Sea Horse comes alive

After a long sleep the Johnson 25 woke right up.
We cleaned out one of the steel tanks by putting in a couple pounds of nuts and bolts and shaking it up.  This scoured the rusty bits and sludge.  We then emptied it out, rinsed it out with some kerosene, then heated it up with a gas torch to burn out the nasty residue.
A couple pin holes turned up so we brazed them then repainted the bottom.
New fuel line fittings (Johnson fittings, filter and bulb) were added with a new hose.
Next we filled up a trash can with water and crossed our fingers.
Five pulls and it fires right up.  I was worried it might be a $50 lemon.  But even then, old 2 cycles are really easy to repair.
Fortunately, no repairs needed.  We will replace the impeller soon, but it is pumping water now.

Stump Lake

Nice weather and weekends rarely coincide around here, but they did yesterday.  So we flipped the skiff, dropped it on the trailer and headed up river to Stump lake.  It is an old slough off the Illinois river surrounded by low flood plain and forests.  The corps of Engineers  has small dykes in places that you can portage over to get to other sloughs and eventually the Illinois.
To see a map, click on this link: Google Map of Stump Lake
Duncan Eifel and I improved our rowing and covered some distance.  We pulled into an elaborate duck blind with a tin roof, a couple rooms and a dog kennel.  We also found a rollover portage put in by the Illinois DNR.  It was fun.
See the video below.

Rolling down the river!

River skiff view

Here is a view of the skiff from the roof .
Today we are re-sanding and re-fairing the hull.  The plan is to get as perfect a finish as we can possibly achieve.  We are weighing epoxy primer then Perfection paint or gelcoat and buffing.
I'm leaning toward gel coat.

Mississippi River Skiff update: Trials

In the rain and fog we launched the skiff at Piasa harbor and rowed out to the sand bars in the Mississippi channel.  The boat is great.  It has great stability and with it's flaired stern sections, hardens up in a heel.  We had 5 eager sailors and we calculated a total weight of 600 pounds.
Rowing was fun but we need practice!  With all the weight the boat had great carry and tracked straight as an arrow with the skeg.
We couldn't wait for the delivery of the epoxy primer so the boat still looks like an ugly duckling.
Beauty shots will follow soon.

Sand bar and duck blind in the Mississippi

Mississippi River Skiff update: Oar leathers

We needed some oar leathers for our new oars.  So I drove to S & T Leather in St. Louis city.  The place is a wholesale supply and has a small city sales area.  We just needed a small bit of tanned leather, some artificial sinew, and a punch for this project.
It was easy work with this punch.  It cuts in 4 perfect holes.
I just drew a straight line 1/4 inch in on each side of the cut leather and punched holes down the line.
The sinew was doubled and was easy sewing in front of the TV.
We watched "Exit through the Gift Shop"
It is a very good documentary about street graffiti artists and a film maker.
It was long enough to finish one leather.
Now I just need three more good movies...

Sea Horse !

Through good luck and clean living we happened upon a well cared for, garage find.
It is a 1970, 25 horsepower Johnson Sea Horse.
Fifty Dollars!
It is a manual start and has high compression.  I'm slightly scared of it. The largest outboard I've had was a 6hp.  My favorite was a Yamaha 2.5.  So this one is ten times as powerful at least.
Someday it will make the Mississippi River Skiff fly.
We are getting close to sea trials for the skiff.  It will be strictly oars for the near future.

Mississippi River Skiff update: Bow Eye

Today we installed the bow eye.  To do this, we drilled through the brass cutwater from the rear.  Before it was installed we drilled a centered hole through the bow stem.  Now all we had to do was chase it out to get a centered hole in the cutwater.

The SeaDog bow eye has two pins to keep it it from spinning.

Oarlocks

We purchased some great horned oarlocks from Duck Works.
duckworksbbs.com
They are beautiful bronze castings and at 17.45 bucks a pair, awesome.
The old oarlock sockets we found in Oriental, NC. are slightly oversized, too small for a 5/8 ths inch shaft oar lock, but a little loose for standard 1/2 inch.
The easiest solution was to pull out the hard stick silver solder and the torch.
This solder is about 10% silver and requires a fairly high heat.  It is not the stuff you find at the hardware store.  It can be found at professional plumber's supply.  HVAC guys use it as well.
I used the oxy/acetylene torch to get the bronze close to red hot then the silver flows onto it without any flux needed.
Once the shaft had what looked like enough material and cooled off,  we used the bench grinder and wire wheel to make the rough places plane.
Now the locks have a close tolerance and will make for more pleasant rowing.

Mississippi River Skiff update: cutwater

Yesterday we formed and brazed the cutwater for the skiff.
Here is the piece before installation.  We also drilled and counter sunk 4 holes.  It will be screwed to the cherry bow.
To see the blog entry and a photo of the bow stem before it was installed, click this link:
River Skiff Bow
Last night we bedded the brass in West Systems 407 thickened epoxy and screwed it in.

Ramming speed!

The piece relaxed a bit but will have more curvature when it is installed.

Shop work / Skiff cutwater

Being all wintery out today we started some shop projects.

One project was the installation of a pneumatic hoist in the rafters to help with lifting boats.

We had a German JDN hoist rated for 1500 pounds.  There is a steel I-beam running across the open framing of the garage.  I simply drilled a hole in the bottom flange and attached the hoist.

Pneumatic hoists are fantastic devices.  They are smaller than electric hoists, very reliable and run on about 90 psi.  We found this one on e-bay a few years ago.

It immediately became useful.  We lifted the skiff off the trailer and suspended it 2 feet off the ground so we could instal the cutwater.

JDN hoist

Cold forming the cutwater by bending the brass to the band saw wheel.
Chapelle's lines indicate the same arc as the saw's wheel.

Marking the cutwater for a cut.
The brass is 1 inch wide by 1/4 inch thick.
It was purchased at Shapiro Supply in St. Louis

The stem piece will be brazed to the cutwater and screwed into the deck.

Making the oar's handle

Today we braved the cold to work on the oars for the river skiff.
The blanks were first trimmed to the profile we designed.  The band saw is almost ready to use.  But today we were limited to a jig saw.
After the blades had their rough shape we ran them through a radius router bit. Then it was back to the bench to form the handles.
Here is a video of that process:

Tools used are a 7 inch variable speed disk sander with a 36 grit disk.

We also used a 6 inch orbital sander with 80 grit paper.

Additional sanding will be needed but the handle took 6 minutes to form.

During my visit to Hemel in Seattle I saw Steve forming surfboards.

It was a revelation to see this.  He used this type of disk sander and had the speed very slow.  This removes material slowly and allows more control.  A huge added benefit is the life of the disks is vastly extended because of less heat generated.  Previously I had used angle grinders for this type of work.  They remove material but they spin at about 10,000 rpm.  Way less control and you go through disks like tissues.

In this video the rough oar blank is run through the radius router bit to get it closer to round.

Mississippi River Skiff update: OarLocks

The pinion of the oarlocks are set 12.5 inches past the edge of the rowing stations.
This is the distance we find best for the stroke geometry in this hull.  If they are set farther abaft you get less reach forward with the oar.  Farther forward and it is too tight.
There is a lot of variation of opinion on the best distance, this is our opinion and our boat.

This weekend we will be sanding the interior to prep for varnish and working on the oars.

Here is a picture of the oar blanks (and a Greenland paddle).  The Ash and cherry look good together.

Mississippi River Skiff update: out of the shop

Yesterday we moved the skiff out of the shop onto a trailer with the help of the visiting students.  The trailer came with our 14 foot Rhodes Bantam.  The Bantam is on blocks so we could use the trailer.

The only problem is the length of the skiff.  At 18 feet 3 inches it extends way past the end of the trailer but more problematic is the wheels are too far forward.

Today we are going to set the skiff on the ground and reconfigure the trailer.
We can move the wheels back about 2 feet.  This should balance things out.

Today we are also going to instal the oarlocks.  We found a set of four at the Nautical Consignment shop in Oriental, NC.  They are old galvanized locks that are in great shape.  I was looking for bronze, but  of course this skiff historically was a working boat on inland rivers and would have been fitted out with the most practical cheapest hardware available, so galvanized it is!

Finishing out the interior, then hull priming and paint

Boat class:

The Principia School has a boat building class.
The instructor, Dan Sheets, is having the students design dinghies and kayaks themselves and tank testing the results.  Through experimentation they arrived at four hulls they are going to build.
Today was warm and a good day for a field trip so they came up from St. Louis to visit Elsah Boat Corporation.
We had a great visit talking about wood, strip and stitch and glue construction and dogs.
I hope to see their launch day.
Let me know when it is!

Oriental, NC

For a couple of years I have been a regular visitor to the TownDock.
It is the web site of the town of Oriental, North Carolina.  As an avid sailor I just randomly found this site.  Once I did I was hooked.  It is a very small town on the Neuse river and Pamlico sound.
The excellent web site is like a daily news paper.
My family had this week free so we found a house to rent and made the long drive from St. Louis to check it out. (1017 miles)
It is a great place.  The big protected water of the Neuse and Pamlico sound is perfect for sailing, and of course the weather beats the Midwest.
Unfortunately the skiff was not ready for the trip so we will plan a return visit.
Tomorrow we are hoping to rent an FJ to sail.  It is going to be sunny and 61 degrees!
We might be raising the anchor on Elsah Boat.

Pugh house, our base in Oriental.

Oriental harbor

The NCMM in nearby Beaufort

The Watercraft Center in Beaufort and some of their lovely boats...

At Fort Macon, Beaufort, NC.