Summer 2001

After completing the hull and deck, I started working on the interior. The first step was to begin fitting the bulkheads. The main bulkhead is at the companionway. Two partial bulkheads on the port side form the galley and a small bulkhead on the starboard side separates the settee from the forward cabin. I measured and measured and then cut the bulkheads from cheap plywood to fit them and take more measurements. These patterns were then used for cutting the very expensive ¾ inch marine grade mahogany plywood. Most of the interior is varnished mahogany. The bulkheads were fiberglassed to the hull and then I used Douglass Fir for building up much of the framing for the berths. There is a double berth forward, a settee and the quarter berth. I did not add a head as I thought it made the cabin feel too small. All of the berth framing is bonded to the hull. I got real good at measuring multiple angles (fore-aft and up-down) and transforming these onto the frames. I inserted a 25-gallon bow tank below the v-berth for fresh water before bonding the frames in place. The frames were then covered with marine grade plywood where the surfaces are hidden under the cushions. The front faces were covered with the mahogany ply. In the forward cabin I added a mahogany shelf on both sides and a forepeak locker. Behind the settee is another shelf. The back of the settee folds down and is placed under the cushion and a separate cushion behind this back (under the shelf) makes the berth larger for sleeping.

Dave Kenyon’s Flicka s/v Q.E.D. and family in the Channel Islands off the southern California coast. Photo by Jill Geary The galley contains a basic alcohol stove (Kenyon, of course), a stainless steel sink with faucet, a foot pump and an icebox. The table folds down against the front of the icebox with a piano hinge. The aft portion of the galley has two drawers and in the middle, there is a door under the sink. The interior is finished off with a headliner (purchased from Pacific Seacraft) and ¼ inch plywood lining the cabin trunk sides. I wanted to have all bronze opening ports but they just wouldn’t fit into the budget, so I compromised and settled for the black plastic opening ports. Someday maybe I’ll upgrade to the bronze. By this time I was starting to run low on money and I

still had all of the rigging, sails and other associated gear yet to buy. I contracting a seamstress to cover my cushions (I didn’t want to learn to sew also!). The last project on the interior was the forward cabin ceiling. This turned out to be the most difficult task of the entire boat building project. I had seen some boats with wooden strips inside the hull and I thought that looked great and figured I’d give it a try. The only problem is there is a double curve that the wood must follow. I started by glassing in some plywood strips vertically between the berth and the shelf to give me something to screw into. Then I put insulation material between these ribs to minimize

One Way to Get A Flicka: Part 3: Finish It Off Dave Kenyon

One Way to Get A Flicka, Continued... Dave Kenyon

This is the second Flicka in the Tokyo area. Shinji is aware of s/v ORANGE BLOSSUM but doesn’t know the owner. What a great opportunity for a miniFlicka Rendezvous in the Far East!

Some time ago, Rod Bruckdorfer asked if I might consider taking on the Flicka Home Page while he was away cruising. This sounded like a good idea and I accepted. Recently, I developed a small web page for Flicka Friends and felt it was time to take over the Flicka Home Page.

After a couple of real long weekends, most of the pages were converted from the software that Rod used to the program used to develop Flicka Friends. While the look is different, the information is the same. The biggest change is the use of the YAHOO Flicka 20 Group as a discussion board. The web addresses are listed below.

http://www.nmo.net/~flickafriends/index.html

http://www.nmo.net/~flickafriends/mainpage/index.html

About 400 sets of plans were sold. According to Bruce Bingham, many Flickas can be found in New Zealand Australia and Sweden. A number of hulls were built by Nor’star and some were completed by Westerly Marine. The manufacturer of the bulk of the class is Pacific Seacraft Corporation who built more than 430 hulls in California. Flicka Friends is published on a quarterly basis, with issues being mailed in March, June, September and December. Articles, letters, comments and photos relating to the Flicka are welcomed and encouraged.

Copyright 2001 Dennis Pratt/Flicka Friends Dennis Pratt - Publisher 685 Spring Street, #191 Friday Harbor, WA 98250 (360) 370-5133 scamper@rockisland.net Tom Davison - Editor P.O. Box 922 Sutton’s Bay, MI 49682-0922 (231) 271-5111 flickafriends@nmo.net http://www.nmo.net/ ~flickafriends/index.html One way to get a Flicka... any condensation. So far so good. I selected maple for the wood ceiling and cut it into strips about 1.5 inches wide and maybe 3/8 inch thick. I started with the strip just beneath the shelf and managed to get that screwed in, however, each successive piece had more and more curve and it was getting tougher and tougher. Once I couldn’t get them to curve into place I decided I needed to steam them. That sounds easier than it is (these are about 6 or 7 feet long). I couldn’t get them sufficiently steamy to bend enough so I decided to try boiling them. I bought a piece of gutter, bent it up at the ends, filled it with water and then put it over a fire. One at a time I boiled the pieces of wood and then when they were sufficiently cooked, I screwed them into place. This actually worked pretty well and I was proud of myself for having figured this out. Until I realized that after it dried, the wood shrank back to its normal size, leaving little gaps between each strip. Oh well, my ceiling has some small gaps, actually it doesn’t look that bad. I finished it off with about a zillion plugs to hide the screws and lots of coats of varnish.

Forward Berth Framing – This is the roughed-in framing for the v-berth showing the partial bulkheads on either side, the bow tank and the forepeak bulkhead.

Let’s see, by now I have moved the boat several more times and now live in Chester Springs, PA. The last tasks involved buying lots of hardware, rigging, spars sails and all the necessary paraphernalia required to go sailing. I bought the gaff rig spar kit from Pacific Seacraft and learned how to tap threaded holes into aluminum. I also learned how to put Sta-Lok fittings onto the wire stays and shrouds. If nothing else, building a boat is a learning experience! I even learned that the cheapest sails are made in Hong Kong (I am almost totally broke by now). So I ordered the sails (a gaff main, a clubfooted staysail and a working jib) from Sails East, Inc. Unfortunately, they were delivered on a slow boat from China and

Finished Forward Cabin – This picture shows the completed forward cabin, complete with the maple ceiling strips. Part 3: Finishing It Off the boat was launched sans sails. Anyway, I managed to get all of the rigging to fit and with a tabernacle mast step, I can raise and lower the rig by myself. Finally, in June 1987, I launched the QED in the Bohemia River on the very northern-most part of the Chesapeake Bay – and it floated. Not exactly where I had put the waterline, but it floated. (For an explanation of the name, QED, see the Flicka Web Page and the Names Link).

Champagne – Well, there’s nothing left to do now except hope that the newly-christened QED floats!

It Floats – Of course, it did float, and (eventually) even sailed! And she’s still sailing 14 years later.

Several weeks later, when I finally received the sails, I found out that it actually does sail too. That summer we took our maiden voyage to a Pacific Seacraft Rendezvous in St. Michael’s Maryland. The highlight of that trip was having dinner with Katy Burke and hearing all of her Flicka adventures with Bruce Bingham. In 1994 I bought a trailer and a truck and towed the boat to Southern California where I lived on the boat in Newport Beach for 4 months before my family moved out. We sailed for 5 years in San Diego, LA, and 2 weeks in San Francisco (where we went to another PS Rendezvous). In 1998 I sailed the QED in the Newport-to-Ensenada race, finishing seventh in the cruising division. When my job brought me back East to Virginia, I once again trailered the QED across the country and now have the boat back in the Chesapeake, this time at Herrington Harbor just South of Annapolis. Actually, the boat is currently out of the water and undergoing a complete refit. It’s amazing how many parts need repair or replacement after 13 years of sailing. My current plan is to get the Flicka shipshape again and then trailer it south this fall for some extended cruising in the Bahamas. At least as long as the finances, the job and my family will allow, but that’s a future story. In the meantime, if you see a green, gaff-rigged Flicka named QED, Wave. My E-mail (at least for now) is: kenyon.dave@orbital.com More s/v Q.E.D. Photos

Forward Cabin Insulation – A small shelf was added on both sides of the forward cabin. Notice the frames in place for the ceiling, the roughed-in forepeak locker and the insulation along the hull.

Settee – This picture of the nearly completed settee shows the cabin trunk sides.

Matt helping – Here is Matt, then less than 2 years old helping on the project. Now he’s bigger than me and almost ready for college!

Unfinished Galley – This is the rough galley lay out with the alcohol stove, the sink and the icebox

Editor: There is another Flicka hull out there under construction as this is published. The Flicka will have a junk-rig. Hopefully, we will hear from him about his project as it develops. Inboard or Outboard? in the water. The prop is also protected by the hull and the rudder. It is more “yacht” like to have the inboard. The outboard isn't there to clutter up the fine transom of the Flicka. Also, you don't have to hang over the transom to operate the outboard. While you can get remote controls for some outboards, installation would only get in the way of using the outboard on the dinghy. You might be able to say that the inboard diesel makes more sense if you are going to cruise coastal waters and the outboard is better offshore, at least in a pure sense. The outboard would eliminate a number of thru-hulls and the additional hazards relating to more holes in your boat. The diesel would reduce installation problems if you wanted to add a windvane to your Flicka at some point, but the Monitor windvane does fit well on a Flicka with a outboard. A typical placement of an outboard engine on the port side of the transom. Note the fuel tank storage in the cockpit. By Tom Davison One of the fundamental decisions when buying a Flicka is engine choice. A number of comments from various sources have been gathered here. One Flicka owner had a Nissan five horsepower outboard. The five horse was a temporary replacement for a larger nine horsepower outboard. The captain said that the five horsepower outboard was really too small and would barely make it out of the marina if there was any sea running. From another Flicka owner, I've heard that the high thrust outboards models are the way to go. They provide the same thrust at one-quarter the throttle. He feels the outboard to be superior over an inboard for maintenance reasons. It is certainly cheaper to take your outboard engine into a dealer than to have a "diesel" mechanic make a trip to your boat. The outboard can be removed from the water, eliminating the drag from the lower

unit and the prop. With an inboard reducing drag means a folding prop, i.e. expensive $1,000+. Offshore, the reduced drag might mean a few more miles per day. The outboard can be a source of power for your dinghy. With a large enough inflatable, you can move the outboard from Flicka to dinghy depending on your needs. One new aspect of outboard ownership are the beginnings of two-stroke limits. Lake Tahoe has limitations and there have been a number of articles about this. Buying a four-stroke outboard or one of the newer fuel injected two-strokes with a separate oiling system may be the prudent purchase. Theft may be something to consider. Removing an outboard from the transom doesn't take very long, removing a diesel isn’t very likely. The inboard offers a number of advantages. First of all, the prop is much lower

There is also the diesel vs. gasoline argument. In my mind, diesel is much safer. The fuel consumption of a Yanmar is around one quart per hour. The older Flickas had a twelve gallon diesel tank and more recent models have an eight gallon tank. The twelve gallon tank gives a range of approximately 240 miles assuming that you are traveling at five miles an hour (12 gallons x 4 x 5 knots = 240.) It is also nice to reach down to turn a key to start the diesel rather than hang over the stern and pull a cord. You can of course purchase outboards with electric starters. With eight gallons, the range decreases to 160 miles (8 gallons x 4 x 5 knots = 160). There may be one other advantage to diesel power. The small Espar heaters run on diesel. If you live in a northern latitude this heater might make the early spring and late fall trips more enjoyable. The final decision may be just simple economics. An outboard powered Flicka is cheaper than one with an inboard diesel engine. Please add my name to the Flicka Friends and those who are interested in the Bruce P. Bingham design - Flicka. Your name will not be given to any other publication at any time. This publication is not for profit. To start a subscription, send your e-mail address to the Publisher or Editor. You can find their email addresses on page 3. Your e-mail address will be added to the mailing list. Flicka Friends is sent via the internet as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. The reader for this file is available (free) on the internet. Thank you very much. NAME

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“Flicka Friends” © 2001 by Dennis Pratt. All rights reserved, except for information that may have a prior copyright used here by permission.

Dennis Pratt 685 Spring Street, #191 Friday Harbor, WA 98250

Next Issue... Since there is very little in the files, I’d like to encourage you to send something about your 2001 summer trips. Thanks!

Last summer, , I changed internet service providers and while reading through all of the information about their services, I decided to look at their web page option. Since I use Microsoft Publisher to create Flicka Friends, there were a number of “canned” web pages available to me. On a day off, I decided to try the wizards and create a

web page. As it turned out, this was a relatively easy process. Within four or five hours, the Flicka Friends Home Page was created. While not the most sophisticated software available for web page creation, it did a good job. After uploading to the server, the Flicka Friends Home Page was ready for viewing. You can find it at: www.nmo.net/~flickafriends/index. html

Newsletter or E-Zine? By Tom Davison Recently, I began converting the Flicka Friends files (Microsoft Publisher) into Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Hopefully, all of the back issues can be converted over the next year or so. This conversion does a number of things. For those not familiar with Acrobat, it is a software program that allows creating a file that anyone with Adobe Acrobat Reader can view. Since the reader is free and can be downloaded from the internet, it is a perfect medium for Flicka Friends. The software also reduces the overall file size to manageable levels. A ten page issue of Flicka Friends (with images) can easily reach 15-20 MB, a size that would prohibit all but the most interested Flicka Friends from downloading the file. Acrobat files are approximately 10% of the original file size and at approximately 1 MB, they can be easily downloaded to your hard drive and opened with Adobe Acrobat Reader. There are several advantages to sending Flicka Friends via the internet instead of through the U.S. Mail. First, the issue that arrives on

your computer is an original full color issue and NOT a black & white photocopy. You can print the newsletter at your home and replace it in the event a wave damages the newsletter. There are a number of advantages from the editor’s point of view. The time required to take the newsletter to a printer (twenty miles away) and a second trip to pick it up, followed by folding the newsletter, adding the postage, sealing the newsletter for mailing and applying the address label takes time. I really don’t mind those tasks that much, but sending the newsletter via the internet eliminates all of those steps. The final benefit may be in the form of cost. Since the printing and postage expenses have been eliminated, Flicka Friends can be created and mailed with very little cost. Instead of charging $10.00 per year, the newsletter can now be sent out free of charge. Hopefully, this will result in an increase in the total number of Flicka owners on the subscription list. To insure privacy, the e-mail message containing the subscription list will be sent as “bcc” or “blind” copy. This eliminates all of the other e-mail addresses from the address area except for the person who is receiving the e-mail. s/v MARITIME in Japan

Shinji Kurato and his wife aboard s/v MARITIME (Pacific Seacraft # 426) in Yokohama, Japan. By Tom Davison One of the first messages to arrive at the Flicka Friends Home Page after it was posted to the internet was from Shinji Kurato. Two years ago, he purchased s/v