"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.

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.