N.A. Frank Hamlin, sailing North on CSY Pilothouse #1

Pilothouse #1 sailed north to the January 1978 Boat show at the Colosseum in NYC, in company of a cutter rig. The interior of the Pilothouse woodwork was completed along the way by finish carpenters aboard.

This photo was the Cover of Chart pack/Florida East Coast/1980. Frank Hamlin, Naval Architect and architect of at least part of pilothouse project, is at the helm.

(orig. posting, 6/29/08)

CSY Owners of 44', 37' and 33' boats built from 76-83

Twice per year, I move this Post forward. If not, as you can expect, things get lost in history..

So now 6 months have passed and you get an update! How Cool! :)

.........If you own a CSY built from, you are offered a place to post pictures and write ups about your boat, "right here."

It's a great way for all of us to get to know each other and spend some time, similar in a way to being in a harbor and get to meet up for an evening or two. Here tho, we can reread and view, what we can not remember the morning after :)
Send a photo of your boat, yourselves or a couple of your "Happy Projects" and let's see what we have.

Nearly 3 years now and all is running well/Quality!

My hopes are to place ANY CSY BOATS CURRENTLY OUT THERE WITH OWNERS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET and interested.... a place to show their vessel and it's condition, problems, improvements or ? This is available now, right here. So, what are you waiting for?

Ready to show off your vessel?
Here is your opportunity. Just Email your initial write-up and photo attachments to: s.v.memoryrose@gmail.com

With just a few emails, you can have your boat up on the web, showing off your proudest projects.

Stay well and keep smiling,
ron sheridan

Antiqua Fire

Two nights ago, a friend of mine lost his Antiqua 44' to what appears to have been an electrical fire.


Remember to click on any photo to enlarge it.



Around midnight I was checking our condo for an electrical problem as I could smell the burned material, when I heard the fire engines. His boat, was docked 1/4 mile UPWIND from us.

The Antigua has been undergoing renewal/replacement of electrical wiring by a professional, hired to clear up issues of original and added wiring. Not certain of the actual details, but as of today, it looks like the boat is going to be a total loss.

It does not appear to be "the" issue, but I had written to all our friends on the CSY discussion list awhile back, that there had been an electrical fire on a Bottom Liner CSY,caused by a worn out/overheated male Hubbel connector (mounted into the deck mold of a CSY) and advised all to check out their device. I've been monitoring this connection on my boat more often since The Bottom liner fire. Two weeks ago I found a good deal on Hubbel connectors online. It's packed, ready to replace mine when we return to Panama next month.

Subtle warnings from your own subconscious mind when looking at some mass of wiring aboard your vessel or, a wake up call like these pictures and text hopefully will help to keep us from being complacent about electrical wiring, sizing, connections mounting, etc.. Like everything else aboard, wiring needs to be on the list of maintanance issues. It's a good idea to check on some regular set schedule as well as anytime you are working on or around them. Also, a no brainer is to shut off all systems not necessary...especially if any work is not completed.


My friend is OK, his attitude is good. He even said with some humor in his voice, "The adjuster asked, is there any boat out there you would consider as a replacement?" He said; "Yes, but it's in Panama".

... Then not joking with me, he said, "If you hear of any good WT 44' CSY's out there for sale, let me know".



A dad day for any and all that see this and certainly for my friend, but we can all learn something from this or at least be reminded.

Cap Rail Replacement, "GLORY" of Christiansted, CSY 37

Here are some photos of the "replace the external teak" job I've started. They were taken at the November 2008 Virgin Islands Charteryacht League Boat Show at the new Yacht Haven Grande Marina in St. Thomas.




The work completed at that time was just the cap rail from the forward gate on starboard, around the stern to the forward gate on port. Since then, the companionway, eyebrows, boom gallows and hand rails have been finished. Yet to go is the cap rail from the forward gates to the bow, both sides, as well as the 2" high pieces under the cap rail itself.





Because the material expands and contracts longitudinally about 1/4" in 8' with a 40 degree temperature change...I don't seem to have much of a problem down here!!!, I did not do any fancy scarf joints. Simple butts. The bronze is 1/2" half-round from Lewis Marine in Ft. Lauderdale.

Just had the boat re-surveyed last week, and the surveyor is quite excited about the material and how it looks. The boat is valued now more than ever!

The material came from PlasTeak in Ohio. Cost $65/length there, and with trucking to Jacksonville, ocean freight to St. Croix and trucking delivery to my marina, bumped each length to $100 each. Each of the 11 pieces are lumber dimension 1"x10"x12'. Made of recycled plastic gallon water/milk jugs, treated with uv inhibitors and "teak" color added, of course. The oldest pieces are now two years installed....and never been cleaned. The only thing I do to any of it, is look!

The material works like wood, and wood tools are the deal. Band saw, table saw, sanders, drills, routers etc. I sanded the "grain" into the finished pieces just before installation with 80 grit on a belt sander, except by hand where the routing was done.




Try them at www.plasteak.com. The guy I worked with was owner, Derek Gribble. He was a good help with questions.

Years ago I'd installed teak foot pads/steps on the rub rail on either side by the after gates as the original gel coat, then the Awlgrip, was slippery under foot, certainly when wet, and really because I have big feet and they don't fit on the rub rail well! So I made new steps in the PlasTeak, using a router to cut the "non-skids."



The fold down seat in photo 15 is for the windward helmsman to sit better on the lee side, a little more butt-room to sit on the rail while steering, so as to be able to see over the house with a clearer view of what's up ahead.


Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than sitting on the lee seat where you can't see squat. Mostly I did that for the old racing days, but they are handy anytime...especially if your arms are as long as mine!

Now, for the technical aspects of working with this material:


For sealant, I used Silicone Sealant. Nothing special other than Clear, which I thought would be less offensive cosmetically. I used the big tubes with the gun, ran several "lines" so I could spread the goo evenly with a putty knife fairly quickly, both on the fiberglass and the "wood" exclusive of the overhangs, hoping to avoid air spaces and general gaps. Since this stuff "moves" with temperature changes, I wanted to perhaps make more of a gasket to disallow water seepage below into cabinettes, etc. The strength of the joint is in the mechanical screw fastenings, not the sealant/adhesive, so you use more fastening than with real wood. Silicone has very nice adhesive qualities on metal-to-fiberglass, for instance. So do adhesives like 5200. Remember I wanted clear. But since not much sticks to this stuff, "adhesive" won't matter, so the guys that put 5200 on EVERYTHING will have to rethink with this.

Derek Gribble said that when screwing down the material, over-drill the pilot hole in the PlasTeak just a bit. Enough so that when you put the screw in place, it just "falls" thru the hole. When you finish cranking down with the screwdriver, back off the fastening 1/4 turn. Yes you want the piece to be set, but yes you also want the piece to be able to "move" with the temperature changes.

He recommended pan head first, then round or oval head fastenings. On pieces 3/4" thick, you can counter bore a bit more than half the thickness of the stock, and still have enough depth to set the bungs. The caprail and smaller pieces, like the eyebrows, are not structural. They are for looks. He suggested using tapered bungs...that they sell.... but that presented a problem to me. He said just hammer the mother home, slice off with a wood chisel in the time honored way and finish off. They'll never come out. The problem I mention is that the depth of the counter bore, what's left after the fastening is set home, isn't terribly deep. I felt that with the tapered bung, it might not drive in deep enough to really squeeze in and set. And while all holes and counter bores were drilled on a drill press with depth stops for the counter bores, I was't ABOUT to start custom cutting each bung!!! There are HUNDREDS of them in this job! So I cut my own with either a half inch, or three-eighths plug cutter, depending on the application, again on the drill press. In the caprail case, 1/2" Remember this HDPE stuff doesn't hold glue well. Neither paint...nor varnish. So drilling the counter bore 1/2" also will produce a hole for a bung that will slide in nicely...and also slide out! I experimented on scrap, drilling 1/64" undersize holes and wanged the bungs home. They were snug, "reluctant" to come out. I tried another series 1/32 undersize. They didn't want to KNOW about coming out! I have a set of titanium bits in 64ths, ranging from the thickness of a hair on up to 1/2". When I drilled the bungs in scrap, I drilled down deep enough so that the ...what would later become the bottom of the bung....was rounded. That roundness allowed the bung to enter the slightly undersized hole, and be tapped, not really pounded, in.

In the eyebrow pieces....not shown in those pictures...they were not installed yet...the brows are closer to 5/8" x 3/4" or so. There really wasn't enough depth to be able to use pan or round headed fastenings. So I used counter sunk wood screws. You have to be really careful here to again back off the fastening a bit to allow movement. And the counter bore should only be 1/64 undersize, because the outward pressure of the bung in the 1/32 undersize hole is too much....the material doesn't have enough mass behind it....and cracks will develop. I have this happening in a few spots and need to re-make the pieces. I'm still learning the material. The learning curve isn't really steep, but it's there. Derek didn't mention that, but then I only told him I was replacing the caprail, the pieces being between 5 1/2 and 8" wide.

He has told me now though that 3M now makes a glue that works for HDPE. That might help setting bungs in flimsy pieces without needing to undersize the counterbore. Havn't tried that yet.

David Kummerle

Water Faucets

The original water faucets on CSY's were chrome plated heavy cast brass single hole units with spring loaded self closing valves. This feature has been loved by some, but not by all, as reflected by the replacement manufactures and models used over the years.

That said, the forced water saving feature on a sailboat was and is a great idea.


The name of the faucet company is Chicago Faucet, 1-847-803-5000(tech. support
hit #2). The faucet is a Cross Handled Single Hole unit, part #700 or
701 (and can be ordered with Hot or Cold handles if someone wants to replace their unit, or just order part #
826-X for the SELF CLOSING CARTRIDGE if that's all you need. The model #701 comes
with the Self Closing Cartrige included for a few bucks more.

On the company's website, there are some improved models of this faucet, using the same single hole base, but adding features. Handles/method of getting the water to flow, and flow rate have options. Instead of turning the Cross shaped handle you can opt for a push down button style or a single lever. Flow rate is 2.2 gpm max, for a wide pressure range, so is probably reasonably low for a boats 30-45 psi systems, but the company offers a .5 gpm rate for real water savings on one of their models.

CSY@Topica.com

After Ten + years, the Original CSY@Topica.com forum, is being replaced.

There has always been a Link, off on the right side of this page, called CSY Discussion List and that list contains a TON of information, but for a few years has NOT BEEN RESEARCHABLE!! The originator of that list, Mr. Dave Covert, is now working to make this information available again.

Along with his efforts, a new site is being developed by Mr. Covert and the McCampbells that will offer many new things! There should be something happening, maybe in only days.

Stay well and keep smiling,

ron

"JAZZ", a CSY 37' class act!

Peter and Jan Hibbard, have sent photos of their 37' CSY. The boat does not look 30 years old, does it! I've had lot's of querries for 37 photos and information and am glad that such fine quality material came in. Now others have something truly sharp to look at.


JAZZ leaving Titusville Florida for Bahamas "Abacos" in May of 2008.







Anchored in Green Turtle, Abacos May 2008. Trail boards refinished with Red Brightside and inlay with Gold Leaf enamel that is actually cement monument paint. All exterior bright work taken down to bare wood with heat gun and sander. Cleaned and bleached. 3 coats Natural Teak Cetol followed up with 3 coats of gloss Cetol. Hull cleaned with Awlgrip cleaner and followed up with Awlgrip polish.









Port interior - New foam cushions, navy marine vinyl piped in white. Sumbrella throw pillows. All bulkheads cleaned and then painted with white gloss Brightside. All interior woodwork above sole refinished with water based Varathane.









Saloon Forward from Companionway - braided rugs, various decor items like mirror, pictures added with Weems and Plath flower vase. Bulkheads white gloss Brightside and galley counter Formica prepared and painted with gloss Navy Brightside.










Captains Cabin Port Side Forward - Trimmed in blue and white decor, bulkheads white gloss Brightside and all trim water base Varathane.











Head Forward - Sole fiberglass sole coved in white Dri-Deck. Counter tiled and new faucet fixtures added











Galley Port Side Looking Aft - All counters and top of fridge refinished with Navy Brightside and all trim with water based Varathane.












Cockpit Looking Aft - Fiberglass floor covered with Dri-Deck. C Cushions (closed cell foam) custom made for seating. Throw pillows red and navy striped Sumbrella, Cockpit table refinished and striped with Navy Brightside with gloss white Brightside background. All exterior bright work in cockpit and around entire boat taken down to bare wood and refinished with 3 coats Natural Teak Cetol and then 3 coats Gloss Cetol.

Extra Storage

Many owners have found interesting ways to add valuable storage space aboard their boats. Adding cabinets, lockers, removing drawer frames and top loading settee's instead, finding empty spaces under the sole and cutting access(carefully) to create storage has been discussed often.
Gene and Brenda Brown, owners of Queen Mary, a CSY 44' Walk Through had a neat trick up their sleeves. On the saloon's forward bulkhead, they had displayed a chart. At first, that was all I noticed. They smiled and demonstrated that the chart, was only the face, of a large chart storage bin as well as a 'Drop Down' chart table.

Often today, electronics dominate the original chart table in the nav station area..a computer is a prime example. Having a drop down table just forward of this area, adds to the comfort of quick back up paper charts.

Also, just forward of the mast and between it and the bulkhead, is another wood boxed in shape that you might not notice. Well, guess what's in there? A washing machine of course. A Haier single tub version.

The Browns spend a lot of time cruising and have equipped their boat well with solar and wind systems, Specta watermaker, hard fiberglass Bimini-custom built in Cartejena Colombia and more. Nice boat, nice folks and good ideas.

33' CSY, " Rhapsody"

Dag's 33, is a fine example of the 33' CSY model, shown here at anchor in No Name Harbor, Miami.









Rhapsody on the hard/deep keel option. The staysail has been modified to ditch the club foot original to the design and instead add a furling system and double sheets led to blocks on the coach roof corners.












New anchor.
Had all the exterior varnish stripped off last year and applied 17 coats of Epifanes varnish.
Also screwed on SS rub-rails on the teak from the bow back to the spring-cleats.
A new 20 KG Rocna anchor sits on the bow. Very impressed with the anchor so far.








Showing her clean seaworthy, CSY lines.








Rhapsody during hurricane Wilma. I am happy to say there was no damage to Rhapsody:
She was a bit shaken, but not stirred. At least 13 docklines are holding her in place and there is
also lines across the canal holding her off the dock. Had I known how severe the storm would be,
I would have removed the sails...





Helm mod...Mounted a chart-plotter on the pedestal 2 years ago. I had to make a bracket out of aluminum to mount the plotter, also used bimini-top hardware with rubber-bushings to clamp on to the tubing.

Here is a picture of the bracket and hardware: The plotter is a S-H C180i
hooked up to an AIS "engine" displaying ship traffic up to 29 n.m. away.



Helm 2.
The plotter is also connected to the Simrad autopilot, to the primary DSC VHF radio and also sending GPS updates every 20 minuttes to 406 EPIRB mounted just inside
the companion way.









Double Trouble: This is Rhapsody and Cinnebar sharing a dock in Fort Lauderdale. Rhapsody seems to be carrying the draft of a cruising boat.









Midship cleats nicely added.






This one is an experiment on cutting a viewing port in the "storm-shutter" kind of
plexiglass panels protecting the real house windows on the CSY 33: Had to
make several of these clear round plexi pieces as they would crack when bent.
Finally had to use glue, then SS bolts and nuts.

Also mounted an compass on the inside so as to make this a poor-mans "Pilot House"
In bad weather and with the auto-pilot remote I can steer the boat from the inside.
As can be seen, the hatches and all the external fiberglass on the boat have gotten
some fresh gel-coat sprayed on.



In this shot, note the block added to the corner of the raised saloon roof for sheeting the staysail. It's a good lead and works well for this conversion.


While Dag is quite modest, I have to say, when I viewed Rhapsody, I was immediately impressed with the thought put into each and every mod and certainly, the detail and quality of work. (sorry Dag, I had to add that! :)











In the end, actually both ends(a pun), the anchoring systems have been modified too.








For the stern anchor, Rhapsody uses a Danforth mounted on the aft rail, within immediate reach of the helmsman and can be quickly deployed. This is a real safety measure. A length of chain and the anchor rode, is stored just inside the coaming and below, in a secure locker specially set up by Dag. If and when needed, the helmsman can get a stern anchor down and maybe save the day, or if sailing solo, has everything needed to handle his boat and secure it bow and stern. Nice!!


Not to be overlooked since it fits in so well you might not notice, is the nicely installed windlass and new Rocna anchor. Both of these seem to fit as if originally designed. The simplicity, is actually just beautiful. Form and function, hand in hand and certainly well executed.




A fine solution also for the spare anchor. Easy to reach Fortress is mounted on deck in custom blocks between the two hatches. Simple yet functional.

Cockpit Hatch modification, of the Walk Over model

From Peter Roach:

Here is what I did:

Big hatch

I then attached a piece of door gasket material to the bottom of the part I had to cut off to miss the door. This acted as a drip rail for the blunt edge. I also painted the end of the board with epoxy because the plywood was showing. Here is a picture of the hinges and spring shock.

On the small hatch cover you have to cut off the side by the bench seat so it stands up like this:

Leave a 1/4^th inch drip rail so that water does not roll under the lid.

On both of the access hatches I used a weather strip from Lowes. It keeps the noise down and does not seem to allow any water into the engine space.