Making a Shellback Dinghy

Beginning February 7, 2009

As I was anticipating retirement, (I anticipated retirement for at least the last 10 years of my career at Big Blue!!) I received many suggestions and ideas about what to do during this next phase of my life. These ideas came from many quarters, friends, loved ones, family, colleagues, my doctor, people on the street, enemies, ministers, Rabi's and the odd ayatollah. Suggestions included:

take a cruise
visit the National Parks
camp in the High Sierras
get another degree
take a long road trip
cut your lawn
cut your former colleagues' lawns
build a boat
take a class that teaches you how to build a boat
paint your house
vacuum your house
get cancer
sail around the world
spend a summer on your boat in the North Channel
lock through the St Marys river and summer on Isle Royale
etc
etc
etc

I intend to do all of these things, at least most of them while I'm still walking around loose imposing myself on the world.

The idea of building a boat really caught my attention. Catalogs were sent to me about serious boat building in schools, usually in New England, where you spend months learning every part of the craft. Those schools, probably being really good, seemed to require more commitment, at least money-wise than I was willing to put forth.

Ann discovered a class at a maritime museum in Door County, Wisconsin which was priced right and semi-convenient. I got in! The entrance exam turned out not to be too rigorous!

February 7, 2009, First Day of Boat Building School.

There are 5 of us in the class, all 60-somethings. There is also an instructor who is also old enough to be at least somewhat focused on the benefits of the federal Medicare program. He has actually built boats and seems to know quite a bit about it. The other 4 guys all seem to have some woodworking experience but not in building boats. My own woodworking experience is VERY extensive, having just build a two step ladder some 38 years ago as a freshman in high school. In truth, I do understand which end of the screw-driver turns the screw but had no idea that a block plain could be more useful than a power tool.

All in all it's a pretty good group of guys whose combined enthusiasm and skill seems to be moving things in the proper direction at about the right speed. It amazes me how much we all learned in just the first day.

















There is a book written called "How to Build the Shellback Dinghy" by Eric Dow which most of us purchased and we all read. It's a great reference on how to do this. 180+ steps, none of which seem that easy, but for me one of the most intriguing steps was the makes of (2) 12 by 4 foot 30 mil pieces of mahogany plywood from (3) 4 by 8 foot pieces. To the amazement of most of us we did it almost entirely with small block planes. The process is called scarffing, if you're interested!


Out of the photo above you don't see the rest us patting ourselves on the back as HE WHO WILL INSPECT identifies a job well done. Next the pieces are epoxied together and you have big lumber instead of pretty big lumber!!
















Jigs are used to make both the mid ship frame and the stem. These two pieces are laminated wood and thus the strongest parts of the boat. The wood is Douglas Fir and the glue is epoxy. It's amazing how much you can bend a thin strip of Douglas fir.

Surviving Death Valley

Monday March 4, 2009

For those of you still waiting for me to come home, I did survive Death Valley and a host of other things and here we are in early 2009.

For the record from Death Valley I made my way over the Hoover Dam and down toward Phoenix where a played golf for a couple of days with my brother. Two days later I was back on the rode making my way toward home.

In my travel home I stumbled on the perfect way to get there fast even in the winter. .. A tooth ache!! On my last day of travel I made 1100 miles from Truth or Consequences to Madison. I did not want to get stranded on the highway, in a storm, with an unknown dentist. I got home Saturday morning December 8, 2007 to find out dentists don't work on weekends!!

Here is a picture of what greeted me upon my return!!


What you see is not just a snowbank plowed up by the city but a rock hard wall of ice and snow that would take me most of the following day to clear.

Thus the great road trip.

Over the Mtns to Death Valley

Adventures on Mountain Roads

I've been driving for a long time and have been up and down both the Rockies and the Appalachians several times without incident! Thinking about it though I've never really had the time to take the route much less traveled like I have on this trip!

Remember those signs you see on mountain roads that say Truckers use low gear? My reaction was always, "that's for the trucks." A closer examination of those signs often tells you to expect a 4% or 6% grade.

Now by this time I've been through about 6 or 8 mountain passes without a problem. I have absolutely mastered the art of getting the little red car up the steepest grade totally dependant on the 76 horses of the gas engine by the top. But I was always recharging on the way down and that additional drag made brake use, well...., just not a problem! Then along came CA 155 which goes over the Greenhorn Mountains and takes you down to the Isabella Reservoir.

This highway wound gradually to about 4500 feet but came down in a hurry. The grade was 11% but not for a very long time. I was able to do that with brakes and third gear. Almost immediately I was climbing again but carefully I conserved battery power, conserved it too much. It would have been better to have none because the downward grade after that was 14%! I crept over the precipice in second gear going 10 miles per hour! This hill was so long and so steep that the engine temperature started cooling down. At my fastest I was going 70 miles per hour in second gear and still couldn't keep the car from going faster. The engine was literally turning at near maximum speed of 6000 rpm's. I applied brakes, had too, and continued to pump them trying to bring my speed down to a safe 60 at which point I could smell brakes and more importantly I could feel that they were, hot, soft and not doing what is critically important that they do! I'm smart enough to know that these are all very bad signs! So I used what brakes I had to get off the road and get the car stopped. Obviously I was successful! I got out of the car to immediately check the rear wheels to insure that the emergency brake would hold the car from falling off the mountain. They were very warm but not too hot. Good! The front brakes were so hot you couldn't touch the wheel without instantly pulling your hand away! I sat for an hour to let things cool off, pulled off a wheel to physically inspect and decided that there is still adequate brake pad left to continue. I scared the crap out of myself to be sure!

What I learned here is that when you get that first whiff of chemical smell it's time to stop and cool your brakes. You literally have very little time left after you get the brake smell! All you need to do at that point is, stop, take some time, and let things cool a bit.

They Don't Call it Death Valley for Nothing!

Between Sequoia and Las Vegas it no longer feels like California. It's very poor country and everything around you seems poor. By sundown I'm tired from today's adventures and I'm looking for the Hilton. Not only is there no Hilton there not even a Hilton wannabee nor even a Days Inn wannabee. There is, however, the RanchOlancha Motel in Olancha, California. Now you can't tell that from the road because the sign is lit but only the letters "tel" still remain. For only $60 you get a room, the carpet is stained but in truth it didn't seem real dirty but who wanted to look further! The mattress was one of those you can't fall off but you can't get out of the middle either. The central heat comes in the form of a space heater in the very center of the room. I slept in my sleeping with the addition of my fleece liner in place. It was cold but at least I was in doors. It got down to 24 that night. Central heating is a wonderful thing!

Sequioa

There really is a magnificence to these trees that it's difficult to capture with a camera. The tree behind me, in the picture above, is the General Sherman(a maniac made famous by legal war crimes in the south) The Sherman is the largest tree, "in the world" by volume. It's probably 2,000 years old! It has withstood countless fires! The truth is though that the largest trees were cut about a hundred years ago when the ravaging of this continent was at it's worst. That was the same period when Wisconsin and Michigan were deforested.

One of the things I've noticed about these forests is a striking lack of four-legged critters. With all of the conifer cones you would at least expect the park to be crawling with squirrels but there are very few animals about. Perhaps it's the beginning of winter? The rangers are constantly reminding people about bears but I was able to successfully convince a young mom at the hotel that she could take her two overly energetic children for a walk around Grant's Cove without fear of them being eaten! My intention was merely to see the little darlings burn off a little excess energy!

I did see a pretty interesting car accident. A vehicle rolled over and laying on it's side. One apparent injury but not serious from the look of it. Everyone was sitting up. The vehicle, of course, was an SUV, a giant Chevrolet Suburban. It was an unfortunate end to their day!

From here I'm off, over the mountains, and into Death Valley.

Yellowstone Adventures

Yellowstone Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday November 3, 4 and 5.

About 1:45 PM I rolled up to the little house where they take the money with $80 in my hot little hand! Ranger Susan promptly informs me that the park closed this morning at 8AM. Well "open the damned thing back up, I've driven 3,000 miles to get here." Ranger Susan complains that everyone has been blaming her for closing the park. In fact the park is always open, they just closed 80% of the roads for the winter.

Yellowstone National Park is a spectacular place even though most of it is in Wyoming(home of the that Rat Bastard....you know who I mean!) Even with most of it closed the views and the critters are spectacular. My first hour I met a real live Elk-American which I thought(this will make me seem dull-witted) was stuffed and on display outside the Visitor Center. When it seemed to move it's head I got suspicious! When it moved it's ears, I was convinced! I came through about 200 0f them Tuesday evening as I was leaving the park.

The Bison Americans are even more ubiquitous!(75cent word!) Some guy actually came around a corner on a remote trail and pardoned himself for disrupting a bison grazing.

THE GREAT BISON/INSIGHT RACE

Please examine closely, the top right picture above. Off in the mist you see the hind quarters of the instigator of the great race. Driving down the only road in the park that's open I came upon 3 Bison-Americans walking down the road in my direction. Since the big guy that you see weighs almost twice my car, I decided to yield the right of way. I sat in the middle of the road for a few minutes while they meandered when an SUV passed me quickly. In a few seconds the SUV driver realized what was about! He/she got up to the bison and when it looked like they were making way they would move back in front of him. They did this three times to my delight. Another car passed successfully so I decided it was now my turn. I got up to the bull, the only bison then on the road and he was snorting with irritation. I decide it prudent to get by quickly. As I passed I glanced to the side and saw that the gang of three was back on the road and they were racing the little red bison!

As you would expect I won the race and made my opponents eat grass.

Kings Canyon/Sequoia

This real time now. It is December 1. I am sitting in a roon at the John Muir Lodge and it's quite comfortable and a real bargain for a pensioner, probably not expensive enough for you people with real jobs. The fog seems to be moving in but more importantly the promised snow did not materialize.

This is a beautiful park. Many Californian(for what it's worth!) consider it there favorite. I've taken some pictures but they don't capture the enormity of this place. Grant has a tree, California has one. The Dick Cates tree is farther back and will visit it today probably. Staying two days and more to come.

I'm amazed how all of the National Parks I've been in are so empty. Nobody on the trails and last night the dining room had about 6 tables full!

The Road UP to Yellowstone

Monday morning November 5, 2007

I was up early, sort of pumped to actually get somewhere and get out of the little red car for a while. I get on the road early, up to Red Lodge, Montana and then over Beartooth Pass into Yellowstone! Exciting stuff after being blown all over North Dakota!

Half way to Red Lodge I notice ice on the limbs. Better test for ice on the road. Oops pretty damn slippery! Thank Mohammad for that fine Japanese technology! Hundred yards farther and there's a truck in the barbed wire! That can't be right... but at least that's not me!! 45 minutes later I'm in Red Lodge and stopping at the only gas station that seems to be open. I have plenty of time here since I want to let the ice melt a little in the sun. I'm at about 4,000 feet and Beartooth Pass is 10,500. Being a prudent sailor and an even more prudent driver I will check with the locals for information about the Pass.

It seems that Beartooth Pass is closed, the whole damn road is closed. Neither the state of Montana nor the state of Wyoming(home to Dick Cheney!) don't see the benefit to keeping in open after the first of September.

So back down the mountain to the west side of the park(By the way, I have not idea why this is in italics but I can't seem to turn it off) About 1 PM I'm standing just inside the Roosevelt Arch taking the picture above.