Deck Boards and Electrical Finished = Hammock Time

 11 Dec 20:

We finished laying out the deck boards for the pier and dock. Tacked down, more screws to come later. Some bolts. And cut off extra stringer bits at the end, although that might help repel boarders.

Plug works! Strap lift motors don't though, not surprised. Should be an easy repair. 

Swinger lift motor actually works!

Operational Testing, Skipper Stamp Of Approval.

It's been and interesting time...

Decking the Dock with Boughs of Pressure Treated Pine

10 Dec 20:

Laid out the stringers, we have found that overlapping them makes them more stable and secure, and more area to secure them to the crossbeams.

Skipper let me borrow her Gorilla Carts and cordless impact driver. The carts are very versatile, the sides come off and they carried all the lumber for 984 feet of triple pier stringers and 896 feet of decking. They also carried the 2x12x16 seawall caps back from the neighbor's yard. Tons of driveway gravel, sand and several pallets of sod. Patio furniture. The handle can be reversed so it can pin to and be towed by the lawn tractor. Bought them at Lowes. Cart 1 has new tires, Skipper wore the inner tubes out, luckily Gorilla Cart has great parts support.

Should we leave the excess as springy diving boards?

Electricians will be out tomorrow and maybe we'll have a pier light tomorrow night! We can also rescue the flag remnants.

Piered Out!

 05 Dec 20:

Cut planks for the last bit of our pier, replacements for what went MIA during Hurricane Sally. We needed new planks anyway, so thanks Sally!

Picture of the inside of my pocket.

Skipper's Gorilla Carts and our cordless tools made this project a lot easier.

Got my steps in. Note the one section of pier that we replaced this Spring, Hurricane Sally left that alone. Guess she thought we needed to replace the rest.

Next up, the rest of the deck.

Final tally is in, includes the ramp that starts in the yard. 257' 6". 515 planks x 6 screws each. 

Mind The Cone.

Problems in Production. The pier planking and decking are sqaure, but the pilings are not. This befuddled me for a while until Skipper reminded me of that historical fact, when we finish there will be a short section of deck out past the far piling vs being flush like the close piling. She can sit there to taunt wildlife.

Once the deck is down we can finally retrieve the remnants of the flag the Hurricane Sally shredded. It is snagged on pier hardware. We will reunite it with the other bits that we were able to rescue back in September, probably frame it as a memento.

Stay tuned for more exciting news for Galloping Horse Marine Construction!

1965 Alcort Sunfish WAVE 24 Nov 20 Restoration Begins

24 Nov 20: 

We had reattached the starboard bow block in the Spring...sigh....now the port bow warrants attention. Mast tube is in good shape though.

Flex tape maybe?

Starboard block stayed attached! Well, most of it.

Skipper decreed today that we'll retain the side piece, along with the stealth Hawaii registration numbers.

The fiberglass loop was used at the factory to pop the hull out of the mold.

Woven roving is a little unwoven...

We think we can salvage the deck in this area, put a backer strip underneath to reshape it.

Hoisted WAVE off of the finishing dolly and removed a strongback that we had attached for use in our catboat build. Catboat build is delayed.

Bow section will be reattached! The pink duct tape may or may not be permanent.

1982 AMF Sunfish hanging out with WAVE in the Carriage House. She took similar abuse from the 6x6 posts in the Sunfish Shack. Catboat parts stacked to the side.

Pier planked, 137' of 250' complete.

Log of WAVE.

Log of PHOENIX.

 

Maybe We Should Change Our Name To Small Marine Construction and Landscaping...

 11 Oct 20:

Hurricane Sally did a number on our pier, seawall and our yard. In the whole scheme of things, non-essential but as property owners we like to protect our investment by keeping things in order. We spent about 2 weeks cleaning things up, vegetative debris, broken pier and dock parts from across the bay and starting to reassemble the seawall and pier. 

Skipper lost her beer keg burn barrel to storm surge, so we sourced a new fire pit from Lowes. Felt good to burn a little of the yard debris.

Here's a shot of some of the damage to PHOENIX.  Boat repairs will be slow in coming, but we are beginning to gather parts and materials.

All repairs suspended as we were in the cone for Hurricane Delta for a few days. We expected some storm surge and tropical storm winds, so we loaded as many boats as we could into the Carriage House, still room for the canoe and kayaks if Delta gets closer.

Lowered the mast on the Catfish SMEDLEY and mover her into the front yard, WILLOW got moved also, so it's Boatapalooza up front now. WAVE and PHOENIX on the Wheel Deck.

We put a small slatted cap on top of the seawall to help dissipate wave energy, it was tested out this morning with 2 feet of surge from Delta on top of high tide, with 18 mph wind driven waves from the West. The splash zone on the yard side of the seawall filled up but there were no waves crashing down to redistribute yard bits.

Our anole buddy Henry helps us with pier work, he hung out in the cone for a few days.

Finished the seawall cap, realigned the border stones and put in fence posts and new fence panels. Sand, dirt and sod are on the list now to replace some divots.

Skipper salvaged some bay lumber and we made carpenter's trestles out of some of the pieces. They come in handy as boat stands, benches and plant stands.

Planked out 64 feet now, 186 to go.

Pier Maintenance

28 May 20:

Had a 10 foot section of the pier starting to sag, so we replaced the joists with 2x6x10 pressure treated pine, rated for ground contact. Skipper recommended replacing the 4 foot wide planks, as the 10 year old planks had to come up anyway to access the joists. My Marine brain said I could leave the planks and slide in a sister joist from underneath but the sag was too great. After sweating over that for an hour I switched to Skipper's plan, and she got to use her crowbar. The old planks were repurposed as joists for a new Boardwalk behind the Sunfish Shack.

Skipper and SACAGAWEA Skippervised.