ecgossett

Tom I wish this was true in our area. I want to participate in things like the Classic Mariners Regatta coming up in Pt. Townsend through Wooden Boat Foundation and they all require smaller boats to register with PHRF which sucks. I'm not sure it's kosher or popular to "crash" a sail race or regatta. My yacht club commodore in St. Marys GA invited himself and crew unannounced into a sailing race by Amelia Island, Not only was that yacht club pissed, when he pulled in and cut off multiple boats and created havoc complaints went out to the coast guard and Florida Water Gestapo (also known as DNR). Some math and figuring out proper dimensioning on form for a cat-ketch is involved. Also how to rate lack of traditional booms.

Does anyone have any clues as to filling out linked form for PHRF?? It does not seem like it was made for this type of rig.. Not sure if the staysail counts as a spinnaker. Do I even put a boom measurement in. Has anyone registered for the rating before? http://www.phrf-nw.org/forms http://phrf.intransport.com/sites/default/files/New%20Member%20Application_1.pdf

B&B had the best prices on parts and epoxy.. For aluminum just because of shipping cost, Amazon.com wound up having best price when I couldn't get two of the three sizes locally.

Software in through www.blogger.com It helps if you know a little HTML coding or where to look at the interface isn't the best. However, the other services more then make up. You can also for the menu link to actual HTML pages they let you create, or link to articles or other things which are shown at top of page. All this can be integrated with Google Documents / Drive, so you can do forms for people to insert date onto excel sheets and so on. Settings also allow you to email posts in from say text messaging on your phone, or a droid app is available. Usually I use Picasa from Google on my computer to blog photos, etc after cleaning them up and doing whatever image tricks need done. This way it uploads the photos directly to picasaweb.google.com now known as Google Drive, then links automatically to how I formatted blog entry. www.ussstmarys.org is an example of using the pro Google hosting service versus blogger as hosting. My main website is www.foggysailing.com and I paid for a domain name, and then did some customization. With the dynamic pages I carefully picked my favorite view (users can still change from top menu), then I had to be careful with gadgets as they aren't all compatible. Look at the popout menu on the right side for what does work, things like keywords, about, etc.

The 200 mile trip isn't all that expensive, especially if you can get a wholesale price on plywood. My friend Tom set himself up a wholesale account with Quality Plywood and Okoume 1088 6mm cost me $35 a sheet 3 years ago. Of course he also used the account to buy wood to build a house and it was a 2.5 hour drive each way. I easily made up the savings.

My tack of the staysail today was on the windard side as previously discussed, with main to leeward, and control line off back of mizzen boom. Wind in PT Townsend was gusty between 5-8 knots. The forward edge / luff kept curling, or just stayed curled with the lip curling around to windward. I varied the tack with between 12 - 24 inches trying to get the shape right. Any suggestions?? On reflection the halward or sail top might have been twisted when I hoisted it. This might have done the same effect.

I know there was an engineering issue with the top beam having to be a specific size. It might be related to holding the walls in place. The beams are nice, not as beautiful as they used to be before the company got bought and the beams where subcontracted. The new beams already had one wall failure in a hospital and my father is sure there will be more. For the lap end joints on the end they created a weakness that originally was not designed in. The beams where meant to be stacked for joints and bolted. This way the beam kept its full strength.

The aluminum masts turned out to be easy. Just don't listen to all the people in your local boating community who know better and think you should go with a single size of aluminum, etc. Go with the type and sizes specified in the plans. The sails you just need to order from Graham and Carla and you will get tried and true with all the little details for a cat-ketch.

Some of the paint did peel a little bit. Dark green spray rustoleum for aluminum based surfaces. Masts usually sit on foam pool rollers, with cut off aluminum lengths from building masts in mast positions to tie mast against to keep centered.

It was a round spot in the paint that was blackened. My mast is painted green. It was Georgia son during Aug/Sep while moving. The mast at times was to hot for me to touch.

My father (he was VP & head engineer) used this product to build laminated beams for above ground pools, using a gurgeon brothers designed 50 ft hydraulic beam press (to apply cont. pressure for days at a time if needed). Without talking to him to get the testing they did for various underwriter approvals it was an amazing product. Its an amazing product that can take some stress, even in pools much bigger then this. Water pressure outwards is always greatest at the top not bottom. The epoxy was also used for applications with the 3/4" Formica walls. Other applications included using it as fillers to fix broken equipment handles etc, and fixing a couple cracks on the plexiglass windows such as the pool in Bristol TN at the hospital. That all being said I used the walmart brand of 3M 5400 on my sail track and then immediately riveted in place with aluminum rivets. The only rivet failure was in a severe car accident with the mast being severely warped and the failure was a couple rivets near the bottom. I noticed in the sun the mast got hot enough to laying on boat to burn through paint and blacken a little area on the deck. Not sure what this sort of heat would do to softening the epoxy.

My boards just lay down in the bottom.. Mainly intended as bunk boards, its been a nice addition to keep from slipping. I have non-slip additive painted in place, but the boards seem to give me better stability. I just put them right on the bunk board. The STBD side is easier to leave up as it is narrower already. As far as feet dry most of the water splashes in from the centerboard, we have a vinyl cover that snaps on so if the centerboard releases it unsnaps as it comes up. The cover keeps the splashes from doing things like landing on sandwiches being made, and the water drips right into the bilge. Normally for feet dry I wear wading boots, and have found the individual waist high waders to be a godsend in cold weather combined with rain pants. It makes it very easy to hop in or out in shallow COLD water.

The self bailer is located just outboard the mast step. I have had not problems with everything draining properly in this location. Floorboards should not interfere with it at all. If done properly mast step will keep it from coming back and bending the bailer. If you don't want the floorboards to go on the floor you could use a piano hinge and have them fold along the trunk. This would require wood pegs or something for putting them up for sleeping / sitting on. I'm finishing my floorboards right now using 3/4" x 4" fir. In fact the local lumberyard cut it for me to proper lengths and sold it by board feet. The only hard part is whether or not I should put a reinforcement on the seat hatches or just avoid that area all together.

I've used a couple of different belt sanders, including ones growing up. It doesn't always seem to matter from cheap to expensive, the tracking device for the belt always seems to break. The belt sander was a great tool for shaping centerboard and rudder after initial shape was done with a hand plane, and around the boat to even edges of wood before things like deck got put on, you can't beat a belt sander. Oh I used it in a couple areas to carefully fair tough fiberglass cloth, and remove paint before bringing in a orbital. Used properly it can save a lot of time, and is very durable against rough epoxy that would chew up orbitals.

I found some sandpaper for a pretty good price at the www.duckworksbbs.com , and when I thought about it ahead of time SS screws etc.

The flat oyster was all my local lowes had. The only good thing about rusteloum is it touches up easily for darker colors on sides you beat or scratch up.

The problem found with oyster white is it gets dirty easily, and the big box stores all seem to sell flat (hides problems with wood nicely). I upgraded my paint to Petitt easy poxy for about $5 and was much happier. Abrasion wise, Rustoleum was not impressive, the two part primer from Interlux held up really really well on bottom. If you know anyone with a Port Supply at West Marine, Interlux becomes very affordable and better priced then Rustoleum at Lowes.

Do you have any dimensions for the blade?

I have a friend who's a retired chief, and according to him my masts are pretty heavy (I didn't find this out until the beach at Fort Desoto). Of course my 6 & 8 year old can hold a CS17 mast pretty easily. These masts are nothing like a Hobie Cat or something similiar, weight wise. The only thing that would have been nice on the builders cd was more detailed description on the photos. It seemed like the only ones that had descriptions where showing mistakes someone made. It entitled organizing photos in Picasa, then repeatedly going through, and adding keywords etc, as something jumped out at me. Or hours of searching trying to figure out good solutions.

I made the mast tube longer then necessary, and a piece of cardboard on bottom to figure out the proper position, then cut extra off above king board. I also used a couple different angle tools to verify proper rake for 3 degrees on mast. With one clamp holding tube on side you should be able to play around/wiggle with this until you get it right. I used a sharpie to trace on inner hull where bottom board was going to be.

I recommend http://www.westsystem.com/ss/techniques-materials/ browsing through the materials West Systems Presents on the subjects, and check out the online magazine. They have done extensive tests and publish the results. http://www.hudsonaquatic.com/aquatic-systems-for-people/therapy-pools-for-people-hydrotherapy my fathers company before he sold it, used to build these above ground pools, with laminated wood beams (beam press bases on Guergon BRO design), then coated in 3 coats of epoxy and covered with Varathan Water Varnish. Never had any problems with secondary bonding issues.

The bigger spars if aluminum are very very light, and in retrospect I would put a tabernacle on the front of my CS17, it would make stepping it in the water or at the dock very easy.

The CS17 can sail with four, but handling / stability feels a little sluggish with 4 full size adults in 15 knot winds. If I had the room, the CS20 would have been what I built; bigger, faster, & more comfortable. The 20 is the boat if you want something for a variety of challenging conditions on a big bay with 4 adults on board. I enjoyed the Flying Scot 18 in the past and the CS17 is very similar (both are wet rides), and has similar handling characteristics with the exception of the cat-ketch rig on the CS17. My only issue with a couple of navigators I have seen is they are very open, and I have been told you need good water proof bags for stuff. One owner said the waterproof hatches, bought and installed will still leak a little bit. On the Core Sound you have the whole forward deck over the forward seats that works very well for dry storage (just push a jacket or shoes under), and many other options to build in such as aft compartment (driest place on mine), and lockers under seats. On the CS17 trailering is easy, and rowing with a pair of paddles that was slightly too short was easy. Paddling with one adult and youth paddling is very easy as well and fun with a crowd on board.

Who did you interface with to get proper mast position? Do you have new formulas for capsize etc on this boat? Is there any weather helm?

Brighsides was some of the worst stuff I've used. Several local boat people recommended it, but I think it sprays better, humidity and temperature has to be just perfect for proper application. A friend demonstrated in his house, with a sample, and it turned out much better then doing in heat and humidity. In the summer in Georgia there was a 3 hour window mid day, where the humidity dew point dropped low enough to apply perfectly. The two-part interlux epoxy primer worked great. If you use an Interlux product from West Marine, use someone's Port Supply Account and by the 1.5 or 2 gallon paint kits (Saves most money, but limits you to one color). Having now used the Petite 1-part easy poxy, I enjoyed putting it on, and can change anything I don't like like or gets messed up in usage easily later. Color changes or differences are also relatively cheap, easy to get ahold of.