Tom Hoffman

Please disregard the above post. When I did a search for "junk sail rig" I got no return, then when I did the post all the old posts came up.

Has any one tried rigging a Junk Sail on a Weekender or Vacationer? I have been reading Annie Hill's book on "Cruising on a small income" and they sure seem to like the Junk Rig Sails. I will admit that the idea does get me going. I always like to try new things and not follow the herd.

When you build a boat, one of the major problems as I see it, is that you don't neccessarily have all the requisite skills to really get it done and to a large extent, you have to learn as you go and make mistakes as you go to. When I built my Whitehall, I failed to make provision for a drain plus in the stern of the Wine Glass transom. Now that my wife and I have decided to go up to the Lake Pepin Messabout next weekend. I have realized that my nice Whitehall will be nothing more than a LARGE MOBIL BATH TUB on wheels waiting to be filled by the first rain storm we may encounter. With that in mind, we decided to try and make our own cover. 7-8 years ago, my wife approached me with the request for a FANCY embroydery sewing machine with all the bells and whistles. Thank goodness that I was smart enough to say sure Honey, what kind do you want and promptly took her shopping. $5000 later and she was the proud owner of Jenome wonder-do-it-all machine that since that time has made exactly two (2) ring bearers pillows. I have occasionally brought up the fact that this machine would make a fine boat anchor, and have been ignored completely. I have asked if it can sew on a button, to date no buttons have been sewn on. The Good News: Friday we went out and bought a nice cheap Tarp and Saturday, we laid it all out and yesterday and today she is fitting it as I type. Which when done will have a Cover for this next weekend and will have added to our realtionship immensly. In our future now I can see a great cover made from Sunbrella and SAILS, SAILS, SAILS..... I have forgotten to tell you that she has never told me "NO" when ever I have wanted to do anything and when approached with the idea of going "Live Aboard" and Cruising, she is rolling her eyes and knowing full well that with in a year or two we will be Cruising. I will post pics of the Cover as soon as it is done. Cheers, Tom... ;D ;D

Larry, Never thought about it like that, but I think you are right. She wouldn't let me finish the boat until the bed was done. On' well, she's happy and so am I. Cheers, Tom

Yes, White Oak is probably my favorite wood to work with. What is in the boat is what was left over after i build my wife her Mission Style Bed. Promised it to her after we got married in 93' promise kept in 2007. what's a few years between friends. Here is her bed... http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/553556127SDygzD

Larry, Thanks for the kind words. WRC is western red cedar. That is what the hull is made of. The transom outside is midwest black walnut. The interior transom is Quilted Hard Maple. The bow is Cherry and the thwarts and deck boards are all White Oak. The gunwales inner and outer are Ash. It was a lot of fun to build.

Hi Steve, I grew up in Sioux City and Graduated at East. I was wanting to come up to lake peppin next week, but family stuff got in the way several months back. (Wedding) will try and make it next year. I get to Minneapolis a few times a year, I will try and hook up with Bill next time I am going up that way. Thanks for letting me know that I am not ALONE!!! Tom...

Thanks Steve, I should have checked the date of the original post. Regards, Tom...

There is a gentleman in Des Moines that has done that sort of work for years and people bring boats to him from all over. I am not sure if he is still doing it or not. I bought my Epoxy from him on my last boat build. His name is Paul Morris and here is a link to his web page. http://www.cedartreeinc.com/ Last I talked to him, he was thinking of hanging up his tool belt and retiring to mess about in boats. He participates in lots of the MidWest boating activities. If he can't do it, he will most likely know someone who can give you a hand. Tom...

Thank you all for the kind responses. My goal is to get out of Iowa winters and move to Florida for at least 8-9 months of the year and either live on a boat I have built or buy an existing boat or house boat there. I am semi retired and my wife is a Nurse Manager and she wants to quit where she is and become a travling nurse. I am in the midst of constructing a 36'X36' pole garage/boat shop to build at least a boat or two before we make our move. I was thinking about the Vacationer for just sailing around here in Ia or on Lake Peppin or in the Miss. I am 90 miles west of Dubuque. We have a Cabin on the Wapsi-Pinicon River and have just been in it a year. Regarding the Whitehall, It is the Glen-L Whitehall modified by me to suit. I moved all the stations 3" further apart and changed the angle of the stern back further and changed the sweep of the bow to a more pleasing curve (to me) than the standard blunt bow. I originally built one of the WRC stripper canoes from HandyMan Magazine back in the 80's and then built another in the 90's. I have always wanted an easy rowing boat. In 64' I taught rowing and canoeing at Scout camp in Sioux City and learned that I really liked Rowing. I use to race the boys, me in a flat bottom Jon Boat rowing and them in Canoes. I just received a copy of George Buehler's Backyard Boat Building and all of a sudden am becoming obsessed with building at least something that we can sail around here for a while to get our sea legs about us. My wife and I both enjoy liveaboard scuba trips in the Caribbean. She has mild sea sickness on the first day, but after that she is great. She is a good hands on helper in what ever I decide to do and gets right in and get dirty with me too. She is helping when she can with the Garage right now. Thank you for linking that pic to the albums, one of these days, I'll learn how to do it too... Cheers, Tom...

Good Evening, I am new to the forum, I live in Iowa and was wondering if there are any other members from the midwest. I am in the precess of building a new garage and boat shop to build a Sailboat of as yet undetermined parentage. I have been looking at a Vacationer and was curious if there had been any built in the midwest or close by to Iowa, I would be very interested in going to see one. I have built a 20' Whitehall in 06'-08'. It was built using WRC and Epoxy. Any interested persons may see pictures of the build and oars that I made for it as well. www.webshots.com/user/slvrgost I look forward to participating in some of the activities. Regards, Tom...