Steve W
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Posts posted by Steve W
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Weezer,
I am very impressed and proud of your build. I built an 11n years ago and appreciate how big a project this is. For someone as youthful as you that's even more remarkable. I hope you have as much fun on your boat as I have on mine.
I will warn you that this boatbuilding thing is a disease which I have a medium case of but folks like Chick and Pete McCrary are fully gone. Be careful.
And keep posting pictures!
Take Care,
Steve
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I think you are asking about this:
After living with that bungy closure for a few seasons I wouldn't change a thing. I keep fenders in their mostly.
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Personally, I think they are both a bit aggressive. If you have a dock they live against, maybe. But if you bump up against another boat and there is no fender, your going to leave a mark. I wish I had used the firehose like rub rail but I used wood that has held up well and is a bit kinder than metal. If you do use metal, aluminum is softer and easier to "dent" or distort on impact.
Link to taylormade rubrail:
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Here's my solution I stole from Graham. I put my sails in the cabin, and put these two spacers on the masts with the sprits on top. The bungy loops around the whole mess and holds the masts down and keeps the sprits secure.
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Andy,
Those pictures makes me happy. WildCat was my favorite boat until Skeena and there are still a few things I miss about her, notably her light air manners and fast setup.
Helen's confidence started a long time ago, but grew a lot on WildCat. I'm planning a trip next summer with her probably in Maine. I may open it up to a group if that is of any interest. Here's a pic from the way back machine in Muscongus Bay.
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Meanwhile, back in May:
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Jay, she looks amazing. More pics and reports please!
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I haven't posted in awhile, but I just watched Alan's video on Youtube. That was really neat. Maybe I should do one like that for Skeena. Here are my comments.
· The Continental is a good choice for these boats. I have my bunks narrowed to support the longitudinal stringers. Replaced the bunk boards with 6” wide ones and the centerboard rests on the left one. That works good and keeps things simple.
· Those starboard rub rails are sweet, but I just used teak and it’s held up well. I did not use SS hollow back. They do need to be touched up once in awhile.
· What is the manufacturer and PN of the plug used for the mast lights through the bulkhead?
· The anchor roller mount is clever.
· Only having two downhauls is why I changed my hatch to sliding. Going on the deck solo is a bad idea.
· I’m a knucklehead. When I added the mizzen tabernacle, I never adopted the bridle line setup of the main. I followed the plans for the rotating masts. I need to fix!
· I like the shackles instead of lashing. It may be I’m just a bad lasher.
· The 20 seems so huge compared to the 17.
· I ordered “anti-re-cleat-ers” and have them on every cleat. Buy spares as they are hard to come by and they can catch on stuff and get ruined.
· I like those forward shelves.
· Not having opening ports has not been an issue.
· The sweat on the back of Alan’s hands reminds me of how much I dislike hot and muggy. Bless you southerners.
· Moving the CB trunk forward is something I want to avoid for now. I have completely neutral to lee helm though, so I need to tackle this at some point. The only time it Is bad is when I have both sails reefed twice.
· I like the idea of the electric outboard and two batteries. I use a wheelchair battery I have in the front locker and a 50-watt solar panel for everything else. It hasn’t let me down and is usually fully charged mid-morning.
· I go back and forth on whether I should have installed a cooler. The space below is nice.
· I like the downhaul on the centerboard. I just finished the masthead float but the extra length of the post hits my vehicle, so I’m weighing my options. I’d hate to have to unscrew the mast at the tabernacle. I got an idea I’m working on.
· As soon as I get it on I’ll test it on Skeena.
· A four-part mainsheet seems excessive even on a 20. I do agree the mizzen could use a bit of extra purchase.
· I like the S hook on the aft end of the main sprit.
· I think I’m going to adopt Richard’s reefing setup.
· I put my mizzen snotter cleat on the front of the mizzen tabernacle. It’s easy to adjust from both sides, but I might not need as much adjustment if I had the bridle rigged right (duh!)
· The bands used for ponytails around the sprits work good instead of fairleads and give you a place to bundle the reefing line during transit.
· On the 20 there is enough room between the hatches to put a stationary solar panel.
· I never put on the dodger coaming. It was designed after I started Skeena.
· I used a Yeti style cockpit rubber latch as I was afraid I’d catch my heals on those metal ones in the video. I’d like a report as mine aren’t lockable.
· Yes, a pivoting tiller allows me to put the tiller on the bunk when I’m traveling on long trips.
· I like that bungy rudder downhaul setup, but it looks pretty Rube Goldberg-ish. My uptight German genes are slightly offended.
· I went a different direction on the ladder as I felt like that type of ladder would catch the sheets. Am I wrong?
· The idea of putting a cleat on the cabin top for a spring-line is appealing.
· Mizzen sheet holding the masts down…..genius.
· Those light masts are really a joy.
· The mizzen cleat should rotate. When I capsized, I just couldn’t release the mizzen without leaning forward to try and release. That put my weight in and contributed.
· My mizzen sheet loads are high for all the reasons in your race follow up.
· Rowing isn’t something I plan to do much, but a standup paddleboard paddle is amazing. You can bump the tiller over a bit and paddle from one side facing forward and get a lot of power for short bursts.
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I flew twice to Raleigh and drove down. The first time I stayed in New Bern. It was a pain. Second time I rented a minivan and used it as a tent. Much more fun! This year Skeena will make an appearance behind my car.
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Ha, glad priorities are restored!
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So true. My wife is so patient with all the noise and dust and letting me go sailing. Not to mention she's a great mom!
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Last night I glassed my float. I didn't think to take pictures.
I had glued my fin on. I also used a sanding block to knock down a few high spots on the foam.
I rough cut two pieces of cloth. I clamped the fin in a vice and laid plastic under it, thinking things might get messy. Next I laid the first piece on the non fin half and wetted it out with resin, using a credit card to smooth it out. I trimmed the hole carefully for the PVC pipe. Once done I used a cheap pair of scissors to trim to 1/2 " below the centerline. I probably should have quit then and let it harden. but the glass seemed pretty stuck to the foam so I flipped it and did the other side. I let a bit of the glass run up the tail and the glass is so flexible it made the bend with no fillet.
Finally I left it in the vice by the tail, cleaned up the mess and went to bed. I had meant to get up and check on things a t midnight, but I forgot to set my alarm and at 5am when I woke up I ran straight down to check. Somehow I got a few bubbles, but I used a heat gun to warm the Epoxy and pushed the bubbles out. I also trimmed the glass that came up the pipe neatly and also the tail. this afternoon I'm going home for lunch to fill in the weave with a bit more epoxy. I am going to assume one layer was the intent as I think there isn't quite enough for a second.
It seems pretty strong.
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I started gluing my mast head float together last night. I tested spray adhesive on some other foam I had and while the adhesive said it worked good for foam, it sort of melted it. I suspect it's the carrier solvent. I tried Titebond III and it worked really good on the test pieces, so I put a thin coat on both joining faces with a chip brush, and then with the tube inserted for alignment pushed the pieces together.
I let it all dry overnight with a couple of rubber bands holding it together and this morning I glued on the "tail". Tonight if all goes well I'll start with the cloth. My gut tells me to drape one side and wet it out with epoxy, let it get to the green stage and trim, flip and repeat for side two. If anyone has gone before and has any advice, LMK.
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Don, I was looking around my shop and saw I had some loctite spray adhesive that said it was good for foam. I'm testing right now on a spare piece of blue foam. It didn't melt it. Looks promising and application sure seems easy.
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As one of the few people who actually turtled his boat being an idiot (story a few pages back, let's not do that again), I decided I should consider a mast head float. The B & B kit came to me while I was taking my daughter to visit Boston University Law school, where she will be attending this fall. I just took a good look at the kit (very well done) and I will start assembly tonight. I'm taking a trip to the Chesapeake May 15th (Tangier Island) and I'd like to have it as an option.
I'll probably chronical the construction here, but I'll post the finished product here.
If anyone has sailed around Boston Harbor, feel free to give me any advice. Looks like a good place for Skeena to visit.
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I have had great luck with this stuff. I spray anything that looks scratched or starting to rust.
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Sticking with a project this big is an amazing accomplishment for anyone, let alone a high school student. Congratulations on the progress.
I can't wait to see the launch pics.
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I mostly work in freshwater or brackish and corrosion is less of a problem for me. I think the goal is to not get the tires wet, but I don't think that can be achieved unless you use a two part or electric winch with the steep ramps we have around here.
Instead I narrowed the bunks and they support the longitudinal stringers. The only roller I have is in the back of the trailer. I do have a keel support forward, but must of the weight sits on the bunks. I believe I saw this at the messabout one year on Michael's (greybeard) CS17.3. I liked the simplicity.
I'm not one of those "I did it this way so it's the best" guys, but will say the boat is stable and goes on and off the trailer easily FWIW. I did create a thread for this subject which has a lot of sources/ideas that might help. It's here.
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I went with the simple reef setup on Skeena, my Core Sound 20.3. I love this boat so much and pan on sailing her a lot this year. I single hand her a lot and when reefing, I struggle with what to do with the excess reef line. I've had a few instances where the excess line has snagged or jammed. I want to get it secured and speed is of the essence. While these ketch rigs offer the advantage of drifting backwards with the mizzen sheeted tight and the blades up while tidying things up, you are drifting backwards!
I will also add that due to the cabin, when the boat is healed it's not prudent to try and deal with this issue like you could in an open boat.
What's your solution?
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Andy, when the kids were little my wife had a Halloween party and I think those were hanging around after. I snuck them away and repurposed them. That was a long time ago.
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FWIW........ I have a Staysail rigged for Skeena. I've only used it three times. But two of those times it made a really hot light wind day tolerable on a beam reach. I bought mine from B & B and the material is spinnaker light. I feel this is pretty critical in flying it in these light wind conditions. The points of sail it is useful if very limited, but I'm happy I have it. Here is the only pic I have, but you can see the wind had died and I had just started the Suzuki and I got a lot of other odd sail things going .
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Padre,
Great pics. Sea Pearls furl by the sail rolling around the mast. That black strap with the grommet is heavily box stitched to the sail and there is a line at the bottom of sail to tension the luff and all that force is supported by the strap. The gromet I believe is just to poke a wind indicator through as I did on the main. I think Andy would be fine enlarging the hole to 3/4 and heat sealing the edges carefully. I'd use a soldering iron as to not weaken the surrounding material.
As for the mounting, the B & B setup would be perfect, sized to the mast, except the post would have to be removable as the masts sit inside the gunnels during travel. An alternative would be to extend the aft Bullwinkle (mast support).
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Andy, from looking at the pics on B & Bs website, the float sits over an aluminum shaft. It looks to be about 3/4 but I'll let you know when I get it. If so, I'd trim out that gromet, heat seal the edges and create a bushing for the shaft in the mast. The only tricky part is that if I remember on the Sea Pearl the masts fit inside the hull so you would have to make it removable.
I'd put it on the mizzen so it's more central. Seem like a great addition to "WildCat". I hope you are having fun with her, we had some amazing times.
Steve
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After watching the EC videos and then getting into some ones from 2015 and 2017 I ordered a 30 lb. kit for Skeena. Being Skeena was a Cat, I got some creative ideas for paint.
Best way to drain water out of bottom of CS17 if its raining while sailing
in B & B Yachts Forum
Posted
I'm with Captain Tim. The 24" is good. If you are keeping your boat on a dock or mooring, invest in a good cover.