Jknight611

Me too, I tried to dye my epoxy white for the water tanks on the boat I am currently building. Didn’t work for squat! On my Core Sound I bought Sherwin Williams paint called Tile Clad to paint the under deck areas, it is epoxy based 2 part and it 4 years of hard play still looks good. I am going to paint several areas on Mather Flinders with Tile Clad, good stuff.

A picture is worth a thousand words, particularly on this topic, I will roll my boat out tomorrow and raise the masts and snap some photos. I never go forward to reef, by the time it occurs to me to reef, the foredeck or forward hatch isn’t where my plump butt needs to be! Gravity likes me enough that if solo, my weight that far forward really upsets the stability. This is the 27th version of my reefing system and it seems to work the best of the previous 26 attempts. If I sheet the mizzen down tight on centerline, board full down, it just kinda gives up and stays bow on the wind. The mizzen is easy to reef, standing forward of the mizzen tabernacle. Photos tomorrow if it would help anyone.

Steve the boat looks great, and I see it sails beautifully too! We have removed our gps on Southern Express, the mast head wind indicator seems to be much more accurate, always points to the destination! My reefing “system” is very similar to what Paul said... my criteria was to be able to reef the boat standing in front of the mizzen tabernacle. The main has 3 downhauls at the mast then ran to the port cabin top. The main halyard has one red thread woven through it for one reef, so I release the main to one thread at the cleat on the cabin top then pull the reefing line, followed by the first reefing line (green tracer) on the sprit, the second reef is the same (except for 2 red threads woven through the halyard) and a red reefing line on the leech. I have only reefed to the second reef on the main once. All my reefing lines have “S” hooks and stay attached to the sprit to be quickly hooked to the kringles on the clew. The “S” hooks hook to the luff kringle as the sail is fed into the track. Only one downhaul on the mizzen clew, easy to move it up as you reef, still the same 2 lines with “S” hooks for the mizzen leach . I made little bags for the reefing line to be stored in when we trailer, other wise after a brief trailer ride the reefing lines become macrame! Hope that gives you an idea of our “ sail reduction system “ I reef the main pretty soon, the boat (and Carol) likes the boat to stand up.

Your boat looks great! I really like your anchor roller, I have a Ronca anchor and you look like you have the best anchor roller. I believe it would work perfectly on the Mathew Flinders. I leave the sprits with the mast, I use several pieces of pipe insulation to isolate the sprits from the mast. We have trailered our boat likely 20,000 miles with no ill effects I can see. It does make rigging ridiculously quick and I never found a really suitable spot for the unattached sprits. I made a zip on cover that covers both masts, keeps the reefing lines from becoming a big rats nest. I leave the battens in the sail and just zip the sail into the same sail cover we use......well as a sail cover.

Hi Mark, when we poured the one for my boat, we built plywood the mold “vertically “. Put a layer of green sand then held the wooden mold in sand vertically adding sand layer at a time. Pack the sand with a wooden dowel and hammer as you continue to fill the mold. Once the mold is full, packed as tight as possible. Then pull the wooden pattern from the sand. Make darn sure the sand is dry then pour the molten lead into the mold. It was surprisingly smooth, it took very little prepping afterwards to bond it to the bast of the centerboard.

Joe, looks fantastic! Thanks for the photos

Mark, the centerboard is the tool that helps ya go upwind. Not sure why you want it bright, the only time I see mine is maybe once a year when I drop it for a visual inspection. ( I use it to pinstripe the Gulf of Mexico ).

Well, I use topping lifts, so convenient when we reef, just harden the topping lift, let the halyard drop to the marks on the halyard then pull the reefing lines, release the topping lift, then tidy up the sail as you wish. Prevents the sail gathering in the cockpit while you reef without the topping lift holding the sprit up. When we trailer, I pull the sprits to the top of the mast with the topping lifts, then pull the snotter tight to hold the sprit parallel the masts. Once the masts are lowered and in their crutches, a couple pieces of foam pipe insulation prevents chafe with several bungee cords. We trailer with the sprits in place, and use the sailcovers to keep the sails protected in the cabin. All the reefing lines remain on the sprits or mast, and a full length cover over the masts and sprits help prevent the reefing lines from becoming a macrame class.

Fantastic Steve and Family! Just gets better from here on! Ya got a great boat!

Congratulations Steve! Looking forward to seeing the video! Fun times ahead!

Looks like he is making good time!

Mark, so far the only resemblance I noticed is they are both cat-ketch rigged sailboats! I hope it performs similar to our CS20.3!

Mark, I have a ski boat ballast pump in the port lazarette my CS20.3 with a 3/4 inch bronze thru hull the aft port side of the centerboard case. I also have a 3 way diverter valve in the locker with a small hose to rinse the cockpit and clean the occasional fish. 4 years later still working fine. I plumbed it with pvc pipe but if I did it over I would consider pex, to eliminate some fittings. The gentle bends of the pex probably flow better too. I didn’t use a thru hull shut off valve, seemed to be overkill. Where my intake port is there is so little hydrostatic pressure, and if it totally failed the locker might get 4 inches of water in it, didn’t seem necessary. I do have to watch using the centerboard as a depth sounder, it gets muddy then the ballast tank gets muddy and it is I PIA to clean out.

Welcome Mark, I think you made a good choice! The MK3 series are fantastic boats, and the kits give an advantage because of their incredible accuracy. Hope you enjoy the build.

Here is the current photos of the Mathew Flinders, we have been working intermittently for about 3 weeks, all the bulkheads are fileted and taped into place, the head bulkheads are just sitting in place (well almost in place!). A very gentlemanly way to build a boat, standing on the outside reaching in! The “rollbar” is part of the building jig, the inner skin of the cabin will sit on top of the jig, so at 6’3” I have an incredible amount of headroom. To show scale, Carol is standing in the galley.

The centerboard molds will be returned to B&B at the Messabout, totally reusable.

I can appreciate the heat, we are building Graham’s new design and it has been over 100 degrees in our shop daily. But it is a moist heat, about mid 90% humidity levels. So my productivity is way down too! Looking forward to seeing both both you and your boat at the Messabout!

Don, it looks great! Nice job!

Steve, any first launch details?

We have all the bulkheads in place that define the structure of the boat, I am 6 feet 3 inches (191 cm) and I have plenty of room everywhere. There is a huge amount of storage, and still have 66 gallons on fresh water, the holding tank is properly sized too. The icebox area will be insulated with 4 inches on the side and 6 inches on bottom and still have a generous area for the cold plate and refrigerated area for two. The 2 main berths are a comfortable sitting height when in the settee mode. We have had much larger boats that were more cramped in the “hi useage” areas.

Our “plan” is to replace our PSC Orion with this boat. My original plan for trailering Orion just doesn’t work. We will do some passages in the Gulf and Caribbean.

We plan to pour the lead at B&B after the Messabout, well that is one plan anyway! The centerboard is solid fiberglass, I will be starting that very soon so we will have it at the Messabout for fitment.

We have been working on Mathew or Matt when things are going well. Every thing in the cabin is dry fit, and when we walk around in the cabin it is amazing the available space. Here is the planview of the interior and a profile view.

Ken, you can come to Mississippi, nice and warm here and “do” my woodwork! Your boat is beautiful!

Pete, that is really a good idea! Our CS needs a more rigid method to reboard from the water. How did you attach them to the transom? Pete Planks are a hit.......and now this!