Boatbuilding ideas

I have a part of my web site that shows how we restored a 1958 Munroe Cutter. It took a few years to complete and during that time I expanded my business of building and restoring wooden boats to a much larger piece of property and a much larger, more modern shop with 3 large bays. I needed a spot to properly restore our beloved boat and she finally rolled in during the second year of business. That was the only time I could fit her in because of all the other boats that I had lined up to do.

She turned out well and we shipped her to Florida to finish and officially launch for the first time in 5 years. I took about 3 weeks to get her ready with new plumbing, refrigeration, and electronics. The engine had to be hooked up and so did the life ines. Once all that was finished, I had her launched and found a leak right away. I told the fellas at the marina to leave her in the slings out of the water while I investigated. The culprit was the new thru-hull provided with the new depth sounder. It only went through about 1.5 inches of hull and I had a hull that was almost 2″ thick. A quick cutting of an inner ring on the plastic nut that tightened things down did the trick.  I really am wary of such things through a wooden hull but, it was the only possible way to get the new electronics working properly. I will keep an eye on it and probably replace it with one that will go through fiberglass. Then, I’ll have to put a glass patch in the boat and mount the new depth sounder there.

We had very little sailing during that time in Florida because we simply ran out of time and got tired of how damn hot it was down there so, we had her shipped home in early June and she has been sitting there beside my shop since.  We did not put her in last summer because we have been very busy trying to sell the house to move down to the new property with the new shop….   This year, we’ll put her in anyway and if the house sells, it sells and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t…

She was a real joy to see in the water and we even took her back to the original window configuration with mahogany on the cabin sides as she was in a picture of her in the Bahamas. Our first night on her in the water was a joyfull occassion. We had a wonderful meal and drank some champagne. The boys were very excited about putting out the Canadian flag and they paraded up and down the dock singing the anthem while we played with the manatees off our stern. The manetees love fresh water so, we fed them the stuff and got to pet them and take some photos.

Our sailing was confined to the bay off Cape Canaveral and was fun but, not as satisfying as taking off on a real adventure. The trip was short and sweet. We loved the time we had together as a family and the boys really want to get out and sail longer and farther. We will go this March to the keys and charter a boat for a week to give them a taste of what Pirouette did for the last 40 or more years. She was made in Miami and part of the Coconut Grove area for the first part of her life. The Biscayne Bay Yacht club still had a very large picture of her on the wall as you walk in the building. We couldn’t believe that we were looking at our own boat. She was owned for a short time by a french fellow and then sold to Ralph Ride of Rider  Trucks. Then Mike and Joan Stevenson bought her and they had her for 35 years before we aquired her. Pirouette is a boat that we grew to love and we just couldn’t bear to see Mike upset because we didn’t want the boat. Once we learned about her historical value and the adventures she has had, we just couldn’t resist. I had a cradle made up for her and she was shipped north to Port Dover. After she arrived, we had her shipped to the family farm and built a bow shed around her to start the restoration. What a job getting the centre-board out.

I figured it took me almost 300 hours of work (hard work) to remove the ballast and free the cast iron centre board from the 3500 lb. ballast. Once free, the boat could be saved. There were many times though, when I thought of re-casting everything in lead and bronze. The cost stopped me of course, and with air chisels, muratic acit and sandblasting, she came loose. What a feeling that dark evening, when she broke free. After that amount of time and all the “expert” opinions on how to do the job, my solution worked and I proved once and for all that anything can be done with lots of will power and sweat equity.

I’ll try to remember to get some pics up. I am using my wife’s laptop to type and she has no pics on file. I do have a whole collection on photobucket though. I think it is under Hammond somewhere.

Enough for now, the beer is getting warm and I need to go downstairs to watch tv with my family.

Tomorrow is the first day back to school….  Yes, I teach full time this year and the boat building has to wait for a little while. I hope that I can take the afternoon off next semesterl, starting in February.

Cheers,

JFH

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.