PadrePoint

Wow… nice work. Hope the boat meets your needs and hopes. ? I like the mizzen tabernacle… boomkin… and what I think is your connecting halyard to sheets when masts are down. All interesting. I use my Honda 2.3 on both my CS15 and CS17m3 since it’s light and easy to move and mount. (I mostly do day sailing on inland lakes.) BUT, it needs rotation for reverse since it doesn’t have F-N-R shifting like the Honda 5 I bought for the 17’. I prefer the way the 5hp runs and comfortably powers the 17’ with less noise than the air cooled Honda 3.2. What? No yellow accents like my Avocet? ?

Pick up by the owner coming soon?? It REALLY looks nice, Don.

Right… she realized it just before leaving shore… we decided it wouldn’t be an issue this time… another detail to remember. All part of the learning process… learning from noticing mistakes or errors. There are still a couple little things she needs to do, like a bungee around the dagger board since it kind of floats up a few inches without it. ?

Ah, I finally was able to get on the water with one of my boats when helping the Weezer get her boat out onto Lake DuBay. I’m trying to help her figure out how to take it out all by herself. Here is a link to my little video: https://youtu.be/GRnGkBJTsd8?si=qRqWfV0lwE0osFpA

I guess mine is set similarly in the bracket… still, new bolt holes in the black part could be helpful. I use a long shaft Honda 5 hp for in this boat and it is in the water sufficiently. I might add some wedging this year (if I feel like it ?) since the transom is pitched slightly forward and the shaft angle would be improved. Since I use the motor primarily to move from the dock, I don’t feel a big need for a more correct fit… adequate is fine for me. Also, my lighter Honda 2.3 works very well to attain hull speed. The boat is a Core Sound 17 Mk 3.

Could you drill new holes in the black rubberized “transom” part of the bracket to lower it by some inches? I’ll do a quick visit of my boat for a photo.

Only 3 of 15 driving hours left…

Gira Gira… I was watching Sailing Kate Louise’s latest video as Gira Gira passed by on the screen… and I turned to the B&B Forum to see if there are new posts… I noticed Alan’s post above ABOUT Gira Gira… a fun coincidence. I’ve noticed his tarp setup in previous Australian videos and will take a look at what is posted above. Hey wait… Alan posted the video I’m half way through as I’m writing this. ? I will figure a way to spread out a sun shade canopy on Avocet this year with some type of poles, rather than the v-shape formed over the secured sprit. This shows what was started by Richard, who built Avocet (he sewed little pockets into the tarp for spreaders): In this shot I look like I’m praying to the mizzen mast. ? (I was moving to the rear cockpit.,, I’m a big guy and I’d like the sunshade to be wider… and longer… a 2024 project.) I will now finish watching the Sailing Kate Louise video.

An approach to tents and dinghy cruising.

Thanks for the photos, Richard. It’s fun to see some of the things that go into the CS17m3 build… and a LOT more fun for me not to be doing it. ?

Steve, I likely asked you before… what works well for the poles? I might cannibalize an old tent for the poles but maybe there are some better options.

Ah, Don, THAT’s where you got that photo you showed me tonight at your patio table. ? (We enjoyed the conversation.) The B&B mast float kit I made for Norma T… I named it Bruce after my deceased brother… a nice addition to the boat I named after my mom. ?

Wow… a lot more needed to be employed than when I asked a neighbor family on their evening walk to help me flip my two builds (Core Sound 15 and 15 foot ski boat.) Simple grunting and some muscling did it just fine… a reason I enjoy the small boat approach. ? That is quite a project you are doing… it looks great.

I used a round rasp on my drill to grind out enough material out of both bolt holes on either side of the aluminum tube to clear the bolt when swinging the bottom of the mast into place. I also positioned and firmed up the bolt placement in the tabernacle, bolt head and washer in the cabin and a nut in a recessed hole to make the bolt rigid (I also set it with a very slight angle upward, as I recall, since the bottom section of the mast swings into position with an arc movement.) When I bought my boat I think the builder used a system of raising the mast, sliding the bolt through the holes in the mast from the anchor well and through the hole in the tabernacle so that the bolt entered the cabin area. That required somehow holding the raised mast upright and climbing into the cabin to attach the nut from inside (I found that the bolt could unfortunately turn when firming up the nut.) I prefer to have the bolt protruding forward, raising the mast such that the bolt (firmly anchored to the tabernacle structure) goes through the holes in the mast as it reaches the raised position, letting me then screw on the nut from the anchor well (the nut is in a good sized knob which makes tightening easy)… which is the process I think I see in the photo above. To make it work I had to increase the vertical size of the holes with my drill rasp. My boat is in storage now so I can’t get to it for photos. My method works well for me… I stand on the trailer tongue (and on the spare tire I have mounted to the tongue) that gets me high enough to use my weight to press down firmly on the bottom of the mast to raise it, while also pulling on the snotter line to help pull the mast up. The bolt slides right into the holes in the mast and, while holding the mast up by the snotter lines with one hand, I attach the nut. I do the same mast raising process on the CS15 (which is easier to raise up than the heavier my CS17.) I demo what I do at minute 4 of the first video on this webpage: https://bandbyachtdesigns.com/cs15

Interesting. It looks like the centerboard trunk goes through the bottom of the boat and is to be trimmed to the bottom ply.

Wow!!! Glad to hear this. Great effort, Andy. (I’m traveling with my wife on a 50th anniversary trip in September.)

Some More Exploring of Lake Possibilities I was in the mood to take a drive today. The sky was clear, the sun was bright, late February temperatures were in the low 60’s… not typical in Wisconsin. I decided to take a look at another lake of the Wisconsin River: Castle Rock Lake, just south of Petenwell, (Petenwell is the second largest lake in Wisconsin.) I especially wanted to check out some boat launches. That provided my excuse for taking an afternoon drive. Castle Rock Lake is roughly 11 miles long and over 4 miles wide… 26 square miles and about 60% the size of the larger Petenwell. It looks like it could be a bit busy in summer, but with its size there is plenty of room for sailing and camping. I will try to sail on Castle Rock Lake as early as I can… sometime in May (I’ll be traveling nearly all of June.) I look forward to experiencing it; it looks beautiful. I enjoyed my drive today. I went on a number of roads I’d never been on before, drove through a state park I didn’t know about, and saw some of the lake I’d not seen before. I noticed on Google Maps a parking area for a trail called Big Hill Trail. It’s located on the most northern end of the lake, just south of the highway bridge between the Petenwell and Castle Rock lakes. I decided to stop and check it out. This region of Wisconsin is at the south edge of the Laurentide Ice Sheet whose meltwaters dramatically shaped the land some 10,000 years ago. The area has a number of “castle” shaped rock formations left by the enormous erosion of the glacial meltwaters. The Big Hill is one of those formations. I had the wrong shoes for hiking, especially on a sandy slope so I only hiked up to the bottom of the rock formation. I did not know it was there, even though I have driven by it many times when I worked west of this area. Here are a couple photos I took on the trail (the rock hill peeks out of the trees in the center of the photo.) I shall explore the trail more another day. Near the north end of Castle Rock Lake is a boat landing so I stopped to check it out. The water level is drawn down several feet on the Wisconsin River flowages and lakes during the first three months of the year to prepare for the springtime snowmelt, which will not be very dramatic this year. One can see the sand “islands” with stumps on the other side of this narrow part of the lake. The pile of buoys will be placed to mark the river channel. At another boat launch the “beach” illustrates the water drawdown. That is all the photos I took today. I’m not sure which Castle Rock Lake boat launches provide parking for overnight sail-camping. I think further roadtrip exploring of the lake is needed… and it’s a reason for a nice motorcycle ride this spring. I saw a few motorcycles today with temps in the sixties, but I’ll wait a while.

Planning Some Sailing Adventures for 2024 I made a resolution in January 2024 to sail on the lakes that are part of the Wisconsin River during the upcoming season. I hope to overnight on a lot of these little ventures. Looking at Google Maps has helped me figure out what lakes there are along the river; most are formed by hydroelectric dams. Most look like they will be interesting to experience, some… maybe not. I think this will be a fun challenge for this coming sailing season. I’ve sailed a lot in the past couple years on Lake DuBay near Mosinee and on the Stevens Point flowage near my home. I’ve ventured only once onto Lake Petenwell. I likely will not develop a schedule, but more likely will be more spontaneous, with an eye on weather forecasts. I’ll announce the intended sailing ventures on Facebook posts if people have an interest in joining in. When returning this week from a day of skiing in the U.P, I had a couple hours to kill so I ventured a bit into the Northwoods to check out some targets. My first stop was a boat launch on the Rainbow Reservoir. I’d never seen the lake… it looks inviting… when it melts. ? I think I can park overnight at the boat launch… no signs were seen restricting that. Ice fishermen are just left of the island in the above photo… here’s a closeup: My next lake to check out was Tomahawk Lake. It isn’t part of the Wisconsin River but is just two miles west of the river. I suspect the water of the lake eventually ends up in the Wisconsin River. I think it’s worth exploring. There is a good boat launch in the tiny town of Lake Tomahawk. I realized that Tomahawk Lake is part of a good sized chain of lakes, including Minaqua Lake. There is a “Throughfare” channel between the lakes with a bridge. I could lower the masts… or use my ski boat instead to explore this popular chain of lakes. My next stop was to look again at a lake (or flowage) that has a lot boat campsites. I drove by this boat launch last fall. This lake/flowage is west of the Wisconsin River but eventually flows into it via the Willow River: Again, it provides a very nice boat launch and large parking area, with no signs prohibiting overnight parking. So that’s my research so far.

Or sometimes buy from the boat’s builder. ?

Looking good, Don. A lot is accomplished.

Avocet is locked away for another 2 1/2 months. One of these knots on the second reef started loosening and I’ll need to fix it… by learning how Don made them. They seem effective and I’m sure my fiddling around loosened them a bit. Instead of bunching up the reef lines to secure them to the sprits I added some hardware that that works for me for a quick deployment and storage. I can’t get to them for photos until it comes out of storage.

I just realized that a lengthy and clear thread from Alan was not linked to in this thread regarding a centerboard modification to the older Mark 3 boats: Steve built a beautiful CS20m3 and decided to modify his centerboard trunk. He covers his work starting around page 43 in his massive boat thread:

Nice looking project, Don. And I love how you call forth the kid assistance. As they say, measure once; cut twice; still too short. Oh, and I don’t need to cut the legs down on the little dining table for my daughter’s Boston Terrier. (Helps with choking issues.) ?

? Progress is being made. It looks larger than I thought. My pathetic project of the day… ? My daughter wants a little table for her little Boston Terrier (she chokes on her food sometimes.) What we do for pets, right? I know it isn’t a boat project… but it DOES float. ? Actually, I also began making a boarding platform for my ski boat.

Andy, you get snow where you are? ? Ditto on the 2.3 Honda. Might be one of the most efficient outboards. I’ve liked using this can for both my Honda 2.3 and 5 outboards; both have small internal tanks. I found this gas can easy to use. With this push-button nozzle on a smaller gas can (2 1/2 gallons) I’m able to refill the motor even when the boat is bouncing around in waves. I’ve been less than fully successful (missing the the filler neck opening, overfilling) with my fuel bottles and have better results it’s these.