Making Dacron Sails

[barnacle5]

I know a charlie jones from texas. his son was a client of mine a few years back. his wife is nelda and I think they live near arlington . any relation? really nice people. semi-retired and traveled a lot. really into outdoors stuff. just realized why your name seemed so familar. have a good one. Bill

[Charlie Jones]

nope - no relation (that I am aware of) . I live on the coast, actually almost on Matagorda Bay., close enough I can look out my living room windows at the bay.

I'm supposed to be semi retired- what that has actually meant is that I work 5 days a week instead of 6:) I build boats and run a furniture repair shop .

[Greg Luckett]

Charlie,

You are living my dream....sigh. Darn Yankee wife does not like the heat or Texas coast. She grew up in Cleveland and thinks the weather here in Southwestern Michigan is GOOD!

I am taking a Power Squadron class on Seamanship now. Last class was over weather and they were showing a film on thunder storms and tornados in Texas and Oklahoma. Darn if it did not make me homesick....LOL. My wife says it is just because we are expecting snow today or tomorrow.

LOL....enough whining on my part.

Did you recover yet from the hurricanes this year?

Greg.

[Charlie Jones]

Hey- can that damned snow stuff. I have to go to Rochester week after next, towing an empty flat bed trailer, to pick up a sail boat and then drive back here. The boat is on a cradle and we'll have to load it onto the trailer for the tow home.

I don't need any snow:(

We consider snow a four letter word. If it gets below 45 my wife puts on long john's:)

[Greg Luckett]

Charlie,

Don't worry. This is just the "false" snows, sort of like false labor. Just in case, though, don't forget your winter coats, hats, gloves, and snow shoes.

I did not know you also did boat hauling.

Incidently, when it gets warm like 45 or higher, the women here start shifting to summer wear .

[Tim Diebert]

Bill, awesome and serious little boat that. Titmouse. I will have to do some research on that one, very nice. Strip planked? Hopefully there was no glassfibre involved. It is great that you have had the boat for so long....have you sailed it all the way through?

FRANK, for some reason the email notification device is not working for me on this thread.

How does someone rearend you at 75?...must have been another bike...hopefully another bike. You are alive, so it must have worked out to some degree.

And thanks for all the sewing tips. I feel confident I can now build myself a main. I might have a Poly Sail Main sail kit for sale soon....(waiting on a little deal to happen)

Charlie. Thanks for the book info. Good stuff.

I was just working on the boat outside beside the shop yesterday...thinking how nice it was at 65 degrees....thinking, "it could be this warm 24-7-365 and I would be a happy camper. As a canuck, it is hard to imagine how anyone could live year round where the temps are hot and really hot with perpetual humidity. I know folks always jones for the warm climates...and I can see why...but, personally I could not survive it. It is all in what you are bred for...where you come from...your blood etc. That's the way I see it anyway. I dig the four distinct seasons where I live. It is dry all year round (perfect instrument making environment) and really hot in the summer. Not so cold in the winter with enough snow to be clean and bright. To me, a paradice...to others...Hell.

I dig what you said about supposed to be retired...going from 6 to 5 days a week. That is my future as well. I taking it easy this week and only working 7-8 hours a day and taking the weekend off. High times. Sounds like we have somewhat similar lives....accept, you are buying a bigger boat.....I might be doing something wrong. LOL

Hey, while I am at it...I would like all you American folks to make a concerted efford to increase the value of your American dollar. It is killing me. I charge US dollars for my work and in the last year 100US has gone from being worth $160 CA to $130. This is seriously effecting my boat fun.

[barnacle5]

thanks for the kudos. yes I have sailed her all these years ( had her laid up in the barn for a while though.) she is strip planked on sawn oak frames . the bottom is flat rockered much like a weekender and is of shiplapped 2X8 pressure treated yellow pine . everything below the waterline is PT and the hull is sheathed in a layer of fibreglass . I varied from the plans on the centreboard truck and the rudder buit everything else is pretty true to plan. If you can find it the plans are in "boatbuilding in your own backyard" by sam rabl I think it is out of print but there are still some copies around.

yes, it was another bike that rearended me. he had already crashed behind me at speed. I think he was planning to but a buzz on me and dropped it in the curve behind me. anyway the momentum carried the bike flippiing through the corner and the footpeg caught me in the back rupturing my spleen . I barely survived ( thank God for modern medicine and a close ER ) and I take no day for granted anymore. everyday is a gift. that is why we call it the "present" .

I have several glass boats too. just can't stand to see them abandoned so it is sort of an old boats home around here. thanks for the reply. Bill

[barnacle5]

hey charlie that is a coincidence. I bought a nordica 16 from the internet from a guy in rochester in april and it was sitting on a trailer on a cradle too. fortunately a friends brother who lived there pulled it to me at easter when he came home to visit. it was about 8 ft off the ground and the darn trailer wasn't 6 ft wide. you could push on the boat and lift a wheel off the ground. how it made it the 800 miles is a mystery to me. he probably wins every egg in the spoon race he enters. you pulling a semi or something like a carhauler? thanks, Bill

[attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

[Charlie Jones]

Greg- I don't haul boats as a rule- this one is for US!!! She's got most every thing we've looked for in the next boat and we aren't buying her- it's a "come and get it" deal from a friend who doesn't feel he has the time and skills to properly restore her.

Tim- I really only get uncomfortable in my un air conditioned shop when the temps go much over 100. In fact I'm under strict orders from the boss lady to shut it down when the thermometer she hung behind my bench goes over 105.

The heat and humidity is worth it cause we often get to sail in January and February too. Of course, I still have to mow the damned grass all year too.

Here's what she looks like- Seafarer Meridian 25, designed by Philip Rhodes, built Holland 1961. Needs a LOT of work:) but the structure is sound.

[attachment over 4 years old deleted by admin]

[Tim Diebert]

100! Holy crap.

I too have a thermometer/humidity gauge above my workbench.....I start to get a heat flush at 70. It has never been over 85 in the shop, even when it is 100 outside.

I wear shorts aslong as it is over 60. Funny....us humans.

Hey that boat looks a lot like a Pearson a bud of mine has...a LOT like a Pearson.....same-ish underwater...almost identical coach roof line. Cool. That is a beauty.

Bill, the Nordica has always been a fav of mine. Did some work on one years ago. Lucky lad.

Great (but unfortunate ) bike story!. How did the other guy fair? Was this on a track or street? When I used to have cable and glorious Speed Vision, I watched all the bike racing I could. I love watching them high side at over 100....hard to imagine...they always seem to just pop right back up again....I figure it is those great suits holding all the body parts togther.

Grew up watching Formula 1...from the sixties until about 1990 when it got so boring and political. Bike racing beats any kind of wheeled racing all to hell. I have seen 6-8 passes for the lead on the last lap. Now that's exciting.

Although.... I was in the Seattle area a while back and spent a day watching Vintage sports car racing. Talk about cool. Anything and everything was there...from old Lolas, F1 cars, Formula 3000, AC Cobras, Stangs, Vettes, all levels of Sports racers and open wheeled cars.....so much fun. I was heading to an Allman Brothers concert and found this race on the way....what a super weekend. BOATS....oh ya, right. Sorry.

[barnacle5]

yeah looks a lot like a pearson. had a friend lost one to a hurricane in pensacola a few years ago. I was on the street. the other guy got a scraped knee and shoulder. when he dropped the bike he slid into the grass. just how it goes sometimes.

I got to get the nordica hoisted up and remove the cradle. then I'll either re-work that trailer or find another. I've not sailed her yet. just really liked those lines. have a good one. I leave for the races in atlanta tomorrow. be back next week. thanks to all for looking and your replies. bill

[Charlie Jones]

Same era as the early Pearson's - CCA influence. Late 50's early 60's or there abouts. The later Pearsons had a different designer and you can sure see the difference.

The early Pearsons were designed by Carl Alburg who also did the Cape Dorys, at least the first and smaller ones. As I said, this one was done by Philip Rhodes. The longish overhangs were pretty typical of the era and ratings. Short waterlines when upright but heeled they gain waterline length tremendously. They aren't quite as fast as the more modern hull designs but I think they are much more sea-kindly out in the open sea. Personal opinion of course, but that's what my wife wants to do- sail offshore and we'll be sailing double handed so something this size and sailing ability is exactly what we wanted.

Alburg tended to deeper draft than what I'd be comfortable with around here in the Texas bays- his Ariel at 26 feet had over 4 foot of draft. This boat has 3'3"- quite difference.