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At the Boathouse
When I got to the Boathouse, there was a young woman there, looking out over the docks. I told her what we do and Brandy went and got her niece, Alanna, and nephew, Connor, and just barely visible niece, Sha . . . dang, I forgot the little one's name. Anyhow, they took off in Daisy.
Connie and Patience were back, putting the final coat of paint on the cardboard boat Patience will be using. These are really nifty designs - in case you have forgotten:
We are making three of them - they go together in about an hour.
Brandy and the kids made it back alive.
Patience is PROUD of her boat.
Toward the end of the day, two young women showed up - Abbey and Lauren. Lauren swore she would NEVER get into a boat. Here she is.
I was trying to get out of there, but the girls wouldn't leave, so I put 'em to work. They really enjoyed painting. By the way, they are both recently 12 years old. It appears at 12, a child understands paint.
We had another visitor, Chuck. The first time Chuck stopped by, he was not very appreciative of the Tik-Tak Kayak design. This time, I talked him into trying it out - and he liked it!
This is the scene that greeted me in the morning. We have a LOT of activity going on.
SOP on the Lazy Weekend Canoe is to caulk all seams, inside and out. Takes about a tube - regular painter's caulk is cool. Never use silicone-based caulk, and here's why: http://www.storerboatplans.com/Faq/Ihatesilicone.html (from our friend, Mik Storer, Storer Boat Plans.
Patience was back, with her friend, Hanna in tow.
They'd wanted to get started building a cardboard boat, but Hanna needed to learn to yearn for the vast and endless sea, first.
Connie took off after them in the Tik-Tak. That boat gets a lot of use.
Friend and fellow Coot, Bob Larkin, stopped by, saying he wanted to work, so he did. The girls graduated from multi-person boats to individual boats.
Patience teaching Hanna how to tie off to a cleat.
Next, the girls turned to on decorating their cardboard boats.
There will be three of these - the Three Amigos.
Bob was charged with dismantling a failed cardboard canoe experiment and reinforcing the other cardboard canoe experiment.
Boat decorating needs a lot of breaks.
It was a good day on the water, our resident Osprey was in attendance.
and our Great Blue Heron was sulking in the trees across the slough.
One thing I have learned about designing boats: Nobody - NOBODY - uses them as intended.
We decided it was time to do a little Recovery Testing. It didn't go well - far too much fun to be swimming.
Hanna and Patience dragged that 10' Nuf canoe up and down the docks - much more fun than paddling it.
Bob went to town modding the cardboard canoe. He sliced one of the 5" tubes in half and used them as stiffeners in the bottom and put gussets at the stems. A little paint and she'll be ready for her race.
We were given a tub of mastic with our kits, so we went to town on that, too. All seams are covered in mastic and paper drywall tape.
While all this was going on, Curt and Geoff were working on the Junk. Even though this is a Chinese Balanced Lug, we are using everything we know about rigging a Balanced Lug to see if we can get this baby to sail. Curt is lashing on the block for the yard.
On the mast, we have cleats for both the kidder and the downhaul.
The final stages of friggin with the rigging. She goes in the water next week and will be christened at the Toledo Boat Show.
As the day wound to a close, the girls were wrapping up decorating Amigo II An excellent weekend - lots of participation. |
