by peter ross » Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:03 pm
Thanks for the kind words........it's really kind of fun at this point.
I cut the deck off after rebedding the starboard flange. I swore that boat took on water if it was foggy out. I have never seen a boat leak in so many different places. If there was dew on the grass in the moring, it meant a gallon of water in the boat. The yard stored it under a row of pine trees, whose pine cones took deep root in some areas, tiny pine trees growing all over the deck. Would have made a great prop for that movie Water World.
At the time I made the swap boat for keel/cabin/cockpit/paint boat and bottom deal, I wanted to do a fast flip and use the money to buy a Legends Race car. Should have looked at the boat first..............Well that plan was obviously sidelined when I saw Sherwood Forest and the split rudder with a keel installed 5 degrees off axis, I knew it was game over for the dream car. Before cutting it I looked everywhere for Evelyn 25 info and fellow owners. All I could find online was Full Tilt, which was for sale and no other info, except statements that the 25 had such a bad rating people stop sailing them. GREAT!
I really wanted a trailer launched boat, had access to welding equipment and plenty of steel. Built the trailer with removable indexed cradle to give it a shot. Lopped the deck off and found the deck flange to have a severe laminate issue. The flange is resin starved in some spots, voids in others and worst was the lack of suitable radius. I was able to pop it off in some places, was wondering what that did for the seam leaking so badly. I like to see some sheer in a boat, tradition old man in me, so I decided to lay out a slightly sweeping sheer and removed 5" of flange, which resulted in a narrower and shorter boat.
Too many options at this point for the existing rig and placement. As I noted, I am dirt poor and the worst form of Swamp Yankee, insist on making what I have work before I will spend a penny. I don't want to buy new rigging and don't want to go into too much detail defining a new configuration. More on this issue soon. John spoke to me about some options last year. Am not trying to turn this into a sport boat, just doing some rat rodding I suppose.
Working in the snow at this time is perfect, no itch at all. I have so much grinding to do, I welcome the cold. The shed can get up to 40 in there when it's 20 out, BALMY! The cargo heaters fire up and run for about 4 days, which is perfect for getting the hull up to temp for the structure bonding next week.
I'm using Okoume plywood skinned with a 12 db cloth. Although it can be argued a composite deck can be stiffer, I refer to the Swamp Yankee note, I have the plywood and know it is equally as stiff or actually light years stiffer, than the original sun baked vinylester/balsa cored deck. Plus there is significant structure that will make it plenty stiff. The forward cockpit ( wide open, no verticals cockpit sole ) bulkhead is the aft end of the 2 ft tall keel box and will the companionway. Bunks, forward, no room under cockpit for toes. Any thoughts and suggestions are very welcome.
It is being done in short spurts between projects, I have dropped all other work to get this done.
Tim, I have been following your build with great admiration, great job. I want a small boat like that.
This is sort of a tease.... In a few weeks, maybe less, the new project will begin. It is a new build. A boat in the 26ft range, more or less, mostly right at 26........big hint! Rules are being refined. redefined and when rules are solid, we are on. There will be room for multiple boats in this build, but not molded resin rich, infused boats. The intent is not to create or continue a boat building venture. It is to keep the costs of this really cool boat down. The designer is well known, was responsible for an extremely well known class, which has gone through a name change.......another hint! I don't think they want to be outed yet, although I have heard both have spoken to enough individuals, this is going to leak soon. So many e-mails asking about it, is going to really upset the locals.
Last edited by
peter ross on Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.