It seems ages ago that I started this boat. Â If I figure correctly it was 3 years and two heart attacks ago. Â The boat is the Stevenson's Triad. Â The plans called for a 1x3" stiffening board along the cockpit. Â I built with 2" below the deck and 1" above instead of the entire 3" below. Â The thought is to keep some of the water that splashes over the bow from running into the cockpit. Â Other then that I followed the plans. Â It's not quite finished. Â I have to attach some hardware, finish the pad for the floor and get the name painted on but I am shooting for a launch either next weekend or the one after so it seems about done.
Her name is the Amanda Marie, named after my daughter. Â She is Interlux Seattle grey on the bottom, a mix 1/2 and 1/2 of Interlux yellow and white on top and the trim is watermelon pink. Â I used some cheap enamel for the trim because I couldn't find boat paint that was watermelon pink. Â My daughter insisted that my original paint scheme, grey over blue, were boy colors and asked me to paint the boat pink over purple. Â The final color scheme is our compromise.
Here are some pictures we took last night after I pulled most of the tape off after painting the trim.
Looks great!! Enjoy
Looking real nice Terry, the rigging is the fun part, don't put the moaning chair aside just yet. With your daughter having so much say on the colour scheme, I presume she'll be learning to sail it with you. Keep the progress photos coming.
Greg
It's good to see another Triad hitting the water, and I like the paint scheme: Very jaunty!
It's great to see family building projects like this, and I wish you both many happy adventures on the water!
Mike
Rigging for the Triad is not very tricky. It uses a latine sail so the only lines to pull are one to raise the sail and the other to control the boom swing. There is also a short piece of line that connects to two eyebolts at the rear to help with the boom. The holes are drilled ready for the eyebolts and the cleat on the mast. I cheated a bit and went with an aluminum mast and boom which is why there is a round hole in the ring that covers the mast hole. I'll build and wooden mast and boom this fall or winter but the aluminum mast will let me get the hull wet before snow flies. I built some blocks a bit ago so I could use over size lines. I find with my big paws that a 1/2" line is easier to pull then a 1/4" one.
Your sailing will be slightly better with the aluminum spars then wooden ones, especially if the wooden ones are solid. Paint them white or better yet, do a fake wood grain thing on them, which is fairly easy and is a longer lasting look, then varnish or polyurethane on wood. I did this on some carbon tubes used on a small gaff cat this summer and no one can tell they're not wood, but it only weighs 1/3 of what wooden gaff does, saving weight and improving preformance in the process too. We need more pictures too . . .
Yes to what Paul said...(I feel silly chiming in late, but I do agree, and it's so nice that there are so many sources of really good building and sailing info on these forums! I learn a lot here as well!)
The Triad has a beefy wood rig because at the time we built that boat, aluminum tubes were becoming prohibitively expensive and hard to get hold of. If you've already gone to a nice, working Aluminum rig, stick with it! I am going to be sorry to see the aluminum lateen rig which is in my patio head east to Texas in a week; so much so that I'll probably go get more tubes and make another for a Mini-Cup this Spring.
But if you're going trompe-l'oeil on the tubes, I vote for bamboo!
Mike