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markfitz

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Posts posted by markfitz

  1. I think I have some really fine maple from RAKA left over from a boat we finished in 09.  If I can locate it, I'll send it to you if you want to pick up the shipping.  I'd guess it's a couple of pounds worth, at least.  I just have to get to my dad's place next week.

  2. Excellent, thank you for taking the time to write that. I was contemplating bringing our sail somewhere to have reef points added, so that's good to know. The lake we sail on is notorious for changing wind conditions, both in direction and strength. The water on the way back was rougher than I've ever been out on it, even in a motor boat, and it makes sense that we were pointing a bit too directly at our destination because we wanted off the water. we were definitely getting knocked off course by the waves too. Every time I got splashed we'd be pointing in a different direction! Thanks again.

  3. OK, I have a dumb newbie question that I *think* I I maybe know the answer to, but I'm going to ask anyway.

    First, the background: On our last sail, it was beautiful on the way out, with wind from the SSW at maybe 6 knots. We had a leisurely sail to the other side of lake -- tacked a few times without issue, and we moving along at between 4-5 knots. About 3/4 of the way there, the wind started picking up, and we turned around to head back. Judging by the many, many whitecaps, the wind was probably up to 12 or 13 knots about 10 minutes later, and the marina we needed to get back to was due south. I don't think the direction of the wind had changed much. If anything, maybe it changed to be slightly more SW.

    Now, here's where my terminology fails me, so please bear with me. When we tried to point SE, we beat the hell out of the boat and had the top rail a little closer to the water than I would generally like to see it, being a big chicken and all. When we pointed the boat a little more due South, it successfully slowed us down a bit, but the mainsail had a very weird shape to it. Like it was an "S" -- and it was flapping pretty good. We were able to keep it there and make pretty decent speed (about 4 knots) considering the pounding (and man did it pound. I think we need some sandbags in the forward hatch) but the sail flapped the whole way, no matter what we did to the jib. The only way we could get it to stop slapping against the standing rigging was to go way faster than we were comfortable going, heeled over way more than we were comfortable heeling.

    I did try to research it a bit using google, but most of what I read dealt with larger boats and it sounded like sailing windward in rough water isn't fun no matter what size boat you have. I guess my question is, is the Weekender particularly bad at sailing windward? I mean, it was fun and all, but since we're still learning what the boat "feels like," I figured I'd run it by you all. Thanks, as always for your collective experience!

  4. Yesterday I tried dropping a 5" block down into the mast box, but I ended up removing it. It has been a while, and I hadn't remembered that we had adjusted the mast angle by doing the "Slice a wedge off the back and attach to the front" thing, and it looked really ugly sticking up out of the deck. Not to mention that it would probably have messed with the shroud lengths required. So I think it's going to stay the way it is and my dad will have to continue to duck. We're going out today, looks like a nice day for it! Thanks for the advice.

  5. OK, this may be a crazy thought, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway. I am envisioning a slot or a hole in the mast box that I can slide a plate or a steel rod into to hold the mast up about 4-6". Then when it needs to go back in the garage, I lift the mast up a bit and slide it out again. Will the mast box handle that? Any thoughts?

  6. That's it!! Thanks, I had a helluva time trying to find that. We were looking at outboards and I am looking at those blocky aluminum motor mounts and I have a hard time picturing it on the back end of a weekender.

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  7. I know I read this somewhere on here, but I'll be darned if I can find it now...I'm trying to find out if adding a small hunk of 4x4 under the mast inside the mast box to get a wee bit more height under the boom will hurt anything. My father is pretty tall, and I'd love to get the boom about another 4 or 5 inches higher, and thought that might be one way to do it. I wasn't sure if it would make things too top heavy or if it wouldn't matter. Any advice? Thanks!

  8. Good advice, thanks. I have an ancient Elgin short shaft that I believe is 1.5 hp that runs like a top and would probably look right at home, but I'm not sure how feasible it would be. We currently have an electric trolling motor with wiring to a battery in the center of the boat under the hatch "seat" and since we are looking for something to get us off the lake if the wind kicks up or a storm sneaks in, we were thinking the extra hp would help.

  9. I haven't been here in a while and it looks like the forum has changed quite a bit. I must be blind because I couldn't find a "search" button. I'm trying to figure out the recommended outboard for a weekender, and some possible mounting techniques. Is there still a way to search? Thanks.

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