peanut sailboat

I saw this neat little sailboat for sale on Craigslist the other day.

here is a bit more history on the Peanut sailboat.

Norm Abrams builds a Clancy sailboat

I just found this 2-part series that Norm Abrams did for his show New Yankee Workshop where he builds a plywood and epoxy sailboat.  Norm first visits the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington to talk with Bob Pickett, the builder/developer of the sailboat Norm plans to build – the Clancy.

the Clancy sailboat is built using marine grade plywood and 2-part epoxy.  Norm doesn’t ever mention the brand of epoxy, but it sure looks like WEST System epoxy.  the joints in the plywood are covered with fiberglass tape, and epoxied into place to create a strong joint that is also water-tight.

several coats of epoxy are also used to cover the entire wooden surface to again seal up the wood and make the boat water-tight.  as the epoxy is not very resistant to UV light, the bottom is painted with marine grade paint, and the sides and deck of the boat are varnished to provide a protective layer.

part 1 of the series (these are not very high-quality videos – if you plan to build one, I’d buy the DVD and plan set from New Yankee Workshop):

and part 2:

Duckworks Magazine has a great page on building a Clancy sailboat as well with several pictures of the process.

measured drawings for the Clancy sailboat are available from the New Yankee Workshop website, and you can also purchase a DVD with both episodes of the show.

I’ve always loved watching Norm on New Yankee Workshop, and woodworking has been a hobby of mine for a while.  I’ve been pretty happy with my Sunfish sailboats, but it might be a fun project to combine the love of woodworking and sailing into one project to work on over a long Michigan winter.

sunfish at sixty

EastBayRI.com has a great article by Bruce Burdett posted right now about the Sunfish sailboat and it’s manufacturer in Portsmouth, Rhode Island: Sunfish at sixty: Most popular boat ever still keeps them busy at Portsmouth plant

The little Sunfish, far and away the most popular sailboat ever built, just turned 60 and they’re still churning them out at the rate of four a day at LaserPerformance in Portsmouth.

HT: @LaserPerform

2,000 km in a Laser 2 [video]

this is a great video created by Igor Stropnik of Slovenia of his single-handed sailing trip in a Laser 2 sailboat up and down the coast from Slovenia to Albania and back – a 36 day, 2000 km trip.

there is a difference between living and being alive

HT: @Laserperform

navigating past the goose, part 3

apparently, geese really do enjoy sailing!  here are a few of them attending the latest Laser Performance event.

photo by Laser Performance

if you haven’t seen parts 1 and 2 of the “navigating past the goose” series (can I really call it a series?), you can check them out here:

• navigating past the goose
• navigating past the goose, part 2

 

 

great scot!

on Sunday, I helped a friend put in his Flying Scot sailboat in at a lake near his house.  it was a hot and muggy day, so standing in the shallow lake water for several hours was a pretty nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  here is the sailboat ready to go on its trailer.

after slowly backing the trailer and Flying Scot down the narrow dirt ramp at the lake, we parked at the bottom of the ramp and started the process of stepping the mast.  since my sailboat experience is mostly in the much smaller, lateen-style rig of a Sunfish or Sunfish clone, I pretty much just did whatever I was told – in this case, I was to pull on the line connected to the mast by the jib halyard line, while my friend stood in the sailboat and did all the real work of lifting and tipping up the large mast.

as I stood there watching him try to lift up this mast, I realized that the trees were too low and overhanging at the ramp, and we were going to have trouble getting the mast all the way vertical.  about the same time, we realized there were a few other people waiting to use the same little ramp to put their jet-skis/jet-boats/power-boats into the water (there were 2 kayakers, but no other sailors).

so instead of stepping the mast on the trailer, we slid the Flying Scot off the trailer and into the water, where I held it to keep it from drifting, while my friend moved his vehicle and trailer off the ramp and out of the way.  after sinking four (4) mooring posts, and setting up a system for tying the Flying Scot to the mooring posts – we set out to now step the mast again.

I had a great view as I stood in the water this time, perpendicular to the boat, holding tight the line fed through the bow handle, and up to the jib halyard up on the mast.  my friend said it was much easier to lift the mast this time – I think he had been fighting a little extra gravity when the boat was still on the trailer, as the trailer was sitting on the inclined ramp.  we finished installing a few other parts, and then since it was very calm with little to no wind, we set up the boom tent to keep water out of the cockpit.

all told, it was a neat process – the Flying Scot looks like a pretty sweet little boat, and my awesome reward for mostly standing there and helping out occasionally, is that I’ll get to go sailing with him on the Flying Scot this summer.  as a bonus, his wife had baked some strawberry rhubarb cobbler (gluten-free, too, so my wife can eat it!) as an added thank you for helping get their Flying Scot into the water.

the chance to sail on the Flying Scot is thanks enough, but the cobbler was delicious, too!