Impressive Pictures, Post to follow.

Since no one is buying mugs........

I have to keep building boats. These are the house batteries, jammed under the deck (aft starboard side) in a custom battery box. The lexan shield was added to prevent accidental contact with the battery terminals. Because of the distance between the batteries and the electrical panel the leads needed to be 4/0 battery cable. Running that size cable can be difficult because it is so large that it doesn't always want to bend the way you want it to. We were optimistic and tried to run 3 pieces of cable at once. Jeff wrestled the cable for 20 minutes by himself then I tried to help but the engine room isn't built for two full sized humans. I offered to take over the project and quickly wished that I had ignored it. Holding three pieces of 45lb wire over your head while trying to operate two cordless drills and handle clips and screws sounds a lot easier than it is. The project was a complete success and no one was injured and no tools were smashed. Once the "house" battery cables were run, the positive lead for the "start" battery needed to be run. The "start" battery is actually two 8D batteries tied together to form a SUPER BATTERY. Another 4/0 cable run to the area where the battery switches will one day live and the heavy cable on this boat is completed. The 8kw generator needed to get some 12 volt power so we jumped power off the start battery, a smaller switch in the engine room (pictured) will give the end user the ability to kill the power to the genset if something unexpected happens.
We also installed the second air conditioning unit in the port side bench inside the wheelhouse. Sea water is pumped to both units with a heavy duty 110 volt pump, after the water runs through the units it is directed to a tee to combine the flow and sent overboard through a stainless steel thru hull (not pictured). Both units have a built in drip pan to collect condensation and this water will drain into the bilge and be pumped overboard using the primary bilge pump. John is working on a custom air handler for the upstairs unit to direct the cold air to the two vents, that haven't been installed yet.
A wall will have to be installed behind this air conditioner to separate it from the rest of the bench. Two wires and some duct work and the air conditioning will be completed. Today (Tuesday) I was able to build the bridge work for the steering cylinder in the lazzerette. Once it is sanded and gelled we will build a stainless steel plated to attach the cylinder to the boat. The helms should be arriving on Thursday or Friday and then we will finally have all the steering equipment (except the steering wheels).

SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS

Clay phillycladed the new deck on the repair job in the back bay.
Dan Jr. packed the outside box, put on the propeller, installed the rudder, and reinstalled the steering on the repair job in the front building.
John made an aluminum hydraulic tank and built two more cages (one steel and one stainless)
Dan reinstalled a repaired hauler motor and assisted with the phillyclad.
Jeff and I slugged away on the 38 Northern Bay.

More possible jobs headed our way, one guy is looking at getting a new wheelhouse put on his boat and another guy wants us to raise the roof on his boat (built for a 5'11" human.....he happens to be 6'7"). The readership has been holding steady on the blog, you guys are suppose to be forwarding the web address to all your friends. Thanks in advance.

Zazzle Dazzle

Get your exclusive CIBW Gear here.

The Blog brings in $$$.

More importantly the blog brings in a little bit of work. One of the faithful readers contacted me via email to inquire about a stainless steel cage for a 35' H & H. After a few more emails the kid shows up at the shop and wants the cage, a davitt, phillyclad, and two gallons of Newport green gel coat. This gives the welder a couple of jobs and it leads me to believe that typing on the computer might be a viable way to lure customers to CIBW. Thanks for the business. Short post today, monster post with 7 pictures tomorrow. The online store might be up and running today........

Instant Updates, as they occur

Three aft holes for hatches

Close up of the smashed out nidacore

You remeber this boat...........

The 38' Northern Bay, the most important boat in the shop. And now the number one priority. Greg is back in Rhode Island with his 36' Calvin and after a couple of days of fishing hasn't found any major problems. The Northern Bay will now become my primary focus and if possible I won't be working on any other boat until it is out the door. Today I cut in the 3 aft deck hatches (not pictured). I was only going to cut in the aft starboard hatch so I could install the house batteries but once I was set up to cut hatches I made an executive decision to cut in all three. The hatches ended up being 28" square. Making all the hatches the same size will make it easier for John to make the aluminum frames that will act as the "guts" of the hatches. The aluminum frames will have a built in gutter and some type of way to lock the hatch down. All the gutters will be hosed to a larger hose that will drain overboard. Six deck hatches in total will make for a lot of hoses and gutters but it will all be worth it when under the deck is dry at all times. The decks are made out of 1" nidacore so they had to be decored, after the top layer of fiberglass had been cut out the plastic "honeycomb" material was knocked out with a hammer and chisel.

Between cutting hatches and hammering plastic, I made a custom battery box to fit under the deck on the starboard side of the boat. I was going to use the Blue Sea plastic battery boxes but two of them couldn't fit in the space provided because of the engine exhaust that runs through the area. The battery box was made out of plywood and will house 2 8d batteries. The box will be fiberglassed and screwed down to small stringers to hold it in place. By tomorrow there should be some pictures of the heavy duty battery cables run under the deck. The second picture is of the flybridge seats, guttered flip-top and a removable panel at the front to make for an area long enough for a full sized human to lay down. In other Northern Bay news the smaller Lewmar hatches arrived (finally) and they can be cut in tomorrow (one over the galley and one in the shower).

SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS SHOP NEWS.

Dan Jr. gelcoated the hull of the small repair job captain's blue today, 4 coats of gel and it looks awesome (not pictured). Jeff ran 4/0 battery cable on Fish Tales and tracked down a couple of leaky fittings, then started on the bilge pump installation on another repair job. Clay finished off the deck replacement yesterday and moved onto repairing the hauling side of Lee's boat (not pictured). Otto remains sick with bronchitis. Dan returned from his quick vacation to the NASCAR race at Martinsville. John made a sick bait/lobster box (pictured), a steel flat bar cage, and half of a steel round rod cage. The weather is warming and three of the boats in the yard are getting launched tomorrow. Gotta catch those lobsters before the price drops.

Good post, Bad pictures. Except for the aluminum box nothing we did is in any of these photos. I'll take some better pics on Wednesday. This post is now officially long enough. Was it worth checking back in? We are up to 15 yes votes on the poll, however no one has sent me a deposit check yet. You are probably waiting for your tax return checks to arrive.

This might have to be taken down.

Am I infringing on any copyright laws? If I had an apple computer I could make my own background music with Garageband.