PeterP

The wishbones are laminted over a jig. The curved part - that is. Spruce strips 1/4 in. To save work I glued up one "fat" piece for each and slit it in half on the table saw. You will need to make two different jigs since the 'bones are both different. The straight sections are just that - sawn wood scarfed on at 10:1. I did'nt feel like I needed to go overboard on the scarf since I wanted tape on the outside for added strength anyway. The finished dimensions are 2 1/4 in x 3 in x 3/8 in hollow box main and 2 in x 2 in x 5/16 in hollow box mizzen. There is 6 oz (?) kevlar tape front and back and 10 oz glass top and bottom. The kevlar is mostly for ding protection ( whacking pilings), the glass will help with sun degradation. May even paint the top and bottom and leave the yellow kevlar for an accent. The main weighs 24 lbs and the mizzen was 18 or 20. if memory serves right. That's without hardware. Not super but not bad since they are big mammas. Don't ask me how I got the numbers - Graham thought they looked reasonable. We'll see.

The juicy things you find out if you listen long enough. Tony never brought up his lead adventures with me. I actually plan on pouring about 50 -60# more than required to allow for the uneven shrinkage and all the substitutes in the wheel weights that are likely to affect specific gravity of the metal. I'm not doing a stand pipe - just overpouring into an open top mould and planing it flat for mating to the keel stub. Good point about shoring up the sides which I intend to do using 2x4 stakes in the ground tied across the top. As for the help - I already have offers to video the proceedings "just in case". Now if I could only get some help with the actual work...Cheers PeterP PS Joe the Singer will go to work on the boat cushions. Regards

Chris, thank you for your kind words regarding my boat. You sound like a person of solid judgement and refined taste. At least from here anyway. If you permit - a word of caution: if this is your first build -consider starting with something smaller first. Like a nesting Spindrift. You will pick up a lot of good skills building that and if you're still game for the big one after you get done -you'll have a tender for it already. Plus you will have a boat to use and recharge your (mental)batteries when you get stuck on the big one. And you will get stuck. Trust me. Also -a Nester can be built anywhere- balcony, spare bedroom- you name it; put a set of kayak wheels on it and you can tow it to the water a couple of blocks with your bicycle. Finally, discovering that boatbuilding is'nt really 'you' is a whole lot cheaper on a 10-12 footer. Anyway, as to my boat - this is where things stand as of today: I have a trailer after spending hours and hours scouring Craigslist. Obviously used one, but a great deal. Stuff needs attention so I'm attending. Checking and replacing wheel bearings and some rollers. The lay out needs to be modified some -to allow for my 14in keel etc. The lead keel mould is completed. I'm presently scratching around for something that will hold 11.6 gals of hot lead so I can finally pour the b...dy thing. The inside of the cabin is almost all done including the laid flooring which needs to be varnished yet. Both wishbones are glued up & awaiting harware. One interesting thing I would like to mention: I shopped around for a chart plotter for the boat and this is what I came up with. Got a used 10in HPNetbook on e-bay for 100bucks. Spent 35bucks on Globalsat BU353S4 puck GPS. Installed Navigatrix software with OpenCPN -free (donation if you are so inclined - which I was), downloaded ALL the US gov charts of the east coast - free. I LOVE THIS THING! Finally- the sails are on order. I'd say I'm getting closer and closer. About time. Best wishes to you all PeterP

My sympathy David. I know how hard it is to turn a page on pleasurable chapter of one's life. Glad you did not decide to chuck it all in and move to Colorado to take up bungee jumping or some such. I hope to cross the "Finnegan's Wake" sometime. Good luck PeterP

You missed it. Read Peter HK post. The idea is to get the same OD tube of required length plus about 6 in. Cut off the six and run it through the saw lengthwise. Depending on your saw blade you may have to run it through a couple of times to get the kerf you need to be able to work the sleeve inside your mast tube. Look at the picture in my post. When you slide the extension on everything will be lined up perfect. Leave a 1/16 in gap between the pieces so when the guy welds it the lot fuses together. Sice aluminium loses strength when heated it is good to know you will be doubling up the material in the joint thereby maintaing almost all of original strength. If your welder is a decent fellow he'll charge you 10 -15 bucks for the work since you will have done most of it and if you paint the mast no one will ever know. PeterP

Lennie, if you change your mind about the extension look at my Princess Sharpie 28 -post 232. I had to add to my mast and it worked out very well. PeterP

Graham will probably pipe in on this. He tried the flag poles once and decided against using them because they were too heavy and not strong enough as Par mentioned. The combo mast is made out of aluminum lower section - which is untapered - and upper section made out of light wood such as spruce. And that is tapered. You could make that part hollow but I don't think it is worth the trouble. PeterP

Howard, WOW that shop! Man you put some effort into it! I just noticed looking at the pictures. Mine is well beyond "bomb hit it" stage. In fact I WISH it looked like bomb had hit it - maybe the sheriff's forensics would clean it up some looking for evidence. Looking good bud! PeterP

Look at the pictures - I think they are self explanatory. PeterP

I changed mine and not exactly midstream. Hamhawed about it for several years actually before I did it. It worked out really well. The loss of storage volume is greatly outweighed by better looks, substantial increase in seating possibilities, much improved access to the rudder and motor(which I don't have). My rudder blade always needs a shove when I leave the boat ramp and the open aft is just the ticket here. The job itself wasn't that difficult - getting a decent scarph on the extended coaming and trying to match the paint were about the most difficult. The paint didn't quite get there BTW. I'll be at the get together in Oct if you want to see my boat RedBeard. Good luck PeterP

I think you confuse market price and value. Grand Canyon, Freedom, my kids and wife all have value without having market price. Doug's 20 has value even if it does not sell simply because of emotional content of him building it. It is valuable to him for that reason as well as the simple fact that he can have a blast sailing it while he waits for the market to come back. He'll sell it eventually and I suspect that when he does the money will quickly pour into another bigger and "better" boat. PeterP

Doug, your boat looks great and I am sorry there are no takers. I built the first 20 eons ago and even discounting for my lack of forum knowledge at that time I have a pretty good idea about the hours and materials needed to build one of these. Your price is better than fair. Ignore the centerboard dig. Why is it that people will gladly pay $50 - $75 an hour to a plumber to tell them their toilet is backed up ( why do you think I called you?) yet $10 an hour for building boats is outrageous bordering on insane? Hang in there bud and best of luck. PeterP

Joe, it won't be that serious I hope. Huge percentage of that heat will be wasted simply because of inefficient heat transfer. I don't want to invest the time or money into building an efficient smelter for one shot pour. To combat any accidental vapor I will run my HPLV to give me a positive pressure air at face shield. Regards PeterP

Thanks for all the encouragement from David and Brent. Howard- you're right -the keel is not poured yet. Gearing up for it presently and with a quite good bit of trepidation. 1100 pounds of hot lead is not to be trifled with. I replaced the house furnace last year and kept the 120000 BTU burner/blower. Runs on city gas, sounds like a F-18 afterburner and should melt the lead easily. The crucible is not finalized yet. I have two candidates but nothing definite. As for the mold - I am going with Hardiplank for the contact areas backed by Drywall mud mixed with sand. Sounds a bit crazy but I've put a blow torch on the siding and got it to glow cherry red and it stayed together. The Mud has 2 hr fire rating by itself - I will mix it with sand (3 parts of sand to 1 part mud). The whole thing will be contained in a solid wooden box. We'll see. Meanwhile-you may enjoy a picture of my Dorade box. Not my design. Just my version of a plastic Plastimo box I remember seeing eons ago. Looks a whole lot better in wood like most things. Cheers PeterP

I am getting into a real tizzy with this boat. Been at it too long. Reached a point where I see a job and I go -Do I absolutely need this done to get afloat?. If the answer is no I just put it on the mile long list and move on. EVERY job takes forever to do and that's AFTER you've spent hours on line sourcing stuff. Small consolation - with this economy - there are some good buys out there. The wiring is a case in point. Huge amount of laying out, sourcing, then building. The system is not that complicated but it needs to be done right. So every connection is crimped then covered with heat shrink tubing. Then we have the never ending screw ups and change of plan (Upgrades). I did the basic works on the wiring then decided to go in with Magnum charger/inverter which complicated things with heavier wires, fuses etc. But nuff said - it's all in there now, it works and looks good. Solar panel/charger as well as another Lifeline battery got put on the mile long list. Fancy cabin flooring ditto. Various bits and pieces of wood trim inside the cabin- you guessed it. Got the galley table put in, my masts are painted and ready for the track and hardware. I absolutely need to finish the masts, build the wishbones, get the sails, run the lines, pour and install the lead shoe, install the C/B, fine tune the diesel system and put her on a trailer (yet to be sourced and purchased). There is a huge amount work in that deceptively short list but it's DOABLE. I feel like I'm getting close. Peter P

Yes, they do. Think of it as a section of cylinder. Spend time working on this because if you don't get it right you'll see the humps/flats every time you're in the boat. I start with the forward bulkhead when I build mine. I try to get the arc as fair and true as possible. Shave and fill as needed using a nice batten. When that is where I want it I pull a string from the center of the bow through (and past) the center point of the bulkhead arc. Hook it to a vertical stick that is clamped to the C/board case. The peak of your deck beam will be on that line. If you notch the invale for your deck beam you can put an oversize beam in and mark where the string intersects it. Then using another string or straight edge -PARALLEL to your center-line string-delineate the entire curve on the deck beam. Band saw the top line, fair it check it. When you like it cut the bottom. Now you have 3 points of reference and every time you run a straight edge parallel to the center line it should touch exactly -invale, bulkhead, deck beam. Given that you can develop all the other framing in that section. The reason I do it like this is the boats never unfold exactly like they should, so if at this point, you just go and cut everything as per plans most likely things will not fit right. Good luck PeterP

Steve,I've had my Spindrift 10 for over 25? years and I feel your pain about hiking out. The benches are no problem. If you are normal size you can sit on the rail. Having a strap on the centerline in the bottom of the boat certainly helps to anchor your feet. Thing about riding the rail is your butt ends up making you wish you had built that thing foot wider. I have used life jackets to sit on but those cheap hard foam flotation cushions work the best for me. Good luck PeterP

Howard, the aluminum I got from Graham. Everything else like the copper I get mostly from Online Metals.

Not enjoying this weather at all. Started on the masts and did not take me long to mess up. While measuring for the top(3in) section cut on the mizzen I somehow did not get it right. Not quite. Ended up a bit over foot short on the mast. The best theory I have right now is that I used the mizzen luff measurement and forgot to add 6" for the halyard block and another 6" at the foot of the sail. Luckily I had some extra 3" pipe so I will be able to patch it up. Since it is the very top of the mast there should be relatively little stress on it so welding it will be OK. To help line things up and to make doubly sure stuff does not come apart I put in an inner sleeve. Some of those marine prices sure can take your breath away: copper bus bar with 4 x 3/8" studs for $60? I made my own with 6 studs - TWO of them for less than $30. Sometimes you win sometimes you mismeasure. What can you do. Cheers

Joe, the original 28 sketch was for an all electric drive. You'll have to dig deep to find it- I'm guessing 6-7 years ago or contact Garry directly - he may be able to help. Hybrid is just a natural evolution of the electric drive. By having a capable gen set you can re-charge under sail or run the juice directly to your e-drive and keep motoring that way (when the batteries give out). Too bad I missed the bus on that one. PeterP

Joe, another thing you could consider is a hybrid - something Garry originally toyed with in the 28' concept. Couple of LiFePo batteries, electric drive and a small diesel generator. If I were starting today I would definitely consider this. Alas, I was way behind the curve when Garry first mentioned this. It flew right over my head. By the way- Fishing boat Behind - would that sell as an aftershave? Regards Peter

Joe, your diesel is a serious financial proposition. Probably 3-4 times the cost of gas engine installed. Just the prop, shaft, Cutless and strut will add up to a goodly sum. Not trying to steer you away from it - I love mine- but it is something to consider. Personally, the whiff of diesel and salt air always bring back a lot good memories. Gas never does that to me - two stroke just makes me gag. Regards PeterP

Howard, I almost junked my metal drywall square a long time ago because it was way too out of whack for boat building. Pressed for time and money to go get a new one I drilled out the rivets and replaced them with shorty carriage bolts. ( after squaring the thing up) I've been very happy with the result. Peter P

Now's the time to do it- you won't sweat so much.

Welcome back Scott!