PeterP

I have cooked some weird rations on my MSR Whisperlite but 17 pounds of lead takes the cake Joe. Hands down. That'll be the tale to beat on the trail around campfire when the grub is running low. PeterP

Chris, as good as you may be lofting no two boats ever unfold exactly as planned. So it is good to double check stuff. If your boat is leveled things end up going quicker because all horizontals and verticals are simple to establish. Much better to proceed with caution rather than catching yourself with a screw up and having to back track. The bulkheads are plumb by the way. PeterP

I think people worry about getting the bow compartment half full of water if the drain leaks. It is good to get it right the first time as repairs are difficult to effect later: i.e. hanging upside down through the hatch with flashlight stuck in the mouth. The original design has worked for me for 15 some years without problems. PeterP

Thanks for the verses and no problem with the tread diversion. I am taking a few days off to make some money. Reading poetry and putting money in the pocket should clear my mind for the next bout of sanding. PeterP

John, I like that shop. I think you had something bigger in mind when you put that together. Must be nice to have only 104 things to do. My 104 has definitely a few more zeros in it yet. Cheers PeterP

Thanks for the poetry. I have always enjoyed Tennyson' Ulysses but don't know anything written on boat building. Good stuff this -now if only I could memorize it. PeterP

The Little Princess is now all glassed outside and because of the opaque glass beads filling the weave you can hardly tell she is basically a wooden boat. Also, sanding is back on the menu and it is starting to stick in my craw to tell the truth. For a change of pace I crawled inside and removed some temporary frames. It was good to sit there inside my boat -to- be and pretend she was already alive with sea swell. PeterP

Nice "Fuel Locker". If my eyes do not deceive me it looks a perfect size for a six pack. No need for elaborate Coast Guard venting requirements there -just do the lid right.PeterP

Good to hear Tom is out and about. Good luck with your recovery Tom! PeterP

Joe, the 10oz wraps over onto the planking and was feathered. The biax is too stiff for such a tight radius. As for the magic holding the glass in place it is quite simple. If you open the second picture with a magnifier you will be able to see a little black square toward the top of the glass - it's a 1" square piece of 1/4" plywood with a brad in the middle. I had 3 of them supporting the glass in the steepest parts. As the glass gets soaked and starts to stick they come out and the tiny hole fills up with epoxy. Be careful with unfinished glass edges, put your brad well away or you'll unravel the weave. You are using 12 oz biax on your EC22? PeterP

Started on 'glass. I did the transom more than a week ago with 10oz regular cloth since that is easier to coax around the rounded edges of the planking. The transom was one of the first pieces I put into the boat since all the planking lands on it. To protect the pretty Okoumi during the build I rolled three fat coats of epoxy on it. Naturally, to glass I had to sand a good chunk of it off. Then feathered the edges of the 10oz when it cured and then stood around waiting on weather. All the WOW I have done working offshore and still as impatient as ever. Then, suddenly, with snow still on the ground, I felt the glass itch. I was just gona cut some of it and drape it on the boat -just to see how it looked. Nothing else mind you. Still too cold I thought -and the sheer mass of the roll urged caution: 203 lbs of 12 oz 45 deg biaxial cloth. Just manhandling it out of the truck and into the garage left me in awe and out of breath. Serious stuff this. The back side looked real rough. Fat as a bear hide. Major epoxy drinker this -I thought. But - with two skins of it - it ought to keep the water out alright. First picture shows me rolling out the 29 ft: Z-folding 2x 10ft plus 9 ft. The garage floor is the cleanest surface for that purpose but it is not long enough hence the Z-fold. Roll it up, cut the other piece and manhandle this Mother of All Rolls out of the way before The Dream Car gets back home. Second picture shows the cloth draped over the boat - slick side out. Nice - a bit stiff and definitely not as pliable as 10oz but nice. Then the shed warmed up and I am looking at the glass thinking: come on ya wuss all it needs is a couple gallons of 'pox. How hard is that. You've done that before. And before you know it I have a half of the glass peeled back and am busy wetting out the wood. Then do the other half and start on the glass. Of course it turned out to be a whole lot more work. I did a vertical 6' strip to completion until it started to get tacky. Move over and start another strip. Run back and bust bubbles. Start another strip, bust more bubbles and so on and so forth . Took four and half hours. By the time I hit the stem the stern was pretty much kicked off so I squeegeed a coat of microspheres on to fill the weave. Another one the following morning and when I finish typing this I'll do the final today. The last picture shows me filling the weave. PeterP

Hollow sprits? Why bother? You stand to save 2 oz while giving yourself 2 tons of work. Get some nice fat fir closet rod, taper it, make the ends and you're in business. PeterP

Scott -best of luck. This is what makes our insanity bearable - the realization that others too suffer from the same symptoms. Give your shelter a serious consideration - I am getting hammered with mine. After the ice punctures last week we had 50MPH winds blow some branches down yesterday. Mostly small stuff and the puncture wounds are easy to fix. But it is unnerving. And -lucky -there was no rain. Getting the boat seriously wet at this stage is not a pleasant thought. How are you milling your lumber? Here is a tip that can save you some lumber: I ripped my 2x6 stock on a table saw using 71/4" super thin kerf saw blade instead of 10'' regular. I gained an extra plank out of every board ripped that way. PeterP

Just a few words about my shelter for those contemplating going the same route. The last couple of snow storms picked out some weaknesses in the design. The plastic can only go so far - of course - and I knew that from the start. So any accumulation of snow can be dangerous and as you can imagine with two snowfalls and rain in between made for some anxious moments. The pitch (1:14) is way too shallow to shed anything but rain. Snow is not that heavy by itself in (say 3-4") small quantities but soaked with rain you could end up with a couple tons of weight up there. My little "House of sticks" was definitely not meant for that. To compound the problem -the shed - attached to my shop- is directly underneath two pine trees ( the only place available to me as I should point out). I did worry about branches coming down and if fact I did saw off a couple of dead limbs while building the shelter. Turns out it is the pine cones doing the most damage. Big fat iced up pine cone can put a tight cluster of up to 10 pinholes in the roof. Because of the shallow pitch water just immediately drips down rather than running down the plastic over to the side as it did with my Bow Roof Shed. The fix is easy: dry the plastic, cut a patch (of the same stuff) goop it with OSI window caulk, slap the patch over the puncture(s), press in place. On the plus side when the shed is buttoned up the solar gain is amazing. On a sunny day at noon the temperature inside would be 25 deg higher. Hard to work in 30 deg weather but 55 is fine especially for sanding. Off to get the 'glass tomorrow at Graham's. PeterP

I thought I heard wind howl last night but now I think it could have been ol' Ray laughing his head off about the warm South. PeterP

Off to a slow start today-It dropped down to 18F last night. Next guy opens his mouth about planet warming I have a good hard chunk of ice for him to suck on from Greenville, NC of all places. PeterP

Well it has come to this. I am sanding like a man possessed. I can do about 2 hours before the ol' bod says: Let's think about this-How about some machine sanding? I know I have to fight the urge despite the fact that I have every sander imaginable waiting to go to work. ( 2 palm sanders, 2- 6" random Porter Cable, Fein, 4x21 belt sander, full sheet Black&Decker described elsewhere). In the final stage it has to be the long boards until it is done, otherwise I'll just end up digging myself a hole or two or more. So a hit in the morning and after a brew (Camellia sinensis) and lunch -it's back for another lick. Lots of walking around and feeling the surface for imperfections in between. For a moment way back I had delusions about coming out of this with arms like Arnold Schw. but right now it looks more like a picture of a prehistoric ape man with arms dragging. At least the weather is co-operating: it is nice and icy cold - so I don't overheat. Sure could use some of that Kona Longboard -it would be real easy to keep cold right now - stick a case of it in the snowdrift outside the shed. The picture shows false stem laminated and shaped and hull pretty much done except for a final hit b4 glass. PeterP

Well that did not come out. Lousy resolution. It will not allow me to post a decent blow up. Sorry. PeterP

This is the best shot I have -see if you make out the detail. If you enlarge the rudder you can just make out the hole with the knotted line. You should be able to figure out the rest. PeterP

If you ever have to work on the centerboard you will be glad for the access. PeterP

Well finally, the last stick was put in place! If I look like I am kneeling then it very nicely sums up my feelings at that moment. Thank goodness it is done. Since I have been sanding like mad in between glue ups I have a good part of the boat (almost) ready for glass. Believe you me I am ready to flip this thing. Two pictures of the boat and one of a home made screw extractor are attached. The keel batten in the boat is Ipe - beautiful - straight as a shot- no knots - hard as nails - dense. Only problem -it loves to eat my drywall screws. If you don't pre- drill the screw is in for good. So I lost a few and to dig them out I made this extractor out of a tension pin from Lowes ($1.8 for two) The teeth aren't much to look at but it works very well. PeterP

This is what works for me: buy a good quality chemo gloves that reach good way up your forearm. After a glue up wash your gloved hands in a bucket of vinegar. That way your hands are well protected and you get good mileage out of expensive gloves. I used to treat gloves as a throwaway item and lot of the cheapies are. But good gloves are worth the extra money. It really is amazing how well they last if washed well after each use. Unless accidentally ripped they seem to last forever in fact. PeterP

Graham and Carla, all the best and thanks for keeping us "afloat" all these years. See you at the dinner in January! PeterP and family

I make my tubes out of tape - same stuff I use for joint taping. Make sure you have lots of epoxy in the first layer. Don't worry -the plastic covering your mast will give your cured epoxy beautiful smooth finish. At any rate your wooden mast will get scuffed up no matter what unless you protect it. I am thinking along the lines of rub collars or good fat coating of epoxy. That is something to be considered before you make the sleeve. Now that I think about it if you lay a fat coat of epoxy on your mast - say 3/16" fat that will take care of your 3/8" gap. (Here I am presuming that you stuck the mast in the sleeve and had a gap 3/8" on one side- correct?) PeterP

Look, to make the bearings you will need some fiberglass. Probably tape - so why not just go ahead and use the tape to make a new tube? PeterP