Construction after Destruction.

I know, sweet title. Possibly the first good title out of all these posts. Everyone showed up for work today even though it snowed 10" last night. Most of the time someone will call in with a shoveling emergency or a leaky roof but everyone braved the elements and we got some work done.
The 36' Calvin (photo to the left) is in the beginning stages of being finished. Everything that need to be removed has been and all the work from here to the end is making this boat better than it ever was. The old lazarette bulkhead had to be moved forward to make space for the new fiberglass fuel tanks (2nd photo). Bulkheads aft of the wheelhouse will be the front of the below deck lobster tanks. A second bulkhead will be positioned 56" aft to make the rear of the lobster tanks. The nuts and washers on the back side of the lifting rails have been glassed over, and the stainless steel exhaust system (not pictured) is in the final stages of production.

The shop flood of last week slowed the progress on the new tanks. With the water gone Otto glassed the baffles in the second tank and put a top on the first tank. Barring major delays the tanks should be ready to pressure test by Wednesday night. After the tanks are done we can put the deck back down and send this boat back to Rhode Island. With the new lobster tanks I would advise the owner to haul all the gear he sees between Maine and RI and see if he could top off both tanks. Just don't get caught.

I was on the 38' Northern Bay again working on the fly bridge. I talked about some hatches that I was trying to make but I was having trouble drawing a picture with my limited verbal skills. The photo (#3) of the bench and hatch should make this easier. The hatch hangs over the inboard edge of the bench utilizing the overhang as a handle. Once the fiberglass channel arrives a U will be built on the bottom side of the seat. The forward part of this bench is removable to make it possible for a person to sit facing forward. When the 20" section is positioned as it is in the photo it makes a 6'10" couch for someone to lay down on. We tried to mock up a center console for the owner to approve complete with a cardboard steering wheel. If he can make final decisions on that console then the flybridge should be done by Thursday.

In other shop news: lots of heavy snow = Dan spent much of the morning shoveling off the roof where the snow from the main shop had fallen onto the wood shop/break room. 36' Calvin = tanks, bulkheads, and the other stuff that I already talked about nearer to the beginning of this post. 38' Northern Bay = performed a stress test on the arch, 595 lb on the center of the arch standing closer than any three people should ever be standing, sag in the arch 7/16", hopefully that will be acceptable. Welding shop = John skipped break to "finish something up" and I didn't see him the rest of the day, must have been busy.

I have a customer looking for a molded top for a 36' Calvin, so if anyone knows were I can find one, thanks in advance. No links today, 3 pictures, if I had to grade this post I would give it a 5.45 out of 10 (just slightly better than average). With only 11 posts left I would like to get at least one visit from every state in the USA so if you could send a link to the people in the following states..........OREGON, NEVADA, IDAHO.........it would help...........I'm filling in the map from left to right.

Sunday Spotlight: The Shop.

All these posts about the boats must be getting boring for the audience. So here's a post about exciting metal buildings. Located at 4 Rein Road
St. George Maine, the main shop (pictured) was built in 1997, the foundation had been finished for years but we were always too busy to worry about finishing the new structure. When one of our old clients wrecked his boat he wanted us to build him a new one immediately. With our only shop filled he proposed paying for the new building as down payment on his new boat. A deal was worked out and once the people at Morton arrived, the new building was done in about a week. Production on the 46' fishing vessel started shortly after the new building was completed. Boat capacity at the shop jumped from 3 to 6, that is the good news. Months after getting the new building set up a fire wiped out the old shop, half the tools, and two lobster boats that were close to completion. You would think that was the bad news. The real bad news was we didn't carry any building insurance. A couple weeks of depression later, we got back to work on the two boats in the "main (and only) building". Those boats were finished and then we rebuilt the two boats that were lost in the fire.

Welding is required on every boat that leaves the shop. In June of 2003 we had the opportunity to hire one of the premier fabricator in the state. I can remember a conversation with my father and I made a comment along the lines of "can we keep a welder busy full time?". Dan assured me that keeping him busy wouldn't be an issue. For the first couple months John worked from home in his garage. In August of 2003 we made him a garage (pictured) on the property so he wouldn't have to travel back and forth from his house all the time (he lives 1 mile from the shop). We invested in the building, tools, metal, and John ....... things couldn't have worked out better. My options as a builder are unlimited, John can make anything I need him to. And with his reputation all of the local fishermen come to us when the need expert welding done. Many of John's creations can be seen in the "launched" section of CIBW.com. These online photos of his metal work have led to direct sales of radar stands, davits, and bow bits.

"Building A" was built in 2001 by an associate of Clark Island Boat Works. Dan allowed the building to be constructed on his land and in return we would get a boost from the additional business. Originally planned to be a rental facility for people wanting to work on their own boats, it became a semi-permanent location for a competing boat building company. Long story truncated. Eventually (2006) we thought it would be in our best interests to purchase the building and after some negotiating a deal was reached and we had a third building. Since Dan owned the land he was in a good position to negotiate. Boat capacity back up to 5. In the past we have rented the shop to people working on their own projects or moved boats from the main shop to building A when they are close to completion. Right now we have two boats that we built being repaired (Fish Tales, Mirage). The back of this building (not pictured) has been converted into a machine shop and is home to two large lathes and a Bridgeport knee mill.

Alright now you've seen the shop. Interior pictures are available upon request. I'll try to dig up a picture of the old shop and put it in a future post, just for a point of reference. For those of you that are following this thing everyday (thanks) and I completed the seaclear project. It wasn't all that cool or complicated, plus it didn't get messed up. The website and blog are now officially "killing it". As of 11:13 pm the blog has 300 visits (since Feb 11th) and the website has 132 visits (in two days!!). I could bore you with more stats (what state the visits are coming from, average page views, visitor loyalty, etc...) but I won't.

Thanks for tuning in, only 12 posts left, enjoy this while it lasts.

Getting what I deserve.

In Wednesday's post I mentioned that if someone fell down at work the posts would be better. No one fell down but as you can see I did injure my eye. I'm retracting my statement about the posts being better. Its tough to type with this eye patch, plus my eye still hurts 12 hours after the initial injury. Hopefully a good night of sleep will make the pain go away. I was cutting a piece of nidacore on the table saw and a chunk of resin was launched into my eye. Subconsciously I allowed myself to get hurt so I would have something to write about. If I had more stuff to write about then I probably would have dodged the projectile.
I stomped around for a minute then went back to work building fly bridge bench tops, wearing my safety glasses for the rest of the day. Should have stayed home today and read "Where's elmo's blanket?" to the kid.

When I wasn't trying to destroy my vision I was working on the 38' Northern Bay. The benches on the fly bridge got a hatch decision from the owner this morning. Guttered hatches utilizing a three sided gutter draining to the inboard side are what the owner wants. I tried to convince him to put in plastic hatches but at Clark Island Boat Works the customer is always right. The tops were already made so I was able to jump right in to the project.

The tops are nidacore and after the hatches were cut-out all the raw edges had to be banded with spruce/pine so they could be rounded and fiberglassed. Dan and I discussed how to attack the gutter and we decided to either have John make an aluminum gutter or get some structural fiberglass tube and modify it into a usable gutter. This is tough to visualize, I'll take a photo of the hatches in the morning and add them to this post.

We were going to perform a stress test on the arch but not enough people showed up for work. I was working above the arch all day and I think that the amount of deflection is acceptable. If the crew can brave the snow on Monday we'll do the test then. In other shop news: John finished the ramp brackets, Dan cleaned up the mess we made when we tore the deck out of the 36' Calvin, Dan Jr. glassed the hatch covers that I made and gelled the benches in the wheelhouse. Slow day at the shop but we did make a little progress.

The website might have lead to a possible boat sale!!! A guy in Maryland wants a skiff. I would be more excited if he was ordering a 42' pleasure boat but still its cool that my efforts might turn into actual business. This post is done. Staring at the screen is causing me eye pain. Thanks for your concern I'll be more careful from now on. 13 posts to go.

There is another new post under this one.......

The myth of the video blog disappeared within minutes of starting the side project. I have no confidence in my own ability to make decisions so I tried to contact the owner of this window to ask a few questions before I started. No response means no side project. All the tools and parts were laid out and ready to go, the video camera was set up and the instruction manual was open to page 2.

What were you doing with that window in the first place? Good question. I was going to put a electric heating element on the window. To combat the ice, snow, and frost of the harsh Maine winter on the ocean. The product was made by Seaclear Industries (www.seaclearllc.com) and works like the defroster on the rear window of your automobile. The instructions are simple and the whole job should only take 5-10 min (perfect length for a video post). My issue was the size and shape of the window. The window is much larger than the seaclear so do I center it in the window or move it to one of the edges? The window isn't a square and the top and bottom lines are not parallel so do run the square seaclear with the side, top, or bottom? Plus the window is replacing a window that already has the seaclear, and how much wire is available if the new seaclear is in a different position than the old seaclear?

Anyway, it would have been a cool project to display my skills but now I'm so filled with self doubt that I will probably end up sub-contracting the job to a local glass working company. If I cared less or could afford another seaclear I would proceed with caution and common sense. The window (once completed) is going to Equinox Island Transit. No more websites in () after the company name, if its blue you can click it. We built Equinox in 1994?? I was in high school and had a limited roll at the company. The original owner was Zoe Zanidakis, she was on the CBS show Survivor, she lost. Even though the boat changed hands, we have still helped maintain and repair the vessel over the years. This window has been fixed/replaced a couple of times already. Good thing for us boats always break.

Three links in one post, so interactive. The steering system for the 38' Northern Bay that was FINALLY ordered was changed again within 10 hours of ordering it. In other 38' Northern Bay news, I have to do a stress test on the arch tomorrow to measure the amount of flex. 5 guys (1000 lbs) on the fly bridge and see how much the arch bends. My guess, on record, is that the arch will flex 1". If this is acceptable then we will continue, if not then we will get some carbon fiber and reinforce the arch until it can support more weight.

Two posts in 3 hours, I might be the greatest. Thanks to your support, we broke 200 visits to the blog since my new content kick. I just have to find a way to direct more traffic to the site. Then turn the thousands of viewers into advertising revenue. Then I could stop building boats and just make up posts about my nonexistent boat shop. For right now I'll keep working at my actual shop and writing actual posts for my nonexistent audience.

Dust = Work is getting done.

Get ready for some serious blogging. For those of you that tuned in yesterday many times only to see that nothing had been added, sorry. Played poker last night and blew off the Thursday post. You'll all be happy to hear that I was the big winner, easiest 50 buck I had made all week. After I get this post finished I have an interesting project that might be posted as the first ever video blog on this site. It could be interesting depending on how badly I mess it up.

Pictured is the 38' Northern Bay minutes after the holes for the air vents had been cut in. There will be two Vetus vents (www.vetus.nl) on either side of the wheelhouse. Most of the time the cubic inches of air intake would be half of the motor's horsepower. This motor's hp is 567 so it would need about 280 cubic inches of vent. The owner wanted to make sure that the engine would get plenty of air so there is 600 cubic inches of vent. At Clark Island Boat Works the customer is always right. The air will dump into the seat backs and be routed into the engine room. Delta T fans will be installed to assist in the moving of air.

This bench located on the starboard side of the wheelhouse, although primarily used for sitting, will hide the back side of the vents. It will also serve as another bunk for sleeping and hatches cut in the top will open up a large storage area. There is another bench on the other side of the wheelhouse (not pictured). This bench is made out of nidacore (www.nida-core.com), a plywood substitute. Lighter than plywood, waterproof, but much more expensive. 3/4 inch nidacore 200 bucks a sheet compared to 50 a sheet for plywood. Why does better almost always mean more expensive?

So I actually got some work done these past couple of days, with the boss back I could focus on boats and not have to worry about running the crew. Everyone is getting sick, I've managed to dodge it for a couple of weeks but my luck may be running out.

In other shop news: 36' Calvin = tank work, exhaust work, lifting rail finished, and new tank area ready for tanks. 38' Northern Bay = benches, more arch glassing, vent holes cut, steering system ordered (finally) Welding shop = fixed a shrimp cooker, started building supports for a ramp, and other metal type fabrication. 35' Repair job (I have to ask the hull style, its very unprofessional for me not to know what type of boat it is) = new windows in the trunk side, more gel on side decks, air box built in back section of wheelhouse.

Much better post than I expected, got lots done yesterday. Getting caught up one post at a time. Anyone that would like to step up for a "guest post" I would be willing to turn over the reins. Halfway home, and if I can get another post done by midnight I'll be closer to the end than the beginning. Check out the Vetus site they have lots of cool stuff, and if I'm not mistaken CIBW gets a mention on the Nida-core site.

Later.