ejds

As far as I know plans are currently not for sale anymore. I have been at several wooden boat shows in the last few weeks and heard from more people that tried to get plans. I wish there was a way to keep them for sale because the Bluekacket boats are a brilliant design. The way they handle, shallow draft and a ton of interior space for the size boat. From the comments I get at the boat shows people truly like the design and a lot think it is a restored old boat. Egbert Dees

Thank you for the compliment Ken. I did put a bow thruster in the Bluejacket, a Lewmar 140. I am a klutz maneuvering a boat around and the Bluejacket with little keel and high sides doesn't help that. I had also couple of trolling motors as stern thruster. I am changing those to just propel the boat forward and back. No steering on the trolling motors. The bow thruster can take care of that. By putting both the trolling motors and bow thruster on a remote control it can help loading it on a trailer alone. An electric winch on the trailer is also helpful. Also docking in my regular boat slip was difficult, Wind and cross current. And not to forget a very big expensive shiny boat in the slip next to me. By the time I backed in and could get a line fastened the boat is sideways in the slip. I hope by having the thruster on a remote I can keep it under control a little better. Egbert

Here is a link to Whitecap bow eyes on Defender. There is a 5/8" and 5" thread. https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|118|2303358&id=6854219 or Suncor https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|118|2303358&id=7812136 Boat is looking great and it will be a beauty just like Kennee's Rosie. Egbert

how about McMaster-Carr https://www.mcmaster.com/eyebolts/material~stainless-steel/thread-size~1-2-13/ Egbert

Hi, As far as I know the website was taken down and the plans are not for sale anymore. Egbert

Thanks for the info and links Ken. The shop will be a Carolina Carport barn style metal building. No time to build myself from sticks, would take way too long. Covered the area in plastic today to hopefully keep it dry from the rain tonight. Egbert

We moved to a bit more populated area in a little condo that came with a boat slip. Right at the mouth of the York River in Virginia. Bought also another property nearby to put up a workshop. Waiting on a concrete slab to be poured, but it keeps on raining and then it rains again. I should have known better than relying on the Hydrocoat that was applied in 2014. Will have to do a lot of scraping and sanding. I might also look at the Barnacle Barrier. Henry told me you had trouble with the gas tank vent spitting back. I got lucky and can fill the boat without it spitting gas. What does happen when the tank is full and heats up gas is leaking out of the vent. Wonder if one of those devices you were looking at would help with that. Can you post a link to that discussion? Egbert

Hi ken, Here are a couple of pictures from my engine box. I did use some sound deadening paint on the inside. Don't know if that actually worked. The whole assembly does cut down the sound. The top cover and the frontcover can lift off easily to access the engine. The center section hinges up by means of a little wheel that rests on top of the engine. I should have made the hinged part wider, the engine needs to be fairly straight when raising it up. I do need to modify the hinged part. The engine can't go up high enough to keep it completely out of the water. After we moved I keep the boat in a slip end the lower unit is one barnacle mess. Really like how Rosie turned out and glad you got to use her. Egbert

Here are some of the Bluejacket building pictures I know of. Tom Lathrop Liz http://bluejacketboats.com/ John Perkins https://www.flickr.com/photos/156988461@N07/ Egbert Dees PurDee https://www.flickr.com/photos/ejds33/ Henry and Diane Hassell DeDe https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluejacket28/ Chuck Smith Betsy Lee https://www.flickr.com/photos/chas231/ Philip Smith Smitty https://www.flickr.com/photos/73563075@N02/sets/72157632362256704/ Dave H Splinter https://www.flickr.com/photos/35374423@N08/ Ed Fredholm https://www.flickr.com/photos/ed_boat/ Jim Keenan Cool Changes https://www.facebook.com/pg/Jimsboats/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10150284696947578 Hull rollover video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re6VvJeQpKY Another one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl4tx5Luebc Not a Bluejacket but certainly worth a look. Ken Katz Rosie https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN0VvQSVUraAu7UVdMcS3JCwDv3nSdoTimoKzrRqcgiFNEbGoCPsx_s3LHUeqqMoA?key=ZHB4SENNdEcxQTYwcVZzZTRfeDJYdmNPa21JTXBR

Thanks for checking out the pictures and liking them. I was going to build a model before starting the boat. One of the reasons was to play with interior features. The only thing I got done on the model was gluing both bottom panels together and stitching one side panel on. Then the plywood for the real boat arrived and so went the incentive for the model out of the door. I agree with the Oyster's mocking up. It can work out the elbow room you would need in a certain areas. Egbert

Pretty much what Oyster said. There are plenty of building pictures around on the Internet. They were a great help in visualizing certain aspects. And the comments with them helped also. Mine are at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ejds33/ The plans came with paper drawings. Converting them to CAD and CNC creates an opportunity to have pre-cut kits for Bluejacket boats. I did find that laying out and cutting the panels was pretty easy. Handling 28 foot long sheets of plywood is a whole other thing. I really enjoyed the building process minus all the sanding and painting. Check the Georgetown SC WBS in October there might be a Bluejacket or two there. Egbert

Never really tracked the fuel consumption accurate. In general I get according to the gps around 3.3 mpg at speeds above 6-7 mph.. It doesn't seem to make much difference what speed I'm going. The top is about 21 mph. Weight full of liquids must be close to 4400 lbs. Engine is a 75 hp Evinrude. Propeller 14 x 13. That should be a 14 x 11, the 13 doesn't get to the rated rpm for that engine. The big problem I have with that engine is the vibration at idle speeds. Going anywhere at no wake speeds is horrible. Going at a speed where the vibration stops results in people yelling an gesturing at me. I am changing the 2 stroke oil to the xd100 which will be equivalent to 100 to 1 mix. Also need to take it to a different dealer for service. Previous one blamed it on my gas. They replaced filters and the result was no improvement. The engine shakes at idle speed even without the gear engaged.

Looks like an interesting project. Do you know the specs on this one like the weight and the length? Also noted the cockpit door and a railing. Egbert

Here is the Southport award for power boat 20' - 29' Here I am between two other award winning boats. I do feel a bit small between them.

Two Bluejacket boats at Georgetown this year and there are quite a few owners here. Egbert

Just mailed my Roanoke show registration. Don't really remember talking to you in Georgetown, talked to quite a few people there. When I see you in Roanoke it all might come back. Egbert

I am signed up with my Bluejacket 25 for Georgetown. I haven't signed up for the Roanoke show yet but I'm planning to go there with my boat. Egbert

Looks like I will stick with a 3 blade. Thanks for the comparison. It is always good to have a spare with you. You have more rocks than we do here in the Chesapeake Bay. Mostly plain mud. Egbert

I don't use my roof as a gym, even if it would have the space I never could do those moves. Egbert

Seeing you have a Garmin GPS, do you use anything to pre plan a route on a computer and save the route to the GPS? Last week I did use Garmin Homeport to do this. Egbert

I'll just stick with what I finally got used to, Miles, Inches, Feet etc. My boat goes faster and can cover more distance in statute miles. I grew up with the metric system which is even faster. I haven't tried the SOF dinghy in the water yet. Have been to busy with other things. I did learn that towing a dinghy is a major pain. The only way to carry it would be a couple of davits on the transom because I have no roof space left. The dinghy has nesting capability but that is more to carry it on the truck. Egbert

Here are some readings I took earlier. rpm mph mpg gph 2000 6.5 7.3 .9 2500 7.5 3.3 2.3 3000 8.0 2.5 3.2 3500 13 3.1 4.3 4000 16 2.82 5.8 4500 18.5 2.94 6.3 4900 21.7 2.97 7.3 This was on our nice flat creek with just me and 45 gallons of gas on board. It doesn't help that my boat is over 4000 LBS Same here as you mentioned in an earlier post playing with the engine trim seem to make very little difference. The bow raised to about 3 degrees max Egbert

I use statute miles for everything. I went on a trip last weekend onto the Chesapeake Bay and was getting at the most 3 MPG. This was with a propeller that is a little too big for my engine and boat. 13 pitch instead of 11. I was also towing my little Nutshell Pram. It was hard to find the optimal speed towing a dinghy. With the waves on the Bay and my wake the pram was also filling up with water. Looking forward to your 4 blade findings. Egbert

Is your engine hooked up to a chart plotter, that will give some info about the fuel consumption. Mine does tell the "Miles per Gallon" and it doesn't seem to make much difference throughout the speed range. I would have thought going slow would give a better mileage. About 3.5 mpg. I know little about propellers, just that they need to be sized to get the rated engine rpms at full throttle. Larger diameter gives more pushing power, greater pitch more speed. I had to go back in pitch a bit to get the rated rpms. Just kept the original propeller as a spare. I would like to know what the difference is between 3 or 4 blades. I am building a push boat for a Chesapeake Skipjack at the Reedville Fishermen's Museum . Hopefully through that I can find out what a 4 blade vs. a 3 blade does. But that will be a while. Your boat just looks astonishing and you should be proud of it. Egbert

Congratulations on launching Rosie. She just looks beautiful, specially floating in her element. Egbert