Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Rearranging My Studio

I had to do a little rearranging yesterday within my garage to make a little more room before the fun begins. This also presented a perfect opportunity to go through my tools and organize ... 

Before ...
After ...

I was still able to leave room for my wife's volvo that (under direct order from the CFO) must be parked in the garage. This setup may involve moving the volvo out of the garage when serious work is underway and placement of a weather monitoring station in the corner to keep a close lookout for any potential hail storms...

The Supply Wagon Arrives

I am now able to proceed with boat building after an exciting trip down to Austin (most amazing city in US...even though I could not see the tower because of the clouds) to pick up (what is hopefully) the majority of the wood that I will be using. The only (relatively) close place that I could find marine grade plywood was in Austin at a place called 'Fine Lumber & Plywood'. I had to borrow a vehicle that had a hitch and also a trailer from family members and I spent the day driving to Austin and back gathering the wood.

I ended up purchasing Meranti plywood. The Okoume was just a little bit out of my price range and with another viable option available, it only made since for this first time boat builder to go with Meranti. I plan on performing a couple of tests soon (water resistance and strength after water exposure) with the Meranti and some standard grade plywood to determine how good it really is ...

I also picked up some Douglas Fir for the stringers. This seems to be a relatively cheap material for stringers and has been used by many Welsford Navigator builders before me.

Even though I think that a scholarship is now inevitably in my daughters future, it was a good trip overall ...