hokeyhydro

I used to build stock outboard hydroplanes when I actively raced, but now I build rec boats. Probably miss you tomorrow. I have open shift at the airport (4 AM) so shortly after noon I should be napping. One of my boats (23' Parker named "Carolina Girl") is on the end slip at the NBYC docks near the mouth of the creek. All the other boats are at the house - no HOA in my `hood - Yahhoo!

Were you cruising Brices Creek about 10 AM today? Yes, I'm sure that was you - dark green boat. Sure is pretty. Do you launch from Merchants? If so I am a block away, often walk to Merchants to repair holes in our bread/milk/OJ supply. Going to the Beaufort Wooden Boat Show in May? I'll be dragging a couple of my creations down there.

Good find! Make sure you strap the ply down well. Those thin sheets like to go airborne at road speed. (insert standard quote: Don't ask me how I know this.) Closest supply I have for marine lumber and plywood is a 90 mile round trip - easy trip on lightly traveled country swamp roads. Problem is the supplier is located in a quaint and historic coastal burg, and when a make a trip the Admiral always goes, "WHAT! You went there WITHOUT ME?" There goes my kitchen pass points. Of course when I take her she must have dinner at a harbour side eatery, and browse the cutesy stores looking for ... whatever. This jacks up the procurement costs of boat building supplies. *sigh*

For experimental purposes you can "shim" the engine up. On my outboard runabout (pleasure boat) I would shim the engine up with strips of cedar shingle or paint stirrer sticks. Jacked it up until the prop began to cavitate in a hard turn. Warnings: Clamps must remain on the transom, and if you do not have metal clamp plates be very attentive because the engine can shake loose. When you find the right height you can permanently attach a riser and make it all pretty and neat.

AHA! Smart move. Reckon all that trickery wasn't enough to beat the CS-20.

True the i550 is streak, but it does have a fixed keel. I seem to recall the ability to coast/sail/row through skinny water is a big plus for the Everglades Challenge. And of course Graham designed the "Core Sound" series to navigate our Core Sound which is very skinny water.

As Wes mentioned the ladder has to be deep enough to use without being an acrobat. The *cute* swim ladder on my runabout is useless for anyone with many miles on their age clock. My larger boat has a "dive" ladder which goes down maybe 2 feet below the water - nice. A test swim under calm conditions is a way to gauge the ladder design.

Lead can get pricey, and lead shot real pricey. I think it cost about $40 (after sales tax) for a 12 1/2 lb bag last time i bought it. Might be difficult to find as well since the eco-folks made steel shot mandatory. I had to special a bag of lead shot. Lead shot -finer the better - and epoxy is SOP to ballast R/C sailboat model keels. Less dense than poured lead, and even a few R/C modelers (me included) did hot pours in the fiberglass keels shells to gain a tad of low ballast advantage. Since the fiberglass shell keel had to be immersed in water to keep the resin from scorching, these hot pours often provided much excitement, as in "explosions" caused by instant steam when the hot lead hit leaked in water.

Yes, lower better. I use to get axles with a 4" drop and under mount the springs to keep the trailer deck low.

foreshortening and view angle of photo??? Could be a camera trick but it appears as if the aft sail (mizzen) is larger and taller than the fore sail(main). You didn't have the masts reversed by chance? Some excitement anyway! A turtled boat is not good. Aluminum masts? If so, were the masts sealed to exclude flooding?

Could go either way - the present course with fiddling until the curve is right, the suggested course of splicing in a scarfed piece to make the curve right. Whatever Ed chooses I hope he has learned a lesson: ALWAYS scarf the parts together to make a long enough piece BEFORE installing aforementioned piece into the boat structure. Caveat: Butt joining tiny cedar strips on the fly for a cedar strip canoe build is fine.

Nice, very nice.

Thanks all. Oh, I'm in the south now, so Thanks y`all, or maybe Thanks all y`all as my South Carolina friend sez. Got the basic layout sketched now. Wishbone - snotter w/option to adjust height, and of course fine tuning snotter height with sail height adjustment. Clew grommet lines led to wishbone at a point to apply outhual tension in the proper direction, and the option to attach/de-attach clew lines to achieve desired reef point. Of course the tack will change as well. All this mental machination and I know I will go with sprits until I figure out the cat ketch sailing drill. Then I will experiment . . .

Sailing in February - brrrr... Well, it is above 60 today on the Carolina coast, and should be near 70 tomorrow, but the water is still bone chilling cold. Not sure about the Ohio River conditions. Dress warm! Stay dry!

Yes, Ken, sails in tracks - actually slotted 1/2" CPVC track ala Dudley Dix and his Paperjet. I used the CPVC track on the catamaran and it works well. Yep, 3 tacks. Drop the sail via halyard, hook up new tack and clew, snug halyard and snotter. Peter's description leads me to believe his wishbone was pre-rigged with clew lines at every point and all one needed to do was slack the abandoned clew point and snug up the new one. Reefed sail will be flaked nicely in the lazy lacks (I hope) and that is the reason I'm thinking wishbone.

Yes, Wes, I figure a no-call on performance, especially since I will build the sails myself. I'll probably start with sprits but forsee a wishbone in the future - just for giggles. Peter HK: Okay, snotter is the same - got it. Reefed sail flops in the lazy jacks, no need to tie it up - perfect. Reffing lines attached to the boom? The visual I get is a line from starboard boom through the new reefed clew point, back to port boom and cleated off (no need for a winch on a 15). So if I have two reef points I have a total of three attachment lines (original clew plus two reefed clews), two of which are loose when not employed. Drop sail to reef point, detach prior clew line (outhaul more or less), attach new line, cinch it up and go. Is that it? I should add - I also envision the "reefing lines" are already threaded through their respective clew grommet and wishbone boom attachment points and just require tightening.

Although the wood/epoxy beach catamaran I built for my daughter is a blast, it requires messing with sheets, the cunningham, the vang, and of course a lot of dancing about on the tramp to trim the cat and preform a perfect roll tack. Not my style. I am a slacker who has been known to fish without bait on the hook so a hungry fish won't interrupt my fishing nap. So the cat ketch appeals to me. Laid back sailing - yes! I have plans for a CS-15 and CS-17. The 17 is more popular but I think a 15 would fit me better as a single hand rig. Reviewing the plans I have a fair idea how to rig a snotter. But since I like to mess with different ideas I'm thinking a wishbone boom. Yeah, I know, a wishbone *might* be marginally better in light wind, but generally not worth the building effort. I like building weird stuff. And, as I mentioned, I am lazy and a wishbone boom would be a nice platform for lazy jacks to catch the reefed sail. Even the name "lazy jackz' appeals to me. My question: How does one rig a wishbone boom? Same as the snotter on a sprit? I envision a line to the clew as being adjustable in length for a new reefing clew distance, and the usual snotter rig to adjust boom tension, but would a wishbone also need a line to jack up the nose?

Tom: Pics came out large on my screen as well. Nice, I didn't have to squint! I think you nailed Edward's lumpy glass problem. I sheathed a 14' duck boat in 10 0z glass (E glass) and it came out smooth and didn't use anywhere near a gallon. That was back when WEST cost way less than it does today, but trust me I would have noticed if my big jug of 105 took a one gallon hit.

Right, Ray. I did some quick math: figure 10 oz tape = 10 oz/per square yard and 60% resin content for a hand layup = 25 oz, BUT he will be using an itty bitty piece so WAG square inches and dividing by micro-ounces of a 1/4 ss washer I get 6 1/2 washers needed to counterbalance the additional nose glass. Might be off a tad since I used a gram scale to weigh the washers

A trick I read about somewhere on this forum (I think) was to screw a small block of plywood (maybe 3" x 3") across the butt joint at the aft end of the joint, as in away from the stem and toward the stern.

Graphite powder: WEST sez add graphite 10% by volume to the epoxy mix. Or 1 1/2 tablespoons per 8 oz of mix - 8 oz is 10 strokes of the standard WEST resin pump. Of course you can bump up the powder/epoxy ratio but I after a couple experiments I decided WEST is right on the ratio. Bottom line: I have a 6 oz can of graphite powder, have coated numerous square footage of stuff, and have plenty of graphite powder left. I think the 6 0z can is the smallest quantity available, more than enough for a centerboard and trunk interior.

Now that you mention it, Frank, maybe I got my trailer stuff from Northern Tool instead of Harbor Freight. I got Hubs w/bearings as well - cheap - I think they were running about $45 for a 3500# hub back when I was stick welding trailers together.

I built several trailers - welded tube steel - and I think I got all my running gear from Harbor Freight. Been a few years ago. I usually got drop axles to keep the trailer deck low and went for 7' width so I could see it behind then van I was towing with back then. Plus the stack of hydros were about 5' wide. Yes, stack three high. shaking dust bunnies outta my brain, axles were 3500# and so were the hubs, and I also got wheels/tires from Harbor Freight. Since a stack of hydro race boats didn't weigh much, and the outboards were not heavy (American Hot Rod engines 15 & 20 cubes = 55# apiece) I went with 13" rims, but did us e`14" on a trailer I built my friend since he raced heavier classes. Make sure your springs, shackles and shackle mounts are still good to go. Dang things rusted away on my pleasure boat trailer. Looking good! Nice project to fill in those snow days that keep us off the water.

When I do a graphite mix it is a couple small scoops of graphite powder in a mess of resin, so the "graphite" is mostly epoxy. I have never had a problem adding epoxy coats etc to a previous graphite/epoxy coat. Sand it, glass it, make it black & graphite slick - done.

what kind of glass? E Glass is preferred for sheathing. S Glass is stronger by weight but doesn't like to take compound curves. If you arrange the glass so the weave is on a bias it will go around tight curves with no wrinkles. Take a patch and wrap it around the stem with a fabric weave parallel to the stem, then turn the patch 45 degrees and try it - bias is easier. Oh yeah, and I do the sheathing layup dry, as in position the glass over bare wood. Tug a little, and smooth with a brush - NEVER smooth with bare fingertips unless you want raw, bleeding fingertips (fiberglass is an excellent skin abrasive). After it looks good, start with the epoxy working from the center out to the edges and ends.