Having read some of the letters and stuff in build reports about casting lead and an even more bizarre method of adding weight by boring and encapsulating steel washers I would offer another alternative -

In the UK sheet lead is still easily availablein various gauges, it is normally used for roofing purposes. It is easily cut to shape, even quite complex ones - so why not use multiple sheets laminated together and then epoxy encapsulated to get the same result as a casting. A bit less macho but a much more elegant solution.

I am cosidering building a Micro and this is the approach I would plan on using, Hope this prompts some dsicussion!

Regards Dave C

Thanks,
Jon
ps -- Great magazine, keep up the good work :-)

I was reading your latest e-tome and decided to share my thoughts about weighty matters, vis-a-vis rudders and daggerboards. As related in Jim Michalak's fine book and T. Marsh's recent article, pouring lead is a bit of a bother. I was pondering this one day, while watching one of my favorite movies ("Heist" by David Mamet). In the movie, a switch is made. Plastic cases that are supposed to be full of gold are actually found to be full of large fender washers. As they say - the light bulb suddenly lit up.

And so I tried it. I took a daggerboard blank of 3/4 inch birch ply and bored it with a Forstner bit to within 1/16 of the other side, 1 1/2 inch diameter, for the biggest steel fenderwashers I could find. I gave each washer a quick scour with a pot srubbing pad. Then I drilled some very small holes in the side walls of the drilled crater. Then I mixed up some epoxy. Poured some in the bottom and inserted a washer, then pored some more epoxy then another washer, etc, etc. Although steel is not as dense as lead, I think this is a viable alternative.

Bob Patterson

...Small Boat Journal was a sad demise for me, and between Duckworks and MAIB, and Michalak's articles, I feel like I have my fix, and a slight small boating buzz on.

With the over development in Florida, small boats are almost subversive, if you can find a place to put in to get to the areas the developers cannot abuse, in a state where the Colliers of Collier country can get 120 million for NOT DRILLING FOR OIL in the Everglades, you are nearly seen as a terrorist, because you are blocking the view without owning the dock. Perhaps one day sea front property owners can have three mile limits off the dock. Dock guns, mortars, at the very least catapults tossing Tyson chickens.

Perhaps mortality and living in the moment means you have to own the view free of other viewers. I have had people shout at me when paddling a canal, "What are you doing here?" It made me feel like a toad in a tea cup. It makes me feel more subversive than I should for my health.

A small boat motors silently toward that row of three million dollar houses, where builders hired a lawyer to make sure they could remove the mangroves and pay the fines until they got what they wanted in a yard.

Its a twenty foot old style casket, with a Michalak walk through hatch opening, made beautifully out of Okume ply, the strains of a New Orleans funeral march play from a CD deck, a small boater in a tall black hat appears in the opening, and conducts a funeral for the edge of the sea.

grumble,

Roger Palmer

Yeah Sandra! Go girl!
Dave Hahn

Chuck:
There is a good article about SkiffAmericas at Cedar Key Florida in Small Craft Advisor, Sept/Oct 2003 issue no. 23.
Kilburn Adams

Hey Chuck,
Hear ya'll are going to the Canadian Messabout in Sept. We be go'n too! Get'n all ready but can't decide on which boats to bring. I'll bring 2...one will be the Yakette ...haven't decided which of the others to bring like the original Yakoo...da yeller and white one, the Stealth ....that's pretty beat up cause I use it a lot, or the new skinboat. Wife wanted me to take the Featherwind!...the Bay-B-"K". No can do! It's bigger than the Tracker and the Teardrop put together! Finally got the damn rack welded up and mounted. Thing was a pain in the butt! ..not making but mounting and getting half way level. She'll easily carry two of these lightweighters. Had a friend helping and of course he had to put in his 2 cents worth of advise for mounting and made all these damn templates ....he's an engineer! .....gasp and eeeegadddddds! You know how "they" can be! He starts his preaching shit about measurements to the nearest .0000001...zillionth of an inch! Hell ....if it's within a quarter that's good enough and I don't measure that much anyway and good ole PL Premium can do the rest! Can't see dat good anymore. If it's close and works fine! If it don't then make it fit! Then he starts on this binge about finishing and must have visions of granger or something in that neighborhood that I'm building an exquisit and extremely rare work of art that should have the finish of a Baldwin Baby Grand that you can look at and shave or mash bumps if need be! I told him that you could see yourself in my finish if I used high gloss paint and you peer beyond the ripples, gouges and unsanded areas, screw holes, etc.! Then He says, "But they work so well!" So I said, "While you spend another year to two painting your Piraqua....that I built for you 2 years ago that's still hanging in your garage...I will be having a blast and catching a lot of fish,....AND will probably have at least 3 dozen more boats of somekind in the water------______head!" He used to work for the government.....but you probably figured that out already! The result was--- I had to redo everything after he went home----got done about 10 that night!.....now I got a bunch of goddamn holes to fill up in the Tear drop sides! Guess I got some dowel rods around somewhere! He meant well anyway! Bad as I hate it, I will have to do a little sanding and painting to keep the wife from yelling! AND....He'll probably borrow one of my boats for the next decade before he gets his painted or whatever he's going to do to it!

Richard Frye

thanks,
ken

Sandra:

May I take this opportunity to tell you and Chuck how much I appreciate all you are doing. This site is important to me. I check it almost every day.

BG, TC, GB.
David

The building of a boat its the only frontier activity people can still do, that puts them 'over' a dark water that still has things in it that can eat you.

Lived on the water for a while, fished to eat, that time stayed with me. I grew up on a Ranch in Florida, the 'tree line' was like an ocean, beyond it at night it had a life you had to respect and fear a little when the snakes were out.

I like your magazine, it reminds me of Small Boat Journal. I am an artist and poet who makes a boat to feel my hands, not a professional, just like the rush of the first rides.

Roger

Dan

Thanks for the advice and great site.

Doug Day

I am ordering a copy of Barend Migchelsen, Boat Building With A Difference Dutch Punters [A description of the Dutch Punters and how to build a copy of this ages-old sturdy design for leisure purposes] $11.90 plus p&h.

I've ordered the plans so I can scale them down to build a model since its so pretty and then, eventually, if I can find the courage, the money, the time, the place, the drive, the storage space, the tools, the foolhardiness, the smallest shred of a reason, and a lot of coffee, maybe a full-scale one to sail the Chesapeake.

Jock Yellott

I like the Duckworks' new format. Lots more new stuff more often. I check the site at least once a day, and there's often something new to drool over. That Hot Chili catamaran looks like a load of fun. If I weren't building a Tideway 14, I'd probably try it, even though I'm a monohull sailor.

Keep up the good work.

Charlie

Thanks for the great deal, I really do like the shirts. I guess I'll have to order the hat next time...

Roger