How to make tack cloth, sanding sealer and grit size chart

 A forum page I found

How to Make a Tack Cloth
A tack cloth is one of the best ways to remove dust and grit before applying a finish, to make one soak a cheese cloth in water, wring out the water, soak it in turpentine, wring it out again, drip enough clear varnish on the cheesecloth to make it evenly gummy throughout. Store it in a jar with a lid to keep it from drying out.
Gently wipe away dust and fine particles.

How to Make Sanding Sealer Mix one part wood glue with ten parts water, apply with brush, let dry. This will raise the grain, sand smooth.
 
Save Your Sawdust
Before you start to sand a project empty the dust bag, when the bag is full empty it into a clean mustard or ketchup squeeze bottle. You will now have a supply of sawdust to match the project if you need to do the sawdust and glue fill. To do this squeeze some glue in the crack, then spray a bit of sawdust on it and work it in, repeat if necessary, remove excess.


Grit Size Chart

Retail Defination	Industrial Defination	Uses
Super Fine	600 600 400	Polishing metals, ceramics, stone and plastic usually wet. Not usually used for wood.
Extra Fine	360 320	As above.
Very Fine	280 240 220	Polishing finishes between coats, usually used wet.
Fine	180 150 120	Finishing bare wood.
Medium	100 80 60	First sanding for softwoods, shaping.
Coarse	50 40	Paint removal, rough sanding, shaping.
Very Coarse	36 30 24	Machine sanding bare floors, first cut.
Extra Coarse	20 16 12	Machine sanding floors to remove old coatings.

Boat Dogs, Kindle and Current Events

Well I started leash training the girls. Abbey is catching on to the idea that walking along side of me is easier then being steadily tugged along.  She is not responding to  treats so much as lots of affection. Sandy on the other hnad responds to affection but seems more interested in the treats.
Sandy seems to be familiar with the concept of walking on a leash or is just one extremly smart dog, I'm not sure which, probably both.  I'm guessing she was on a leash before the  peope I got her from had her.  Sandy is the one that when she hears the treat bag  responds  immediately. Abbey will look at you like she is just not sure if it is worth the effort until she is right next to you . 

Tip on treats, The ones I got are about an inch to two inches long. I broke up a bunch and put them in a zip bag. Its easier then breaking them up as needed when you have dogs clamoring for them,


A while back I was introduced to Christine Kling books .This woman can write a real page turner. As a result I stated following the blog  " Write on Water". Now many are not interested in writing as a means to make a living. For those who are,  I highly suggest following this blog. The recent post have been about the economics of writing. Two separate post,  both saying  the same thing, gets my attention. If your going to self publish Kindle is apparently the way to go. The specific links to this topic are here.  Christine's Original blog on Principles versus Income.             Mike's response

Not a lot else going on . Have been working on getting this house finished  so I can sell it to buy THE boat. I'm down to the piddling little stuff that takes time more then money so that's good.  The good news is it looks like we have a way to solve what has turned into a night mare over the deed. It has to go to court. The evidence I have is solid. Its a matter of seeing if an attorney I can afford will take it.  I spoke with an attorney the 4th of Sept. I'm waiting on an answer. If your a praying person , praying that this is resolved expeditiously so I can sell the house would be appreciated. The way it is now I can't even legally rent it out . The idea was rent it out and get on the water at one of the area lakes if all else fails, while I'm waiting for this other deal comes through. So far it's a catch 22, I'm between a rock and a hard place. 
That's about all for now.
Sail safe but sail!

Boat Quotes

 This is so good I had to post it. Boat Quotes

Options, Revenues and Providers

In the course of being part of several sailing and boat forums I've picked up a lot of learning these past couple of years.  A lot of insurance info has been on the boards lately.  Since eventually this is something I am gong to check out for my self I decided to put a page dedicated to just marine insurance. It occurred to me to open this up for others to post providers they know for all to have handy in one place by using comments.   As I was posting that page it occurred to me adding a page for other products those who have already been there and done that have used satisfactorily. I decided to open up the page of products I have used to others to post their favorite BOAT RELATED items, using the comments section.


Revenues. We all need to eat. I am opening this site up to advertising. If this offends please forgive. I figure it is not going to put a huge amount of money  into the sailing kitty, but every little bit helps.


PLEASE DO NOT just start clicking thu thinking your helping me if you have no interest in a product. It hurts the site marketability.  If however you are interested  in a particular product, please do so. The site only pays if you actually buy something  from a link. Also please be advised that google does collect information when you click thru.

FINALLY!!!! It's About BOATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While I am doing the hopefully FINAL sorting of the stuff in the house, I'm working on the Challenger as my sanity keeper. The Venture is still in the drive way but she is full of stuff I have yet to sort through before I put her up on blocks to drop the keel.  This is how I'm keeping my sanity in the mean while. Yeah I'm getting flack from some of the guys over the method and materials I'm using. By their standards and expectations,  I'm cheating like an erring husband on how I am doing this.  For this reason I make an open and honest offer to those who feel very strongly about how I should be using the two part epoxy on these little  fixes. Please feel free to shop and order the materials you think I should be  using and ship them to me. I will be more then happy to use them and even give you a blurp as donator.  Email me for my shipping address.

Having said that, on to the boat.  If you remember I picked this up last summer with the idea of fixing it up for  my son.  Well he is on his  own, several states away and I'm not about to carry it THAT far on the top of my car. I now have another toy to play with . You can tell I'm just heart broken over that development, right? :)~

Finally got her up on blocks to work on.

Sorry about he angle but had us use my cell phone and that aint gonna take a close shot  straight on.


Initial work to be done.

There are some gouges and dings along the keel. This one is the worse with out actually being a full fledged breach.

            Then there is this one which is a                     full blown hull breach.

                         A close up of breach.

Then there is the transom. The story that goes with boat is it got hit by a string lawn mower TWICE.

    Been busy sanding her down. Wouldn't  you know the sander went kapluie. I have go to learn how to replace bushings in these sanders! I do however have a LOW COST idea on how I am going to temporarily solve that  little problem. All I have to do is go digging in the shed which is another spot every thing is stashed in for now. GRRRRR  I'll let you know how it turns out AFTER I try it.If it is successful. This idea is so nutty, I'm not telling in advance.

Now some of you guys are going to hate this but I've been using JB weld products for years quite successfully. I've saved TONS of money using their line. They make water weld and I got some.  So far  I have  2 1/2  tubes invested.  Beats what epoxy cost. Yes, I thought about getting some filler and using the polyester epoxy.  It cost 18.00 plus a can and I have ZERO experience using that kind of set up. Before I do it on a boat I actually hope to be in the water with THIS SUMMER or what is left of it, I went with the water weld.  It's about SAILING remember?


In no particular order here are the current pics.

This is where the sander died . GRRRRR

Almost partially done with the first sanding .

Remember that really nasty hull breach?

That's all for now.
Sail safe but SAIL!!!!!!!!

Publish Post

Horse of a different color

Well its been a while. I have been in the south. We had arranged to go work for a guy doing some "minor " repairs on his house. Nothing big. Refinish a floor, refinish his wrought iron, little stuff like that. He was wanting us down  there and as any on who has redone a boat knows things ALWAYS take longer to do then anticipated and doing this house as no exception. so between him and me, we decided to go ahead, use his tools, and get down there. I wanted to take  the Venture since the original idea was a place to work on it and get her in the water. Tires being  as high priced as they are we decided to leave her here. go ahead and go do the job to make money for all this other stuff.
Turns out the floor he wanted to refinish was in a room filled with things he really should have put in storage It would have taken three days to just to get that out of there.
Nothing was ready to work on. Spent the first couple of days sorting through his garage looking for tools. and changing lite bulbs. Then he wanted to gripe about it.
Its funny I told him flat out I was not up for anything that required a license yet he wanted me to do plumbing.  One thing led to another and he wanted  us to do major remodeling like replace his windows in the front of his house etc. Now all of that we could have  done. That was not the deal breaker.


The job allegedly came with a 28 ft RV.  The orignal agrement was he would provide hook ups for and we would purchase on payments for my son. W wold work out some sort of contribution fr the utilities.  Almost immediately he wanted me to rent a spot at an RV park, Now housing and 10.00 a man hour is not to bad but when he took away the housing 10.00 an hour aint  all that much when your paying motel bills or rv space plus hooks ups. the profit margin crashed on that one. Still that was nothe deal breaker.  The fact that he wanted get work that wold have easily cos him way more then 10.00 an hour done as cheap as possible I can understand.Yes, I still have all the emails about this.




The travel trailer has storm damage which was repairable we knew that up front. When we got there and tore into the damaged area to see how  extensive the wood frame damage was,  come to find out that trailer has BLACK MOLD in it.  I've done black mold twice.  Once for myself and once for a lady I did garden wort for as a personal favor. THAT STUFF CAN KILL YOU!  Not something I want to Tackle especially not for 10.00 an hour after he had already tried to rip me off on wages. Black mold or mold of any type is a dangerous thing!  It is HEAVILY regulated by state and federal law.
Long story short in between that and him trying to gip me out of wages it did not last.  The final straw that broke the camels back was his hidden agenda. He knew this was a TEMPORARY THING!  He is in my groups and knew , same as any one else does that MY GOAL IS BLUE WATER! NOT living in an land locked area ANY WHERE!  He came up while  we were working on the wrought iron and tells me his real goal was to use the travel trailer to see how we did on it with the idea m and his brother would take turns hiring us to do work in his brothers RV rebuild place and his house.  He was trying  to "help" his bother since he apparently has trouble keeping people hired.  IN THIS ECONOMY?  That told me right there all I wanted to know.  When he old me that I about dropped my jaw to the ground.   After we go done working I told him we needed to solve the housing problem He allegedly went blank on ideas. He started griping about how I had not brought the boat., which he agreed to before we left. I gather his idea was that we would live in he boat when we found out the black mold was s to bad to stay in the travel trailer. I guess he figured he wold have us by the short hair and in a bind. I told him we were gong to go eat and he should text me if he had an idea. Spending  the night in a COLD mountain area in my van with two dogs and packed to the roof  was not my idea of how I wanted to live. Did not have enough cash left since I had spent ever thing  to just get there to do his job, so we headed south. Sleeping in the van is one ting but freezing  our butts of while doing it is a different horse altogether.
Yeah, I should have called OSHA or NLRB. I have something much more effective in mind. I am  letting providence deal with him.  Momma always said, what you do will ALWAYS come back to you and I expect he is going to get to walk a long walk in our shoes, sooner or later.




The good news is my son found him a place in a very nice area and is now on his own.
Me? I'm back in Oklahoma getting things set to up to deal with house. Have an unexpected gliche but nothing that can't be solved, It is just going  to delay selling house a bit. If your a praying person, do me a favor and pray the problem gets resolved so I can get house sold.


In the mean  time I am working on tiny things to get house  ready to go and working on the 16 foot challenger.


Sail safe but sail.

technology/Space Hurricne? Solar Storm? Either way its why I dont rely on "JUST"

Here is the text.

 GPS and all that may be a good thing . I don't want to become to dependent on any thing like that since one of these could theoretically wipe out the entire grid.

Taken off of Yahoo news. 

This story was updated at 1:28 p.m. EST.

A wave of charged particles from an intense solar storm is pummeling the Earth right now, which may trigger stunning aurora displays and cause minor disruptions to satellites over the next two days, NASA scientists say.

The storm began when a powerful solar flare erupted on the sun yesterday (Jan. 23), blasting a stream of charged particles toward Earth. This electromagnetic burst, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), hit Earth at about 9:31 a.m. EST (1430 GMT), according to scientists at the Space Weather Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"It's a minor to moderate storm," Yihua Zheng, a lead researcher at the Space Weather Center, told SPACE.com. "Probably in the next 10 hours or so, people at high latitudes can see auroras. This could maybe cause communication errors at the polar caps, but the magnetic activities are probably not too strong."

The northern lights displays will be especially visible for people in northern latitudes where it is currently night.
"For parts of Europe already, and further points to the east, we should expect to see strong magnetic storm conditions," Harlan Spence, an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, director of its Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, told SPACE.com. "There's a very good chance tonight that we'll be seeing some very strong auroral displays. Typically auroras occur at relatively high latitudes, but for events like this, you could get auroras down at mid to low latitudes."

When a coronal mass ejection hits Earth, it can trigger potentially harmful geomagnetic storms as the charged particles and the fields within it interact with the planet's magnetic field lines. This can amp up normal displays of Earth's auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), but a strong CME aimed directly at Earth can also cause disruptions to satellites in orbit, as well as power grids and communications infrastructures on the ground.

Yesterday's solar flare set off an extremely fast-moving CME, Zheng said, and the associated radiation storm was the strongest since 2005. But the ejected cloud of plasma and charged particles was not directly aimed at Earth, and is hitting the planet at an angle instead. This glancing blow will likely lessen any impacts on Earth, she added. [Photos: Huge Solar Flare Sparks Major Radiation Storm]

"Earth's magnetic field served as a shield, and pretty much shielded the radiation so that it doesn't penetrate that deep," Zheng said. "It's like a car collision: head-on or off to the side. A CME is like that too. For this one, if it was a direct hit, Earth would receive a much stronger impact. This one was on an angle — toward higher latitudes and a little off the ecliptic — otherwise it would be a much stronger impact."

Still, the storm does rank as the biggest space radiation event in about seven years, Spence said.

"It's not as big as some of the big, historic storms, but the chance for re-intensification is still possible because this active spot on the sun that created the initial havoc could go off again," he explained.

Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and the Stereo spacecraft observed the massive sun storm. Data from these spacecraft were combined to help scientists create models to calculate when and where the CME was going to hit Earth.
"A CME is kind of like a space hurricane," Zheng said. "You have to predict how it will form and evolve. From the models, we can see which spacecraft will be in its path, and what will be impacted."
At the Space Weather Center, scientists were able to pinpoint the arrival of the CME more accurately than ever before.
"We predicted it would arrive at 9:18 a.m. and in reality, it arrived at 9:31 a.m., so ours has a 13-minute error," Zheng said. "Usually for this kind of model, the average error is seven hours, so this is the best case."

Yesterday's solar flare was rated an M9-class eruption, which placed it teetering on the edge of being an X-class flare, the most powerful type of solar storm. M-class sun storms are powerful but mid-range, while C-class flares are weaker.

The flare erupted from sunspot 1402, a region near the meridian of the sun that has been active for a while now, Zheng said. The powerful solar storm could be signaling that the sun is waking up after an extended period of relative dormancy.

The sun's activity waxes and wanes on an 11-year cycle. The star is currently in the midst of Solar Cycle 24, and activity is expected to continue ramping up toward the solar maximum in 2013.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of the auroras sparked by the solar storm, or other skywatching image, and would like to share it for a possible story or gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.

Do I need to say more?

Logic of a group

 I posted a question about cells and providers on one of my groups. It has a rather lively discussion going on. That's the god thing  about yahoo groups . You ask a question and learn more then you ever thought you would know. Some really good ideas came out of it for  sailing and getting things done on the cheap. This is one of those make it work type of ideas that make me glad I found this group. Thanks Andrew


"LMAO  you reminded me about the log.  On my last sharpie i had rigged a copper toilet float with an eye screw and i could pull a string and drop it at the bow and time when it passed the stern to calculate my speed.  Crude but it worked well.  Especially Nice if you have a boat of even length like 25 or 30 feet."

Global "warming" brings COLDER TEMPS?

What in the heck is going on with this weather? Last winter was a bone chiller.This last summer was like we were in death valley. In fact on many days it was hotter here then it was in Death Valley.I checked just to see. The first of June  was 105 degrees hot and it stayed that way  and hotter until all of a sudden in September it went to cool and now the first of November is is cold to the point of below freezing already. In  the over 20 years since I have lived here, this is NOT normal. This is more like upper Midwest not  South west!
 Now I'm fairly easy to get along with . I have learned to roil with the punches but this is ridiculous!
All the talk about global warming that I hear makes me wonder what the SAM heck is going on. How can we be having :global warming if the winters are slowly getting  COLDER?
This gal has had enough!

Roca ancor testimony

There was a discussion on one of my yahoo groups about how some of the Chinese made Roca anchors built recently were  made from metal that is not up to specs.This is an excerpt from that posting from a guy who has had one for 5 years. . Apparently if you can get one that was made a while back or one not made in China they are darned good anchors.


"I will tell you that in 5 years of owning one. It sets in it's own length every time and has never dragged in any bottom condition if using anything near proper scope.
I wouldn't buy a different brand. If you gave me another brand, I'd sell it and get another Rocna......
My boat is a windage barn, (51 foot cat). It's held in 50+ knot gusts, steady 40's. I'm not in the frame of mind to go out and test it in conditions I don't ever want to be in, so you'll have to go with the above.
Yep, that's a testimonial! No one pays me.

Scott s/v Beach House

Thanks Scott"

Finding your future Mrs Right and not a(nother) future EX wife

This is something I posted on a yahoo group.  the thread was about finding women who actually enjoy sailing and how giving up home and hearth to live on a boat and take long term cruises goes against the girl mindset.. since I'm not sure of copy right laws in posting what someone else put on a group I m only posting my responses.

*************************
1st Post
Hi Wow! That'a quite the question. I'm a woman so let me ask you some questions from the purely feminine perspective.

Rule one: if you want your wife ( and family ) on board with this idea the
first thing you have to do is get them / her on board, literally. she has to
feel safe with this idea or there will be hell to pay.

do you and your wife ever go boating on a regular basis or is this something
that your throwing at her out of no where? as in her private reaction ( that no
wife ever lets her man see from what I am told ) as a land lubber is WOW I did
not see that one coming!!!!!

I keep seeing this same type of question asked so Im going to put my foot in
here and share some stuff men just do not think about. Women are territorial
creatures. Hubby , home hearth and offspring are what is drilled into our heads
from that first bottle. If you want a gal to do this you have to get her on your
side completely and keep her there. How do you do this? First of all. if she is
not a boater start her out gradually. If your sailing let her learn to sail.
Someone mentioned put her in charge of the tiller right off the bat. That's good
advice. If your hitting her with this out of the blue, your asking her to
"abandon" every thing she knows for a world she is absolutely foreign to for a
couple of months to a year. Its not like you were talking about a car trip for
the week end to Florida. A woman is competent in her own home, Asking her to do
this out of the blue is asking her to violate her instincts. you talking putting
her in a position where she has major inadequacy issues. It takes her out of her
comfort zone and no one likes being in that position.

If your going for more then the occasional over night or day trip, what does the
galley look like? Is she going to hate the way it is setup? Is it going to make
her nuts trying to fix your three meals a day? I think it was annie hill that
covered that aspect of things. Hill and pardy both go into the importance of
having a galley that does not make you crazy. carol touches on it on her site
boat galley.
if she does not know how to run a boat then your asking her to face the
possibility that you might get hurt and all of a sudden she is completely
helpless dealing with something she has not got a clue as to how to cope with.
You mentioned the children. get them involved on a day boating basis. you might
be surprised at how they blossom and become competent.
FUN responsibility is a good way to strengthen their fiber. It is also a good
bonding thing. Just don't tell them this is a character building exercise. its
about having some fun as a family as far as they are concerned.

When was the last time you romanced your wife? Im talking romance NOT adult
relations. hey it may sound nuts but as one possible example, take "day" trips
that cover watching a sun set with her favorite beverage and your arms around
her will make a big difference. Make it part of your personal boating tradition
and see how much farther you get and how much faster. Do some of that stuff you
have not taken time to do since the children were born and get her mind to
associate the female version of "good time" ( ROMANCE ) with boating.


Do you already have the boat? is she a boater? if not , set her up for success .
take her out to dinner, apologize for springing this on her unexpectedly.
suggest day trips, and make sure it is a positive experience for her, do not
mention the long term goal of the ICW, let her gradually work her confidence up
so that its not such scary proposition. gradually work those days trips into
weekends that don't result in it being more work for her then it is worth, if
YOU do the packing and a large part of the prep work so its FUN for her instead
of a major packing and unpacking pain you will make a lot more progress. (see
Annie hills book on that nightmare). let her "skipper" the packing. instead of
having to do it ALL by HERSELF have her tell you how to do it and what to take
so all she has to do is make the list of what to take and you do the packing
loading and unloading . if she ROFLMAO while your doing it laugh with her and
admit your trying but not real great at this. if you laugh together over it she
will probably end up helping you. do NOT take that as a signal saying you can
abandon ship, keep working together on the not so fun parts and you have a
happier wife.
let things develop gradually at at apace she can handle and who knows you might
be surprised.
AS FAR AS THE KIDDOS GO. LET them GET COMPETENT SO THEY SEE YOUR RESPECT FOP
Their BOAT Handling ABILITIES AND YOU WOULD BE Surprised HOW THEY CHANGE. sorry
about caps its this small net book keyboard.
HAVE FUN AND SAIL SAFE


************
2nd post
 this is inherently true. it goes against the girl chromosome. there are ways to get around it however.  now i speak from the strictly girl view point so bear with me. what i have discovered is if the  interpersonal dynamics in a relationship are not good, a guy who comes up with this idea after years of marriage or ltr  aint got a snow balls chance in you know where.  if however that same couple has great interpersonal dynamics , there is a chance he can wean her onto the idea.  it takes time, but just like any thing else it is doable IF handled correctly.
 i posted the love dare ( off topic folder)  with the idea it might come in handy for that problem, ( it is the most comprehensive paper i have ever seen on it even if a person does not buy into the "religious stuff" .

yes there are women who just dont get the fact men have needs to do guy stuff.  it bites but it is true.  some women have men who have the same problem in reverse, some guys just do not get the concept that there are certain things that are simply a "she thang".

 for the guys who are already in a ltr,  dont go jumping off the deep end right off the bat.  go take some trips with other people or rent a boat and take her with , give her a chance to make up her own mind what she thinks about it with NO pressure.  it is a crap shoot. just like any gamble if you dont take the shot you cant win. start out small and work your way up,let her mention the fact you need a bigger boat so she can have an easier time fixing dinner. After you know she likes it, once your sure she likes sailing you might mention you were thinking about getting a bigger boat so the galley would be nicer for her.  let her chew on it,. or if you already have a large enough boat, let her use the galley and ask her in a nice moment if she has any ideas of how you can make the galley ( or other part of boat) more to her liking.  IE: give her the VOTE! if it is feasible then do it.  most women are not completely tyrannical on things given a viable alternative.  if you have been wed long enough she knows your not made of gold bars. find something that works for you .

 if nothing you tried gets you off the dock, other then the love dare i have not got a suggestion that has a chance of working. if her objections are other priorities you could be using the cash on, take her seriously AND MEET HER HALF WAY.  in the movie fireproof his boat money was a major point of contention, had he not been a jerk he would have had a boat and still saved his marriage,  but we all know about saving all your life for the high priced boat and never getting it, so im thinking you all comprehend that aspect.


if your single and looking, my suggestion is avoid high maintenance females, they dont like getting dirty or breaking nails or not getting the land lubber lifestyle fixings. you can spend money on your boat or her 99.00 manicures. pick one.
 I notice neither Annie or Pardy appear to be high maintenance females. I also noticed Pete took Annie out sailing on a sever budget and had her  used to his being an extremely frugal person  long before he popped the question. He did not quiver and let her think he agreed with her, he found out she would work with him BEFORE he proposed. No offense meant to Pete and Annie but they made it work and are good examples of what can be done if a guy uses his head in the first mate department.

 Take a look,( if you have not read the book beg borrow or buy a copy  and read it form this aspect. there is your mentor guys)  the only thing he had going for him was his smarts, a tiny little boat and Annie. She  had the sense to recognize that this was who Pete was and accepted it so over time it worked out. lets face it starting out they barely had a  pot to pee in or a port window to throw it out as the saying goes but they both had the right attitude and Pete let her take it at her pace. You guys are the same way, if a gal throws something at you from left field you need time to chew on it if it is going to work. give the gal the same respect and if she is just not willing break it off and keep looking.Find places gals that really enjoy sailing hang out, I DONT mean the yacht club flies at the bar. We do exist, we are just an extremely rare breed.

part of the problem i suspect is those of us who are  into this dont fit mens " romantic " or "fantasy" much less adult activities "turn on" notions of what men are  looking for in a gal. your going to have to rethink your priorities, if you want the  nails and hair look in bed, you have to consider nails and hair dont sail well.
let your attractions be based on mutual compatibility instead of letting your " other priorities" do your thinking  for you . yes you know exactly what I'm referring to . I had to find a G rated way to say that.
 
just as an example read the page i posted in my blog, scroll down to the woman behind the wrench part. as a rule gals like us are independent breed for  what ever reason. men normally RUN like their life depends on it from gals like us.  it is a paradox to be sure.  if a gal has the salt to want to do this, you have to let her figure out that your worth trusting with her life and boat ( if she already has one). shes not going to let just any idiot be her skipper in life much less on the water. what she HAS to see in you tells her your the one for her and then she has to make absolutely sure she is right.  that takes time. Having a boat does NOT mean you fit HER criteria!  if and when she chooses to let you see her softer side, you will know it. just dont freak out when she lets you see it, if she cant be soft when she wants to you  WILL blow it! Little things mean a lot!
men seem to think they choose the gal, yes you get a vote but the bottom line is the man only has the question, the gal still has to answer it.
 think  about it,
smooth seas and fair winds.

UPDATE on The Toy

Folks have commented on  why am I not focusing on The Toy. Mostly it is because I am focused on The Venture, I really want her in the water ASAP!
Also I have been reading all the books I have been getting. 
I've been debating on do I cut The Toy down in length or leave it as she is.  I'm fairly close to the Texas border and in Texas a boat smaller then 14 ft does not need to be tagged. Since my first choice for closest possible sailing spot is Lake Texhoma, I'm thinking it would save me money.
Either way I can tie it down to the Ventures deck and go . In the back of my mind assuming the guys will want to come with, I figure we can take both and they can go do their thing while I'm doing my thing.
Since I'm going to learn how to fiber glass with the rudder, I'm seriously thinking to just fiberglass her hulls with polyester. That way I could conceivably have her in the water soon after it warms up enough to get it done.
I bought a small trailer from a neighbor cheap enough, I need it get it new tires. Putting a floor on it is a thought I have been playing with . It needs the tongue extended but that is not a big problem. The idea is use that to pull the Toy until I have a roof rack for  her made to fit the Lumina or get a tow vehicle for the Venture and use that.  I have a light weight hitch for the lumina..  Most of this is outside work and let's face it , winter  just not conducive to out door work, even in Oklahoma.
So for all you folks out there that have been wondering whats up with The Toy, that's the latest on her.

CONSUMER ALERT!!!!!

CONSUMER ALERT!!!!! READ THE  MSDS on any product if someone tells you it is the same as another product BEFORE YOU BUY!

Well I thought I was good to go on the rudder for doing the fiberglass this week or as soon as the weather warmed up. It  turns out there is some sort of mix up with the bondo samples that were  sent so it appears that completing  this part is going to have to wait until payday.  I have an email sent to the tech I have been talking to so will see what happens. People make mistakes. It's not a big earth shaking deal. If I sound ungrateful it is because THIS IS SO frustrating!

 As stated through out this blog, I have WAY to much Scot in me to waste the samples sent. I have been thinking on this. What I am going to do is use the NON marine stuff sent on the inside to laminate the boards together where water will not touch them and use the BOAT YARD on the out side.  If I do it right the inner NON marine grade bondo will never see water, so it will be fine.
 I am still going to use the Boat yard product line since it is a lot cheaper then the other fiber glassing epoxies. If it was not for price difference I'd go with the  west or systems 3. I'm going to test it and see if the rudder holds up. Why am I being so hard headed on this? It is MY BOAT we are talking about here. I'm not expecting that every one I deal with have the sailing bug but sheesh!
 
I did the research. The end user sources online ALL agree, the NON MARINE grades of bondo are TEMPORARY for marine use, same as using duck tape and a piece of cardboard wrapped in a zip lock bag or  a piece of ply wood with a water  proof  5 minute epoxy to get you to shore are temporary fixes. 


 I asked about using the tempera paint  as a substitute since finding marine grade materials is not so easy in this land locked location. According to the same gentleman who told me the samples sent are identical in nature as the boat yard line,  TEMPERA is not a good idea since there is no way to know what fillers etc they put into the tempera.  Some additives will prevent bondo products from curing! According to this same tech support person, I can use  3 ounces of the strongest universal paint tint they have at any place that tints paint such as HD or Lowe's  (for white) and it will color one gallon of Bondo  to opaque. If he is correct on this issue we have a source for cheap custom colors. The question is do I want to trust him on this after the mix up on the other or not. I HATE being put in this kind of a position!

Cold hard facts time. We are talking about a rudder, not a hull. Do I want to take the time to rebuild a new rudder if he is WRONG on this as well? I did a search for bondo colorants, I went  to their site. That site is NOT user friendly. I got tagged for a survey and I actually did it. I gave the web site related questions  1 on everything,. If I could have given zeros I would have.  After going through the process of adding a - minus sign to all the various NON relevant terms and items that came up I found NO link to colorant so I guess they are not making marine colorant any more.
Bottom line, I have entirely to much Scot in me to waste time on a product the I have reason to believe might let me down later when I need it the most.  I'm putting a lot of work and materials into this rudder and I'm not going to risk bad advice for false economy over the cost difference of proven colorant vs non marine paint colorant..

I have looked up universal marine colorants in bulk. I found nothing that was specifically mentioned as for marine use so I'm back to getting something probably from jamestown.  Granted I did not search through all the zillions of links but then I'm not into spending hours upon hours looking for this type of item.

 If I can find a cheaper source of MARINE grade tint that works with bondo I'll let you know.  If bad comes to worse and I POSITIVELY HATE this idea. I'll forgo the colorant and just paint it with marine grade paint. Chips I'll just have to  keep on top of so it does not look shabby.
Repeat after me.  It's about getting in the water!
 I decided to submit this question  to yahoo answers. 
Will see what happens.

To all who would rain on my parade

I have debated doing this page for a while, It's not going to stop eating at me until I do so here goes......

Please click on this you tube presentation


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt_NjJk9gM4.

Happy Sailing

In The Back of My Mind

In the back of my mind, I keep thinking a person can use this same technic to make a blue water worthy cat.   I'm planning on doing hull number 2 from the out side in. This plan is doable for a smaller boats. In Oklahoma any thing HAS to be licensed. In other states such as Texas if you run a 14 foot or less  boat it does not have to be registered.  My original idea was a cloth or fiber glass hull covering and it would work.

For the second hull, since I have decided to go with the wood hull and since I will have the dimensions figured out for that from covering this hull, I am going to simply build the hull and fill it in with the recycled  bottles and Styrofoam, then fill in the  small voids between bottle and foam  with the canned foam to hold it all together.  It also eliminates the original 3/4 " PVC frame used in hull #1.

In a blue water boat, my thought is find a basic wood or fiber glass hull design that accommodates this much flotation and fill the portion you want to fill as float with the same materials. An alternate idea is simply line the hulls with a layer of the recycled materials and cover it with perhaps wood or fiberglass.
If a person did not want to go that route, making this same pattern thicker in circumference should work although I have no idea of what to suggest as far as measurements go. For that information I would look to see what other proven designs do and emulate that.
Happy Sailing

ATTENTION ALL LADIES!!!!!!! and other news about The Toy

While cruising the sporting good section I came across something that had me smiling so hard I thought my face would crack and it is JUST for girls!!!!!!

ALL I am going to say is click on the link and look for your self and remember, out of all the male recovered man over board victims many of the men had their fly open so DO NOT use this at the stern!!!!!!!!

The Toy is progressing. I am making final decisions on the wood covering of hull 1. After I figure out exactly how deep I want to make this and how I am going to adjust things, I'll post an update.

We Test Sail

Today we tested the sail on the make shift mast in the front yard. It has no rigging except for the halyard and some ties I slipped under the battens to practice the concept of reefing but it looks really good. The idea is if I cant get all the blocks etc for the rigging this next month I can at least sail it as a crab claw. Went to take a picture and the camera was not charged so the camera is charging and tomorrow I will take a pic and post it.

Other then that today has been about saw dust. YUK! One of the guys cut me a LOT of chines for the # 1 hull. I have part of them sanded just enough to take the splinters out. Have coated all sides with Thompson's water seal.

 Tomorrow is going to be about finish sanding the chines and applying a coat of water seal on them and hopefully start assembling the bottom  out side of the hull.  Once I get hull # 1 finished getting hull 2 done should go a lot faster since I will have the basics already accommodated.

A Puzzle

Wow, I just noticed  it has been almost two weeks since I posted any thing. It has been that busy around here. In between BOOTS last month and going to Lake Eufaula this month, there has not been a lot of time to work on The Toy lately. The good news is progress has been slow but sure and we are ready to do a float test. Now what with her being made of foam and bottles, I am not the least bit worried that she won't float. I want to know where the water line is going to be for sure with  the  comparatively light load of only two or three adults on her before I say the bare boned first hull is finished and ready for the temporary  "final" cover of being fitted with the heavy duty tarp I broke down and got this month.
She is not as light as I had hoped , but she can be moved by two people as the guys and I can all three attest to. Taking her to get the weight of this first hull is definitely on the agenda. It has been getting a lot cooler so I moved her into the house to work on her again, It like like moving a 18 ft long and very skinny couch,. but it is doable. I was hoping one 10 ' x 20 ' heavy duty tarp would do but the circumference is just a bit to wide so, in between the left overs from the new tarp and the other I had purchased,  we will have plenty of tarp left over to make sails while we are experimenting with what we like before we spend the money on "real" sails.
Oh, before I forget, Eufaula was a bust as far as me getting any sailing done, but I did learn a lot. about Puddle ducks, sail size etc.
 
The junq rig sail that I was given is about 5x 16 so I am thinking that it is about right for The Toy but plan on keeping it reefed to about 50 square foot as a normal thing  for general practice while I am learning.
For the purpose of experimenting I  am using 1 1/2 inch PVC for a temporary mast and 1 1/4 inch for booms while I figure out how to get this sail rigged.  Needless to say it is going to be a FLAT WATER ONLY boat until I get different materials or am satisfied that the PVC can handle the stress. . (The guys are talking about building PD racers so I'm  thinking about letting them have the wood I bought a while back for mast. Two end to end with lap joints make just about the right size for a short mast to get them started with a lateen sail.) I'm thinking if the PVC is not strong enough and yes I have my questions about that, the local building supply store sales 1 5/16" round stock that fits inside the 1- 1/2 PVC quite nicely for reinforcement. I have a 20' joint of pipe.  I'm thinking  butt end two sticks of round with epoxy and water proof the wood by putting caps on the end. For convenience sake I'm thinking a screw on cap at  mast top. Yes, I am planing on using wood inserts to reinforce the PVC where hardware is attached. Found out the polyurethane idea is a complete bust but that's OK,  you live and learn.
 For the float test I have wrapped the hull up in a heavy duty tarp with duck tape. I thought about using the gorilla tape but since this is just an extremely temporary  set up just  to test water line, wasting the extra 7.00 a roll did not seem like a smart move. As soon as we get her back home all that tape is going in the trash so we can go onto the next step.

Yes it's as ugly as it can be and has more wrinkles then my great grandmothers brow.  Until I find out where the water line is I do not want to cut a brand new tarp. Once I find out if I am going to have to increase the height of the hulls and get it done on this first hull, then I'll cut the tarp to fit. Right now it is folded up on one side and looks pretty sad.
 I am planning on increasing the hulls depth  some to accommodate placing a strip of 2 x 4 length wise on top of  each hull to have something solid to fasten cleats and other items to as it becomes needed.
 
 I had the strangest thing happen at Eufaula. Someone commented that what I am doing scares them. I can't imagine why. It truly puzzles me.  The basic design is already tested on what I would imagine are millions of pontoons all over the world.  Seriously, if you look at a pontoon boat and this one, the similarities are astounding.  A pontoon usually has 2  large long rectangular pieces of square bottom foam  that are fastened to a deck with aluminum frames that go around or through the foam. This design has two long  triangular pieces of foam with the structural support going through the foam and coming up from that 4 inch PVC base to attach to the deck. 

While a pontoon is one large piece that you would not be disassembling to move,  The Toy is designed to be modular. Although the original goal of fitting on top of my car may or may not work out due to my car being a small Lumina, as it sits right now, I have been researching that issue and THINK I MAY have found the solution on instructables. It is as simple as extending the usable length of the car with a hitch extender which will work, some tie downs and a roof rack. I need to drive to Harbor freight get some parts, but that's not a problem. Until I get the parts all I have to do is take it slow the few miles out to the local lake and I'm good to go.

We finally got the hitch I bought checked. It will work I just need to get the bolts etc to install it.  I have been keeping my eye open for a light weight trailer I can modify to use but so far have not managed to get that part accomplished . Not having the hitch on puts a real cork in bringing a trailer home. LOL
The long term plan is get an extended van. The hulls will fit on top and I can set it up for long term camping. With a winch and the right rooftop rack, the hulls will go on top as slick as grease. Put a cargo extender on the hitch for the decks and other items that might not fit inside and I'll be all set up  for going where ever the sailing looks good.
 My son, who owns the digital camera, has promised he will get me the pics from BOOTS tomorrow. Here is hoping he does not get busy and  forget. I would like to see them myself.  Considering we are taking the camcorder to document the waterline test I think it will happen.


Went shopping for boat stuff. Bought a fluke anchor although I'm thinking I may want a mud anchor as well before things progress to far. Need to find out what the local lakes bottoms are for sure. Will be carrying 20 ft of 1/4 inch chain and have 75 ft of  1/4" anchor line. Yes, they are both over sized for this boat but I live in a small  town and you take what you can get. This should be more then enough for local area lakes since I am only planning on anchoring close to shore.  Got the hard ware to get the rudder(s) attached once I get it / them built. I found dock line and sheets at a really decent price at Lowe's, I think it was. Got at least part of the hardware for halyards etc. Still need to get or make cleats and more hardware. All in all, we are pretty close to being good to go on those areas.

One of the big questions is how to rig this Junk sail.  I am really leaning in favor of Junq rigs as a permanent fixture based on what I have read for ease of single handing. This particular sail was originally designed as a flat sail with curved battens.
Realizing there is this HUGE learning curve for me,  I did some searching online. It appears  the original Chinese junq sails were flat with flat battens, so I'm thinking  to go with that and see how I do at least for now.  For the purpose of learning how to rig this sail as well as play on flat water for a while. I'm thinking use some 3/4 inch PVC just to get out on the water and see if I can rig it right to actually sail. YES I plan to HUG THE SHORE LINE IN VERY LIGHT WINDS. If needed I'll insert wood doweling into the PVC for strength.

Why am I using so much PVC ? It's a LOT cheaper then wood for this stage of things and it does not need protecting from water. This means I get on the water faster.  To quote something I read online, It is about sailing not sawdust.  Once I get the experimental parts figured out  ( read that as figure out how I want to do parts of this,) I'll go to wood if the PVC does not work.. If I stick with the PVC I'm not out any money. If I go to just wood and can't find a buyer for the "used" PVC, I can always donate it to the Habitat for Humanity. resale store. Either way it is a win- win situation. Those do not happen very often.
All things considered and duly noted, life is good.

May your winds all be fair and your anchors firmly fastened.