Steve W

Masts almost ready for sail track. And cushions made! I have a friend who does upholstery and he put these cushions together for me. I made a filler that needs a cleat aft to hold the center cushion forward. On the forward end of the cushions is a velcro piece that holds the cushions together, hopefully preventing them from climbing the walls. They are 2" foam, and sure beat my thermarest on the floor of my Sea Pearl. That centerpiece makes a nice cushion leaning against the forward bulkhead. I decided to split the long cushions into two pieces. This should make handling them easier, and also give me 2 cushions that can be used as seat backs. To hold the aft part I made the major part of the cushions go under the deck a few inches. This should hold the aft part just fine. Here is the cushion in seat back position: You will notice that I didn't put shelves along the aft bulkheads yet. I wanted to get the cushions made first. It turns out I'm glad I waited. Putting two inch foam props me up a bit. But having this cushion gets me to a higher part of the cabin giving my 6' height just enough headroom. Graham told me the newer 20's have a higher cabin top which is good. But I'll want to be aft and so my bulkhead shelving won't go full width. Congrats to Alan and Paul. I'd like to see how they fair in there CS20.3's NExt year I have a work commitment in March, but my goal is to enter the 2021 EC God willing and the creek don't rise!

State Champ, Boys Combined Nordic Champ, Fastest leg of State Champ Relay Team, and his HS won the boys team title. Now I can get back to boats......

FWIW, I decided it would be easier to paint with the rails off. So they will be removable. I like the suggestion of screwing them from the underside and I think after looking that shouldn't be super hard. And I think drill and fill and using smaller (#6) screws shouldn't be too hard. Thank you for the suggestions. PS. At Gore Mountain in the lower Adirondacks to watch my son Teddy compete in the NYS Nordic Ski Championship. Crazy conditions.

Masts are coming along between the some time outs for life. I have a question though. I'm about to cut the teak cabin toe rail. Did you all drill and fill the screws or just drill pilots in the wood and caulk it all down and plug the holes?

This sounds promising Pete. I'm looking forward to your pictures. A simple to rig boat that launches fast gets used more.

That looks like a nice combo. That is a very substantial trailer. All of the trailers I looked at in that "weight" class had very stiff suspensions. Due to a strange situation (got rear ended) I once had my Sea Pearl (600#) on my Sea Ray 180's (2800#) trailer. It was a maddening combo. The suspension was so stiff that the Sea Pearl was bouncing in a very jarring motion. I wound up having to cinch the boat down in three spots to keep it from the jarring bounce. Did you get a suspension on a trailer that big for a sub-thousand pound load?

Awesome. I remember that step on my 11N. Scary and fun. Nice Work!

In case you just thought I had hibernated in the snow:

I sailed with a guy who had a carpeted perpendicular bunk fitted to the shape of his hull with a couple of straps that went up to stern cleats on both sides of his boat. He dried out nice while I stayed in deep water. As for perfection being the enemy of good, I once read an article that said: When you say you are done you have confidence. The low confidence person never finishes because if they do they think they have declared that the result is their best. Often a compliment will illicit an excuse for something that isn't 100% instead of a thank you. I think of this often when I'm obsessing.

Thanks Graham. Brilliant! That is why I asked!

I have proceeded to building the masts. On the mainmast, I'm running a wire up it to carry the juice to the mast head running/anchor light. I'm thinking of just stuffing some pool noodle stock cut in small pieces strategically up it to pinch the wire and help support it. Maybe every couple of feet. This would also prevent the wire from slapping internally. Anybody have a better idea?

I noticed on the updated plans Alan sent me the tabernacles no get the ends glassed. FWIW I tried using 10 Oz glass. I couldn't sit and keep pushing the glass down to eliminate air bubbles around the radius. Hated how bad it went so I took a heat gun a removed my mess. This is 4 oz glass. Hurray. Much better. I think the intent is just to be sure the end grain is prevented from exposure so I think this is good. The list is getting shorter. April is close.

Amos, I remember you telling me when we were down there. I made mine an inch longer. Having the ability to flatten the sails in higher winds is the first step to de-powering. If you can't move your hardware further out, I't make a new main sprit and cut your mizzen from your old main sprit. Of all the things to make again, this wouldn't be the worst.

Graham, thanks for answering so fast. I couldn't see a good reason to have 4" back of that hardware. BTW, for those that contemplating getting their hardware somewhere but B & B, just don't. I got a nice box of hardware that was cheaper than most places, perfectly labeled in bags designating where they should go, and all the line color coded. . I emailed Alan with a list of stuff I had, and he subtracted that from the neatly bagged supplies. Made my life easier for sure. Here's a pic right out of the box. Having fun today! Thanks B & B crew.

I tried to send this to Gtaham and Alan through messaging, but it says it is disabled for you two. So here it is out in public. I've never questioned anything to you two where I wasn't just reading something wrong, but before I drill holes in my beautiful sprits: At the mess-about a few members were talking about making the sprits "a little longer" as they felt they couldn't get enough out-haul tension as drawn. I'm currently about to attach the hardware to my sprits and I want you to confirm a dimension for me. Here is a pic of the aft sprit hardware for the mizzen. Notice the dimension shows "2" to attach the clew. On the Main page, it shows that same dimension as 4" but even if the drawings were quite off, that distance looks closer to the mizzen at 2". I know these assembly drawings aren't drawn to scale, but I went back and looked at the messabout photos (a few 20s) and other photos I have of Carlita (yes a 17) and I can't confirm that there is 4" of sprit past the clew attachment. Could it be that this dimension is wrong and should be 2"?

Looking great. Old Number 3 has been a slow build, but like you I made a lot of the "sub-assemblies ahead of time and now that she's about together it sure feels like I'd hate to be so close and yet so far if this stuff wasn't done. One tip that cost me some time. When you finally get the cradle made, make sure it's really true. Mine was a little off and it took me a bit to figure why my panels were off. I think the fine folks at B & B would have laughed at how little it was off, but I'm a perfectionist until I finally give up and say good enough. Anyway, it turns out my cradle was close to perfect, but my "really flat" shop floor wasn't. Other than that little goof, I'm amazed how perfect the kit is.

Nice progress of the design. Thanks for the tour.

Not much to report. Pretty nice to have a shop back. Christmas and a few "Honey do's" (Suzanne was owed a few for sure) slowed down progress, but we are back at it as hard as I can right now. Glued up some 3/4" stock for the sprits. I'll shape them this weekend. It's been a non-winter this year so far, so my son Teddy hasn't had a Nordic race yet. That is disappointing, but we're having fun in the shop together. Here's a pic....

This forum is amazing.....ask and you shall receive! Thanks for all the answers!

Just a shout out to Paul. I read of his passing while on a trip but I didn't have time to fully acknowledge how much his experience and advice has meant to me. I was just posting something on the B & B forum and realized if PAR was around it would be his advice I'd pay very close attention to. All of the tributes here show I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Rest in Peace.

As long as we are talking about SS Fasteners, I have a question about attaching the B & B aluminum sail track to the masts. I'm planning on painting my masts first (after the ramps are made), then drilling the rivet holes and then using the supplied rivets to attach the track. What prevents galvanic corrosion on the backside surface of the rivets? And all of the other attached hardware, whether riveted or bolted, same question.

I showed that coupon to my kids. I don't think it inspired them. But a man can dream and Christmas is less than a week away! I can't wait to watch this build.

Fred, that thought occurred to me. In fact stitch and glue isn't that much different than drywall! I am familiar with quickfair. Anyway, do you use a metal drywall blade?

After the extraction I got her up in the garage. And then I spent the last two weeks knocking off the honey do list, and finishing the new basement door, the shop door, a bit of drywall damage and then I cleaned all the epoxy drips, painted the shop floor and celebrated how much space there is WITHOUT A 20' BOAT IN THERE! Anyway, I'm going to start building the sprits and masts. But when I was looking at the boat in the light, I am disappointed in the surface of the sheer strakes. Amos said a the messabout that painting was "humbling". I totally agree. The boat overall looks great, but I draped cloth over the cabin top, and cut it nice and even about an inch down from the top at the green stage. On the hull I carried the glass about an inch above the joint and trimmed the same way. On the cockpit, I draped clot over the top to strengthen the joints. I faired in the edge and sanded it good and smooth, but it still looks not so good. Maybe I'm being a perfectionist, but it's bugging me. I'm not one to normally "let perfection be the enemy of good" but this stretch of the boat bugs me. The part that most bugs me is I don't know how to fix it. I am thinking maybe a bunch more high build primer and then a flexible long board, but maybe there is a tip you all can give me. I have all winter and the good news is I can push the boat outside (trailer is really awesome) to sand if necessary. Aggressively sanding when it is 25 outside will keep you warm.

I like that. I sail the same way on both my Sea Pearl and my S11N. Lounge mode for sure. I think adding the extra flotation forward is a good plan.