Steve W

In grey it looks a bit sinister/military. Am I the only one smiling at the thought of Graham drifting by in the fog on stealth Carlita? I'm guessing anyone not involved in the EC would be wondering about what they just saw.

4 oz glass.......that sucked. Much harder to work with, but it's done. Tonight I will clean the shop real good, scrape any blemishes and if the epoxy is cured to hard test fit the module. I know you all seemed to hate all that taping, but the way my life is going, being able to work a little at a time will be a good place to be for right now.

Ctr-L does't work for "paste" on my computer. I've always used Ctr-V for that. If one doesn't work, the other will, I suppose. Typo on my part. As for the non-skid, when I was at the wooden boat show in Mystic last spring/summer, there was a vendor who had a paint additive that was like rubber particulate. It looked really nice and was easy on the feet. I'll see if I can find the literature. On my Spindrift 11N, I was advised that crushed walnut shells were good as an additive. So I used a coffee grinder and milled my own. It is truly non skid, but my knees do not approve, so don't do that!

Awesome job Alan. Is Graham going to finish? It's getting close! I will say that all the brilliant people I know do their best work under pressure.

I think I did it right. I just read the instructions again and I followed the directions (CS17.3 manual page 30) carefully. I cut two fillet tools. I squeegeed thickened goop down the center to math their profiles. It was a lot of goop. Neither is flat. After it has solidified sufficiently but wasn't quite cured, I laid the bi-axial cloth down and wet it out. and then I squeegeed the excess resin out with the trowels I had made to match the profile shapes. Re-reading the directions leads me to believe we are good. The center is now rigid. I think Jay added a keel. Are you planning to? I do have a question. I went to cut out a piece to place below the water ballast tank as you did. I like that approach. But upon measuring I don't think I will have enough cloth to do the hull. I have a piece of 4 ounce glass left over from a previous project. Do you think this would suffice as a barrier? My though is yes, but I'm no expert.

Thanks for the advice. That's MY canning pot. I'm not completely stupid! I am enjoying the build a lot. I was going to be this far along by about May last year....I'm going to sail my Sea Pearl this summer and see if I can sell it come fall, with a launch in the Spring of next year. I am going to bring my Spindrift 11N to the Messabout and pinch ideas for finishing my boat from the ones that are done, come home recharged and finish it next winter. I am not wishing my life away. It's just chipping away here and there.

I cleaned the shop a bit after yesterday's fun. Here's the boat so far: And definitely don't tell Mama: BTW, for anyone else facing the dilemma of a clogged pump......after the crystallized epoxy is nice and viscous, put the pump on the gallon and let it soften up in the hot epoxy. Then pump a few squirts of the hot epoxy through it into a cup. Pour hot epoxy from cup into another gallon. No mess at all and pump is good as new.

Don,, today we went skiing and then I went and played music at my friends house for 3 and a half hours. The Epoxy has cooled so I'm going to add the ballast Tank area tonight. I figure an hour at most. Life goes on.

It's done. I did it my way, and it went well with little mess. I had cut couple of plastic spatulas to match the fillet profiles in the manual, and those were key. I had my son mixing resin while I was in the boat on a couple of planks along the side of the keel. I have long arms so I was able to reach forward to the first bulkhead from my supported planks. BTW, I was worried about the temporary tack welds breaking so I laid on my back and tacked the outside too between the wires. There was never a hint of trouble as we worked, becasue a split with a half cured fillet would have been a disaster. . I have a grooved roller, so I poured resin along the edges and rolled it until the mat was fully saturated and then squeegeed the excess resin with my custom spatulas working from bow to stern.. There are a couple resin rich areas, but overall I'm pleased. Unfortunately, things took a strange turn. I had the cloth cut for under the tank and I was going to put it down while the heavy mat was nice and wet, and lo and behold I'd used so much epoxy I needed to move to another gallon. Sure enough, crystallized again! Poor planning on my part. My shop is 59 degrees year round. I had put the resin on top of my furnace, but because it's geothermal it never really gets that warm and I forgot to check it before I needed it. So last night I warmed it up on the stove while my wife wasn't looking in a canning pot full of water. In the meantime, the partially cured fillet kicked of the epoxy in the glass and now it's too late to lay the glass down. Bummer. The bi-axial cloth is kind of rough, so I'll get a cabinet scraper and see it I can smooth it a bit and work on it later. But I will say she (no official name yet) is finally progressing. As Drew said, the lines are awesome.

I have the Fillets in the keel and I'm ready to put in the Bi-axial glass strip down . The filet is still a bit soft. My question is if I can wet the glass right through by just pouring resin on and squeegeeing it down the joint. If nobody tells me not to in the next hour, that is my plan. When I get home later I'll lay the fiberglass where the tank goes a bit oversize and when it's green trim it to the size of the module. Sound good?

John, I remember your Lapwing and some of the write-ups. What happened to her?

Pete, I just open Notepad (Any word processing software will do) and type my message. Then I paste here. Two commands you should know assuming you are in Windows. Ctrl-C is copy, Ctr-L is paste. But short of leaving your browser open, I don't think there is a way to save for later.

All right, I am a knuckle head. I downloaded the newer manual and never printed it and updated it in my print copy. That was in the middle of some bad times last year. Sorry to waste your time. But I'm glad I asked the question as I'll take your advice Alan and install the cleat later. Last night I took the legs off my cradle and lowered it to the ground. I tack welded the keel joint and tonight I will remove the wires and pucky the entire joint. Tomorrow morning gets the tape if all goes well. It's funny how seeing the shape of a boat in the shop is very motivating. I'd like to be fitting in the module this Sunday just to get it off my workbench and get my shop back. I've decided to follow Chicks lead and glass the tank area to the stern Friday. I think I can get a lot of hours in this weekend.

Does anyone know..........on the forward bulkhead #28 (anchor well panel), the forward horizontal cleat has a mark on the panel showing the anchor well floor support stringer . But I can’t seem to find anywhere that the dimension for the aft horizontal cleat goes to support the front of hatch panel 54. It might be somewhere, but the dimensions in the manual are only given for the 17. Anybody know this? It will be far easier if I glue it now than after I put the bulkhead in. Thanks, Steve

That last pic is the one used in the guide. So I'm leaning towards doing that, plus I like the way you pu t the glass for the tank below it. I probably can't arange to keep this all going while the epoxy is green, but I could at least get this much done that way.

Drew, it is a great moment. I don't noticed, but I had to remove the legs off the back of the cradle to get clearance on mine. I had expressed concern that you were gluing yours up without the module, but after unfolding mine, I think my worries were unfounded. When I built the Spindrift 11N, the panels were so floppy, it didn't want to keep a shape. This boat sitting in the cradle with a few bulkheads in place is a different animal. I'll stop giving advice until I've actually done it. I do have a question for all of you. On page 34 of the current CS17.3 manual it presents two versions of glassing the keel joint. There is a the option of laying down the strip before and after the module is installed. What did you all do. Whoever has the picture of prelaying down a layer of glass on the whole bottom of the tank I like.

Jay, I have planned to purchase this motor for my boat. I have a Honda 2hp longshaft right now. I haven't looked to see if it's a float style carb or a diaphram, but I think the former. They make it easy and warn you that it's important to shut off when storing/transportng. From the Suzuki manual it looks the same. Is it possible you forgot to shut the fuel off? And if it was gas that migrated, it seems an oil change is imminent. I'll be curious as to what you find in the long term. I'l be ordering one of these soon. My Honda is reliable, but noisy being air cooled. BTW, a friend of mine has a crudely constructed fold up three sided noise shield made out of some kind of neoprene foam. On longer journeys he locks the tiller and pops up the sound guard. It makes a huge difference and is easy to store. If I get a picture I'll post it, but we're three months from sailing.

The day after tomorrow it will be a year since I picked up my kit from B & B. And what a year it has been. My original goal was to be launching it this spring. Well, sometimes life gets in the way. I've worked on it all I could while running a business after losing a business partner, watching three teenagers grow, trying to be a good husband, playing in a band, and also still sailing. Watching all the other builders progress while I'm at work has been frustrating and fun at the same time. Anyway, I needed to get her 3D and yesterday, while my wife is out of town at a conference I figured was a good time to unfold her. I had my son hold my phone and record it, and after a bit of editing, here it is below. A few things you will notice. 1. My ceiling in my basement is high, but not high enough, so I took the back legs off the cradle to get enough clearance. 2. It is in my basement. I made a cardboard silhouette and I'm positive it will come out on it's side as long as I leave off the tabernacle. 3. My daughters comment about her mom is not true. She cares I'm having fun. 4. I followed the manual and stitched the panels together first. It took up a lot of room in the shop. I'd have finished the module first if I had to do it all over again. 5. The module is done and ready to set in. Hopeully this weekend, although my son made it to the NYS Nordic Ski championship so I'm heading to Lake Placid to watch him at the end of the week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aLZgZjxjtc

Pete, this probably deserves it's own discussion, but I think the top of the tank is above the waterline. If so, I wonder if the reversed bailer can push water above that line. I think that maybe assistance might be needed. My thoughts are that a couple of buckets of water could be poured in, or a whale pump could be added to fill it the rest of the way. I like what Jay did, but I'm not planning to add an electrical system with much capacity, if at all. Yes, I'm a Luddite. As for those bailers, the way they flip open and lock to close, you will need to reach your hand all the way in. On my Sea Pearl, reaching in to put a plug in the full tank forces the water displaced all over the interior of the boat, which is another plus for Jay's system, although the self bailing cockpit in the CS20.3 helps. If only they made a reversible whale pump. I'm hoping we here from others about this subject. PS. module done. Glue drying on hull panel joint. 3-D party this weekend.

Looking good. There is an old saying, something like "a pound of putty and a gallon of paint, make her look like what she aint". I say it often and it is especially convenient for stitch and glue boats. When it's all said and done I'm sure you won't even notice the repair.

Chick, I was on a Skiff America once with the trench and it was awesome. You could stand up and change your clothes, and watch the sky when sleeping. You could go forward quickly. So the compromise here is to have the hatches like yours under many conditions, but if the weather dictates it, open it right up. I can't find Graham's design currently. Never mind, I found it. I like the idea, It is promising as well.

Dave, I think maybe you missed the fact I want to make it removable easily. I expect it to be an often used feature. To have the boards off stowed in light wind and definitely in bug-less evening at anchorage. That whole center section needs to pop off with no trouble that can't catch you when you are standing in the trench.

Pete, I wasn't sure what thread to put this in, but since I know you and I are enamored with the trench hatch idea I'm throwing it here. This is an idea that came to me after looking at Chick's hatch. It's a concept only, but it may have merit. As you know, when I saw Doug's boat I was thrilled with the trench. I envisioned myself enjoying the boat a lot at anchor this way. The cons to his hatch were the expense and the fact the cabin is not secure. No Cabin is secure, but a hard hatch at least gives the appearance its secure. When you were kind enough to send me the hinge material I realized that making a 180 degree trench hatch was not really feasible, as promising as I thought the concept seemed. I like some of the two hatch ideas, but I'm 6' like you, and bending low to pop out the forward hatch when stepping the mast or doing stuff at anchor isn't the same. So I've been trying to think of a way that would work and when Chick posted his hatch it triggered a concept. Still unsound of course, but maybe the start of a good solution. I've stolen Chick's picture and drawn the basic concept. The illustration at the top is a center-line cross section (left is forward) that I hope you can follow. How to capture this removable center hood is not clear. Ideas include spring loaded pins or screws from the inside through the rails (any ideas?) to capture it. There are questions for sure. Is the trench long enough to split this in thirds and make it work? Will a wave over the bow/hatch flood the cabin through that reverse bevel? Will taking the three hatch boards off create a storage problem? Any thoughts?

I'm not far from unfolding. I have to go away for business and I have an obligation this weekend. But soon, I swear! I was the dummy that built my c-board from scratch. It is a beauty I can assure you. Same with the rudder.

Hey Chick, I built the centerboard and rudder and I have the hull all ready to unfold. I've been hurdling my arse off with very little time to work! Thanks for the advice! I can't wait to get together and buy you all a beverage of your choice (mine will be a single malt) while we share stories.