The Big Grind Begins

Last weekend 28th Feb I started the final grinding of the outer hull along all the weld lines.The sandblasting day is coming fast.Theres a few things left to do structurally and Im trying to get them all done before the blasting starts.Theres probably a few days grinding left..The pics below are only taken today 4th march on my phone so the quality...

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No Longer Shiftless

Previous to cutting in the hatches, I worked on making the cut in my deck for mounting the throttle/shift control. While I had originally planned to get a stainless steel metal bezel made, my fellow boat builder Ted suggested that I make a wood bezel....great idea! I decided that a two piece bezel would provide a tighter fit and cover up the "dogbone"...

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Faking It

In order to determine my plan for the deck planking appearance, I made up some sample boards from the scrap cut offs. I did one set in natural colors on one board. On another longer piece of plywood, I made two sample sets, one with the perimeter and king plank dyed a dark brown and another with perimeter and king plank in a vintage cherry redish dye....

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Doing A Doughnut In My Boat

You may recall I decided to make a Shilling rudder.This short video shows what it can do.Enjoy. Sorry about the reflectionIt works as you can see and Im glad I went to the extra effo...

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More Ceiling

Ceiling again today. The center area is going to be pained white and is ply wood the same as the sides.  First the supporting frame.2 x 1 battening glued and screwedWorking single handed and putting up a ceiling is challenging.  With the aid of the ratchet prop used yesterday for the bucket and some temporary hold ups heres how I did it. And...

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The More You Know The Less You Know

I was reading a forum item about water up the rudder stock tube.  This was something I had never considered or been told about although on very hard reverse on my NB I would get water up the tube.  I just put this down to poor design because of its age.  When the water came up it just ran off the self draining read deck, but on this...

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A Whale of an Adventure Begins

Traveled all day yesterday to board the NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow at the Newport, RI naval base. As part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Teacher at Sea program, I get to join scientists monitoring whale populations for the next week and a half in the Gulf of Maine!Hoooo weee! Pictures of the ship to come, as well as...

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Laminating the Keel

Once I had all the patterns I needed for the keel chunks, I assembled a cradle from 4x6s fastened with lag bolts and started laminating the pieces of keel from thinner stock. Several hundred board feet of Southern Yellow Pine 2x8s, 7 gallons of epoxy and 15 gallons of fumed silica later, I had my keel chunks laminated.There were big lessons learned...

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Metalwork Today

Makes a change to do some metalwork again.I got the lids for the stern lockers back form the press works so it was now a case of making up a rim to make the lids self draining but NOT into the lockers.  I only stitch welded the frame as I didnt want to distort things too much as the lids are a snug fit.  Gas LockerWith Lid Port...

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Its Getting Real Now

Final preparations are now underway for the European trip.  The dogs have had their rabies jabs and their pet passport is in process.  I have booked the ferry.  The transport is booked and the cranes both ends are also booked. I am talking to home insurance companies about extended periods away from home cover.  Most only allow less than 60 consecutive days away.  My current...

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Let the Show s Begin!!!

Our 2013 show season is about to start in a big way. We are off to Tavares, Florida for the Annual Lake Dora Antique & Classic Boat Show. Its one of the biggest in the country. It runs March 22nd-24th, 2013. For more information go to http://acbs-sunnyland.org. All of the images in this story come from the Lake Dora Show. Click on any of them to...

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Happy Independence Day!

Fabulous day today! Ramon joined me at the boat shop this morning and we were able to put up three frames. This afternoon while he went on a cactus-gathering expedition to get us some nopales and pears, I worked on another frame. Just THREE left to go!Lots of non-boat stuff happened too:Ramon and I whipped up a 4th of July dinner of baked brie,...

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