So, I was talking with my friend Chuck the other day... You know Chuck, he built a Chebacco, which I have had the pleasure of cruising on, in the San Juan Islands. He also built a Ness Yawl.
But now both of those boats have been replaced by two deep draft, fixed keel cutters. Chuck loves cutters.
Well get into the details about his cutters another day. Im scheduled to crew for Chuck on a 400 mile open ocean trip, north from Newport, Oregon to the Salish Sea, in July. Unless we get side-tracked to Hawaii or something.
Suffice to say, each of these boats is traditionally built and could, by all appearances, be among the relics of the nineteenth century. Chuck is also a keeper of history.
Because Im known to have a stash of old, hard to find hardware, and because Im selling the stuff off, Chuck called me and asked if I have a matched set of Herreshoff cleats. As a life-long scavenger / recycler of old boats and boat parts, I can tell you, this is a difficult request. To top it off, he wants them in polished bronze.
Now were talking about pure gold.
I know he has his heart set, so I didnt mention the wood cleats Ive been making recently. But to me, these varnished, handmade hardwood accessories are more salty than a casting.
The one I really like is a tiny thumb cleat I was asked to make as a duplicate of an old original, the belay cleat for a sprit sail. Its made of a hardwood called Appeton, which has a lot of natural oil and is strong and durable. Its just two inches long and appropriately sized for 1/4" to 3/8" line.
Try it yourself - its very therapeutic.
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But now both of those boats have been replaced by two deep draft, fixed keel cutters. Chuck loves cutters.
Well get into the details about his cutters another day. Im scheduled to crew for Chuck on a 400 mile open ocean trip, north from Newport, Oregon to the Salish Sea, in July. Unless we get side-tracked to Hawaii or something.
Suffice to say, each of these boats is traditionally built and could, by all appearances, be among the relics of the nineteenth century. Chuck is also a keeper of history.
Because Im known to have a stash of old, hard to find hardware, and because Im selling the stuff off, Chuck called me and asked if I have a matched set of Herreshoff cleats. As a life-long scavenger / recycler of old boats and boat parts, I can tell you, this is a difficult request. To top it off, he wants them in polished bronze.
Now were talking about pure gold.
I know he has his heart set, so I didnt mention the wood cleats Ive been making recently. But to me, these varnished, handmade hardwood accessories are more salty than a casting.
The one I really like is a tiny thumb cleat I was asked to make as a duplicate of an old original, the belay cleat for a sprit sail. Its made of a hardwood called Appeton, which has a lot of natural oil and is strong and durable. Its just two inches long and appropriately sized for 1/4" to 3/8" line.
Try it yourself - its very therapeutic.
t of drawers ( twelve drawers in total). Because our sink is in the master cabin, the walking path between the bed and sink needed to be "just so" in order for me to feel comfortable walking between the two. I moved the bed aft off the center line about 7 inches. The other design feature I wanted to build into the bed was having radius corners at the foot board to help navigate between the sink and the bed. Its amazing how more comfortable it is to walk past a radius corner vs a right angle corner. This, like other projects on the boat, is a fight for inches.
cided not to go that route. I decided to laminate multiple pieces together and bend them around a form.
re tubing witch I fabricated a base, a lid, and a nipple to accept a piece of radiator hose. The steam box was built out of duct tape and some old 2" rigid insulation I had laying around. I drilled some 1/4" holes in the side of the box to insert welding rods to make shelv
es for the lumber to sit on. My wifes meat thermometer put a high tech look to the whole contraption.