Well, the project did not go quite as quickly as planned. Other pursuits, such as
making a living, fishing, raising children, pheasant and deer hunting, playing with
computers and ham radio, interfered with the progress of
the undertaking. The first year ended and the boat was just a skeleton which spent
the winter underneath the deck in the back of the house. The next year construction went
about as slowly. In 1984 we built a new, 2-stall garage, and I moved the boat into it.
Now at least it was protected from the elements.
The garage wasn't heated, so I continued building only in the summertime. I put the
sides of the hull on, and then built the cabin. So far I had used about 12,000 screws,
and I didn't own an electric screwdriver.
I should probably mention at this point that I did not know the first thing about
sailing. I vaguely understood that the wind pushes this type of boat through the water,
and that you steer with something called a tiller. That's it. Figured I could learn
anything else I need to know later.
In 1987 we bought a house in the country, a tri-level house on 3/4 of an acre
with a 2-stall garage and heated workshop. The boat was far enough along so that I just
couldn't leave it behind, so I dropped my fishing boat from it's trailer, pulled the
wooden partial boat onto it and moved it into the new garage. The whole family cheered
with delight as it was lowered into it's place. (Whew - I think I Clintoned.)
In 1988 the Des Moines Register published a cartoon called "The Neighborhood" that
Trena really liked. She had it reproduced by a local artist (I guess a copyright
violation) and framed. She gave it to me for Christmas.
Well, the new house had a full workshop with a Reznor heater and plenty of space for a
boat. But it was kept in one of the garage bays for a couple of years. I occasionally
did work on it.
The rubrails were put on, the steering wheel was fabricated, and some of the other woodworking
was done. The boat was almost ready for the fiberglass coating.
We moved to boat into the workshop in about 1993. There is a double door between the
shop and the garage, but it is not quite wide enough for the boat. We had to pick it up and
carry it in on its side. No big deal because it was fairly light......then.
If you have never done any fiberglassing, then you don't know what I was about to get
into. The photos and the plans made it sound real simple and quick, and I suppose it is
for those with some experience with that sort of thing. For me it was messy. Lay the cloth
down, put the resin on, work it in, hands are now coated with fiberglass cloth, resin and
anything else picked up in the process. I didn't discover rubber gloves until later. And
there was a lot of fiberglassing to do. This boat is 18 feet long and 6 feet wide, and I
had to do top and bottom. Figure it out. Well, anytime you get into a job that you don't like,
it takes about 10 times longer than it should...with me anyway. I would do some of it and
then it would sit untouched for a year or two. Every year I would do a little of it, but it
never seemed to get done.
The original plans boasted that the boat could be built with materials readily available
at the local lumberyard and hardware stores. That was mostly true. However, the mast was to
be made from "readily available" 2 1/2 inch diameter handrail stock. I didn't check Australia,
but I'm pretty sure that there is no such animal in the Northern Hemisphere. I finally made the
mast, boom, gaff, and bowsprit by laminating 1x4's and using a Surform shaper to carve out
the shapes. That took one winter.
Finally, this fall I decided that I needed the space in the workshop for other things. Trena suggested a bonfire, something she had been threatening for years. I was able to save the project from a fiery death by promising to finish it by spring. So it's comin' along. Here are some photos taken in December.
As you can see, the old looking wood is disappearing under the paint. No one will
ever know how long it took when it's finished.
Every so often someone asked me when I was going to be finished with the boat so that we could have a launching party. I don't like a lot of pressure, you see, so I set the launching for Memorial Day weekend, 2001. Well, now it looks like it will be moved up to about Memorial Day, 1999 -- TWO WHOLE YEARS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE.
Did I mention that I still don't know anything about sailing. I have never even set foot on a sailboat, at least a completed one. But this Christmas my son, Tony, who is apparently more of an optimist than his mother, gave me a book called, "Sailing for Dummies." I read the book, so I guess now I won't capsize the thing the first time out.
Some of my friends (?) have lately been warning me of the dangers of sailing. Bob S. says
that I should be sure not to put the sail up on the thing in my driveway. He did and the mast
went through the front window of his house. Bob also says that its easy to sail down the lake
but there's a trick to sailing back. Hmmmmm....better read the book again. I must have missed
that.
On February 14th I declared the boat FINISHED....BUILT. It's ready to come out of
the workshop if the snow would just go away. I'm still doing a little paint touch up, but that
will go on forever. And I need a trailer to put under it. I've been looking but used ones
are very scarce. It seems that most already have boats on them. Maybe I should build one
from scratch.
Well, I decided that building a trailer from scratch is probably inadvisable...after all, I'm not
immortal. Besides, there's an easy solution to the problem. I already have a small 14 foot
fishing boat with a trailer under it that could be converted to carry the sailboat. The only
problem is that I agreed to sell it to brother Bob with the idea of using the funds to buy a
trailer. Since I can't find a trailer to buy, all I have to do is renege on the sale, right?
And since I haven't been paid yet, it really hasn't been sold. Without deciding the
ethics of that one, I went ahead and dumped the boat, converted the trailer, and put the
sailboat on it. I can explain it to Bob by saying....what? I forgot? Yup, that's it, I
forgot. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Well anyway, it's only temporary. We'll
figure something out before spring.
On April 11 we achieved another milestone. I ran a line from the winch in the boat trailer and
fastened it to the front of the boat. While I winched it out of the workshop, Tony tipped it
up so that it's 6 foot beam could go through the 5 foot 6 inch doorway. It scraped a little,
but slid right out. Tony grabbed a camera and snapped pictures exclaiming, "This
is historic."
April 24th - Finally did it. We launched the boat for a test run at Crystal Lake. And a fine contingent of interested folks (mostly relatives) attended. Susan Rita Baugus poured. The boat didn't sink. It sailed well, it was comfortable, it was fun, and except for the small fact that we couldn't steer the damn thing, we had a great day. The pictures are being developed.
((Page and boat under construction....stay tuned for more.))