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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] More boat stuff you can't liive without
  • Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 15:45:12 -0700

Especially if you are a loner and want to live in an almost tax-free universe---pulling up anchor and moving on if you become bored. If you have the mandatory small shipboard workshop under the forward deck, and any mechanical or electronic skills, I guarantee you will be welcomed with open arms (and cash) by the residents of small islands. There was an American who repaired all the equipment of the San Blas Indians in Panama. I happened to be living with them on their offshore islands when the American decided to move on---they were really distraught and completely at the mercy of thieves in Panama City who took their money and did nothing to repair the equipment expensively flown to them in little toy Cessnas. At the time I knew Carl Kiekhafer, owner of Mercury Outboard quite well and I arranged for the two sons of the San Blas Chieftain to go to school at the Mercury factory in Wisconsin.



http://geodesicairoliteboats.com/ (eight pound Platt Montfort geodesic boat)

http://gaboats.com/boats/ (other featherweight Montfort designs)

http://www.gaboats.com/tutorials/graphiteepoxy.html (how to make, use graphite epoxy on dacron skin---use squeegee)

http://www.image-ination.com/sailcalc.html (a plug-in table for calculating sail area as relates to overall length, waterline, breadth etc.)

http://www.bijlard.demon.nl/ (Dutch Proa---speed with resistance to turning turtle)

http://www.hobo.itgo.com/ (an account of building and sailing a Tom Colvin Gazelle. Colvin is unexcelled in designing and building welded steel hulls with lug rig sails---built on the Chesapeake, forgot where.)

When I lived on a 56-foot hermaphrodite rigged two-mast schooner, I always hoped to replace it with a Colvin Gazelle. My wooden schooner encased in epoxy-fiberglas was a fine boat in shallow water (retractable keel), but not something you would want to sail in the open ocean. Moreover, in bad weather it was impossible to single-hand---hard enough and not too wise to single hand in good weather. The steering station was all the way aft behind the cabin, nowhere to install winches and run cables. I have always had a vast distrust of hydraulics and a vaster distrust of electrics on a saltwater sailboat. The John Colvin Gazelle on the other hand was a delight to single-hand with its Chinese lug sails, and the welded steel hull could lay on a reef at low tide, and could be sailed or winched off at high tide with no apparent damage---something you can't do with a wood or fiberglass sailboat. The only comparative disadvantage is that a Gazelle cabin won't let anyone six feet two in height stand up, the cabin in my old wood/fiberglass schooner was about six feet four in height.) Of course if you intend to run aground on a reef, the ideal sailboat is a twin-keeler. You could lose two-feet of keel before you had a risk of holing them---and they float off upright at high tide---never did like a boat laying over on its side---I get nervous when hatches are under water.

http://www.yachtsdelivered.com/longrang.htm (lot of good info here, CorTen rust-resistant steel for steel hulls, you will want in your below-decks toolshop a battery-powered welder to make hull repairs, and certainly a radar to avoid collisions in poor visibility or darkness.\
You will want to have TWO fresh watermakers---one powered by engine exhaust heat, and at least one solar-powered, a little one for your rubber raft if your boat pitchpoles in a heavy following sea.)

http://www.thomasecolvin.com/ (anyone planning to build, live aboard and sail outside of the pond behind your house, should read these Tom Colvin comments.)


Peter Dilley's Junk Rig Pages. There are 4 pages and they are hard to find. Click on "Sailing", on the left, then click on "Junk Sails", at the top right.
The Chinese Sailing Rig. Derek Van Loan.
Bob Perry's Review of a J35 with Comments about Lug Rigs.
Differences between For/Aft and Modern Rigs. Ted Brewer.
Junk Rig Article. Michael Kasten.
A Tutorial on Junk Rigs.
China Seas Voyaging Society. Junk and Lug Sailing, etc.

Do I like Chinese Lug Rigs, of course---what else could 100lb Mama San handle in heavy seas or a crowded harbor while Papa San lays catatonic below, surrounded by empty rice wine bottles)






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