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MikeStevenson

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Everything posted by MikeStevenson

  1. Good thoughts about the ballast. I may just have to turn the whole question-answering thing over to Barry and Ray. I just posted a little diatribe over on the other board. Now I need to go link to this thread... Mike
  2. One of the nice things about this group is the lack of snobbishness about wood-vs.-whatever. We've had lots of fiberglass boats and would have one again with no qualms but for the fact that we're not in a big-boat mood right now. Having had an old wood boat in a slip at the same time Peter had a glass one, I have to say that I don't think I'd do the wood slip-boat route again personally. I liked that he never had to worry about his hull drying out and opening up! Have fun and post pics; you may get plywood boaters to join you! Mike
  3. Snow? Is this late in the year for snow down your way? We're running out of Summer here for most of the N. Am. group. Here on the Central CA. coast, we're running out of patience with the Summer rather than Summer itself. It should be OVER by now! Summer here means fog and blah. This weather should have packed it up by mid-August. Weird. This is usually the nice time of year now: Cooler, but crisp and clear. I'm not familiar enough with Southern Hemisphere latitudes to know how Christchurch compares; I do know that your pretty far down the globe though. Latitudes are deceiving though: We don't get the same type of weather here in the San Francisco area as Athens. And certainly Jeuneau in Alaska doesn't compare with Scotland! The East Pacific is pretty cold comparitively. Our only recent exposure to New Zealand topography has been on the extra DVD's of stuff for the L.O.T.R. serries and the America's Cup stuff. Achingly pretty places. Mike
  4. Wow! I think you may be a little further along the finish curve than you realise or need to be. I'd just take it out and sail it! As for varnish over paint, I'm not sure about some of the new finishes, but cars used to be varnished some times back in the 1930's. It is actually a technique I may try in order to get a more antique look on our little machines. I think your boat looks great and it's work fine. Mike
  5. Frank, If you get some walnut shells, we'll buy some from you. I'd like to re-do the non-skid on the bottom of the Phaedra. Plus it's good to have around. Mike
  6. I should think th eKevlar tape would be OK. You may find it working loose later as a result of beachings, but perhaps not. As long as it's only a tape along the keel edge, it should be easy to fix later also. Mike
  7. Keep in mind: The original Weekender plans called for 2" full round handrail material for the mast and bowsprit. We went to the heavier style for looks and as the handrail stock doesn't give much safety factor. I'm sure the solid tent pole will work great. If it doesn't, make a new bowsprit later! Mike
  8. I think that the bondo-type puttys are fine on a trailer boat which is not in the water for weeks at a time. As was pointed out, when the plans were done in the late seventies and early eighties, this stuff was pretty great, comparitively. There has been quite a lot of product development in bondos: we have been using the "Rage" stuff for awhile, and are always willing to try a new product when someone suggests them. High-quality bondos cost closer to $20 a gallon though. I'm afraid the story of the sheeting-off bondo was actually regarding the Valkyrie. We usually go far enough as to paint the boats prior to tests, but I may be wrong about the earlier days. I can check with Peter. The Valkyrie deal was particularly annoying as it took a long time in hot weather to fair those two 36' hulls. In all fairness, they sat in saltwater for a year before they started sheeting off. Still no good, but encouraging for trailer boats. Mike
  9. I'd have to agree with Barry (as is usually the case, it seems). The hard chine is not a problem speed-wise, and certainly adds stability both laterally and tipping-wise. The sharp chine (and it's not that sharp usually, about like the radius of the web of one's forefinger and thumb when held at right angles) certainly is a large component of the winward ability. Plus, it's easier to build. Mike
  10. Wow; I had no idea the Yellow Pine everyone talks about is harder than Fir. I know that the pine one gets out here in California is much softer than the fir. That was before the Hemlock waste-wood that home centers are selling now. Does anyone know the hardness for Bubinga and Cocobolo? I've tried to do some small stuff with those two woods and had trouble with it being too hard to work. Especially the Cocobolo. Todd Schmitt made his Weeknder with all Phillipine Mahogany. It was too soft, I thought, but it turned out fine. It's on the very low end of usable though. Honduran Mahog used to be pretty expensive. Either Fir has gone way up or they're over-cutting their forests in Honduras. Mike
  11. I'm with High C and Barry: Go with the ACX. It's not going to be a problem in the long run. Decades of ACX boats point to the material working fine. I think the Marine Grade concept is more applicable to boats living in the water. For a trailer boat you can use ACX fine. Mike
  12. MikeStevenson

    Sails

    The cord is just the tip of the iceberg, although that was a pretty ratty-looking saw. It sure was smooth though. There's all sorts of wierd stuff in the background of the video. You can see the Solexplor, some of our cars, some weird tools we made for shaping the Zapata electric car, lots of old car parts actually, even a paper plate with a hardened glob of resin with a fork in it! All sorts of picturesque shop goodies. I wish we still had access to that shop space, it was really handy. Mike
  13. MikeStevenson

    Sails

    Hi, Sorry I did not answer your e-mail about these two subjects before this. Barry did an EXCELLENT job of answering (to be honest, I think he did a better job of answering these questions than I would have!) I can add one thing: If you want the new plans, we only charge $20 for people who've bought them before. Just let me know. Mike
  14. Good point Buck: The sequence of tightening the gaff is important. I've found that dropping the peak so the gaff is at least level makes everything much smoother-running. Mike
  15. I was going through folders of pics and found some shots of the electric motor set-up Peter has on his boat. I also found an article Peter had written about solar-sailing. A new Cap'n Ply page is up. http://www.stevproj.com/EMotorIdeas.html Mike
  16. Here's a pic of how Peter has his Weekender set up now. As you can see, we're using a double pulley for the throat halyard and running a two-to-one purchase now. You could use a single w/becket. At the deck we've got this going now: The same set-up is used on the starbord side for the peak halyard so it can run back to the cockpit side. Mike
  17. The Amphora In the second shot that's a PVC pipe crane for lifting sunken treasure, not a sail rig. I tried a sail rig on it once, but it was just not the right boat for sailing. It's a terrific rowboat though. Some of you may notice how this boat fits in between the Caliban and the Triad in Peter's Greek-themed boats. The Phaedra is still in the works, but it's only had one test sailing day and we haven't touched it in several months. Mike
  18. I mentioned your Amphora project to a friend I've known since First Grade (so he remembers the first Amphora well). He wanted me to suggest adding Lexan ports onthe floor for a glass-bottom-boat ability. I mentioned the viewer, and he remembered it but wants someone to try this idea out. :wink: I think he's frustrated that we didn't try it in our latest boat, but we haven't finished with it yet; I still could add it later! If you don't have much to look at underwater though, it might be more trouble than it's worth. It sure would be fun in Hawaii though. 8) Mike
  19. I think I was nine or ten when I built the Amphora in the book. It's a great rowboat and I had a lot of adventures exploring San Diego Harbor (not so much underwater as around the docks). I sometimes wish I still had the original one. I look forward to seeing yours as you get it built. Mike Stevenson
  20. As Russ says, the Hydroflier was the one-person aero-styled hydrofoil on the Experimental Boats Page. The Amphora was one project I thought about scanning for free posting. The books are still available at ABE.com though, so I didn't get far. Maybe I should go ahead. I'm afraid the CycleKarts are not plans projects. I did have some drawings up on the C-K website for a little while, but we pulled them down for liability and annoyance reasons (mostly annoyance). I'll let Peter know you enjoyed the article. It was a pretty good job by the R&T crew. I really like the job their cutaway guy did on the Type 59 spec page; it's super-detailed and he only had the phots to work from. I think he got inspired. We had fun sitting around thinking up silly "data" for the spec page, but the R&T guys came up with a lot of the funnier ones themselves. The Monterey Historic Race week has just wrapped up here, so we've just had a full-dose of cars and car people (Pre-Historics were on the 9th, Historics on the 16th). There's stuff all week (and even this last Monday: Peter and I went out to the track to check out the new GT 40 Ford. Ford put on a corporate-type meet-and-greet for the press and car celebs with the designers, Ford bigwigs, etc. Pretty cool car. The first "supercar" we've actually liked. Got to see Jackie Stewart, whom we'd never met.). The R&T guys are really fun (as you can tell from their April Fools articles); we had them over for dinner on the 14th and were discussing getting together in October to drive C-K's. The two new cars should be finished by then. Keep an eye on the C-K website as I'll post pics next month. The Alfettina and the Buffy-Porson were both a little bigger than the CycleKarts: The Alfettina has a Ninja 600 and the B-P has a Honda 500 twin. I think they're more along the size of real Cyclecars. BTW, the original Buffy-Porson book is still on ABE also (the Amphora was a companion to this book, both projects aimed at kids.)
  21. I'm going to go through our boxes of old plans to see what we have. Any requests? If I find some of the out-of-print plans, I may be able to make copies. Keep in mind the Hydroflier was never drawn up; we get asked for that a bit and we never did have plans for it (even for ourselves, as we don't work from drawings on our prototypes.) Mike
  22. I think we may have done the same thing while taping the video for the Weeknder. I know we've done it more than once. I'm afraid you don't win anything for that one, which is actually a good thing. :wink: Mike
  23. Ray: Both reasons are valid. Most of the time it's for that annoying little dribble which works its way down the decks and evetually down your spine. Which is why we extended our splash coamings back past the cockpit to the transom (just a 3/4" square drip chaser thingy from the end of the laminated coaming). I can't remember if this is in the plans or not, but we got on to it by a note from a builder who (rightly so) was yelling at us for aiming the drip right in the small of his back. The other reason is as you asked: When you heel way over (the way I like to sail) you can get a splash up along the cabin once in awhile and it's nice to keep it out of the cockpit. Plus they look really good. Mike
  24. Processing later today, shipping tomorrow if all goes smoothly. The proto-Vacationer never failed, as it was never finished. We scrapped it before it got too far along. It was obvious that the narrower hull (width limited by trailer rules) was not looking right. I am not at all sorry we scaled the boat down to what became the Vacationer. That's a big boat as it is for this construction concept. We're confident in the Vacationer, but don't feel that scaling it up is going to be a good idea from an aesthetic point of view, and neither will it be a good idea from structural or stability pov's. A larger boat should be built more like a traditional machine, I think, in that it will be used more for longer cruising and our boats just don't have the storage spaces afforded by bilges and a nice full hull. The deeper keel will mean ballast works, as well as all of the spots to stick water tanks, fuel tanks, batteries, and engines. A standard light cruising monohull is a good solution for the larger sailboat compromise equation. To get one of these you can buy some nice, cheap used boats or you can build one from several sources of plans. And there are lots of different styles of boats to choose from in the plywood medium-cruiser catagory. I think you can even still get Thunderbird plans (I always liked those boats). A project of that size needs to be considered very carefully, though, as it will take a LONG time to finish. You really need to decide if having that extended capability will be useful in the long run. Far too often you'll see big homebuilt sailboats rotting away in backyards due to flagging interest, dwindling funds, and/or changing lifestyles. A project which takes five or more years to finish may not be viable when it finally hits the water. Our boat design philosophy is obviously the "get it done fast and dirty
  25. We feel the stringers add a fairly important smoothing element to the building process by fairing out irregular plywood curves. I am not a big fan of the stitch-and-glue concept in that it's more trouble to my mind. Building with glue and stringers is fast; especially with two drills/screwdrivers and some practice. Structurally, I don't think it matters either way. You can build a perfectly fine boat with no glass though if you use stringers. Mike
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