Parting Out A Sunfish Hull

31 Mar 24:

This 1964 Sunfish hull ended up having not only a soft deck but also the hull is cracked all around the edge of the cockpit. Add in a few other leak areas and the fiberglass is beyond economic repair. So today we removed the hardware, trim, coaming and bailer to be used on other restorations. 

Video: Parting Out A Sunfish Hull

The coaming is held on by stainless machine screws that screw into aluminum rivet nuts. If the stainless screws are not removed periodically, they become permanently bonded with the rivnut. Out of 13 screws, only one came loose.

 

Land Yaahting

30 Mar 24:

The Granddaughter likes to go yaahting in our forest while we wait for the water to warm up. We figured out yesterday that the tractor makes a good tow vehicle.

We get serenaded with "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" so it's all worth it.

Boat Yard and Sunfish Shack

18 Mar 24:

The Boat Yard, Park and Sunfish Shack are ready for the 2024 season. It's taken a few projects to get to this point!

Bronze For Sale

15 Mar 24: 

Bought some Alcort Sunfish bronze made by Wilcox Crittenden, we needed the boom block, thumb nut and deck drains. The rest is available for purchase, including the nice Schaefer blocks. 

Contact lewis dot kent at gmail if you need some Sunfish parts.

Quarter Deck

18 Mar 24:

Our little quarterdeck has been a popular place to enjoy the back yard park and playset. We can roll boats all the way through from the driveway or bring them around from the side. A meandering rock river may run under the bridge soon...

TETRIS

17 Mar 24:

Well the Mustang came back from the shop faster than we thought, so the Catfish SMEDLEY moved back out to the Wheel Deck hoist. It is warm enough to do fiberglass work outside now, and we have more yard time scheduled.

Skipper did the tractor honors.

Shop Stool Patterns For Sale

05 Mar 24: 

Shop stool paper patterns are for sale, taken directly from our time tested templates. $30 USD gets a set of full size paper patterns with assembly instructions to your door. 

To order a set, send us an email at lewis dot kent at gmail. Paypal or check.

Four-Oared Gig AMERICAN STAR Plans from Mystic Seaport

11 Mar 24:

AMERICAN STAR is a 27' 3" Four-Oared Gig built in 1820 by the Chambers Brothers of Brooklyn in the "Whitehall" style, as in Whitehall Street of lower Manhattan. We ordered plans from Mystic Seaport that were developed from lines taken off the original boat, which is located outside of Paris at the estate of General Lafayette.  

AMERICAN STAR was given to the Marquis in 1825 as he finished his victory tour of the the young United States..all 24 of them.

New To Us Shaw & Tenney Flat Blade Oars

05 Mar 24:

Found some gently used Shaw & Tenney flat blade oars, 7 1/2 footers with nice leathers. Will they fit on the Abaco Dinghy HENNING. We'll find out and report back.

Fair Wind Fasteners

 05 Mar 24:

We get our silicon bronze from Fair Wind Fasteners, they ship small quantities and they ship fast. real fast. Great customer service, real people who answer emails and phone calls and have actually used their products. Here's part of what they have to say about the customer oriented business: 

"We're not the cheapest, but we do provide the best. I've travelled around the globe and received numerous fastener samples from manufacturers and have chosen only the best to be carried here at Fair Wind. At this point in time the marine industry has welcomed us with open arms, and we now supply not only high quality silicon bronze fasteners, but have expanded in to copper and 316 Stainless Steel fasteners in order to serve a larger portion of the marine market. We're regularly supplying boatbuilding companies, boatbuilding colleges, and factory OEMs with quality marine fasteners, but will always give the same attention and service to a DIYer, because that's how we started!"

We're one of those DIYers they mention, and our little Nutshell Pram Excuse me is Fair Wind Fastener-ed.

FMI: Fair Wind Fasteners

Creeks, Nook and Crannies

28 Feb 24:

Here's a close up of some of the creeks, nooks and crannies that we'll be exploring, just off the southern end of the James River. The "Pagan River" is an impostor, its European name from the early 17th Century John Smith map was Warraskoyack, for the local indigenous Algonquin tribe of the Powhatan Confederacy. Later the name was changed to Pagan, reportedly the native word for pecan and it was a creek. Later again local officials decided that Pagan Creek didn't sound important enough to attract dredging money for steamboats, so now it's called Pagan River. 

 

Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES Mess About

22 Feb 24:

We took ST. JACQUES out to be the photo ship for a Small Boats Nation article on a push pole duck bill attachment, she had a good time mucking about in the reeds. Skipper took the photos and I rowed for a little bit. 

We're in about 12 inches of water here, ST. JACQUES needs 8 with her centerboard and rudder up. 

Henning, the mariner who previously owned the 12 foot push pole, marked the pole with tape, starting around 3 feet or so. There is a yellow mark around 3 feet and another at about 5 1/2 feet. Our guess is the lower yellow mark indicated enough clearance for Henning's keel boat the top yellow mark could be for when the water was over his head...that's how we would have marked it. Henning used the pole as needed to get his boat in and out of the tidal creek behind his home.

Our Ford Edge ST SUPER SANDY got the tow vehicle honors. 

Back at the Shack, telling Sea Stories to the rest of the Armada.

Log of ST. JACQUES.