Eric

I forgot the picture.. sorry everyone.

Hi All Yes, an Andersen Bailer would be the thing to have. But of course I couldn't find one around here the time I built the boat. But at least a drain plug would be good. Anyway, don't trust those cheapy tarps for sure. Well, here it is. Some fresh paint and it looks ok. Didn't find any serious damage. I touched up the interior with some blue that didn't quite match, but whatever.. It's an "expedition boat", not a show piece of fine craftsmanship. Should get it in the water tomorrow if I can get bribe the neighbors with enough rotgut rice whiskey to carry it over the the canal about a hundred meters. I don't know what I am going to do with this boat once I go back to Japan. The locals aren't too interested in sailboats, so not easy to sell. Maybe just keep it at my friend's seafood factory on the coast and hopefully be able to come back here for sailing holidays.. PeterP, yes, Thailand has changed a lot since the 80s. Still a good place, but I have been feeling frustrated with the place lately. The politics here are a mess as you have probably heard. It seems as if its slipping back into the real "Banana Republic" mode again.. That airport fiasco was just outrageous. Only in Thailand.. :

Well, I went to Laos for six months for work, then last week came back to Thailand where I had left my boat in the garden under a cover. However, I have discovered the cover developed a tear and the boat sat in the rainy season, mostly full of water for several months.. hmm.. Well, the paint is a mess so now doing some quick fixit work so I can get in a few weeks of sailing before I move back to Japan at the end of the month. My boat always gets trashed here by the canals, the oceans, my friends and the overall experiences I have. Such as getting rammed by fishermen, getting stuck in mud flats, bashing into things, etc. Plus 4 meter waves last May. That was "super sporty", so much I don't even want to talk about it.. haha.. I guess it did pay to have the boat blessed by my local Buddhist monk. The boat and I are still here. Anyway, since its usually covered with blood, mud and sand or full of water I have learned to just keep it simple. No more bright work, simple enamel paint, just a utilitarian sail boat. Homemade sails, cheap rigging, wooden masts, it works great actually. So epoxy and paint after removing a lot of blistered paint. Plus fixing broken bits such as the hole in the side that a piece of rebar made when I was going through a canal gate that was a bit narrow. And the centerboard was warped slightly. I reshaped that using an angle grinder with a sand disk. Highly recommend that for removing material very quickly. I did dig into the wood and it seems fine. That apitong ply is very durable. Heavy and stiff, but damn strong. The boat doesn't even have much of a name. I call it the Sea Cow. It used to be white, and "sii khao" in Thai means "white color". I know, bad play on words.. It's blue now, but still the Sea Cow. I'm not even going to bother repainting the interior since I can't keep it nice anyway.. Just clean it up and go for the islands near Cambodia. Sailing, fishing and camping.

Greg: sometimes I swap the motor out when I am going to do some motoring for considerable distance, sometimes I don't. I was low on fuel that day so I wanted the best efficiency possible. The rudder is a bit difficult to stow, but its only temporary. When it's time to sail, I move the engine over to the side. When I made the boat I made the dumb error of making the transom too wide for the engine mount. So I welded up a crude mount from stainless steel that clamps on to the transom and which has a piece of teak that the engine clamps on too. Works okay. Howard: Yes, they drift with those poles using lines as far as I know. Also they do a lot of netting around here. Actually, a lot of the fisherman around here are squid fisherman. The boats do have fairly how bows, but overall the Gulf of Thailand in this region is pretty tame water. Rarely have any big storms or sizable waves. The ocean is a more intense down south and on the other side of the country.

Fishing was lame! I guess my squid baits were not that interesting. But I got a late start and was rained on the whole way down to the inlet. I had to drop anchor behind Chula Island in the dark, which you can see in the pics below. Not the best fishing spot. The mosquitoes off that island are some kind of mutant species, as they were insatiable, even fifty meters off shore. And I forgot my mosquito net. At day break I actually motored off into deeper water to escape their feeding frenzy and they were still chasing me. Using my trusty 1964 US Navy chart of the area, I went off to the other side of the island and found a much deeper shelf, but didn't catch much. Said forget it and went for a six am sail instead and practiced my single-handed sailing. Messed around until the wind died and then headed for home. The bay was very low today, and even in daylight I still had problems getting home. Had to push the boat several times. Tide was so low that I could see the mussel beds no problem this time. Just made it back with a 1/4 tank of fuel, as my gas can sprung a leak (surprise!). I should try to take more pictures when I go out. Just hassle to get my camera out, especially in the rain and such.

Thanks for the replies, guys. ;D It was my fault. I knew about the mussels, but my previous experience with them was on the far side of the inlet. I was tired, grumpy and in a hurry so I didn't even put on my flip flops. Oh well.. feet are fine now. I don't see a fuel filter on this Yamaha 3 two-stroke, unless it's inside the tank. I do always use a funnel with a filter in the neck. However, this was from gummy junk in the bowl which was from gas left from a few months ago. My fault totally. Besides that, its a great engine, and plenty of power for a CS17. I'm going out tonight to the inlet to go fishing. I plan to just drop anchor and fish all night. Not even sure I will put up the masts. I will sleep in the boat and come back in the morning. What I will catch I am not sure. Will see how it goes.

Hi all, Thought I would try to get my CS17 back into the water after sitting in my yard for several months. First a new paint job, as white was a bad choice, at least for the hull. After a season of bashing around the canal from house to the ocean, it looked pretty bad. So a dark blue this time. Used the local 3 dollar a quart enamel which actually holds up quite well. Can't be fussy, its all I can find around here. I spent seemingly days fixing dings, cracks and problems from last season. Sand, epoxy, fair, paint, blah blah.. you know the drill. So we move it over to the canal and immediately beat it up by cracking the coaming and scraping the hull. No matter what I do, I can't keep this boat pristine for very long. Decided on a sail to Koh Chang, Thailand's second largest island after Phuket. About 50 nautical miles from my house. David and I left about daybreak, making our way down the canal, into the bay and to the ocean. That takes more than an hour. Once we are out there, there isn't much wind, so we putt along at 8ks per hour with the Yamaha toward Chang. We stop for an mid-morning nap and coffee on a small island, where it then rains heavily on us. After an hour, clear skies and a decent wind about 15 -20 knots or so. Off we go toward Chang at about 4-4.5 knots, into the waves on a close reach. Lots of spray. David gets soaked. And he also manages to get nicely sunburned. I told him to cover up that white English skin of his, but he failed to listen. : Being indoors in an office in Bangkok for two years didn't help. About 6 pm we make the tip of Chang and find a small beach to camp on. By this time David is a bit miserable. Sunburned, wet, and tired. I'm zonked too, especially since I had no sleep the night before. But we make camp and build a fire. I whip out the pressure cooker with potatos, carrots and chicken and get that going. David pulls out a bottle of Spanish red. Things are better. David wants to sleep on shore, I elect to sleep in the boat. I recommend he sleep in the boat, but he thinks its better on shore. Ha ha, he is up all night from mosquitoes, his sunburn, and the tide washing into his tent. I get a few nice hours in the boat, enjoying the gentle rock of the boat. Burning a mosquito coil helped. The next morning David is not feeling that great. Our plan was to sail for two more days to the east end of the island where there are numerous other islands with snorkeling reefs, nice beaches and night-time parties with the tourista girls. No, we had better go back and get David home, as his sunburn is pretty damn bad. Nice blisters at this time. Plus his back, with two bad discs isn't feeling great. So we head back to Chanthaburi at about eleven, after procrastinating a bit. We think we may stay half way somewhere, maybe a bungalow on one of the beaches somewhere. However we have a great sail, hitting six knots at times and much drier and the waves are in our favor. I calculate we can get home the same day, with only an hour or so in the bay during the dark. So I set a 320 degree bearing straight for Laem Singh, where the bay starts. David conks out in the boat for several hours, he is so tired. Everything goes well until about 16:30. Winds then start to get very soft and we are in a race against the dark. So I fire up the engine. It runs, then it quits. And it won't start again. We are about six miles off shore. Lame. It will be dark soon. David takes the tiller with what wind we have, about a knots worth, and I yank the outboard into the boat. I never go out without some tools with me. So I take the carb completely apart. Alas, my screwdriver won't fit in the recess for the main jet. Ahh, my Leatherman. Just fits, and sure enough, find clogged jets. This is entirely my fault, as I forgot to drain the gas last season, so there is junk in the bowl. Such fun doing this in a rocking boat when you are tired and just want to get home. BUt it fires up and off we go. Ahh wait! We have to take down the masts as we need to go under two small bridges near my house. This is always fun as they are one piece wooden masts I can barrel handle myself. I nearly fall in, but I don't. We make it into the inlet of the bay, under the bridge and get inland. Then the engine stops again. Same thing, refuses to start. And we are drifting toward a big bamboo fish trap. So I drop anchor. Now it's too dark to work on the engine, plus I am just too damn tired. My mobile phone rings. Another mate inviting us to a party and BBQ at his house. I laugh and say we might not make it. Now if I was alone, I would have just dropped anchor, pulled out my comforter and pillow and figured out the next morning. But I feel I need to get David home. About ten k's of bay and canal to go. I get out the oars and start rowing. What a joke. But the tide is in our favor. I figure it will take about six hours, haha. I try this punishment for 20 minutes then I try the engine. It runs! Off we go. The tide is coming in, but the bay is extremely low. I make an error, as its damn dark now, and I haven't been on the bay in about six months so I was a bit confused. We run aground. I know its mud down there and jump over the push the boat. Push, push, then I cut the #$*%*! out of my foot. We are in greenlip mussel farm area. Ignore the pain! Arggh, my other foot! We keep pushing into deeper water. Where is that damn channel? Right, there it is. Off we go again. My foot, actually both feet are bleeding like crazy all over the boat. Never mind. Finally we make it to my village. We pull up to a restaurant on the water I know and David orders two large Heinekens to go. Sometimes beer can taste so good. Now we head up the canal, about 3 ks of narrow, snaking canal to follow. I drift a bit too close to the bank and the engine stops. What the.. ? Fishnet this time. Wrapped all around the prop. Easier to take the engine off an remove the prop as its a huge mess. 15 minutes there. How my hands hurt. Continue on. Then the same thing again. Except this time some moron put a gill net completely across the canal, a public thoroughfare. This net is big and nasty. Repeat engine and propeller stuff again. I do a nice job of whacking up the net to let the guy know he shouldn't put it across the canal. I spill my beer dealing with the net. Not cool. Is the beginning to be the Trip From Hell? What next? Finally! We make it back to my house. The boat is an absolute mess! Mud, gas, blood, seawater, junk everywhere. For a laugh I take a picture. We can't move, but we need to unload the boat, at least some of it and carry it the 200 meters to my house. What a drag. My foot is killing me. We manage. We are both in pain, but after a shower we manage to go to the party. But we both have to leave after 90 minutes because we are in too much pain. My feet are just burning. I went to the clinic the next day to have them cleaned. Fine now. Here are few pics. One of the boat in nice condition, the beach at Koh Chang, our Google earth plot, heading back trying to beat dark, and David contemplating the whole adventure (mess?) once back home.

I have a 3hp Yamaha two-stroke on a CS 17. Its just about right, I can hit nine to ten kilometer an hour with it. I have to have one, as I live way up a meandering canal that leads into the bay. About ten ks to the ocean. No way to get back into the bay when the tide is going out, it rips out through a bottleneck incredibly fast. Sometimes I just motor around the bay with no masts. Have put ten people in the boat, no problem for that 3 hp.

I can just step my masts by myself on my CS17 and they are wooden, probably weighing about 20 pounds each. However, the main mast stepping can be pretty sporty when the boat is bobbing around in the water. Sometimes when having trouble, I use a towel to set the base of the mast on so not to mar the deck paint, get my balance and grip right again, and drop it in the mast hole. Big fun. Have only dropped the mast in the drink once, however yesterday I fell off, but we were just off the beach. I have to do this every time I go sailing as I have to pass under three bridges on the way to the bay. But I am happy with my wooden masts, once they are up they work great and they look way salty. I think they may be a bit more stiff than aluminum, as they are laminated and solid, but not sure about that. So far I am happy I didn't put any effort to looking for the right kind of aluminum here in Thailand. There was six of us in the boat yesterday with some decent gusts, no nasty cracking sounds. Yet.. haha..

I took those photos with a Motorola L6 phone. As for the speed, its in kilometers per hour... Not so speedy.

Thanks much for the nice replies! Answering the question about launching since I don't own a car is that I keep the boat in the canal about a hundred meters behind my house. Its a 3 K twisty trip down the the bay, and the first trip I had to take a machete to clean things out since my boat is much bigger than the local's. Since there is absolutely no crime in this village I just keep everything such as masts and sails in the boat, except the outboard of course. Its docked in a little communal area next to small Thai longtail boats that crab fishermen use. No charge since its government land. I am also high entertainment value for those guys, as no one sails around here except me.. The rowing stuff was a good laugh for them too.. And no one paints their boat white, always dark blue for those guys. I wish I could keep the boat out of the water, but I will figure that out later. I'm near Chanthaburi (world center for trading and cutting colored gemstones), which is 250 ks east of Bangkok. We are close to the Cambodian border, near Koh Chang Island and its 52 smaller islands that I will be exploring. There is some awesome reef diving around those islands. Chang is full of European tourists now baking and drinking themselves silly on the beaches and will wait for them to clear out a bit.. I also plan on doing some serious fishing too for pompano, snapper, and finny guys like that. Yes, I also made some of my rigging such as oarlocks and bulleyes using my welder and torch for heating and bending. I am also using cheapy saltwater resistant blocks and cleats made in Malaysia but they are fine as it was all I could find that was decent. There is a yacht club and sailing scene in sleazy Pattaya, three hours up the coast, but I don't go there much. There you can find most anything you need, but often at a very high price since its imported. I'll probably go someday to look around for modern sail cloth. Living in the States I used to think I need the latest and fanciest for things to work, but over here I have had to be more resourceful and simplify, such as my canvas sails which are working great. Here you can still buy big spools of hemp rope if you want at the fisherman's store!

There are a miles of canals and mangrove regions behind my place, so I also have used my CS 17 as a regular powered run-about to go to some of the restaurants and other places I like. The bridges are very low here, so when I go sailing, I have to go down the canal behind my house about 3 ks with the masts unstepped of course.I tried rowing a few times, but forget that.. I am in okay shape, but I don't have that much time, especially against the tide. I made a mount for my new outboard that works really well. I can locate it anywhere on the transom. When I am simply power boating around, I put it in the center, when sailing, on the side of course. Its stainless steel plus some left over sheet wood. I used an old computer mouse pad as the cushioning. That works great! Here are a couple of pictures, sorry for the low quality, as I took then with my telephone camera.. I hit a maximun of 11 KPH with the 3hp motor at about 1.5 liters per hour of fuel.

Hi Everyone Finally, after a year of messing around, I got my CS 17 into the water on New Year's Day. Four of us went for a sail down the canal behind my house, into the bay, and out into the Gulf of Thailand for about a 30k "sea trial". No major problems, except for the weak evening winds and the tide ripping out in the evening, therefore couldn't get back in the bay at the opening due to currents, so I had to get a tow from a fisherman. With four of us and a decent breeze, we hit 5.5 knots at times, accourding to my GPS. A bit about my boat: It's made from 7 and 10 mm keuring (apitong) ply, which is very stiff, but exceptionally strong. Also heavy, but I like that added strength, as I feel I might bang into a few things (already have, haha). I left some in some water for two months, and no deterioration at all. Actually, the whole boat is made from kuering, except the masts, which are a laminated light Malaysian plantation pine. They work great, and I can just step them by myself. I couldn't be bothered to find the proper aluminum. I probably could find the right aluminum in Bangkok, but I never like going there and I don't own a car anyway. The sails I made myself from some kind of canvas cloth I found here, sewing them on a treadle sewing machine. So far they work fine until I get around to finding a some real sailcloth. The paint is a high quality Japanese outdoor enamel. Paint is cheap here, so I sprayed twelve coats on it. So far its holding up well, but white seems like a mistake, showing every ding and mark, like fishermen's junky, diesel-soaked boats banging into me. Plus I can't get the canal scum stains off the sides.. I used a French made epoxy mixed 1:1, pretty happy with that, but thick, but gives you plenty of working time in this heat. The boatbuilder in Pattaya who sold me the epoxy also sold me yard-wide fiberglass for about two bucks a meter, which I then cut into strips for tape, as you can't find fiberglass tape in Thailand he said. I highly recommend not doing that, as the fiberglass unravels and becomes a big mess. Next time I will order some from the States. I also fiberglassed the bottom. Other things I made myself, such as my gudgeons and pintles. I am an okay welder, so I just bought some high grade stainless bar and tubing and welding them up using a small arc welder. Easy and final cost of three dollars. I also welded up a fancy-pants mount for my new outboard, as I made the transom one inch too wide for the outboard. Dummy.. Total boat cost was 820 US dollars. The sheet wood was of course the most, about 25 dollars sheet, which seems outrageous for this country! Funny prices here, I just bought a 3hp Yamaha two stroke, and it cost more than the boat, about 900 bucks, High import luxury tax. But no more begging tows from fishermen. Will post more later.

I have built my boat almost entirely out of apitong (AKA keuring, Dipterocarpus grandiflorus). It's heavy, extremely stiff, but very strong. I had a few problems getting things to bend, but eventually got it done with much cursing. Apitong ("Yang" in Thai) seems the be the most common wood here in Thailand for general contruction, weighing 44 pounds per cubic foot. The exterior grade sheet wood seems very durable, and I immersed some in water for over a month with no change. I also banged some with a hammer, impressive strength, which I may need as the bay near my house is so damn shallow. About 20 dollars a sheet for 10mm, which seems pretty outrageous for Thailand prices since beautiful interior grade ply is about 8 bucks a sheet, but whatever. It also takes epoxy well. Actually, the boat is basically finished, sitting in my yard, but the monsoons have been so heavy lately that I haven't been able to get out. What a drag, watching it rain all the time. Sailing is better in the winter here.

Hi Everyone. I have just started to build a CS 17 here in Thailand. After looking for wood and getting confused, I finally found a helpful Italian who makes some nice boats an hour up the road from me at Rayong ( www.andamanboatyard.com ). He emailed me this answer to my wood question (plus looks like I finally found a source for good epoxy): Dear Sir, Thnak for Your appreciation on our works. We sell epoxy, we four kind for coating, gluing, strong gluing with fast hardner (15 minutes) and for fiberglass laminating. The Thai exterior grade plywood is Apitong plywood (called also Keruing or Mai yang), isn't certified marine ply as the exterior veneers haven't the same thichness of the inners veneer layers and because certification is costly for a ply factory (common rich China-Thai factory owner are cheap). Anyway is knots free, is hot pressed glued, take epoxy in a good way as the yang wood is perfect for epoxy laimnating works. It is glued with the same glue of marine certified plywood. It is resistant at the boiler test too. You can find info on http://www.resourcesintl-wa.com/info.html even this US importer lie a little on the "marine plywood" diciture. The only problems of this plywood is that is quite heavy (800 Kg/m3) and is stiff. You cannot use it instead a FIR ply without changing scantling on thickness because will not bend but Devlin now start to use it on his plywood boats (Czarinna 43) Which boat You are building? Thanks and "Buon Vento". Please visit our recent work on http://www.by-the-sea.com/archdavisdesign/news/blosxom.pl Best regards. Arch Luigi Innamorati ANDAMAN BOATYARD co., ltd. director Mail address: 111/4 Moo1 Nat Jomtien Soi 6 next JOMTIEN YACHT CLUB 1 20250 Sattahip, Chonbury THAILAND tel. 0066 (0)38 706060 fax 0066 (0)38 730041 or 0066 (0)38 255782 mobile 0066 (0)1 3854058 www.andamanboatyard.com Please don't forget to visit our satisfied customer's webpage at www.roemcke.no/boatbuilder/ ------------ Anyway, does anybody have any thoughts on this wood? The link he includes is helpful. It is beautiful, clean ply, but it is HEAVY. And stiff. But cheap, only about 12 dollars a sheet here for 5mm. Any feedback is much appreciated. Eric