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Jim,

I really love your craftsmanship so I barely dare to say it .... but .... I come to you with hat in hand and, a thousand pardons but, may I suggest that you've gone down the wrong road (so...

Thanks all. Here is a video of the work they are doing on Papoose, another s-boat. As of last weekend they had finished planking and were well on the way to finishing the deck. Awesome work.
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Folks who have been reading this forum for 10 years or so may remember that in Jan 2002 I acquired an Herreshoff s-boat that was in a very bad way. It landed in my backyard where it sat quite happily...

as a follow-up .... the suggestion that the sticky mess be overcoated with fresh varnish thinned with paint thinner worked! The layers hardenened enough to allow sanding and the continuation of the...

Thanks Jay. Now I know the "story" on turps. Is there any hope that the stuff will dry or must I wipe it off with a rag (yulk!)?

I needed to thin some varnish (Epiphanes) but was fresh out of thinner. Poking around in my chemical cupboard turned up an old can of turpentine (stinking like only turps can). Why not, I thought? I...

I am replacing the ... I guess I'll call it the stern toe rail but that's not really it and it isn't really a taffrail or a covering board but the issues are the same ... on a boat with a moderate...

I'm just finding this thread but nice start on a cool boat. A material question, if I may .... in the images of your strongback construction you show a lumber mill stamp that indicates that the...

[QUOTE=Jim Ledger;2909008] ... I have a pitch to make. The good folks at Spectra sent me a couple of these little doo-dads, five way lasers, or something like that, I didn't read the box. ... These...

Thanks! My mooring limits me to 33-ish ft overall so I'd best stick with the S-class (Hereshoff version is 28 ft).

Mickey (or anyone else!), roughly how long (on average) is a boat that is built to the (a) 30 sq m and (b) the 20 sq m rule?

Lazy Jack, you got it more or less right but allow me to fill in the words ...

heat it to Cherry red (= 727 degrees C) to put the carbides (cementite iron carbide phase) into solution in the ...

Thanks for the video. Interesting.

One question/observation. Without an easily removed, sponge sized section of floor board, it seems like the boat will be impossible to fully bail on the...

You know, it turns out that I have a fisherman pattern anchor in the garage that I was given at some point and I don't know what to do with it. I've never thought to use it as an anchor as it is a...

On the subject of anchoring (but not anchors) I have a question. I have on board, an oversized (for the 30 ft boat) Danforth anchor with 20 ft of chain and 300 ft nylon rode ... it has performed...

Wow! Ummm, where's the cockpit? Don't tell me it's that little well thing aft of the house?

Ah, I looked at the plans (BOM) and the 6 mm spec was for "traditional" construction not ply. Carry on!

Hurley,

I see from your blog that you chose 4 mm ply for the planking. Interesting. My experience with 6 mm occume is that it is surprisingly easily punctured by a blow by a sharp object --...

Oh yes, I'm sure. I've knocked the dust out of the folds of the filter many times over the past 4 or 5 years -- a nasty, dusty, toxic activity -- but the time has come to replace it. I use it...

I love my Fein turbo II shop vacuum but man the price of those 1 micron filter cartridges is insane. Has anyone found an alternative? For example, I find that the 3 gal (I think) home depot brand...

Your housings are, presumably, USCG approved but I've never seen any kind of USCG approval for the bayonette style incandescent lamps that you put in them. I'll bet that most people put in automotive...

Thanks Dale, that was wierd but the url is fixed now (I think).

A much cheaper solution, if you've already got Nav light housings, is to replace the lamps with red, green, and white LED lamps. I bought bayonet style base lamps from these guys:...

Thanks Carlsboats, what you say is surely true but if last weekend wasn't peak, I wouldn't want to experience BI on a peak weekend. There really seemed to be no more room for anchoring (unless they...

The Aldos boat was there in New Harbor BI yesterday hollering "Aldo's, Aldos" at 7:00 am! By the way, last weekend was my first visit to BI in 15 years and I must say that that is the most crowded...

Thanks everyone. The answer from the power company engineer is the set back is measured from the vertical drop and is either 10 ft or 30 ft if the setbacks are enforced for the paper road. Thanks...

Hi,

This is probably a border-line question for Misc-boats but the depth of knowledge here is huge so I'll risk the offense ...

I want to build a 15x30 boat shed in my backyard. The problem...

These old motors are hard to kill. On my old 1950's craftsman, when the the motor stopped working, I fixed it by disassembling the motor casing and cleaning the accumulated dust out of it. It may be...

Ahh, I see! Fair enough. The concern is the possibility of leaking through the hole in the stem when heavily loaded and the hole is too close to the waterline. The Acorn that I use is pretty darn...

Ian, when I tow, SWMBO insists on riding in the tow vessel with her provisions and dog. This leaves the dinghy light as a feather (of course it could ship water -- never has, but could and that takes...

I tow my 10 ft acorn all the time. Forget the ring in the bow, instead drill a hole through the stem piece (so it emerges inside the boat) a few inches above the waterline then pass a high-tech braid...

Micky, I don't see any issue at all. You share some jolly good dreams and the ebb and flow of the fortunes of life hinders/enables the dream's progress toward fruition. It's all part of the deal and...

All beautiful boats but many of them have puzzling (to me) decks. On Post #13, the Fife. What kind of wood would that deck be made of? Cedar? Pine? Fir? From the color it's certainly not teak. Can...

Warren,

There may be a bit of a mix up here. Carbon is not allowed in the opti (certainly not in the hull or mast). The lay-up schedule for glass optis and the blades (unless wood, in which...

Quote: "Are wooden optis still competitive?"

Yes. Funny that you, a Kiwi, should ask! I did a lot of research and found someone even nuttier than me living in ... New Zealand ... who shared some...

Mickey, I thought I was bad the way boats seem to follow me home and get adopted like lost puppies but you, sir, have a much, much, worse case! Naa, I don't want in on a 30 sq m but ... a ... ahhh...

Yup. This one (and two others). It was a royal pain-in-the butt to build it so that it would measure in (it did, to my great relief). I'm more of a what's-a-few-mm-between-friends kind of builder but...

Quote: " David, if you know of a Penguin that meets my requirements let me know. I am open minded about such things. One more thing: launching. I want to launch off of a floating dock at my club. Do...

Mickey, $3k for any penguin these days is, in my opinion, wayyyy too much. The boat that I have was free if you don't count hours of labor, paint, and a new sail. Part of the joy of the Penguin is...

Mickey,

Penguins are a lot of fun to sail single handed. I am also a sometimes laser sailor and the two boats are completely different to sail but, when not planning, not that much different in...

rbgarr, maybe the problem the kids had was that there just wasn't enough action. During the Penguin heydays of the 60's and early 70's people sailed them double handed. Insane, I say, what would the...

Sorry for the partial highjack .... If whoever gets this boat is near RI and wants to join us in the Penguin frostbite fleet at the Bristol Yacht Club (in Rhode Island) we'd be delighted to have you....

Art,

I can't resist mentioning that I was in Seattle last week on buisness and I took a quick walk down to the wooden boat center on lake Union. I can report that I saw "Melinda" -- still a...

So how many of you Rogue Islanders have paid for the head inspection and associated sticker that was mandated by the state of RI for all boats registered in RI with a head and which will be enforced...

I happened to spend a couple of days in Douarnenez last June when there was no festival or any other "events" happening. It was delightful. Quiet and peaceful with a multitiude of interesting boats...

In my view, when the boat is an obvious basket case, the value of a surveyer's report is minimal. Basketcase boats don't typically have functioning "systems" to examine and if the ideallistic...

They came with the boat -- probably a photocopy of documents provided by MIT. Strangely, one sheet (the spar plan, I think) is nearly unreadable since it is a mirror image of the original. If you...

Well, there are the original building plans but there are no offsets. Here is an image of the body plan (one of many sheets) for the Herreshoff S-boat:
...

Thanks for the comments. No worries, I won't be stuffing anything in that crack other than stain. As for bearing surface, the whole thing is held together with 12" (or so) lag bolts. Last time I...

Kind folks,

Here is a kind of boat question. Boat related because it refers to a building being built on the shore of an island that is only accessible by boat and because it refers to doug fir,...