randii

I like my badger brushes for lather and shaving... or for shellac and lacquers. I'll take a disposable polyfoam brush for varnishes for easy cleanup (disposal) and minimal brush marks. Save your badger brushes for heavier finishes. Randii (looking for Wolverine brushes)

Exceptionally well said, Thom!

Depilatory?

Might want to move her to the multihull-specific classifieds. Sexy boat! https://sailinganarchy.com/advert/alpha-wing-rigged-c-class-catamaran/

Sea level rise will help with ICW depth. There will be less of Florida to visit, though...

Best possible conditions for a lagoon involve an anchor and a Caribbean breeze. Sailing ain't exactly its sweet spot. No shame in that... horses for courses.

Off to YouTube: That was a little stressful just to watch... just imagine doing it in low light, upside down, with a fire nearby. In a boat, imagine it with waves rolling, the contents of an inverted compartment regularly sloshing past, and wondering about a.) getting stuck and b.) sinking. Packing SCBA through a limited aperture makes it harder, but having confidence in supplied air might make it easier. My limited experience in confined space work assures me that any constriction adds stress, that's for sure! Agreed that CAD really helps with visualization, and those are slick models... one thing I see is that it would be very easy to compress the gasket unevenly, which could lead to leakage. That's another strong point of Boardhead's simple design -- there's one primary plane of operation, the hatch halves seem like they'd self-align in the hull and clamp evenly in plane relative to each other and the hull, and visual inspection could be made on the gaps radially around the circumference as well as depth of hatch relative to hull surface. Bh's design sacrifices a little in convenience and pays dividends in simplicity, light weight, and ability to be quickly inspected. Randii

For reference purposes, a Hobie 18 mast is 28.5 feet long and just under 50 pounds. The H18 mast base has a built-in pivot which makes it reasonably easy for one guy to walk the mast up... your deeper socketed mast base seems like it would need extra hands...

GREAT approach to teaching. I appreciate knowing where we've been... but too much of that risks losing student's attentions and enthusiasm. Alternating these approaches works pretty well, in my experience, and the students often get to keep the enthusiasm and create while learning history and best practices!

I can't say what's on that boat... but I can say that Lowes sells peelandstickmosaics.com stuff that cuts with scissors, peel-n-sticks on, and needs no grout -- and is lightweight. I've helped.with a kitchen that used it for backsplash and it looks pretty good and works ok. It doesn't feel like tile, but it sure looks like it.

Probably used the stick-on vinyl stuff: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Peel-Stick-Mosaics-Peel-and-Stick-Mosaics-Grey-Mist-10-in-x-10-in-Composite-Linear-Mosaic-Tile-Common-10-in-x-10-in-Actual-10-in-x-9-4-in/5039225 A pretty good solution... but don't let that interrupt the piling on!

Interesting. Is it still 'careening' with a catamaran sitting level? Semantics, I guess... Webster sez: 1 : to put (a ship or boat) on a beach especially in order to clean, caulk, or repair the hull 2 : to cause to heel over I guess I have careened my beachcat to retrieve a halyard... :p

Helluva good example here... help AND mentoring. Here's hoping Looper's karma bank stays full, and FishFood can pass similar support to some other sailor down the road. Lots to give thanks for, especially the lessons learned.

If racks are gonna break the budget ... Costs will include boat purchase/prep; travel and lodging; good dry suits, electronics, and survival gear... and that's just the race itself. Training to be competitive is going to cost.even more.

Nice work on the boat, and *helluva* job on the classic Patrol!