More Maple, a Birthday, a Festival, and Some Work in Between

It's been far too long since our last post!  Here's Cody on his "golden" birthday.  He turned 27 on the 27th of June this year, and we had a nice day.  He's showing off two of his gifts in this photo-  the delicious fruit arrangement from his mom, and the new shirt from my mom!    

We both worked a bit during the day, and then I made him a huge dinner-  a spinach salad, a whole roast chicken, and a cheesecake with fresh summer berries.   About the time the chicken was coming out of the oven, I realized how silly it was to have this beautiful meal for just the two of us.  We called up our good friends, PJ and Sarah, and asked if they had dinner plans- they  didn't - so we brought a feast to their house, to share with them and their daughters.  It was a warm summer evening, and we had a great night out in their backyard.  

The following Saturday, we headed to Maple Canyon once again.  Our friend Brian Dunnohew came down to SLC on Friday, for some work stuff, and then joined us.  His psych is continuous and contagious-  I'd climb with him any day of the year!  

We had great weather, and good climbing!  I managed to send Honeybucket,  the .12a I worked last trip, despite blowing it on my first go, from the jugs beyond the crux!  Noooo!  Cody and Brian both made progress on Captain Bullet, but neither managed to send the route.  

At the end of the day, we ended up at a small crag right by the roadside.   The crag had seven routes, of varying grades from 5.10c to 5.7, all well within our climbing ability, and we decided to do a marathon, and climb them all!  We worked from right to left, and I was so worked by the end of it- and we finished up on a .10a,  I could barely finish it!  Cody and I were definitely sore the next day.    

Down at the shop...  We've made some good progress, both on the exterior and interior.  We attached the skeg, that funny fin-shaped piece.  We glued in long stainless steel bolts to add stability, and you can see how long the drill bit needed to be to accommodate the bolts!    

Now the skeg is attached, and Cody's fairing it in this photo.  We had to lift the boat up a few more inches to allow for the skeg to fit.  

We've also painted the cabin roof- and texturized it, so it's non-skid.  It was a fairly easy job, but a hot one!  I could just feel the sun beating on the black tar roof, heating the shop like an oven...  The boat is really starting to look finished!  Also in this photo, you can see some of the deck fills we've installed.  The silver one, on the side deck, on the right of the photo, leads to a water tank.  There's also a black one, further forward on the side deck, which will be the waste pump-out.  It was quite the wrestling match to get them plumbed, but they're both attached and ready to go.  I think the plumbing is pretty much complete, which is a huge relief!  

Speaking of plumbing...  Here's the cute little door I made for the head.  We were able to salvage a door handle and hinges from one of the boats we scrapped.  It really looks nice in the cabin.  I can't wait until the mast is in place-  it will go along the wall just beside the door, and will cover those exposed wires.  

 

The deadwood has been reinforced with fiberglass, and had a preliminary fairing.  I sanded the whole thing the other day-  what a job!  My neck and back were tired the next day!  But it looks great, and is ready for the lead keel to be attached beneath it.  

We've got the rudder laminated up, and fiber-glassed, and faired as well.  It's quite big and heavy- should be nice and sturdy!  One of our books recommends a thick, solid-stock rudder so that, and I quote, "The waterskier will break, and not your rudder."  Apparently that's been a problem in some boats?  

We've had a little assistant in the shop recently.  He loves to lay around in all the sawdust.  And he really doesn't like it when we try to dust him off with the air compressor.  

We also attended the 20th annual International Climber's Festival this past weekend.  Somehow, we never managed to take photos...  Probably because we weren't climbing together very much.  The Fest is wonderful in that we have a big group of friends to climb with, so I run off with a great group of ladies, and Cody with the guys.   Regardless of our lack of evidence, this Fest was one of the best I've ever attended, and it was my seventh year attending!  (Oy! that makes me feel old!)   

I love climbing in Wyoming, especially at the Wild Iris.  I've said it before...here.  The wildflowers were still hanging on, and the temps were lovely.  We had cool mornings, sunny middays, and afternoon thunderstorms.  I made a  lot of progress on a route that felt impossible a few years ago.  Cody sent a number of hard routes.  We saw the world premiere of a film documenting the history of climbing in Lander, and heard several pro climbers speak.  (Tommy Caldwell, Cedar Wright, Henry Barber, Emily Harrington, and Timmy O'Neill, if you're interested...)  Good times.  

Now we're back in Salt Lake, hard at it again.  Cody's got some work building a climbing wall up in Park City, and I'm working down at the boat shop.  We've got more little trips planned in the near future, so we've got to make the weeks in between count, especially if we want to get out of the shop anytime soon!  

Lately...

It's officially summertime here in Salt Lake, and the temps have arrived to prove it.   But we love the long daylight hours, and progress is slow but steady down at Shop 61.  

We finally got the ceiling sanded and painted.   The interior looks pretty white at the moment, but once we've got the mahogany window frames installed, and cushions in place, I think the cabin will have a bright and cheery look.   

We love having lunch out on the "dock."  Lately we've been seeing ducklings and oddly enough, cormorants go by in the creek.  

The windows are in!  Well, almost.   In this photo, we've got wedges in place on the exterior, to hold the glass tight to the frames.   Now all that remains is to install some sort of gasket between the glass and the cabinsides.   

Cody also has the forward hatch nearly complete!   The glass is installed, the hinges are in-  we're just missing a bit of hardware on the inside that allows us to close it tightly, and a gasket to keep any water out.  All the glass we used for portlights and hatches is tempered-  the windows are 3/8ths of an inch thick, and the hatches are 1/2 inch thick.  Very sturdy and strong.  

What's not very sturdy or strong is this cardboard boat we built.....    

The Great Salt Lake Yacht Club hosts an event called Sailfest annually, and part of the festivities is a cardboard boat race.   The rules we followed stated that the allowed materials were cardboard, duct tape (not to exceed coverage of 30% of the craft), and single part paint, (no epoxies).   We enlisted a crew of friends to construct this magnificent yacht the night before, and had 7 able seamen on board for the race. 

  The boat, named "The Sword of Laban"  (it's a Mormon reference...) actually floated with all 7 of us aboard- and stayed floating for the first lap.   Captain Cody and 1st mate Tyler had to abandon ship when their pontoon began to sink, and eventually, the whole crew was swimming, pulling the craft  toward the finish line.   We came in 4th out of about 10 or so, which is fairly respectable, considering our boat sank and the fact that we had about 1000 pounds more cargo than the other boats.  All in all, it was great fun.   We've got new design ideas for next year...  Look out!   

Back at the boatshop....   I've been getting into tight spots.   

In this photo I'm connecting the sink drain to the through-hull.  

This cutout leads to a cupboard.  I was installing the back of the cupboard, which separates it from the rest of the lazarette, and Cody encouraged me to try crawling out...  

Obviously, I didn't fit, but I did manage to greatly entertain my loving husband.  

 Eventually, we'll have a rack to store a cutting board in front of the cabinet opening.  

The head is very nearly complete as well!   My cabinet is painted and in place, the toilet is plumbed...  There are a few more plumbing connections to install- plumbing a toilet that sits below the waterline is more complicated than it looks!   Vented loops, diverter valves, deck-fill fittings....   But it's almost done.  Thank goodness.  

Last week, a wonderful distraction came into town!  My good friend Kitty came to visit!  We had a great time, hiking, climbing, cooking, working on the boat...   She lives in Missoula, and we're equally bad at keeping in touch, but it doesn't seem to matter how much time has passed.   Once we're together again, it's like we're back in middle school, or high school, or our little canvas cabin in Yosemite Valley, and everything is the same between us.    

Kitty headed back to Missoula on Friday morning.  On Friday evening, we met up with some friends and headed down to Maple Canyon, Utah. 

  

Maple is a very narrow canyon, made up of a crazy conglomerate.  There are lots of trees (Maples, believe it or not,)  and it stays nice and cool in the summer.  The climbing is a maze of round cobblestones- some as small as marbles, some the size of watermelons.   It's very different climbing than anywhere else I've been.   We climbed a lot in the day and a half we spent there, and both found hard routes that we weren't able to complete.  Above, Cody's working on "Captain Bullet,"  a 5.13a,  and below, I'm figuring out "Honeybucket,"a 5.12a.   

We might be going back this coming Saturday to see if we can't finish them off.   

Well...  I should probably head down to the shop.   Hope you're all enjoying the summer!  

Let there be Light! And other things too!

Things keep moving along down here at Shop 61...  The summer weather has finally arrived.  The shop stays cool most of the morning, but by the time afternoon rolls around, you can really feel the heat- especially when you climb the steps up onto the boat.  It must be at least a 5 degree difference in temperature from the shop floor to the cabintop.  Hopefully we can be out of the shop before 100 degree days start to become more frequent.   

Cody finished building the deadwood.  As you might imagine, a solid block of wood 12 feet long, about 18 inches tall, and 12 inches thick at the fat end is quite heavy.  To get it off the table, we winched off the ceiling, and lowered it onto a set of caster wheels.  Then it was pretty easy to roll it around the boat to where the keel is sitting.  

We wanted to check how the two fitted together- and the shaping is pretty much perfect! As you can see, the tail of the keel is a little bit short.  We'll melt down the lead scraps we've got lying around and build the tail up so it's the same thickness as the rest of the keel.  

We're planning to jack the boat up a little higher in the next few days, so we can fit the deadwood underneath.  We'll epoxy and fiberglass the deadwood to the hull, and then the real fun begins....  Moving the lead keel beneath the boat.  And drilling holes for several enormous bronze bolts- which will hold the whole thing together.  

The cabinet I built in the head!  I just finished painting today, I'll have to post some pictures next time.  

We hired some help from the east coast to install our electrical system.  

Cody and his Dad had the boat wired in a day and a half-  pretty amazing!  We now have dome lights above the table and in the head, reading lights in all the bunks and above the "settee"  (the nautical term for couch, which I find obnoxious, but use anyway...)  We also have some lights mounted under the side decks to illuminate the countertops in the galley.  The VHF radio has power, but no antenna, so we can't talk to anyone yet.

Cody also has the stove up and running!  We could almost live onboard!  

We also got the decks caulked with Pat and Lorrie's help.  Lorrie and I sanded all the gaps while the boys were working inside the boat.  Then we taped all the planks, and caulked the seams.   It was a messy, gooey, sticky job, but I think it was worth it!  I think the decks look pretty awesome.  Very "shippy" and traditional.  

After we had squeezed all the hard labor possible out of the in-laws, we drove them home to Star Valley, Wyoming.  They are just home from a 5 month stint cruising on the East Coast, and they couldn't have picked a better time to come home!  Star Valley is in it's prime!  Everything is green and growing.   The weather was ideal- chilly in the mornings, (20 degrees!)  but warm and sunny during the day.    

Cody and Pat performed major surgery on my car-  a timing belt replacement-  while Lorrie and I worked in the yard, cooked up a storm, and worked on some knitting projects.  It was a nice little trip.  

Now we're back in Salt Lake, hard at it once again.  The yacht club is putting on Sailfest this coming weekend, and we're planning to compete in the cardboard boat race.  If you're in SLC, come out on Saturday morning to spectate!  

 My good friend Kitty is coming to visit soon, and my tomato plant has one tomato!  

Life is good!  

Business as Usual

Spring weather has been great here in SLC.  Everything is green and temps have been perfect, days in the mid 70's.  The boat is steadily coming along.  It has been great that we can both work on the boat together, Beth has been taking on more and more challenging projects.  Its great for me, I find that when you work on a project like this there are portions of it that you just really don't want to do.  I don't really even have an explanation as to why I don't want to do them, I just hate the idea of having to do it, so I put them off...forever.

The project I have been working on is the deadwood.  Basically this is a spacer in between the bottom of the boat and the lead keel.

I cut out the wing shapes for the deadwood, which are all a little different. Then stacked them up and glued them together.

You can see here that I have started to shape the left side of the it, I plan to shape it soon, then I'll wrap it with fiberglass and glue the whole thing to the bottom of the boat.  At that point it will be time to try and move that 4000lb. keel underneath and start drilling out for keel bolts.

All the fir is laid for the decks, now we are just putting in things like this Teak king plank and a few other teak accents here and there. We are hoping to caulk in between the planks sometime next week which will be the final step in the decking process.

We have been sailing Beth's dinghy a little bit and all we have is a paddle, which is pretty awkward to use in such a wide boat.  So Beth found some basic plans for a set of oars.  Here is how we are working them from square to round.  They start square then I rip the corners off on the tablesaw making an octagon.

Then Beth uses the jack plane to cut down the corners and slowly it becomes more or less round.  We haven't cut out the paddle part yet, but we will show some pics next time.

The best looking dinghy on the Great Salt lake.

To Boston and Back Again

The day after the keel was poured,  we returned to the Little's house to clean up.  It sounds like a big job- but the clean-up wasn't really the hard part.  The hard part was loading the keel-  now a solid block of lead weighing roughly 4000 pounds- onto the the trailer.  Cody and Dylan and John rolled and winched and cursed and sweated- Afton and I lounged on the grass in the sun, and somehow neglected to take any photos of the process...   Oops!   

Once the keel was loaded on the trailer, and securely tied down, we drove down to the shop, and rented a fork lift.  One of the factors that makes our shop location so great is the proximity of a Howe Rental company.  They rent out all manner of industrial equipment, and are less than a block away from us.  I think it took longer to fill out the paperwork- check out and return- than it actually took to unload the keel.  

Once the keel was safely in the shop, we breathed a huge sigh of relief.  It's done!!  Yipee!  Then we headed home- to our tiny apartment,  filled to the brim with people and stuff.  Cody and I, (well, if I'm honest, it was mostly me) scrambled to pack.  We were off to Boston early the next morning to work for Vertical Solutions for two weeks.    That night, we hugged Afton and Dylan and Tim, who were setting off for an epic road trip through Canada the next day, and collapsed into sleep.   

Our trip to Boston went smoothly.  We arrived and took the "T" system to the stop we had been directed to- we were staying at an apartment in Cambridge, not at the rental house with the rest of the crew, because there wasn't room.  The next step in our directions read, "Walk east until you encounter the three-way madness."   Being new to the area, and lacking any landmark, we weren't sure which way was east.  We asked a bus driver- who surely would know the cardinal directions, right?- and he had no idea.  No one seemed to know which way was east.   We figured it out by trial and error, and eventually found the place.   That night, we wandered around Cambridge, strolling through the MIT campus, where everyone we passed seemed to be having a serious, intellectual conversation,  "But you have to remember, the potential energy is in stasis, so..." or something like that.    The architecture was neat- a blend of old and new styles, and all the trees were in bloom.  After dinner, we took a pedi-cab home.  We slept soundly in our 8th story apartment, and when we woke up the next morning,  could not believe the news that  the fatal shoot-out involving the Boston Marathon Bombers had occurred not a mile from where we were- and had been so happily wandering the night before.  The city of Cambridge was in lockdown- all public transportation was shut down...  I'm sure you'll remember the news.    Luckily, the job site was close, but in the city of Somerville, which wasn't under the "Stay Home" advisory.  We hurriedly found a cab, and headed to work.  

The next two weeks were a blur.  We managed to work 160 hours over the 13 days.  We worked roughly 8am to 8pm, never taking a longer lunch break than 1 hour.  Just as a point of reference, working a typical, 40 hour week schedule, 160 hours is a month's worth of work.  The work itself wasn't too bad- I was mostly sanding the finish sheeting, and building a simple handrail on top of one of the bouldering walls, while Cody was putting on the finish sheeting for almost the entire 160 hours.  The gym is HUGE.  It's going to be one of the largest gyms in the nation when completed.  

 One of the bouldering walls. There's another on the Mezzanine level, which you can see the corner of in this photo.  

One of the rope walls.  Opposite this one, there's a huge feature called "the tongue," which overhangs nearly to horizontal.  you can see the lip of that wall, just barely, in the upper left-hand corner of this photo.  

You can see a neat video about the gym here.  

We worked our last day on a friday, and were scheduled to fly home at 5pm on Saturday.  We took the day to explore the city and see the sights.  

At the site of the Boston Massacre, behind the Old State House.  

Those animals, perched on the corners of the building, are a lion and a unicorn, of all things.  

On the Boston Commons.  That's George Washington behind us.  

Springtime!  So many beautiful tulips!  Lots of blooming trees too.  

The site of the more recent Boston Massacre.  Or bombing, I should say.  There was quite a memorial set up, and the little trees nearby were missing many branches.  A chilling and moving sight.  

  We didn't really have an agenda to see the city, but did what we usually do, and looked for good food, and some historic sights, and maybe a marina to wander.  Exploring Boston, without a good map- we had a free tourist map, which was just okay, was confusing to say the least.  Cody was calling the place "Loston"  by the end of the day.  

  We had some classic cornbread and clam "chowda" for lunch at the Union Oyster House- the oldest restaurant in the country, open since 1826.   From there, we found the Italian neighborhood on Salem Street, and were kicking ourselves for having clam chowder for lunch, as there were so many restaurants offering traditional Italian food...  But we were determined to find some authentic Boston Cream Pie, and found it at Bova's Bakery.  The friendly man behind the counter- the owner, presumably- boxed up a generous slice of Cream Pie,  made us an incredible sandwich for dinner on the plane, and picked out a box of cookies to bring home as a gift for the Mannions.  (Who celebrated the birth of their 2nd daughter, Little Tilly Mae, the day we arrived home.)    If you're ever in Boston, I would strongly recommend checking out the historic North End district. 

Whew!  Now, we're home again, and back to the boat shop!  

                                            

We decided on "sprung" decks, which run parallel to the sheer.  They're going to look so nice when they're finished!   One benefit of the hot weather we're having is that the epoxy we use to attach the planks cures quickly.  We're able to put in two planks per side every day.  

Cody, after milling all the lumber for the decks into planks.  He was wearing ear-muff hearing protectors.  I think it was a little dusty in there.....  

The skylight above the table is installed!  It looks great, and is keeping lots of dust out of the cabin.  The glass is 1/2" thick tempered glass- very strong and sturdy.  

                                                

Cody's just finished laminating the skeg, which is upside down in this photo.  

We're going to have to lift the boat up higher to attach it!  

 We were doing some dog-sitting recently.
  Rumsy loved to come to the shop and chase the ducks in the creek outside.
 He's the worst duck-hunter I've ever seen.

Redemption!!

We did it, the keel is poured!!  No burns, no crying, really almost no problems at all!

We did a lot of things differently this time, and they payed off. 

Here is the setup, our friend John graciously let us commence this circus in his driveway.  We used two tubs this time, mostly because it is horrifying to have 4000lbs of lead in one tub.  I welded stands for the tubs to sit on and then we built a platform to get the fire closer to the tubs.  You can see we also used bricks that John had laying around to block some of the wind.  

I welded the pipes to the tubs just as they are in this photo.  The pipes worked kind of like a snorkel.  They came out the drain of the tub, then to the side about a foot and then up until they were well above the molten lead line.

The pipes are threaded together, so when it is time to pour you simply turn the pipe, lowering it down below the molten lead line, making the the lead flow out.

Look for the steel pipe floating in the lead when the camera goes around the tub.

There were a couple of minor problems.  The first was realized early on.  I knew from previous experience that welding to cast iron is difficult.  It just doesn't behave like normal steel.  If you don't really pre-heat it, your welds just don't penetrate and you end up with something more like metal glue instead of a weld.  Anyway I didn't have anything to pre-heat with so I just welded the crap out of it and thought it would be fine.  

As soon as the lead started to become molten it started leaking out of what looked like hairline cracks in the drain.  I thought that molten lead would be too viscous to flow out the crack but it wasn't and we ended up moving the fire away form the drain to allow that section to cool and form a plug.  I now know that if you are going to pour lead, water test your setup for leaks.

Here was another minor problem, the lead was coming out too fast and starting to erode the side of our sand mold, so I blocked with some wood.

Success!!

This thing is pretty awesome, apparently there was a very slow leak in the bottom of the mold, but it looks like it plugged itself off. 

After letting the keel cool overnight we returned to clear out the wreckage.   You can see how well the sand works, this is after prying off the sides of the wood box.

It took us few hours but we got the keel winched onto Johns trailer and drove it down to the shop where we rented a forklift to lift it off and into the shop, and there it is just sitting on pipes ready to be cleaned and faired.

We are so lucky to have the support of so many people.  Afton and Dylan, the original team came back for a second try and were so much help. We can't thank John and Lindsey Little enough.  Not having to drive out to the desert was huge, not to mention all the other ways they made this event possible.   The video is courtesy again of PJ and Sarah who showed up just in time to see the whole thing go down.