It's a 10-24 Boat

Some Michalak Boats at Rend Messabout. Photo by Joe Stromski

 It would be amiss of me to not mention Kat Boat's 16th Birthday on the 12th of June. Happy Birthday Kat Boat! With that out of the way it's been busy around here. The boat was moved from the Dayton Yacht Harbor back to my home for work. We love having the boat at the yard but the fact is that having easy access to water and power makes some projects so much easier. With that in mind we put half a pump of grease in each trailer hub, added some magnetic lights, and hit the road south. This was the first and longest journey since last spring when the boat was moved to the yard. We took stops every twenty miles at first but the tires were fine and the bearings sone cold. We have  a new towing vehicle with half the cylinders so we were bit leery but other then getting slightly better gas milage we towed the sawtooth profile at 65mph without issue. Unlike our previous Suburban which towed the thousand pounds of boat and trailer at highway speed without complaint, the Equinox ensures i know where every slow lane is on the entire 91.4 mile journey north. And we use use every single one. 

New and Shiny Up Top, Old and Busted Below

 When we first got Kat Boat there was a rush of new parts and fasteners. There were a variety of decisions made when the vessel was originally constructed that I may have disagreed with.  For the use she got it was a good choice at the time. There were also decisions made when the boat made it to our fleet that maybe could have been handled better as well. Today we look back on those decisions, give them grace, and try and improve upon them. The above is an excellent example of renewing things. Thankfully I sail in freshwater so my hardware doesn't rust rust but as you see it does wear. I haven't replaced my tiller hardware since I got the boat and it appeared it was time. Now I would have preferred stainless but I think that simply buying new in this case is enough. It's not expensive and I'll get five more years out of the new set.  We also are in the process of replacing star drive deck screws, driven in by a madman who thought it was the cats meow at that fevered moment, with stainless steel wood screws from Duckworks. 

 I've decided that the work will progress one system at a time. This keeps it from becoming overwhelming and gives a focus to the work. As it's summer and I must do my boat work outside my MS doesn't allow me to work well in the heat. That's sailing time. So my time is limited and it needs to be productive. So the first system we're working on is first is the mainsheet. When the boat arrived she has Racelite 1/4" blocks. The system we use is from the tiller up to the boom, then forward and a double purchase there. So four blocks in total. The line was originally the kind used for equine work but it was tacky with age so we replaced it with three strand utility line.  I've never been satisfied with the small blocks. The drag was pretty high and it took a bit for the rig to respond. Things improved slightly with the replacement of the aft boom block with a larger ratcheting black. I got the idea from the Katie M. and Left Coast Charters. But while it was an improvement I knew the only to really get it right was to replace all the blocks.  So that's what I've done. These are Racelite 7/16ths blocks that match the old ones but will allow far less friction hopefully resulting in a snappier action and better response overall. 

 As faithful readers will no doubt recall I've been messing with giving my boat a forestay for a while now. Catboats have a forestay, from 12' Beetles to 23' party cats they all support the mast from the front. Now it should be noted that the FatCat 2 doesn't share the same hull as a traditional New England catboat. Her bow is out of the water and she carriers her buoyancy slightly forward of midships but lacks the support a Cape Cod style hull gives the cat rigged gaff sail. She's also under canvased even with my slightly larger sail. According to Fenwick Williams, who is said to have designed more catboats then just about anybody, "Another rough rule obtained from practice says that an area of 80 percent the square of the length will give quite good results." (F. Williams, The Cat Boat Book, p32) That works out to 180sqft. Which would require much larger spars overall and quite frankly I don't think it would work all that well with so little wetted surface in the water. But I digress. I've never been a fan of the unsupported mast with that much sail hanging off the back. For lack of a better reason it just didn't look right to my eyes.  After bending two different stout eyebolts I've settled on a tang to attach the forestay at the mast. However at the angle it was hung there was interference with the gaff jaws., which were also different from plan. The Typesetter had the idea of a standoff to change the angle and distance of the forestay. Today I wanged© it together out of a piece he so kindly cut out for me. It's rough and needs paint but we'll cross that bridge a bit later. I'm pleased to say it's not going anywhere being through bolted. We'll know right quick if it worked or not but I have a good feeling about it. 

 And that's about as far as I'm getting today. The boat needs washing and at a minimum and maybe some paint here and there. And I have my USCGA Safety inspection scheduled for the Thursday before we launch but everything I need to be ready is on that list so easy enough to get done. The list of get them done's is long but doable a few hours a day. And that really what this type of work is. Just a few hours everyday and you'll see your results. 

 Oh about the title. Most of the projects today centered around what has become the standard size of fastener in the boat. The 10-24 machine screw with a Phillips head from 1 1/4" up to 5". Normally comes with washers and nylocks.