The mud is gone...

...for the most part.


The ground is still a little soft and mushy under the boat. But at least I can walk on it without losing a shoe. With that good news I finally got back to work on the boat.

I put stain on the transom. It looks a little dark on the bottom plank, but that doesn't matter. That plank will be below the water line, so it will be covered by the bottom paint and the boot stripe.

I put another layer of the green paint on the starboard side sheer strake (nautical term I learned). And fixed up a scratch on the port side hull from when the shed flipped over. One of the shed legs must have hit the side of the boat as it was going up and over, during that wind storm.

Earlier in the week I, put the last coats of paint on the engine hood, and filled in the emblem with the same green as the sheer strake. That way the engine will at least match the boat's color, even if it doesn't match the boat's age.

Motor work

The boat house, outside is surrounded by deep snow, that is just starting to melt. Where do you think the water has been collecting?

In the boat house. There is about 2 inches of standing water on top of about 4 inches of mud. The snow melted, dissolved the dirt floor and is just sitting there, waiting for me to step in it. But I'm not playing that game. I have indoor work to do.

I started working on the cowl hood for the new motor. I took off the dried out gasket, and took off the front ID plate (which was about to fall off). Then I started cleaning.

I then hit it with some light sandpaper, and put a coat of marine enamel on it. Here is what it looked like before...

And after the first coat...

Bought a Motor

I finally bit the bullet and bought a motor. It is an Evinrude 85hp Starflite.

Yes, I understand it is not "period" for the boat. I was not able to find a suitable motor that was powerful enough, from the late 50's, and not ridiculously expensive. This one came with all of the controls, cables, and a power lift/trim setup (which will save my back). The cowl hood needs a re-paint, but everything else is in perfect working order.

Today I did a little more work on the boat. I installed one of the blocking pieces that supports the back of the rear facing seats. The other one still needs another coat of varnish.

I also put stain on the piece of the gunwale that I had to replace. Once it gets varnished, it will match nicely.

No pictures...

I forgot to take the camera with me today, but I got some more work done.

I used dowels and plugged the holes where those engine brackets were bolted through the transom. After the glue sets up I'll sand it smooth. Then the transom will be ready for stain.

Next I measured, cut and dry-fit the blocking for the backs of the rear facing seats. Next, I'll start the staining and varnishing process on those.

I didn't quit. I'm no Sarah Palin.

The entire month of December was not conducive to working on a boat, in a tent, outside. In the last 4 weeks we saw only 2 days where the temperature broke 20 degrees. The second of which was today. After Kathy and I took the kids bowling, I got to work.

I fired up the space heater in the tent and got to work on finishing the interior panels. I bought a new jigsaw, so doing all the odd cuts was much faster. After 2 hours of work, the interior panels are done.

Next, I took the shop-vac to the boat and snapped some pictures.

It's coming together nicely.

Back to work...

After all the mess with the windstorm, I have finally got back to doing actual work on the boat.

I started off working on the replacement gunwale. I countersunk the fasteners and finish sanded the whole thing, especially at the seams. It is ready for stain (on the next relatively warm day).

Then, I began work on the interior panels. The hard ones - the ones with odd cuts. I worked for 2 hours and got a grand total ol 2 panels installed. It takes a while to cut, trim, test fit, cut some more, trim some more, and test fit again. The starboard side of the interior is done (except for a couple of pieces under the front dash.

GAH!!!!!

Last night the wind kicked up pretty good. Apparently, from watching the news today, there were gusts up to 50mph. Kathy and I were awoken by the flapping of the shed door. I looked out the window to see the boat house and about 4 feet of the bow of the boat sticking out the front.

We quickly threw on our shoes and ran outside. The tent shed had transformed itself into a giant sail. The front end, with each gust was pulling itself out of the ground by about 4 feet, and inching the whole thing backwards each time.

As I was looking around for cinder blocks and bungee cords, a big gust came and flipped the entire structure on it's side. Luckily , none of it even touched the boat. Kathy and I flipped it back over and started straightening it out. The two rear legs were bent a little, but I was able to bend them back into shape for the most part. We wound up having to open up the front and back doors in order to let the wind pass through the tent rather than pushing against it.

The stakes that came with the tent were utterly useless, so we had to tie the tent down to the heaviest thing we could find - the boat. With several bungie cords and an old broken 100 foot extention cord we tied the frame of the tent to the trailer under the boat.

Now the boat is filled with dirt and leaves. But all the sawdust and paint chips are gone.