Kurt Hughes Daycharter 36

Well I just bent up some aluminum pipe. Keep in mind we were in a big hurry to launch and partake in the new crab fishery so we weren't thinking sailing or anything at the time. Plan was to get rich crabbing and then properly outfit the boat. This worked fine (not the getting rich part), but no tiller so you had to sit on the back beam, and it was cold to the touch (easily rectified I suppose). There was ackerman geometry but you can't tell in the pic.

 

Ah thanks for that photo. Don't remember seeing it before. I like the fact that you don't have those bars down between the hulls, so you can bring a dingy in up close. I want to put a net across the back of mine, but there is too much steering junk in the way. Tell me why you would change what you have. What do you not like about it and what do you like?

and How did the sleds work out? The idea with mine was to have a way to bring the motors all the way up so I could get to them from the cockpit for servicing etc. It was a moderate success, but not as much as I had hoped. I have xl shafts so I still can't reach the lower unit and put on an ear muff, for instance. How did yours behave in reverse?

 

We didn't get a chance to use the boat that much, but don't remember any problems with the outboards. I do want to build some fairings so choppy waves don't wash over them - though that didn't happen. Maintenance would be a bit of problem, have to hang a ladder or do it from the dingy. Or hoist it in.

Steering: perhaps I'll revisit this idea for some of the reasons you state on other methods here and elsewhere in your thread. I've cut hatches in the back now so the steering tillers block access. That might be solved by being able to prop up the tiller out of the way enough to open the hatch. I'll sneak one of the pics from a similar boat and hope the guy won't mind - shows how he sort of did the same thing. He even was able to rig up an autopilot on it. I didn't like the clunky look of it, but suppose I could live with it. A guy could rig up a longer tiller handle off it for sitting more into the cockpit.

This pic is from another James and he is mostly responsible for getting me going on my repair - his was inspirational. Yours now too - but I've already started since discovering this from facebook post from Kurt H.

 

Great photo! I guess you could land a drone on that thing

I'll be watching close to see how things evolve. I think for now I am going to just refine what I have and think about it all for a while. I really like the simplicity of the long tiller arms and the crossbar though. It doesn't look like it would be all that expensive to make one up and try it out, if I could figure out how to connect it up to the tiller heads I already have...

 

Felicitaciones Charly!! TU bote es una belleza!! Escribo en castellano para darle todo en énfasis del idioma!!

 

Gracias Eladio. Estoy muy contento con ella. Espero que las cosas va bien contigo.

Y su proyecto? Hay photos?

 

on the beach

First time on the beach. Pretty straightforward, but the very bottom mid ships is hard to get to. Impossible, in fact, without blocking. I only had time to scrape and scrub, now I lost my window and plan go back up later in the month, so I can get off in the daylight.

Anybody have any tricks or links to share? I probably will just put down 4x4's, but they likely won't help much, unless I can get them up under there way ahead of the tide. Messy. Otherwise i am going to have to go around with this bald patch right down around the centerboard trunk. Not the best.

I need a permanent solution. Haulout for a 23-1/2 foot wide boat around here is NOT cheap. I remember seeing somewhere some beach wheels on a 36. She was a bit lighter than me, I think. Something inflatable maybe? but backyard grade doable? I may have to call a tow truck.

And maybe someday I will get back around to the topsides.

 

Dear Charly, you can go digging under the boat and making repairs, it's easy, you just need a shovel, and a little sweat.

 

You have to work like you're under the car in the garage, but will be cheaper, easier and repido that more "civilized" any solution.
Maybe one nephew, or some boy from the neighborhood can help!
In the works of engineering these solutions are always at hand, such as making the repair of a foundation sunk in a house.

 

The last few weeks I have been busy.

Inspired by James Dory's photo of "Dragonfly" I built an aft platform of 1-1/4 inch nom. schedule 40 aluminum pipe with hollander "speed rail" cast alum. fittings, painted with a couple of coats of Paul Oman's magic "aluthane". The wooden platforms are stock 3/4 WRC with screwed and epoxied reinforcement underneath.

I built one of Richard Woods "crayfish" dingies. She weighed in at 60 lbs when I stopped. I have a tendency to over- glass certain areas, I think. I made custom holes for one inch oak thole pins, instead of attaching rowlocks. They have balsa core encased in structural bog. They seemed light, but I don't know what the weight difference is. Anyway, she is easy for one person to carry, and I think she will do exactly what the designer says.

I can now hoist the tender up onto the new platform unaided. I think life will be easier on several counts: dingy out of water, but little to no windage penalty, much easier access to outboards -especially lower units, extra storage space for fenders and light stuff, much easier access to the boat from the tender (this alone is huge) easier access to the water for diving, etc. good place to throw a net, clean fish.... a good place for mob gear... what was I thinking? why haven't I done this already?

 

Looks great - very convenient.

 

Dear Charly!
Today I read your post and see the pictures of your magnific boat...
Are you sailing whith the boat? are you enjoy the see and sail?
Cheers!!
Eladio

 

Hola Eladio! Thanks
I now have a website at
http://charlysboat.com

Still making improvements (it never ends...) but we are using the boat regularly.

 

Speaking of which, on night I was hauling through an unnamed major urban center when I look out the window to see the very boat referred to above overtaking me in the inside lane. Can't say I was surprised as there had been a lot of noise an slamming going on earlier. Just as I am worrying who is going to have to pay that speeding ticket, all 1500-2000 pounds of it slams home on a light standard. The port hull took the full impact, and the bow of the port hull was made out of vac bagged doorskins that I made up out of the leftovers of my KHSD trimaran. There was barely a cove on the inside of the bow, and several layers of cloth on the bow. I figured the bow would be ripped off, but when I looked it over, there was a dent about the size of a finger, and it hadn't even penetrated enough to get through the hastily applied epoxy. By the way, the boat is 20 years old, and the reason I had to go minimal on the bow was because I was curious to see how it would turn out, and one couldn't really get anything in there to deal with it conventionally. I guess I won't be worrying about it's strength anymore. But it is a characteristic of setting out on one's own design, that one does tend to worry for the first 20 years, up until the light standards of life come into view.

 

Kite photo I just got from two years ago.