Catching up

Wow did I get behind.

You can really waste away the time in Maine.  Actually I was in class the week after Paul and Kittie were here.  The course was in Strip Plank Composite Construction.  I wonder if I took the cost of the course and the expense of being here off on my income tax would the IRS ever realize it had nothing to do with work.  The title certainly sounds like work, doesn’t it.  The course was a lot of fun, the people in the course were fun and the group really clicked together.  There was a guy named Robert from New York, after the first few minutes I told myself this guy is going to be a real pain in the lower anatomy.  First impressions can be so wrong.  He was a lot fun to be around.  On the other side there was Buddy from Arkansas who appeared to be more fun than a barrel of monkey and he was.  We had one girl in the class, a twenty something girl who works in a custom furniture shop in Canada.  That girl could really use hand tools.  She put most of us to shame.  I wanted to adopt her but she liked her dad and would only allow me to be her Uncle.  There is nothing wrong with a smart good looking girl.  I know because I married one 44 years ago last week.

Ok the course was about using 1/4”x3/4” wood strips bending them around forms, gluing the edges together and stapling them to the forms.  After you generate the shape then you sand the outside smooth (I was hearing Clint saying it needs a little more sanding in my sleep) and cover it with fiberglass.  I have never done any fiberglass work so I was very interested in how it would go.  Clint was a great instructor and showed us how to do it so it was easy.  www.clintchaseboatbuilder.com  Clint is about the same age as our boys.  He is officially the youngest instructor at the school.  After you do the outside then you flip it over take out the forms and SAND AGAIN.  I think I have been traumatized by sand paper.  Then you glass the inside.  Robert will be taking the boat home with him to finish out the inside.  He has promised us photos as he proceeds with the project.  Robert will be back with his trailer in a couple of weeks to pick up the boat and take Harry Bryan’s class on building your own hand tools.  Harry only does one class a year now and is somewhat of a legend in the wooden boat community. He was the instructor for my first class I had at the school eight years ago. 

Larry, Julie, Andy and Joann arrived last Friday.  We had a lot of fun days hanging out together.  We are in the F150 so Carole will have plenty of space to bring things home.  (We also have Kittie, Julie and Joann containers to bring home now.)  Anyway all of us wouldn’t fit in the F150.  Andy rented a Hyundai cross over that seated five, so one of us would crawl in the back for trips.  We looked like a bunch of high school kids crawling out of the vehicle, with us all laughing and having a good time.  These were not short trips.  One was to Liberty to look at used tools (guy side of the street) and tee shirts (girl side of the street).  The tee shirts are second and real bargains.  Everyone has a Maine tee shirt now.  Andy has one with half a sleeve.  Well they are seconds!  Andy and I made the trip to Bath to the museum.  It has been several years since I was there so I enjoyed seeing what I had forgotten about.  We also did a trip thru the Bath Iron Works where they are building destroyers for the Navy.  No cameras or cell phones allowed so you aren’t going to get any photo.  Andy and I tried to go sailing at the school but the winds were too strong.  We would have needed to reef down and the school won’t let you go out when reefs are required.  They are concerned that if you don’t do it correctly you can rip a hole in the sail.  They all left yesterday and Carole spent most of the day doing laundry.  Clean towels and sheets all around.  I got a chance to operate the vacuum.  We are geared up for the next group to arrive now.

I meet this really interesting and cute couple who live in Florida via Seattle and Maine.  Their goal is to build a boat and go sailing.  Here is a link to her blog.  http://www.isoldmypearlstodoit.com/  I plan on following her blog to see how it goes.  She is a good writer and writes interesting blogs with far better use of English than my blog.

PS  I was several days late posting this because of connection speeds.  This was written last week and it took about an hour to load the photos.  You just have to love 60k internet connections.