Send items to chuck.leinweber@gmail.com for inclusion here next month.

The Treasure Chest is a place to put those cool sailing, cruising, motoring, boatbuilding or boating tips you have. Send us your ideas... We just need a photo and a short description.

This time we have...

• Scarf Joints
• Navigation Lights
• Making a lighter paddle

When cutting scarfs, cut them from the blunt end not the pointy end. Pull the cut to the saw and it will leave the off cut at the side where the blade is coming down and if the off cut vibrates into the saw it is cut by the teeth of the blade. The photo hopefully explains. The off cut is at the top of screen. The problem is that table saws only have one switch and by standing at the back of the saw you loose the ability to switch off the machine. Simple have two way switching and the problem is solved.

Stewart Strik

Navigation Lights

Navigation lights is the subject.. Good..... It turns out only a day or so ago I made some good but cheap Nav lights. Cost about 2 dollars and maybe 50 cents change...

A store in town called the Dollar Tree is selling red and green led lights.. They are about 2.25 inches across and almost flat but they are pretty bright..

They use 1.5 volts SO NO need for a heavy 12 volt battery..

Mine light is made with these parts:

A... Two lights that cost one dollar each. Placed inside a plastic peanut butter jar... Made fast in place..

B... A 20 ounce cola bottle cut short enough to fit inside the peanut butter jar and touch the lid when the lid is placed on the jar holds the lights firmly in place. no moving about..

C.... A few scraps of tin foil rapped around the cola bottle to block the colored lights from being seen from aft and to create a reflector. Also form a crease in the bottle to separate the lights.

D.... Foam water tight seal.. Family Dollar store sells this foam.. A while back I paid 1 dollar for lots of it..

The light sealed in a jar is water proof and will float... That is,, if you make a gasket for the lid. Mine is made out of foam..

Inside the cola bottle is an air space. Good for storage or you can place some bigger batteries in that... BIGGER batteries means it will run all night and day for a long time.. They could be made with rechargeable batteries too.. These lights will blink off and on too if you want them too.. Not legal in my state..

This unit can be tied on the bow of a boat..

I love this idea for emergency lights that can be taken aboard a boat in case I get caught out after dark..

I also have a line on my mast so I can hoist a white light...

My night vision test proved my lights can be seen from a safe distance..

They could be pumped up by simply installing a much brighter led and fiddling with the electronics but for an emergency situation I feel they work great....

Just grab the light set and go sailing..

Chief RedElk

Making a lighter paddle

The boys from Longboat stopped by yesterday for a paddle and a little happy hour and unwittingly threw down a challenge. Jon and Paul brought beautiful kayaks they made which were real jewels but we've seen a lot of these, what we haven't seen is the paddles they made. I know, there are lots of homemade cedar paddles and these didn't look special. Then Jon handed his paddle to me and I almost fell over.

Imagine how much an eight foot piece of balsa wood, hollowed out and filled with hydrogen gas would weigh, that's what this one seemed like. Then Paul handed me his and I think it was even lighter. There was a large turnout in the tiki hut at happy hour and they all had to hold um. Steve came by later and when he lifted one he ask how they had hollowed them out. They said that they had gone to a cedar lumber yard and spent the whole day looking for the lightest, most perfect pieces of wood. So naturally I have to make a lighter, better paddle, which is a challenge to the rest of you. I whipped this one out today. It's eight feet long and came in at 27.6 ounces. The finish will add some so I'll sand a hollow in the blades to take some more off and probably make a better foil. You can see how I made it, it is hollow but I don't have any hydrogen gas to put inside. I looked on line and the lightest, most expensive paddle I could find weighted 25.25 ounces, lets see who can beat that.

Dave

David Lucas Lucas Boatworks and Happy Hour Club

Thanks to all who contributed this month. We got great ideas sent from far and wide. Put your thinking caps on and come up with those ideas for next month. Mike John

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