For those of you that miss my writing!

Yes, I realize that I have not been around and writing much lately.  That is because I bought a home, have a kid and wife, and therefore no longer have time for dreams of sailing the 7 seas on an $800 boat.  So while I may pick away at the boat process slowly, in the mean time, I have a METRIC-SHIT-TON of other projects keeping me busy.

So for those of you that are interested, please check out a new blog devoted to land-based projects, Landlubber Projects!  Enjoy!

Portland Tall Ships Festival 2015

It is so nice to live near such a wonderful, interesting and busy city on the ocean.  It was 15 years ago that the tall ships came to Portland, so it was a MUST GO TO event for me.  I just happened to be able to drag my family along for the two days of events.  We started with a cruise to Long Island and back.  We happened to time it perfectly so that we were front and center for the Parade of Sail coming down the channel into Portland harbor.



As you can tell, even my little one had a blast on the ferry boat and being out on the ocean even though it was not really a great summer day.  It was cloudy, very windy, and chilly, but still wonderful to feel the ocean swells beneath my feet.







We were even able to see some racing going on between some boats out of Yarmouth.  They were rounding the windward mark and with the wind of the day, they were moving along quite well!

And now for a lot of gratuitous boat pictures!!!!

LYNX

Portsmouth NH

EL GALEON

Seville, Spain

I am not sure the Coast Guard would have been too happy to know they were under the guns of a Spanish war ship, or the guns of any ship, for that matter!

OLIVER HAZARD PERRY

Newport, Rhode Island

My little one trying out his sea legs with Grandma.  We will make a sailor of him yet!!!

After taking a few more boat tours, we walked back up the hill.  It is not too often in our modern world that we see so many masts of tall ships, or masts at all, in one place.  With Portland Harbor full of sailing ships old and new, I can only imagine this is similar to how the port looked 150 years ago.  If only we could see more of sailing ships in the years to come......

Photo shoot?

So apparently while I was not around, there was a photo shoot with the boat in the boat shed!

Its starting to look a lot like......

.....a boat house!  You didn't see that coming, did you?  It ma be December, and we may have had our first significant snowfall, but I am still slowly rolling on the boat project.  Think molasses in December kind  of slow or maybe even glacially slow.

If I cover this shed again, I will NOT be piecing together the top.  It was too much work and I seem to have some leaks because the tarp is a bit wind beaten, as well and the seams not being extremely well sealed.  With that being said, the shed turned out really well.  I thought that I might not end up with enough light with the two ends covered with the poly tarp, but with a huge middle section and the vertical ends sheathed in greenhouse plastic, there is more than enough light.

I am very happy that I did not try to construct the shed without the boat present.  It would have been much more difficult.  With the boat already in place, I could use it as scaffolding for the building and sheathing process, with the exception of the last two of three bows.  As you can see, I had to improvise!

 The top covering took about one day with two people working on it to complete.  The end framing and covering took most of another day.  For about a month, the shed did not have a door, nor did it have any vents.  Not having vents was a mistake.  When I went into the shed yesterday, the entire inside of the shed was soaked with the condensation, as was everything in the shed.  From my time working at a local marina, I had some knowledge of shrink wrapping boats, and cutting vents so the boats would not retain moisture and mold.  I used those same vents (although on a much larger scale) on the ends of the shed, and by the end of the day, the shed was dry inside.  Having the flow though of dry winter air made a huge difference in a short amount of time.










The other major addition to the shed was the inner liner.  With the shed prone to condensation, every time the wind would blow, it would rain inside the shed.  With the inner liner up, the outer layer will shed its water to the inner layer, which will run it out and away from the boat.  This is going to be a huge improvement, and key for when I start pulling deck hardware and hatches in preparation for prep work and painting.  I also had a little time to start pulling lines, sails, PFD's, and other equipment from the boat, since there was now dry space to put it.

What's next?  Cleaning the deck, yet again, followed by scraping and sanding the old paint off the deck and hull in preparation for priming and painting.

Amish barn raising?

No, this was not quite an Amish barn raising.  There were only 2 of us to work on the shed raising today.  We didn't quite look like this:




























I am really quite impressed with how easy the bow shed was to build.  It basically took me 3 eight hour days to get the shed bows bent, glued, screwed, and through bolted, which was followed by the shed being erected.  The only thing left to do is frame the ends and cover it.  I will be going to get greenhouse plastic to cover the shed ends and a stripe over the middle for light penetration.  I will be using the poly tarp that was on the boat for the majority of the rest of the covering.  Here is where we stand at the moment!

I do have to thank Stimson Marine in Boothbay, Maine for the excellent plans for the shed.  It made it extremely simple to build and erect.  I am my mother's child though, and didn't exactly follow the directions to the T, but it still went off without a hitch.  Thank you Stimson Marine for such a well thought out design and directions!!!!

Shed happens.....

So life has a habit of taking over and not letting you necessarily play when you want to.  With that being said, I have still been able to get some stuff done.  The shed is finally happening!!!!

First, to set up the base (sills) for the shed to sit on, I was supposed to be able to just pound the stakes into the ground.  I didn't account for the fact that I had a rock bed put in for the boat to sit on.  I ended up having to dig the holes for each stake to go in.

 For a few of the stakes, I attempted to use my dad's backhoe to drive the stakes into the ground.  Even with 2300 lbs pushing down on the stakes, they wouldn't drive through the rocks.  In the end I had to dig 18 holes.  The first one was by hand, but using the backhoe for the other 17 made the process go MUCH faster.





Once the stakes were all in place, a rail (2 2x6's) was fastened to the stakes.  This is what the base of the bows for the shed will sit on, and be bolted to.  With 3 foot deep stakes, this should keep the shed from lifting and blowing away.

I was also able to get a hand full of bows made.  The first ones were a little strange to build, but once I got the idea of how the jig worked, as well as picking pieces that were less likely to break than others.  This shed is going to be pretty cool when I get it done.  Now all I have to do is make time for building more bows......

I know its been a while.....

I've had to take a step back in processing that the boat project is on hold for the indefinite future.  Even though that is the case, and a huge, hard pill to swallow, I have been working on getting the boat moved to my parents house so that both the boat and the workshop are in the same location.  Also, I do not want to over-stay my welcome in my friend's yard.  He has been so gracious to let me keep the boat there, and I would not have been able to make the progress on the project that I have without his generosity!

Site Preparation!

While I might have been able to get away with just sticking the boat in the yard, I did not want to take the chance.  This spring the boat sunk into the ground about 6 inches because we had such a wet, cold, long spring that followed a very snowy, cold winter.  

The site we chose to put in a gravel parking area had to be leveled, and there was a pine tree that needed to come down too.  It was ant infested, as well as cracked near the base.  It had also been struck by lightning at least once, as evidenced by the scar running its height.  Taking the tree down was quick, and cutting it up with the chain saw was fun and fast.  What took the most time was digging out the stump.  We could have cut it off at ground height and left it, but we were concerned that it would then decompose and leave a serious divot in the graveled area.  Since the plan is to park the boat right where the stump would have been left, it seemed prudent to dig it up and remove as much as possible.  In the process I ended up covered in pine shaving, sap, mud, sand, and probably some petrochemicals as well.  Don't take that the wrong way.  I am a little boy at heart, so playing with tools (read: toys) is fun, as is getting dirty outside in nature.  Like father like son, I suppose.  While I was working on cutting and splitting the tree, my dad started digging up the yard to level it.  Once he got the topsoil layer off, he gave me a go with the backhoe in digging out the far corner and transferring the subsoil (mostly sand) towards the driveway.  I think he may have gotten a little bored standing around, so he got the other tractor out so he could continue to play with his tools/toys!

Sailing, One Way or Another!!

To reinforce my sailing addiction, my dad has been working on some of his sailboats.  The one on the left was a father's day present to him about 10 years ago.  It is just a simple 2 channel RC boat.  The boat on the right is a Detroit/Michigan School boat, a one-design boat that is built in Michigan high school shop classes.  This one is one that my dad used to chase around the pond when he was a kid.  It is not a remote control (RC) sailor yet, but those plans are in the works.  Currently it uses a self steering mechanism, so you just set the sails and rudder tension and let her rip!

This hull is one that I have been working off/on for a while.  I started with a few layers of hard foam insulation roughly cut, stacked, and glued together.  I then cut out a section for a keel stringer (support beam that runs a length of the boat).  I have been slowly adding layers of glass and epoxy to the hull when I have worked on other projects.  Since it is apparent that I am not going to get to sail my big boat this year, and maybe not  for several years, I decided that it was time to finish this bad boy up and see how I did.  I will keep most of the foam in the boat for flotation, should it become swamped.  I do not want to have to go diving for it.

In the meantime, I have to figure out what I am going to be doing for radio gear.  I have an old airplane RC transmitter, and I think I can just change the crystals in it to ground frequency to comply with RC rules and regulations.  I am not 100% sure on this, so I think I have to get in touch with the manufacturer to see if this will work.  If not, then I may have to buy new radio gear, which is expensive, and I really don't want to go that route.  More updates to come as the projects continue!!!!