The Cape Dory Board

This has been a special boat for me and my family for the last 10 years, but it’s time for our sailing journey to go in a different direction. Dragonfly is a sturdy, seaworthy vessel in good condition. All major maintenance has been taken care of over the years. She’s not cosmetically perfect, but s...

Interesting idea, but I'm skeptical it would work out as well as you hope. My experience with ratcheting blocks it that they need a decent amount of wrap around the sheave before they have enough friction to work well, and the angles of the jib sheet aren't likely to give you that. And then from a p...

Yikes! I'm sorry to hear you had a bolt failure. Glad that it turned out ok though and you didn't lose anything more serious, like your mast. I took a look at https://www.rigrite.com and didn't see this chainplate there. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough? It's a simple-enough piece that you could...

My Typhoon Weekender anchored out overnight at Power Island, in Grand Traverse Bay.

Short answer, no, you don't need to be scared off by this. The compression post has to do with some older Typhoons having a less-than-adequate cabin structure to support the pressure of the mast, so it sags a bit. Later models had some additional support added. In other words, it's not a balsa core ...

Thanks for looking - feel free to send questions (everyone wants to see the engine, but I don't show that without getting to know a person first ; ) I'll bet they do! I don't see a prop aperture in the out-of-the-water pic. How does all that horsepower get delivered to the water? ;) Nice-looking bo...

That hole does look pretty gnarly. Maybe it was never drilled/tapped for the bolt? That would make me wonder what purpose the bolt serves, which was why I was curious what the top of the rudder shaft looks like. I'm somewhat tempted to try knocking mine off to give it a look, but I'm more tempted to...

Ah, I missed that it was a daysailer. That does look challenging!

A proper fix would most likely involve removing the cleat, backfilling the hole with epoxy to seal it, and then reinstalling the cleat with proper sealant and hardware. Not an easy job thanks to the lack of access. I re-bedded my aft cleats a couple of years ago. A previous owner added a second clea...

Here's what mine looks like. The bolt is 1/4-20, 3/4" long. As you can see from the photo it probably doesn't need to be that long. 1/2" seems like it would be fine. Mine wasn't even threaded in particularly tightly, so I'm glad I poked at it! Out of curiosity, does anyone know what the to...

Just wanted to say I like the photo of your Ty with the Bahai'i temple behind it! That's a unique shot.

John Stone wrote:I just started Wooden Boats as recommended by Tim. Very entertaining. I'll have more to say about it later but I am really enjoying it. About 50 pages in at the moment. No, I don't want a leaky wood boat....

You don't want a leaky wood boat yet...

I agree that that seems a little odd. The chainplate for the upper shroud is in line with the mast, so the shroud will tend to pull those spreaders back forward unless some other alteration has been made.

The wood boat industry and their info machine is a force to be reckoned with. Are the March blahs getting to you, John? ;) They're a real thing up here in Michigan, I'm not sure about North Carolina. We're not talking about the DeBeers diamond monopoly, or the oil & gas industry. I don't think ...

All that said, I have included some excerpts below from test results and analysis provided by Gougeon Bros (West Systems--my epoxy of choice), the US Forest Service, 3M Company, etc. The test results indicate Resorcinal based glues are a better adhesive for wood than epoxy. Better meaning stronger ...