Part One - Part Two
I'm certain that nobody every really "said" that resurrecting old boat hulls into something again navigable would be easy. Nor, all that rewarding sometimes. And, they would be right.
I've been working with the theory that we'd be having several months of winter. I call it the Boat Building Season. The "Roughneck" project got put on hold right after Thanksgiving, and I worked on domestically approved shop projects for the month of December. Then, just when snow and cold and all that "winter" stuff was getting into full swing, I pulled out the Moaning Chair and got back to boat-work. I had to re-think the forward hatch design, so I could get the window frames built. I had to settle on what the propulsion for this sort-of work boat would be. Stuff like that. Stuff that would take some quiet contemplation.
Poof! The second week of January, we had a thaw. Temps in the high forties. Rain, and then just clouds. The snow receded. SWMBO reminded me that, "that old blue boat" I had placed temporarily outside her sewing room window in September was no longer hidden under a snow drift. Further, it just didn't fit in with her idea of what should be parked in that particular patch of trees. As in, nothing-should.
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Her logic was pretty, well, logical. That particular hull had been in. The out, and back in to the shop a few times over the past several years. Not much progress, and little likely to come any time soon. Certainly not, this Building Season. The excuse that the trailer was not movable due to the snow no longer held much force. The Lucas says that it's easy to get rid of a non-repairable boat. He even shows the spectacle of a huge earth mover stomping one of his Tikihut castoffs into the Florida sand on YouTube. No lesser an authority, Mississippi Bob says that it's "easy." Suddenly, before the impulse left me; I grabbed the sawzall and started euthanizing.
Before the day was out, I had a trailer-load of small boat-bits ready for the dump.
No. I don't think it's anything close to easy. Not, particularly fun, either. But as long as anything that looked like a joint, sinew, or nerve ending was throbbing already. I got to pulling the rest of Roughneck's original propulsion gear. Other than my shop floor resembling a salvage yard; she's now about ready for the next phase.
I did decide that the original steering unit would serve in a new capacity. What I didn't count on was how many moving pieces would drop to the floor when I took it apart. These old setups are geared and compensated for the torque of a big old engine and outdrive. And, somehow, I managed to get myself covered in very-old lithium grease while attempting to reassemble those several gear trains into a pretty non-traditional configuration.
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The dang thing started out, being pretty clean and painted white. A regular tar baby kind of project. I looked a lot worse than the steering wheel by the time things settled down. The idea is to stand next to this setup and steer with a "suicide knob." Should even be able to stand in the open hatch up forward and reach the wheel back inside the pilot house. And, there's a few more twists and turns that I've dreamed up in the Moaning Chair. Of course, some more of the boat-parts that I have labored to fit and glue and screw into place over the past weeks, got lopped out. Once that sawzall gets to running, there's little stopping it.
Then, as soon as I could get some of the grease off my hands, I shucked the pretty-but-too-tall domed hatch. The latest iteration is made out of narrow strips of spalted pine.
The windshield frames finally got fitted and glued into place. And, I even re-shaped the visor and cabin top generally. The side windows are set to finish and even to glaze. Time to start thinking about propulsion. Probably something with a twin small outboard set up with independent tiller-steered rudder in the middle. Some of the motor-candidates are waiting for the call.
And Bosun, the Shop Supe5rvisor, has shown up for consultations. In the Moaning Chair.
Things are starting too look like progress.
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See the first four parts of Dan's build called Change.
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