The front page of CIBW........

The front page isn't a popularity contest, and shouldn't make anyone feel better or worse about the importance of their boat in the eyes of CIBW.  Every boat is important and just because a boat isn't on the front page or doesn't get mentioned in the blog shouldn't cause anyone to panic.  Remember that I have been known to ignore the website for months on end in the past so you all might be looking at that cushion for a while. 

Remember boats will be launched in the order that they were received.

1. 38' Northern Bay
2. 32' Osmond Beal
3. 23' Crowley Beal
4. 38' Northern Bay
5. 28' Mussel Ridge

Thanks for visiting clarkislandboatworks.com.............tell your friends.

This is tougher than it looks....

So the teak & holly laminate is installed on the forward floor of the 38' Northern Bay.  The product is made by Lonseal and if you want any more information click here.  Jeff started by making a full sized paper pattern of the forward floor using tape and construction paper.  The pattern was then traced onto green tape that had been adhered to the 6' X 12' sheet of teak & holly that had been unrolled on the concrete floor of Building A.  Next using great care and 4 brand new razor blades the material was cut to match the pattern (leaving it large for safety's sake).  Another check of the fit led to some minor modifications, then the hatch holes had to be cut out.  After making another set of marks to outline the hatches the flooring was moved back across the driveway and the squares for the hatches were cut and removed.  With a short staff Thursday afternoon Jeff decided to glue the hatch tops on and glue the small square that was going to be the floor in the head (leaving the primary forward floor for Friday).  The Lonseal glue dries very quickly and needs to be applied to both surfaces, at the same time we had to be very careful not to get glue all over the boat.  Ian (Bean) and I rolled the glue onto the flooring while Jeff and Dan Jr. concentrated on the forward floor of the boat.  A decision was made to keep the glue just back from the edge of the Lonseal so we would have a place to grab the part that wasn't covered with glue.  Once both batches of glue were dried the correct amount Dan Jr. perched himself on the forward bunk while the rest of us tried to get the flooring from the back deck though the companionway door.  Things quickly got crowded at the doorway and I told Bean to jump into the head and grab the front of the flooring and pass it to Dan Jr.  By this time Dan Sr. was helping hold the flooring that hadn't made its way through the door and then he was moved to the top of the galley, where he could control the port side of the T&H.  I was next to jump down into the forward hatch surrounded by workers, glue, and Lonseal.  None of the flooring has touched the floor at this point because the glue is instant bond and if we mess up we're splitting the 700 bucks 5 ways.  Our leader, Jeff, was the last one through the companionway and it was up to him to stick the first bit of flooring down trying to get the hatch cut-outs lined up.  What transpired next was unbelievable, the floor ended up exactly where it was suppose to.  The workers left one-by-one until only Jeff was left frantically ironing out the floor with his J-Roller.  Excellent teamwork, I will get a video camera next time.  The edges of the flooring will be banded with actual teak and some type of thin flange will have to be added to the two hatches in the floor but the project is going extremely well to this point.

That was a quick 10 days.....

Sorry for the "content freeze" the boatshop is crazy busy and my kid was sick for a couple days, I would say "it won't happen again" but that would be a lie.  I was recently reading my old blog posts and one thing became crystal clear......I'm getting worse at writing these things.  At the beginning of this process I was trying to get more work and now that we have an abundace of work my writing has suffered.  Combine that with the fact that no one ever comments on the posts or starts a disscussion topic in the forum and it makes me wonder if all the effort is really worth it or could i just be sending emails to the people that I am presently doing business with.  Obvioulsy my efforts have led to sales of boats but now that we have all the slots in the shop filled with boats what's the point?  This post will be deleted tonight and replaced with a typical post that describes the pictures and tells you what we've been doing, maybe.

Teak Bi-fold Door.

I think that the green tape is bringing a lot to the overall look of this door.  With the door complete (except for some latching hardware) the tri-fold top needs to be built.  One more teak board from America's Wood Company in Washington ME and we shouldn't need any more teak to finish this boat.  The top will need to be able to be opened and closed from the top and bottom.  The ability to lock the door from the outside should also be a goal. 

Looking at this picture its tough to see the amount of work that has been dumped into it.  I've been on the door (on and off) for a few days and Jeff was able to get the outside frame finished today (glued, sanded, bunged, chiseled, sanded, and oiled).  Tomorrow will be the final day on the door project and we can move on to getting this boat out the door.

Dan Jr. prepared the floor inside the wheelhouse and helped mill up the teak trim for the "kick board" that is going to separate the gel from the paint.  All the final aluminum parts have been finished and are set to be sent to the powdercoater.  A name has been picked and fonts are being discussed.  The end is near............

And in non-companionway news we are building a 32' Osmond for a guy in Bermuda, and here it is.  If you want up to the minute blog updates click on the RSS stuff, I don't know how it works but it will tell you when I put new stuff up instantly.

Deck looks done.

The deck on the 38' Northern Bay has been coated with non-skid.  In case you can't tell that is twilight gray that you are seeing, the shadows make it look like 4 or 5 different shades.  We were able to prep the deck and the fly bridge (not pictured) at the same time and Dan Jr. was able to get the fly bridge completed Friday afternoon and the deck Saturday morning.  The non-skid will extend into the wheelhouse (not sure if the gray will pour up the step into the upper deck or if that step will stay white) and the perimeter might be trimmed with teak to make for a better transition between the gray skid, white gel, and off white paint.  These 5 color boats with insane amounts of wood work really make me appreciate the lobster boats that we used to build. 

Stainless steel rails from Nautilus Marine Fabrication arrived last week (maybe 10 days ago) and they were quickly installed in their predetermined locations.  The bow rail proved to be a little bit of a challenge starting with the screws that need to be used.  Because of the size of the holes in the foot pads and the relatively thin plate being used the screws needed to be undercut (flat under the head not V shaped) and since we didn't have any of those screws they needed to be ordered.  Then in an attempt to decore the side decks we filled all the holes with an epoxy/filler mix and when we tried to drill it the next day the screws striped the threads out of the holes.  To solve this problem we ordered some Plexus and were able to fill all the holes and 24 hours later drill and tap into the waterproof rock hard Plexus.  5200 underwater marine sealant was then put under every foot pad and on every fastener during the installation making this rail extremely durable and water resistant. 

Did everyone enjoy the video on the front page, that took so much effort, I hope it was worth it.  The Patriots just took the lead in a game that they most definitely should have lost.  Bermuda is headed to the shop this week, I'm finishing the sickest companionway door of all times (from the video), hulls should be showing up at the shop any day now (23' Crowley and 38' Northern Bay), and there is interest in building a 28' Wayne Beal.  So we're set for winter work.

Update on Monday, September 14, 2009 at 10:12PM by Clark Island Boat Works

pats win 25 -24.  the perfect season is still a goal.