"Andrew Butchart" wrote in message . ..
"Parallax" wrote in message
om...
SUCCESS!!!

Put her on the top of my truck (not a practical means of transport)
and hauled her to Shell Pt, FL, south of Tallahassee. Had 15 kts of
wind and rigging while in chop and wind was difficult but got it done.
Sail kept slipping down the gaff and boom so really had only about
2/3 sail but SHE FLIES. Tacks well, handles well, really great.
Slight prob is that the tiller keeps coming out of the box. Tiller
and rudder box seem a little wimpy as they were both bending under the
load. Christened her as "Tadpole" and she really swims. She does
sorta need coamings as water does come over the bow in chop but I had
a bailer handy.
My 13 yr old son took her out and had problems as he really didnt
understand "jibing" and turned her over twice. I found that standing
on the daggerboard will right her slowly. He eventually learned how to
jibe and to sail her through a tack and he was seriously impressed.
Got the sail adjusted better and my wife and I took her out and she
handles beautifully. Shell Pt has lots of oysters on the shore so she
did get a little banged up as expected but it was worth it.
She did get a little water in her fwd compartment somehow so I will
have to drill holes.
Carrying her to and from the water was a problem so I will have to
build a cart and I also need a trailer for her and #2
I am very impressed.

Congratulations! You've built that boat in an amazingly short time and
should be proud of your accomplishments. I agree about the tiller and
rudder box, that's one of the reasons I re-built mine.

BTW - for transporting the boat from my Jeep to the water, I built a small
dolly out of PVC pipe and it's worked quite well for me - there's some
pictures on my web-site if you're interested.


Thanks Andrew. I'll have to check over your web site again for the
dolly. Once again, I thank you for your help and posting the plans.
Gawd was it fun. I'll try to get some pics this next weekend at St.
Joseph State park on the coast. I think I will use a small bungee
wrapped round the tiller and box extension to hold the tiller down but
still allow it to "kick up".

More ppl should do this. If I can build a boat, anybody can.
Glued the sides on #2.