Spindrift 10 quints

[brucee]

Well here it is, my first post.  I have been following this forum for a month or two now and I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you  to everyone who has contributed.  I have found many answers to questions I've had and answers to questions I hadn't even thought of!  This forum is a great educational resource and fun to follow.

After much research I have decided to build a Spindrift 10N.  Living in a somewhat remote area, I have found specialized supplies like marine plywood both scarce and expensive, so I shopped around on the 'net.  I found some supplies a few thousand miles away,  gathered a few friends together to make a bit of a bulk order and to dilute shipping costs and now have just started five Spindrift 10s in my shop.  We are currently scarfing the plywood together and glued the first scarf joint tonight.  We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

Thanks again for all your supportive information.

Bruce

[Garry]

Whoa! Hold it right there Bruce. Five? 5 ?! Tell us more! Are you starting a fleet? Where are you located? How did you settle on the Spindrift?

For some reason, I find that exciting news. I want to hear all about it!

[Hirilonde]

Wow, it is exciting news.  I find that you choosing the Spindrift easy to fathom, but how did 5 of you come to choose to co-op the whole project? 

You need to start a thread and post pictures and description of this 

[Greg Luckett]

Bruce, Where are you located?

[Remod]

Ditto, questions and conundrums!!!  ???  5 Spindrifts at once!!! I hope you'll put back into the forums what you have recieved!,,,,( I hope to soon, but I have to admit, I have been given MUCH, Much more in these Forums than I can EVER give back!)

[brucee]

Yeah we

[Garry]

Hi Bruce,

I'm pleased you like the nesting hook design. No changes come to mind. There are several others here that have made them so there may be some ideas from them.

Do you have the sketch I made for the hook design. You can find it under "Expedition Dinghy" on my web page at: http://www.pbase.com/sailrosita/my_other_boats

for hauling the boat, I found it easier to load the boat as one piece on a roof rack with the dinghy loader I came up with. But I don't have a truck to load the sections into.

The dinghy dolly makes for easy handling but I also saw an idea to make the wheels with a false centerboard arrangement instead of using a strap.

You go Bruce. - Garry

[Guest Dave P]

Hello all

After seeing that my good friend Brucee joined I decided to log on and join in the fun. I too have been watching the site and reading all the interesting posts and there is certainly a wealth of information you all have. I have been wanting to build a sailing dinghy for a very long time. Back in the 90s we had a group of folks interested in sailing dinghies so we (they) decided that the most practical boat was the Sabot - very affordable, easy for one person to move and launch and could be used as a tender for larger boats. We used the Naples Sabot with the centerboard and we had some hotrods with carbon bits and go fast goodies. We started the Vancouver Island Sailing Association, built ten boats, and raced in our harbour during the warmer months of the year. In 96' we had our "Worlds" and we had 18 boats on the line and in 97' we had 14! Pretty impressive to see that many goofy little boats all battling it out for air! After that things sort of fizzled. We found it hard to generate interest in the boat. Lets face it, not the most exciting boat out there! I have raced all kinds of boats and I am a dinghy man through and through. I am one of those sorts that researches the heck out of everything. I am sure I looked at every boat out there. I looked at designs from all over the world and when I came across the Spindrift and read about the raciness of the boat I wanted one. I like that it looks like a boat, it's light, has a fairly flat bottom so would be a great fly fishing dinghy, has nice lines and is easy to build. That said, I have never built a boat before and I really wanted someone to build with and when I met Brucee and found out about the other lovely boats he had built I grabbed a hold of his arm and twisted and twisted until he gave in and we ordered plans. When we saw the cost of materials we thought about the money we could save by getting more folks on board and voila! We have the makings of a little fleet. Two of the guys are not racer types but I can see that Brucee has that little twinkle and one of the other chaps is a very good racer with whom I have raced many times. To sum it up I am very excited and I am hoping to use my "good salesman" techniques and enthusiasm to rope others into building some boats.

We have an incredible harbour for sailing but to launch one needs to transport the boat across a park (about 300m) and launch from the pedestrian pier that sits close to the water. With the Sabots we made a simple little centerboard with lawnmower wheels so that it looked like a T (wheels spread about 14") and inserted from the bottom (of course) and wheeled the boat like a wheel barrow. It is incredibly easy, cheap, and convenient. It worked so well that if someone left their dolly at home we could stack another boat on top. If launched off a ramp into the water you simply push the dolly board out through the bottom and it pops up beside the boat. Terrific little contraption.

I am looking very forward to this project and getting a boat in the water. If any of you live in this region lets talk about next summer and organizing a "Worlds" Spindrift regatta!

[Greg Luckett]

There was a fellow named Alexander (aka Ambler, here on this forum) on Vancouver Island, that was building a Spindrift 12 back in 2004.  This is the thread: http://www.messing-about.com/forums/index.php?topic=2041.0 .

I wonder if he ever finished it?

[Ambler]

[quote

I wonder if he ever finished it?

Well, not yet.

Thanks Greg for the Email you sent. I'll post my reply below. Meantime, Brucee, where on Vancouver Island are you? I'm in Port Alberni (no snow ) ..........

...........  "Hi Greg.

Thanks for the enquiry; out of the blue!

It's embarrassing to see that the thread you refer to dates from a little more than 4 years ago. In answer to your question, no, it's not finished. I have a handful of excuses: An illness needing intestinal surgery, a chronic back problem, and perfectionism. On this last score, before the inside was completely finished, I turned the hull over to have the fun of painting it. I think I'm on my 3rd can of Brightside (Dark Blue - probably a mistake) and it still doesn't look "good enough" to me. Maybe I have to take to heart the words of the chap who said "Remember it's only a boat." Other homestead-y things have interfered as well. Ability and/or enthusiasm for boatbuilding has been very sporadic. BUT I still want to complete it. One bit of good news is that the patched area on the bow is quite invisible on the outside.

Many thanks for asking. I haven't looked at the forum for ages but it's time I did and re-kindled some passion. Maybe I'll post again if things don't turn out too disastrous! I'm Mr can't-leave-well-enough-alone which is the preamble for admitting I've messed with Graham's design and am concocting a pivoting leeboard (bilgeboard?) on one side. But maybe I should keep that to myself?!!

Obviously I don't care about maximum performance - just having fun.

Cheers, Alexander.

PS - Before building the hull I did a cardboard model, scaled from the design drawings. It had a bit of a hollow in the flat underside, towards the stern. I wrote Graham about this & he said pay no attention: the fullsize with plywood will be OK. But despite my deliberately being a wee bit generous - giving the panels a shade more "meat" along the aft centreline - my finished hull has a slight but discernible hollow in the same place: i.e seen from the side it looks a little concave near the stern. Have you seen any similar comment from others?"

[brucee]

Hey Greg, thanks for sending Alexander an email.

Alexander, it sounds like your Spindrift 12 is pretty close to being finished if you

[Ambler]

Hi, Bruce.

Glad to hear you're in Nanaimo. That's the "Big Smoke" (Costco, Home Depot, Wow!) for us. If you tell me how to get in touch I'll give you a call next time I'm over and maybe we can meet. It may be a while  though - I just hatched a case of shingles over the weekend. Have to stay home till the contagious stage is past; however long that turns out to be.

If you can get the photos up it would be interesting to see your stack of scarves. Here's some chatter about my boat:

The fact I started painting is no indication of imminent launch! I was a bit premature but wanted the fun of seeing some finish on the hull. I've sanded several "definitely-the-last" coats back down trying to get a surface I like. I lack a good area to paint in.  The shop (my garage) has grit'n grime and poor lighting.

I guess if I got right down to it there's not that much to do - at least to get it in the water; but without sailing rig. I've done a number of things that aren't as designed - the aforementioned bilge board plus "cargo" hatches in the tops of the long seats. Didn't want to spend the money for those screw-in closures but I'm still inventing home-made covers that will be reasonably watertight. Then I'll be using the sail off an older dinghy - the rest of it disintegrated a while back. Having sullied the design this far I may as well go whole hog and I want to come up with a different sail-to-mast attachment system: Hoops? Sprit? Partly this is because I want a sail that can a) be reefed and fly all the way forward when let go. Using a vang would prevent the latter. I'm a very amateur sailor, usually solo and I got pretty scared in my previous cat-rigged boat if I had reason to let the sail look after itself for a moment or two in a good wind. With the sheet let go, the boat would fall off the wind until the boom fetched up against the mast stays. Then we'd suddenly be sailing again in a sickening uncontrolled swoop back into the wind before another stall and fall-off. Never found a satisfactory way to avoid this. Comments on any aspect of this are welcome.

As I said before, I'm obviously not concerned with max performance - for me it's more a matter of having fun while not terrifying myself too badly. Comfort (haha) matters too which is why I decided to do away with the space-hogging daggerboard. I was also concerned with the possibility for hull damage if running aground fast with the board down. Prefer the idea of something that swings up when it hits resistance. Graham (probably rightly) thinks I worry too much.

Apologies to Graham and all others whose sensibilities may be offended by my butchery of his design. I'm sure to folks like your group, interested in competing, I sound like a real Phillistine. It all stems (pun?) from my search for a home-build hull design that would work with my old sail. As you can guess I'm financially constrained (the price of that Brightside!)

"The trouble with good ideas, is that they soon turn into

a lot of hard work."  Anon.

By the way I got my mast materials from the Metal Warehouse in N'mo. The ?son of? the owner there seems like a good chap to deal with and is into sailing as well. My plywood came from the guy on the highway at the south end of Duncan whose place burned down a few months back. I think he's at the Genoa Bay marina now.

Haven't seen a post from Greg L. since ?Sunday. Hope his "universe" is unfolding as it should.

Again; what a great forum! Thanks all.

Alexander.

[brucee]

So here's a few photos of our scarfing.  Gotta do a bit of mass production!

Bruce

With fresh snow outside we had to add a bit of heat. (Though I am using Cold Cure Epoxy)

[Remod]

I would have to call that very nice work!

[Hirilonde]

Nice clean scarf.  Your jig seems to keep the bevel quite fair.  I did mine similarly, but 4 sheets at a time.  I stacked them on top of each other with a 2 inch stagger.

[Greg Luckett]

I am enjoying the pics and appreciate the sharing.  Those are some nice scarfs.  I debated doing something similar but then decided to use the butt jointing method for my S12.  Those butt joints seem to be doing well, which still surprises me.  My next boat will be something in the 15 to 20 foot range and I will use scarf joints for it, as needed.

[brucee]

Hey thanks for your positive comments and support. We did try planing a couple of sheets at one time but I think it

[brucee]

Here

[markja]

Yep, I had a spot or two of delamination. I found afterward that you can look at the edge of the plywood a see a "fat" spot in some of the inner plies. In the same place, I could see the thin spot in the outer ply. Try tapping with a finger and you might hear the loose ply.

I sliced it open and poked several shallow holes through the outer ply, pushed lots of unthickened epoxy back under the loose ply and then coated with some 4 oz cloth.

It will be fine under the paint.

I wouldn't have been so happy if I was going to varnish, though.

[/img]

Your boat(s) look great so far.

MARK

[Greg Luckett]

Please tell me you are not using BS1088 grade plywood.  What are you using?