The Cheap Boat

Greetings, my two followers, one of which is probably on vacation. I hope you managed to notice that Ben posted another video. The link is up there ↑→ and over. I fear this will lead starry eyed dreamers astray into the world of boat building, where boats are painted in only two minutes and everyone is chipper and smiling. This site is not so. The only smiling you'll see is when we feed the damn thing piece by piece into the wood chipper: chipper and smiling. I have a concept of a new video. I just have to make it and send it to Ben for editing.

And thanx to Ken, ATW, for his comments on the boat and my natty attire. He must not be the one on vacation.

I was raised around boats you either rowed or motored and you fished out of them on lakes where the loon cries pierced the night and the mayflies hatched. Sailing (and golf) were the pass times of the wealthy. "Cheap" was not in the lexicon for sailboats. A lot has changed and you can get boats cheap...............except catamarans over 30'. So, dumb as you are, you decide to build one quickly and on the cheap. As always, you trade money for time. As always, you're never sure it was the correct decision. Anyway, you're into it, ploughing through years of your life and money. Where "cheap" left your lexicon years ago and "time' has trebled. There is nothing to do but press on with the wood chipper close by.  Now we are shopping for blocks, Blocks are wheelie things that you stick rope into. Cheap is not even a concept allowed in this area.

Budge and tribe are disappearing for a while, kidlets with gramma, and the Budges on a short trip to a place that ends in "ia". Somolia? Pennsylvania? Something like that. So I am solo for a bit.

The water tanks required sanding. Then I filleted the interiors. Then I glued in the two interior baffles (water de-sloshers). They required fillets as well. Finally, I applied two heavy coats of epoxy to waterproof them. Next: the exteriors! Big whoop.

The two of us worked on the aft deck. We had to notch 4 boards to fit around the pod seat supports and shape the last seven boards to conform to the hull shape. Once these boards were cut. I had to apply a coat of Penafin. Today I screwed in those last boards. I just have to put an end piece on the beams the hull end.

The pod will be a great place to hang out.

The control area has been challenging Budge for the past few weeks. The motor control support especially. He has to keep adding height to it. I'll try to get some pictures of that next week. The wheel area is looking good.

So, the kidz bed, suffering from an acute case of too many monkeys jumping on it, finally expired and was condemned to death and banished to the curb. After sitting forlornly there for a couple days, I had to save it, wresting it at the eleventh hour from the hands of the Trashmen, Louie and Louie, and dragging it back to the shop. It will be reborn as the support for the pod cover. I trimmed the boards and planed off the finish. I will glue them up and make beams out of them. This boat has pieces of us in it. Blood soaked into plywood encapsulated under epoxy and fiberglass. Old pallets reclaimed by Ben and used as hardwood bits here and there. Boxes and crates converted to workbenches. The detritus of our lives re-utilized  and reborn as a boat. It is inevitable that you and your creations meld and bond. If there is not a piece of you in it, all is for naught.

Yes I know that Louie and Louie are not the Trashmen, they are the Kingsmen. A bit of literary license. 

The Music♫: John McCutcheon "Cut The Cake"

Today is Ben's birthday. 

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