ELROW LA ROWE'S MICRO NEWSLETTER
NEWSLETTER #7: March 1985
Perry Walpur, Ft. Myers, built keel and will install lead, with boat upside down. Adler
mentions that his Aqua Bug, though 5-1/2 hp with reverse and external talc, was under
$500, considerable lees than most popular 4 hp models! Steven's 3 hp Seagull was
inadequate against wind and waves with "dinghy" prop--needs the 4-blade, large,
flat-pitched high thrust one. Newsletters? You bet $2 I will live out the year and maybe
do 9 10 (not less, I think)! Guess I like words.
Martin Steven's MICRO, Biscayne Bay, Sat. Mar. 9, 1985: How does a cabinet, house-boat
carpen-
ter use 300 hours to build Micro, instead of the usual 120-150 hours for such types? Well,
it isn't easy' First, once the hull is built you sort of build another one around it of
1/8" glass mat, and then put on another one of glass cloth. Count 6 gal. of epoxy
resin (Polyester resin would do for half the money, but he is an epoxy ,man) more or
less.' Now that the boat is battleship strong and bullet-proof, what to de with a huge
2-3" thick slab of teak discarded at the yard? Cut and carve the rudder stock and
blade out of it, of course,--in one piece, and finish it to a furniture luster and saw and
finish into it a beautiful taper front to back on the blade! This young Brit (here 8
years), who can turn on and off his accent, like throwing a switch, gets no high marks for
loquaciousness; all he had previously said was that he wasusing some teak and mahogany,
and making the cockpit hatch opening longer.
Of coarse I must go on, not having his problems with loquaciousness or verbosity. A chunk
of teak rounded on one end, but good only for the fireplace, right--got cut down for the
main mast partner, with the thicker rounded part overhanging the bow transom maybe
6-8" and from a distance looking like one of these small rope bumpers seen rapped
around the stem of a tug. At this point I suffered my first disappointment after having my
expectations so elevated; there was no 24" lovely teak figure under the prow cap,
hinged to swing away from the boarding stops Martin was staying practical, building a teak
cooler box for the rear well when I arrived. Shucks, it would probably only have taken
another 50-60 hours.
We aren't done! This ship has laid teak decks! Also the cockpit hatch; but,
the sliding hatch is furniture finished solid teak and mahogany, and all exposed bulkheads
are varnished mahogany plywood. Mrs. Stevens, a professional upholsterer, read up on sail
making, and made the sails. They seemed well nigh perfect! And they have brail reefing
points on the luff (more later )! Probably overlooked other items, but I even liked those
cute little stainless clamshells over the cockpit deck drains, and the front well drains!
Hie galvanized trailer was different too. Instead of rollers for the keel it had a heavy
3-board trough maybe 8" wide into which one floated the keel, hooked the hand winch
cable to a large galvanized eye bolt that is installed through his solid keel (up front)
right up through hie large teak mast step, and winched it up scene additional inches while
still partially afloat, to fit into his homemade bow stopper. Two yokes of pressure
treated lumber--one fitted into the mizzen step, the other belted to the trailer above the
winch,--carry all the sticks for traveling. You will be interested to know that once the
mast is lifted out of the step, he leaves the heel under the partner while he walks hack
to the extreme rear of' the cabin deck at which point the mast rests on his shoulder in
perfect balance!
Even Martin isn't infallible, however. He toyed with design only once, using lead shot and
concrete for ballast, and ended up 70 lbs. short. It didn't, work. Ho now has 2 35 lb.
pigs of lead each side of the keel, low down at the bottom edge like a miniature bulb
keel, which in turn puts a higher percentage of his 412 lbs. really low, making a very
stiff boat.
Sailing MICRO was of course high excitement for me, bat since it sailed Just as Martti,
Carl, and Martin had said, it was somewhat anticlimactic modifying the excitement enough
for me to suffer no stroke or heart attack! We had light air most of the day, but for 45
minutes or so it blew hard enough for hull speed, because of heavy showers obliterating
the skyline of Miami Beach 700 yards to the east. At hull speed it drags a double stern
wave just as Bolger said it would, In the light going rudder was mostly neutral, but in
the blow weather helm was just right--just mild pressure and slight angle--and the boat
rounded up immediately if you let go of the tiller. Having sailed lots of poorly
balanced boats, I just loved MICRO'S balance! Being used to 35-45 degrees of heel in a
tender Sharpie, my impression was that Micro didn't heel at, all, but of course it did a
little, and with no need to reef, since we were at max. hull speed full sail or reefed!
Anyway, it wasn't needed to ease the boat, and the next impression is that you do it to
unload the mast--which was showing no strain though. So, what we really reefed for was for
Martin to show me his new toy--the braill Grommet holes up the luff back of the sail
slides maybe 2' apart, and an opposite set 15" or so out; into the sail (he wished it
was more) are laced with light line (way less that l/4") anchored at the top and lead
to the partner. To reef one slacks the main sheet to feather the main, or rounds up to
feather (luff), or a little of each if you prefer, slacks the snotter to let the sprit
boom forward and gives a yank on the reef line and the luff folds RIGHT THEN against the
mast. FAST! Micro seemed not to notice, and I wasn't sharp enough to notice any
difference, but with a deeper reef, say 24" inches, the center of effort has to move
forward, effect weather helm at least somewhat, etc. He thinks he will put in std. reef
points too, parallel to the foot. With the boat so stiff, the wavelets splashed and
pattered against the flat bottom up front (no real pounding as they were small). I had
trouble noticing.
So, if you are a carpenter with access to a fancy pile of scrap, its great to go the
"cruise ship palatial" route. Yeah, I forgot to mention hie 6-8" wide teak
board at the top of the hull in place of the moldings, not carved, but a couple of cute
curved cuts in it, and the beautifully rounded and finished cap rail,--and countersunk
screws covered with teak bungs, to hold it down. And no, I am not jealous. Bolger suggests
I preside at the first Micro National over the 100-150 boats or so; at that time over a
five mile course I just may beat Martin by 3-4 minutes if I don't make any bad tactical
mistakes, as my boat will be lighter and sail at ere heel, with less wetted
surface--unless it blows, in which case all boats will be at max. hull speed and the
winner will have turned around the buoys faster--! Now I understand what tacking Micro is
all about; its been a long time since I spun a daysailer about on it's centerboard. Micro
tacks like any long keel boat, of any size, and exactly like my Sharpie,sedately,
positively, without slipping to leeward! But, if you force the tiller over quickly and
hard instead of sailing around the curve, the rudder will act as a water brake, slow the
boat, and put it in stays--at which point you grab the sprit and back-wind the main to get
on the new tack. Slacking the main (tightly sheeted mizzen) as you go into it may help at
times--hurry the turn a little. Using what he had, he has a fancy main sheet block with
built-in jam cleat, with tiny cam cleats on deck at sliding hatch, and pad eyes (or maybe
fairleads) in place of blocks on the mast partner, all of which worked perfectly on Micro.
He even let me mail it into a very confined ramp area in badly scrambled wind, rounding up
to a docking, probably lees in appreciation of my ability than his knowledge that if I hit
anything it wouldn't be the boat that broke!
OLDSHOE (for comfortable), prototype (see profile and layout below) by Albert Bolas of
Safety Harbor hero, is undoubtedly Bolger's finest design, bar none This takes nothing
from Micro, certainly one of hie finest, but, you see, Micro is at least believable.
OldShoe is NOT believable' Ten minutes of sailing her piles up conflicting emotions such
as amazing, awe, unbelief, delight -- and enchantment! Bolay's friend got his hand on the
tiller and wouldn't give it up; this friend owns and directs a "sailing camp"
for kids. and has a fleet of boats from 12' to 33'--20-30 of them! Burge Whiteside,
Waterlines, Inc., Southold, NY (See chapter 7 page 39, Bolger's "30 ODD BOATS",
on Sharpshooter (Martti the Finn is thinking of building one), on his first Fla. vacation
with his wife, stayed in Tarpon Springs overnight to see Micro, bet was turned on by
OldShoe's plan, and stayed another night to see Bolay's on its trailer, 13 miles down the
road, and bought the plan as soon as he got back to Long Island. (Forgot-the sailing camp
runs 150 kids or so--) I'm not really giving OldShoe lees space; all the sailing
information on Micro above applies exactly. If I were blindfolded, I probably couldn't
tell which boat I was in in smooth water, though OldShoe may have a tad lighter weather
helm in stiff air and isn't as stiff heeling as Martin's Micro. Bolay's job is
professional, with glass on bottom half of the hull.
If I could have named OldShoe "Rub-a-dub-dub", but 3 men is almost an insult.
Four of us, running the load up to 780 lbs. had sprawl room to spare in footwell and
chair-high seats. There is very comfortable room for 6 adults. Mrs. Bolay remarks that she
finally has a boat that sails with just steering--no sheets to jump and tend. I could go
all day, for the dry locker has room for a potty, and room to use it! Bolger was somewhat
apprehensive about the design, but he's in for a surprise. OldShoe is a maximum design, as
much as it can be, and still WORK. It's an ultimate. Besides, it's the only 12'er in the
world that is keel, cat-yawl, self-bailing, self-righting, self-sailing, with high seating
and coaming up to your shoulder blades. We're mesmerized as to what a boat should look
like, but none of that will work if you want the above in 12' that sails. This much boat
in 12 footer has to look like OldShoe My OldShoe will have that figure, an attempt at a
"thank you; you're wonderful"! My Ph.D. psychologist daughter was going to read
instead of sail, but decided to displace her husband the second pass by the dock, and 10
min. later decided that mine would be willed to her, on the flimsy excuse that it would be
nice to have something that Dad built! E. La Rowe