AmosSwogger

Welcome to the forum; looking forward to seeing some build pictures.

As far as sails going up and down smoothly: sanding the ridges (left by the mold I presume) on the plastic sail track slides does help. I just wrapped sandpaper around a dowel and hollowed out the back of the slide by hand. Using a small sanding drum in a drill press would be quicker. The butt joint where the sail tracks meet may be a culprit as well. I had one joint that ended up misaligned (the rivet gun picked the most crucial part of the job to fail!); I used spray adhesive to glue fine grit sandpaper to an extra sail track slide and slid that back and forth over the joint to flush the intersection.

Jay, this is exciting news. I have a long list of questions about the build, but I'll try to be patient and I'm sure they will be answered in due time. Please keep the pictures coming.

If it makes you feel better, our family has been sailing our CS 20.3; we are two adults (I'm 6') and we have a 6,9, and 11 year old. Even with five of us on board, the boat doesn't feel small. The cockpit is really big.

Great idea. The nice thing about about scraping is no need for a respirator or dust mask (I only wear them when sanding or painting; I'm sure some would advocate wearing them scraping as well, but I have never found it necessary.).

I have no idea if this will help or not, but Alan has a good video on battens. LINK

Sounds like the water ballast saved the day. Thanks for sharing Pete.

Appreciate the lesson learned Paul. Much food for thought.

We had the plywood panels horizontal; my wife aligned (and bent in place) the stringers using the pen lines as a guide; I inserted the screws from below. The only slight difficulty we had was seeing the pen lines after applying the thickened epoxy. It is a messy process; just accept the fact that there will be a lot of extra epoxy to clean up afterwards. Attaching the stringers onto vertical panels might be easier (how come you didn't suggest that to me three years ago?☺️) .

The curves you put in the aft end of the coamings look great; it really compliments the lines of the boat. I wouldn't be surprised if future builders duplicate them.

Todd, you asked just the right question to elicit some cool info from Alan; well-done!

Excellent video; enjoyed the discussion concerning the location of the neutral axis of the plywood.

More mods: Installed a GPS holder using RAM mounts (highly recommend RAM mounts, the swivel balls aren't just plastic; they have an aluminum core, and the GPS mount has little roller bearings that ease insertion/removal of the unit). My awesome wife sewed up an organizer for the cabin bulkhead. It was so useful last time we went sailing we are going to install one on the starboard side as well. As you are sitting in the cockpit with your back against the bulkhead, you can reach in and grab what you need without having to get up and go in the cabin.

Nice work Pete. Do you plan on towing Catnip behind Chessie?

I didn't cut out the opening ahead of time; I probably should have, it would have been easier (I used a keyhole saw after the bulkhead was fiberglassed in place). If you cut out the opening prior to installing the bulkhead; you may want to temporary reinforce the opening. When you install the bulkhead after unfolding the boat, there is significant pressure on the lower portion of the bulkhead as you conform the panels to the shape of the bulkhead. Consider temporarily clamping a board across the hole to keep the plywood from bending during installation (since I didn't go this route, I can't say for sure that this is necessary).