MikeStevenson

We've always been very fond of the MacGregor line of boats. We almost got one of their 36' cats to modify for our solar-cat project (I wish we had now; it would have been much easier than building the Valkyrie from scratch and probably would have sailed better.) They've had some great boats over the years. I don't much like the looks of the new one, as it looks a little Baylilner-y to me (too much speedboat influence.) Catalinas have piqued our curiosity for years also. I remember crwling all over some in the mid-1970's when Peter was getting the itch for a bigger boat. The only caveat about the Catalinas is that they're SoCal-type boats (like our designs!) and more for coastal and harbor cruising. I think for a trailer boat that's probably the better approach. Why beat up a coast when you can drive? What ever happened to the big Hobie monohull? Mike

Hi, We just got an e-mail from a fellow who would like to arrange a sail (he's building a Weekender in Scotland). If anyone would like to go out for a sail and carry along a passenger, here's his e-mail address: "Lilias Hill" lh011d5343@blueyonder.co.uk Thanks, Mike

At one point I got the bug to do an R/C Weekender also. I decided on 1.5" to the foot, I think, as it seemed like the right size for a small R/C boat. I suspect it may have been too small really, but I got side-tracked and the sheets of model plywood are still in the garage. I used an architecht's rule to loft the parts from the plans dimensions. It's pretty fast, and you can just read the ruler as you would a tape of the proper scale. I mentioned that I'm supposed to be scanning another set of plans. Here's a look at The Shennanigans, the boat Peter did for me when I was a bit youger than Mark G.! Shennanigans is on the left, and Peter's new boat to match it in pond races is on the right (The Zaca.) More shots of the Zaca: I'll get to scaning the shapes maybe this weekend, then I have to write instructions and put it together. It'll be a few weeks, maybe more at the rate I'm going. :roll: Mike [/img]

Thanks for the info: I'll give them a call. Mike

Good looking trailer. Are they galvanised or painted? We need to replace our trailer from San Diego (it was a nice brand-new painted one ten years ago; now I can stick my finger through the side of the steel frame!) Middle sized wheels? Like 12" or 13"? If you'd like to drop me an e-mail when you get info, we're looking to get a trailer soon. Mike

I started scanning the Amphora to perhaps do it up as a plan or download, but in the level of quality I'd like to keep, it would be a huge file. As long as the books are still circulating, I can't see as the scanning needs to be done right now. Peter wants me to get working on his Treasure Island book again, so that will be eat up all the fiddly time-wasting project motivation for awhile. Mike

I'm afraid I agree with you Alex: School gets in the way of fun far too much. Never liked the concept much personally. Mike

Bizarre that Amazon would have it in their files. The Amphora has been out of print for decades. I've seen them on ABE.com all the time, but I would have thought the only book of Peter's which Amazon would cary would be Driving Forces. Glad you found it. Mike

I'm afraid this is a pretty old project (the second one Peter did plans for!) I was six or seven when he did the Sportfoil, so I never got to go on it (maybe I did-I have a very vague memory of going out on it.) I think it was about seven or eight knots to get on foil, depending on weight load. Don't use these as definitive figures: We're all going to have to wait until someone (Konrad?) makes one and gets some new numbers. I do know that the Hydroflier was built with the idea of being able to fly in a five-knot-zone. The Sportfoil couldn't do this, thus the assisted-lift design for the Hydroflier. This gives us a sort of low-end idea of speed for the Sportfoil, and the upper end I would guess around 20 maybe? Now that I know more about hydrofoil concepts, I can tell that the Sportfoil and Hydroflier could both use a variable-pitch prop system. Unfortunately outboards don't have this feature! You're going to be limited by the pitch of your prop: A hydrofoil on foil (flying) has very much less drag than a boat shoving water out of the way (I don't know how it compares to a planing boat, but at the relatively low speed of 15-20knots, I suspect the hydrofoil will have less drag. At higher speeds the planing boat would begin to get the edge, thus Unlimited Hydros run as planing boats.) The foils down in the water are a big drag at first, and you need a fair amount of power, then as the boat rises, suddenly the drag goes down and the boat accelerates. If you could "shift gears", you could take advantage of the low drag and go pretty fast. As it is, you're going to run out of prop (your speed will be high enough that the prop will be less effective and will run out of thrust at some point: your top speed.) If someone with a Sportfoil gets bored with just playing with it, a series of tests with different props would be interesting. If you have too high pitch initially, it's going to be hard to get the boat up on foil quickly, but that may not be an issue. Putting a larger motor on to go faster is not really the solution in the case of a hydrofoil, though larger motors will have props designed to go slightly faster. Ten to fifteen horsepower will be fine for the Sportfoil. It's very light and simple. Remember that the Hydroflier was working fine with a Honda 5hp. 4-stroke w/stock prop, but that was with assited-lift; the Sportfoil is pure hydrofoil lift so it will need to go faster to fly, and need more power. I'll look for more shots, but we don't have much from that period of time. There's a nice Sportfoil builder pic in the Builder Pics Section of our website. The original Sportfoil was scrapped around 1976 or so, as it was damaged in storage and we were busy with other stuff then. Mike

Well, I was put on as author more as a fun thing by my father, Peter Stevenson. He was the real author, and designer, and I only helped. I was in third grade when we made that boat, so I didn't do too much of the proofreading! Peter is the fellow with the beard... Mike

Hi, I had some time over the holidays and was motivated to scan the old Sportfoil plans and post them on the free plans page. They're up now, so you can download them if you're curious. The plans were the second set Peter drew up (not second boat design though) so they're not int he style he settled on eventually. They're still interesting though. http://www.stevproj.com/Planlets.html I'm going to start work on another free plan in the next week or so. This one is for a sailboat Peter did quite a long time ago (over thirty years), but it's not very big. I had lots of fun playing with it though, and still do! (no more hints...) Mike

Aaccckk!! Thirty below...Zounds. How do you get air to breathe through all the layers of scarves/mufflers? Have you an Ice Boat to play with in the winter? Mike

Good to see you aboard "officially". Your Amphora project is making me want to make another one myself. I'm holding out until I see pics, then I'll probably cave! Is it warming up in Alaska? Our Naval PostGrad School weather here in Monterey noted that this morning's 27

Thanks all, for the links and tips. I'm getting some pressure from Peter to get the bandsaw back running (either fixed or just going again: he doesn't much care.) I had a carvel-planked 22 sq. meeter from 1936 for awhile. Always amazing that it held water out. Barrel staves and carvel planks and such are marvels of shape. The problem I had with that boat was that if I didn't sail it at least every two weeks I'd come down to a boat I could see through (literally: I could see the streaks of light play along the hull outside through the gaps in the planks as they'd shrunk from drying out.) I always knew it would be a heavy bailing session everytime I left it for three weeks or more (thus the need for "crew".) Was that the norm, or did I just not know what I was doing? Mike

A tip on adding sail to the Amphora: Start VERY small and work up. I had my dad set me up with a sail for the first Amphora back when I was just a little older than you are now. It didn't work out too well. I think we had too much sail for the little boat. The Triad is a bit bigger, but looks a lot the same. If you're sure you want to go sailing (and who wouldn't?), you might think about working on that boat. I understand the fun of experimenting though, so perhaps it would be more exciting to just go ahead and try to make the Amphora sail. You may be the first person to do it! Mike

Yeah, I thought about the roller guides. The old concept of bearing use is a little odd to me, and the straight-on idea of using the bearing properly makes more sense. I also like the simplicity of the old style though. The way we've had this saw set up for so long, I think anything will be an improvement. Still, the newer types are nice... Urethane tires sound very much better. I don't know if there's anything left on the wheels now. This saw hasn't seen any maintenance in many decades, it looks like. We got it from a friend, and I have no idea where he got it. It's pretty old though, which is nice. Thanks for the tips. Mike

Hi, We've had a note from a potential Weeeknder builder who's looking to get a feel for the boat before starting construction (he already has the plans, just needs a little encouragement I think.) Anyone in the Portland area (or WA I guess, as it's not too far) who'd like to take him out for a run? Here's his e-mail: "Mike Lowery" MikeL@pkaarchitects.com Thanks, Mike Stevenson

I think you're probably going to find that most everyone agrees with you here, but that they probably want a tablesaw anyway...Just in case. As I noted inthe other thread, we built all the prototypes for these boats without a table saw, and never felt the lack. The only place they're useful on our boats is the stringer ripping, and a circular saw and rip guide can get that job done in an hour for the whole project. Not really worth the expense of a table saw. Bandsaws have been around our shop from the very get-go of our projects, and are far more handy than people think. I would get one far before a tablesaw. On that note, our old Delta is in dire need of some new parts. Anyone know where I should look? I need to replace the lower guide bearing shaft (and bearing), the upper guide bearing, and the wheel tires. Mike Stevenson

Good work Alexander! Already searching out sunken treasures...Very cool! I look forward to seeing pictures when you get building. If you find a mast, maybe there will be blocks and lights and stuff you can salvage! Mike

Frank's soldering heat sheild idea sounds great. I forgot all about that stuff. It really works: I would hold the torch right on it and you couldn't feel any heat on the other side. I don't know how it works in a heat-soak situation though. It may eventually transmit enough heat ove to bother the glass, but it's certainly worth a try. Mike

Mr. Smalser's note about good Freud blades sure resonated with me. In all the boats we did over the years, we never had a table saw. Peter's father-in-law had a ratty one which was used a little bit int he very first toy book, but after that I know Peter decided to just use the circular saw or little jigsaw for stuff. I had some kitchen cabinet stuff to modify, so I got a portable Bosch t-saw (looks to be made by Skil maybe...) It had a nice Bosch combo blade, but I sprung for a deal on Amazon for three Freud blades: a combo, a ripper, and an 80 tooth crosscut. All are amazingly good (to be honest, I haven't tried the 80-tooth one because the combo blade is so smooth already I haven't felt the need.) They were noticably better than the already pretty good Bosch blade. The Bosch saw is good, but still a plastic-and-metal portable (which is just what I need); The blades seem to be the key component. When we used the cirular saws for everything, and a fair amount of building was going on, we used a lot of 7-1/4" blades. They began to get all trendy and wierd in the 1980's, with strange names with psuedo-machismo like Lazer or Raptor or somesuch (they're just sawblades

Wow, that solves the deer problem. Peter & Susie have given up their battle with deer after five years. They fenced about a half-acre and the rest is no longer contested. We tried everything short of firearms: BB's, pellets, paint-ball cannon, slingshots, running and yelling (effective), running and barking like a dog (more effective, but I think I'd run away too...), bow-and-arrow with blunted tips, etc. We stopped short of shooting them with sharp and/or effective means, as we saw a local get in fairly big trouble for winging a few deer w/a bow. The best thing was the mountain lion which came around; he cleared 'em right out. I thought we should leave big hunks of meat down the hill to keep it around, but nobody liked that idea. Ah well

I don't know the melting point, but we usually look to have an inch or so space between glass and exhaust at least. David Mysona's Alfa P3 CycleKart has had some softening problems around the muffler, and I suspect it was after stopping (hot muffler, nowhere for the heat to go and no movement to blow air around). The pipe comes out of the boattail with about a 1/2" gap around it and not too much trouble. Mike

Thanks for the cool post. We've been intrigued by the traditional ships still working around the world for some time. The two brothers who did that Ring Of Fire documentary/book (Blair bros.?) opened our eyes to the great late-nineteenth-century ships still being made in Indonesia. I wonder if they're still being done? That documentary was done quite a while back. Mike

We have been watching the various Wright re-enactors and getting by turns excited, annoyed, and depressed; Mostly excited, and certainly interested in the historical aspects (a friend of mine and I built a Chanute glider from a 1913 Boy Mechanic back about 28 years ago; it worked just about like the Chanute on the Discovery Wings show of a few days ago, but we only got the hops, not the full glides). But at times depressed by the changes in attitude in America in a hundred years. This afternoon I was sent a press release (relayed by the same friend as above) put out by Rutan's Scaled Composite company. The first privately created plane broke the sound barrier today as part of its testing to go into space at some point (most likely this coming year.) I think this flight means more to me by far than the re-creations of the Wright flights. Rutan's group is showing some of the same stuff that the Wrights had, and it's important steps to weaning our country (and the rest of the world) from the governmental space programs. Well done Scaled Composites! Here's the press release: http://www.scaled.com/news/news.htm Mike