AmosSwogger

Nice work. What are your plans for her maiden voyage?

Thanks Don, I used a bandsaw.

Todd (CS-20.3) and I are going to go on a short overnight sailing trip leaving from Harborton, VA (this is on the Chesapeake Bay, eastern shore of VA) if anyone wants to join us. We are meeting at the public boat ramp around 9-10am on Friday, 4/29, returning sometime Saturday. Feel free to come along. There are a ton of excellent sparsely populated anchorages everywhere in this area; we'll pick one based on current conditions.

My condolences. He was a pleasure to talk to.

I have some of my wifes elastic hair bands on the sprits, and I just tuck the excess line under them. Works well. I think I got the idea from someone here.

I agree Hirilonde. Hot coating rules. In colder temps I would put a coat on before I went to bed, set an alarm for 4:30 in the morning, and put another coat on before leaving for work. In a weird way it was kind of fun.

Very cool. Inspiring to see this boat being built.

For someone your size I would highly recommend building a CS 20.3 instead of a 17.3, even if you plan on sailing solo. I've completed several overnight solo cruises and never felt like it was too much boat for one person. The nice benefit of buying a kit is that it solves your marine plywood sourcing problem (which is hard enough in normal times, but with all the supply chain issues we are having, quality marine plywood might be extremely expensive if you can even find it in stock).

Paul cruising by the dock. https://youtu.be/HHYc4k-E7wM

Steve and his boat make an appearance is this video about 9:45.

Thanks for the excellent trip report Steve. The Chesapeake Bay has to be one of the best small boat cruising grounds on the east coast, and Core Sounds seem to be custom designed for the bay. I see a wake in your picture .

Thanks for the report. Looks like a great time. Tell us more about the bay crossing, what were the conditions and how did the boat sail?

I have always simply pointed the bow into the wind in order to stop.

Bring your Spindrift to the Messabout and sail with other Spindrift owners. There is no substitute for in-person learning.

I rarely check this forum, so I missed this build until now. Nice job Don!

I agree with Jay, I really doubt you will be removing the motor enough to make a $615 mount like that worth it. Just make a mount out of wood, fiberglass it, and bolt it on. Take a look at build logs for pictures.

Nice work.

I would like to add my congratulations to Graham for his successful circumnavigation. If his trip doesn't inspire you to get out and do some sailing then something is wrong with you. If you guys haven't seen the drone video, check it out using the "photo album" link on the trip log; nice job to whomever took that footage. Grahams track is going to useful when planning trips to the Chesapeake Bay; particularly on the ocean side of the peninsula. We should have a late springtime sailing meetup on the Chesapeake Bay sometime; an informal mini-messabout would be awesome. We could do a group sail to Tangier Island, or Smith Island, spend the night, and sail back the next day.

Heading south into the Dismal Swamp.

Successfully intercepted Graham in the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Graham sailed across a pretty big stretch of open water Friday. I didn't expect him to do that in one jump. If you aren't familiar with the Chesapeake Bay, that area can get scary quickly in a small boat. Very impressive.

You are killing it Jay. Nice work. Can't wait to see her in person.

Can you pour some water into the ballast tank to determine where the lowest point of the ballast tank is? It should be directly underneath the hatch cutout, but you can confirm it using water (assuming the boat is sitting correctly on the cradle)?

Graham can be easily found by following his spot link here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1osGfp6a4ErMMAfuJg40ViiUsHf77PFLvF4oaW8H8OXk/edit He is heading to the southern end of the bay now, but is heading to your AO. I highly recommend intercepting him (keep in mind the CS 17.3 is significantly smaller than the 20.3). Our family built the CS 20.3. Sometimes we sail with our neighbor who has a similar length shallow-draft cat boat (his is 21 ft long with a similarly sized cabin, ours is 20 ft long). His catboat is well made, but we are twice as fast. We literally sail circles around him. Even though he has one mast, and we have two, we can rig our boat much faster. The CS 20.3 is half the weight. He pushes his with a 6 HP motor, we use a 2.5 HP. Obviously I'm biased (I hope this post doesn't come across as being arrogant or boastful), but I wouldn't get a catboat. We sail in the Chesapeake Bay frequently (we like to put in at Harborton, near Onancock). The boat is perfect for the bay, we have tucked in some really shallow coves for the night. You welcome to check our boat out if you find yourself in the Norfolk/VA Beach area. Here is ours in Florida: Here is Graham's boat crossing the sound in NC. You are

I'll bet his run across Ablemarle sound ended up being pretty fast; the wind really built up nicely in the afternoon. It looks like he went straight downwind.