Instant Updates, as they occur

Three aft holes for hatches

Close up of the smashed out nidacore

You remeber this boat...........

The 38' Northern Bay, the most important boat in the shop. And now the number one priority. Greg is back in Rhode Island with his 36' Calvin and after a couple of days of fishing hasn't found any major problems. The Northern Bay will now become my primary focus and if possible I won't be working on any other boat until it is out the door. Today I cut in the 3 aft deck hatches (not pictured). I was only going to cut in the aft starboard hatch so I could install the house batteries but once I was set up to cut hatches I made an executive decision to cut in all three. The hatches ended up being 28" square. Making all the hatches the same size will make it easier for John to make the aluminum frames that will act as the "guts" of the hatches. The aluminum frames will have a built in gutter and some type of way to lock the hatch down. All the gutters will be hosed to a larger hose that will drain overboard. Six deck hatches in total will make for a lot of hoses and gutters but it will all be worth it when under the deck is dry at all times. The decks are made out of 1" nidacore so they had to be decored, after the top layer of fiberglass had been cut out the plastic "honeycomb" material was knocked out with a hammer and chisel.

Between cutting hatches and hammering plastic, I made a custom battery box to fit under the deck on the starboard side of the boat. I was going to use the Blue Sea plastic battery boxes but two of them couldn't fit in the space provided because of the engine exhaust that runs through the area. The battery box was made out of plywood and will house 2 8d batteries. The box will be fiberglassed and screwed down to small stringers to hold it in place. By tomorrow there should be some pictures of the heavy duty battery cables run under the deck. The second picture is of the flybridge seats, guttered flip-top and a removable panel at the front to make for an area long enough for a full sized human to lay down. In other Northern Bay news the smaller Lewmar hatches arrived (finally) and they can be cut in tomorrow (one over the galley and one in the shower).

SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS.

Dan Jr. gelcoated the hull of the small repair job captain's blue today, 4 coats of gel and it looks awesome (not pictured). Jeff ran 4/0 battery cable on Fish Tales and tracked down a couple of leaky fittings, then started on the bilge pump installation on another repair job. Clay finished off the deck replacement yesterday and moved onto repairing the hauling side of Lee's boat (not pictured). Otto remains sick with bronchitis. Dan returned from his quick vacation to the NASCAR race at Martinsville. John made a sick bait/lobster box (pictured), a steel flat bar cage, and half of a steel round rod cage. The weather is warming and three of the boats in the yard are getting launched tomorrow. Gotta catch those lobsters before the price drops.

Good post, Bad pictures. Except for the aluminum box nothing we did is in any of these photos. I'll take some better pics on Wednesday. This post is now officially long enough. Was it worth checking back in? We are up to 15 yes votes on the poll, however no one has sent me a deposit check yet. You are probably waiting for your tax return checks to arrive.

This might have to be taken down.

Am I infringing on any copyright laws? If I had an apple computer I could make my own background music with Garageband.

Here are some pics.

Unsold 12' skiff

Sick wiring job.

Gannett, 42' Wesmac

Forever Young, 36' Calvin Beal

In case you didn't notice the addition to the blog, there is a poll where you can tell me if you are ever going to buy a new boat. After one day there are 4 "yes" responses. We accept down payments at any time. Send me 200 a week for a couple years if that is all you can spare. Get your orders in now because when the economy storms back I think we are going to be very busy. The 36' Calvin with the new deck launches tomorrow, look for final pics and satisfied customer comments by midnight Wednesday.

Another reason to select CIBW.

In these tough economic times everyone is trying to think of a gimmick to generate more business. At Clark Island Boat Works we try to let the work speak for itself but in an effort to create a buzz on the street............FREE CUP HOLDER WITH EVERY PROJECT. That's right folks bring your busted up boat to CIBW and get a FREE CUP HOLDER, buy a new boat get a FREE CUP HOLDER, have our welder make you a metal work of art get a FREE CUP HOLDER. Limit 1 (ONE) per customer. Due to the excitement that this deal will be generating I'm going to have to draw the line at the first 100 customers. The cup holder has no cash value and is a non-transferable gift to be given to the client once they have spent the shop minimum of 2000 dollars. So act fast, if you don't need any work done at this time a deposit will hold your FREE CUP HOLDER (min deposit 75 dollars). Actual cup holder not pictured and no drink will be included. Cup holder will not be installed unless requested. Thanks again for your ongoing support and "Your welcome" in advance for your FREE CUP HOLDER.