BYYB Forums

I just did a search of the site for post about raising the roof of the Weekender/Vacationer.

While I understand some of the answers and concerns, none of the pictures were available.

As I just received my Videos and plans and watched and read it all yesterday and went out and ordered a full size + 3X16 fresh cut White Oak Keel board.  I want to get it up in the roof rafters of my pole building and let it season over the winter and start building next spring.

I am really interested in seeing pictures of modified Vacationers and Weekenders especially any modifications that you love and any that you wish you hadn't done. 

I am 6'5" and my wife is 6' and we are a little older and the idea of crawling around on hands and knees all the time is not really attractive.  We are willing to do it for this first boat, but would like to make her as comfortable as possible.

Modifications I am interested in:  Cabin Ht & Width, keel depth and other modifications on it.  Mast Ht,  Cockpit,  steering wheel location and lighting.

Thank you for all your help.

Tom...

For those who haven't seen my boat, here is a link...  It started life as a 17' Glen-l Whitehall and ended up being a 20' Custom Whitehall. 

http://community.webshots.com/user/slvrgost

Here's a shot Tom. I raised the cabin 4" and it makes a difference. I don't think I would make it much taller, it would be hard to see over and I think it would take away from the beauty of the boat. You'll still have to crawl around inside but you'll only bash your head about half the time. http://byyb.org/gallery/displayimage.php...fullsize=1

Tom,  Very nice.  Did you change the angles to keep the cabin roof the same width?  Since the two sides converge toward the center,  when raising the top I would think that the roof would get smaller, right?

This is a good start.

Thanks.

Ahoy and welcome Tom, It is good to see another Vacationer builder in the fray.
I my self raised my cabin roof 4" as Keith has done with his. It gives plenty of room inside the cabin, and I am glad I did it. I also took 2 2x4's (fir) and inside the lazaret on either side attatched it to the upper deck and floor stringers with big screws and also filet'ed them in with thickened epoxy , the reason i did this is it does add some strength yes but Mainly I did it so i could attach my steering systen blocks to somthing substantial and not have to drill through the side of my !/4" pannels to attatch my steering system. i have herd of blocks getting pulled through somewhere and this will definetly fix it as I can about pick the boat up by these.
I also made the cockpit rear go all the way to the sides, Now this cost me an extra piece of ply wood to do this but it will help keep water from the laz out of the cockpit, and water from the cockpit out of the Lazerete.
I also instead of making my bottom rear stringer on the rear floor out of a 2x4" i used a 2x6" for no real reason but it is pretty durable in that aria now.
Hope i gave ya something to think on, good luck with your build and ask anything that you may have and we will get you the answers you need.
I am still building my vac, I have it well doccumented at brisboatyard.com
Or just click on the pirate flag in my signature to take you there.

Brian.

Thanks for the info Brian,  I have to laugh.  I tell my wife about your build under the canopy in the side yard and building out on the front walk.  I told her your boat looked like nessis the sea monster all wrapped up in the tarp.

I will look for the items that you reference, on your site.

Keep in touch and I will stay tuned in to your site.

Tom....

Seems like there are more Weekender builders than Vacationer builders here on the site.

Tom if I had it to do over I would raise the cabin and make the sides more vertical. I would also make the aft cabin bulkhead vertical moving the bottom half the distance fwd and the top half aft (~3" as I recall, note that this will negate all the OEM drawings for the cabin.).  Search on PAR's old post for some recommended keel modifications.

Thanks Craig,  I have been thinking along those lines.  Wavering off a plan is nothing new to me.  I have done it before. 

I have been thinking about using my 3X16 WO board for the keel and just tracing the deck curve on the top and leaving the bottom edge straight and true.  I would do a rake toward the back end so the rudder will come down and perhaps not go deeper like you see some sailboat rudder designs.  It may go further out the back though.  I will have to look at rudder designs. If I am understanding the plans for the keel right, I would have approx 12'-14" of a pretty heavy keel.  I would trim the leading edge to pleasing edge.  Not sharp but rounded, and same with the lower edge of the keel, however my intuition is telling me to leave it very close to the full 3' thickness along the bottom.  The taper back to meet the leading edge of the rudder.

These are only thoughts for now.  Pictures from all would be helpful.

Regards,

Tom...

Don't round over the bottom of the keel, though the leading edge wouldn't hurt having a round over.

While building your keel there are a couple of things to think about doing at that time - or at least things that I did to my Weekender keel.

I embedded the bow eye with a wing-nut right in the middle lamination of the keel.  This has made the eye super-strong (I used one that is used by hydro crews - found out later the eye was too small for the hook on the boat winch though - had to add a link of chain).  I also similarly embedded the bottom eye-bolt for the rudder.  In the plans they have you make a monsterous hole in the stern part of the keel afterwards.  I also put the hole in for a cockpit drain and finally (after the boat was more finished and upside down) added a strip of steel to protect the keel from the inevitable groundings against rocks, jet skis etc.

To seal up the holes in the keel for all of these penetrations (I also have a plywood keel - different discussion) I used roofing patch compound thinking that it would seal and stay flexible - so far (not launched yet) it has.

Hey Tom, I'm not sure I understand what you mean to do with the rudder. If I'm reading correctly it sounds like you mean to make the rudder so it doesn't go as deep into the water as the plans call for. If so, I think this would be a mistake. Fooling around with the shape of the keel is one thing, but I'm pretty sure the rudder is a pretty good idea the way it is in the plans.