Native Son (Thursday Post #2)

Writing a message on a piece of tape is by far the most effective way to keep people off a boat. The staging isn't strong enough to hang a chain and padlock. You can't write a message on a piece of rope. A pile of wood could be jumped over. No one messes with the tape, ever.





On Native Son all the fiberglass work has been completed and Kendall has been gel coating as this project creeps to the finish line. John finished up the exhaust system and built the new radar stand (last picture). Dan patterned the windows (two weeks ago) and sent them to a Canadian company called Marinelite and we are waiting on a price quote for the windows. Looking back at the photos of this boat I have done a horrible job documenting this one. Moved the side decks, new wheelhouse, and new deck and most of it never was digitally recorded.






The new radar stand installed. Two arms will be mounted to the cabin top to support the stand. Then the radar, antennas, and lights will have to be mounted and wires will have to be run.

NEW POST NEW POST NEW POST

People of the world you can now rejoice. Your favorite boat builder has returned to the blogging scene. Thousands of emails, postcards, and phone calls can't be ignored forever. My keyboard is covered in dust and this first post back has added pressure on it to be great so lets get cracking. The picture to the left is a couple of days old but as you can see the 36' Calvin is nearing completion. All the fiberglassing is completed, the exhaust is finished and the below deck lobster tanks are plumbed and ready to go. Not pictured is the aluminum culling tray that John built and the aluminum trap slide that is being built (the two most impressive things will be in tomorrows post so check back in 24 hours). Rebuilding a deck can be a discouraging proposition because if you do a good job the boat looks exactly the same as it did when we started. Rip out all the bad and replace it with the good. This project has created more work, another boat showed up today to get the deck replaced. It will be nice to just tell the crew "do what you just did" while its fresh in their minds. This boat is 128% better than it was when it arrived at the shop and I think that the owner is going to be extremely happy with it. In case you haven't read all the old posts, this boat has.....

1. new fuel tanks (that don't leak)
   
2. new lobster tanks (with a sick water management system)
3. new exhaust (wrapped with high temp blankets)
   
4. new deck (raised, repitched, and rugged)
   
5. lifting rails (boat will gain 2.2 knots)
   
6. rope locker drain (locker had 13-18 gallons of water in it when it arrived)
7. repaired outside shaft box and rudder step (just all around better)

The best part about all this is that the job was generated by the web site, dude in RI sees the site, makes the call, and we get the work. Exactly why the internet was created. The blog was leading to more interest in the company and I should have recognized that it was becoming an important part of my job (even though I don't get paid for it). Anyway this boat is gone next week and we have a new deck to build. The posts won't be focused on that project (since it would be a repeat of the previous 20 posts) and I will be focusing on the 38' Northern Bay that will become the number one priority. Met with a fisherman from NH on Friday, possible new lobster boat but it still in the early phase and I don't want to get too excited.

How am I going to get back all the fans that I lost during my hiatus?

An interesting bit of information for people with older diesel motors in their boats......

The federal government has put up 300 million dollars into a clean diesel program, they pay for half of the motor and half of the installation if you apply and qualify for the program. I guess they are trying to eliminate as many of the tier 1 motor that they can. Every state has a different set of procedures to apply for this money and the dead line for application (in Maine) is March 27th. Today I wrote up an estimate for a local lobsterman that was in the process of applying for some of the free cash. If you have any questions that I can help you with leave a comment or send me an email though www.clarkislandboatworks.com. It will be interesting to see how many people get approved and how many hoops they have to jump through to get the checks. If you are thinking about repowering I would strongly suggest looking into it.... fill out a piece of paper and maybe get 50 grand from the greatest country on earth. The repower doesn't need to be completed until September of 2010, so send in your applications and call Clark Island Boat Works when you want to schedule the project. Then we can get some of that free money.

Shirts, Hats, and Coffee Cups are on the way (they should be here in time for the holiday season). If I'm going to start adding new content to the site then you guys have to start getting me new viewers (if everyone tells two friends then we should be over 100 views a day). Your welcome Internet.

Before and After.

The site front page is fixed. I complain about the web site once and instant repairs happen. Traffic to the blog was the highest yet, but because there was no new content, average time on the site was the lowest yet. The fans have spoken, more boat talk less of everything else.

Funny exhaust elbows (pictured) had to be removed from the motor of the 36' Calvin. The old exhaust had developed a leak where the two elbow were connected. Bolts between the two had deteriorated and allowed the wet elbow to slide down. This was letting a small amount of exhaust into the engine room every time the engine fired. A consequence of this is everything under the deck is coated with a little bit of black. The wet exhaust elbow in the upper left corner of the first picture is suppose to be white. This was a wet exhaust system and its getting replaced with a dry exhaust. As I'm getting ready to explain what is happening it occurs to me that some of the readers might not know the difference between a wet and dry exhaust system. Explanation time.

Wet Exhaust: The exhaust from the motor is routed through a water jacketed elbow and the exhaust and the engine water travel through fiberglass pipe until both exit the boat. On the 36' Calvin the exhaust port was located on the side of the hull near the stern on the port side. Other locations for a wet exhaust exit would be through the stern of the boat or out the bottom of the boat. The underwater exhaust port has been the popular choice at Clark Island Boat Works.

Dry Exhaust: The exhaust from the motor is routed through stainless steel pipe to a vertical muffler until the exhaust exits above the cabin top. Flex pipe (pictured accordion pipe) needs to be added to allow for expansion of the exhaust system. Without the flex pipe constant heating and cooling would lead to cracks in the pipe. Because a dry exhaust isn't water cooled it will need to be wrapped with a high temp blanket to protect the rest of the engine room from the intense heat.
On this exhaust the port on the motor was 3" but to reduce any possible back pressure it was recommended to get the exhaust pipe to 6" as quickly as possible. Our staff welder/metal artist accomplished this by welding a 3" elbow to a 6" elbow. The next segment (not pictured) will be a double flanged pipe to get the exhaust to the far port side of the wheelhouse. Then up to the muffler and out though the cabin. John has this on the run, hopefully the exhaust can be completed by the end of next week.

The new elbow is so impressive that this post was just going to be a pic of the new elbow and the word "WOW" in 4 inch block letters. If I had stuck with that plan this post would be on time. I couldn't cheat the fans, all 6 of you, you deserve better posts. My goal for tonight is going to read some other blogs and see how people start sentences (personally i start most with THE, I, and the letter O). There must be more options then this......

In other shop news: I took a slack day and hung out with my nephews. The fuel tanks for the 36' Calvin have been started, a new bulkhead has been added to the boat (so the old laz bulkhead can be removed) Jeff was sick and stayed home. Dan and Clay gel coated the forward cabin of an old lobster boat (not pictured). John welded. And the boss didn't return from his vacation. He should be back today.

If you want to know how many posts out of thirty this is then you've read them all and I don't have to tell you (13).