Kennneee

Beautiful work!

Murray-Yes, WRC is western red cedar. I think paint with contrasting wood accents is a really nice way to go. It can be a clean and elegant look. Sometimes us wood lovers can overdue it and would be better off with more simplicity. Not to mention the added upkeep of bright finishes. There are so many options. Follow your muse and you will be happy. Looking forward to seeing the end result. Cheers, Ken

Murray- Lot’s of room for angst and creativity. She will be beautiful. I went round and round on what I wanted to do with my transom. Found a scrap piece of WRC and resawed it into 1/4” book matched panels and glued it on the existing transom. I like the result.

Carter- That is a gorgeous boat! Congrats on a quality build. Soon you get to reap the rewards of all of the dust, work and thinking that went into this creation. I hope you are deservedly full of pride when you look at her. Name? Thanks for sharing. Ken

Murray- It sounds like you know what you are doing and know what you want. That is the right combination to make changes in a project. This is YOUR boat and in the end it will be how you want it to be. Your knowledge of sails and rigging is clearly higher than many of us on the forum, or at least mine. Thanks for the detailed answer. Looking forward to seeing her fly along the water. Enjoy! Ken

Looks great Murray. Why did you decide to go with a different rig?

A great day of sailing and my crew taking her in to the ramp WITHOUT any unwanted excitement.

Murray- I wouldn’t worry about the hatch positions. I placed them according to plan and they have never been any kind of obstacle to being comfortable. I think you will find that the hinges are far enough away from the centerline of the boat that your butt will never notice them. I have had Lula out several times in the last 2 weeks and love the boat more every time I sail her. I would describe her performance as well behaved without being boring. I have not had her out in heavy winds, mostly 10-15 knots. She is responsive, well balanced and by no means overly tender. Took out my young friends (Excitement At The Launch Ramp) yesterday and had my best sail yet. I wanted them to have a better experience than our last trip together and I would say the mission was accomplished. Lovely beam reaches, a few controlled jibes and some some short tacking to weather. Pure fun. So, get those hatches done and get ready to enjoy the fruits of your labour! Sadly Lula will be stored away for the next 6 months as we are heading home to BC and leaving her in San Diego until we return next Winter. Can’t whine too much as Rosie is waiting for some fun trips in the Salish Sea. Oh, and starting “my last boat build”. A double surfski. Ken

I second the WOW!!

NICE!!

Reading my last post I realized I spelled THICKER incorrectly when referring to the new gasket material. Can I blame autofill, inattention or fat fingers? Best for me to reread before sending!

David-I replaced the gaskets with slightly thinker and softer material. Haven’t tired to test them yet but I think it will likely do the job. I can now see the imprint of coamings on the gasket material when I open the hatches. A good indicator that there is a seal. Ken

Murray- Glad you took the time to look at the video. I always appreciate constructive input. I have sailed Lula a few more times and have fine tuned some technique. I agree with Don that the mizzen doesn’t need as much attention as I would have thought. Still playing with snotter tension but haven’t messed with the battens. One of the wonderful things about sailing is you can be chill or obsessive and still have a good time. I vacillate between the two. Looking forward to your observations when you get some time on your Lapwing. Dave - Morocco sounds pretty exotic. Would like to see your boat pics when you return and hear about travel in Morocco.

Mike- Thanks for the compliments. If you do decide to take on this project I would encourage you to go for the 26. I don’t think the build would be any harder and you will appreciate the extra space. I also think, as attractive as the 24 is, the longer length adds to the beauty of the design. I do take Rosie out by myself fairly often. I did a week long trip last season by myself with not problem. It is a bit more challenging in close quarters but with good preparation it is not a problem. I have always had help getting her on and off the trailer but I think it is certainly doable solo. Most of my boating experience prior to Rosie was either very small runabouts or larger cruising sailboats. I really didn’t know what to expect from a powerboat of this size. Since she is very light weight and after reading about other peoples issues with close quarters maneuvering, I wondered if I would want a thruster. I could see an occasional situation where it would be valuable but to be honest I have not felt like I needed one. So far, knock on wood (and epoxy) I have not had any serious problems docking her. I do know that the day will come. I recently saw a reference to a thruster that only required a moderate size thruhull fitting and not a large tunnel. Can’t remember where I saw it but I am sure you can do some searching online if you want to go in that direction. Egbert Dees built a gorgeous Bluejacket and added a thruster. His work on that boat is stunning/intimidating. He has some info on his thruster installation. Building a OB 26 is a formidable undertaking. If you have the desire to build a planning powerboat of this size you won’t go wrong. There are some other designs out there that are easier to build and will leave you with a fine boat. I haven’t seen any that have all of the attributes of the OB26 and are as beautiful. That is just my opinion. Good luck and keep us posted on your build, etc. Ken

Gray Duck-I think that is a good way to go. I am now using a combination of your method and Grahams. Since my “excitement” was mostly caused by the painter jamming in the CB trunk. I have a shorter length of nylon line with a loop spliced to my stem head and another loop spliced to the trailing end. When I want a long painter (throwing to someone on shore) I tie a length of floating line to the painter. That is essentially what I had been doing except that the long length of line was nylon and didn’t float. Ken