MisterMoon

Feel free to post the particulars on BYYB. Are you going to bring Blackberry number 1? I'd sure love to see her again. As for boats, I'm going to have my 27' pontoon there, as well as a Starfish boardboat (think "Sunfish", our old Mean Mean Green Green OCA whitewater canoe, and a kayak or two. There's already talk of the possiblility of a Chebacco coming down and who knows what else. Oyster, I'll keep a billet open for you.

I can help with launching as well.

By popular demand , I'm hosting the third irregular Southeast Messabout starting Friday May 13 through Sunday May 15 at Sweetwater Campground on Lake Allatoona near Atlanta, GA. I have reserved site 44 and this will serve as the base of operations. I only have room for two more people on my site, though. So if you plan to come, please click on the link above and reserve your own site. The waterfront sites will fill pretty quickly as the weather improves and people start thinking about boating again. So don't wait too long to get yours. Sweetwater Campground is located on one of the best spots on the lake for sailing. This time of year usually has pretty good winds. It's also a bit too early in the season for the lake to be polluted with our normal crop of summer weekend hullaballoos. Saturday night we'll have a cooperative group supper. Otherwise there is no schedule or organized events. So come one and all, and plan on having a good time. I hope to see many of you there.l

Here's some more pics for your viewing pleasure. Free plans at http://www.mindspring.com/~jmbell/blondie.htm.

FWIW, just this year I bought a brand new 500 lb capacity galvanized steel trailer for my Sunfish for less than $500. Yeah, the trailer is worth more than the boat, but now I've got a good trailer in good repair that will work well for any boat I might build for many years. Buying new, or very nearly so, especially for small, light boats isn't a bad idea, IMO. Then there's my 35' long pontoon boat trailer that's sitting out in the sun, rotting away... I'd have to buy four new tires if I wanted to tow the boat more than a mile. Don't know what I'm gonna do with it either, cuz' the boat is doing just fine sitting in the water. I guess I'm keeping it for resale value...

It started life as a donated 28' pontoon boat, given to the Boy Scouts. A group of scout leaders spent few hundred dollars on the galleon conversion. It's reported to to be 53' LOA, roofing felt over aluminum pontoon boat construction. There was a big Boy Scout Camporee on our lake last weekend. One of the projects of the scouts at the camp was to build marshmallow cannon. When everyone was on the beach getting ready to demostrate their cannon, this black ship appeared from around the point and commenced attacking by firing it's own marshmallow cannon. Aboard were as fearsome a bunch of bloodthirsty pirates as ever roamed the open ocean. Many "arrrrrrs" were heard above the din of the great guns. According to a couple of people I know who were there, the boys went nuts! I don't know for a fact that the scouts repelled the terrible invaders, but I don't think anyone really cared all that much about the outcome of the battle. A good time was apparently had by all. Saucy Wench is for sale on ebay, with proceeds to be donated to the Scouts. Hats off to the crew that gave a bunch of scouts a very memorable weekend.

This boat is just down the lake from my marina slip. Gentlemen, I give you the SAUCY WENCH! It just ooooozes character, doesn't it?!!

Thanks for the comments. I'll try to respond to some of the questions. There's no need to stay a mast only 10.5 feet long. Well, let me qualify that: there's no need to stay a mast that short unless you are carrying a jib and want to add tension to the luff. A balanced lug's mast only need be stiff enough in compression to carry the tension of the halyard and downhaul. The narrow daggerboard is plenty large for this boat in terms of area. It's narrowness means that it may be more prone to stall out when going slow than a comparatively wider board. Adding area means drag, and drag is slow. My hope is the narrower board will mean that she'll be more reliable in stays, faster to accelerate coming out of a tack, and faster over all. That's one reason I don't show a skeg. WISHING BLOSSOM was never intended to be a rowboat, she is meant to sail. All this comes at the expense of being a bit edgier to helm, but I'm OK with it. The one aspect of the design I'm least comfortable with is the lead of the sailplan. As shown, she's got an 8% lead. My instinct tells me that it's too much. My plan is to build the boat and sail her first with the current mast position, and finalize the balance afterwards. If the mast needs to come aft 6-8" it would not be the end of the world.

From my old boat:

Here's an excerpt of what I put in MAIB:

Ok, I'll quit grumping around and throw this one out. I've got an article about it in the Oct 15, 2004 MAIB. The boat is called WISHING BLOSSOM, 11'x5', 71 square feet of sail. Gonna build me one someday... Whut y'all think? [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

I should have said, "Marked as Off topic". I misunderstood the status of this thread when I posted it. Sorry to ruffle feathers, I'm in a spittin' hornets kind of mood these days due to my professional life and it's spilling over everywhere else. Please accept my apologies. :oops:

Moving this to off topic? That's why I don't often participate here. I'm not that interested in the Stevenson designs. If other designers are 'off-topic', then it's not really "Messing About in Boats", it's "Messing About in Stevenson Projects Boats". Getting back to subject of this post, I did post PDFs of the two recent MAIB BW articles in the files section of the "bolger4" Yahoo group for those who are interested in learning about this unique and wonderful design. I've had plans for the original boat for a couple of years which if time and tide ever get right might get built.

It's not the poylester, it's the fillers that are the problem. To be fair, it's not that much of an issue above the waterline on boats that stay in the water or below the waterline on boats that are trailered. So in that sense, you are correct.

Bondo will swell when it gets wet, sometimes with unpleasant consequences. I'd suggest instead you use epoxy filled with phenolic microballoons. It wil sand just as easy as bondo. If needed for thixoptropy, just a smidge of colloidal silica will greatly thicken the mix without adversely affecting sanding characteristics. There is also a marine version of bondo you might consider.

How much, Ed?

You are right, Ed! It sure does... (For those who don't know, the boat in the picture is Ed's boat, built by him.) How are you doing these days? [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

And finally... [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

You can see them all on my website listed in my profile, but I'll post these for those who don't wish to surf that hard... :wink: [attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

I'm new here, but I've been around a while. I see some familiar names, anyway. I started boatbuilding with inspiration and guidance that I got on Compuserve way back in 1994. The first boat was a Bolger Windsprint launched in '96, then was a Michalak Sportdory in '98, and most recently a Michalak AF4 in '01. In between I've designed a few boats, some of which have been built by kind strangers. The first one to be built was the 11' dory Blackberry, of which there are now 5 or 6 examples in the world. The second boat is the 8'er Blondie, of which there is only one that I know of. I'm dying to build something again, I' just waiting for a lack of spousal opposition. I'd like to either build one of my Blondies or one of Gavin Atkin's excellent 'Mouse' boats. Looking forward to participating. JB