moving...

My half-finished Curlew and I are moving to a new home...  along with the wife and kids, pets, etc.

 

After living for the past 10 years on a shallow, weedy (but great fishing) lake here in NW Wisconsin, we sold our land and home and have now rented a house  near here on another lake which is about 6 times larger with depths up to 120'.  This is a great sailing lake with good steady winds.  I hope the finished Curlew will do justice to this great lake!

 

With all of the upheaval and drama going on in our lives for the past couple of years, the boat has been put on the back burner.  This move has strengthened my determination to complete the job so I can get her on the water...

 

Andy

Payson's Nymph

Any nymph builders in attendance? Im going to build one starting around the middle of summer.

Id like to know anyone who has built this. I like the design in general, but there is this huge leeboard that makes the sailing version less than pretty. Anybody build one with a centerboard or daggerboard? Anybody have any good advice and maybe thoughts to discouraging me from trying to put in a daggerboard?

boat plans

could you please tell me where I can find more information on the first boat on the home page with the center controls like who built her and where I could get plans     chris

Epoxy vs fiberglass resin

I am building a cedar strip duck hunting boat and have some questions.  The boat is 4' by 15', a sculling boat.  I am just about done stripping the haul, getting ready for the glassing stage and am look for some advice.

 

I bought 100 yards of 4 oz on ebay, dirt cheap and plan to over lap the material.  I had planned on using epoxy, but a local fiberglass store is trying to talk me into using fiberglass resin instead.

 

The advantage is cost, roughtly 1/3 of the cost of epoxy, but what about strength?  Workablity?  How well will it how paint?

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

 

To Skeg or not to Skeg

I am in the process of modifying a 17' long,  8' beam relatively flat bottom (5 degrees at the transom) power boat by adding a cabin.  I know this will increase windage considerably.  Question is:  Should I be adding a small skeg to help allievate any increase in leeway in a wind?

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated as to yes or no or to the size and depth of the skeg.  This is a planing boat but I am not worried about high speed.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Update on 62 Connie

Kruz,

 

Thought I would update the group . We took the old gal twenty miles southest of Miami to Elliot Key on a nice trial run.

 

All systems go!!!! This is getting exciting.

 

 

Geo

Searching for Expert Advice.

First let me start by stating that I am new to boat restoration. I have years of experience in woodworking and refinishing (antiques, new furniture, cabinetry, etc..) and wood construction (homes, outdoor furniture, outbuildings, etc...) so I am not greenhorn when it comes to wood. However in my past experience I have either never had to worry about water intrusion or did everything possible to prevent it.

I just purchased my first wooden boat and want to restore it correctly, not so it will be a show winner or trailer queen, but so the wife and I can enjoy it for years to come. So I am more than willing to invest the time up front to do it correctly, but don't look forward to redoing the same repair over and over. That all being said I have diligently started searching all the wooden boat online forums, such as this one, and reading all the books I can get my hands on covering this topic. And at this point I must say I feel I know less today than then when I started!

My first step will be to yank the engine and flip the boat over to restore the bottom (original ’58 CC Sportsman bottom) so I started researching bottom restoration. First I discovered there are two divided camps concerning the use of: 1) Epoxy, 2) 3M 5200 type products and 3) Fiberglass. Those that say these products are lifesavers and those that claim they are the work of the devil! And its appears very few folks fall in-between these two camps.

It seems the experts – those that have written books and are major contributors to online sites – all use either Modified Traditional Bottoms or West System Bottom. No one but the purest of the purist suggest a fully Traditional Bottom. But from the online forums and the actual boat owners, I read posting after posting of how bad the West System is and how it is used by only those looking for a quick temporary fix or “mop and glowers” looking for a quick turn around on their investment. And also how 3M 5200 (and all of its competitors) is horrible and should never be used for anything involving wood-in-water. Epoxy also seems to be used equally by all experts and condemned by the majority of boat owners! Yikes – who do I trust? I just want a semi-permanent long lasting good looking bottom on my boat!

The other topic of confusion (and I apologize for this posting’s length) is the practice of REPLACING all bottom wood – plywood, planking and all, even if it is not rotted and is still sound! I was trained as a woodworker that restoration was the restoring of old usable wood, not replacing it – that’s called reproducing, or in this forum, boat building. Granted there is noting wrong with using fresh new wood in place of old sound, wood ( I will not get into the argument of superior old growth timber versus today’s “plant, cut and ship” lumber), but you can’t call that restoration. Why are the experts so pro-replacement of bottom planking? Especially if the plywood bottom and all the chemicals they suggest to pour over it are doing 90% of the work. Again who is a “boat virgin” to believe?

I need a boat restoration champion to follow!