BYYB Forums

hi to everyone
im  studing some modifications for my future project P.C.
i am really interesting in the  experts opinion like the biulders in this forum thanks.

Scott Widmier - who doesn't post here often, replaced the bilgeboards with leeboards like the Dutch use.  He wasn't happy with those so he took them off and put a steel centre board in his keel that he was quite happy with.  If you search past posts you might be able to find out details.

He also changed the sail plan to remove the jib, put a different rudder style on.....

Bud Wilson has a very nice PC he built some years ago.  I am sure he would be happy to advise you Palma.  Look him up in the members list or just post addressed to him.

I did have pictures and information about the center board conversion on my web site but the sorry BUTTS at Yahoo eliminated it with out telling me, so I have no back up.

Ed - gone but not forgotten.  I found a backup on the  "internet wayback machine"

http://web.archive.org/web/2004042613300...age-1.html

A lot of the pictures are even there - if you have a computer savvy friend to hand you may want to ask them to assist in copying the site if you are wanting it back.

Palma  You don't have to post to me,  I read the board almost every night. Just post you questions and I will give you my two cents worth on the P/C. First about the rudder, I have tried three or four different rudders on my P/C and gone back to the origional with a little bit of refinment on the shape. Craig Gleason can give you details on shape. A little more like an airplane wing. Scott took the fib off and increased the main. He also made the mast free standing, His P/C was the fastest one around but his mast broke off once and fell in the water. Far more speed I think the P/C can stand a little more main but it is not as stable with a bigger main. As far boards I like the dagger boards the center board puts something else in the way in the cockpit. That is just me. I want to sail easy and am in no hurry. If I get to wanting to go fast I can get on  a airplane. I sail to relax and get away from the fast pace of life. If I was going to modify anyting I would cut the keel down up front as Paul has suggested, but I would wait and see how that works for others first. Bud

My opinions for what they are worth…….

When I built my pocket cruiser I made a few modifications.  I used clear inspection hatches for portholes, modified the toe rail (addressed in scuppers vs. toe rail http://byyb.org/forum/index.php?topic=24...4#msg17834 ), shortened the cabin length by 12 inches to make the cockpit larger, and used a wooden tabernacle.  I think all of these were good decisions.

I used sail track on all the spars.  This makes putting the sail on or taking the sail off of the boat very easy and quick, but I’m not sure I’d do it again.  The gaff is attached to the mast with a gooseneck that rides on the sail track.  I have issues with the goose neck binding on the sail track when the sail is stretched tight on the gaff.  Adding the sail track was costly and don’t believe it really accomplished much.  However I don’t have any experience with mast hoops and lacing the sail to the gaff and boom.

I ran all of the lines back to the cockpit.  This is handy, but not sure it was worth the cost in blocks and line.

I would add a bridge deck if I were building again and will probably make that modification to my boat eventually.  I believe that Scott made this modification to his pocket cruiser and thought that it worked well.  ( http://byyb.org/forum/index.php?topic=20...8#msg15148 ) 

I would even consider closing in the floor space between the seats entirely, putting in a hatch or two to access the storage space underneath, and then putting in one big cockpit cushion to sit on.  Has anybody done anything like this?    There seems to be a lot of advantages – self draining cockpit, lots of emergency flotation in the stern where the engine is located, eliminates the leaky hatches on the side of seats, and makes for a big comfortable place to sit and sail.    It would move the weight of the intelligent / semi intelligent ballast a bit higher in th boat but not much.

I installed the bilge boxes per the plans and am happy with how the boat sails, but I don’t push the limits of performance.  I am still trying to devise a way to close the top of boxes off from the interior of the cabin.  When water runs across the deck and into the holes for the bilge boards, it runs into the cabin rather than out the bottom of the boat.  This is a problem.  It would be a big problem is the boat were ever on its side.  I expect that I will fill in the gap with thickened epoxy, but if I was building the boxes again I would try to make them fit tight against both the bottom of the boat and the deck.

Rather then running the tiller through a hole in the transom I modified (extended) the rudder box so that the tiller comes over the transom and through a notch in the coming.  I did this because Ed Jones suggested that the slot through the transom tended to take on water in following seas.  Ed, please correct me if I’ve got this wrong.  This seems to work fine.

Tom I think the tiller over the top is a good idea, it makes it much easyer to raise out of the way when not sailing. All lines back to the cockpit is worth the money if you sail single handed any. I am to old to sit like Buda on a cushion all day so I will leave that to you younger guys. In fact I raised my seats a little for more confort. My tiller is longer than the plans 4' this way I can sit forward and reach all the lines from where I am sitting. This makes for a lot quicker reaction to a gust or me standing on a line I need to let out quick ( like the boom) I have made some more small ajustments just for me.Bud

I was happy with most of the modifications I made to my PC.  First to Bud's point, my mast broke on lake Erie due to dry rot in the mast box which made the mast the consistency of balsa wood.  My first recommendation is to not do the mast box but to permanently attach the mast through the deck and seal it off with epoxy.  A couple other things I did:

• Made an aluminum centerboard which dropped out of a trunk next to the keel.
  
• Redid the tabernacle to make it sturdy enough to go without the shrouds.
  
• Made the cockpit bigger while keeping the cabin the same through the use of a bridge deck.  The centerboard trunk hid under this.
  
• Put slatted seats with open storage under in the cockpit (probably the first Stevenson boat with this modification)
  
• Increase the mainsail by a foot on each dimension...Pocket Cruiser can handle a lot more sail.
  
• Made a barndoor balanced rudder with an upside-down  T section.  Made it both shoal draft and eliminated weatherhelm.