Tim Diebert

Dig it...

All very excellent info Bill, thanks. Appreciated. Your work looks great. I like all the images...vintage bike racing....very nice. Good shot of Booger. Who are the cats doing burnouts on the crotch rockets? Looks maybe Gixer and a Honda? Fun bikes. Got to ride the new BMW K1200 R this summer. Monster bike. So we have a sewing master in our midst folks....and Jan is a X upholsterer ....how fine is that? With all the talent on this list we could rule the world........na. Sorry to kidnap the thread...but thanks for all the info folks.

Just asked my wife and she said this one is straight stitch with no options....though, I am going to do a bit more research to confirm. This one is a Pfaff...sucker weights a ton...I hate moving it, or rather my back does. I wore out one poly main, and have a Poly Sail kit for a new one which has much better/heavier poly. I have not made it yet because I was thinking of a real one. Hell, I might just have it made for me if I can scare up the pesos. That said, I don't figure there are too many compromises using the poly. It is just the embarassement factor....and having to explain to folks that ask what kind of sail material that is. I just tell them duct tape and a firewood cover.

Adorable project Simon, well done. Great Images.

Wow...super article Johannah! I really enjoyed that. Saved it all. Thanks I loved this little picture....

Here is a topic that interests me. I am going to be recutting an older (and much larger) headsail into a genoa for my WE. I am fortunate in that I own a beautiful industrial sewing machine. Making the large outfeed table that Jan has so excellently drawn is an great idea and something I can do. I have three large movable tables I use for infeed and outfeed on my table saw that could do double duty for the sewing rig. Handling all that cloth was one of the things I wondered about. Thanks for the tip. The other thing I am wondering about is our machine does not do a zig zag, but just a straight stitch (although at 400mph). I notice that most sails are sewn with a lot of zig zag. Do you'all think just a straight stitch would be OK? If I can do an ok job on the head sails, I would like to do a main out of proper material. The poly sails work great, but I would like some real ones on there eventually. Good 'thread' ...oh....and...Hi Guys....back to lurk mode.

Cherry is a photoreactive hardwood and will darken a lot over time. If you can't use actual solid wood repairs as a filler, then mix or choose your color darker than the newly planed or sanded wood. Eventually it might match. In most cases (I have found) if it is not possible to get a perfect match, try to be sure the filler is darker than the base material.

Sounds and looks like you are gonna fit in here real well Chuck. You could not ask for a better crew to help you along with your project. Quite a range of knowledge here. Best of luck with the stealth project. Rain every day? Man, we have had almost no rain since the end of January. Instead of rain we get fire.

Beaker....that Sand Dollar is a proper little rascal. Good one. Arch's ACE 14 looks like the bomb as well. Nice little boat. neighbour of yours?

The whole larger cockpit...smaller cabin is one of the many things that appealed to me about John Westfords 'Sweet Pea'. http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/store/plans/jw/sweetpea/index.htm

...so you did move the aft cabin bulkhead forward...? If so, cool idea. It actually makes a lot of sense to go that way. From my way of thinking I would rather the cabin smaller with sleeping and stretching out room in the cockpit. You can day sail more people in comfort as well. Keep all your sailing crap (or kids in Stuarts case) in the cabin, sleep and hang out under a boom tent or out in the open. The schooner rig could be cool too. When you laid all that out....did you do all the figurin? CE vs CLR?

I ain't no guest....

Well, talk about freaky stuff. Last night when I last wrote....there were not any fires here. This morning when I woke up, there was. Now a water bomber is happily cycling between the lake and a mountain about three kilometers from here.....a coupla miles. It is on the US side of our valley. It was so smokey in our valley today you could barely see across to the mountains at some points. The wind carried the smoke north to us...ash falling all day. It has gotten bigger and bigger. Some excitement.

I will let you know when I am in the water...just in case you do want to come up and sail together.

I had the distinct displeasure of having my forstay part when in very heavy wind conditions. At that time, my boat had the stock mast tabernacle arrangement as per plans. I can honestly say that the hinge held the mast from completley collapsing and breaking my neck...though it really tore things up...the whole hinge/tab arrangement was loose and goofy for the balance of the season. But it did hold. The stay parted because the guy that actually built the boat did not strip off the plastic coating form the wire where he secured the two clamps. He did the rest OK...just forgot the forestay at the head. My new tabernackle design is much stronger....I figure. (famous last words)

Thanks Frank. Just what I was after.

Well Nelson old chap...it's like this you see. I bit off more'n I could chew. I wanted to change EVERYTHING on this damn boat... and to make sure I would...I took the entire thing apart the end of last season...so I could not just say, "the heck with it, let's just sail the thing the way it is". The combination of previous obligations...lots of work and no time are coming back to bite me in the gronicals...as it were. I have decided to not do a few things and half do some others....but I hope to be sailing within 2 weeks or so.....no maybe four weeks. Who knows. Are you thinking of making your way up thisaway? That would be fun.

Thanks Folks...oustanding replies.

I am re-doing all the standing rigging of my boat and remembered something about someone discussing some kind of rope bridle for the gaff halyard attachment point....rather than the eye bolt thing. Can anyone clue me in on this detail...point me to an image? Today is National Gaff Day....for me. Any advice would be appreciated. Timmy T Tone

OK Raymond....get your books out lad. I have one for you. A buddy of mine made a 46 ' catamaran. Rough but cool. A wonderful story goes with this boat. Anyway, we were wondering what the theoretical max hull speed would be for a cat with two 38 foot water lines, very little wetted surface and fine narrow entries. Believe it or not, the crazy fool asked me to design a super simple sail plan for him. HA. Man, did I have fun with that. Sea trials next weekend hopefully, pictures and story to come. ...so, up for it Beak? None of this plus or minus 5 lbs either....we want the solid facts.

....yes, they look cool, no worries there...but I am not talking about while under way....even sitting still.....the ass end of the boat comes out of the air and everything is focused on that wee triangle....the boat actually starts to tip over....I am not sure how far it would go, but it seems quite unstable. And that is with my Tug Boat motor hung off the stern. Maybe it was my imagination or hysterical haluscinations. I am short, weight 185 and built low to the deck (kind of like a Dwarf)and love to ramble about the foredeck in any conditions...I kind of have to as my halyards are all cleated there...and am normally pretty comfortable doing that....one time shortly after getting the boat I crawled out as far as I could on the bowsprit with my knees on either side of the bowsprit right were it meets the deck and as I reached out to the line the boat started tipping over...as I say, it kind of freaked me out. My sail was all twisted and I was trying to fix it...after that I beached the boat and fixed it whilst standing on a rock. Whatever....just my twisted observations.

Wow...great story, great trip, super images. Thanks Phil. I sailed out of Sidney harbour for years. I love that area. There are so many possible destinations for even regular day sailing. All year sailing...a tad chilly in winter but better winds. Barry and you mentioned rips and tides.....I have done a bit of that "looks like I'm going forward...but actually slipping back" kind-of-sailing....so I can relate a bit. I worked for an old ship wright in Sidney for a couple of years who sailed a lot up island. There is one spot....don't quote me...Sansom Narrows?...that has such a bad rip through there the Killer whales wait it out. He said one time he missed the slack and was waiting it out with a cup of tea and watched a huge dead head ( full size Douglas Fir) submerge in the worst of it...and reappear a good deal further along...HEAD FIRST. He had a Collin Archer double ender, a heavy boat, and knew that rascal would have punched a hole in his boat. Serious stuff. I live a good deal inland of my old cruising grounds now, but I dream of one day of dragging my boat back there and spending a week or two gunkholing about. One of the coolest parts about sailing those areas were the variety of boats to watch. Lots of old classic stuff.....and long distance cruisers.

Hey Barry...I'm with Beak on this one. Unless you have your 400lb Sumo wrestler crewman in the cockpit...hanging any amount of weight over the pointy end will make for some interesting times....believe me, I tried it...freaked me out.

bummer

I buy a lot of stuff from Harbor Freight Tools and was flipping through the new flyer during supper and found that they are now selling this outboard motor. The price seemed very good to me...but what do I know? A four stroke Briggs and Stratton with a fuel cell and line for $700US. If you want more info go to their website and search for this by item number 04551-OFAA