No Boss, No Problem.

Back home, three stops along the way turned a 4 hour drive into a 6.75 hour drive. Spitting snow the entire drive, saw an SUV spin out two cars in front of us, no accident but it was very exciting. Ran out the the shop with my camera as soon as we got home, progress was made, I was impressed. Most of the time when Dan and I are out of town nothing happens. The floor on the 36' Calvin is starting to go back down. The pitch of the deck is being changed slightly so all the remaining deck stringers need to be raised slightly. One inch higher at the main bulkhead up to 2.5" higher at the stern. All the hatches that were sitting on the platform are going to be recessed into the deck and the extra plastic deck plates are going to be eliminated. When I left on Friday I said to get the front section of floor installed and the boys came through. The owner was planning a trip north on Monday so I wanted the boat to show good progress (the trip north will probably be cancelled due to the 15" of snow we might be getting.).

In the morning someone will be able to start fiberglassing the forward section of floor while someone else starts on the tops to the lobster tanks. 24" X 40" Anchor hatches will be installed in the tops of the tanks and the port tank will have a fiberglass pipe to toss the lobsters into. Two windows in the back port corner of the wheelhouse have been removed and the holes where the windows were has been filled. The exhaust parts in the welding shop appear to be finished, they will have to be sent to Infab (a company that makes high temp exhaust blankets) and a box will have to be made to house the muffler. Serious work over the next 4-5 days and this project should be getting close to the finish line. Well maybe not "close to the finish line" but I should have a better idea of how much longer we are going to be. Thanks to the crew for their efforts, I'll try to help out this week. These photos are horrible because I didn't turn on the lights in the boat shop.

Only 6 posts left. Once the 30 in 30 is completed I will probably just recycle the posts and run the same 30 over and over. That way new visitors will have the same experience that the rest of you had (they shouldn't be cheated). Then after a couple years of no new content my online guilt will kick in and I'll start blogging about the state of the boating industry, if there still is a boating industry in 2011. We made a little progress in getting every state to check out the blog (thanks Oregon and Nevada), but we are still waiting on lots of states. My new goal (more realistic) is to be recognized on the street and maybe have to sign an autograph.

"hey aren't you that guy?" ................awkward pause................"yes, i am."

"Working" on Vacation.

Still in Hull, rolling the dice that the weather is going to let us leave tomorrow. The trip down was uneventful, the kid cried for a couple of hours, I ran a red light, normal stuff. A boat owner in Marshfield (15 min away) contacted me at the shop on Thursday about some zincs he need for his boat. Since I was going to be in the area I offered to deliver the zincs. Customer relations is the 4th most important part of this business. Before you ask......

1. Know how to build boats
2. Have a place to build boats
3. Know how to fix boats
4. Customer relations
5. Know how to use the internet to maximize your exposure.

Feel free to add to or reorder this list. All I know is putting a numbered list in the middle of a post is always a winner. Someone asked about site stats and since I don't have much else to offer today.....

1. Blog = 550 visits since Feb 11th, Ave visit 4min57sec, 2.6 pages per visit
2. Main site = 453 visits since Feb 21st, Ave visit 4min28sec, 4.1 pages per visit
3. Posts = 3 awesome, 7 good, 2 average, 8 below average, 2 poor, 1 awful.
4. AdWords = 26,466 ads, 31 visits from ads, cost $5.53
5. Business Generated = Zero, Nada, Zip, less than any.

Back to the zincs. The boat is a 42' Wesmac that we built in 2002, it used to be "Kara Lee" but since the boat has changed ownership its now "Breaker". The boat is in great shape and it was cool to meet the new owner. He was taking advantage of the weather and doing a little work on the bottom of the boat, looked like he was prepping it for paint. He had a few questions that I tried to provide answers for then I had to go the the Stop and Shop to buy a ham. That's it for the day. Slept in, ate too much, watched the Bruins lose in overtime, stayed one post behind.

Two posts on Sunday after driving 4 hours in a possible snow storm, should be my best work to date. Dan, Jeff, and John worked on the 36' Calvin (don't know what they did but they were at work). If anyone has pictures of any of our older boats please send them along. I have a large bag of photos that I'm going to start scanning in to the system and am looking for as many CIBW pics as I can get. As always thanks in advance.

I'm heading south.

Yesterday's post never happened, now today's post is going to be extremely short. I'm headed for Hull MA to visit my family and won't be back until Sunday. If you need to contact me to buy a boat just send me an email from the contact page at www.clarkislandboatworks.com. If I get inspired by the 4 hour car ride maybe I can give an effort on a late night post. But I doubt that will happen. If this is your first time to the blog.........most if not all the other posts are better than this one. Check the archive lots of great stuff, just not on this post.

I'm not even going to take time to put a picture in the upper left corner, and I ALWAYS put a pic in the upper left hand corner. Protocol has been broken and the pressure of the daily blog has finally cracked my brain. I started writing one last night at 12:30 but it made no sense and I deleted it (I should probably delete this one). Anyway, I'm heading out in about 15 min, I've given the crew instructions for tomorrow, Dan is in Canada playing hockey and won't be back until Monday.

SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS

I helped John roll the stainless steel for the 36' Calvin's muffler. Jeff started working on the forward floor. Dan closed in the two windows where the muffler is going to go. Fuel tanks are now in the boat. Other stuff happened those are just the highlights. Have another boat coming in for minor repairs in a couple weeks and sold a bait box (possibly).

Another post tonight so check back, the topic will either be a list of all the employees and their strengths and weaknesses or a rant about how much I hate to drive in Boston traffic. Not much boat talk, but if I don't write something then I fall further behind. No pics, no links, no video. All you first time readers, nice meeting you. Few states that haven't found the blog yet........ALASKA, HAWAII, VERMONT.............your on the clock. Comments will be answered in the order that they are received.

The Shrimp Cooker.

Do not adjust your browser settings that is a video at the bottom of this post. Skipping to the end of the post just to watch the video will not be tolerated, you must read my broken sentences and mangled paragraphs before you get the big payoff at the end.

This shrimp cooker was brought to us by the owner of one of our earlier boats, the unit was in rough shape and need lots of attention. Dan tried to convince the owner that it would be better to build a new one, but here at Clark Island Boat Works the customer is always right. So instead of building a new cooker John pulled all the guts out of the cooker and proceeded to replace every part except the outer shell (aluminum). The inner shell was made out of thin stainless steel and blue insulation was secured between the inner and outer layers. The top edge was then banded and riveted in place. The working components of the cooker work like a boat exhaust, the burner (blue box) forces heat though a coil and the exhaust exits the tall pipe on the left. The coil heats up to a temperature hot enough to heat water to the cook the shrimp (amazing). This is just one example of the type of interesting welding projects that end up at our shop.

Over the years John has fabricated tons of items for the boats we build, but its his ability to do other things that gives us an edge over the competition. Whether its fixing a broken part to a snowmobile or building aluminum ramps for a moving company John comes through every time. If you need anything made of metal (aluminum, bronze, stainless, mild steel, etc...) bring an idea to Clark Island Boat Works and when the project is over prepare to be impressed. Just don't tell John how valuable he is, I don't want to have to give him a raise. Sometimes its tough to believe that the "metal artwork" is built in a small garage. Don't skip to the video at the bottom of the post, its a unguided tour of the inside of the welding shop.

SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS

36' Calvin = fuel tanks done, laz gelled, etc.
Northern Bay = more of the same, sand, gel, etc.
What I did = paperwork and billing all day!! (8:00am to 6:00pm and I didn't even get to the bottom of the pile)

No hits on the 42' Mussel Ridge yet, by Friday it should be sold. If that happens I might take a couple of weeks off to celebrate. The blog will suffer during my vacation but I don't think I would care. Thanks for reading. This one feels like a forced post, I only have myself to blame for that. We started a Google Adwords campaign so you might see some Clark Island Boat Works banner ads as you surf the interweb. Please don't click them!! Its a convenient way to get to the site but it costs me $$$ and is designed to direct new people to the site (not the loyal followers). It sent 10 new people to the site yesterday and it wasn't activated until 2:00pm, thanks Erika. Alright, as promised, the unguided tour of the welding shop. This video took like 3 hours to edit the sound and laugh track were the toughest part.

This typing is to center the vid.

Hull for Sale, I'll even finish it if you want.

Alright enough messing around. Now that I have thousands of followers it time to cash in. The hull to the left is a 42' Mussel Ridge, very similar to the 42' Wesmac with a "better" keel and a larger engine room. There are other slight differences that are lost on me but I assure you that they are there. When the Mussel Ridge was first designed and built we built a lobster boat for a local fisherman "Xtreme Measures". Thinking that this was going to be the next popular hull we struck a deal with the manufacturer to split the cost on a second hull, expecting the hull to be scooped up very quickly. The next Mussel Ridge was built as a pleasure boat but the owner wanted to use an off-white color for the hull and use vinylester resin instead of polyester resin so the hull we had just purchased had to be passed over. After "Temperance" was completed we had orders for a few boats (2 36' Calvin Beals, and 1 37' Mitchell Cove) so the Mussel Ridge sat in the yard waiting for an owner.

When work slowed down we moved the boat inside and started to work on it. Fuel tanks, quarter guards, spray rails, and some bulkheads were as far as I felt comfortable going. I didn't want to tie up more money in a boat that didn't have an owner yet. As we need space in the shop the boat moved back outside and a tarp structure was built to cover the boat. The tarp structure was destroyed by high winds and heavy snow, it seemed pointless to rebuild it.

People have shown interest in the boat. One prospective buyer wanted us to install the engine and build a top (wheelhouse, trunk, side decks) but we couldn't agree on a price so the project was never started. Another possible owner made the trip to the shop, loved the boat, got a spec list together, selected a motor, acquired the necessary financing, contacted me about the second trip to the shop where he was going to make a down payment on the boat that we were going to build, and then bought another boat on the way to the shop (he never arrived at the shop). Unfortunately for me I got over excited about the potential sale and sent the hull manufacturer a check toward the hull (remember we split the hull price).

Now with the economy in a death spiral and the fishing industry struggling the Mussel Ridge has become part of the scenery in the parking lot. The computer says the hull and contents is worth $36,767.57. I would be willing to sell it for $32,000 if you want to take it off the property and I might sell it for less if you want us to finish what we started. I'll even throw in a 12' custom skiff if we close on the sale before the end of March. That is a great deal, ask anyone. Obviously I can't finish the boat for this spring but 2010 is looking great. Most economists will tell you that 2010 is when everything is going to be awesome again so act now before the orders start rolling in.

SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS

36' Calvin = all the bulkheads are glassed in, fuel tanks are on schedule (done tomorrow)
38' Northern Bay = fiberglass, sand, repeat.......and started to build the captains chairs
Welding Shop = completed the shrimp cooker (not pictured) starting cages tomorrow.

I was stressing what to post about today (am I suppose to say "blog about today"?) but that was pretty easy. Today was a day at the shop where lost of work got done but at the end of the day everything kind of looked the same. It's rare but it happens sometimes. Much like these posts, lots of typing but nothing is really being said.

I told my dad about the amount of traffic on the web site, his response "I used to figure that we would sell one boat per 300 people that came to the shop, it probably one boat per 6000 online." Lets hope he's right, otherwise all these posts are for nothing. Bleak. The good news is I only have to write ten more of these things. Last thing, the truck and mountain of snow isn't included in the purchase of the hull.