after a couple weeks of yacking it back and forth,
Captain Johnson calls and says we got a boat !, the Tout Va Bien,
a wood boat in our size range, built in the 50s,
and price range, she's free for our purpose !
she's twenty and a half feet long, was built in England.
(with her own heritage and provenir that we shall document later)
We can save this cool old boat,
this is way better than paper mache ;)
we can give her another life !
All is Good !
this was a long, tough, nerve wracking and extremely satisfying day,
after driving down to the marina in Napa
(only ran into ice twice up in the hills)
Took us about 2 hours to get to this point,
we attached the trailer to the duallie with a chain and lowered the trailer down
the ramp til the boat would float on.
Wish I'd got pix, or got the audience to take pix,
I think the odds were running 3 to 1 that we'd lose the whole kit and kaboddle
into the drink ;)
LOL
That cabin door is just too cool
about 3 hours of taking down rigging and getting ready for transport
and we were on the road
it was a slow and somewhat nerve wracking drive home, the trailer was an unknown borrowed commodity, and even tho I inspected it and greased the bearings at the marina,
I kept expecting a bearing to spin, or the backbone to buckle or some other calamity to strike,
But it was A-OK !
(We'll need to ask the Captain someday to recount his return adventure, it were a doozy ;)
Took half the day to get the keel off, that is one heavy chunk of cast iron.
end of the day, the light is leaving and we are just getting around to sliding it across onto the equipment trailer, what a pile of work, glad there was 2 of us.
Steve is gonna take the trailer back tomorrow with his old truck, so I gotta wire it for the trailer lights. (they didn't require such things in 1954)
cut 3 feet off the stern, ending up with 17 feet.
theres a little dry rot
but thats OK, all boats have some
cut the cockpit walls out for easier access
and moved it across to the For Sale trailer, it feels right, I think we found the pirate ship trailer,
it doesn't have brakes, but its a good old trailer, and its here, in inventory, use up stuff in the yard !
Started removing the bottom, piece by piece
spent a couple hours mixing and matching tire/wheel combinations,
and now the trailer has white spokes with 205/65-15s from the Suzuki.
The Samurai, that trailer, the Model A,
they all use the same bolt pattern.
the trailer needs at least one wheel bearing.
so I pulled the really bad one apart and did some number matching
turned out to be the same as the model A
the trailer uses Ford, 1928 - 1948 front wheel bearings, the seal is 1935-1948
Too Cool !
cut more of the hull away after this last pix and then it was too dark
got most of the bottom cut off today
and it feels good ;)
lightens the load,
enhances enthusiasm too
splashed some paint, stapled in some flashing
every step forward is good :)
another few hours of light today
and I would be dragging this boat to its first Yard Sale tomorrow
alas, I ran out of light and energy
but the Next Sunny Weekend
we be Yard Saling Matey !!
Saltys Pirate Den homepage ..................................... Kelseyville homepage