Wednesday, February 27, 2019

How To Choose the Right Life Jacket

27 Feb 19:

How To Choose the Right Life Jacket and Wear It. There are a lot of them out there now, they need to be the proper size for the boater and the proper type for the intended activity. Boat Smart!




Where data was known, the vessel types with the highest percentage of deaths were open motorboats (47%), kayaks (15%), and personal watercraft (7%).




658 fatalities in 2017. Where cause of death was known, 76% of fatal boating accident victims drowned. Of those drowning victims with reported life jacket usage, 84.5% were not wearing a life jacket. 370 victims drowned without a PFD. Where length of boat was known, eight out of every ten boaters who drowned were using vessels less than 21 feet in length.





Reference: http://uscgboating.org/…/life-jacket-wear-wearing-your-life…

Saw Trolley

27 Feb 19:

We like to cut outside so we set up a trolley to carry the saws. The top is set so that the chop saw table is the same height as the infeed and outfeed tables. The bottom shelf has a regular circular saw, 4 1/2 inch left handed circular saw, cordless and corded reciprocating saw.


Tool Trolleys and Work Tables.

Alcort Super Sailfish ZSA ZSA Sea Trials

27 Feb 19:

A few more shots from Sea Trials for our Alcort Super Sailfish ZSA ZSA.














Sunfish Shack is full.


Log of ZSA ZSA.

Alcort Super Sailfish Lines

27 Fe 19:

A few details from Alcort plans for a Super Sailfish. The bow changed a bit in the 50s and tucks up a bit more to prevent submarining. ZSA ZSA has the newer style bow and we have the measurements now.





The 2 page plans are available in the files of the Yahoo Sunfish_Sailor Group, filed as Sailfish Prints.

Sheet Hangers

27 Feb 19:

We keep the booms high on our Sunfish and Sailfish, but still had issues with droopy main sheets from time to time. The sheet could catch on our PFD or hat.


We have slowly been adding sheet hangers to our boats, they help keep the sheet closer to the boom.





The sheet hangers work well even in light wind conditions.




These hangers are sold by Intensity Sails.

Friday, February 22, 2019

Cartop Your Sailboat

22 Feb 19:

Cartop your Alcort Sailfish! 1953 style. You don't even need a top.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

NC-4 Flying Boat Line Drawings

21 Feb 19:

So now you can build your own!

(Resource Credit: The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corp. National Naval Aviation Museum NC-4 Files. 2019)

Log of NC-4

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Galloping Horse and Great Spirit Problem Solving Matrix

17 Jan 18:
19 Jan 19:

The Prep Season is upon us, a good time to review the Restoration Problem Solving Matrix. Enjoy the Season! And holler if you need help with a project.

So we have tips that will help you get over a some boat builder worries, 1) Staring at the part that you are working on and trying to decide if it meets someone's arbitrary universal standard, and/or 2) Making a mistake and trying to decide if it needs to be fixed.

Here are the criteria we use.

1. Galloping Horse (GH):
The Skipper's criteria is "Would you notice it from a galloping horse?" She got this valuable tip from her Grandma. It may be self explanatory, but imagine if you rode by the boat on a galloping horse, would the piece in question be noticeable? If not, then continue on. If so, review the following additional criteria before making a decision.

2. Great Spirit (GS):
So maybe you did notice it when you galloped by. My Native American criteria is that only the Great Spirit can make something perfect, so it is best to leave small mistakes in the work as tribute. Plus if your boat gets stolen and recovered by the authorities, you'll be able to point out all the mistakes to them as proof of buildership. That is of course, unless they point all of them out to you first.

Which leads to our last, final and "ultimate authority" criteria, which shall be the tie breaker if you are stuck after applying the Galloping Horse and/or Great Spirit decision criteria...

3: If They Don't Like It... (ITDLI):
If They Don't Like It (ITDLI)...Capn Jack always says that if someone looks at your finished boat and says they don't like it, then they don't get to go on the boat :)

The ITDLI criteria is helpful for decisions for items that you may not even have had a hand in, for example, the design of our Drascombe Lugger jib furler. We were rigging the Lugger on the ramp one day and some landlubber walked up and said "Roller reefing on that boat is asinine." Skipper abandoned her duties as PIO and walked away. I ignored him. We assigned the ITDLI criteria to the Ramp Ranger and from that point there was no concern about offering to take him sailing.

So we hope these tips become helpful tools in your tool box, they have saved us hours of moaning chair time.

Fair Winds
Skipper and Clark

Gratuitous boat picture showing primary propulsion system of BARBASHELA, long leaf pine powered by Skipper.


See also Moaning Chair

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

NC-4 Flying Boat Hull Design

13 Feb 19:

"During 1912 Naval Constructor Richardson conducted a series of model basin tests on the planing properties of seaplane floats and hulls which have proved to be perhaps the most important and fruitful research ever undertaken by the Navy. Richardson for the first time showed the effect of the form of the float on its water performance, and from these tests he evolved the lines of United States Navy seaplane floats and hulls which have since that date made them a standard for others to follow. Richardson's tests showed the advantages of Vee bottom, long easy form, spray strips, and single step with sharp rise of after body."





Ref:
-A History of Naval Aviation https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/histories/naval-aviation/pdf/History%20(1).pdf

Log of NC-4 Flying Boat

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Alcort ALC-12 Trailers, Covers, Spar Bags and Price List

09 Feb 19:

Alcort offered trailers for their Sailfish, Sunfish and Catfish in the mid 1960s, an alternative to cartopping.










The design elements can be seen in the SUT-220-S trailer offered by Trailex.

(Image credit: Trailex).