Carriage House Upgrades

15 Dec 21: 

1x4 Trim added around windows. We used pressure treated pine and plan to let it dry for a month or two before we paint it.

A little library for patterns and templates.

Convenient clamp storage.

Log of the Carriage House.

Whitworth Spanners

 15 Dec 21:

We promised to spend a lot of money on tools and parts to repair a 47 year old British Seagull that we'll never use, here was the first swipe, Whitworth spanners that only fit the motor.

Grumman Canoe Gunter Rig

 15 Dec 21:

Found a gently used gunter rig and sail for our Grumman 17 canoe SCOUT. The sail is sleeved, 5 panel. It was supposed to have 3 battens but they are MIA, as battens tend to be.

Our friend Alan from NY chimes in: "This is a Gibbs Sail made by the mother of Dick Gibbs in Morin Grove, MI. Dick made my first wood Rhodes Bantam back in 1960 and his mom made the salls for it. I did not know that Gibbs also made sails for Grumman canoes. Small world. Alan"

From R-L are the gunter rig parts: a small thwart that may have been used to attach blocks for the rudder line steering to; a few spare blocks, some of which are nice Tufnol blocks; the rudder and yoke, turned in a fashion that makes it difficult for you to see any detail; the lower mast; the upper mast or gaff; and the boom, angled up to fit in the Carriage House. The rudder to the left is not factory hardware or rudder, the seller threw it in as a lagniappe, citing the nice mahogany blade.

These details are always fun, from the days before adhesive backed sailcloth.

This will be another chapter in our book "How To Take a Simple Canoe and Make It An Incredibly Complex Sailboat That Sails Poorly."

Log of Scout.

British Seagull 40 Plus

 15 Dec 21:

I took a road trip to Milford, Delaware to pick up a Grumman Canoe sail and returned with a present for Skipper, a sweet little 1974 British Seagull 40 Plus motor that would look awesome on her Drascombe Lugger. The family used to have one 30 years ago, but it ran reluctantly when it ran at all, so her Dad Capn Jack traded it for a nice fir Christmas tree. They were glad to see the Seagull fly away, as Skipper had learned a lot of salty Sailor words from here Dad as he spent valuable sailing time trying to get the motor running. 

Being the stubborn Marine that I am, I plan to spend a lot of money on tools and parts to get this pile of metal running again, so Skipper can enjoy a nice cloud of fuel/oil smoke.

Cape Charles Railroads

15 Dec 21:

Please pardon our fascination with train archaeology for a moment, we had a chance to visit some of the railroad artifacts at Cape Charles Virginia recently. The interesting part of the visit was thinking back to the time before bridges and tunnels spanned the Chesapeake River where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. Train cars were loaded onto barges to make the trip from Cape Charles to points south.