Phil Gowans

I have 2 pdf (acrobat) files on my web site. I have found that they don't always display properly. When I upgraded to IE 6 they stopped working. My Netscape still works. There seems to be something a bit non standard about the way the files were generated and I don't think they are completely compatible. I don't really understand what is going on because the files can be displayed with Acrobat reader directly, but not through IE. I have thought about regenerating these files, but there seems to be little interest in my site and have not had any comments about things not working, so it seemed best to leave things alone. If anyone wants a copy I can certainly e-mail them a copy.

I didn't want a hole in the center of my deadeyes, so I cut them out with a jigsaw. I cut the strap recess with my router on a router table by simply hand rotating the deadeye at the appropriate offset. Real simple, perfect depth and placement and only took about a minute. I did the groove for the cable the same way.

Thanks, again Frank! This morning I took my Dad to the airport. He's been visiting for Thanksgiving. I'm one of the lucky ones that can still visit with his Dad. He's 86 and doing very well, all things considered. His biggest problem is his arthritis doesn't allow him to play his violin as much as he enjoys. We have had all the married grand kids and his 6 great grand kids around for the last week - now he'll get a little peace and quiet. I don't think living alone is really that much fun for him, but he still feels like he has a lot of important things to do. After all he spends about half of each day driving around some of his friends shopping, filling their medications, or doing other chores for them. He says he's not sure what some of those "old" people would do without him. I reread The Question this morning and enjoyed it just as much this time. I'm sorry to hear about your Dad, Frank. I'm reminded of what a dear neighbor said to me in the hospital before passing "Getting old is not for sissies". I think the way many people face the loss and trials of growing old, and illness requires more character than some of the things we usually associate with heroics and greatness.

Not the best picture, but the locker in this picture has a unfinished teak cover.

My handrails are removable, but I've yet to remove them. I attached them with through bolts (actually flat-headed machine screws) into wood inserts set underneath inside the cabin. This way I have nothing to catch on clothing or skin. They fit right into the rafters, so I have a very solid anchorage. I seldom use them moving forward on the deck since I'm usually standing. However, I use them a lot. I do use them while just moving around to steady my movements. I tie my fenders to them. Kids like to sit on the cabin and the rails give them some stability. I like them best when getting on and off the boat while it is on the trailer. At that they are perfect.

Barry & Frank, You're right, the Wooden Boat Foundation has some great things for a traditional boat and has lot of other things to offer. I switched to their buff line (simply for looks) and I can recommend it for looks and feel. They also offer some great brass fittings from the Port Townsend Foundry. If you are looking for some brass hardware and don't see what you want on their web site, give them a call. They have a source of really great hardware that isn't on their site. The best thing is the price of this other brass line is cheaper than anything else I've seen. They're the outfit that I took my week long sail training through this last summer. I wish they were closer to me. I envy you builders in the Northwest. Their festival sounds wonderful. Here's a picture that I took in the Old Gaffers race in Sidney harbor. I was on Alycone and the the boat in the foreground is Briony, also one of their sail training boats.

I've read about a technique to get a nice fair surface with epoxy. Use a V-notched trowel to apply epoxy with a lot of fillers (preferably with micro balloons to make sanding easier). Then sand the tips to a smooth surface. Fill the valleys and voila you have a fair surface. I haven't tried this yet but, it sounds like it should work quite well.

I started with the hole and rope gromet. It works great for securing the boat to the trailer and a painter or the like, but I could not pull the boat on the trailer with it. The hole is higher than my winch and would effectively pull the bow down not forward. I used the same bow eye as Dave with a threaded rod cut to length. Make sure that the eye is threaded, many are permanently attached to the bolt. I mounted it quite a bit lower as you can see and works great for pulling the boat on to the trailer.

I would like to thank everybody here for the comments to Gaylen. After receiving an e-mail from him, I suggested he put his question to you. You have proven the great resource that you have in the past. He as since asked me the following question: I would like to answer that here to add to the public discussion: At times it would be nice to have a larger cockpit. For single handing it is perfect. For 2 it's acceptable. For any more it isn't. There are definite advantages and disadvantages to a small boat. Fortunately for me (and Unfortunately for you) the answer to your question is better answered by you and what you want out of the boat. Everyone has to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a design against their own desires. If you are concerned about space (and I think you should be) I would look seriously at the Pocket Cruiser. It is a nice little boat (even though shorter it is a bigger boat - usable that is, than the weekender). I had difficulty trying to decide between the two; the reason I choose the weekender was only aesthetic. Frankly, I liked the looks of the weekender better. However the Pocket Cruiser is a handsome boat and there are times I wish I had one as well. Even though I have never seen one, I think you might be happier with the added cockpit space and stability with the Pocket Cruiser. Before you start cutting wood you might want to give it a good look.

I heard about two blocks having trouble, so I started with a fiddle block. I've heard some that find that acceptable, however I kept having that hang up, so I switched to a double. Didn't had any trouble with that so when I replaced all my harken blocks with homemade ones I used a double as well (as shown below)

Bear Lake is really beautiful. It is hard to get a picture that shows it's turquoise color (something about limestone particals in the water). It's right on the boarder of Utah and Idaho about 20 miles long and 8 miles wide at about 6500 ft elevation. I include these pictures, but they don't really capture the color of the lake properly. This picture comes from the Bear Lake Yacht Club And one of mine.

Pat Hayes has launched his new weekender. He sent me some pictures and I can't resist posting them. I have been conversing (e-mail) with him for a while and finally met him about a month ago when I was up in his area. He has been on this forum (#222 in the members list) but hasn't yet posted. Maybe this will drag him out. I believe this was taken at Bear Lake (not sure if it's in the Idaho or Utah part).

Here's yet another option. I didn't like the threaded rod - too much slop. I found 2 large ss bolts that fit the eyebolts quite well and installed one on each set of eyebolts. This has the advantage that I can tighten each one independently.

Paul, what are you doing moving to Kentucky? Sounds like you'll loose valuable coast contacts. Three years ago I purchased one of Paul's kits. Most of you probably don't even know that he had that option. Last fall I ordered a loose footed dacron main, jib and lapper from Paul J. I was told that winter was the slow time and that I should get them before sailing season. I got them this spring just as I had hoped. They're well made and I am perfectly satisfied with them. He was helpful and gave me advice about how to set them up. My assumption was that Paul made his sails on a first in - first out system. I feel a little guilty getting my sails before some one who ordered them 2 years ago. Arnie, is it possible with your boat still in progress that a definite completion date was up in the air? I like to think well of everyone and would hope that someone we all know would not deliberately deceive another of us.

Mike, Thanks for showing your ladder. I have wanted to build one that I can use when singlehanding so I can go swimming if I want. I did some testing and found the boat was so light (and I'm so heavy) that I was afraid that the boat might tip over. I was attaching it to the grab rails. I considered the using the taff rail, but that didn't seem to want to work. Attaching low, that's the idea. Now for some more testing. I'd just about given up on the idea. Thanks again.

Florin, I think you've hit on the biggest bugaboo of the hollow round mast - the Tabernacle. I've tried a couple of methods and looked at others. None of which seems quite right to me. I don't particular like mine. It is still working, but it is fairly fragile. I've had to put bolts with screw sets into the end grain of the mast. With a little force in the wrong direction it could pop out. The hinge is quite small and the only way my mast stays up is because of the shrouds and stay. If I were to have any give way, the mast would be down in a jiffy. My original tabernacle was copied from Craigs ideas and he has one that works. Konrad did something different with a tabernacle. I think the type I like the best is one like Scott W. with a support on either side of the mast. This doesn't work too well with a round mast. And don't forget the fact that you have a gaff and hoops to fit in there somewhere when the thing is folded.

Craig, I'll send you an e-mail.

I think you've got the gaff and boom switched. It's nice to have a heavy boom and a light gaff. (At least I don't see any reason to have a heavy one). However, there's not much point for a small diameter spar to make it hollow. I wouldn't bother with a hollow gaff - it becomes to fragile. I had a birdsmouth boom that broke and I replaced it with a solid one.

When I singlehand, I also use the jib halyard to help raise the mast, but I tie one end to the end of the bowsprit. Then I stand on the cabin and lift the mast until the angle is great enough to use the halyard to assist raising the mast. At this point I move forward and complete raising the mast with the aid of the halyard. Since I don't use the standard hinge arrangement I don't have a way to lock the mast in the upright position, I tie the halyard off on a cleat while I get down and attach the forestay. The halyard holds the mast in place while I do this. The halyard is now right where I want it to attach to the jib and raise it. The reverse of this allows me to lower the mast without having to hold its whole weight as well. By using the end of the bowsprit rather than the clubfoot eye, I should have more leverage as well.

Tyler, You make us proud :!: I think it's wonderful - one of our own in the newspaper. You represent all the rest of us boat builders in a great way. It's good to see a youth doing things like this. Definitely give the papers a call about your launching. That's something people are going to want to read about. Congratulations with your boat. You've earned it. You really have been going "great guns" on your construction. I've seen many adults that have started years ago and haven't made it as far along as you have.

I just finished the Bounty Trilogy by Nordoff. Part I is the standard story - Trip to Tahiti and Mutany, but covers the court marshall. Part II is Men against the sea - story of the 4500 mile open boat survival trip of Bligh & others. Part III is about Pitcarin Island. All quite interesting if you like Naval History.

I did the "splash coamings" as per the Stevensons suggested techniques. They did not provide any dimensions. They were cut from one flat 4-quarter board of mahogany with a band saw set for the angle of the seat back. These were individually stacked up to get the proper shape. After laminating each piece was sanded with a belt sander to fit the boat. This sounds fairly straight forward, however, as many can attest, there are al lot of pitfalls here. We're talking a piece that varies its curvature in 2 dimensions. I think I was one of the lucky ones that got mine done without having to redo them. I did cheat and built a set out of Styrofoam cut with a knife. This gave me a better idea of what could go wrong. Here's a few things that I did that I think helped. I made a pattern for the base of the 1st piece right from the boat on paper. This I cut on the band saw. The top of that piece made a pattern for the next piece. Which was cut out and so forth. Since each piece is larger than the preceding they mostly came from the board in succeeding pieces next to prior one. I tried to make them wider and a little longer than I really wanted them to be, figuring that I would have to sand them to shape anyway. My coamings fit the boat very nicely, but if you look at the photo below, you will notice that I built up the boat to match the coamings with thickened epoxy. They really make a comfortable place to sit.

I "carved" mine out of mahogany with a rotary sanding drum on a hand drill. I made both standard cleats and jam cleats as shown.

Thanks for asking - it gives me an excuse to post some pictures. I took over 100. I had a great time up in your country. I drove hard the first day and got into Seattle fairly early the next day. I went to the Center for Wooden Boats. I got some pictures of Amie, the Friendship Sloop there. Since she was discussed here earlier I'll post them here. Barry, I took your advice and went to Port Townsend by way of Anacortes. It made a beautiful drive. We were on board for 6 days. The first night we anchored around Cattle Pass. The second day was in Blind Bay. The fourth and fifth day was at Sidney harbor and the last night was off Fort Mason. The Old Gaffers race was from Sidney around Rum Island and back to Sidney. It was interesting because we had about 6 kts of current to fight between a couple of islands. It took an hour to get through there. We were literally sailing forward but going backwards for part of the time. The Alcyone, boat I was on is a topmast schooner so there was a lot of sails to play with. We had 9 sails up at one time during the race - the Flying Jib, Jib, Staysail, Fore, Main, Maintop, Fisherman, Rafee, and Course. That only left the foretop and stunsail not up. Unfortunately the race only had 9 entries. It was great to be amongst so many other Gaffers. All the owners knew each other and the parties before and after were a lot of fun. It was neat to be at the same dock with all the others and be able to go around and see the other boats. I took this one during the race on the bowsprit. Now that was fun. We came in third and here's a picture of #1 Slojvnd (on the right) and #2 Briony. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our boat under sail in the race, but here's some the day after (no Course or Fisherman though). I had a wonderful time. I learned quite a bit and really enjoyed it. They even gave us the opportunity to swing off the yard into your 50