MikeStevenson

Wow! This looks GREAT! It's cool to see a new Circle Sailer after so long. How does it sail? It's been so long none of can recall too well! We just made the first new aluminum tube lateen rig we've had in thirty years...Crazy. It's nice to have one again, though, as so many of our boats use that rig. I would love to make a Mini-Cup for next season, as that was my favorite as a kid. We did this new rig for a new Vector we made this past December. The tubes were around $140 from A place in San Francisco, but we picked them up there. not a bad price for a sail rig, as the tarp and halyard and a single block and cleat are pretty cheap! Please let us know how it sails: We're really curious. Mike

Great looking Weekender! I look froward to sailing with you... I just made mast hoops for my Super Skipjack and this is how I did them: I used a 3" ABS drain pipe coupler for the I.D. I wanted, then carefully cut them on a table saw (set up a fence and then slowly rotated the coupler, cutting progressively deeper. Carefully.) Then I set up my router table and used a 1/8" radius round-over bit to round the corners. I think I used a 3/32" rad for the outside. After they were all finished, they looked like they'd been machine-made! (which they kind of were.) Can I stick little bits of video on here? For some reason, the only shots of them I got were as part of a video note I made for a friend. As far as ballast, skip it. Just get the boat out and get used to sailing a light, dory-like machine. I just had the SSkip out in some pretty good gusts in San Diego and it was FUN! But at 280 lbs sailing weight (I weighed it after we hoisted it out of the water, all the gear from the day's sail still in the boat: 280lbs.) and with the full Weekender sail rig, it was certainly subject to gusts! The friend I had along was a littl unsure of keeping the rail in the water, but that's how I like to sail. I should probably have taken the reef in, but I was happy and it was doing fine. I'll try the reef up here in Monterey Bay when I take it out next. Mike

Herschel, congratulations on your launch. Always great to hear of another Weekender sailing along. I think you'll find ducking under the boom a better solution than the topping lift, over time, and Frank's note of scandalizing the main is a good way to effect a quick area change. We hope to see pics and hear more soon! Mike

Congratulations Mark! Very nice to hear of another Weekender on the water. We're looking forward to more pics and posts in the future... Mike

Congratulations! A very nice looking boat...I'm always happy to see another Weekender (or any homebuilt boat, for that matter) hit the water. Thanks for posting the great shots and I think you'll be happy you shifted the mast angle a bit. Mike

I posted some nice photos of a Weekender built in Ukraine and thought everyone might want to take a look. It's a nice-looking boat and it looks like very nice sailing areas too! Here's the new page: http://www.stevproj.com/WkndrBBB12.html Thanks, Mike

Wow; Looks pretty dang good to me. Mike

Hello All, I posted a video of Peter Stevenson's new Weekender Rob Roy on YouTube. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7nQJhKsddE# Thanks, Mike

Andrew, Thanks for the thread. Sorry I missed it at the time it came out. I'm in Zurich right now, and my wife has been tempting me with photos of the wide beaches around Normandy (she'd taken shots of kite-cars ther a few years ago). It'd be REALLY fun to do the Vector II for those beaches...Hmmm. (I just need to find a shop space somewhere here...) Paul's shot of hte windsurfer-like rig is close to what I'd like to try out. So many fun new materials and components since we did our last sailcar. Mike

Paul: One place we found the tarps to outperform Dacron was in sailcars. Not surprisingly

I think it looks nice! I have been woefully remiss in not stopping past the forum lately and I'm glad I took a look. Mike

The green looks really nice. Great job!

Sounds like a good idea! We thought about the Texas one for this year but we were all spread around a bit thin and didn't get to go. The Florida event looks like a lot of fun. Mike

Hello all, Peter Stevenson has been working on another Weekender this summer and he just sent me three shots of last week's progress which I thought I'd post. Nothing too new about this one yet, but we'll see how it turns out. One change he's made is to add a lazarette hatch to make getting at the steering gear easier. A few builders have already done this and it seemed like a very good improvement. The main new thing for Peter is that this boat marks his firm commitment to epoxy now! He's so happy with how the epoxy resin performs that I doubt he'll ever go back to poly/vinylester again. He's quite happy with how the resin sands and behaves in the high temps. This summer has been quite long and hot in Texas and the epoxy has made a huge difference in workability. This is his (our) fourth Weekender and you can see a few salvaged parts (the varnished parts and the rudder box) from the last Weekender Frolic (the boat in the building video) placed around to get a little inspirational feeling of progress. This boat seems to be coming together nicely and I'm looking forward to sailing her soon. It will also be interesting to have the Super Skipjack and Weekender out together. When we built the prototype Weekender we didn't take the old Skipjack out at the same time for some reason, then when we had the later Weekenders the Skipjack wasn't around any longer. I'm curious to try them out together. Click on the link below each pic for a larger version... http://www.stevproj.com/MnwtrSide809.jpg http://www.stevproj.com/MnwtrCpit809.jpg http://www.stevproj.com/MnwtrSideTrl809.jpg Peter's looking forward to exploring around Texas and further with his new Weekender, and I know he's planning a run to Florida and who knows where else. It'll be fun to have a boat or two to take to gatherings of our builders' machines and get a chance to sail with some of you finally! If you have ideas of places for him to check out, or just want to get in touch about possibly getting together to sail at some point, the best way to reach him is usually by email at the mail@stevproj.com address. I'll keep posting stuff from time-to-time as he gets closer to getting it wet. Mike

We used to really like the 4.5 hp. Merc we had in the '80's, but I would only get a Honda nowadays. We've used a few of them in various projects and they've been flawless and really nice overall (quiet, well-behaved, good machines.) We buried a Honda 5hp in the Hydroflier experiment and it never faltered, even in fairly odd conditions (the 3' horizontal prop shaft extension being one...) and ran quite cool temps. Mike

An observation re. hydraulic brakes locking on: I had this happen on a VW many years ago and it was due to the hoses slowly swelling closed. Eventually, they act as one-way valves, in that you caan pump fluid out through them but the springs aren't strong enough to retract the shoes. I was 500 miles from home but I was able to fold the metal line over a few times and keep them clamped shut with a pair of vise-grips and drive home. I now replace hoses fairly often on older cars. Everything seems happier anyway... Mike

Charlie, Thanks for the heads-up on the June dates. I'll be headed to Texas next week and will check with Peter to see if we can arrange to be there. Mike

If I'm in Texas around then, I'll try and get down to it. It'd be nice to get the Super-Skipjack in the water down there too. I'll try and plan for at least part of it. Mike

Wow; I'm sorry I didn't see this note before. I was away on biz for awhile and I guess it had slipped below the first page. I would go with the daggerboard over the lee-boards. A better solution, if you're willing to adapt the project. I hope this hasn't reached you too late, but I imagine you've forged ahead if so. Mike

We won't be needing a royalty, but thank you very much for asking. Thoughtful of you. I would love to see pics, as I imagine many others here would as well. That would be a form of contribution we can all appreciate! I think you'll be in a great shape with the lug-rig. You obviously have the situation well in hand and I look froward to the results. Mike

Wow...The old Circle Sailer! That is a pretty ancient design. I still have a set of the plans in the archives somewhere, and it's interesting to see how things have changed. I'd sort of lean toward a newer project, but it is a very simple project to have some quick fun with. The only problem nowadays is getting the tubes for the Lateen rig. One good thing about making the Lateen rig is that it can be used on a few other of our projects (the Mini-Cup, Vector, and the Ply-Flier to name a few), so you can get good use of it. I look forward to seeing how it comes together! Mike

Very cool project for them. We have had school/club builders in mind with this boat and its plans. I would have gone nuts for this when I was 12, although I rally did have tons of fun with the Mini-Cup. This has more Pirate/Hornblower romanticism to it, and room for more people, can be electric, etc, etc. Lots more for young builders (or anyone, really) to learn about and get into, I think. If they decide to build one, please do keep us posted. I know Peter would like to know about a young builder project with this new design. Thanks, Mike

Hello everyone, The new Super Skipjack plans are now available to order! I have placed it on our Ordering Info page, and there's a link to that page from the Super Skipjack's page also. We're really very happy with this new set of plans and hope you will be too! And we hope we see lots of new SSkips on the water this Spring...We want to go play! Thanks, Mike Stevenson Here are a couple links: http://www.stevproj.com/SSkip1.html http://www.stevproj.com/BYYCOrdPage.html

Greg: About two years ago I took the Weekender video (which was then only on tape) and brought it to the DVD format. I didn't add any content, but the fact that it's easy to jump to chapters is really nice and those chapters required new titles, DVD menus, etc. So a few changes, but nothing important. Mike

Bill: Yep, your boat was one of those we drooled over along with everyone else. I am pretty sold on the open-cockpit-Weekender concept now, and 14' is an easy-to-handle size. I need to get some time to finish the second SSkipjack I started. It's hanging up in a barn at Peter's, just waiting to be finished...Not anytime in the next 6-9 months for me, I know that, but one of these years. Mike