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Bluejacket boats take a licken and come back for more


K4lmy

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As there has not been much on this forum lately I thought I would stir the pot.. Fellows, this past Sunday the little vessel De De tried to cross the Big Bend of Florida from the panhandle to the west coast . We thought we could hug the coast and be protected by the shoreline from the north winds blowing 10 to 15 MPH and seas running 3 to 5 feet. Needless to say the ride was not the smoothest. Little De De stayed the course and survived several trips under the water fall. Yes, we did take a little water around the side windows and around the opening front window, but nothing a few towels would not take care of. The dingy did break a tie on top and floped over the side to be held by a steel cable with padlock. It rode that way for a couple of hours until we could seek protection and get an anchor down to rearange the dingy for towing. We made it about half way around the Big Bend and headed into the river port of St. Marks Florida. De De survived in good shape and is ready to head back out into the Gulf after waiting for a weather window.

This episode has strengthened my confidence in the Stich and Glue construction method as well as the design that out benefactor , Tom Lathrop put in front of us builders.. Three Hip Hip Hurays for our man.. !

So far with 5200 miles behind our stern the Yamaha F90 four stroke has done what has been called for , without missing a beat. Several times dock hands or those close by have commented on the motor wondering if it was running.. We did follow Tom's recomendation and purchased the motor with the 25 inch shaft. The one negative on the motor height is that we could not put a full cover on the motor box. We would not have been able to see behind us over top of the cover. But the motor noise is substantially reduced with the partial cover. When we finnish The Great Loop I will try to post some numbers on gas economy . We are using a four blade , aluminum propeler. It is 13.5 inch and 13 degree prop. The maximun rpm with the motor wide open is 5800 while red line is 6000. Our max speed over ground is curtailed by the weight we have placed aboard for this year long trip.. I will try to post a rpm chart later on.

My comments so far for all those currently building Bluejacket boats.. GET TO WORK AND GIT ER DONE! Cut the lines and head out to sea.. There is nothing to match the wind in your face and the water under your keel. We are having a blast.

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Well, The wife and i built our Bluejacket 28 and left home two weeks later on the Great Loop.. I guess you could say we are the Bata testers for Tom's BJ series. So far we have traveled 5200 miles through 136 locks and have another 2 or 3 thousand to go.. Our travel blog is www.facebook.com/vesseldede and our building blog is www.flickr.com/photos/bluejacket28 We are headed down your way later this month with a stop in Punta Gorda for the holidays. Around the first of March we will head back up the east coast to Norfolk va.. one year and about 7000 miles.. All on the little vessel DeDe A great boat for the loop..

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I would make the trip up to see you in Punta Gorda.....sounds fascinating what you are doing. I won't take much of your time but would like to say hi, meet you and see the craft live and in person. Do you know the dates and docking place in PG? I will check your FB page as well.

Thanks

Lennie

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Thanks for the real world experience. Nice to know that the BJ 28 can stand up to some blue water and keep on tick in'. We especially appreciate the narrative about the Yamaha performance. You and Diane are a real inspiration to those of us who are still dribbling epoxy on our shoes. BJ 28 hull #11

There are some benefits and dangers with epoxy dribbling on your shoes.  I have a pair and they lasted already a your longer than normal.  On the other hand epoxy on the bottom of your shoes can make them dangerous.  I slipped down the ramp of our shed.  

 

Egbert

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  • 3 weeks later...

Drove down to Naples,FL to meet and see Diane and Henry on De De as they made their way south. Very nice visit, inspiring trip stories and adventure that these two are doing! I got a new appreciation for Blue Jackets and the adventures that are possible.......amazing story!

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Drove down to Naples,FL to meet and see Diane and Henry on De De as they made their way south. Very nice visit, inspiring trip stories and adventure that these two are doing! I got a new appreciation for Blue Jackets and the adventures that are possible.......amazing story!

post-3404-0-62749800-1420682953_thumb.jpg

post-3404-0-42911900-1420682975_thumb.jpg

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Likewise enjoyied the visit and thanks for the ride to reprovision.. 5700 miles and doing great.. Love this 70 plus weather. We are expecting some cool morning s in the next week but hope we are further south.. Just enjoying the fruits of out labor.

Henry and Diane

vessel De De

laying Naples Harbor

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  • 3 years later...
On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2015 at 9:10 PM, LennieG said:

Drove down to Naples,FL to meet and see Diane and Henry on De De as they made their way south. Very nice visit, inspiring trip stories and adventure that these two are doing! I got a new appreciation for Blue Jackets and the adventures that are possible.......amazing story!

post-3404-0-62749800-1420682953_thumb.jpg

post-3404-0-42911900-1420682975_thumb.jpg

Bumping and older thread, I was wondering how you handled getting the dinghy on your coach roof? As I am getting closer to a few weeks here and there I have the smaller 8 foot that I will be using and its a bit too heavy for man handling. But doing a davit with the limited room that I have on the smaller hull is really not an option, unless I can come up with a genius idea. TIA

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On 4/3/2018 at 8:53 PM, Oyster said:

Bumping and older thread, I was wondering how you handled getting the dinghy on your coach roof? As I am getting closer to a few weeks here and there I have the smaller 8 foot that I will be using and its a bit too heavy for man handling. But doing a davit with the limited room that I have on the smaller hull is really not an option, unless I can come up with a genius idea. TIA

I was wondering the same thing... I have been looking at nesting dinghys.  I really like a couple 10'-11' ply/epoxy dinghys that nest into 5' or so...each half is 50# or so.  That could be man-handled.  Am I missing an ingenius idea?

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I think for these smaller boats a nesting dinghy is the way to go.

I'm working on a skin on frame nesting dinghy.  Due to some other projects I haven't finished it.   Back problems prevent me from lifting heavy stuff.  Any inflatable gets up there in weight.   The boat in the picture above abandoned the inflatable for a larger towed dinghy.

Attached is a picture of the unfinished SOF dinghy.

Egbert

 

Nested After Modifications.jpg

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Towing a dinghy works great in calm water but can be a nightmare when conditions deteriorate. I think you have to have a way to get your dinghy on deck when things get ugly. Love the idea of a skin on frame dinghy. Is it your design Egbert? Looks beautiful. I used a nesting dinghy on my sailboat for years and it was great.

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9 hours ago, ejds said:

I think for these smaller boats a nesting dinghy is the way to go.

I'm working on a skin on frame nesting dinghy.  Due to some other projects I haven't finished it.   Back problems prevent me from lifting heavy stuff.  Any inflatable gets up there in weight.   The boat in the picture above abandoned the inflatable for a larger towed dinghy.

Attached is a picture of the unfinished SOF dinghy.

Egbert

 

Nested After Modifications.jpg

Great looking project, I was thinking of going that direction. But currently its a real project to get all the details done on my current project, even though its up and running. So there is not enough time to another building  project. So a roll up ends up being a compromise for me right now. Did you get my current email?  As it relates to a towing dinghy, you still need to transport your dinghy to a cruising location with these trailer cruisers. And for anyone with a solar panel, mast and the likes, the room is somewhat limited on the top. Hope your back issues gets better before the summer cruising season.

 

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Two years ago I had the urge to build another boat just because I had not built anything much recently.  The Kudzu SOF boats caught my eye and the Stonefly is certainly a handsome example of a nice canoe.  The book was purchased and the technique studied to evaluate just how it might work out and compare with the B&B Birder kayaks I build in the past.  One study was to predict the weight of a finished SOF Stonefly, which resulting in some disappointment.  My fully decked Birders, built of 4mm occume ply weighed 32 1/2 pounds while calculated weight of the SOF Stonefly came to at least 40 pounds, using the best materials suggested by the designer.  Some discussion with other builders verified that these predictions were reasonable if a bit conservative.  These are single handed sport boats that would weigh quite a bit more if designed as good tender for a Bluejacket.

 

Considering that all of former calculated weights of small boats have turned out to somewhat optimistic,  the project was placed on the shelf.   Reluctantly, I concluded that if a reasonably rugged SOF boat cannot be built lighter than a known plywood version, the project loses its luster.  I'm sure a Platt Monfort type would be lighter but they look too delicate to me.

 

I think the crane hoist system that Rick Lapp uses to hoist his dinghy on to the pilothouse top works very well.  He has a commercial fiberglass dinghy which is probably heavier than a homebuild plywood one.  I built an 8' B&B Catspaw which weighs 52 pounds.  It is admittedly less rugged than most would want as I used 4mm ply but it does work.  That dinghy is available and could be beefed up for a suitable tender by adding a sheath of Knitex glass to the bottom.  52 pounds is light enough to lift up on top but any such sized dinghy is really too awkward for most people to handle.

 

5acb68cbc6dde_2013georgetowncruise064.thumb.JPG.22060c75d7e5566a280555d3dbcfdf31.JPG

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I really like Russell Brown’s PT-11... the joining hardware alone is absolutely genius.  Unfortunately, it’s only available in kit form and is cost prohibitive, for me anyway.  

So I’ll likely build Danny Greene’s Chameleon.  It’s a tried and true design, and it’s somewhat similar.

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