First SHIPment!

 I got a call from the trucking yesterday.  The guy named Ralph told me they had a shipment for me and had tried to call earlier because they could not find my house.  I checked my phone messages and found that and sure enough they had called...SIX days earlier!  Not sure what my shipment was doing the last 6 days..oh well, I don't have anything yet to glue together.

The shipment was from the MAS epoxy guys from Saint Paul, Minnesota. Six boxes. The stuff that will hold everything together.

The guy shows up with a 45 foot trailer on the back of his semi.  No, I don't think he is going to be able to back up a 1/4 mile down my narrow twisty driveway.  He parked it on the highway and I backed up my pickup to his back door and we unloaded it with no problem.  Well, no problem,  except for the traffic we stopped when he turned around.  Not sure what is going to happen when the plywood and timber are delivered but the driver told me to request a "pup".  I am guessing that is a tailer that is not 45 feet in length.  Pup it is.

• 10 gallons of MAS marine epoxy resin
• 4 gallons of MAS slow hardener
• 1 gallon of MAS fast hardener
• 25 pounds of epoxy thickeners

A friend says I have enough to glue Beirut back together.

Two weeks for the next shipment and the real boat construction begins.

I Started the Boat!

The kit will be shipped sometime in the late this month but that has not stopped me from starting without it.  I don't really count collecting lead wheel weights for the keel ballast as "starting to build the boat",  but today I actually did some woodwork.  On PocketShip.net I found dimensions for the tiller.  I laminated some mahogany and maple 1/8" X  1 1/2" strips in an MDF mold alternating the wood colors for a snazzy tiller.  It is a bit oversized and will be cut down considerably.  The suggestion on the forum was for the tiller to be 3/4" in width but that seemed a bit on the narrow side to me.  Even the boat designer built a second one that was a bit beefier.

Checked the bend of the strips in a dry fit.

The picture shows a dry fit (no epoxy) to be sure the strips would not crack.  All went well and I proceeded with the epoxy.  It was a bit messy so I didn't get my phone out to take a picture, but you get the idea.

Evened out the sides on the jointer.

I used the jointer to even out the sides.  One of the sides was a bit out of square due to the sides not being parallel.  A quick run through the planer with the bad side up and all was right with the world.

Cut down on the bandsaw closer to finished dimensions.

Having nothing to size it off of, the end of the tiller that goes through the transom and connects to the rudder will be left uncut until I have it built.  I'll shape the handle end for something to do while I wait for the arrival of the kit.  For now I can walk around with my tiller and tell people, "look I started a boat!"

I Got a Date!

Chesapeake Light Craft has set a date for the PocketShip kit to be shipped!  The last week of July if all goes well,  the stack of timber and plywood will loaded on a truck and headed to Texas.

Today I continued with shop organization, bought new respirator filters for my mask and a couple of 8 foot long fold up tables.  The tables have plastic tops and with little wax they should be easy to remove epoxy drips.  An added bonus is that with the fourth of July near Sam's Club had the tables on sale.  WOO woo winner!

Tire weights have been a fruitless quest until I found a little independent shop that would part with them.  The guy I bought the Michelins from recently was too afraid of the EPA to give or sell me any.  Seems some where down the line people started chewing on the Pb and got sick so we all need to suffer...or something like that.

Running out of  preparation tasks, I will start with laminating some mahogany and maple to start on a tiller.  I found some dimensions on the internet to get started.  I'll leave it oversized because, well, you can't believe everything you read on the internet.  At least it will be a start.

Yesterday I received the manual from CLC.  I read the whole thing last night.  It's good reading, a real page turner!  Combine the manual with all the blogs PocketShip building blogs I have read I'm really getting a sense of what I have gotten myself into.  It looks fun.

The countdown to the end of this month begins.  Tonight I get to sail again at the Wednesday night races on the bay.  I will play photographer and ballast.