Almost-A-SCAMP Progress Report #3-3A . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

More Guaranteed Boat Building: If We Don't Do It Right, We Do It OVER!! 
You try your best, to keep track of a bazillion details but you still get bit every once in a while. 
I had found and kept back, two very heavy-duty forged pad eyes for the cabin roof halyard and down haul blocks.
I had taped them to the blocks, so I wouldn't forget them (or accidentally use them for something else) and only found them again, when I went to start rigging the boat and opened up the bag of blocks.
DOHHHH!!! 
The pad eyes I had screwed to the roof, when I was doing all the hardware is above and the one I SHOULD have installed, is below.
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Easy enough fix, just a little frustrating to be fixing things as dumb as this,    this close to the end of the project. 

An ongoing concern, is preventing the mast from suddenly becoming a javelin, in the event of a high-speed panic stop. 
(It IS on rollers, after all!) 
On Urchin, I was able to use snap shackles on the spreader tangs attached to the mast stand, to prevent any unexpected forward mast excursions. 
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The SCAMP has no spreaders and no tangs to clip onto!!     DOHHHH!!! 
This is the best I can come up with, until I can think of something better.
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Seriously considering adding some kind of a dedicated "road pad eye" that I can use to better secure the mast, to the mast stand.

Wanted to know the finished weight of an empty boat;    the general range is supposed to be around 420 lbs, to 460 lbs for an empty hull (no gear) including sail, spars, and all rigging.
Knowing how much I like to beef up things and add things,    I was shooting for closer to 500 lbs.
So I drove over to my local trucker's scale and first weighed the truck and the boat, together:
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And then the truck by itself:
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Lessee here . . . .  5,960 lbs minus 4,980 lbs = 980 lbs, minus another 400 lbs for the trailer, for a total of: (gulp!)    580 lbs!!! 
Guess a motor mount, ladder, hand rails, lazarette, hardware, EVA foam decking, electronics, and 8 gauge wiring, all tend to add up!! 

Personally, I blame the Celtic Trinity knot for all the weight overage. 
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Was not happy    with how the front of the boat cover was "ballooning" at the front at highway speeds, when it was secured like this:
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Changed it to this:
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I think it'll work much better. 
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Mast stand: (Fore and aft.)
I had raised the front of the "SCAMP ramp" to make it easier to "capture" the mast foot, for easier mast stepping.
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I over-shot the mark a little    and the mast actually sits a little below the top of the front of the ramp, which means I could reduce the mast angle slightly and not need as much mast stand height.

And not require a mast angle, this severe:
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Here's what it looked like, after trimming the aft mast stand down 6 inches and then re-drilling and re-mounting, the top roller and brackets.
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Right where I originally wanted it. 

Once that was done, I needed to decide how much I want to reduce the front mast stand height.
For example:  Other than being visually appealing, does the mast REALLY need to be level on the trailer?    How about if it slopes downward to the front, slightly?    Would it look dumb? 
More importantly, would it work better? 
After much thought, I cut the front mast stand down 14 inches, which sounds (and looks!)    like a lot.
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My reasoning is, that in the event of highway speed catastrophic failure, I have a better shot at the mast launching into the back of the camper top on my truck. 
This is far preferable, to it shooting across the top of the roof of the truck and then impaling the rear wind shield of the vehicle in front of me. 
Yeah, I have a lotta Dark Thoughts, now and again;    owning a boat will do that to you, from playing the "What-if?"    game, all the time.
If I ever decide that I want the mast to sit horizontally, I can always loosen the U-bolts on the winch stand and just move it up.

Either way, it looks a lot less ungainly, compared to how it was before. 
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Drove into St. Augustine in the morning, for parts from the Sailor's Exchange (marine salvage store) and then stopped in at a West Marine, to get a quart of Easy-Poxy Hatteras Cream for touch-up paint.
Also wanted to get numbers and letters, for the boat registration that I just got the day before, in High Springs! 
So NATURALLY,    they were missing two numbers and two letters, of the characters, that I needed!!! 
ARRRGGGGGHHHHH!!! 
Had to drive over an hour up the road, to a Jacksonville West Marine store for the remainder of the characters.

Was all set to start working on the rigging when Mother Nature reminded me, that Brennan is eternally damned by the gods. 
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And in a classic case of "New-itis",    I blurted out:  "I need to quick put the cover back on!    The boat'll get wet!!" 
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Then my brain heard, what my mouth had just said and I felt Dumb. 

Getting more and more details/tasks knocked off the project list and it's interesting how every chore, no matter how small, now feels like another milestone.
Like the registration numbers:
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Wow!!    Starting to look just like a REAL boat!! 

And the name:
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Selected in honor of the name, that Jim, my best friend since 8th grade, had always wanted to name his sailboat (if he ever got one); although he never got the chance or lived long enough, to do so.

As I get closer to getting finished, I see more and more things, more critically and I think there are several things I may need to modify. 
It's a cinch that once I splash the boat, I may not be all that interested in any modifications, that might keep me off the water.
Nothing for it, but to fix all the annoying little short-comings, now.

Bimini Top:
Still need another two inches of width . . . . uhhh . . . .  narrowed. 
So I drilled out the pop rivets on one side, and cut another 2 inches off the 3 tubes and then reassembled everything and put in new pop rivets.
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Speaking of two inches, I want to take another two inches off the front frame, to have a little more room to handle sails and reefs and whatnot.
While that was easy enough to do for the hardware, I was unprepared    for just how much readjustment of all the straps and re-measuring everything, it required.

I was also disappointed in the frame pad eyes alignment. 
In one of my more brain-dead stunts, I had simply put them on the opposite side of the top of the tube, but TOTALLY ZONED OUT    on the fact that the frames are not vertical, but angled both forward and aft so "down" is at best, a relative bearing. 
So while I'm shortening the frame, I'm going to remove the 2 installed pad eyes (of 9 total, that I will eventually need) and wait until the frame is installed in the boat to re-install them, so I have a better idea of where "down" really is.
Honestly, I was not really looking forward to trying to drill 18 overhead holes in frame tubes, from underneath.
Then, while I was re-working the frames width, it occurred to me that I DID have a good vertical reference point:
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A flat surface. 

Even came up with a way to hold the pad eye to the desired position, without the drill walking all over the place.
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Really is correctly positioned; the phone camera lens does funny things to my pics, sometimes.

Down haul cam cleat Teak spacer.
After all the measurements and trial fits, I STILL managed to miss the effects of the extra height from the stainless steel rub rail    (once it was installed).
Now it looks like it would be easy to fail to secure the down haul line in the cam cleat, sometimes.
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Need to swap it out with a spare Teak spacer, that I originally thought was a little too high.
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THAT'S better!! 
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Ladder:
The first two steps are great, but there are not enough of them.
Finding a ladder that will fit the diminutive transom and still accommodate Septuagenarians boarding from the beach,  is turning into a challenge.
I need to figure out    and install, at least a third step on the transom, somehow.
Still giving that, quite a lot of thought.

If I can EVER get a day that is not too windy, or not raining, I can get to work on the rigging! 
Looked at my list and for the first time, saw all the details finally starting to avalanche, on me. 
MUST be close to getting done!! 

Charles Brennan

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Flip-down step?

[Charles Brennan]

Noemi, I might get backed into a corner and end up doing just that, but I'm still considering the problem. 
Using the pic below, as a reference point:
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With the ladder folded down, a third step would have to be even with the bottom vertical pieces (the ladder arms pivot point).
A folding step has a severe width problem, for Septuagenarian feet.
(To say nothing, of balance!!) 
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A fold-down wide step would be great, EXCEPT!!
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It is nearly 2 inches wider than the ladder and there would be no way to fold down the existing ladder, if it were in place.  Cutting it down to an 8 inch width to fit in between the rungs is an option, but then I think it would look a little chaotic back there, with all the differing nautical architectural elements. 

I liked the looks of this one (trust the Italians, for Marine design with panache), but it has the identical problem of the previous wide step. 
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No good way to cut it down to fit, and you still have clashing elements.

I can certainly do SOMETHING, I just want it look uhhhh . . . . . SCAMP-Like!    When it's done. 
I much prefer and could (almost) shoe-horn in, the ladder that I had on Urchin . . . . . if they still MADE them!!    I'd lose the existing ladder, in a heart beat.
While I appreciate any and all helpful advice, just be aware I've already considered all the EASY OPTIONS, FIRST!! 

Thanks chica,
Charles Brennan

[Chris Muthig]

The smaller fold down step may still be a viable option, what about a teak step with a routed cutout the same shape and size of the ring that pops down, drill the ring in 4 places with countersinks in the ring for rounded head machine screws, large fender washers as backing plates with nylocks to hold the teak step in place. 

One more note on the third picture down (second picture involving steps), on the fold down step with the wood.  How is the wood attached to the frame of that step?  Can it be removed, cut shorter, and reinstalled?  I could see narrowing that to fit.

[Charles Brennan]

Chris, We seem to be gaining a consensus!! 
However, you DO know how stubborn your old man is, right?!? 

Cutting it down to an 8 inch width to fit in between the rungs is an option, but then I think it would look a little chaotic back there, with all the differing nautical architectural elements. 

Complicating the narrative; while a fold-down step might be fine with me, I ALSO need something your Mother can handle easily, as well.
Not saying any of the suggestions (fold-down step or wide fold-down)  are wrong, it's just that I keep remembering that this is the last boat I'll ever own and I want it Right.
In every way.
I'm sure a solution will present itself, I simply don't know that solution is, just yet.

Thanks,
Charles Brennan

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Can you add a step(s) to the fold-down ladder you have?

[Charles Brennan]

Noemi,
Still mulling it over . . . . .

Charles Brennan