CK17 construction questions

Sail Boats 15' and up. Please include the boat type in your question.
Michaelz
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CK17 construction questions

Post by Michaelz »

I have a few questions for others who have built this design.

If you purchased the epoxy and fiberglass kit for the CK17 from E-boat, I assume your package, like mine, included a bag of reddish powder similar to the bags of wood flour – what is that reddish powder? I’m hoping it is a component for a fairing compound, but the only tutorial I’ve seen for mixing a fairing compound is for quickfair, and this isn’t it. So what is the powder and how is it mixed for its intended purpose?

Another question relates to setting sails that are laced to the mast. If I lace the head board of the sail snug to the mast down near the mast partner (after the mast is set), then use a halyard to draw it up the ever narrowing mast diameter, how do I take up the slack in order to keep the luff snug against the mast when the head reaches the top of the mast? Can you just pull the lower end of the lacing near the tack, and that will re-tighten the lacing along the entire mast? OR, is it the nature of this sail rig that the sail has to be laced and snugged down while the mast is horizontal on the ground, and then raised and set through the mast partner. If the later is the case, then there is no halyard and the sail would be semi-permanently laced to the mast. So, what is the intended arrangement at the mast peak – a tenon to tie off the head & leave the sail "up" permanently, or a block and halyard arrangement to raise and lower the sail?

Last item (for now), has anyone put rubber gaskets, hinges, and hasps on the two locker lids and sealed the internal seams of those holds so that they may serve as buoyancy tanks as well as secured storage?

Thanks.

Prarie Dog
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Re: CK17 construction questions

Post by Prarie Dog »

Micheal, the reddish powder is blended filler that should be mixed with epoxy to make fairing material. It is really good for filling weave. Question two and three are beyond me. Please post pics of your build, this boat has always interested me.

bondo
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Re: CK17 construction questions

Post by bondo »

I would love to have the sharpie. I will try an answer. (Google: luff lacing) You have a line, tied at the head of the sail, laced in a particular pattern, and tied again at the foot of the sail. The trick with luff lacing is the length of that line. Once you get it right, the sail functions the same as others, fixed at the hull, (or boom) and raised by the the haylard. The sail is "on" the mast (when you step the mast) but collapsed. Grab some haylard and the sail flies up the mast, at the last secong getting drawn tight to the mast. That is where the exact length of lacing line is important. Rigged correctly, release the halyard and the sail just "falls" to the deck. Really cool sounding huh? I read this so don't believe a word of it until you confirm. On another note, I owned one sailboat in my life. A Sharpie. Awesome.

joe schena
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Re: CK17 construction questions

Post by joe schena »

What everyone else said about the red powder. My masts aren't tapered, but I can snug the lacing all up and down the mast by tightening the bottom only.

I recently rebuilt my hatches. I cut a hole in the deck and glued a 3/4 inch lip around each opening. I constructed the hatches with 1 inch lips--when upside down they look like trays.

The hatches fit over the lips on deck. They are not hinged. I used neoprene weather stripping around the hatch opening.
The hatch comes down on the neoprene.

It is held to the deck by arm that spans the locker opening under the deck. It is tightened by a handle and long 1/4 inch dia screw that goes down throught a hole in the center of the hatch. When turned, it pulls up on the arm which tightens the hatch down on to the neoprene and seals it off.

To open, loosen the handle(screw) and the arm will rotate diag in the locker opening and pull up with the hatch when it is removed.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the hatches. I'll try and post the as soon as I can.

joe schena
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Re: CK17 construction questions

Post by joe schena »

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Michaelz
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Re: CK17 mast construction

Post by Michaelz »

This is my opportunity to answer some questions I raised earlier, based on personal experience building masts for my CK17.
From experience, this works...

I cut live trees to make my masts...went into a tree farm in north Florida, one of the those paper company acreages that plant Georgia long leaf yellow pines in rows 10 feet apart and harvest after about 10 years. I cut two trees each about 25 feet high and 4 inches at ground level, selecting ones that had no visible branches below 20'. They weighted about 40 lbs each. Took them home and using an old draw knife had them debarked in about 20 minutes each (the sap wood immediately under the bark sweats a water-like fluid for a day or so...not like pine sap at all unless you wait a few days), cut the top and bottom to specified length, laid a heavy layer of paint on the ends to prevent checking, and laid them in a shady area to cure for about two months. At two months the liquid sap had bled out and formed a dry crust on the poles which I sanded off and let them set in the shade for another two months during which they did check a bit (occasional splits running 1/8" wide and deep on a spiral for a foot or two). The poles lost maybe 5 pounds in the process so I think a lot of sap cured hard within the wood. It certainly didn't take long for wood to air cure. To finish, I tapered the base of the masts to fit through the mast partners, sanded and filled a few knots and painted the poles with an acrylic deck stain I bought at Home Depot.

The boat has been out in St. Mary's sound a few times now and the masts bend in winds over 15kts just like Sharpie masts are supposed to. I'm more concerned with snapping the dagger board than the poles. If the poles do snap in the future, there are a lot more trees out there and the labor to finish them is not much at all. The biggest challenge in the mast equation is will the darn things fit in your garage when stapped atop the hull. A 35lb 20 foot pole can be set in the partners on the trailer or on the beach by a 65 year old man...just keep it vertical at all times and stay clear of other cars and boats when doing it.

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