Recent content by Jeff in Boston

Aiming for 800 to 1200 watts of solar. Will of course use Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. The hard part is picking the motor. Looking at electric outboards like epropulsion or heavy duty trolling motors like haswing.

Tests beat calculations. Every time. The boat is in the water and has a roll period of 2 seconds and a beam of 8.5 feet. By the numbers it is a bit “too stable” but the motion feels fine to me. When I add 100 lbs of solar panels 7 feet over the cockpit floor I will test again.

Sailing is definitely greener. But - I don’t want to sail. I don’t want to put up a mast or wrangle ropes or tack. I want to putter along quietly wind or no wind. This hull may not have been the best choice for this project, but I think I will love the result.

Correct. No mast, no 2200 lb cast iron keel. Replaced keel with a 150 “skeg keel” ll feet long but only 4” high. Added another 560 lbs of brick ballast.

Roll period is 2.0 seconds. Hull beam is 8.5 feet, or 2.6 meters. Plenty of stability. When I add a large canopy with solar panels up high I will retest. She is floating several inches above the painted waterline and clearly floats higher than a stock pearson 26. Sadly this means I...

I am planning on doing a roll period test tomorrow. I will use slow mo video to measure roll period in seconds. I have 540 lbs of removeable ballast on the boat now. See this gallery: New Keel, Who Dis? | Boat Design Net I know that the roll period should be between 1 an 1.1 times the "beam...

Front view by Jeff in Boston posted Aug 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM Side view by Jeff in Boston posted Aug 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM New keel! by Jeff in Boston posted Aug 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM Two coins epoxied on the inside of the bottom of the keel. by Jeff in Boston posted Aug 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM Photo...

Project Update! New keel attached! (Outboard gas) Motor working! Rails finished! Holes patched! Planning to put it in the water tomorrow! First step will be a roll period test. I've added 710 lbs of ballast to offset the 2000 lbs of keel removed. I figure without the mast and with...

Finally working hard on the boat again! I have the stanchion bases finally installed, using 3/8" G10 backing plates and 316 SS 1/4"-20 Tee nuts so that I never have to #$%%^$#%$^ deal with nuts inside the hull again. Next major work is the fiberglass keel.

I’m thinking less than 24”. Small enough I’m not going to worry about it.

Update! I bought a 40 year old house and that has taken much of my time in the past few years, but I’m starting to work on the boat again. I have all the bronze seacocks out. Had to cut off the mushrooms for all of them though. Will probably sell them and switch to marelon. I’ve taken...

Just did a test: Drill press at 250 rpm 2” hole saw Cutting wood Wood submerged 1” deep in bucket of water. Cut clean, no splashing. Will try fiberglass next.

Thanks folks! That gave me alot to think about. I need the 3/4 thick spacers because I plan to mount the outside stanchion base screws on the toe rail, and then use the 3/4" thick spacers between the base and the deck for the inside screws. But I will try cutting in water. I will look at...

I'll be making LOTS of backing plates and spacer plates as I redo the hardware on my conversion project (see thread in design forum). I figure I'll be cutting 50+ donuts out of fiberglass with a hole saw using a pretty heavy duty drill press. I'll be cutting 3/8" and 3/4" thick fiberglass /...