Another Nice Weekend On The Boat

We had the pleasure of Sue and Vic on our boat on Saturday night after having a shopping trip into Ely for essential supplies for all and a nice pub lunch together.

Sunday was a bit of harder work. I painted some more of the roof and the concrete on our mooring was well overgrown having not been cut back for some years would be my guess.  So I dug it out.  You can see how much has been retrieved by looking at the dark stained area.

This is actually our mooring but for the time being the higher bank a bit further along suits us fine.

 Its handy for getting onto the roof and is a bit shielded

Oh, and the moorings on the other side of the river are part of a marina and the fees there are 3 x what we pay. 

 

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Lounge Ceiling

I have finished putting up the lounge and kitchen ceiling and additional lights over the hob.  It was touch and go as weather or not I would have enough material.  I did a calculation before I ordered.  Due to the cost of it I didnt want any over.  Looks like I failed ;-)

It was this and the end trimmings

This is the finished ceiling.  It has a light oak grain imprinted in the paneling and its a cellular construction.  Its made for outside cladding so is fairly tough compared to the products you can get in B&Q etc.  It cuts well with a sharp saw but will splinter with a blunt one.  All my engineered products are cut using a Triple Tip TCT saw blade.

Nice and tidy up top, not so below!

Oh well thats just me, Ive always been the same.

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Every June On The Weekend Of Fathers Day

there is a show in St. Michaels, Maryland, that to me, is special in a way unlike any other that I know of. Let me say that Ive been to a lot of shows over the years. Its formal name is "The 26th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival/The Arts at Navy Point".

Feel free to print this poster and show it off

It is one of the grandest expositions of fine old mahogany and chrome boats in the country: it is, in fact, the largest show of the type in the Mid-Atlantic region. Its location, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, is a setting that is perfect for the shows many aspects. Being on the Miles River, which connects directly to the Chesapeake Bay, stately motoryachts come from many parts of the East Coast. Many boats simply cross the Bay from the Western Shore or come up or down the Bay from various Eastern Shore locations. Boats arrive on trailers from all over the US and often from Canada, as well. There are runabouts, utilities, race boats, cruisers, launches and virtually everything that you can imagine in between. Because these boats are in competition for best restoration to original condition, they are all in "Bristol" shape and when you see 120 to 130 of them together, its quite a sight.

There are several Antique & Classic Boat Festivals throughout the US and Canada and I think that they are all worth checking out. We attend a number of such shows each year and they all have their strengths. What I like about St. Michaels is that there is a type of synergy that has developed over the shows 26 year history. In particular, and for reasons that Im not sure that I understand, it has had a good relationship with the arts. Having been among the first vendors that were part of the show, many years ago, I remember that the first group had a number of artists in it. Some of them still do this show, almost 20 years later.

???

Talk about use of "Style"

While I dont understand how it began, this connection between the boats and the arts has grown in a very natural way and the two worlds compliment each other amazingly well. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the boats, most of which were designed to be stylish in their times, and which are in such pristine condition are art in and of themselves. Making old and worn boats young again is an art form in no uncertain terms. Understanding how to do research, learning about history, and applying techniques of woodworking, metalworking, finishing, graphics, etc. are all types of multi-media art and artisanry.

I often hear people say how beautiful the St. Michaels show is. That it is balanced and makes people feel good. There are a lot of reasons for that. There is a lot to do and a lot to see and the people are friendly. Again, the Museums grounds are beautiful in mid-June when the weather is "just right". I
think it looks better with lots of beautiful boats all over the place. ...and if you havent been to St. Michaels, it really is a great place to be.

Everyone has a reason for liking boats, or not; art or not, and what I see in this may seem like a figment of my imagination to you. I have no problem with that. I will say that you should come to this show and think about what Im saying here and see what you think for yourself. Even if you think Im crazy, there are a lot of other things to see and do at the show. Whatever you like, Im willing to bet that you will love something about this show.

The 26th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival / The Arts at Navy Point

For a list of this years artists and vendors go to http://intothings.com/boatshow/vendors.html

For more show information, or to register a boat go to http://www.chesapeakebayacbs.org/

For information about the town of St. Michaels go to http://www.stmichaelsmd.org/

For Accomodations during the show go to http://tourtalbot.org/accommodations.asp

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Shall I Cut the Deck

My plan is to get the boat out of the basement before putting on the deck plywood so it will be somewhat easier to handle and slightly lighter. But, there isnt any reason not to go ahead with doing the rough cutting and fitting. After a bit of sketching of how to cut the pieces, it seemed the only way to get the front deck pieces out of one sheet of plywood was to use the factory edge down the centerline of the boat starting about 18" in from the end. The opposite side piece would use the other side of the sheet but the sheet would be flipped over to fit the mirror image piece. I plan on having a natural wood finish on the deck using just the plywood but with a paint graphic band down the center to hind the seam. Luckily, the plywood has veneer that looks very similar in grain and color on both sides of the sheet. The first sheet of deck plywood is not supposed to stop at the dash or any frame, but continue as far as possible along the carling and sheer as not to create a weak spot. After positioning the full sheet down the centerline of the boat and clamping it in place, a line was traced on the underneath side to show where to cut it. A 1/4" thick scrap piece was used to offset the pencil mark to allow at least a 1/4" overhang at all edges. Then the sheet was taken off the boat and set up in my shop for cutting with a jig saw. I quit for the day at that point to sleep on it before cutting.

Some blue tape was put beside the cut line which minimized any tear out of the veneer and helped visualize the line to be cut. The firse piece went well as did the second. Putting them both on the boat confirmed that the color and grain look very similar between the two halves.

The next task was the back halves. The first one was marked and was left overnight just in case there was something I was overlooking. Nope, cut it and it fit. Tried it on the other side and it fit there too. So I used it as a pattern for the other side. I left overlaps between the front and back pieces to give me some adjustment when finally glued and attached.

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Chines Part I

After learning of Teds broken chine when attempting the bend, I decided to laminate the chines to make for easy bending. So I cut my chine material to rough length, about 12, and then ripped them to 3/8" thick. The cutoff pieces were about 1/4+" thick. I then soaked all four pieces in the 4" soaking pipe, stem end first, for a couple of days to noodle them up a bit.

I borrowed the soaking pipe from Ted. By hanging it in the stairwell, it can be loaded with long pieces of wood, filled with water and not get in anybodys way. Also, its a lot easier to keep the water in it if its not horizontal.

After soaking, the chine material was put on the boat and bent into place. The two layers of thin material bent easily into position on the frames and up against the stem. They were left to dry for a couple of days while I did other things like work for a living.

When it came time to figure out how to fit the chines at the stem, I decided that without having the shears in place, it was hard to judge how much twist to put into them. I decided that procrastination was a good approach to the question, and bending and installing the shears first might answer the question or provide enough time to figure it out.

The picture shows the chines held in place and the one layer of the shears bent and clamped in place. On the left is a previously bent shear just resting in place waiting for the glue-up to take place.

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Water Spots on the Coffee Table

Some people call my boat "The Coffee Table" as it has a bit of a furniture quality look to it. One of these people is Lisa Lirones, the wife of Bruce Lirones, who inspired me to build a boat, and the mother of Brett Lirones, my daughters boyfriend. Lisa is a professional photographer. The Lirones came for a visit during the Woodward Dream Cruise, so we went out on the lake and Lisa took a few million photos so Ill post a few of them. She captured a few water spots in the making.

The only person not pictured is Lisa, since she took all the photos.

The only problem with referring to my boat as a coffee table is that my wife Vicky might start decorating it with paperweights, family photos and knick-knacks.

But maybe next year Ill get some coasters so the beer cans dont leave rings.

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A Little Problem

We have spent the last few weeks exploring some of the tributaries of the Gt. Ouse, The River Wissey, The Lt. Ouse and The River Lark.  As lovely as these rivers are they are pretty weedy and so a couple of times the exhaust temperature light came on meaning the raw water intake filters were clogged.  Trouble with this is this starves the rubber impeller of water and it runs dry.

Once back on the deep and straight Gt. Ouse and the engine has nearly 100 hours I decided for the first time to open the engine up and let a good deal of the 114hp have its wicked way.  Top RPM is 2500 so I held back to 90% or 2250rpm  The main engine temperature remained at 85c which is normal.


After about 3 minutes the exhaust temperature warning came on.  I was a little concerned as I had cleared the filters before setting off about 20 minutes earlier and the Gt. Ouse is mostly weed free.


I cut the engine and drifted into the side to investigate.  I checked the filters and they were clear.  So after letting the engine cool down I restarted and saw nothing being drawn up from the river.  I removed the water uptake tube and felt inside the impeller housing and could feel damaged impeller blades.  As the system wouldnt self prime I filled the filter manually which was enough to get it primed. After which we were able to continue as before at about 1400rpm.


Once back at Ely I checked with Ely Chandlers to see if they had an impeller for my engine but they were unable to help but they kindly let me use their address for delivery when I found one in Leeds.  So many thanks for their help.


This afternoon it arrived and I swapped it out which took about 30 minutes.

Left buggered, right new

The new one has an 2 extra blades so I guess the original has been superseded.  Once changed and the system primed manually everything was back to normal, well at least on static tests.  A moving test will be done tomorrow.

Clearly the impeller is intolerant to running dry.  In the service book the impeller is a 1000 hour inspection so I think I have just been unlucky for now.  Its all a learning curve.

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