July 13, The blood mobile
Today was the 1st day of classes. We started the day talking about the history of the boat which is pretty interesting. The boat we are building was Nat Hershoff’s personal boat. For the non boaters he was a famous boat designer in the late 1800’s who designed all the boats for the America’s Cup races and the yachts for the rich people in New York, Boston and Newport. He used the boat for many years and it was destroyed in a hurricane in the 30’s. It was and interesting prospective on the man and the boat. He did no drawings for the boat. Just made a few notes and gave it to his craftsman to build. Geoff took the notes and spent several months trying to figure out what they meant and how to draw the boat.
There was a boat like the one we are building in the harbor this morning. We had to take a field trip to see it. We used school launch and got up close and personal. It really is a beautiful boat. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me and when I went back at lunchtime is was gone. The boat resides in a harbor close by and I will sneak off later in the week for some Kodak moments.
There was a boatload of kids from the Outward Bound School here this morning. My instructor participated in the program when he was a kid. He said he was the only person in the boat that the court hadn’t sent there. He said he heard about it being a high adventure program and talked his parents into sending him. None of them had a clue what he was getting into. It must have made an impact because later in life he worked with the program after college.
The rest of the day was on lofting which is basically drawing the boat to full scale. It was called lofting because was normally done in the lofts of the building where they built the boat on the floor below. It is interesting but it is basic drafting, projecting views, intersecting lines, etc. I am sure it was Greek to some of the people but for someone who has spent a lifetime doing it was just another day at the office.
We got to glue up some boards this afternoon to make a curved section of the boat, which is fun. You get to slop some epoxy on boards and it gooses out as you add more clamps. At the end, you have a big mess that hardens overnight. Tomorrow we will turn it into a useable board.
I am lucky to get things posted on the blog. It is a dangerous trip to the building where the Wi-Fi is located. As soon as you sit down and start, using the computer misquotes start attacking. I think I lost more blood than I did the last time the Blood Mobile was in Pell City. They actually have a net you get under to keep from being carried away. It gets a little cozy if you have several people trying to get on line.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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