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Jknight611

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Everything posted by Jknight611

  1. Well, after 18 months of indecision and general waffling, Southern Express is luxuriously lounging on her new aluminum frame trailer.
  2. Don, when I sawed my 2 Paws in half, a neighbor thought I had flipped and called Carol at work, she was really worried about my mental stability!
  3. Don, you will love it! Good choice, I built a TwoPaws 9 14-15 years ago and it is still the grandkids boat in the pond. Ours was stored on the deck in a cradle and looks like a car top carrier on the boat. Mine is decidedly lo tech, I used 1/4 all thread rod an wingbolts to attach the front and back halves together but I could attach it together in the water. The new attachment system looks great, much better. I had (since removed) a piece of what looked like fire hose with foam pipe insulation as a full perimeter bumper. It went pretty good with a Seagull outboard although most progress with that motor was 8 feet at a time when I pulled the cord!
  4. Nice........very nice! i have clamp envy! Might have to retract my statement “can’t have too many clamps!”
  5. We had a good start, then becalmed about 10 miles to go. Joe can tell you more about being becalmed. Some areas of water that is kinda close from the top to the bottom, so difficult to go in a straight line. Porthsmouth is a cool place, hardy folks lived there!
  6. And a few from our angle. We had a great time at the Messabout, and the Portsmouth trip was great!
  7. Jeff, any thoughts on selling plans for your flotation bags? Every boat needs a set, and the proper size is important.
  8. Amos, I still have your water bottle....... Remind me....
  9. Awesome, a fleet of MK3s. Chick, you are invited too, as you are a MK3 alumnus.
  10. Hi Chick, that was part of the original plan, let’s see if Florence has made any big changes. I hope Portsmouth and Ocrocoke’s damage is minimal. On the 16 Messabout we anchored several days in the various bays and creeks on the Neuse River, Carol caught some beautiful speckled trout. I am sure a good time will be had by all!
  11. We might. We “planned” to go to Orakoke (probably not spelled right) after the Messabout, gona play it by ear cause of the storm.
  12. Congratulations Amos! Beautiful boat! Hope to see you and your boat at the Messabout! We planned to arrive early an sail the area but Florence beat us! We’ll will just play it as it goes
  13. Back to anchoring a CS, it takes so little distance between the top of the water and the bottom of the bay, we just anchor anyplace out of the way or if the bugs aren’t bad put it on the beach. Very easy boat to handle. My wife can pack enough groceries on our boat for a week under the berths and the big compartment aft of bulkhead 1 and 2 for the sleeping bags and clothes. At the Messabout we will R&D (research and duplicate) the ice chest option!
  14. Hi, my wife and I have spent about 45-60 days on out CS20.3 since completion. It is a small boat, but that is it’s beauty. We have a larger boat with dingy etc, but our CS we jibe around and step on the beach, the worst we have done is wade in a foot of water. Dingy definitely not needed. We have a electrical ballast pump, we generally fill the ballast tank and never give it a thought till we reload on the trailer. We have had 6 people on the boat with some regularity, never noticed a problem when day sailing ( look on the B&B site, we had 5-6 aboard for that picture) We kinda rely on a fresh trout for dinner, 2 people for 3 weeks wasn’t a problem, never had more for overnights. On the gulf coast we are never more than a day sail to a spectacular restaurant, which is part of the fun!
  15. Hi guys, we “plan” to be there with Southern Express! We missed last year because of some minor work that went into overtime, but have every intention of getting there a few days early to enjoy the local sailing area. Hope to see everyone there!
  16. Yea, put some ballast water in, we have slept in a few rolly anchorages in the Mississippi Sound, never noticed the board making any noise. A full ballast tank and the boat is pretty darn stiff!
  17. Hi Steve, and the rest! We have been on the road a lot lately so a little late to this party but.... we built the centerboard cheeks as per plan then eliminated the extra slop with several coats of Graham’s epoxy with West System barrier coat additive to shim the board to very little slop. I pulled the board out several months ago just for a look-see and all was well in the center board area. But laying under the boat on the trailer and bench pressing the board up while Carol tried to reinstall the pin..... grrrrrrr Jay
  18. Super awesome! Fun to watch the birth of your boat!
  19. Super awesome! Fun to watch the birth of your boat!
  20. Hi Steve, I built my trailer out of light 4 inch C channel, I wanted the axle far enough forward to balance the tongue weight and I wanted the trailer to protect the boat from Buffy in her SUV so my trailer frame is all the way to the transom. I used a 4 inch drop torsion axle rated at 1500 lbs to give the boat a softer ride. It is a 8 ft axle, so the boat sits between the wheels and the fenders become boarding steps when on the trailer. I used 14 inch rims because we seem to drag the boat around a lot, I calculated we have pulled Southern Express over 22,000 miles since we started sailing her. (Notice I didn’t say finished) . My plan was to build the trailer and tweak it till perfection when have the frame hot dipped galvanized. We have/had several places along the gulf coast that had huge vats of hot zinc because of the oil industry. Some success some failures. The environment concerns have made galvanizing business has just about become to expensive to have my trailer blasted and coated. I currently have it primed with primer and paint fugitive of the offshore industry and top coated with bed liner. Call that 38% effective. The full perimeter frame has done a great job of protection, at the expense of easy loading. 43% effective. 14 wheels reduce bearing speed and with the soft riding drop torsion axle mid trailer, 78% success. I have gotten almost 4 years and anticipate 2-3 more before I replace the entire trailer. Pulls great! 92% success. There is a firm that builds or assembles aluminum frames in Waveland Ms that I plan to have an aluminum trailer assembled “next” year. Looks like a mondo erector set! Aluminum with stainless hardware with dissimilar metal protection might be the most cost effective over a longer period when used in saltwater.
  21. You will really like the dodger. Our other boat has a dodger and I wouldn’t want a cruising boat without one. I have considered it, we have taken green water over the bow at times in our cruising grounds and a dodger would be nice then. I breakwater is a nice addition. But I am a tall guy, with “big bones”, a full dodgerwould restrict my access to the cabin. Sailing season son on the south coast, ya’ll come on down!
  22. We trail our boat quite a bit, and one of the biggest problems was the rigging chafing the mast and attached sprits. Been rainy the last few days so I can’t go outside to play so I used some scrap Sunbrella, mesh and a 22 ft long #10 zipper. Once the masts are lowered into the cover is tossed over both masts and both sprits, all the reefing lines, reefing hooks and zipped up and a twist lock around the main tabernacle. It has a mesh sewn into the underside to prevent condensation. Helps rig quickly and on a test run nothing chafed or otherwise misbehaved!
  23. Hi Don, our CS20.3 sails all over the place when we rig the “Breeze Booster” in the forward hatch. Snatches and jerks all around. Moving it to the main hatch, life is good.......hotter but gooder! Interested to see how a boom tent effects Local Honey.
  24. Looks good, beautiful design. We live right up the road from you. We sail our CS20.3 from Kessler and go to Cat Island a lot. Lets hook up sometime soon.
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