Drew

Lovely to hear from you Amos. Two excuses for not using the Coresound 20 of late. First is that we also own a 33 foot cruising yacht on Lake Macquarie (near Newcastle New South Wales), the second is the coronavirus restrictions which until this week restricted movement and prohibited overnight onboard. Winter here is not as severe as parts of the US but do get below zero where we live, but I hope to dust her off before too long and take her out one day when the sun is shining.

Thanks Peter. I have done the trip by canoe but now you have inspired me to take the CS20#3 up the river, or at least to the limit of motoring since I don't plan on rowing it. Sleeping on board should beat sleeping with the goannas.

Sending our best wishes from Oz and hoping that you all stay safe and preparations minimise the damage.

I find that two of us can camp for many days in the CS20#3 just as Jay said. We are not short of room for everything we need, so if we had young kids it would not be a problem. Also, don't forget that most people take way too much stuff with them, cut down to what you really need, which doesn't include half the wardrobe. If we wanted to sleep four onboard it would mean cushions for the cockpit seats and a tent over the cockpit - no problems. If you buy a decent anchor, anchoring bow out - stern in and stepping into a foot of water is no problem. We just keep a towel near the ladder as a foot mat.

Hey Robert, I've been off the grid myself lately, getting back to Oz, getting stuff done and dealing with wife's health challenge. Been thinking of you and family and wondering how boat building is going with heat, fire and all. When we went up to Yosemite the north road was closed due to the fires so we were a bit shocked to see how they spread after we came back, so we sent you a few fire fighters to help out. Stay on top of the challenges and get that damn boat in the water man!

I built my Coresound 20 mk3 using Bote Cote and am very happy with the results. There are some cheaper epoxies including a company in Perth, but Bote Cote suited me and my aversion to toxicity very nicely.

As a fellow biker and boater I am sorry to hear about your wife's pain and yours. Best wishes for a speedy recovery! You have inspired me to consider a Catspaw 8. I have missed whether you mentioned if yours is an 8 or a 9 foot boat. What thickness ply have you used and also, have you weighed it to see how heavy it has finished? No rush, wait 'til your lovely wife is out of hospital.

Amos, your boat looks very nice. I think you have shown Graham's design to a high standard. I have found that having masts with no stays makes rigging so easy and quick. Something I didn't do when I built the tabernacles was apply a bit of extra strength near the hinge points. I am going to do that this winter by rubbing back on the outside of each tabernacle and sandwiching carbon fiber and glass cloth between the tabernacle timber and a piece of 1/4 inch ply. Not because I have had any trouble but because I want to make sure that I don't have any if caught in a sudden gust.

As noted in another thread, this was my solution and it works well.

And here is a shot of my spiffy new aluminium trailer. Total road weight without outboard motor or fuel is 660kg. Also I omitted the pic of the bimini folded down for travel, so here it is.

As promised guys - some pics of the bimini. The sun decided to shine in the national capital for,at least half a day! Here is a shot of the fittings.

Sadly the onset of winter weather has made pulling the boat out of its garage less than ideal. As soon as I have a fine day I will raise the masts and photograph the bimini in situ. Basically, I just bought a cheap three bow bimini on ebay and then shortened two of the legs until it fitted where I wanted it to go. I also removed the two short legs at the rear as they would get in the way of folding. I figured that it was worth a try and not a lot lost if it didn't work out. As it happens, on the one day we took it out on the lake it worked very nicely. I reckon that the bimini covering the aft cockpit and a "boom" tent covering the hatch and back to the mizzen mast, we could have a cozy little area when camping.

We have one or two similar challenges, although a bit less challenging than the EC. One that comes to mind is the Marlay Point overnight race. The trouble is that people have become so safety conscious and risk averse that the boat has to comply with Cat5 Safety standards, be crewed by two or more and preferably have a Class Based Handicap, which I have found difficult to get for my Coresound 20. Most of our sailing here is in open ocean, so small boats are a bit limited for distance sailing. Keep up the build posts, your reports are interesting to read. By the way, I increased my cabin length and decreased my cockpit size for that very reason, to make it more suitable if and when I find myself in rough water as well as to provide additional cabin space for a small galley etc.

Capt Bones sir, it sounds like you are already on an adventure challenge, whatever that is! Please define adventure challenge.

For comparison, I am using a Yamaha F5 long shaft 4 stroke (or a Chinese imitation of one) and didn't need to build a cutout. All I did was build an angled timber bracket and attach direct to he transom with through bolts. Seems to work a treat.

Thanks for the ideas Don. I have added a fold-down bimini to the aft cockpit of my boat and need a good way to get the block above it when it is folded down and under the tiller. Lashings could be a better option than spring base stand up blocks. By the way, in gentle breezes on a sunny day, or when anchored and camping, the aft bimini is a great little addition. It unfolds forward to the mizzen mast and covers the whole area nicely but still allows for steering and using the outboard motor. I have to convert my tiller to a hinged tiller though to make it more convenient.

Welcome to the crazy (international) world of boat-building pirates. The Coresound series will not disappoint your penchant for adventure. This forum is a great place to pirate (err, share) ideas from other builders, so looking forward to reading about your adventures. Regards, Drew (a great south land pirate).

JP, you just have too many boats man, as my wife would tell me. She even made me sell our sea kayak. I guess some just don't get it

Wow! To say that I am impressed would be an understatement. Beautiful job. Your eye for detail is a credit to you. There is a NIS 23 in my club that has the same color scheme and it looks great. The owner calls her "Rosie Red".

Hi Brent, I agree with Ron, build the boat you want. All of Graham's designs seem well thought out and suit cruising in Aussie enclosed waters. I'm in Canberra and have built the CS 20 Mk3. I'm very happy with it, it is light to tow, sails well although not intended to be a club racer, and my wife and I find it is enjoyable to camp in. I extended the cabin further back into the cockpit and am glad I did. If I had my time over I would also raise the cabin top about 6 inches. Other than those small mods for my particular preferences I can highly recommend the Mk3. If you are ever in the National Capital you are welcome to drop by and look it over.

A little more on the issue of submerging the hubs. As I said previously, I have taken to submerging the hubs to retrieve the boat to reduce stress on my Aluminum trailer. I opened them up recently and no problem at all - no water has entered. When I put the bearing buddies back in I smeared gasket silicon on the mating surfaces and also across the back of the inner bearing seals. I don't want to be taking them off too often in case it reduces their water tightness, but I do think that the answer is to ONLY submerge the hubs if they are dead cold, otherwise rapid, uneven shrinkage will allow water to get past the edges of the seals.

I sometimes use an old jib off a catamaran coupled with the mizzen for a light breeze on a broad reach. I find I generally have 4.5 to 5 knots through the water with this easy setup and only need to raise the main if we are in a bit more of a hurry.

Yes Robert, our sons live in Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. We try to visit every couple of years as finances permit. We will be there in the first weeks of July and would love to catch up with any other small boat enthusiasts. I wonder if there are any boating events on that are worth visiting? We usually hire a car to get around and see things. PS, thanks for the nice comments about the boat. We like it.

Paul, I will be in LA in July when it is 28 F here and cooking hot in Silver Lake. Swings and roundabouts!!

I have put some pics in the Cruising Stories of our recent cruise at the Myall Lakes. I hope you enjoy them! https://messing-about.com/forums/forum/29-boating-crusing-stories/