• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

On this day.......

That looks..................incredibly slow! :) The lack of a decent keel might be a bit of a handicap.

It has the enormous benefit of being cheap. A balanced lug seems like a good way to learn, whilst going nowhere fast. A standing lug, with no boom, might be even better as you reduce your chances of getting whacked on the head.
Nope. The lack of an outboard motor is the real problem 😅
 
That looks..................incredibly slow! :) The lack of a decent keel might be a bit of a handicap.

It has the enormous benefit of being cheap. A balanced lug seems like a good way to learn, whilst going nowhere fast. A standing lug, with no boom, might be even better as you reduce your chances of getting whacked on the head.
I make no claims for its speed. Or elegance. Or refinement. I just did it for a laugh. The lack of a keel was a nuisance, hence the lee board. But it still went sideways like a drunken crab. However you could sail it into the wind, if somewhat laboriously. All part of the fun.

And speed isn’t everything. The largest thing I have ever helmed is a Formosa 51, and that’s no flyer. A hoot nonetheless in a wind blowing a hoolie off Rothesay. And a crew (or bleating parcel of milksops to use a technical term) all huddled on one side of the covered part of the cockpit – you couldn’t sit on the other side because of the angle – in various stages of hangover and seasickness. That was amusing.
 
When I used to teach sailing in my youth and early 20s, down in Salcombe, we were taking (on behalf of the owner / man with thick wallet) a small racing yacht (38 ft or something) for rig trails, going out towards Portsmouth about 8 or 9 nm out at sea and came across a couple in a boat rather like that. Flat bottom skiff type thing. They had a small sail on a jury rigged pole mast and a seagull o/b ...but an absence of petrol. Sounds funny, but they had been out all night and an offshore wind had taken them well out to sea and they had used all the juice trying to beat back against the wind and tide. No flares, no provisions, no lights (really scary at night!) no radio (this was pre mobiles), one life jacket which the shivering wet girl was wearing - and heading for the Atlantic --- if they made it that far across the shipping lanes at night. :cool: We stood by and waited for Salcombe lifeboat to turn up. Everyone who sails a lot has seen this kind of stuff.
 
When I used to teach sailing in my youth and early 20s, down in Salcombe, we were taking (on behalf of the owner / man with thick wallet) a small racing yacht (38 ft or something) for rig trails, going out towards Portsmouth about 8 or 9 nm out at sea and came across a couple in a boat rather like that. Flat bottom skiff type thing. They had a small sail on a jury rigged pole mast and a seagull o/b ...but an absence of petrol. Sounds funny, but they had been out all night and an offshore wind had taken them well out to sea and they had used all the juice trying to beat back against the wind and tide. No flares, no provisions, no lights (really scary at night!) no radio (this was pre mobiles), one life jacket which the shivering wet girl was wearing - and heading for the Atlantic --- if they made it that far across the shipping lanes at night. :cool: We stood by and waited for Salcombe lifeboat to turn up. Everyone who sails a lot has seen this kind of stuff.


Are you having a go at me, Adrian? The risks were minimal. Erstaviken is a millpond. I don’t know whether you have sailed the Tyresö area but you are never more than 500m from land, and there are so many islands in the archipelago you could not be blown out in to the open Baltic without divine intervention. God hates me, but not that much. I think.

And I don’t wear a life jacket, because I don’t want to. I know I can swim a long distance in open water. And I have quite a few life saving qualifications (long dull story). Risk is fine if managed. Probably in more danger doing 265 kph on the autobahn, playing hooker at rugby football in a rather aggressive league, or facing fast bowling when you have the batting ability of a diseased ferret. All of which, from the specificity, you will gather I have done. Along with all the rest, which I do not care to share at this moment.

I am reminded of a quote from a book of my childhood. And I hope I render it correctly: ‘Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers, won't drown’.
 
No, it was not aimed at you at all. Please don't take it that way.
 
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Deleted by me as off topic and not relevant.
 
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On this day in 2020, I made a gate for a gift shop in Troon Ayrshire. They had opened 1 week before the first lockdown closed them again and were getting ready to open once lockdown was lifted. They asked for a gate to allow them to have their door open (it was a hot summer) but to try and make people stop and not just pile in. I added the heart as their logo is a geometric heart shape, the gate opening is split 2/3 and 1/3 with both sections able to be help open with small cabin hooks.

What started out as a simple picket style gate turned into a more tricky build when the heart got added.

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No, it was not aimed at you at all. Please don't take it that way.
OK, I won’t; all serene. It just seemed a little pointed, that’s all. But that’s the problem with discussions of this sort, one can so easily pick up the wrong vibes from words unaccompanied by the usual cues.

So, we don’t have to fight a duel after all. Pistols for two and coffee for one. Mind you, if my prowess with a shotgun is anything to go by, the safest place to be would be where I thought I was aiming.
 
😅 I wouldn't be drinking coffee after the duel. It would be a tot of the finest malt.

I have a bit of a personal thing about sailing safety. Had a couple of very bad experiences fishing people out of the water. Not suitable for here. Enjoy your boat. Get an outboard :cool: When I was a kid and we went to Salcombe twice a year, my dad would buy up cheap used Seagull o/bs, refurb them, repaint the tank and sell then on for a profit, He did this for at least 10 years. Wish we had kept one. Still have a fondness for those old simple engines.
 
On this day in 2020, I made a gate for a gift shop in Troon Ayrshire. They had opened 1 week before the first lockdown closed them again and were getting ready to open once lockdown was lifted. They asked for a gate to allow them to have their door open (it was a hot summer) but to try and make people stop and not just pile in. I added the heart as their logo is a geometric heart shape, the gate opening is split 2/3 and 1/3 with both sections able to be help open with small cabin hooks.

What started out as a simple picket style gate turned into a more tricky build when the heart got added.

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Nice Alasdair, Did you have fun with the install !
 
Since we are talking boats and outboard motors. A Client gave me a 14' boat and trailer. Just collected it , been sitting at his farm for a year. Another Client gave me a motor years ago. Will be nice to get back on the water.1000002339.jpg1000002340.jpg1000002341.jpg
 
Our old boat was nice , 1974 Starcraft, fold down seats and 90hp outboard. Weekends on the lake exploring, swimming, anchoring and snoozing. Sold it when we moved .
 
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Nice Alasdair, Did you have fun with the install !
It was fun making the gate and heart the install was a pig as I was very restricted on what parts of the structure I could fix to (the owners wanted this as a six month temporary structure however it is still standing and apparently a bit of a talking point).
 
Just to go off topic again ………….



Many years ago I bought a Sprog racing dinghy, all wood, needed some TLC, a new centre board and a paint and varnish job. Sail number 393.
Main sail and jib, both original.
It came with a launching dolly and road trailer.
We stored it a Florida Lake yacht club. Florida Lake is not very large.
The kids were still young enough that 3 of us could sail. All had life jackets.
The problem with the lake is you must start tacking either left or right after 100 meters.
Easy peasy, eldest on the tiller, youngest for the weight, me on handling the sails.
Eldest shouts turn, we move across under the boom, not fast enough and over we go.
The first time over (sh1t the water is cold in winter!) took a couple of minutes to get back up.

Next time over we could get up in less than 2 minutes.

Eldest and I sailed at Vaal Dam which is large, you get the benefit of the long straight stretches sailing. This is where the term racing dinghy comes in – it was bloody fast!

Sorry, no pics, this was 40 years ago.
 
20 Sept 2020, was it really 4 years ago:eek:
This was finished and installed. Wood from my own tree, douglas fir, planked by a local sawmill, joints cut by hand. No screws, no nails, no glue.
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Lots of log cabins done just like that around here Andy. I like that a lot, and much better than metal fixings that will eventually fail.
That’s where I got the idea and inspiration from. Tv program, Barnwood Builders, where old 18th century cabins and barns are taken apart and rebuilt as modern homes.
 
Saw my first two story one last week, must have taken a lot of manpower to get those heavy tree trunks up there.
Also saw a photo of about 300 Amish men complete with straw hats carrying a big barn! Not sure why but they obviously needed to move it a bit.
 
Saw my first two story one last week, must have taken a lot of manpower to get those heavy tree trunks up there.
Also saw a photo of about 300 Amish men complete with straw hats carrying a big barn! Not sure why but they obviously needed to move it a bit.
Ian there is a video of the barn move out there, look it up, quite amazing!
 
On this day in 2019, my wife and I took a tasting tour of several local vineyards. This part of Oregon is known for its pinot noir, which I believe is what I photographed here:

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Looks good and cosy. Glad to see you protected the overhead beam, the recommendation in the uk is for 45 degrees bends, not sure how much of a difference it makes, and 90 degree holes are certainly easier to put through a wall. Only did it once, not horrendous but still made me anxious re making a mess of the brickwork on the outside of the house.
 
The system was WETT inspected prior to the new one and passed with this 90 degree elbow so just installed a new one to comply.
Using a 45 degree elbow would bring the horizontal black pipe components close to the wood stove top and wood mantle . Which doesn't comply to the stove manufacturers recommendations.
 
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