Fair the seams with Bondo, then tape and epoxy them for ease of maintenance. I did not glass the entire hull, but you may want to consider doing so, again just for ease of maintenance.
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Recommendations |
| Although it is not necessary for strength or water tightness,
glassing the seams with 3" fiberglass tape and epoxy is highly
recommended. I found that the Bondo I used to fair the seams would
eventually separate from the edge of the plywood. In some cases, it would
fall out, most of the time t would just be a crack.
Fair the seams with Bondo, then tape and epoxy them for ease of maintenance. I did not glass the entire hull, but you may want to consider doing so, again just for ease of maintenance. |
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This is a profile view of my daggerboard. Shaping the top of the handle like this provides a fairly comfortable seat for a passenger (remember to duck the boom!). A hard grounding pulled the threads of the screws out of the blade, so I replaced them with nuts and bolts as shown. I did the same thing with the rudder screw eye. I used soft pine boards for the blades, so you might not have the tear out problem if you use a better wood - but this method is much stronger than just screws in any case. The holes also give me a place to route a pull rope, making removing the dagger board easier. The pull ropes also provide a friction grip to keep the dagger board down - it tended to float up at times prior to this modification. |
| photo coming soon! | I found that the plywood overhang at the aft end of the cockpit would sag and began to crack under my 250 pound butt. It was never unsafe, but I didn't like the way it looked after the first season. I used leftover 1/4" ply and laminated the overhanging sections to 3/4" using epoxy. Fit the panels, spread epoxy on one layer and temporarily screw it in place with drywall screws. After the first layer is cured, remove the temporary screws and repeat with the third layer. Actually, 3/4" is overkill, so you may want to just use one layer. After everything is cured, pull the screws and patch the holes with thickened epoxy and sand everything flush. I used a round over bit in a router to take the sharp corner off of the upper edge as it is now solid as a rock and does not flex at all. |
| The plans call for filling the voids with floatation material. I followed the directions and used Dow blue board insulation panels, but in my opinion, this is unnecessary if you built the boat well (ie, watertight!), and especially if you glassed the seams. A better use of the forward voids would be to fit watertight access panels on the forward bulkhead and put your lunch, etc up there. There is enough room in the voids to pack up for a weekend if you don't mind backpack type camping. This also allows for an inspection port and ventilation to get any condensation out of the void between trips. You do want to keep those voids watertight as the floatation is important if you get knocked down. | |
| If you have not sailed in a small boat before, you are likely to get knocked down until you can build up the proper reactions. Prepare for it by keeping your PFD on and minimizing the amount of loose junk in the cockpit. Recovery is easy - the Mini Cup will pop up on its side most of the way out of the water. Loosen the halyard to let the sail go down when the mast goes up - the surface tension on the sail is too much to overcome if you don't - then work your way around to the dagger board. Stand or kneel on the dagger board while pulling on the upper chine and the boat will come right up. If I'm in deep water, I usually need to do a shoulder roll to get back in the cockpit. Bail out the one to two inches of water and you are ready to go again. | |
| Once you build up your reactions you can almost always avoid a knock down. There is an all-purpose emergency maneuver that you can use at the last second - just let go of the sheet and tiller and the boat will immediately head up into the wind and flatten out. | |
| byyb.org | The Back Yard Yacht Builders Association has a building FAQ that would be helpful, and the forums are a good place to ask questions. |
| Mini Cup Plans (2Mb file) | The Mini Cup plans are now free. Get them at this link. Build one. |
| Kris' site | Other good links to check out. |