Jknight611

The Madisonville Wood Boat Show is the weekend of October 18-20. If you can’t make the the B&B Messabout and happen to be near the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain (New Orleans) area it is a good show. We have been invited to display Kalos, our Mathew Flinders 246, so stop by! We will be “side tied” south of the bridge. We hate to miss the B&B Messabout but with the Looper project, we best stay closer to home this time.

I have NASA brand depth sounders on my Flinders, centerboard on my Core Sound, and plan to use NASA brand on my (way unfinished) Looper 30. The display is large, seems to work well, not ridiculously expensive. On my Flinders it just “shoots “ through the hull so no hole, just bond a piece of PVC pile to the hull, plop the transducer in and fill it with baby oil, then glue the top on.

When I started flying in the Gulf ‘O Mexico, the compass, chart and windshield was the primary and only source of navigation. When LORAN came about and we had to type each set of “numbers “ into the box we thought our navigation days we were over! NOT! Get a good compass, good charts and learn how to use them, they will never fail you. The stuff with wire hooked to them…..

We just got home from “The Skunkworks “ of boat design……. Sure is a LOT of parts. Some little, some not! Our entire game room is covered with 18 inches of boat! So far each and every part has fit perfectly, hope to keep that trend going! Plan is, one more trip to pick up engine and deckhouse. I have been messing about with boats for nearly 60 years, my first with a “power boat”, both Carol an I are excited!

Me too!

Beautiful boat in a gorgeous location. We darn sure don’t vistas like that around here! But we are mobile!

Finished planking, this is the part that you mess around 20 minutes and it look like huge progress, I’ll start filling and sanding tomorrow. That’ll slow thing a bit!

I would be very cautious about drilling holes through the sprits, those suckers have a pretty good load on them when sailing sportily.

Cool, the boat Graham is holding is the Looper design that I am currently building. 30 ft, 8.5 ft beam, 38 hp inboard diesel, projected fuel burn at hull speed is about 2.5 liters/hr. I actually have the model he is holding on our dining room table……

Hi Steve, not completely sure I know, I suspect it will be in the 6500 lb range. Still have tankage to work out and a few minor “boy that would be nice” things as happens in all boat builds. Will finish planking the hull next week, then glassing the inside of the hull panels. I want to add the cabinetry etc before the big “ally-opp”. Won’t make it much heavier and it will give the hull more support. All my friends have been making suggestions on the big roll over. May just supply bbq chicken and beer and have them call me when it’s inverted. And we definitely will take you up on dockage, that is the area we want to explore!

Well, we became interested in “The Great Loop” several years ago, we looked at various ready built boats and each had good and less desirable traits. We came close to to purchasing a design till the seller mentioned the fuel flow was slightly less than 5 gallon per hour. A deal breaker at 12 kts for 6000 nm. During a visit with Kalos at B&B Skunkworks, Graham and Alan were 3D printing various hull shapes for an easily driven trailerable powerboat. After our previous experiences with B&B designs we knew we found our design . We picked up the basic hull on July 18, 2024. First panel bonded July 23. Most people identify it as a boat in a month. 30 ft long 8.5 beam, powered by a Beta 38 hp diesel which is aft of the main cabin and well soundproofed the boat will be a pleasant place for a sailor to spend time. Lots of solar for climate control and house loads with an extremely innovative dingy davit. Here is a Google link for more pictures https://photos.app.goo.gl/8ady6twen48hxSv68

Ya see Ken, there is a method to my madness! I will start a thread later in the month on ……project p….

I have a friend just north on New Orleans that has any type/size wood you can imagine. Some of the OLD growth teak is absolutely amazing, like 4 inches thick, 30 inches wide and 25 feet long! I can personally recommend Geoff, he is a good guy and I have bought quite a lot from him. We live a few miles north so if anyone road trips you have an anchorage. https://www.woodsnorthshore.com/home Jay

I made my hole in the mast on both of by tabernacled boats into a slight oval. I have a scrap of mast that was damaged in shipping that I have cut into a curved form fitting “washer”. The washer has the proper sized hole and when installed it distributes the forces around the perimeter of the mast. Or maybe not….. On the main mast I have always considered that the load path pushes the mast into the radius of the tabernacle, on the mizzen pulls the mast base away from the radius of the tabernacle. When I got my project to a point I could raise the mast on the tabernacle pivot, I wrapped the base of the mast with one layer of some plastic sheeting and put a blob of thickened epoxy to make the tabernacle fit the radius of the mast exactly. Experience (aviation term for something you gain shortly after needed)……don’t use too much goo on this phase or the boat won’t fit in the shop.

Absolutely agree Dave, silicone sealer is some terrible stuff. My wife had a Tripp design Columbia 26 that “someone” had put about 2 lbs of the stuff on the ports. I ended up using a wire wheel on a drill to remove it. Again I mention excellent luck with VHB on plexiglass/hull interface. Back to sprit haulage….