Stuart Benbow

Hi guys, great information. I may have mis-represented myself. So long as I plan ahead for the expense, money isn't a concern, it's surprise expenses part way through the build that would get me. That being said, great information, and thanks for the home builder perspective as well as the business perspective. Ray, I have to give you and Charlie a lot of respect building boats for a living. It can't be easy in this day and age to get people to appreciate hand crafted beauty when the world seems to value instant, replacable junk so highly. I don't know what the costs are, but the Cleveland Mid-america boat show has at least one home builder booth each year, and occasionally two. The Cleveland Amateur Boat Building Society hauls in their members various projects, and usually builds an optimus dinghy during the show which they donate. That being said, some shows may be more open to wooden boats than others? I'm not one to buy boats, but I do know a few that are more likely to buy than build, and I try to push businesses like yours to these folks to try and break the plastic boat mold. Keep up the great work, your boats are a thing of beauty, and a single wooden boat draws far more attention than a hundred clones in a given waterfront. Stuart

Ray, Thanks for the updated figures. Gives me an idea of how much I'll need set aside for the immediate needs, and how much I'll need to set aside from each check once I start so that I have money for the details once the hull is done. If I come in under, hey, I've got some cruising money, far better to expect the high ball answer, and not spend that much than to expect the low end answer and need another two grand or so, especially for me when typically, 9 months a year is earnings and 3 is lay off / build the boat / sail the boat time. Once I get into layoff season, if the money ain't there, the boat sits until the following summer. While I wait, I'm having a grand time reading over past postings and adventure stories. Love the various topics. Stuart

Thanks for the update Ray. I mis-spoke, when I mentioned kit, but good to get clarification anyway. When you say $500 for the aluminum mast, is that for one or both masts on the coresound, and with or without a sail track? Do you figure that the $3000 to $4000 is still about right for an estimate with the pre-cut plywood, or should I be setting aside a little more for a fully rigged and ready to sail boat? I've already got a trailer.

Thank you so much for all of that information. I had no idea that you could get that complete a kit for these boats. I'm used to the weekender, which involved me heading off to the hardware store for the occasional add-ons that weren't mentioned in the bill of materials. The more I hear about the CS 17, Graham, and B and B Yacht Designs, the more I'm convinced that this is the right way to go. Wish I could get started now, but it's got to wait a couple more months yet. Stuart

Thanks for the replies. I'll have to remember to ask for the kit to be on a truck with a lift gate. Charlie, I fully agree. I knew I'd be sacrificing longevity of the boat, but I didn't realize just how bad it would be. low end acx plywood with more voids than inner ply, polyester resin, and low end everything just didn't hold up worth a darn. On the other hand, at the time I didn't have the money to put anything better on the water, so it did give me four years of fun, and introduced a few others to boat building and sailing. In that respect, I suppose she fulfilled her mission perameters. Would have been nice to have something worth selling for boat materials at the end though. If I restore her, I won't get what I put into her at this point. I may still do that for the kids though. My skills are more refined now, and my sailing has improved as well, so I'm ready to move to something more capable, and far more durable. No more junk materials for me. From all that I've read, the CS17 is a boat that will stay with me for a while. I can't wait to get things moving ... too bad it has to wait a few more months. Does anyone have a Bill Of Materials for the non-fiberglass, non-plywood stuff, so that I can start putting together the blocks, cleats, line, lumber, etc? Thanks again, Stuart

Hello all, been a while since I was on the messing-about forums. We're getting ready for that next boat project having out grown the Weekender, and heavily abused her during her time on the water. Poor thing, I really should have used better materials, but that's another lesson learned. That being said, we're looking at the Core Sound 17, and the kit. One question I've got though, how on earth do you arrange to get a 250 pound crate offloaded at home. I can't imagine you get a set delivery time, and even if you do, how are people getting these things off a truck? It's not like we have forklifts. Is it just a matter of having friends on standby, or are people making up dollies and running them down a ramp? I'm alone in this venture. My kids are too small to help, and my wife is blind, so while she can help lift and hold things when the mood strikes, it's more hazardous than its worth when dealing with something like this. Tips, pointers? Also, what are average build times with the kit? Are there any people in or near Michigan who have a CS 17/20, or are in the process of building one? The plan is to get the plans during the winter, and get the kit come spring. My slow season is usually late spring through the summer, so I hope to have the time to dedicate to building one without too many distractions. That will be a pleasant change if it works. The weekender was interrupted by a baby, an injury, and a long layoff followed by a career change. Thanks in advance, Stuart Benbow

Jim, nice progress. Sure looks more like a boat now that she's right side up, and has sails and spars in the air. Can't wait to see her on the water. Think this summer will see her wet or will you be taking your time with the interior first?

A friend in Ontario caught a tragic news cast and touched base with me with the info, wondering if the boat involved was from the Erie Fleet. Here is a link to a webcast of the story as of last night, and the details are under the "Family Tragedy" heading You will need real player to view the web cast of the story. Here's the details that I picked up from the newscast: A Father (in his 90's) and his son (in his 70's) took a homebuilt sailboat out for a sail on the 21st of September at about 9 am, and were not seen again until the father was found dead, teathered to the boat, full of water and floating at about deck level. The son was found later, 3 miles west at Port Dalhousie. They departed out of Jordan Harbour, St. Catherines, Ontario, and the boat wasn't found until the next day in Port Wellar, which I'm guessing is 7-10 miles East, along Lake Ontario. The boat looks like a Weekender, complete with wheel, trailboards, folding mast, tippy when someone left the boat during the news cast, and from personal experience, floated at about the right level while full of water without floatation. The boat is blue with a white stripe fore to aft, with a white cabin roof, greyish looking cockpit, and a brown deck and cabin sides. It looks like a wooden electric motor mount on the port side, and it has a white mast, boom, and gaff. The car used to trailer the boat is a a blue toyota. Does anyone have any idea who built this boat? Is this one of our members/visitors, one of the messing about visitors, or a friend of someone who is? Here is a picture of the boat, which links to a gallery with other photos ... For those interested, according to the newscast, the water was like glass when they left the harbour and headed out into Lake Ontario, and the water was in the 60's, yet they went on to say that hypothermia would still have set in since they had been in the water over a day. Please folks, make sure that you've got floatation in your boats, as they don't right themselves, and can be a real monster to get back over even if you can touch bottom. One tragic sail in a weekender is one too many, lets learn from it, so it doesn't happen again. Even though these boats are not intended for Great Lake use, I know several have done it ... File a float plan, and if you're really going to be out on water that big, have a means of getting help, marine radio, flare, etc.

Just a guess, but somebody you know has you in their address book, and has the actual virus. It probably replaces the sender with another name from the host computers address book, so as to avoid tipping off the host user. Quite a few exhibit this kind of behavior. If you turn on the header information, you may find that the actual sender may be listed in there somewhere. Hope this helps. Wish we could club all the virus writers and toss them overboard in a heavy sea.

Here's a boat profile shot ... a little old, but it's all I've got for now. I guess I need to take more pictures. The aft mast stump has since been cut down so that the foremast can lie down either on, or to the side of it. I've added the foremast already, and have had the gaff on to test its fit. The cabin bulkhead has been put in place, and the cabin sides have been cut to match the angle. I've also added the tiller conversion to the rudderbox, and mounted the rudder on the transom. The full round that runs from the foremast stump to well past the transom will be used for both booms if I go with a boom on both gaff sails, or just the mainsail, plus a sloop rig conversion if I don't. I have a fair number of pictures of my progress on my web page, The Boatyard

Hey, better late than never. Well, what can you say about a weekend in paradise. Good people, beautiful boats, and perfect weather. We all had a blast, and got a sampling of most of the boats. Even though the gaffers were the most noticable on the lake, it amazed me to see so many sailboats out on Saturday in the stiff breeze. Everything from a couple of catamarans screaming along as fast as they could (one pushed the limit a bit too much and dumped), to keelboats of every description to our homebuilt craft ... it reminded me why I love sailing so much, you can share the lake with that many boats, and we don't make the lake unpleasant for anybody. Nighttime sailing is always fun, as the world goes quiet, the stars come out, and you can sit and relax to the creak of the rigging as you glide along the water. Pat even spotted a bat searching for a feast in the glow of our stern light. If you're ever in the neighborhood, checking out the lake is strongly recommended. Thanks all for the great company, hospitality, and the rides on all the boats. When mine's done, you're all welcome to come sailing anytime. I've added a page to my website, which has a few photographs of the event. There is a link on the main page, as well as the Sandusky Fleet page of my website.

Another idea to get more room out of your cockpit is a bridge deck. I lifted this idea literally right off of Scott Widmier's Pocket Cruiser, "Suits Us". He came by for a boatshed this summer, and we used his boat to figure out how high I needed the bridgedeck to be. The main cockpit dimensions are close to stock, so from the 4x4 on forward is all extra cockpit space. Here are a couple of pics: In this last picture, you can see that there is nothing under the bridge deck panels to obstruct lying down. The cabin still has full sleeping leg room (I'm 6' 1") and still have a couple of inches to spare. There is a 4x4 support post at the center of the bridgedeck, right under the new cabin bulkhead, and there are 1x supports running under the plywood to stiffen things up. I've pushed back the cabin enough that my wife and I can sleep in the cockpit under a boom tent, and the kids can sleep in the cabin. Don't mind the 4x4 mainmast stump in the middle of the cockpit. That's just my own personal maddness. A schooner rig may work, may not, but I'll have fun finding out either way.