Drew

With much fear and trepidation my wife and I slid Dragonfly 2 onto the old trailer that I rebuilt for her. With a few adjustments to the roller heights and the side supports the trailer will do the job for now until I get a purpose-built trailer. So now for a few finishing jobs, finish the ports and their surrounds and sort the running rigging. The plan is to have her launched in the last week of September in time for our summer.

Just rewards for your hard work Pete. Enjoy the sailing.

Fabulous Pete, and looking so good. I am a little way behind you, and about to put two final finish coats on the topsides, then seal all of the exposed bright timberwork. After that I will post some pictures.

Your work is very precise Amos and will look great. Don't forget that if you join two sheets for the port and starboard sides of the cabin top you will probably want to use a butt strip on the underside to strengthen the join. If you do, you will need to rebate a slot along the centre-line in the top of each beam that is the width of the butt. You also need to give some thought to your carlines (fore and aft support beams) as to whether you are going to do halving joints or just butt shorter lengths in between the thwartship beams. Its easier to do the halving joints before final fitting. Of course, most of this is irrelevant if you are only butt joining the centre section and using a full sheet for the forard section. I just noticed the short fore and aft timber you have added on the centre-line. You are going to have a fine looking boat, and boats with good lines usually sail well!

Hi Mark. I am building the CS 20 Mk3, so am not sure about differences in height for the cabin of the CS 17. I am 6 ft, and sitting on the bunks with no cushions my head just clears the deckhead (ceiling). I have wondered if I should have modified the design to raise the cabin height a couple of inches, which would be easy to do if building from scratch and not pre-cut material. Other than that, I think that there is quite a lot of space in the Mk 3 cabins, and certainly plenty of bunk length.

Steve, at the moment I am just putting fixed polycarbonate ports. I would have to make special opening ports due to the shape, so that might be a future job. I put the fwd hatch over the fwd storage area. This might make it difficult for some people to use if you want to access the anchor etc through the hatch, but yes, it has allowed me to make a long main hatch which provides lots of standing room under a boom tent for camping. The hatch opening is a bit over 3ft long and the slides are twice that. Instead of a sea hood over the hatch 'parking area' I am installing an 80 watt solar panel. It will be able to be raised to an angle when at anchor, or fixed down when under way.

I thought I would give an update. The weather here has been a little warmer (above freezing at night) so I have taken the opportunity to apply four coats of undercoat (2 pack). Finish will be off-white semi gloss once I finish and undercoat the cockpit seat backs.

Thanks for the link to the Ritchie site Brad. Interesting material.

Thanks Chick, I forgot to mention rake and offset, both of which I have done. I decided not to enclose the bottom because I am keen to ensure no areas where moisture can remain undetected. Even with the seat backs I am incorporating weep holes and air holes to ensure ventilation and allow moisture to escape.

As promised, the tabernacle. I decided on a height that would clear the cabin top and companionway. The pic with the metre rule shows the top of the tabernacle at about 830mm above the thwart. I built it out of Pacific Maple and simply used the plans for the mainmast tabernacle as a guide. I haven't yet reinforced the area around the hinge point. The cockpit is almost ready for painting, and then I will fit the seat backs.

Half your luck. We thought we might go to LA to visit son and grandkids, so they up and go visit Rome. Go figure! Pictures of tabernacle tomorrow my time - promise.

Sorry to hear about the leak and look forward to hearing where it was located so I can watch for it when I launch in the next couple of months. Mast stepping aid looks really functional. I now have a big post (tabernacle) standing in the middle of the cockpit to manage the mizzen mast.

Pete, we haven't heard from you for a while. I'm wondering how you and Chessie are going. Have you been sailing? Have you seen any changes you would like to make? Are you travelling well? Love to hear from you and keep in touch through the forum. People who build and sail their own small yachts are a rare breed and the internet lets us form a helpful and friendly community of 'rare breeds'.

I think you are right Don,anyone who can steer a small boat in a seaway at better than 5 degrees is doing very well. All that ultimately matters is track made good - am I going in the right general direction to see my next waypoint? A hand bearing compass, however, needs to be a little more accurate than this if one is going to take sights and fix a position on a chart (or we can just cheat, use a GPS for Lat and Long, and hope the batteries don't go flat).

No, not snarky Don, many people get the terms confused. I teach aeronautical navigation (having served as a navigator in the navy and being a pilot) and students constantly wrestle with the concept. Variation, otherwise known as declination, is of course the difference between True and Magnetic, even in the land "down under", Deviation should remain constant on a vessel due to magnetic interference, although it might be slightly different for each cardinal point of the compass. Hence the need for a correction card and swinging the compass to check the deviation occasionally. I generally find that compasses built in the northern hemisphere need correction to operate in the southern, although I still have not figured out why. I have one that is unusable because it has no adjustments but reads about 30 degrees off.

That red and white hull is certainly eye-catching. Looks like a great event to be part of.

It looks like Graham has now arrived at Mud Island. Well done! Hoping for more pics of Texas 200 and Carlita underway.

Great Story. The scroll-work in the cabin of my boat is a tribute to my wife's family, as I cut it out of a favourite old piece of furniture that had belonged to her grandmother but had become derelict. The name "Dragonfly" is a tribute to our years of flying an aircraft that I built called a Dragonfly Mk2. When I was a boy my father operated a small coastal cargo vessel called the "Briscal" - it operated mostly between BRISbane and CALoundra. So it just proves - every boat name has a story.

Which proves once again that Kiwis really can fly!! Steve, all names have an interesting history, and "Jazz Hands" looks quite unique. Looking forward to the back story.

Today I fiber-glassed the cabin top and am happy with the results. I was able to do each side in one full length up to the fwd tabernacle (the dark patch is a join in the plywood) and add a small section for the bow area. Tomorrow I will fill the weave using a wet mix of micro-balloons. Cockpit hatch tops are also done and nearly ready to paint. I just have to give the cockpit a final sand and mount the mizzen tabernacle before painting.

Good luck Pete. Chessie is looking really great. I'm liking the sail covers.

Amos, I haven't used that particular product but my experience with 2 packs is that you don't need to sand between coats unless it has fully flashed off and cured. If you leave it past the curing window, you need to sand to provide mechanical adhesion and generally dull the surface. If you have prepared your substrate well, and not got any lumps in your paint or airborne pollution, you shouldn't need to sand out imperfections. If, on the other hand, you end up with runs, you will need to let it cure, sand out the run, and start again with the coats. The beauty of painting multiple thin coats within the window is that they will chemically bond and give you a consistent and tough finish.

The portholes really set off the uppers nicely Pete. Well done. The perseverance paid off.

love ya sense of humour Chick - oh, and the motor canoe is looking pretty darn good too!

Apparently the mizzen mast for the NIS 26 has similar dimensions to our masts (so I am told) but I haven't been able to find any info on availability or cost. In Sydney (Aust) there is a manufacturer of carbon fibre equipment (CST composites) who also does yacht and dinghy masts. I am waiting for them to get back to me to see if this is an affordable option.