Monthly Archives: October 2012

She is grounded to the ground

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I don’t have many today. Words that is. Too tired, so I will let the photos do most of the talking.

Oh, before I forget, I received my info from Mariners Museum on Making Waves. She is as I thought a 1962, 20′ Sportsman. She went to a dealer in Biloxi, Mississippi from the factory. I always suspected it was a Southern Boat but never had the proof. She came with optional canvas top and frame, side curtains and 283 Chris Craft engine.

Lifted off the trailer

Here she is hanging just a couple inches above the trailer. Kind of scary pulling the trailer out ever though I knew everything was plenty strong.

The flying boat

Again, nothing to worry about but scary too.

Stern stand in place

I built a stand for the back of the boat. Spent a lot of time thinking on how to do this. As usual it looks pretty simple but it was a bear to come up with.

A ground!

Here she is, grounded and ready for the serious work to begin.

It went smooth and painless. I know it was because I put a lot of effort and thought into getting to this point. But, I am still left with the feeling “Why did it to so long to get to do this.”

We have lift off

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The boat lifted off the trailer that is. In my last post I mentioned it took me a full day to lift the boat off the trailer just an inch or so, I knew I had to have a better way. After much contemplation and racking of the brain, I finally settled on pair of gantries.

While this was a great idea, it turned out it was going to cost a fortune!! I needed 4 hoists and 8 industrial casters and neither of these are cheap. Plus I needed lumber too.

I priced chain hosts first. At least $125 each and I need 4. Casters are at least $40 plus and I need 8 of those. That is $820 plus and that doesn’t count shipping. That could buy a lot of mahogany!

Well, never doubt the power of prayer. I found all the above for a little over $300 and scrounging around my barn I found all but 2 pieces of lumber for the 2 gantry frames. All I can do is say Thank you Lord!

I pulled the boat out of the shop late in the evening to make room to build the gantries. The next morning I started to gather all the parts and lay them out in the shop. The Weatherman was calling for a nice day but storms that night so I had to get these built today and the boat back inside. I knew that once I got started it wouldn’t take that long. But handling all those heavy pieces made for one LONG day.

I added another item to my “I will never do that again” list. Trying to stand up a gantry by myself. While I did it, it took more than one attempt and there was some collateral damage the first attempt. But we are not going to talk about that.

If you look close you can see the second gantry is built and upright minus the wheels. The second one, with wheels installed is standing upright too. Wheels can turn a simple one man job into a bloody nightmare! But being the kind of person to learn from his mistakes, I laid the second gantry down, finished assembling it and waited till help showed up before I tried to stand it up. Of course the fact I was teetering on the edge of exhaustion probably had something to do with that choice too. But about 7 pm it was done and boat was safely back in the shop.

Jumping ahead a couple of days my new strap, not straps, came in. Being the patient person I did take the time to read the invoice and find out why I only had one strap when I had order two. It seems they only had one in stock in Atlanta and the other one was coming from the warehouse somewhere up North in Yankee land. With my luck, it will take a week to clear customs at the Mason-Dixon line.

I wanted to see what happened to the gantries when I put a load on them. I hung two chain hoists, pulled the strap under the boat and tried to lift the back of the boat.

Exciting photos huh? Even though you can’t see it, the boat is just clear of the bunks on the trailer and I can see day light between them. Lifting the boat was almost effortless. I measured the gantry to see if was trying do the splits but found it had just barely moved.

One thing I see I need to change is the braces at the top. Now that I see everything in place I see a better way to brace it. I can give the hoists more clearance and spread the load out more.

While I wait on the second strap I am going to leave it hanging on the hoists. I will measure it before and after I take the load off the boat and see what if anything moves. Assuming no surprises, it won’t be long before I can start getting serious about tearing it apart.

Making Waves * Take Two

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Back a while ago I said I was starting on the restoration of Making Waves. Well, that changed about as quick as it started. God had other ideas and instead I have been writing my the new book. With the book nearing completion I have some time to actually start on this project.

The first big step was to start removing her ‘furniture’ and see exactly what I have to deal with.

Inside

Event though it has been covered while it was stored it is still amazing at the amount of dirt and trash inside. It was more amazing at all the ‘things’ that ended up in the bilge too! In the photo I can see a flip flop, ski glove, and cup. Trust me I have pulled a lot more than that our all ready!

seats out

floors out

Earlier I found a Bumble Bee nest in the bow. The drain plug is in the bow and had been left open so if water got in it could drain out of the boat. Great idea but it seems the Bee’s found this opening inviting and built a nest under the floor boards! Their nest was keeping the area damp and now we have rot to deal with where the nest was.

Next big problem is that the boat was not sitting on the trailer properly and that has led to a deformation of the hull and some broken ribs. There is one area where the planking will have to be replaced for sure on the hull. I expect there is more that will show up as I get into it.

Bilge will have to be painted, that zinc chromate green has to go! Who thought that was a good idea??

Earlier this week my project was spending a full day jacking up the boat and getting it centered and back down on the trailer. This was a harder task than I had expected. Since I have a lot of work to do on the bottom of the boat, I see I need a better way to lift and shore it.

After all the effort to get the boat off the trailer I have decided that the only real option is build a gantry and use chain hoists. So this weeks project to built two gantries and find some chain hoists. Then the real work can begin.

Eli Whitney Museum kids programs

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I feel like a proud father! I received this email along with the attached photos today. Love seeing kids getting involved in boating, especially boat building, at an early age.

Jeff , This summer at the Eli Whitney Museum we built 10 – !2′ kayaks, with kids 12 to 14 years old, based on your Free B 12 design. I supplied kits comprised of 1/2″ MDO frames, keels marked for frame location, stringers,combing parts, sinew and skin. Frame assembly and skinning took five days. Applying finish, combing, seats, paddles, etc, took another four and a half days, leaving a half day to play. The boats,as you can see from the photos sat nicely on the water, tracked well and were handy enough for kids to negotiate the creek behind my shop. I have gotten lots of great feedback about how much the kids are enjoying showing off and using their boats. We have been building boats here for about 12 years and these boats seem to be getting much more use than any design previously built. I believe there is an inverse relationship between how much a boat weighs and how much it gets used. Parents were so taken with the boat we are offering an adult class this winter. we will be build a 14′ 6” boat similar to your Free B 14. I would like to thank your book and videos which made this project possible. Your generous sharing of your Free B designs and reasonable prices on materials are greatly appreciated at a non-profit such as ours. I look forward to doing business with you again. Happy paddling

Mike Dunn

The photos are what made it for me. So I have included all that Mike Sent.
I am still grinning!!