Kennneee

Beautiful work!!

Thanks Mike

Dave-Regarding oarlock location I have heard everything from 8” to 13” aft of the seat. I guess it depends on body size and how aggressive you want to be rowing. When I built a “Two Bits” nesting dingy in the 80’s I wanted 8’ oars my wife wanted 7’. We wound up with 7’ and were divorced a few years later. Just realized maybe it was the disagreement over the oars that did us in:). Around 20 years ago a boat/spar builder friend was moving to New Zealand. I bought a pickup load of beautiful spar grade Sitka Spruce. Used it for lots of projects, paddles, etc. I only have a few boards left. Yellow Cedar is easy to get up here and it is a joy to work with. Planes like butter, bends well and I like the smell. Not good to breath, however. Ken

Building boats builds “character”. We have all had more than one opportunity to “better” ourselves. In a week it will all have been memory and you will be further along.

Dave- I have another set waiting to be mounted. I want to play with location before I mount 2 sets permanently. I was planning on making a set of oars with some sitka spruce I have been saving for years. A friend just gave me a beautiful set of 8.5’ spruce oars but they will need to be cut down. I was thinking around 7.5’. They are also set up to use open horned oar locks which he lent me to try out the boat. I have a set of round ones sitting in the shop. Not sure if it is worth getting an open horned set. Any suggestions out there on oar length, oar locks, etc. would be appreciated.

Looks great!

What is a Kendrift? Well, it is a Spindrift that Graham has kindly modified to suit my particular needs. I needed a dingy for a tender on Rosie, my Outer Banks 26. I was given a low end inflatable around 1983 and hardly ever used it. After launching Rosie I lashed it to the pilot house roof to be used if I needed to change a prop while out on the waters here that have a lot of prop killing logs floating about. It is pretty useless for much more than that. It rows like a jelly donut and needs to go back into retirement. So, what to do for a real tender? I considered a good hard bottomed inflatable but Luanne and I like to row and that is not their highest and best use. I really don’t need any more projects at the moment so I considered buying some kind of hard dinghy. For some reason I always wind up building when buying is a reasonable option. Ok, what to build. After building Rosie and being totally amazed at the looks and performance that Graham and Alan managed to create in the OB26, I started looking at what BandB had to offer. I would probably been happy with a Catspaw or Spindrift as offered at the time. I had a nesting dinghy on my cruising sailboat that served me well for years and one of the nesting versions was strongly considered. Rosie has a lot of real estate on her cabin top and a 9ft non nesting boat would fit. Getting half of a boat up there would still be a challenge without some kind of “crane”. Now the project involved some kind of hoist. If I was to have a good hoist their would be no need for a nesting dingy as a full size one would fit nicely once it was lifted on deck. I love to sail but realistically I doubt we would use a sailing dinghy much. We plan to carry some surfskis on with us (if we can manage to fit them onboard). Between tooling around on Rosie, rowing, paddling and hiking on shore, us kids have enough toys to keep us pretty busy. I approached Graham with my thoughts and he thought a Spindrift would be a good choice. We talked about optimizing it for rowing ergonomics and building it as light as possible. During our discussions it became easier to refer to the modified design as a “KENDRIFT”. I am no Mathew Flanders so while honored to have my name attached to the design, it hasn’t gone to my head:). The Kendrift hull looks like the Spindrift. The biggest change I can see is the seating layout and lack of sailing paraphernalia. Graham designed a clever movable seat that can be adjusted to trim her depending on loading. Very cool. As the discussions progressed I mentioned my ideas for hoisting the dinghy on deck which was essentially copying some hoists I saw on boats with a similar design purpose as Rosie. While very functional, they had a big presence and would add a bit of unwanted weight. Of course Graham had a better mousetrap in mind. A set of drawings for the KENDRIFT were emailed to me and as well as drawings for a very clever, light weight and easily stowed KENCRANE. Graham and Allen mocked up the idea and tested it and refined at their dock. Graham sent me a few of the parts he made for the prototype which will make my life a lot easier. I have never built a boat as a kit. I have cut miles of plywood and built and lot of boats in my life. As mentioned earlier, I don’t need any additional projects right now so I was intrigued by the notion of a CNC cut build. I have a number of very light, delicate surfskis that require careful handling. A dinghy out of 4mm ply seems rugged by my standards and Graham had a dinghy that he used for many years while cruising built to similar scantlings. The team at BandB cut the parts for the Kendrift out of 4mm ply to make the boat light weight. I received the crate in San Diego while I was escaping the Canadian Winter weather and brought it back to BC to build it in my shop. I asked Graham how long he thought it would take to build and he replied, “a couple of weeks”. I thought he was pulling my leg. Well, I started working on it around 5 weeks ago while doing a bunch of other projects at the same time. Going back and forth and actually keeping a log of Kendrift building time. Much to my surprise, she is essentially done except for paint and I have just under 80 hours into the build. I am dazzled by how easy it is to put one of these boats together with the precision that the CNC cut parts provide. It felt like a jigsaw puzzle going together. Everything fit to near perfection. I mounted the oarlocks yesterday and will splash her in the next few days. I weighed her and she came out at 66lbs. Not bad for a 9ft dinghy. I haven’t mentioned the aesthetics. Like most of the BandB designs she is easy on the eyes. The lines just look right. A designer friend stopped by recently (we kept our distance) and made the same observation. Loved the lines. I should be getting the aluminum tubing today for the Kencrane and will add that to the project list. Thanks to Graham and Allen for all of the effort that went into this project. Here is a link to more pics. https://photos.app.goo.gl/4gRG3x6TUM9fKmRD7 Ken

Ted- You are going to love building that boat. I have my modified Spindrift aka Kendrift almost ready for paint. The CNC cut parts all fit like a perfect puzzle. Very fun and satisfying way to see a cool boat come together quickly. Enjoy! Ken

Can’t think of a better way to be social distancing. Enjoy!

I just started gluing my Spindrift 9 together yesterday. This is a great way to build a boat. Never had pre-cut parts before. Wow, sure makes building easy!

Casey- Your work looks amazing! Ken

Alan- This not fair. I am almost done with Rosie and now I want a CS20. Cut it out! Beautiful work! Ken

Moving it around from Rosie’s stern might be a challenge but I am sure I can come up with a way to do it. I would love to be able to use a 2.5HP for both purposes but have some doubts that it will be enough grunt to move the OB26. When Graham has some input on how the 2.5 works on the OB20, I might feel more confident going that route.

Starboard- How heavy is the motor? The J24 is pretty close to the same weight as Rosie and that amount of power should be plenty. Don’t tell Graham you have that much power on the Spindrift:).

Thanks Paul.

Graham- I see that Yamaha and Suzuki have 2.5hp engines that are around 40lbs. One of those sound like a good compromise solution. There are 15”and 20” shafts available. The 20’ would probably be best for Rosie and I would guess the 15”for the Kendrift. Which one makes sense to you? Ken

Alan- Any guess how much horsepower would it would take to move her under reasonable conditions? If I could have a motor that is not to large for the dinghy but big enough to move Rosie I would be pleased, An electric motor is intriguing. Ken

Hi Yawl- My Outerbanks 26 has one means of propulsion, a Yamaha 90. I know this is a reliable motor but all mechanical things can fail. If I had a sail I wouldn’t be overly concerned about the possibility of the motor crapping out. So, the logical thing is to have a kicker motor, right? A kicker is great if you are going to use it regularly for slow speed trolling and as a reliable back up if the main motor fails. In my case, I don’t expect to do much trolling and a kicker would only have value as a back up motor. If motors sit unused they are not always reliable. So, spending a couple of thousand dollars for a kicker for the rare occurrence of a motor failure is a tough one to swallow. I will start building a Spindrift 9 as a dinghy for Rosie. I plan to have a lifting crane to get the dinghy and small motor off and on the pilot house quickly. I have had engineless sailing friends that used their dinghies as a “yawl boat”. Lash the dinghy along side and use the small motor to push the boat along. Any thought on my using the Spindrift in this way? Am I being pennywise and pound foolish? Any input appreciated. Ken

Steve- How is the boat coming along? Ken

Thanks Mike! HI All- Since launching Rosie in June my work progress slowed quite a bit. When given the choice between working and going out on the water, I chose the water. I can't say enough good things about this boat. The more I use her the more I appreciate her design. She is a total joy on the water, looks great and is economical to run. Her lines are a constant source of attention which can be fun sometimes but when tied to a dock can get in the way of relaxation ( I must admit I mostly love it but don't tell anyone). I put her back in the boat shed at the end of September and took off for a few weeks of travel. Since returning I have gotten a lot of loose ends complete. As we know a boat is never finished but she is awfully close. I am heading south again for the Winter and probably won't do much more until I return. It is down to the small stuff like installing a VHF, a few bits of trim and paint. At Graham's suggestion I bought a set of trim tabs. Rosie planes effortlessly without them and rides beautifully. The only time I notice anything slightly bothersome is when there are 4 on board and 3 are are on one side in a beam wind. Trim tabs will correct that. I have them sitting in the shop waiting for me to install them in the Spring. Below there is the link to my build pictures with written descriptions. I added a bunch today to show the interior details. Using the boat for a few months helped me to tweak a few things. Luanne and I both wanted to sit higher than the original way we set her up. In the pics you will see my solution which works great. A lot of 3am. design work on that one. I have includes 2 photos of Rosie under weigh taken by an admirer on another boat. We met later and he sent me these. https://goo.gl/photos/ Cheers, Ken

HI All- Since launching Rosie in June my work progress slowed quite a bit. When given the choice between working and going out on the water, I chose the water. I can't say enough good things about this boat. The more I use her the more I appreciate her design. She is a total joy on the water, looks great and is economical to run. Her lines are a constant source of attention which can be fun sometimes but when tied to a dock can get in the way of relaxation ( I must admit I mostly love it but don't tell anyone). I put her back in the boat shed at the end of September and took off for a few weeks of travel. Since returning I have gotten a lot of loose ends complete. As we know a boat is never finished but she is awfully close. I am heading south again for the Winter and probably won't do much more until I return. It is down to the small stuff like installing a VHF, a few bits of trim and paint. At Graham's suggestion I bought a set of trim tabs. Rosie planes effortlessly without them and rides beautifully. The only time I notice anything slightly bothersome is when there are 4 on board and 3 are are on one side in a beam wind. Trim tabs will correct that. I have them sitting in the shop waiting for me to install them in the Spring. Below there is the link to my build pictures with written descriptions. I added a bunch today to show the interior details. Using the boat for a few months helped me to tweak a few things. Luanne and I both wanted to sit higher than the original way we set her up. In the pics you will see my solution which works great. A lot of 3am. design work on that one. I have includes 2 photos of Rosie under weigh taken by an admirer on another boat. We met later and he sent me these. https://goo.gl/photos/ Cheers, Ken

Carter- Your boat looks great! There are a lot of things yet to finish but you can stand back and see a beautiful creation as it will look in the water. Looking forward to seeing her as she gets closer to launch. Does she have a name yet? Ken

When you are in the thick of it the natural thing to do is obsess over the details. Probably a good thing for the most part. I obsessed over the chine edges and spoke to Alan about it. Long story short, I compromised and sharpened the aft edge at the transom and put a slight radius on the sides. Rosie gets up on plane effortlessly and is very fuel efficient. Perhaps the extra effort to round the chines would have been worthwhile but I doubt it would have been noticeable to me. One of the hardest things to decide on any big project is how much time you want to spend on some of the details. Perfect is the enemy of the good. I repeat that every day.

Egbert- Don’t write off the 4 blade yet. The one I got is a bit small in diameter and it isn’t a fair comparison. I am going to try one more and I will let you know how it goes. Ken

Hi Guys- I installed the SOLAS RUBEX 4 - 13.25x13 yesterday. I was hoping for better results. The engine RPM’s were higher for the same speed and it didn’t seem as smooth. It must be a bit undersized since I get a WOT RPM of 6100 which is over the high end of 6,000 for the engine specs. Speeds are lower and fuel consumption is not much different. It does seem like there is a slight improvement in stern lift. Not sure is I should consider the 3 blade the best fit, keep the RUBEX for a spare and move on or try something else. All speeds and distances are in knots and nautical mpg. To lazy to do the conversions today.... Ken