Gordy Hill

I'd go with the stainless.

I had stainless on my CS17. Got it cheap and a friend welded it into a single strip per side. ....................................................................................................................................docks and piers feared me....

Tom, I think it's far far more important for the trailing edge of the mast to flow as smoothly as possible to the sail. As soon as there's a break in the smooth airflow on the leeward side of the leading edge of your sail (wing) there's an enormous loss of lift.

If the cross section of the bottom of the mast is round it's no problem. The masts on my CS17 rotated freely. If they didn't the snotter would constantly be changing tension. Actually, I really like the idea. It would give the rig a much better airfoil, in fact, if you went a bit farther with the dotted line it would flow right into the sail slot. Use an internal halyard and you'd have very smooth airflow right where it counts the most.

What if the mast were free to rotate? Wouldn't the mast then always be at the optimum angle? It might be an advantage to bend to leeward when overpowered while still maintaining a relatively straight luff. Now I'll go hide behind something!

That's it?!! One picture? ...............................................................................................................................Sheesh!

Just a note Jim. When you finally do launch, don't get in a hurry. There's a moment when she floats free and gives that little tug on the painter. We say she's launched. Perhaps we could be forgiven if we say she's born, she's that close to being a living thing. It's a moment that will stay with you forever. Enjoy it.

Jim, I'd sit as far forward as possible, just aft of the thwart. At that point the coaming was about 1 1/4 inch high and the 3/4 inch step was enough to work. I wanted the coaming so I'd have a place to snap my Bimini sides. It would also work with a boom tent. (sprit tent?)

One. It's called a 'rope'. It hangs from the bell clapper and is used to ring the bell. ....................................................................................................................................................Finally, after God knows how many years, I get to use that little useless piece of information!

Check out this report. http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php Scroll to find Mr Moon's report. There's one for yesterday and one today.

240lb working load for an anchor line is nothing! Poly floats, which is why many like to use it for water skiing tow ropes, but UV rays from direct sunlight eats it up. I'd stick with nylon, twisted is supposed to give more stretch than braided. Ground tackle may not be the best place to try saving a few dollars...

Looking good! I sailed my CS17 for nearly a year before getting around to the coaming. I soon discovered that sitting on the side deck was painful with the coaming cutting into my. So I fashioned a teak "step" giving one a place to step on the side deck when getting in or out of the boat. The step just happened to be where I sit and was nearly as high as the coaming. I left room between the step and coaming so water wouldn't build up. Looks great and just happens to save my.

Mister Moon, also secreatly known as the mild-mannered John Bell, finished the Ultimate Marathon in 1 day, 17 hours, and 16 seconds in what many say was by far the roughest weather yet. John finished third overall and second in class in his Core Sound 17. All twelve of the other entrants were DNF!!!! Well done!

One of my favorite people taught me long ago that if you have to hide something, (such as a seem) celebrate it! Treat it like a design component you've had in mind along. It looks like you're doing just that. That said, oak and ash are wonderful woods, but have a workman-like quality in my amateurish mind. Now maple would be a beautiful highlight if one wanted a lighter wood. Then again, you already have white oak in the thwart............ Gosh, I love to be helpful!

Actually, just to confuse things, I'd prefer a darker wood like mahogany or walnut.

It actually hurts to look at those photos. 1. Is there a chance you can borrow masts for the race? 2. I live in Orlando, about 2 1/2 hours from Ft Desoto and live alone and have a bedroom you can use if you want to come down early and work on the boat. my cell is 407-616-4371 Gordy

Y'all are absolutely right! It IS easier to reef with a sail track. However, as Ken pointed out, there's a trade-off. I've thought long and hard about this because I love the advantages to a sleeve luff. I think I've come up with a nearly brilliant option. On the sleeve luff there's an opening in the sleeve to give access to the snotter atachment. I prefer a D ring lashed to the mast. Now, stay with me here because this is a new idea for me and it may have a glaring complication that I've missed. For the bottom 2-3 feet of the luff, the sail, instead of a sleeve, is attached to hoops. There is a halyard, internal of course, that allows the sail to be lowered on the mast. Now the only complication I can see is that the snotter will have to be unsnapped from the D ring so the sail can be slid down exposing a new opening in the sail and the snotter re-attached. I don't see a way to avoid a trip to the fordeck which, by the way, is not that uncommon on a sail boat. It does seem, however, to be a bit more elegant than the Mizzen Mast Rodeo.

I had sleeve luffs on my CS17 and to reef I would wrap the main tightly around it's mast and secure it with bungees, which, by the way, is how it was stored. Then the mizzen was moved to the center mast step. Usually I would reef long after it was advisable, and, even then, flying in the face of reason, I would pick up the whole mizzen, mast,etc and reset it. I'm sure it looked like some rodeo event. Rigged this way the boat sailed wonderfully all the way from a full breeze up to "Damn, it's windy!" A more thoughtful sailor would pick a better and safer time and place to reef. Keep in mind the boat can be sailed in really rough conditions fully rigged just by spilling wind during the bigger puffs. I think if I were off Ft Myers in four foot seas in the middle of the night I'd prefer sail tracks. For the other 99.4% of the time I think I'd stay with the sleeve luff for the CS17 and anything smaller. As I mentioned, the sails remain on the masts rolled up neatly. This allows a very useful window to be in the main and it won't be wrinkled up when stowed. Rigging and de-rigging is much quicker. When at anchor, the sails are totally out of the way. My main reason for liking sleeve luffs is the aerodynamics. A clean leading edge on an airfoil is very very very important. On some airplane wings they want part of the wing to stall sooner than the rest to give the pilot warning that he is approaching a stall. They add a stall strip on part of the wing.The stall strip looks for all the world like a section of halyard. Laced sails would give up the airfoil advantage for no reason.

Thanks for sharing that Hoke.

Now ya see all the complications y'all have since you decided to go with the sail track instead of a sleeve luff? I lashed a D-ring to the mast with 1/8 inch dacron line and it looked nice and neat. I snapped the snotter on, cleated it lower on the mast and was rigged. When the sail is rolled up the D-ring just folds against the mast. When there is no load on the snotter the ring, lashings, and all can be slid up or down to adjust for sail shape.

I'm surprised no one's answered you yet. I think it;s really cool!

I tryed them. My balls didn't work........

I used a stainless 1/2 inch bolt with a big wing nut. It worked great. In shallow water I could stand and steer with my butt. (Ignore the visual you just got.) At anchor the tiller was set straight up and clear of the cockpit. Since the tiller lifted, the lazarette hatch could be centered. Graham told me he had a much better "feel" with the solid joint. I'm sure he's right, but I can't tell the difference and just decided to never race him.

If bulkhead 5 had a V bottom the cabin floor would be lower giving more headroom inside and taking away a bit of volume under the bunks. There would be a bilge beneath the cabin floor for that little bit of slop that always comes aboard. As drawn, I'd be surprised if the floor weren't always wet. The bilge keels would be up on the higher part of the bottom, giving the same lateral resistance but requiring less water depth to operate in. The boat would be much more comfortable punching into heavy seas. It wouldn't be any more difficult to build a boat with a V bottom than the one drawn with two chines. I'm just guessing on this, but it appears that after a certain amount of listing the whole amount of righting moment would depend on the weight of the keels. It looks like the hull itself would be just as happy laying on it's side. I like the way the house sides lean in.

Jim, I was just thinking, If you have two disks, one the same as the inside diameter and one the same as the outside, you could fasten them together mechanically with counter-sunk bolts and it should work as well.