Fiberglass Scantling for Hurricane in Selway Fisher Micro 8

Most people have the sense to realise that cars are much safer than putting to sea in micro-boats.

 

Yet far more people are killed and injured in motor vehicle accidents.

 

Motorists outnumber micro-boat loons by a million to one. Just the other day I saw a memorial to lost trawlermen at a small fishing port. There were dozens of names on it, going back maybe 50 years. Very dangerous occupation, ask such people what they think of micro-boat adventurers. I think I know what the answer would be.

 

My Discrete design was originally for one of those micro cruiser types. He wanted more of everything, yet still a small package. He had a Bolger box thingie and he hated it's looks, but wanted the "package". We had the form follows function debate, how much of the form are you willing to kiss off, in order to have the desired aesthetic, what is currently lacking in your box boat, etc.

Eventually, after some hard answers to tough questions, he admitted he wanted a little ship, with some style than a hard core, no holes compromised, slab sided, submarine looking thing, with a lug stuck on the deck.He was caught in a storm once on the Bolger and he got battered pretty good, but the boat came though. The new boat had a much higher D/L, much slacker sections, balanced WL's and would steer nicely, regardless of heel, while his box prefered to be upright and became "hard mouthed" with any serious heel angles. In light air, he couldn't go upwind on the fouled tack. In short, lots of discussions about all the things he lighted, didn't like and wanted to address. The end result was a foot shorter than his current boat, but had nearly twice the displacement. Her motion in slump of sea was far better, she sailed the same on either tack in light air, had more hoist options and a whole lot more storage. I talked him into an inboard install, because of the storm story he told me about and the outboard popping out every few seconds. The original inboard was a horizontal shaft, electric start 8 HP, tied to a go cart transmission (an old Comet).

This is the process, but most aren't willing to go through it. I can't tell you how many meetings and phone calls it took, just to get at the rough GA, but this is the deal, if you want a real, ocean capable pocket cruiser. Anything less means you're settling on someone else's set of compromises and decisions.

The original commission produced just what he wanted, but since it's received many modifications, rig choices, aestedics, etc., as new clients came along, trying to force the basic design to fit their SOR.

If you're interested in heading well off shore, there's a level of responsibility that you as the skipper, have to insure it's a reasonably safe ride. Picking a stock design might get you close, but when the crap hits the fan and you're in 5 meter seas, with building winds predicted for the next few days, maybe you need something other than the cheapest set of micro plans you can find.

 

Imagine the football field size memorial if it had to include all the names of people who died in car accidents the last 50 years....

 

From that smallish town, probably less than a hand-full.

 

Which indicates that they spend more time on the sea than in their cars...

 

The fact is that the fishermen don't think highly of any pleasure craft, regardless of category, seeing no reason for them to be out on the bay for any reason if not for work. I also know from personal experience that they appreciate the humble services of naval architects and fiberglass workers when provided, they are honest and easy to work with, and they always pay their bills. But when you tie up to them late at night, whether it be in Digby, Shelburne, Grand Manan, or here in Saint John or anywhere else, you will find yourself neatly tied up to the dock the next morning as though they weren't even there.

The Boat
- Alistair MacLeod

http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/twatson/TheBoat.pdf

But the men and the women, with my mother dark among them, do not care for
what they say, for to them the grounds are sacred and they think they wait for me.
It is not an easy thing to know that your mother lives alone on an inadequate
insurance policy and that she is too proud to accept any other aid. And that she looks
through her lonely window onto the ice of winter and the hot flat calm of summer and
the rolling waves of fall. And that she lies awake in the early morning's darkness when
the rubber boots of the men scrunch upon the gravel as they pass beside her house on
their way down to the wharf. And she knows that the footsteps never stop, because no
man goes from her house, and she alone of all the Lynns has neither son nor son-in-law
who walks toward the boat that will take him to the sea. And it is not an easy thing to
know that your mother looks upon the sea with love and on you with bitterness because
the one has been so constant and the other so untrue.

But neither is it easy to know that your father was found on November twentyeighth,
ten miles to the north and wedged between two boulders at the base of the rockstrewn
cliffs where he had been hurled and slammed so many many times. His hands
were shredded ribbons, as were his feet which had lost their boots to the suction of the
sea, and his shoulders came apart in our hands when we tried to move him from the
rocks. And the gulls had pecked out his eyes and the white-green stubble of his
whiskers had continued to grow in death, like the grass on graves, upon the purple,
bloated mass that was his face. There was not much left of my father, physically, as he
lay there with the brass chains on his wrists and the seaweed in his hair.

 

I was a trawlerman. For a while I worked in the Caribbean chartering a 65 on deck Novi schooner built by Roseborough. In my time off I would take the 10 foot dinghy between the islands. Many people told me I was crazy, but I felt safe enough checking for the weather. I think that the OP does not have any experience and will get in trouble regardless of the boat.

 

But, please !, has that something to do with what the OP asked ?. What could he solve with your experience as "risky" navigator the length and width of the Caribbean Sea?

 

A lot of good sailor from Milwaukie area. My brother sailed a Finn regatta there in 1979, finishing 4th or 5th. It was the North Americans but they called in Tallin West for the guys that didn't go to the pre-Olympic regatta in Estonia. The pre-Olympic regatta was held before the Olympics were eventually boycotted over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

As I suggested earlier, he would save a lot of time, and money, and probably his life if he built himself a Mirror Dinghy and did a little coastal cruising, small steps at a time. There is no substitute for time on the water, and he would learn a lot faster in a smaller boat. By small boat, I don't mean 8 feet and 2000 pounds. A Mirror Dinghy would be awesome, and there would be a lot of support from fellow Dinghy Cruisers.

This fellow sailed and rowed one from North Wales to the Black Sea, across the channel and through the canal and river system.


I am not sure how I would build it in fiberglass without core material, or in wood without marine plywood. It is very lightly built, easily cartopped at 100 pounds. If I was in Istanbul I would make some test samples out of various combinations of materials until I found something I could build cheap and easy and come in reasonably close to the 100 pounds. Sails I would get used through the class association. I learned to sail in the Cadet Dinghy, but I sailed a Mirror for awhile also.

In a city of 20,000,000 people I am sure there are plenty of economical options, including locally produced marine plywood, or suitable foam or honeycomb core material, but I think a hemp Mirror Dinghy would be totally awesome.

In 1988 I met a Division II sailboarder from Istanbul, training in Miami for the Olympics in Seoul Korea. His father was a fisherman. Small world. I was training in my Laser while my brother was sailing the Olympic Trials again in the Finn.

 

He can buy any number of used boats and go out sailing in a strong breeze. The OP may find that he doesn't like it after all.

 

Looks like a beautiful place to sail.

Istanbul Sailing Academy...

http://www.istsailing.com/

Nice little fleet of small keelboats...
G 6.20
Full length: 20.34 ft (6.20 m)
Width: 6.73 ft (2.05 m)
Horse power: 3 Hp

 

Have we all been trolled?

And we all took it serious?

Time to stop.

If the OP is serious he has my sympathy, but not any more attention.

 

As soon as I read the word "hurricane", I knew it was not to be taken seriously. You have to laugh, though.