Steve W

Pete, it was a pleasure having you lead the way building Chessie before Skeena. It must be difficult to see here go,. I'm just glad you still will be part of the scene with an S10. Great boats!

She's a beauty!

I think you'll be fine. You probably will grab the top of the ladder with one hand and the top of the transom with the other.

Jay, we experimented and the pump doesn't work backwards! That would be sweet but no luck. I'd had that Johnson 750 GPH pump laying around for years. The good news is you can just pull the motor to clean if it gets junk in it. I have thought it through and I think another pump is cheap and easiest. My only challenge is feeding wires into the tank while keeping it sealed.

So I took Skeena on her first sail of 2020 Today with my son Andrew. Very fresh and Gusty Winds. I had to reacquaint myself with the rig because it was a full 7 months since my last sail. Our main purpose was to get Andrew on his first sail (he was in working and then college last summer/fall) and try out a few things. First was the Depth sounder. It worked perfectly. While I know depth isn't something we worry about, I find it a good backup to navigation when the depth your chart or GPS says you are is backed up by the proper depth. I forgot to put petroleum jelly down to provide good contact, so my son though it was magic when I went below with a water bottle and made it work! I'll glue it down tonight. Next up was a ballast pump. As I mentioned earlier Jay put a 2 way ballast pump in his Southern Express and his pre-planning made it possible. But being the Luddite I am didn't put any accommodation in and now regret it. I did put in Graham's secret port and after thinking about things I added a bilge pump to fill, which worked perfectly. And if you pop off the friction fit hose and put it on the discharge it silently drains the water really fast. Here's a Vid: Unfortunately I didn't realize the Anderson bailer was open and it was draining about as fast as we were filling in this video (Doh!). Once I figured this out it filled quick. Later in the day I pulled the hose off the inlet and pressed it on the outlet and it pumped it dry pretty quick. It would be slick if I could find a 2-way spool valve that would let me just flip the inlet and outlet, but another of these bilge pumps is only about $30 bucks, so I may go that route. It didn't seem to drain my little battery very much and the solar topped it right up. About the time it emptied the wind piped up and I wanted the water in and when we were healed to starboard the inlet would go dry and the pump would suck air. If I was designing this system in I would work harder to get the inlet at the base of the centerboard trunk. But I have to call it a success. Next is poking a hole in the top of the ballast tank to run a wire and then sealing it. We just hiked out hard and kept her flat enough to keep filling until we could tack. All in all a successful day.

I didn't add any paint to my tanks, but yours sure looks nice! I did decide to add two pumps like you plan. I modified a bilge pump by having my son make a new lower unit to try and turn a really quiet, efficient johnson bilge pump into an efficient filling pump and I think I've succeeded. Jay used a two way pump but I didn't think I needed one so I didn't run lines/electrical. I am going to try it all out this weekend before I start drilling holes in the tank! I'll keep you posted.

Graham, You got a bunch of gunkholers here that just don't get the concept. It's a cool design but I'm very happy with Skeena. I haven't lost sight of land in a long time and was bored every time it happened. Different boats for different folks.

I thought the same thought when I saw that......

This looks great. I may be interested in building another Spindrift (sailing required) and I definitely am interested in the crane. I bought a Rosborough 246 (my wife says no more boat building for a while) and the factory crane is over 2500 dollars to add to it. I'm thinking of fabricating one myself that looks like this: For now I would put my 11N up there.

I pondered the same thing when I built my 11N, but I haven't missed a hiking strap yet. It may be because the Spindrift series has hard chines and keep buoyancy out pretty far so it's pretty stable. It also may be because I'm not as aggressive of a sailor as I used to be, more inclined to put a reef in that sit on the edge of the boat.

I'm with Don.

When I did my 11N I ripped three strips and glued them all at once to the boat. It was kind of messy, but came out great. I had used a piece Spanish cedar in the middle, just because. I trimmed with a hand plane.

That outboard motor well looks great. I glued a piece of 3/4 stock to the plywood sticking above the transom and used a laminate trimmer to match the plywood. The swim ladder bushing looks really nice and strong. I'm guessing you are recessing the nut in the inside wedge?

There are a lot of different dome tens out there. Find one with the right dimensions, cut the floor out and adapt it. That is what I've done on past boats.

It's still chilly up here, but the good news is they re-opened launch ramps. Social distancing by sail is a reality for now.

Todd, that looks great. I think if you are going to use that bigger motor with FNR, you probably have less challenges, but if you can put the motor in and run it through it's range of motion. What did you decide on the boomkin and steering vane?

Alan, that look's awesome. Thanks for the update. I like the improvements you made. I watched a neat film this morning called "Return to Mount Kennedy". Between watching that and this This COVID-19 thing, I'm even more focused on doing the EC next year than ever. I have a question for you. Will you ever use this boat for that and if so, what happens if you need to row/paddle? Take Care, Steve

Hey Chick, I always forget his main forum exists, but I should have known you were building. I think if you would have angled that "cut" a littl forward you could have used just the back part as a pram! Joking aside it looks like a neat design and those aft buoyancy extensions should be really nice for stability. What is the B & B project you are doing next? Take Care, Steve

The Boomkin.......yeah, that is probably not going to work with this type of Mount unless you made it one piece and tied in good to the underside of the seat tops. I think that would be doable, but not like Gaham's. I think in some ways that would be just fine. Ad having that come in to port would give you something more to hold onto climbing the ladder. I ruled out a boomkin just because of boat length. As far as a windvane, I am probably not going down that road either. Skeena steered herself for 51 minutes on one tack in my trip to the Chesapeake with just a few minor course corrections. I think she's a bit too balanced for sheet to tiller steering, but I may fool with that. I had that sorted out pretty well on my Sea Pearl, but that was over 12 years of pondering perpetual motion.

There were some questions about the motor mount. I decided to post the video here just to keep things together. And here are some pictures from the build: Upon looking at the pics I know remember that I glued a wedge to the inside to get the angle. I think in this pic, it's pre-wedge. I hope this helps.

I posted a video over on Skeena's page for you.

Todd, I'll take some pics and measurements later but you should dig into my build thread. The motor mount came out great and looks nice, but if you are using that big of a motor I'd build a fake stern out of luan or even cardboard and test it. My motor has to swivel so that made for getting things perfect. I did screw up and use a short shaft motor which worked until I went anywhere forward of the companion way. The long shaft is great.

IF you remember that was a concern of mine, but I'm happy with the headroom. I'm 6'0" but long legged which means my torso is shorter but I have had some passengers with issues. I find that the helm is so neutral it's a bit scary, like it could sail away on me. But my 12 years of sailing a Sea Pearl have gotten me real used to reefing to a schedule and keeping my mizzen sheeted tight. I think that is why the pic of the split mizzen sheet shown recently appeals to me. This whole quarantine has got me stir crazy. I need to get Skeena out and about. I really want to do the EC next year and I know nothing. I'm hoping the B & B crew has some team tips.

Great progress. That brings back both good memories and some bad ones! If Alan is reading this has the CB been moved forward a bit? It looks like the pivot point is more forward than my original.

Unless you plan on not painting it I think laminating up the the off cuts would work and hen you could give it three coats of epoxy and it would be fine. I let Teddy get involved as a learning experience and we had fun. And to the question of retrieval......its light and above the water line. Easy to reach leaning over the back deck. US fresh water sailors swim a lot......no worries.