4000 visits!!!!!

pre-blog visits from 1/1/2007 to 2/23/2009.........6202 in 784 days........8 visits a day

post-blog visits from 2/11/2009 to 6/30/2009..........4014 in 139 days..........29 visits a day

i know no one cares about these stats, but its pretty cool.

23' Crowley Pics for the world (specifically for CT)

Guest Blog: Matt Finn

38' Holland finished by Matt Finn and Clark Island Boat Works.

My shop is in Lynn, MA. I have finished ten new lobster boats to date. Most of the boats I finished myself, I fish them for a season then sell them.

This project was different, the owner was a local guy who aw all of my boats and wanted on e as a pleasure boat for his family. We finished it over two winters, finished off bare bones so he could use it for season #1 and decided how he wanted to finish off the interior. This is what we came up with, full mahogany interior with a teak deck. Notice the rounded corner that forms the head, there is a quarter piece of PVC pipe glassed to plywood which I then covered with a mahogany veneer.

The Holland is powered with a 480 hp. Cummins which pushes "Caroline" to 26 knots. She holds 300 gallons of fuel and 60 gallons of water. She has a 2-1 ZF. gear turning a 2" shaft with a wet keel. The transom door and the swim platform are a must for family fun. The pot hauler is just for hauling the anchor, there will never be any bait aboard. All the hardware is bronze to give the boat that older look. The pot hauler is the only stainless steel on the boat, the owner would love me to find an old bronze unit.

Clark Island built and glassed the benches and the engine box. They did all the metal work including all the bronze fabrication. Everything they do is well thought out, take a close look at the radar mast. They are the best in the business and they take care what goes out the door.

I included some of my "Mitchell Coves." I have owned 5 of them. (35's and 32's)

Thanks Matt, I needed a break. I don't know if I would say that the boat was "finished" by Finn and CIBW, we just supplied some parts. Your woodwork is sick and I'm glad that you only have a one man crew or else you would probably be putting us out of business. Not bad for your first blog attempt, welcome to the 20th century.

This isn't the post for the day.

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click on the images to see big photo.

I didn't build this boat, but if you like the looks I can build something similar.

Does anyone know a short electrician??

This mess is the back side of electrical panels on the 38' Northern Bay. The 12 volt DC distribution panel is the largest panel located at the top of the photo. In the middle is the 110 volt AC panel. The bottom panel is the battery switches (discussed in previous posts). The red and black spaghetti will be sending the power to the various equipment on the boat. Only about 10 percent of the wire is visible in this picture the rest was pull off to the left so I would have room to work. Looking at all the wires at once it presented as a huge job but once the connections started being made the job is getting smaller all the time. Choosing which breaker will be controlling what piece of equipment is the tough part, after the job is done you want the breakers to be arranged in some type of order (all the lights together, all pumps together, electronics together, etc...) About needing a short electrician, to work on the back side of this panel you need to be standing on the raised step where the toilet is going to live. The headroom when standing on that step is around 5'7" and unfortunately I'm around 5'11" (not tall by any means but about 4" too tall for this project) so I spent all day with my head compressed into my shoulders. 2 or 3 more days of discomfort should put a good dent in the electrical system.

This impressive shot of the 32' Osmond is the planning stage of the forward floor construction. In trying to keep the proportions of the boat somewhat correct we worked backwards from the trunk height and then using a proposed headroom (approx 6'3") got a good idea of what the forward floor was going to look like. These measurements could be tweaked to make a little more floor space, the shape of this hull allows for raising a floor 2" and creating 31% more floor space (those numbers are fabricated and being exaggerated to illustrate my point). As long as something happens on this boat everyday, we should be able to launch it by February......

A couple of days ago I was talking about a slight wheelhouse modification on Native Son, here is a picture of the completed modification. This boat is now being prepped for gel coat and paint. Window patterns have been taken although the owner may go with Plexiglas windows for the time being. John finished the new radar stand yesterday and Kendall has been making good progress sanding and taping. Clay moved the wheelhouse side without complaints and he was able to get it done quickly.









This "skiff" is in the shop for some minor work. So far we've painted the bottom and put a boot stripe on. Dan made a plastic bracket for the hydraulic trim tab pump. Once he mounts the pump six wire connections and two hoses will be the only thing holding up this job.


Thanks for checking back in for the words of content, 11pm as promised.

Last day of photo only content. (maybe)