Randy Jones

Another consideration is that with the mast in the 3rd position the end of the boom sweeps across the cockpit (CS17). I learned this by hitting myself in the eye with the end of the boom. I'm adding second reefs and will stay in cat ketch mode. Randy

I had a similar problem so I switched to a 9 pound delta anchor for my CS17. The shape is pretty compact and I don't find the weight to be a problem. The anchor, 20 feet of chain, and 150 feet of rode all fit into a plastic tub which slides under the foredeck. Some will argue that I am "over anchored" but that's the way I like it, especially when forced to anchor with less than ideal scope. I've left the boat anchored off a lee shore in 40 knots of wind and slept all night, which is more important to me than an extra 5 pounds of weight. Randy

Good Luck Dennis, there doesn't seem to be many Coresound boats out west for some reason. I've had a CS17 in Seattle for about two years but have never even seen another one. Randy

Jim, I'll bite. The short answer is the forward rowing position. I put one set of oar locks about 9" astern of the back edge of the thwart, and another set center-to-center 32" forward of the first set. The rear oarlocks are only used with the mizzen mast out (moved to the forward step) and I'm rowing to get somewhere. The forward set of oarlocks can be used with the mizzen in place and the oarsman sitting on the centerboard case. Rowing from the forward position is not as comfortable but is easy because you don't have to move anything. Most of the time I get away with a canoe paddle for docking and avoid even getting the oars out. Just yesterday a friend suggested using one of those long paddles for the stand up surf boards, so I'm gonna try that next. I've followed the oar and motor debate on the site and respect both views. No right answer really since it really depends upon where you sail and your level of patience.

I agree with you both. I went through a similar thought process a few years ago and it lead me to look for a small and very quiet gas powered DC generator that could be installed on board and used to recharge batteries. The basic idea being to use a two battery bank with the ability to recharge as needed - a small "gas electric" if you will. I found that typical generators provide most of their output as AC power and only a small DC supply. Conversion (rectification) of AC to DC could be done, but doing it at high amperage gets expensive fast and doing it at low amperage means longer generator run times. My ultimate conclusion was that a small and quiet DC generator is technically possible but not on market. For now I just row when I have to.

I could see where you would be comfortable if you stayed dry and get out of the wind. I'm planning a Jan 1st day sail in Seattle and the forecast is for 34 degrees and rain. Hard to sell people on mid 30's and raining. How do you guys deal with frozen boat ramps? Seems to me they would be a sheet of ice.

Scott, Consider installing a battery powered carbon monoxide detector so you don't wake up multiple times during the night wondering if you're dead yet. Looks like the detectors cost less than $20.

Yes Greg, that's the same book.

My favorite is probably "The Last Great Grain Race" by Eric Newby. It is a first person account of an 18 year olds round trip from England to Australia and back in 1938 as crew aboard the 4 masted Moshulu. Out of print for years, it is now available again. Always makes me appreciate having enough to eat and a dry place to sleep.

Hello Dig, Wooden mast are indeed possible. I've got a CS17 with solid wooden masts and laced on sails. The mast were laminated from 5 pieces of 3/4 thick Douglas Fir then shaved down. The lacing on the sail slows down the reefing process and requires climbing on the foredeck for reefing. I nearly changed to sail track but decided instead to practice reefing and have gotten efficient enough with reefing now that I'm staying with the lacing. Sails have no battens and I store the sails rolled up on the masts, which means that I rarely have to undue the lacing. I'd loose a race against other CS17's fitted with aluminum mast and battened sails, but my arrangement works fine and I prefer the traditional appearance of wooden masts and laced sails. Wooden masts are also a little heavy, especially the main with the sail and boom attached. Stepping (and unstepping) the main mast requires some strength and balance, but with a little practice it is not a problem for a full sized guy in good health.

I should clarify a few things. "Feather" wasn't the correct term. The existing trailing edge of the board is about 3/8" wide with a rounded edge and I was just going to reduce it enough to kill the vibration. I hadn't thought about squaring up the edge, but that makes sense (Can't believe I suffered through fluid dynamics in college and missed my chance to apply it). I'll shoot for a 3/32" square edge. As for what I called a wear strip - I just need to close the gap between the board and the top of the trunk to keep it from banging side-to-side in light weather. I'm thinking a strip of ceder, cork, or leather near the top of the trunk where nothing will get fouled in it. I won't mess with the gap at the bottom since it works well and has never jammed. I like the epoxy soaked nylon rope idea and will look at using that on the end of the board. Thanks all for the great advice.

Thanks guys, I didn't build it and don't even have the plans, but it looks like the cap comes off clean so I'll give it a try. Repairs are too complex for me to do beneath the boat. I'm going to reglass the bottom end that I damaged on a concrete ramp, feather the trailing edge to eliminate vibration, add some weight, and install some type of wear strip to tighten up the gap between the board and trunk. I'll be back if I screw it up.

How difficult is it to remove and replace the centerboard on a CS17? I'd like to remove the board to make repairs but I'm wondering what I might be getting into.

Sean, I'm a Seattle native and have been sailing a CS17 in Puget Sound for about 2 years now. There are several thoughts that come to mind regarding your plan. 1. Our dryest months of August and September have a lot of calm days. You will need the staysail, and even then you'll have days where you won't make much distance. Are you going to carry a motor? 2. There are major shipping lanes running up and down the length of the sound. Lots of container ships moving at 20 knots. I sail without a motor and cross the shipping lanes like a dog crossing the freeway. 3. There is a string of campsites called the Washington Water Trails that are reserved for "non-motorized, beachable" craft, ie kayaks. I've never figured out if a CS17 qualifies as "beachable", but they are probably an option. Lots of marinas too of course. 4. You can't dump human waste into the sound. 5. Rain. Outside of August and September we often get a slow steady drizzle that will not let you dry out for days at a time. I think you'll have to go ashore and dry out every once in a while. 6. Water temps in the 50's year round. I wear a sailing dry suit when the wind is up. 7. I'm comfortable in Puget Sound in a CS17 during decent weather, but never in the Straights of Juan De Fuca. I wouldn't go west of Port Townsend.

If anyone is curious, there were about 30 boats in attendance at a gathering hosted by the center for wooden boats. There are photos at woodenboat.com on their misc. boat related forum under "cwb's small boats Saturday, at Cama Beach". A broad mix of small boats were represented including one CS17 and several very cool glued lapstrake double-ended things with giant balanced lug sails. Edward, I'm glad you could make it. Keep in mind that my boat varies from the standard CS17 plans but I'm not sure where as I didn't build her, don't have the plans, and have never seen another CS17 up here in the wilderness of the pacific northwest.

Hi fstauss, I was in a similar situation when I got my cs17 for about two years ago. I made an organized effort to understand the sailing theroy and progressively build my boat handling skills. Give youself lots of practice in moderate weather before you get caught in the heavy stuff. Practice reefing in the driveway until the neigbhoors think you're strange. Get a handheld marine radio and consider a sailing dry suit if you're on cold water. I hope you enjoy the process as much as I did.

Thanks everyone. I think I had the reefed mizzen sail too flat and wasn't getting enough power out of the sail. I'm going to try it again under more controlled conditions. I'll play with the centerboard position too and see if it works better partially raised instead of fully down.

The chain on the mooring bouy at my vacation rental gave way yesterday and I had the pleasure of sailing my CS17 off a lee shore in high wind. Would have lost the boat to a concrete bulkhead if not for a kind stranger. I waded an anchor out as far as I could to pull the boat off the beach and get things stable, then moved the mizzen into the 3rd mast step, reef it and sailed away. The only real problem I had is that the boat would not point well and was difficult to tack in 15 knot winds and 2' chop. It didn't seem to matter what I did with the center board or rudder. What are the tricks to sailing performance using a single mast in the middle positon? I'm wondering if I would have been better off with just the main or the mizzen in their original location, but which one? What single sail do you use in an emergency?

Tom, I have a CS17 with laced sails and one set of reef points set up similar to the article reference above. It took some practice to get comfortable reefing out on the water, but I'm compentent at it now and glad that I didn't convert to sail track.

I understand the intrest in building your own boat, but consider that there are a lot of used boats out there and many are selling for less then the cost of their materials. There is some junk to be sure, but even boats in good shape are selling cheap. Once you start looking you find them everywhere, and the good part is you can start looking even before those other projects are complete.

Bob, I tried letting the boat settle on the beach as the tide goes out but never liked having large ship wakes break on the boat in very shallow water. I also found that pushing the boat back into the water was difficult and an unnecessary risk for a guy with a bad back. Instead I try to anchor in just enough water to handle the next low tide. Regarding anchors, I recently read "the complete anchoring handbook" (2008 McGraw Hill) and recommend it if you're interested in the science involved in anchoring. I tried to look up your anchor sizes but they are smaller than those listed in the book. For my CS17 I settled on 10 feet of chain on a 9 lb Delta (plow type) anchor which is suitable for a much larger boat. I like the compact size of the anchor and don't care about the extra weight. The chain is inconvient but protects the line from rocks on the seabed. That's what it took for me to get comfortable anchoring the boat overnight. I'm not qualified to give anchor advice but having gone through the selection process recently myself it seems your chain lengths are shorter than typically recommended, anchor size probably ok, and rode length reasonable for anchoring in 20 feet or less water depth. Hope this was of some help to you. Enjoy the boat.

Thanks Ray. I'm going ahead with the second reef points on both sails and I'll leave the speed sailing to the experts.

My CS17 managed to hit 9.7 knots the other day in about 25 knots wind and 2 foot wind waves. We had 450 lbs of crew sailing under mizzen only using the middle mast step. This is the fastest I've ever gone in a sailboat. It was exciting but also scary. I find myself wondering how fast others have gone and am curious about whether other's prefer to double reef both sails or switch to a single sail in the middle step.

Thanks for all the responses. I don't have a staysail at this time, so I haven't worried about where it fits in. Wing-on-wing with the sails eased forward seems to be self-correcting in a good breeze, with the accidential jibes occurring in lighter wind. But since reaching is faster than wing-on-wing I'll reach in light air and save the wing-on-wing for stronger winds (also good for showing off). If I detect a consensus here it seems to be that I can run down wind with unreefed sails until things pick up to maybe 20 knots, someone gets scared, or I need to be reefed in order to handle the maneuver at the end of the downwind run. One last question I hadn't considered - could a CS17 pitchpole or does the full bow make that unlikely? Thanks

Thanks for posting that link. I finally understand jiffy reefing.