Rigging 4

The lean bar and the deck Hydroturf are down.  The next step is to paint the floor and lay down some more Hydroturf.  It appears that the planning and research has paid off....exciting times.

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Rigging 3

It's time for an update.

I toyed around long enough trying to decide what the floor material should be.  I called around and spoke to reps, suppliers, manufacturers, hitmen, and showgirls.  I settled on ABS.  A local plastics guy took my order and told me he needed a week.

I also sent my check into my metal guys for the lean bar.

Finally, I jumped back and forth between Seadeck and Hydroturf for the casting deck...in the end I settled on Hydroturf since they had wider sheets and also sold "blemished seconds".

All three orders arrived yesterday and today.

I made a template for the ribs of the boat to speed up the patterning of the floor.  I hauled the 48"x96" sheet of 1/4" abs into the house last night and started drawing out the cuts.

Tonight, I set-up the saw-horses and started cutting.  I have a little finish work to do but overall the stiffness and pattern looks great.  I've read that ABS doesn't do well with UV.  I may paint over this with gray paint and then add some Hydroturf to give it some grip and cushion.

The Hydroturf looks good too.  I still have to decide on a pattern for the casting deck and then figure out how I will use the overage for the floor.

My custom stainless steel lean bar showed up at my doorstep today and I was a little apprehensive as a cut the cardboard off.  All I can say is that the metal fab guys nailed it.  I ran some measurements and they are dead on.  Kudos and thanks to Rick and the crew at TBC Metalworks in Green Bay.

I've been doing my planning based on 1 1/4" schedule 40 PVC assuming that 1 1/4" schedule 40 Stainless would be the same outside diameter.  As it turns out Stainless is just a tiny bit larger o.d. than PVC.  I reworked the lean bar deck braces but I still need to mill out the underdeck mounting cups.  I'd rather that the stainless o.d. was larger instead of smaller...it's a little more work but overall an easy fix.

Things are coming together.

Rigging 2

Oar Lock Sockets are complete and installed.  I applied double sided tape and a sheet of foam between the hull and the socket prior to bolting them through the gunwale with 1/4" stainless bolts.
The idea is to dampen any sound transfer from the oars to the hull.  It seemed to work well on Jon Johnson...

I made a few calls and located a metalworker who is building me a stainless steel lean bar for the casting deck.  Things are moving along...

Incoming fire

RS put a call out for a Sunday morning worship service on the Big W.  Being one of the faithful, I attended.

A gray morning stayed gray.  We rigged up and it wasn't long before we were into our first double.  (The fact that it was our last double is only noted because I felt guilty writing "first double" in the last sentence.)  The magic bucket was void of the crashing small mouth that we have come to expect but it still offered up some fish.  After we gave it a solid pounding, we decided to wade up to another run and that is where two unusual things occured.

Strange thing #1:
The water was running at 3000 cfs at last check which is as low as I can remember fishing it.  I'm glad were in RS's canoe and not my boat.  I would have certainly donated some prop material.  As we waded upstream to spot 2, I noticed what looked like a stump yard way upstream.  I've fished this river a fair amount and had never noticed wood of any kind in that section.  I was a little baffled and mentioned it to RS.  He joined me staring quizzically into the distance.  I snapped a couple shots with my camera and when I got home I zoomed in...cairns...I whole pile of them.  In case you aren't the son of a mother who builds cairns,  (to clarify, my Mother really does build cairns) a cairn is a pile of rocks originally designed to denote a spot of significance.  They might be a trail marker or a property line but in recent years they've become the adult equivalent of a sand castle... a kind of temporary eco-safe folk art.   In this case I'm not sure but I'm guessing an OCD Cairn Builder camped here for a few nights...

Strange thing #2:
RS and I were fishing one of the steeper gradient sections in this part of the Big W.  The water was rushing along past our knees and at the distance of 50 or 60 yards it was loud enough that we couldn't talk over the water.  One of my swings through was interrupted by  what sounded like a 12 gauge shotgun at fairly close range.  I first did a little duck/crouch reaction and then turned to see 2 geese at least 200 yards up bank hard and head out.  And so, it was a 12 gauge.  I turned to Rob to check and see if he saw me get startled and/or get a bead on his reaction to the close in explosions.  He gave me a look like I would expect...a kind of a "what the hell?" look.  It was only a beat of time before he tucked his head into his shoulders and again turned his back to the origin of the gunfire...I almost had to think "I wonder what he is doing now..." when the steel shot started raining down on me too.  If you've ever taken a small round stone and thrown it as high as you can over a lake...it comes down fast and makes very little splash.  It just makes a sound that I will attempt to spell as Pffft...it's more of a short hiss than anything else.  Anyway, that happened a hundred times in a second.  Luckily, nobody was hit.  I started laughing because I found the whole experience to be so ridiculous.  I figured the hunter was on the other side of a small island and couldn't see us.  I stopped laughing later in the day when I saw him emerge from a makeshift blind in an area that would have afforded him a decent view of us fishing.  I was considering wading up and bending his fowling piece around his neck...But, I decided I'd rather fish.

Actually there was a strange thing # 3.  I caught a Sauger on the swing.  Never done that before.  I can't even remember if I've ever caught a Sauger...

Swinging for SMB's

Sauger!

RS...making it happen.

And so, Sunday service concluded.  As with any service, you get from it what you take from it. 

My Reflections:

To the Cairn Builder, a cairn is supposed to clarify not confuse. 
You Fail. 
FYI 78 cairns is an affliction...seek help. 

To the Hunters...just a heads up: The next guy who rains shot down on me will need to visit some form of medical specialist soon thereafter.

Sauger...we should do that again.

And finally To RS...Thanks.

Boat Rigging #1

Labor Day was the last day that I saw Jon Johnson.  He hitched a 1 7/8" ball ride west on I-94, swung North on 53 and kept going on Hwy 61.  I brief couple of days in a lonely driveway until TP swung by to collect on a verbal agreement whereby he is the rightful owner.

In case there is any doubt about the selection process...I received this text from TP yesterday:
"Picked up the boat.  Words don't explain how perfect this boat is for me THANK YOU."

I already knew that Jon Johnson was streamlined, no-nonsense, kick-ass fishing machine.  What the text proves is...so is TP.

The lesson: If you have to move and you can't take your beloved black lab with you.  Make sure it ends up with one of your buddies who digs black labs as much (or more) than you do.  No sense in remorse...
Jon isn't the family pet.  But, he might as well have been.

Jon Johnson - bags packed.

Alrighty then.

The next order of business is to get Jon's replacement (yet to be named) up and running.
I've got grand plans and the time to make them happen.
The Yamaha is hung and I even took the kids for a joyride on the local lake. Things went swimmingly or rather not swimmingly...maybe floatingly is more apropos...

The first rigging task is to assemble a floor.  I picked up some 2" foam insulation, cut out a jig and mass produced a floor leveling system.  I had to buy a handful of retractable box cutters from the local hardware store as these seem to be the best way to cut the foam.  The guy working the checkout asked, after I dropped my purchases on the counter, if I was planning to fly somewhere soon...
I couldn't help but think it was still too soon for 9/11 jokes.

Back to the project.

Sections of foam cut-outs were glued and wrapped in landscaping cloth (as I did with Jon Johnson) to keep the floor from sagging and to make sure that the whole works didn't squeak when stryo met aluminum.  Cheap system + added floatation = winning.

Foam cut to create a level floor

Foam strips glued

Glued strips dropped in to check fit...

Landscaping cloth wrap - silence is the key.

Finished wrap.

Cut glued and wrapped.

I've been researching the decking options and have been shopping around.  The plastic plywood that I decked Jon with is no longer available from the local Menards.  I looked at acrylic and polycarbonate and decided they weren't quite right.  I have been asked a few times why I'm not using plywood and my answer is...because I don't want to.  I called a local plastics shop and the guy (Jim) suggested I look at Marine Grade HDPE.  I told him I was considering ABS.  He said that he had a sheet of 1/8" ABS that I could come take a look at so I drove up and checked it out.  The good news is that 1/8" ABS would probably work very well, and if I am concerned about strength, I can custom order 1/4".  the bad news is that it only comes in black.  Black would look cool, but it would certainly not feel cool (especially on bare feet).  He is now making a few calls to see if he can get me some 1/4" marine HDPE in gray.  While I was there I mentioned that I also needed some UHMW for my oar lock sockets.  He had a 4"x4"x12" brick that I thought would work well.  He told me to take it and that we'd settle up when we got the sheeting/decking worked out.  One phone call and a short visit and they are already letting me buy on credit.  Unheard of these days...

Oar Locks - Last night I did some drawing and brainstormed my plan for the oar locks.

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Tonight I started milling the sockets...things are underway.

Underway...

I hope to keep reporting on the progress.  If this stuff doesn't put you to sleep, stay tuned.