ELROW LA ROWE'S MICRO NEWSLETTER
NEWSLETTER #8
April-May, 1985
I forgot to mention Steven's 6 year old son who likes Micro just so long as it gets him to
one of the Spoil Island beaches for solid ground playing--! Yes, Martin's Micro has a
1/2" bottom --of AC 1/2" plywood--had no trouble bending it on and screwing it
down to his oak chines. His trailer is by Arrow Trailer Corp. (305-592-6165) for $630 inc.
spare tire and bearing buddies. Specify the 10' tongue, not the 8' one. The comparables he
found were over $1,000.
Rogers of Kalispell, Mt. and Wolfard of Portland, Ore. got their sails from Taylor
Sailmakers (formerly of San Diego), PO Box 281, Lakeside, Mt. 59922 in 3.9 oz. dacron for
$326, or $380 if you want 5 oz. on main, and slides on the mizzen, the best deal yet. Want
to test-sharpen your disposition? Switch to Wolfard's sized garage with 2" clearance
in the back, 1" in front and 24" on one side and zero on the other (he moves the
boat from side to side on dollies), and build from a 23" wheelchair! "Its
tight", so he says--. He's nearly done; by the time he got to the sliding hatch,
that, along with other hard places, turned out to be straight-forward and easy.
(Typewriters do make mistakes, but mine, $7 at a garage sale, still beats the system!)
Yes, I do need a typewriter with worn type--coming up--, and I do need to watch my syntax.
Awhile back that hardwood batten and stainless strip was Bolger's dimensions for a
home-made sail track, a substitution of time for money. My track was std. mfg. track from
Defender Ind. And no, I do not mind the questions and calls; its just great really, and
no, a boat plan deal (wage time isn't counted in a labor of love!)like mine doesn't make
money, but it doesn't have to cost me either--or I couldn't do it. The big companies do
well, of course, but they retail supplies, equipment, frame and hull kits, etc. The ticket
is to think up gaps, or at least cracks in the market and hope the effort will be noticed.
It was great that Micro was first, and that even the designer was particularly impressed
with it! But, while more boats is fine, they won't sell as plans equally, and some maybe
very little. Couple that with my own impractical philosophy of having no plan of a boat
that I don't personally like, and I have to end up hoping that some will like what I like!
Now with 5 boats in the program and 3 being designed, I could become quite busy with 8
plans. More on this later, but today's tidbit is the 19'9" HOUSEBOAT being done for
us (my wife likes them, but snorts in disgust at the prices on production boats), which
friends will build for her, probably yet this year. We oldsters may soon be running the
across-Florida canal in total kitchenette comfort, bird-book and binoculars in hand. It
will surprise a lot of people; its displacement hull has the little sophistication of
wedges across the stern, and with FishCat power will run better than 12 knots, or at work
boat speed at great economy at 7-8 knots.
Chuck Merrell is a YDI student, a designer that occasionally makes some money by drawing
boats already, looking to doing it full time someday, and this winter has been doing some
modifying work for the Jay Benford office (one of my favorite designers). Micro will be
his seventh boat, an interim project to use over the next few years while he puts away
money for a 5 year project to complete his 37-1/2' Junk-rigged offshore boat. He's at
Bellevue, WA, will sail Puget Sound (lots of deadheads in the water). His boat will have
some overkill--4 oz. glass and a layer of Versatex Polypropylene to protect the boat from
being holed. He expects to be done by July 4th to show at the Lake Union Wooden Boat Show,
and Later at Wooden Boat Festival at Port Townsand,--hopes it will some plans for us!
Micro flattered again!
Chuck's boat will be Blue with light blue trim and decks, Bolger's Scheme, which reminds
me: Some have or are leaving off this or that molding, and of course probably can get away
with it, but that stuff isn't just trim, like chrome on a car, but is design and
structural significance--like adding additional stiffening to limp 1/4" plywood in
the right places. Also, Bolger's paint scheme dies visually lower what really is a
high-sided boat! In ways designers are enemies when for brevity they mention in print
"stretching the boat 2 ft." or "doing a 30% larger edition" of one,
for we beginners can't know beyond the words, when the designer is thinking a complete
redesign! For instance, stretch Micro 2' and you require new displacement computations,
probably different keel, ballast, and maybe rudder, certainly different bottom and side
curves, a larger rig with new center of effort point--and 12-15 other factors I don't even
know about! But part of the fun is learning a little about design along the way; I'm
reading a book or two. Weirdo, which we will probably rename "Inelegant Punt",
will sail for the first time in 10 days, done by Bolay of OldShoe fame! Lee Kemble of
Elizabeth City, NC will tow his behind his Micro-for fun off the beach when he is camp
cruising. The new brochure with rewrite on all 5 boats (FishCat plan not yet for sale) is
being done now, and also adv. being revised to fit. Micro II is coming along too.