big. JPG compression compresses some images smaller than others. Maybe those pictures weren't very compressable. I took 125 pictures at a friend's wedding this weekend, all outdoors, all with the same camera settings. File sizes varied from 1.1 megabytes up to 2.4 megabytes. Where did you go sailing? Noel

I totally sympathize with Adla on being a timid sailor. I know I am overly cautious when sailing, although I get a little more adventurous every time I go out. Part of it is that I didn't build the boat, and have fixed a number of things that were built incorrectly. So it has taken me a year or so to get some confidence in the craft itself. At first I always wondering "Ok, what is going to break THIS time out??" Part if it is this is the first "real" sailboat I have sailed that actually could lay over. Prior to this I sailed a grossly underpowered, flat bottomed, very beamy dingy. It didn't heel over, at all, ever. I watched some guy turtle a C-Lark a few years back. He was sailing it rail-to-the-water, and a puff came up, and over it went. None of his stuff was stowed, so all his gear was either floating around him (including his life vest) or went to the bottom of the lake. He didn't have a float on the top of his mast, so once he went over, the boat just kept rolling until it was upside down (I don't think a Weekender will do that, will it?) Then, to add insult to injury, he didn't tie down the centerboard, so as soon as the boat was upside down, THUNK! the centerboard disappeared into the trunk, and we had nothing to grab onto. He had to dive under the boat, step the mast, and we towed it to shallow water were we could stand on something to right it. Towing an upside down boat with it's sails still out, using only oars and a 28lb trolling motor is quite a workout. :-D Noel.

Thanks for the laugh, Jim. Will you be sending me a new keyboard, now that mine is filled with fruit juice? Noel.

How do you fasten it down? Noel

ok, so I am watching this process of waiting for the seams to swell up with great interest. I know that was pretty much the way it was done for all boats 100 years ago, but I didn't know people still built boats that way. It looks from one of the pictures that for a while there you were losing ground! :shock: So once the boat swells up, you have to keep it moored in the lake, right? That doesn't keep the topsides wet, though, so don't you get leaks when you load the boat up with people and the boat settles down lower in the water? Or when it is heeled over? Noel

Ok, I don't know much about this, but that isn't going to stop me from voicing my opinion on the subject. :-) :-D I've always wondered about this too, since lots of boats use a balsa core, which is mostly air anyway. I came to the conclusion that the problems with voids must be primarily structural or mechanical. Small ones probably don't matter much. That said, were I to build a boat from scratch (which I have NOT done, so take my opinion with a grain of salt), I'd still definately go with marine ply. You get more plys, stronger glue, it will bend more evenly, and have a higher strength-to-weight ratio. The fact that is has no voids is probably a good thing, but not the main reason for choosing it, IMHO. If you are going to invest 1000 hours of your time into something, you want it to be made out of the finest materials available. It would really suck to have a long, straight void right in the middle of a bend, and have a "crease" appear in the hull of your boat over the top of it after a year or two.... Noel

Could someone please explain these various methods of sawing lumber? I am not familiar with the terms quarter sawn, riff sawn, plain sawn, etc. Does it have to do with what part of the log the board comes from? Thanks, Noel

Howard, I am not the original builder, so I have no idea what was used for the original glass job. I was mulling about in my mind what kind of boat I wanted to build, and whether I really had time to build a boat from scratch when I found this one for sale. Anyway, the original glassing leaves a lot to be desired. No sanding or any attempt to fill the weave or anything. Lots of runs and a few wrinkles in the cloth. For the most part I am ignoring all of that, but I am going after a few places where the wood is exposed or in danger of having water trapped under the glass. So I just need to make sure that what I use is epoxy, not polyester, and I should be good to go, right? Thanks, Noel.

I have another question about fiberglassing. I have to repair a couple spots on my boat. Both spots are quite small, maybe 4-5 square inches each. The glass didn't stick to the wood, and bubbled up. I'm assuming this is a pretty easy repair? cut/sand out the bad glass, scuff up the area with some 40 grit, make sure ALL paint is removed from the surrounding area, and lay down a patch of glass? Is there any difference between the materials used on a boat, and those used for cars? West Marine is a 30minute drive from here, and Schuck's Auto is just down the street. Any reason I can't go get a fiberglass repair kit from Shuck's and use that? Or do I need to go by stuff specifically for boats? Thanks, Noel

Warning, don't visit the above link unless you have a LOT of time to kill!!! :-D Noel

What is the tradition behind trailer boards? They don't appear to be structural. And they are never mitered or mounted flush, it is always just a big slab of wood nailed to the side of the boat. There must be some kind of (hopefully fascinating) story behind why we put them on like that. Noel

What are the white lines in the hatches? What are they made from, and what purpose do they serve? Thanks, Noel

Welcome aboard, Jack. Perhaps before you go lurking, you could tell us a little bit about yourself? What brings you here? Do you have a home-built boat? In the process of building one? Thinking about building one? Just like wooden boats in general? Noel

Routing the halyards (and topping lift) to the cabin top is on my to-do list, right after I get the furler and lapper installed. Thanks for the pointers on locating the blocks for the jib and genoa. For the genoa, with the block aft of the shrouds, do you run the sheets outside of the shrouds then? Thanks, Noel

Phil: Question about the non-skid on Aloha I see that you put non-skid on the cabin hatch. Is your hatch strong enough to walk on? Mine looks pretty flimsy, so I don't step on it. Thanks, Noel.