With a lil' help from some friends....

we got that big honkin' roof panel out of the shed and stowed on the outside of the shed under a tarp! Wow am I glad to get it out of there. Two more smaller panels to glass the underside and the long table can come apart! *big silly grin* 'cause that means it's STRONGBACK assembly time! Oh how I've been waiting for this part. Now things will start to come together and it'll actually start to take the shape of a boat hull! *big silly grin*

Sorry, no pics, was a lil' preoccupied at the time.

Lori made me win this on an e-Bay auction for her....

Now she'll have to figure out where to put it.

Back at it in the shed.....

Lori & I glassed up the underside of the main cabin roof. Decided to do this when we have gravity working for us instead of when it's on the boat and having to work over our heads. This job took twice as long and used up double the epoxy I estimated. ;-( It is almost exactly 15 sq yds of fabric. I figured we used about 5 gallons of epoxy. It kinda puts in perspective what we'll be up against when we go to fiberglass the hull.

One of the other things I have to do this week is climb up on the shed and fix some holes and splits in the plastic. Apparently the Dr. Shrink tape is only good for a year.

All the stretching and shrinking from the heating and cooling makes the tape let go. Wind blown dirt, pollen and the crap from Canada Starch gets caught by the tape and it's useless after that. Oh well, I love shaky ladders! *sigh*

I've gone and done it again....

for what? The third year in a row? Poor ole' Mummy got scroodled out of her summer holiday! ;-( I's sorry dear. But on the brighter side we did get in a helluva road trip! 2300 kms (1430 miles) and 11 States in 4 1/2 days.

The idea popped into my noodle a few days before we were to start our holidays. Originally we were going to just hang out on the ole' boat, cruise up and down the river etc. and then I spotted a very nice, brand new propane stove on e-Bay. It was listed by the same fella we got our Yanmar diesel engine off of three years ago in Rhode Island. So the groundwork was laid for a road trip! Borrowing Grandpa's trailer off we went on yet another grand adventure.

First stop was Portsmouth RI to pick up the stove. Using a different GPS this time we ended up taking a totally different route. Oh boy were our internal compass's messed up! Normally we orient ourselves here with the St. Lawrence River which is south. Around Portsmouth your surrounded by water so when we thought we were driving north we were actually going south! Doh! Anyhow mission objective #1 was accomplished.

The next day we stopped off at Mystic Seaport in Mystic Connecticut. This place is a wonderland for ole' wooden boat types of all ages.

This was our second time here but the last time we were here in the fall and a lot of the exhibits were closed. Not this time. Wow! We wandered for hours.

The restoration of the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship.

I wish my boat shed was this well organized! ;-)

There's more pics from our trip here....

http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff166/KnottyBuoyz/2011/

From Mystic it was onto Newark Delaware to pick up the fuel and water tanks. This took us across Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. I have to say the New Jersey Turnpike was one of the most pleasant and well behaved drives we've had on the trip so far.

We loaded up the tanks in Grandpa's trailer and stopped for a bit to eat before heading to Washington DC where we'll camp out for the night.

After stopping for lunch at a KFC (the beans and mac & cheese sides were nice) we spotted this ole' timer all alone in a parking lot across the street. Just had to do a lil' Jeep Spottin' for my friends on the Jeep Facebook page.

The next day was to be spent (partially) at the National Air & Space Museum in Chantilly VA. Wow again. What a place of wonder.

Autobot or Decepticon? ;-)

They call her "Enterprise"

I was actually moved when I saw this one......

The rest of the pics from the NASM are here....

http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff166/KnottyBuoyz/2011/NASM/?start=all

The NASM is definitely a must see if you're in the area. Put aside at least 3-4 hours to go through it all.

After the NASM we skeedaddled up the highway to Hershey PA home of the famous Hershey Chocolate World. Oh my, what a zoo. We had visions of a small factory outlet like Hershey had in the old Smith's Falls plant but noooooooooo it was a full fledged theme park. We felt like the Griswolds on their trip to Wally World! We got in, got some treats and got the hell out!

The next day it was a 600 km (350 mi) trip home. Stopping only for rest breaks and to pick up a few items at the UPS Store in Oggyburg we were home by 1:30 PM.

It was a whirlwind trip but fun all the same. Mystic and NASM definitely made it worth while and what we saved on shipping the stove and tanks pretty much paid for the trip (fuel & food). Now the fun is over and it's time to get back working on the boat..... Standby.

More of the same

fender kickers looking for a free boat ride. *sigh* Oh well, can't dwell on that. We'll likely use the ole' boat this summer.

Yesterday we took a trip to Watertown NY to check out Harbor Freight Tools. I've heard a lot of guys rave about this place, which is much like our own Princess Auto, reasonably priced tools & accessories (albeit a lesser quality too). But for a one-off boat build I'm not investing $1k in an orbital sander I'll use once. So back to Harbor Freight Tools, nice store, crowded. Quality is the same as Princess. Prices are decent for the quality you get. Will I go back? Maybe, there's one thing I need that they carry but that's about it.

The highlight of the trip, other than the Jack Daniel's Burger at TGI Friday's was this.....

The Real Sarge! ;-)

Now that's a real Jeep. The rest, including ours, are just imitations!

As to boat building, well just watching the US dollar and trying to decide when to buy the next batch of epoxy. Likely 15 gallons this time. We burned through the last six gallon kit I got in under two weeks. I don't want to buy too much and have it sitting around all winter.

Waiting is the worst part

Almost noon and no call from Ray and Carlos. Oh well, not like they're the first fender kickers to never call back.

Puttered around in the shed this morning before it heated up. I sanded all the taped seams and wiped them down in prep for the fiberglassing that'll eventually happen.

Before I got too far the Project Manager stepped in to have a look. By the look on his puss I gather he wasn't too amused.

I guess I'll just have to step up my game a notch or two meet his usual high standards. Meanwhile the CEO was lounging on the front veranda getting a belly scratchy.

I think you can see now why we call that belly "The Golden Fleece!" ;-) What a life eh?

So back to the boat shed.

This is the underside of the main cabin roof. It's not a cosmetic part so I didn't take much care in prepping the plywood or the glass. The outer sections are 1708 biaxial fiberglass and the center strip is some of the 33 oz Vectorply I have. I needed to get it used up somewhere so I thought a nice strong strip down the center of the roof would be ok. It adds some weight up top but not that much. We don't have 'nuff epoxy on hand to do this piece (about 2 gallons) and almost 15 sq/yds so we're waiting for Ray and Carlos to drop a wad of cash in our mitts soon.

If they don't call soon we're goin' for a boat ride and cool off! Stay tuned.....