Nite Snow

Stayed a bit later to enjoy the quiet after a busy day. Pete worked on the sink for SILENT MAID. I glued up a pre-bent gaff jaw and bent another soaked set of staves. Highlight was to layout a pattern for three pair of ash oars for the museum's in water sharpies and tuckups. Snow kept the TSCA attendance down, but was very pretty.

Sanding and Printing

Sent a bunch of items to Shapeways to get them printed in different media. Some areas too thin, have to revise CAD model. Sanded the masts and gave them a last coat of sealer. Ready for varnish next.

Work Nite

Set up the spar lathe for the first time this fall. Bolted it to the floor & bench after making sure the spindle centers were true. Centered the steady rest and reassembled it to run true. Got one mast sanded to 60 grit. Paul S, Paul G and Ned did a great job and stayed later just to get sanding.

Philaseaport Wooden Boat Festival

Sunny weather, good company, exhibitors on the dock. A beautiful new Bolger schooner, ARTISTS PROOF, tuckup TOP PRIORITY and GYNLYN an H-28 Herreschoff in the basin and lots of other boats. SILENT MAID (original) in the boatshop looking fine. pix soon.

Tuckup Sailing Tonight

Great time to be in the river! Which is the way to sail a tuckup. See the nights events on The Delaware River Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association.

Do tuckups leak, you ask? Well, not exactly. They are a thin wooden shell making a slight dent in the water and they don't leak as much as simply slow down the water trying to fill the boat. There should be a full time bailer aboard.

MARION Upgrade

Rick put all the screws back in MARION today. Found two cleats that will work. She looks good. I am going to try and bring her trailer by to make room for the Original SILENT MAID on Thursday.

CAD Class Tonight

Had some fun teaching AutoCAD tonight. Great group of students all contributing. Getting close to end of quarter. One more class then we're in for a little break. Time to move URCHIN off the hard and get MARION in the drink. Finished lettering her name on Monday night while Ed, PeteP and Paul sixteened and planed two tuckup masts.

Bon Voyage

Toast to the volunteers and crew whom have readied the beautiful girl for her trip North. She is in the water, rigged and floating, awaiting her gaff saddle and newly recut cruising sail. View her blog So many tasks complete and jobs completed. A few left in various stages of almost done. One tired and cheerful group. MARION got a wonderful beautiful coat of paint by yet another new volunteer yesterday.

Leaving Takes so Long

The shop has been totally rearranged. Carolyn is still varnishing. The sink is still in construction to go-fast plates have been worked on and countless other tasks have been accomplished. TORCH is stashed. Marion is moved. Menus arranged, t-shirts, paint, and wingnuts ordered, stuff moved, lost, found, moved again. Trailers and dollies positioned and loaded. Boxes unpacked, items checked off the list, SILENT MAID sure has a lot of stuff.
Leaving tomorrow when Henry arrives with big tex, the large trailer.

Tuckups and More

A veritable forest.









Monday nite woodworking class at the seaport. Certainly keeps one a'hoppin. The men got one tuckup rolled and painted, two masts tapered and assembled (not glued yet. Three more staves cut, Four wheels a ' rollin' on the power feeder, at least five hours spent by Ned on one CATNIP mast, Mike sanded his, Pete and Bill cut tapers, Steve and I painted chocolate & cream. Paul ran the green monster machine and Ed assisted Ned.
Sunday afternoon TSCA workers are invited to a SILENT MAID going away party. Email me for particulars. I need a head count.
Steve has created a tuckup website here for those interested in these beautiful sweet tippy fun boats.

Getting Close

soon

Afloat

FISH STIX was tossed in the Delaware at high tide today! She floats, as expected, a bit low for being dried out over two years. Either that or we hugely miscalculated her waterline. MARION got a coat of sunny yellow on her decks tonight. Looks great with the chocolate and grey.Silent MAID is looking better and better with all Carolyn's ministrations. She got a waterline marked out today. Who are those shopworkers?

FISH STIX

Paul sorted out all our staves and made labled bundles so next week we can make progress on finishing the rigs for STIX, and the tuck-ups. We glued up some scarfs on three staves.

STIX got chocks, centerboard pin and uphauling the board thingy, How's that for sailor talk. I am so tired it is amazing I can type. It's a good thing I did not have to drive. Ned spent the evening designing his gaff jaws. Pete got his mast sanded and sealed. Nice work on the steady-rest. Ed and Paul helped do things fro FISH STIX punch list, like making rivets, drilling holes, seating oarlocks. MARION had her troweling compound sanded.
For Doryman.
The steadyrest is in the photo above. It has to be reset for each job and takes a little time to get right. The masts have been about 20' long and only 4" in diameter. They are not radially aligned on the centerline because we want them to have a straight side for better sail shape. The steady rest keeps that 20' flexible hollow pole from whipping around on the lathe. It is a piece of PVC pipe with the mast centered and wedged in place in the middle. The PVC rides on two wheels adjusted for height on the benchtop and then bolted together with two more on top. That way when you apply pressure with the sandpaper, the whole thing feels more secure and the job goes faster. We sand starting with 60, 80, 100, then stop turning and sand with the grain 80, and put on two coats of sealer. Varnish after that sanding between coats. from the semi-dory girl.

MARION Sanding & Filling

Spent part of today getting MARION prepped for Monday night so we can get her painted and back in the water. Filled the screw holes and scuff sanded her topsides and sheer strakes. Gave her rub rail a coat of light gray. She is looking natty. Meanwhile Gina gave TORCH a scuffing and bunged holes in SILENT MAID to move her table down a notch so the munchkins of the crew can chew without their chins hitting the table. Looking forward to sailing. The time is getting nearer.

Tropical Rainforest

Monday Night sanding FISH STIX mast was accomplished by Paul & Ed, I sealed it along with the gaffs. Pete's got sixteened by Ned. Work was done on the pennant, but mostly I removed rust from the tablesaw caused by the tropical environment ( aka rainforest) created by the fogger. The fogger was on to set the seam compound in TORCHs new caulked planks. MARION swathed in paper for the sake of art. Her paper double will be in a parade on Saturday.
SILENT MAIDs stereo is in. Wonderful sound. I am concerned we are loosing space for bedding, but we will have an anchor or two and chain, not on the cabin sole this year.

Recycled

Today started out with collecting photos of the many volunteers at the workshop. Amazing how many folks pass thru. Each day has its allotment and so varied flavors mix and blend for their own special attitude. My schedule changes, so I get to sample the knowledge of the various collections. Some become good friends. The boats come and go too bringing with and taking away myriad tasks and skills with them.
Two of us started the day with a plan to accomplish something, mine was to go for a row and make a pennant for FISH STIX centerboard. John had a boom crutch in mind but somethings else filled his plates to overflowing. URCHIN made it to the dragon, but the upriver rails ended about 15 feet short of the very low tide. She got parked on her trailer while I caught up with 6 other folks who all wanted to know how Max was. Did remember the locker combination, but never got the boat wet.
The line for the pennant is sitting in the boat. I salvaged some SILENT MAID cabin sole from the trash. It had been removed in sections and so was too short to replace. It was recut into three small ships as toys. Made Josiah smile big time when he arrived later at the shop "BOAT" is one of his many words. Then came more in-line sanding with those lovely longboards. Got TORCHs planking down to 80 grit I think. Last before leaving the shop with granson in tow, I recontoured a large divot in an earlier fiberglass repair on MARION. A paper artist from Fleischer want to use her as a mold so I wanted to make sure no subsequent art viewers would get the wrong impression of the sweet lines of a tuckup.

Saturday Tasks- Sanding, Painting & Varnishing

Torch getting Gina's gentle tapping as her plank edges go in.
CATNIPs mast with 2nd coat of sealer (Fri.) and 1st coat Schooner varnish (Sat.) OLYMPIAs crew out painting. FISH STIX centerboard fitting, drilling, bearing, 2 coats of West Marine red bottom paint as of Saturday. MARION BREWINGTON with chocolate sheerstrake. Handpainted -No maskingtape.







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