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With an ancient Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker (seems to seldom get enough air, so I cut a hole in the bottom) a Bradley Smoker (works, but the door hinges broke off and their sawdust hockey pucks are...

I really enjoyed doing artwork for CD jackets. It's a small, tight format but you can actually pack in a fair bit of information. Getting everything to fit in there is an interesting challenge....

In 2009 Wounded Bird Records (a Warner company) "remastered" our 1972 Elektra album onto CDs. Other than the lack of typical vinyl records mechanical noise I don't really notice much difference in...

"Isn't always the case" is putting it politely. Something related to various farm animals might be more appropriate. Wood, plastic or composite, if the surface is smooth, you should be fine. If it is...

Yeah, I'm not a hard-core train geek, but I do have N Scale track running around the tops of the shelves in my office with two 50' loops. Since a fairly wide radius is required to turn the trains...

If that sort of occasional sign makes you feel safe riding in that lane, I hope you at least have a good helmet. All it takes is one moron messing with their phone while they are supposed to be...

I could certainly be wrong, but to me that looks more like it might be polyurethane foam, rather than Styrofoam.
You can get rigid polyurethane foam in sheets or blocks from places like this. It...

The last few that I built were all made from carefully selected cedar 2x lumber from the Home Depot. Not the most prestigious source for paddle lumber, but they are very light and work quite well....

I suppose oil might be one option, though building up a decent finish is an awful lot of work, and in the meantime, you spend far too much time paddling around with raised grain - which is really...

Ron Johnson is a real scumbag. Hopefully Mandella Barnes will send him packing in the fall election.

Some form of chocks to prevent the wheels from rolling and a support of some kind under the back end of the trailer to keep the whole works from tilting when you move around in there are a really...

The lightest weight of Oceanus is their seven ounce "Ship's Cloth" which is way too heavy for a small boat. Having its own characteristics for stretch and stability, it also is not for beginners, or...

The most available source for cotton sailcloth is actually cutting up a set of expensive king size Egyptian or Pima cotton sheets in a plain percale weave (looks the same on both sides and is so...

There should be a small area, usually slightly above the boom's normal position where the track in the mast is cut open so that the gooseneck can get into the track. The sail's tack grommet is...

As it should. When we hoist a lugsail, it is raised in what would be an unstable position and held in that orientation by the weight of the yard behind the masthead pulling against the downhaul,...

Its looking pretty good. The problem with spiral lacing to a boom or yard is always that the distance between the sail and the spar tends to wander in use, which is seldom a good thing for the sail's...

Adding too much "conditioner" (basically thinner) can also speed up the drying/setting time. Rolling and tipping with something nearly as thin as water because it has been overfilled with some sort...

We used to make UFOs by taking a garbage bag partially filled with helium (fill them too full and they pop at altitude) and about 10' below it on a string we would have another one with just air in...

If I owned an old car or truck these days, I'd paint it birchbark like my fur trade canoe.

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The problem is that your proposed dimensions simply do not yield such a boat, at least for most folks. My wife paddles a Current Designs "Slipstream" (Derek Hutchinson designed sea kayak, 16' long,...

The terms 15'11" and "racing kayak" don't generally fit together very well. If it was a wildwater racing kayak it would be limited to 14'8" by 24", only they have an extreme diamond Swedeform hull...

If I'm reading this correctly, a small move like that shouldn't be a problem. It is not unusual when it comes to leech lines to have an additional leech line cleat a few inches above the end of a...

I thought it might be watching me, but I wasn't sure until now! :)

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Yes, that can happen and usually it is actually two passes around the ring, each using doubled twine, and sometimes going clockwise on one pass and counterclockwise on the second pass. The two rings...

It is also worth noting that the smaller grommets like the Hopkiss #00 and #000 are rare in the USA. The #0 Lorde and Hodge spur grommet is more often than not going to be the smallest size and the...

Unfortunately, that all is nice, but it has nothing to do with the quote you pulled out of my post and questioned (post #53) which had to do with the typical sizes of grommets and lines put through...

I wouldn't remove it without first seeing whether or not the leech is firm enough without it. It is normal on a cross-cut sail to make a couple of very small broadseams on the leech to help keep it...

Yep, they do help keep the inside conditions better for the boat, but don't expect to bask in a cool breeze in your bunk as it's not going to happen.

For balloons, we were taught that we should be 1000' above the highest obstacle within a 2000' radius, with the exceptions of having just launched and being in the process of
climbing out, or when...

Having been a dealer for many of the top canoe/kayak manufacturers (Old Town, Mad River, Lincoln, We-No-Nah, Sawyer, Grumman, Hyperform, Phoenix, Beaver, Wilderness Boats, Klepper, etc. etc. etc.)...

Not sure what to expect next, but it is certainly interesting......

More about skid plates.
There are YouTube videos showing installation, but basically -

They are super effective, but not beautiful to look at, so it is probably best to cover only those areas...

Why not get a real Kevlar skid plate kit, made exactly for that purpose? It contains pieces of Kevlar felt which you can use full-sized, or cut down to a smaller size and epoxy resin similar to...

I have one I installed on the trailer for my Boston Whaler. It is 3"x3" cast aluminum and quite substantial, with eight bolts on either side or I suppose you could use four longer through-bolts on...

That's looking really nice Gary! It should really be spectacular with the final finish.

I'm talking about exactly what I said.


If you actually have some sort of information to the contrary with evidence, why not post it with examples, rather than just question everything I say. How...

Four layers plus the base fabric is a lot and you could most likely reduce to three added layers plus the base fabric without any problems, as long as the weave lines up properly through all the...

Those sizes are typical for small sails, whether I made them of someone else did. Lines would typically be 3/16"-1/4" diameter. The #0 seems to be the most common grommet for small diamond patches...

Typically, it will depend on the paint itself and the painting conditions, but usually maybe 8-9 sq. ft. between rolling it out with one hand and tipping it with the other - then repeat for the next...

The smallest spur grommets that I have any use for on sails are British made (Hopkiss) in size #000. A spur grommet has small teeth on one piece which penetrate the cloth and lock under the rim of...

The vast majority of reef points (by a huge margin) these days are done with spur grommets, not hand sewn rings. I doubt most of the current big sail lofts even have somebody who knows how to sew a...

I do brush them out before use to see what comes out, and I generally have a roller in one hand and the brush in the other. If anything falls out, I usually have plenty of time to remove it. If using...

Yeah, it's probably 25%-30% of the total sail area. I don't remember if we had a specific amount in mind. That lawn has had some pretty nice sail power over the years, but never moved an inch.

What sort of roller are you using? It looks to me like you might be putting on too much paint per coat applied. Different enamels, and even different colors of the same brand, don't always go on the...

One more fun fact. We found that the black Brightside on the lower part of our trimaran's hulls and the dark green on the Nordica tended to get some serious white-ish hard water stains on it when we...

If you are talking about the curve of the reefed foot 1.25"mid and .75" off to the sides is probably fine. It really isn't terribly critical, but some shape down there will help the sail set better...

"deflection on the luff curve?" I don't know what you are talking about.

Seems like it would be a lot easier to just buy a good capo.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ra5dgsocb93iwq/capo%20RIC.mp3?dl=0

Then there is something like my fretless bass uke with the rubber...

I don't know as I have no experience with that type of machine.

That Nordica was a neat little boat. I bought it used for $700. It had been owned by an old couple and had been pretty much abandoned and allowed to fill up with water sitting on the trailer. The...