Oliver Jones and Rob

Met with Oliver in March of '08 when I drove up to Connecticut to pick up boat stuff prior to having her shipped to Arkansas.

Main Cabin Inventory - Port

A little look at the pile of joinery, bunk and tank removed from the port side of the main cabin. Everything is marked, notes taken and pictures. It will be stored on it's own shelf and be ready to be used for patterns in the years ahead.

Douglas Fir Arrives

Lumber finally arrives from Fork, Washington for the future laminated frames. It took longer to get from Little Rock to Clinton (70 miles) than it did to get to Arkansas. It had arrived on Sunday night into Little Rock. I was heading out of town for the week on Monday so I called to make arrangements to have it delivered to a lumberyard in town. Or so I thought. A week and a half later - it arrived. Silly people.

ICE STORM - JANUARY 27, 2009

Click to Enlarge:

The beautiful sunrise after a nice ice storm in Arkansas.

The pups don't seem to mind the new ice and snow though they did spend the night in bed with us. They came in covered in ice. How does this relate to the restoration? I choose not to burn any of the boat and was out in the boat shop gathering wood scraps prior to the sunrise to get the woodstove burning. To grind the coffee I had to get the truck and use the inverter to power up the grinder.

Ballast Cradle

This is constructed of 5" pipe. Might be over the top in strength but it was scrap from the welding up of cattle guards at entrances to farms. Half the bolts have been cut off but I seem to need something longer than 12" to get to the middle section of the keel. More pictures when dropped. Oh, the lower most pipe is there for a roller.

Side Walls

Side walls are a polycarbonate product called "Sunsky" by Palmar.



















It was inspired by a trip to see the Coronett in Newport this past summer. Goes up like metal siding. They ran about $70 a sheet for a 3' x 12' section. The biggest issue I think will be the south wall in the summer. I did include 8 opening sky lights as well as vent ridge. The side walls have good space between the ground, increasing with slope. I am placing metal siding on the inside along this base to keep direct wind and weather out with the added advantage to keep air circulating. I anticipate it to function much like the ceiling in the boat or the way a tipi liner would work.

YEAR IN REVIEW - 2008

Boat purchased in December of 2007. Thank you Lynette!
Visited boat in March in Lyme, CT-returned with mizzen mast, booms (3) and a truck load of sails, rigging, etc.
Leigh Smith, friend from Portsmouth, N.H., helps Richard Fewtrell, boatwright in Lyme, get boat ready for shipping.
Worked on pad behind garage.
Boat arrived in May.
No boat stands and driver wouldn't attempt delivery to property.
Boat interims in old WalMart parking lot.
Built cradle.
Rebuilt cradle on borrowed trailer.
Boat gets delivered without incidence.

Built a 26' x 45' boat shed over boat-mostly by myself with some help from farm hand.

Mario built a cradle for ballast with 5" pipe.

Started dismantling the port main cabin the last few days of December.

Also started collecting some new bigger tools like a bandsaw, dust collection, drill press . . .

Looking forward to 2009.