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Phil Gowans

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Everything posted by Phil Gowans

  1. One of the great things about sharing what we are doing is seeing all the different ways to build a boat. The world would be a boring place if we all did the same thing as everyone else. I for one love to see pictures of each. Morningstar is so unique, that almost everyone on this board is excited to see what is happening. You have really captured the look of the 18th century ship. For those wanting a link, check http://ulyscustomplunder.itgo.com/ Please keep posting, especially if you have some great photos like this one: (I love this stuff). I also want to know when you launch, Boise might be a necessary trip.
  2. I actually glassed almost everything plywood - Inside and out. Then assembled it pre-glassed. I was worried about the cabin trunk taking the bend, but I did glass the exterior of it, just not the interior. Expansion is eaiser to take than compression. It still looks fine. I do find some surfaces have a bit of an imprint from the glass after 7 years, but haven't noticed it on the trunk.
  3. It is hard to see much in this picture, however I usually tie (with a constrictor knot) 2 fenders, one to each end of my grab rail. The fore one falls right between the shrouds. I raise them as high as possible so that they still hang down. With a dock rope on the bits and the aft cleat it usually works quite well. I have spent the night tied up to a dock without any problem this way.
  4. I think most of us that play with woodworking have some horror story. I took off part of the end of my finger and nail on a router table. Continued to work for a couple hours wishing it would stop bleeding. Had to go to the hospital and have them stop it. Like Charlie it didn't hurt at the time, but now the nerves are all rewired and it feels funny a lot. Two days ago my son took off part of his index finger on a bisket joiner. Same problem as me working too close to cutting parts with small pieces. He's about as dumb as his father, he won't go see a doctor even though it still bleeds. He says "What's he going to do, want me to pay him to tell me I hurt my finger?" :roll:
  5. Andrew - they are made from scrap mahogany. I think 4/4. First drilled then shaped on my sanding table (just a belt sander held down). Then edges routed with a roundover bit - I hate sharp corners on anything on a boat. The hole was routed with a larger bit to lessen rope abrasion. The ones in the photo are screwed in from underneath the deck. Ones you can not see are countersunk and bolted in from above.
  6. Here's mine - I use jib sheets with my lapper. Of course you can't use a club foot when the clew of the sail comes behind the mast. I still use the club foot with my standard jib. This fairlead was place by experimentation. I set up the lapper in my driveway and moved the sheet around with different headings until I found the best spot for it to come in. A movable track would be nice if I had more sails, but I don't plan any more. And I also have this little fetish about trying to use only hand made parts. The lines follow back to another fairlead next to the combrail and then to a jam cleat. The block you see is for the jib sheet when I use the club foot. I love my lapper, in low wind and heavy, however I don't like to single hand it in heavy. I don't have enough hands and time to adjust the jib sheet on the lee side of the boat, hold the main and steer. When I begin to heal significantly and my ballast is all wrong on the lee side, I often have to hold the jib sheet to be able to sail at all. This is just too tricky and not fun. I remember one storm that came up sudden where I had to do this. In conditions like these I prefer to take it a little easier and use the club foot. Dave, I don't see how you can get proper sail shape with that block where it is. I think I'm not seeing the fore end of the sheet. Where is the main point of attachment for the sheet on the boat?
  7. The battle reinactments are a lot of fun. Here's a picture of the Lady that I like. I took my Dad on one in 2004 in the SF Bay. Our perspective was looking the other direction. If anyone is interested in more pictures, I made a little write up at: http://www.pragdata.com/philboat/battle.html
  8. Here's a few from my personal pictures. There not the best pictures of deadeyes, but the best I've got. 1) Californian - Topmast Schooner 2) HMS Rose 3) Hawiian Chieftain - Topmast Ketch 4) Aloha - Weekender
  9. I often frequent Boaters World, since they have about the best prices locally on general boating supplies. They have carried the MAS brand for a couple years and I have been interested. However, I still have some System 3 left for fixup use, so I haven't tried it. It's nice to be able to buy quantities locally. http://www.boatersworld.com/
  10. I built a grate. It was mostly something to do next. I didn't find my feet getting that wet. I mostly like the grate for looks. I do get water in the cockpit. Much of it comes from my feet when I am beach launching. This also gets a lot of sand etc. in the boat. The grate keeps things a little nicer while sailing. I still have to tilt it up and sponge up and clean off the sole. As mentioned earlier by Barry, I built my grate by daddoing the fore and aft pieces. I used 4 athwartship pieces with daddos to keep everything square. then I placed non-daddoed strips in the other slots. This made the grate a little eaiser to put together. An added benifit was that it could be picked up by placing a finger underneath one of these slats and lift. It also allows water to move around a bit better underneath. I did find that I had quite a job of fitting the grate to the sole. The sole is the bottom of the boat which has a little rocker to it. There was a lot of sanding and fitting to get it to not rock and provide proper support without causing undo stress on the grate. Sand under the grate creates some extra wear on both the grate and sole. I'm glad I fiberglassed the sole. It seems to be it pretty good shape still. Again I don't know if it is that useful, but I do like the looks.
  11. Thanks for the pictures, they reminded me of my trip of a couple years ago that I made to the PNW. I was on Alcyone to the Old Gaffers Race for part of it, what a blast. I loved the PT area, and the Center for Woodenboats. You have pointed out many more places I now want to visit like Devlin's. In fact, I had so much fun there I talked the family into going on a vacation there in Jun. It is kind of road trip. I will be staying in Seattle, Depot Bay, Victoria, Port Townsend and Greys Harbor. Unfortunately, because we will have only 1 car and the whole family, we will be fairly rushed trying to travel and keep everybody satisfied. Not much time for me to do maritime activities (they're not into things like that). I understand there's some great drift diving up there too. Oh, well, It's pretty hard not to have fun up there anyway.
  12. Yes, Please keep us informed. That's only 350 miles from SLC & I went 300 miles with my boat to see 3 weekenders in Utah.
  13. Interesting! I used automotive clear coat for my weekender here in Utah as well. I am starting on my 6th year since painting and things look pretty decent still. (Of course, I don't let the sun get much time to shine on Aloha - just when I'm sailing). I also used the glass bead. I applied it with a salt shaker and clear-coated after to hold it on. It worked ok, but you can see the coverage is not consistent throughout. I do wish I had a less agressive type of non-skid. I don't have any idea what size bead it was. It was some extra that the auto-body guy had around that did my painting. It can draw blood on the knees if I'm not very careful. I went back to see what it looked like when new, and it doesn't look this fine now, but still quite accetable. Here is one from this last summer. However, I couldn't find a better one of the deck.
  14. Adla, I agree that reef points are very desirable on a weekender. When the wind pipes up, sailing can be close to impossible without them. I have only used them a few times, but when I have they have made all the difference in how the boat handles - from scarry (this is impossible) to wow this isn't so bad out here now, I think I'll make it back to the dock. I put reef points into the home made sails, but don't know the position. My current dacron sails were built by UltaSail and I had Paul put in reef points (only one set). They seem to be right inbetween Tims points. I'd say about 2.5 feet. Mabey you can tell something from this picture:
  15. I think you are thinking of Simon Collings. He was a college student somewhere west. He once had a website http://www.maths.uwa.edu.au/~scolling/boat/ but it hasn't worked for a year or so, and it wasn't updated for a fair while. I haven't seen a post from him in years. There is Chris Treloar and TITSAWORRI is his old boat. He used to post occassionally, but haven't heard much since he started to rebuild. You would know better than I, but I think he was on the east coast some where south.
  16. I actually looked into that. Any law enforcement officer can issue a ticket. But the boat has to be on the water inorder to be an infraction. The standard fees for tickets are suggested to be $75, but each court can vary from that if they want. I could be ticked twice without going over the tax, so that sounds like the cheapest option. This is because I don't think I have to worry about being ticked by anybody except the Utah State Park officers. There are many places where you don't see them. Either small municipal lakes, the Great Salt Lake where they really only do search and rescue or I can use parts of the lakes where they don't frequent. At the State parks I would have to be cautious, but if they notice no registration on my way into the park, I wouldn't have commited an offence until I was on the water. This sort of attitude will certainly lower the amount of tax received by those who are going to be paying considerably more than before. However, I think a lot of the expensive ski boats (and that's the majority of boats in Utah), will be paying less. Overall, I think Utah will be collecting a lot less than before this change in the law. My biggest concern is that the law states that my boat can be seised if in noncompliance.
  17. I've considered that. It would mean getting a new HIN and that might create trouble. I could also just sail it where I won't run into the Water Police - Like on the Great Salt Lake and just pay the tickets - probably cheaper than registering. There's also using my brother-in laws address and registering the boat in Idaho. You wouldn't believe how many people here in Utah do that with their cars. I just have this hangup about doing something unethical (I know it's my problem and I'm trying to deal with it.)
  18. Wouldn't that be nice! One of the arguments that has been made here is that Idaho has an aged based fee for years on their boats. I looked at their fees and they charge $12 for a 12' boat and $2/foot after that for all boats regardless of age. I would have to pay $26 at this rate.
  19. The Saga continues (I haven't responded because this has taken so much of my time: Yesterday I spoke to the Tax commission. They said that the law should not consider things added on to the boat in computing the length. For example swim platforms, ladders, removable motors, or similar "appurtenances". My removable bow sprit would probably be considered similar, likewise my kick up rudder. However the length is specified in my registration as 19.5'. The "expert" at the Tax commission said that it probably ought to be considered as the length of the bottom of the boat, and that I ought to get the DMV to change it. I called the DMV and they said they could change it at one of their offices. After waiting in line for over an hour they said that they didn't care where that length came from and even if I brought the boat down to them and had them measure it, they would not change the length on my registration. Their reasoning was the tax determinations were to be made by the County Assessor and that the Assessor should change the length. I went to the County Assessor today and Kevin (don't know the last name) told me that he was expecting this problem, because no one on the hill had considered sailboats with this legislation. He further said that he didn't have the ability to change the length of the boat only the DMV can do that. He is checking with his supervisor as to what I should. He did admit that the length of the boat should be shorter than what I will be assessed at.
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