BYYB Forums

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've been on the boards, but I thought I would check in and say hi.

As a quick update, my weekender is still sitting mid-renovation in the garage awaiting materials, but now I actually have a plan on how I will re-finish her.

I've torn out the shortened cabin, torn out the bridge-deck, and will be tearing out the current seats, leaving me with an empty shell of a weekender.  I will be installing full length seats on a raised floor, with a new bridge-deck against the forward bulkhead.  All seating will be watertight, the seatbacks will be watertight, and each will be compartmentalized.  I'm replacing the hatch with a watertight one, and sealing up the little opening in the forward bulkhead, making the forepeak a big floatation chamber ... after sealing the mastbox and the bowsprit bits anyway.

The floor will not be watertight, but resistant, sloping to the back, and the supports underneath are going to have limber holes to allow water to flow to the back.  I'll have a pump mounted there, chucking any water over the side well above the waterline.  The idea being that if I swamp, or capsize, the boat should float on her side fairly high, and most of the water will hopefully pour over the side, and what little water does enter the boat while I right her will eventually make it to the back and be pumped out.  If necessary, I can sit on the transom to tilt the boat and get the last little bit of water under the floor, and sponge it out when I make I get around to it.  I'll be changing to a hollow mast, with floatation, to prevent turtling, and adding an off-center centerboard with some lead ballast.

I know that most here are anti-ballast, or at least were when I was last on, but I've decided I'd like to give dinghy cruising a try, and making a weekender far more capable is of great concern when she's all the "big" boat I've got, and self rescue is essential.  I've tried rescuing a flooded weekender once before, without floatation, and that was no picknic.  In open water, it would have been impossible.

All things being equal, it would probably be more effective to build a different boat for my needs and wants, but I've got a gutted weekender and she's going to make do.  :  I've got a beer cruise in my future, and there's lots of water around here that I've been aching to explore.

Before you get too excited and try to lay the pros and cons of this on me, for those of you who are not aware, my boat started as a schooner, returned to a sloop, and has never been fully stock.  From day one, she's been an experiment.  That being said, fire away. 

Have fun, change isn't always bad.  I too camp cruise and enjoy it very much.

Welcome home Stuart . . .

Stuart:

I'm very glad to see you back.  I was pretty worried when you suddenly vanished from the board after being so active for so long.

I hope all is well with you and your family.

You'll be happy to know that I'm within days of launch of my own weekender - I just have to stop those days from moving farther down the calendar.

Looking forward to picking YOUR brain too, Stuart!!

Welcome back!  Be fun to have you on a BEER cruise or the Florida 120. 

I will fire away a bit on your thoughts.  First, now living down south I am totally in favor of an open boat with some sort of tent arrangement for overnighting.  Makes for more sprawling room during the day, no cabin to accumulate heat in, and a nice big tent at night.  A few suggestions though:

1) Rig should be oversized with easy options to reef.  More fun to actually sail in 5mph wind that bob n bake.
2) Make the cockpit self draining by building the deck higher than the waterline and put in screw-out deck plates for access below.  You would have a lot of watertight storage this way down low where the weight of the stores will help the stability of your boat.  When not sailing with stores, you can use sandbags or water jugs to provide some ballast.
3) Don't put any seats in.  Just go with flat floorspace and make your side decks easy to sit on.  Flat floorspace is much more comfortable to sprawl on with some cushions or cushioned seatbacks when the winds are light and you don't need to hike out.  Get those blue cushions with backs sold at westmarine and you can use them on-shore or for sleeping on.  Hike out on the decks when the winds pipe up.  One more thing, sitting low on the bottom may permit some sort of bimini or sun shade.
4) Build lockers under side decks for storage and floatation or just put a lot of foam under the side decks and use monkey hammocks.  The second option is simpler and would keep the weight down up high.

Have fun with the project!

Glad to be back, nice warm welcome home.  Andrew, good to hear that you've moved up from the smaller boat to a Weekender.  Good job, and can't wait to hear the launch stories.

Scott, let me see if I understand this right, no seats, raised floor, somewhere between above waterline and below deck level, self bail, and storage with access ports in the raised floor, and storage under the side decks?  Hmm, I'll have to model that one out and see.  Dawn's all in favor of sprawl room, so there's something to consider.  With the dog (oh yeah, guys, we've got a 55 lb. male black lab, Dawn's guide dog) that is now considered crew, sprawl room and bimini are good things to have ... black dog and florida heat = cooked dog.

I definitely agree on the cabin vs. tent idea, and love what you did the little gem in that regard.  I'm keeping her modifications in mind when I redesign the weekender.  I also definitely agree on the need for self bailing, and positive floatation. 

Today, I tore out most of the remaining interior, and just have the starboard seat left.  It's mostly banged loose and will come out in a few minutes.  The 1x1 framing bits are still in, but that shouldn't take long to fix.  My daughter took a look at the progress and said, 'daddy, it's not a real boat anymore, it's all empty!'

In my mind, she's been far from a real boat for too long, and I'm finally doing something to fix that situation.

As for picking my brain, pick away ... it's usually nonsense, but sometimes, good things come from the insane. 

g'night all

I designed and built a similar type layout and camp cruised it for years.  It was 15 feet with 5 feet beam and a raised water tight floor.  Deck plates never really worked that well as it wasn't self bailing and rain would seep into the bottom compartments, self bailing might stop that.  The sprawling with backrests worked perfectly and was very comfortable with a boom tent to sleep in.  Before the mast was a regular height deck with a bulkhead for gear storage like anchor etc, and a small lazerette for more stuff.

Hi Stuart, glad you're back.  We missed you.  How's the wife and kiddies?

Good to hear that the layout isn't that far out into insanity. 

Hi Craig.  Good to hear from you too.  The wife and kids are fine.  Enjoying the warmth of summer and the end of school for a little while mostly.  My oldest, Devon, is going camping with his grandfather to the Goldwing state rally for a week, so we're down to Bridget and most of the neighborhood kids hastling us to use the pool constantly.

The last of the seats are gone, I'm starting on tearing out the 1x1 bracing bits and pieces next, and the joy of removing the paint from the interior areas that never got epoxy or fiberglass last time.  It's all cracked,and in the area that was the cockpit sole the plywood is a nasty color where the polyester resin and glass let water pass through and trapped it underneath.  This is going to be one MAJOR refit.  By the time she's all done though, she'll be better than new, and ready to hit some distant shores.

I spent a bit of time cleaning up after the demolition, and making a mental checklist of what's involved.  I figure that she's got more left than someone who'se just put their sides on when you factor in paint removal, and inventing a new interior as I go.  Part of the fun, I suppose.  I've been putting it off for too long, so even though I can't afford the wood, epoxy or glass yet, I've still got a ton of fixing up to do and loads of prep work, and now's as good a time as any to get that list taken care of.

I'll see about posting some pictures of her terrible state in the near future.  It's ugly, but with a touch of promise.