ecgossett

I cut out my side stringer's from 1x6x16' cedar. I noticed on one of the pieces I have a knot that makes the middle of the piece almost fall apart.. Can I fix this by cutting the knot out and scarfing the remaing two pieces together?

If anyone near Jax Fl, St Marys, GA (where I live), or Brunswick has have a sheet of quarter inch marine they wouldn't mind selling please let me know.

I figured out what I was doing wrong... Being at work from 3am-4pm then deciding to loft and cut out a boat, not a bad idea!! :-[ What ended up being wrong that was throwing me off on everything else is on the side piece the 3rd marker line back that is 1 5/16" and 19 1/4 long. well the sheer to the shine is 18 5/8 instead of roughly 19. This seems to have thrown the whole chine off that piece which made the other piece look bad. On the bright side I only wasted one piece of plywood!!

Do both sides need to be scarfed the same?? IE one side is scarfed currently to 3 inches... I was thinking of doing a 2 inch overlay on the other side... Should I keep it at three?

Looks like a scene out of the History Channel's Ax Men... One of the big old growth trees found in the middle of a forrest or the logs pulled out of the water.

I noticed doing the "smooth cut setting", but setting a faster speed reduced splinters then using a slower speed. I just take my time on the cut. I will probably have to plane it down before I can use it to template the other side.

Is it kosher to use pieces cut out for one side as templates for other side?

When I was a kid working at my father's company building above ground therapy pools with Plexiglas walls, we laminated big oak beams in a specially designed beam press (the boards shrink slightly as curing so a pressure that can adjust is needed. Thinking about all the epoxying I did wearing regular disposable gloves, rubber apron, & booties makes me think. I asked my mother about it and she said that the warning always concerned her but was assured by the epoxy company that we where safe with established procedures. http://www.fernoperformancepools.com/pools_beam_above.html These are the pools now sold to another company to make. We did partial in-ground as well, the difference that has been changed is the beams join nicely on the ends. The beams used to sit on top of each other to connect. The engineer assured us that joining them the way pictured takes strength out of the beam.

I have the STBD side panels cut out!! Finished up at 10:50pm tonight. We lined up all three sheets up wood to draw out the entire site per the plan.. We overlapped the ends by 3 inches to include scarfing room.. The mistake made was forgetting to add extra length into the middle section... Not sure how I'm going to fix this. The very end piece is no chopped off yet so might be able to extend it. I'm also playing with the scroll saw trying to eliminate jagged splinters when cutting. I'm probably going to wind up using a rasp instead of a hand plane until I find a good plane. - Edward

Someone who knows I sail and love boats offered me a 1968 Bristol 25' in good shape, all wood interior, boat stand, 4 year old Yamaha 9.9, all electronics GPS, 5 sets sail, one set being 1 year old... I would only have to transport boat from Atlanta, and varnish the mahogany interior. Some regret was felt as I turned him down and gave a phone number of a friend who is a teacher and could really use a boat.

The only problem I've had in a downpour with 40-50 knot gusts was the GPS started cutting out in hard rain. My lesson learned was to rely more upon my compass in such courses, which up to that time I rarely looked at. The issue was coming in Cumberland Sound the entrance markers to the St. Marys river can be confusing unless you know the chart, have a GPS or have done it a few times. In the rain with no visibility I was very worried about overshooting the turn and winding up on some shoals to the north.

If I was to build a boat in the 26' range I would build a F-22 (Farrier 22) trimeran. The design is incredible, the layout is as simliar to stich & glue except with foam. One version has an aft cabin design that is very unique. http://www.f-boat.com/pages/trimarans/F-22.html For a bigger boat I would go with a F-32 / road legal trailerable verison. They have two versions, the trailer version has a narrow beam. Of course both these boats take some money just for supplies, the F-22 costs about $25-35k (materials) with a tacked on $80k for labor if you don't want to build it yourself.

A couple water filled milk jugs tied together work well. To get people back on board my 25' C&C I had a divers ladder with the poll in the middle versus sides, worked good in waves. Most of the time we tied a piece of line in a big U over the side. Put a foot in it and pulled up, then the people on board give a yank if needed. Always worked.

I know your looking out! Gotta have a little fun with posts. On a different topic, scarfing.. After marking my boards I realized doing the 1-12 for scarfing may not work as the layout given with the plans doesn't have 3 extra inches. I was just planning on scarfing the vertical joints for sides, not where they attach to bottom... Does anybody scarf with just the 9 sheets of plywood and how do they layout the sides to fit?? If I order two gallons of epoxy from B&B is that enough to get the sides put together? I don't want to order more as I go on a 90 day patrol (sub) in June. - Edward

Jim, Don't know what sub you where on but on the Tridents we have lots of brass... Little things called scuppers, torpedo tubs and associated pipes, and MHC (missile heating and cooling) system, for the tubes. The scuppers turn nasty colors after we do a sea sensing header blowdown. Personally, I use some red tobasco sauce to clean them.. Back in the day bug juice was used, it can also clean toilets. Some people use Coke-Cola to clean brass with.

Retaliation for the scare everyone put into me about possibly getting taken on the wood.

I enjoyed the photos of the camping out on the boat. Maybe this is not the appropriate place to ask it but when people are camping just overnight on beaches, islands, etc, some of which may be parks or national this that the other thing, do most people pay/register/etc or just camp? Around cumberland sound we have some islands that are kinda sorta controlled by the park as in your supposed to register and pay a fee to camp, but if you are on a beach or tidal area does it change? I don't mean to put anyone on in a spot by asking this. I know from my experience my Hobie was briefly left in a Marina overnight twice without registering (the office was closed), because wind/tide conditions did not permit me to get it down the river to the ramp. Other times when I had a 25' C&C at the marine cruisers did come in at night find an empty slip and leave first thing in the morning without registering. I know at Cumberland Island it was painful registering for the remote campground to go by sailboat. The park was used to kayakers not a sailer pulling in, and wanted to charge me ferry fees and require I check in with the ranger 12 miles down the Island, where as kayakers check in at the main office. V/R Edward

Does anybody do the bagging method when epoxying the boats?? Does it make more sense to do?

No it's not, just a little practical joke.... The actual wood is very nice.

I used the Google book search with the criteria of only volumes where I could view the full thing. Also my sister in law has a Pro Amazon account 30 something a month and unlimited free two day shipping.. This also allows me to view the full version of various books online that I'm interested in for boat building.... So far these books are good: http://books.google.com/books?id=Krc6AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA11-PA42&dq=cat+ketch&as_brr=1&ei=fz7wScSzFo62zATq4YmeAw The Rudder http://books.google.com/books?id=qq6GBPoHQpAC&pg=PA91&dq=cat+ketch&as_brr=1&ei=fz7wScSzFo62zATq4YmeAw Popular Science Article http://books.google.com/books?id=zBIvBTsHbtUC&pg=PA71&dq=cat+ketch&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=Kz_wSZTMPJnGywSIjKToCA Popular Science Again

Someone who is bored should start a detailed Wiki on these boats and start compiling information from the forum starting with the first posts...

Picked up my wood in Sanford Fl, 2.5 hrs away... $15 for a U-Haul trailer to tow behind my Corolla, $40 in gas, and $6.79 for dinner at Steak & Shake.. Overall I saved $145 on shipping costs. I also found a 2"x11'x6" piece of mahogany for $30 to cut strips from for the boat. Quality Plywood Spec is a great place for wood and had a very high quality selection with professional staff that could not understand why I would drive a distance to pick out my wood. I included a photo of the okoume to show the quality.

Let me correct myself now, a friend just pointed to another page in the drawings that give more detail on side stringers...

I read this post and the biggest length for stringers I see on the materials list is 12' at the bottom of the first page under side stringers... My actual plans do not show length for stringers.

Doug, I live in St. Marys and with a 1976 C&C 25' had no problem sailing up and down the St. Marys. My Hobie 16 made it under the I-95 bridge and it would not be hard to sail further up. If your worried about rowing don't bother, at entry points the currents from a ebb tide can be very very strong, especially if the wind is out of the west at all... Plan on sailing or rowing with the tide. St. Marys also has a good public dock that is free to tie up at, the yacht club runs the bait shop next to the dock so getting rides/showers if needed are not a problem. V/R Edward