Don Silsbe

@PadrePoint— I got the screw idea from a video/Small Craft Advisor article you sent me, the one about building a PDR. I’m also introducing him into sailing. We’ll see where that leads.

Next week is Stringer Week. My neighbor Brodie and I got a jump on it, and got the o/b amas done today (Saturday) . This is my “grand-neighbor Brodie. (We don’t have biological grands, so we adopted our next door neighbor’s kids.) All glued up. These screws are better than clamps or drywall screws. First, they are self-drillers. Second, they have a flat bottom, not countersunk, third, they don’t have threads for the top 1/2”, so they draw up better, a d last but not least, they are Robertson (aka “square”) drive. They would work better with the head on the plywood side, but they were great this way, too

I’ve had good results with Quick Fair and Total Fair fairing compounds.

On Ted Johanson’s Avocet, screening material is permanently attached to the forward side of the bulkhead. No fuss, no muss!

Another fun day in the workshop! I got all the ama bulkheads cut out. The fun part was cutting the circles. I made a circle-cutting jig for my small router. Some day soon I’m going to have to clean up the shop floor.

An argument against Redwood is that it is soft, and won’t stand up to the banging that gunwales are subjected to. On the other hand, when using it as a tender, hard dinghies are usually required to have padding on their gunwales. If you’re going to do that, the Redwood would be OK. I must disagree with you about attaching your sail with Velcro. This is what I use on my boat, and it is very aerodynamic. The secret is not to cinch the sail too tightly to the mast. Graham has even suggested using zip ties! Those would probably behave more like hoops for lowering the sail. IMG_6471.mov

Alan made us some full-sized patterns. MAN! What a time-saver!

@Bryan Rolfe— The amount of trash I generate building a boat bothers me, too. Ted Johanson (aka PadrePoint) has a great suggestion for reusing chip brushes. He keeps three covered jars of denatured alcohol solvent handy. He rinses used brushes, cycling them from the oldest to the freshest jars. Eventually, he discards the oldest jar, and starts a new one.

I stumbled onto this video the other day. He uses some clever techniques!

I’ve only used Peel Ply once, with mixed results. There’s a learning curve, I guess.

@Nick C— Thanks for the come-back. I am horrible with names, especially when I see y’all face-to-face once per year (or less!). You did a fine job on that boat. I hope you sell it, as that is your wish.

@Reacher— I call it a symbiotic relationship. He gets his dream boat, and I get my boatbuilding fix.

I would check with the experts. Have you asked B&B about the structural affect of the modification? They usually are fairly open-minded. Maybe Graham will weigh in on this subject.

Check with Graham Byrnes at B&B Yacht designs. He has been working on a boat like this. Fuel efficiency is important to him. I took this photo of him a year ago. That’s a model he printed of it back then. He has progressed with the design since then.

I’ve been a scarfing fool, these past few days. The plans call for six sheets of 6mm plywood to be scarfed full width! I like it better when you rip out and scarf 12”-18” strips, and scarf those. It’s a whole lot easier doing that, but probably more wasteful. But enough bellyaching. I now have three 16 foot long boards curing up overnight. Now the fun begins. “Somebody” didn’t realize that six sheets needed to be scarfed. I started with four. NEXT TIME, I’ll do three and three for the hand planing. I tried my power planer, and didn’t like it. Once I (finally) sharpened my hand plane’s blade, good things began to happen. Here are the last two. This is the first pair, being wetted out prior to flipping and gluing. (Prior to the application of thickened epoxy, of course.) Finally, the stack is glued & screwed, and waiting to cure.

@ecgossett— She takes 7 sheets of 6mm 5 sheets of 9mm Okoume ply, and 12 gallons of epoxy!!! I’m using #2 lumberyard pine for the stringers. I picked through the pile, and selected only boards with small knots. Most of the B&B boats use pine. Scarfing is covered in my next post.

One if the things I enjoy about the Messabout is doing my own R&D. This year, I was also given assignments by friends who couldn’t attend. (I won’t mention any names, but their Initials are Janice Coté and Ted Johanson.). I also took notes on that canoe with pedal propulsion. The trimaran I’m building (on the Main Forum) has pedal steering, and this boat had some nicely executed mechanisms. What was the owner’s name?

I’ve rolled and tipped Captain’s varnish. The roller lays down a nice, even coat, and the brush helps smooth things out.

These are interesting modifications, Viktor. I had a similar thought regarding moving the daggerboard trunk to the side. Occasionally, I think that an Amanda 12 is going to be my old man’s boat. Doing this on the Amanda would allow leg room for sleeping aboard. I wonder how much torsional rigidity would be sacrificed by eliminating the seat as a structural member. Maybe it could be screwed in place, and relocated & repositioned when the need arises. A friend of mine built a Scout. I was amazed at all the bonding and sandwiching he did. I’m not a fan.

Good question! All I know is that this brand is no good. I’m returning them.

@Hirilonde— They are scrawny. They lack a full ferrule of bristles, and many give out too soon before they reach the tip. In the first photo, a “good” brush from a different source is on the right. The one on the left shows much more light, indicating they lack enough bristles. I bought a pack of these in the past, and hated them. They were wimpy— had no power to push thickened epoxy around.

I started building a Seaclipper 16 trimaran for a client. (See the Main Forum for build thread.) I stocked up on the essentials, including chip brushes and gloves. They came, and the chip brushes are terrible! Do not buy the “Pro Grade” chip brushes from Amazon! They also have “Vermeer” stamped on the ferrule. (If Johannes Vermeer were still alive, he would be furious.) A good one is on the right, for comparison. I also bought a package of genuine pastry bags to try out. They were only $6.99/150. In the past, I’ve had to scrounge for used ZipLoc bags, and sometimes couldn’t find enough with my needs. These look to be a better design (more pointy) and cheap.

Good idea! I think about your mishap when I’m using my table saw.

The ama stringers are scarfed! I had to take my time, since it would be easy to cut the taper on the wrong face, and ruin about 8” of stringer. So far, so good. Who was it that said every boat shop needs a worrying chair. Here I am, putting mine to use. Next comes scarfing four sheets of 1/4” plywood. Woo-hoo!

Today, I ripped all the stringers for the boat. That means I’m off and running. “AK” stands for ama keel. All the stringers are cut to a 15 degree angle, except for the two at the bottom of each ama. Those are cut at 32 degrees. Here are all the 15’s. Now, I’m going to scarf the stringers for the amas, and save the rest of the fun for later.