Johnson Light Twin Waterbug....

I started on the Johnson this week. Its a 1925 AB-25 Johnson Light Twin "Waterbug", one of 10,00 made. This one has only been used in the lakes of New Hampshire and they were all initially intended for only fresh water but through a nice stroke of luck this is the salt water version with the bronze lower end. Perfect. I've wanted to learn more about motors and this one is a nice simple two stroke to start on. It only has a few parts (about thirty screws and thirty separate pieces) and after a couples times it only takes about 20 minutes to break it down and put together (with no left over bits). The friend who gave this to me said he was given it when he was about 13 and at the time the motor was already more than twenty years old. When I got it was over 80 years old and a little banged up but looked to have 99% of all its original parts. Buried under layers and layers of grime, (Still looking for a picture of what it looked like before I started cleaning it) there was a perfect little motor with only one small crack on the muffler bracket, a frayed wire and a missing cavataion plate.


This is where I sat for a couple nights this week. Maya has her own camera now and is really getting into this project by taking some of the pictures too. She took this one of me taking the upper end apart.


After soaking everything with a couple cans of oven cleaner and some hard scrubbing, the bits cleaned up a pretty good. They didn't get polished but at least all the grease and grime was gone.


A shot of the pistons on the left and then all assembled on the right. You can also see where the missing plate would go on the lower end. Everything else looked good and all I had to buy was new oil, plugs, some copper tubing to make new fuel lines and I needed new paper gaskets too but couldn't find them so I made some from a paper grocery bag. I did an OK job cleaning it but could easily take it to the next step by having the dents taken out of the fuel tank and muffler, re-chroming the handle, casting a new bronze cavatation plate, buying "new" period ignition cables, polishing the rest and finally buying reproduction AB-25 stickers from that 1925 model.
For now though it looks good enough and as soon as I get the new fuel lines on I'll put it on the dory and take it for a spin with the kid.


While I was doing this, the she had a visitor from next door and they went to work cleaning the dory. We had a recent adventure which ended muddy and the boat still needed a bath. We'll post the pictures from that and other sails, launchings and projects soon.

A helpful starting place for info on this motor:
http://www.yankeeaomci.org/johnsonat85.htm

Pooka's in....

Last year I noticed another 65 Cheoy Lee right here in Rye Harbor. It's a Bermuda 30, a relative to the H28. I was able to find the owner and caught up with him as Pooka was going in today. She's a great looking boat that has alot in common with our Flyer. The kid has taken to calling it Jack A Roe's big sister (by about 5 feet). She had to stay home from school today because she was not feeling not so great but it all worked out ok because she was able to hang out with me at the harbor, hang her feet in the water and see Pooka up close.






Two things on this boat that I really like the look of...The companoin way doors and the rudder hung bronze swim ladder.

Buy this...

We usually buy large blue plastic tarps to cover the boats. They're easy to move, lightweight and cheap. Then after a hard New England winter, the tarps were leaky and torn and needed to be replaced each spring. To make matters worse, for Jack A Roe I also would buy a large clear plastic tarp for added waterproof protection (keeping the water out seemed important as the boat was completely open to the elements and was basically a pile of exposed wood in a fiberglass bathtub). So each season I had to find a new use for these old tarps and plastic sheeting because I didn't want to just bring it over to the dump. After a couple years of this I find that all of the free space in the garage is full of trashed tarps and plastic that had long since stopped being useful for anything.

This year, after bringing a couple years of old worn tarps to the dump and feeling lousy about it, I bit the bullet an bought a canvass tarp. The same kind I've seen on all the "old timers" boats around the coast. It costs three or four times as much but its worth it. I should have known that while the old yanks around here may be cheap (frugal?) they still know good value. The canvas tarps are stronger, more durable keeps all that plastic out of the landfill. It's basically canvass impregnated with rubber. The rain and snow initially falls right off of it because of the rubber but some may eventually sink in between the fibers if it is left to pool or if there is any standing water. But because its made with cotton, the fibers swell when wet and then essentially seal out any excess moisture. Its a great system and I wish I could have afforded to have done this years ago.

The big drawback is the weight. Unlike the plastic tarps which can be taken on and off easily, the canvass tarps are HEAVY. I'm 6'5'' 210, young and in pretty good shape so moving it around is a pain but still manageable.

Its worth it to keep all that plastic out of the landfill. Go buy one.

Filling and fairing

This week's free time went to sanding and fairing the topsides. All the nick's, cracks and crazing were filled with a two part epoxy then sanded down. Next the whole boat was given a couple coats ( one brush coat and two rolled coats) of a high build one part epoxy primer. The primer left a lot of high spots and inconsistencies on the surface and was then sanded very smooth over the course of several hours. It was helpful to do the whole boat once so that it appears perfect, fair and smooth, then go back out on a different day/time in different light and find that a whole new bunch of high spots and inconsistencies are now visible. I did this a few times and the hull is really looking great. When this and the cabin house roof are ready to paint, I'll have to decide whether to do this my self or find someone else to do it for me.





It may be hard to see but I was trying to show the surface before and after 45 minutes of sanding this one area.

First coats of primer and some counter tops...

The weather was great and kid and I went out to uncover the boat yesterday. It was good to see the inside of the boat for the first time in a while even if it was a mess. We started by picking up all the trash and old tools etc. She then wiped everything down and cleaned the windows and picked up her "room"(If only it was this easy to clean her room in the house). Then, we sanded the cabin house top. Thats the part that's covers her room, as she kept reminding me). When she discovered it was easier to use the electric sander than to do it the "old fashion way", things moved along quickly and we sat in the sun while putting on a couple of coats of a high build primer.


Pulling the cover off.


She makes a nice figure head.


Priming 'her roof".




Nice and white.


Counter tops, finally

This is a good place to ask...What was her mother doing while we were having such a great time? She drove up north for a couple hours to go climbing, except when they got there, she realized that neither she or her climbing partner remembered to bring a critical piece of their equipment...the rope. So,when she came back frustrated, having driven four hours in holiday traffic, while the kid and I had been having a great time sitting in the sun working on the boat, it seemed like another check in the win column for me in the ongoing battle to persuade Maya to like boats or rock climbing. (Although she did climb a local small mountain the day before so maybe it was a wash.)


Hiking Aggy.

All in all it was a great weekend.
Things with the boat are going smoothly again and while there is still a lot to do, my main focus is keeping the !@#$%*$ carpenter ants off of the boat.

"New" Dragons for Jack A Roe!

The other day I received an email from a Flyer owner out West who is restoring his 1968 Type II (a well known Flyer named Steppenwolf, which had a brief moment of fame when it appeared prominently in a 1984 movie named "Thief of Hearts"). He knew that I was looking for these carved dragons that were in some of the earlier Cheoy Lees and he very generously offered his to me and the Jack A Roe restoration. Despite my offering to pay for them and/or for their shipping they were sent along to me free of charge. I was however able to persuade the sender (also named Matthew, so no surprise he is a good guy) to accept a bottle of Bourbon.

They just arrived and look great! They are designed to fit between the portlights in the cabin of a Mark II. Jack A Roe has larger portlights so they wont fit in the same spot but I expect to use them up in the bow flanking the forward berth.

They are about 20 inches long, beautifully carved, perfectly matched with a slight taper from end to end.

Front and back view

Detail

So, to Matthew (and Steppenwolf) in San Diego...Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for your generous contribution to my project.

A bottle of "shipwright's lubricant" is on its way!

(I'm still looking for the larger dragon that goes over head in the main cabin)

Frisco Flyer Hulls for sale...

Not much information available on this "boat", but there isn't much "boat" available either.
Bare hull plus some "extras"...$1,000.00. Available in Maryland.


See it here...
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/boa/587511317.html


And another Hull being offered in Oregon for free here...
http://bbs.trailersailor.com/forums/trailersailor/index.cgi/noframes/read/619324

Flyer drawing...

I haven't found a great drawing of these boats yet. There is a drawing of Sumatra, a Flyer II that the Choey Lee Asociation uses on its T shirts, coasters etc. At some point I would like to draw one of these myself that uses the boat's original plans as a guide. I don't intend on just reproducing the boat plans but to use them along with some photos as the starting point for a final drawing. Above is a composite of two of the plans that CL sent me. Its of a earlier version of the boat so there is no dog house. I understand that CL no longer has plans of the other versions such as the III's and II's. I would like to add the dog house to this and other small changes to make it looks closer to the boat I have .

Another Flyer for sale...

Found a new Cheoy Lee Frisco Flyer in Washington. Its a '66 and seems to be in great shape from the pictures. Although, I would always like to see more).

Looks to have teak decks, fiberglass hull which is expected and also a fiberglass cabin house and cockpit area, both mostly surfaced over with wood. Looks to be mostly original although some things appear to have been replaced or rebuilt over the years such as the "new" grab rails (the truth is they could be ten or even twenty years old at this point) on the cabin house, the boom is hard to tell if it is original or not, (my guess is that it is not because I seem to remember that even while the Pacific Clippers had a boom set up that looked like this, the Flyers, even the 66's had "boom furlers"), the cabinetry down below looks from the pictures to be rebuilt as well. The cushions are also "new". All in all though, from the couple of photos they had on the site, it looks to be either in excellent shape or really well cared for.

The price seems fair to me too. Check it out for your self.....


http://www.boats.com/listing/boat_details.jsp?entityid=18029681



I can't really tell if there is a Dragon on this boat but I would guess that if there was one, they would have shown it in a photo.

Mast cont....

Not much new to report here... I have the sail track off, all the pieces are epoxied back together and its just about ready for "the big box glue up". I still want to get a couple of long strips of carbon fiber tape on the inside of the mast and I haven't been able to find it at an affordable price yet. The carbon fiber was a great suggestion to stiffen up the mast. After that, I'll be ready to wire the mast, fill the top of it with crumpled and strips of "tin"foil (another great suggestion from friends, family and the Woodenboat Forum) and then I'll finally put the box back together.

Until then it waits...

Mast started...

Finally started on the mast this weekend!

When I had the boat and mast delivered here last January, the mast (because it was left outside for years) literally fell apart when it was picked up. The only thing holding it together was the hardware. There were plenty of jokes about scrapping it and using the wood from the old mast to make new fly rods for fishing. Well, a year later it's finally on its way back from the dead.


The construction is simple enough. It's essentially a long oval box with the Port and Strbd sides wider than the leading and the aft sides. All four pieces are each made up of two staves scarfed together. The scarfs are staggered so that no two joints line up. Once all the pieces are together, the inside is a hollow with the exception of a piece of blocking at the foot of the mast and another in the center where the spreaders are. The blocking is just a piece of wood to create more rigidity in an are in which needs more support than the rest. The blocking in the middle was the only place in which there was any rot, so this will be the only piece that will need to be re-made. But not today.



Basically all we did today was a lot of talking and planning. We eventually decided on a plan to put it all together again by joining the Port and Strbd pieces first, then to do the same to the forward and aft piece. (The aft piece also holds the sail track. The sail track unfortunately goes right over the scarf to be re joined, so the whole track will need to come off before doing that one. ) Today we sanded and cleaned the scarf joints, applied just West System on both sides, then mixed up a batch of West with filler added. We made sure the edges were straight and clamped everything down for the night. This is what it looks like night now.














I hope to get all the scarfs "glued" back together in the next couple of days, then build/replace the piece of blocking that rotted, next get the wiring squared away and then when I'm ready to put the box back together I'll have to get a bunch of friends together to help out.




It's winter in NH so people are a little "boat starved" and willing to do just about anything to be around boats, they'll even drink beer while watching epoxy dry...

Flyer for sale in Oahu...

There is a 1965 Flyer just like ours for sale in Hawaii.

It's hard to tell from this picture what kind of shapes its in. I asked the seller for a couple of additional pictures...










A shot of the inside and the motor.

Just in this one picture of the inside, I notice some minor differences between this one and mine. Looks like a gimbaled "sea swing" type stove hanging off of the end of the counter. I wouldn't mind having one of those myself. I have also been thinking about building some grab rails/handles inside like this one has.

Someone buy this and sail it to NH so I can get a better look.

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/boa/539274845.html

Gifts for me=Gifts for the boat..

I had a birthday the other day and got a couple of nice gifts for the boat.....A small 3 inch brass clock for the cabin and a solar powered/hand crank radio. The radio is being returned for another model that also charges a cell phone and does the dishes but the clock is staying. Right now, it's very much at home in the living room but will make it out to the boat soon.


Another great gift I was recently given ( X-mas) was a lantern for the main cabin in the boat. It's the larger version of the Weems and Plath lantern. Now the kid keeps saying that its for her and her room in the boat but I plan on getting her own smaller lantern for up forward. Right now, this too is at home in the the house and has been getting a lot of use.

The dog however could care less.

Jackaroe is a registered vessel!

I was finally able to get Marine Patrol to come out to the house and take a look at the boat. Once they were here they said, "oh boy thats old, no wonder there isn't any HIN" and gave me the piece of paper I needed to register at the DMV it as MINE, its not stolen, not missing but all MINE. I got this boat on the 28th of last January and it took until the 25th of January this year to get it registered.

One thing that was interesting was that they didn't have a code for Cheoy Lee's. I guess there just isn't as many of these around as there used to be. The other thing is that the company is focusing less on sailboats these days and more on the larger luxury vessels. Not a lot of call for those fancy big motor yachts 'round these parts.

With the registration done and the "new" 12 digit fed numbers, I was finally able to get on the mooring wait-list! Now the big task is to make sure I get the boat done in time to get wet this spring.

(The drawing underneath is a Grateful Dead logo that the kid colored for me last Halloween. )

Moorings....

In getting started with the boat project again, I started thinking about the twenty year wait for moorings in this area and thought I should finally get on the list. Maybe if I get on the list now, the kid will be able to put the boat on a mooring by the time she's ready to head off for college.


Using the form, I picked out the mooring spots about seven of the usual favorite areas.
On the form its asks for the boats registration numbers, HIN numbers etc.
This boat has none because it predates the HIN requirement.
I tell the DMV this. they tell me I need to have someone from Marine patrol verify that there is no existing identification numbers on it.
I call them. Marine Patrol tells me they can take a look at it and to bring it down. The boat is 25 feet long, sir and it would cost me a couple hundred bucks to do that. They offered to put me on the list and they will come around and look at it in the spring or summer. I beg or growl or something and they then tell me that the local PD can also do it.
I call the local PD. they say that they cant, they don't have the forms and that town hall should have them.
I call town hall they say that they don't have the forms and that the DMV should have them.
I call the DMV, marine patrol, the local police a couple more times and now I'm waiting for a call from a supervisor from Marine Patrol who will hopefully send over some guy to try and verify that I didn't steal this boat etc.

Maybe she wont get a mooring before college.

New tarp, new start....

Just when I decided that I had to take a break from "working" on the boat, the tarp that had worked so well for a while, disintegrated. This was on a really windy day just before the first big winter storm of the year.

Its hard to tell from the picture but the wind was really blowing and it was COLD....


I had to fix this fast because the forecast was calling for weather like this...


Instead of buying another cheap blue tarp that would need to be replaced again in a few months, I decided to get one of these HEAVY duty canvas ones that the old timers seem to have on their boats. The only one they had left was 40 by 25 ft (so maybe I need to get a bigger boat). The tarp felt as if it weighed 200 + pounds and it took a while to get it up there but it would be worth it if the boat was dry in the spring. This was what the next day looked like..


I went out to the boat this morning for the first time after 4 weeks of snow storms and lots of freezing rain. Except for some very slight condensation the boat was bone dry one the inside. I opened the tarp up today to allow some of the moisture to escape.

The good news is that over the last week my work has calmed down some (I cut back on one of my jobs, which in its own way is pretty stressful). Since then, I have been finding my self thinking more and more about the boat.....I think it may be time time to start working on Jack A Roe again.

Temporary work stoppage...

It doesn't seem as if work is going to slow down anytime soon so I don't know when I'll be able to get back to work on Jack-a-roe.

Unfortunately, I got what I was asking for which was to have a job which was satisfying, fulfilling and whenever possible, profitable. Now I have satisfying, fulfilling and occasionally profitable up to my eye balls and find myself putting in 12 hour days during the week and way too much on the weekends. As a result the boat just sits and waits.

The one project I will have to make time for is redoing the tarp set-up before the snow flies. This needs to be soon because it was kind of snowing on and off today. Hopefully I can come up with a design that allows me to work out there day or night in comfort, ie... with plenty of space around the boat to work and so that can safely use a heater to work in the cold of the NH winter.

I will occasionally still post pictures from our last sail last week, Cicada's haul out, progress on Charlie's new boat barn (wish it was mine) and Justin's new boat (when ever he gets one) and of course pictures of the kid...

but unfortunately, it may be a while until there is any satisfying pictures of progress on Jack-a-roe.

Life starting to get in the way of the boat project...

A few months back I left a job I had for several years. It was a great job but I was burnt out. After quitting, I had a lot of free time. I was starting a new very flexible part time job and trying to create (from the ground up) a full time job as well. For a couple months things were great, I was working on the boat constantly and the "real life"-work to boat-work ratio was perfect for me. I wasn't bringing in much money but the boat was coming along nicely. Well, now the part time job has become full time and the new endeavor is taking off and is also full time. So now here I am with two full time jobs, working on a nice fall Saturday inside, in front of the fire, when I should be out working on the decks.

I know that there is still a really long winter ahead of us and I still have plenty of time to work of the boat between now and the spring, but for the first time, I'm getting concerned that this boat may not be ready to launch if I stay this busy with work.

The kid better start working overtime.

Deck progress...

The storm wasn't really that bad. There was some rain and strong gusts but all boats made it through fine and no real damage to speak of. I think it takes a lot more than that to impress most NE Yankees. We have more than a few friends who like to go out for drinks and dinner in Portsmouth when the weather gets bad because it keeps the tourists and the otherwise meek at home which leaves the town to the rest of us. They tend to think of blizzards, 6 foot snow drifts, strong Nor' Easters and crumbling sea walls as good drinking weather. This storm didn't come close to qualifying and we ended up just going to family and friends for a few beverages. Jack a Roe made it through with no problem. A few months back the trap made it through 50+ MPH gusts and was fine. This storm supposedly had 65 MPH gusts, but it didn't seem to be a problem for the tarp which is saying something because it sits 6 feet off of the "deck" of the boat and acts like a sail in the wind.

Speaking of the decks, there was a really nice day after the storm on Sunday and I had enough time to lay out templates on the deck and then carried them over to the marine ply to cut matching pieces out that will eventually be the new deck. The templates were made using drawing paper that the kid had in her play room.


Maya's old drawings taped together to make template


traced and cut


Perfect fit.

It seems that even when the kid is in Puerto Rico and unavailable to help out I'm still able to find a way to involve her in the project. The next step will be to seal the edges of the cut pieces with epoxy, screw them down into the existing deck, fill any and all voids with epoxy, sand/fair this surface out and prep for the fiberglass. At least one layer over all and at least two layers where the hardware and stanchions are placed. Then sand and fair that out before painting.

With the weather staring to get cold and my work (real work, the kind that pays the mortgage) getting busier and busier, I having my first real concerns that the boat wont be ready for the spring. As much as I want to see it in the water, I don't want to rush any project and sacrifice the quality of the work (ie, get it wet before it's really done and done right).

NH weather...

So the kid is in PR for 10 days to help her grandparents install a generator in their boat down there. The plan was that I would use the time to finish the deck on jack a roe. For the first few days neither Maki or I finished work until 7, 8 and 9 pm, so there wasn't much of a chance to get much done. Then the plan was to do the work on Thursday which had a fair forecast. The day came and the forecast changed so again not much was done. Then the plan was to work on the deck on Saturday (today) because the weather was supposed to be nice. Unfortunately, now the remnants of a hurricane are rolling through the coast and the forecast is calling for steady hard rains, coastal flooding with wind blowing 25 with gusts up to 65 mph. Now not only cant I get the work done, I'm also worried about the boat cover being blown off.

I have the marine ply and gallons of epoxy just waiting for good weather. The weather is supposed to be sunny and 60 tomorrow.

We'll see.