Steve W

Things aren't going as fast as I want as I am moving to a new house on the banks of the Erie Canal in Pittsford NY. No inside shops, so I'm hyper focused to finish this before the move. Our plan is to have a new house built and of course it will have a big shop, but until then, Skeena will live in the garage in the summer and in storage over the winter. Anyway, here is the latest. I know Graham said I could extend the old board, I got a few 4 x 4 Doug fir posts from Lowes and ripped and glued up the new board. Drawing the profile on the end of the board and using a dado blade to rough shape and then follow with a hand plane makes a great board in pretty short order. I made epoxied in bushings for the pivot and the rope pull last night and I'll glass it tonight. I haven't glued the case together in the boat as I want a test fit first. The size of the new vs. old (better get going Amos): It's big! (This rotation thing is new for me, just pretend the board is up!)

Wow, she looks great. What an accomplishment!

My fitness is definitely improved getting in and out of Skeena. We are making progress. Taping starts tonight.

Andy, I just realized it was you! Congrats. A CS is so much different than a Sea Pearl. You'll miss the really light air sailing abilities of the Sea Pearl, the adjustability of the roller furling and the quick rigging. But a CS is so much bigger, stable and faster in stronger winds you are going to love it. Are you keeping WildCat?

I'll second what Oyster has said. I've shipped a number of things with U-Ship. It's like the Uber of hauling. You can check with their rating (reputation), watch progress during the haul, and they know they need to be good or you'll give them a bad rating. I've shipped a big boat (10,000 lbs.), three different Continental trailers (one for Skeena) from Florida to NY and had 0 problems.

I'm in the middle of this modification. I'm making the stiffeners and I have the option of using 12mm meranti plywood or 3/4 SYP that I have on hand. They will be bonded to the 6mm trunk and take a lot of strain as the centerboard has a lot of pressure due to its now longer length. My gut says plywood, but I am not making a decision until tomorrow, so I thought I'd ask here.

Progress this weekend. I had to get a new plan of attack. Skeena proved to be built tougher than I thought and it was a combination of drill/fostner bit, multi-tool, chisel and hammer, knife, and trim router that let me progress this far. I'm obviously committed now. Not shown is that I'm almost past the demo phase and building the trunk extension. I'd kind of gotten out of the building phase for awhile, so my epoxy crystalized, my sandpaper selection was low, etc. The CB pin is more forward than the 17's, so I had to figure out a stiffening technique. I plan to stand on the centerboard when I'm done with Skeena laying on her side. If something breaks we'll start over. That's a lot of leverage on the trunk, but I think I have a plan that should make things solid. Stay tuned. I also decided to just make a new centerboard. I think it will be faster for me than to piece the old one. I make the original out of some nice Douglas fir posts I got at Lowes and yesterday I found an 8' tight grained beauty for 15 bucks that is more than enough to make the entire board.

Graham, this is awesome for anyone close to 80, let alone fighting Parkinson's. You are an inspiration. I'll be following along just like when you circled the DelMarVa.

Jay, Yesterday I took the multitool to Skeena. It's a lot of cutting. I built Skeena so good my multi-tool was struggling to plunge into everything. I made quite a mess and she's not a sailboat for now. It will feel better when it's past the negative and to the positive. I am building a new centerboard. Air conditioning?

Last night I finally printed out the excellent drawings Alan and Graham provided for the centerboard trunk modification. l cleared most of the stuff I had in the cabin (yikes) and mentally went through the task of moving the centerboard forward. In software development we size projects by t-shirts, with small easy and XXL long term. This feels like a large at best. I am going to make it a bit larger by making a new centerboard. Tonight it's multi-tool time. You can see I faced the front edge of the longitudinal bulkheads, so that has to go. I'll post pics of progress tomorrow.

I'm not sure this is relevant to a Spindrift, but......here's what I did on Skeena:

It's an extra 23 pounds over what is on the boat now, but that is a concern I share. I have taken to loading the boat in a way that keeps weight forward as much as possible. I wasn't a fan of the mid mount Alan has made in his boat, but I can see the value in it now. I did work hard to make the engine clamp right on the stern instead of using a bracket to keep things forward. We shall see!

My plan is to do the EC with Skeena in 2024. I would love to talk about your adventure sometime.

Today I made a decision to replace my Suzuki 2.5 Long Shaft (31 Pounds) with a Suzuki 6 Long Shaft (54 Pounds, same weight as the 4HP, so 6 it is!). 23 extra pounds but I get reverse and the option to run an external 3 Gallon Gas tank. It shows up Friday and I'll make sure it tips up in the well I made for the 2.5 (I'm about 90% confident). I think the tank will sit nicely below the mizzen mast step. I'm pretty stoked for this, even though I really loved that 2.5. It works pretty good on my Spindrift 11N for fishing so I may repurpose, but who knows. I had a pretty good scare last fall coming into a dock way to hot due to heavy winds pushing me towards it. I couldn't get the 2.5 turned backwards fast enough and if it wasn't for the heroics of my crew, Skeena might be sporting a hole. If I was by myself, for sure. I also have plans to traverse the length of the Rideau Canal from Kingston Ontario to Ottawa this summer which is a lot of sailing in lakes, combined with a fair bit of motoring. I'll keep you all posted on how it works.

Thank you for the report. I'm planning on modifying Skeena once the weather gets less snotty. I have to order some Okume as surprisingly I don't have enough laying around.

Andy, having the board down even just a little makes motoring much easier and predictable. The center of the boat becomes a pivot point which the thrust of the motor allows really quick control. On WildCat, I rarely motored without a leeboard down. The weight of them meant it wasn't super important which one, but given a choice it was the leeward one. WildCat had the windage of the two masts and at least the little bit of sail and since she was pretty light and long, I always found this necessary. Skeena has even more windage. And she easily glides sideways. I've rarely motored 5 feet when I realize she's crabbing a bit sideways and a bit of board makes her behave.

Don, I can't thank you enough for chronicling your work. I just finished watching the video Alan had made of Carlita's modification and your photos and I'm ready to start. Luckily, I hate jammed c-boards so mine is a bit sloppy to begin with which I think is good in this case. I didn't see in your post much about the downhaul, but one of the pictures makes it look as if it's there. Can you confirm? And what did you do for tackle? I think a release like is used for the kick up rudder is in order, but I don't see it on the plans.

The Honda is 31 in the LS model, the Suzuki 2.5 is 30. The Suzuki has a superior F-N instead of that centrifigul clutch the Honda has. The only thing better about the Honda is there is no need to ever replace the impellar. Both motors have been very reliable.

I've owned both. Suzuki hands down. The honda is great, but loud. Drive ya nuts

Amos, Our boats are the same configuration, and I agree, in light wind they are fantastic as is. My issue is reefing. I sailed up against a stiff breeze in Sodus Bay this fall, the strongest breeze I've sailed upwind in. Skeena has a very balanced helm with 2 reefs in the main and 1 in the mizzen under those conditions. It would have been better with weather helm. When I put the last reef in the mizzen, she had a good amount of lee helm at the time it is least desirable. I've got some good voyages planned this year and next, so I think this is worth doing. I hate to have the centerboard case egress into where I sit most often down below, but I just went out into the barn to get a feel and it wasn't bad. I am going to start this project mid-March. I am grateful for the pictures. I mentally was having a hard time seeing myself cutting into Skeena. but I'm over it now. As for the joint strength, having the case trapped between the berth should keep it pretty strong, and of course I'll be looking to tab it good. I'm the only one I know who turtled a mark 3 and it was easy to right other than getting the C-board out of the case. I'm stoked to have a downhaul to lock it and some weather helm which may have helped prevent it. It's pretty easy to slide the boat off the trailer and roll her on her side to glass the bottom joints. Maybe I'll stand on the board and test it! Steve

Jay (Southern Express) made mention of moving his CB forward like the newer design. I've thought of this but I've been ignoring as it looked like major surgery. But wathching Don's work on Avocet has lead me to think I am going to do this. (Thanks Don) There are a couple of things I don't like about Skeena's sailing charactoristics: She has a very balanced helm. I think partly it's because I have a hard time getting the mizzen sheeted in as tight as I would like, and while I've been experimenting with ways to help that, moving the board forward should make this moot. The reefing schedule keeps the mizzen full until the main is fully reefed and then 1 reef in the mizzen gives me a balanced helm, while both reefs in both sails give me lee helm. That's not good. I've had luck creating bungy based sheet to tiller steering on my Sea Pearl, but it requires some weather helm. I'd like a way to cleat the C-board down. I've asked Alan to create some drawings for me. Armed with my multitool I think I can knock this out fairly quickly. I'm not sure how much further the newer designs moved the board forward. If / when I do this, I'll be sure to chronicle well.

Jay, I remember during the building of Skeena getting on Southern Express at the Messabout. It kept me focused. Like you, I am thinking about moving my CB forward. I'll start there and then maybe later lenghten, although I don't think she slips sideways much. I'm going to write my thoughts on my thread. Thanks, Steve

HD, If you ever decide you just like building and actually using this boat isn't for you, LMK. She's a beaut that I covet! Steve

I did it this summer on my friends Cornish Shrimper. Puget sound is a beautiful place, but unfortunately the winds are very light that time of year. The Cornish Shrimper is very stout and under canvased. It would have been much more fun on Skeena, my CS20.3 due to her light air manners. Good luck if you get to go!

When I made the C-board case for Skeena, my giant worry was keeping it abrasion resistant and waterproof. The instructions were to lay glass on the interior. My concern here is how to do that in a situation where you are building in place. Are you just going to but join the two halves of the trunk together?