Work on the skiff is pretty much preperation and a little to boring to spend much Blog on. It goes on and on.

What we have here is a cedar jig saw puzzle that has my full attention. You can check the progress on the [work pages here].

Marine Forecast issued for Lake Ontario. Issued: 3.00 AM EDT Tuesday 12 June 2007 for the period ending at 3.00 AM Wednesday with an outlook for the following 24 hours. Forecast: Wind light and variable. Fair. Waves less than 1 metre. Outlook..Light and variable.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 PM

Black clouds and a north wind have brought a thunderstorm this morning promising a much work friendlier day than the 31+ heat. Now to the repairs.

I came to term with the method of repair today and have used up the supplied 3/8" cedar making inner blocks for the badly cracked # 4 & 5 midships planks. I have yet to devise the clamps but it should not be too hard to convince things into a natural position and hold them.

The day went quickly and I did not even move the boat outside with it being cooler inside. Once again the traditional won out and wood stays with wood. First a final check of things with a strong light underneath, then a template and its off to the compound miter saw. reality it went quickly taking a scant 3 hours. I

05:45 EDT Thursday, June 14, 2007 PM

The weather has turned cooler and I am planning a very early start and to quit before it gets too hot. Overall I am pleased with the progress and where I left the work yesterday. Today: I go after the non structural cracks and figure out exactly what I need in wood and to what dimensions I need it. If I am lucky I will get to plane the new new cedar & oak down to thickness for both the shear and the frame sisters. Then is is figuring out the clamping & blocking to hold everything in place.

The shop is staying cool making it more pleasant to work inside than out with it becoming early afternoon before the heat really gets turned up. Farmer Brooks is nearly finished taking the first crop of hay from the field and I expect he will do in front of the shop tomorrow.

The day was a lot of chasing and procuring as I did get my 16' of clear cedar at $17.oo per 8' plank. Then came the milling. The only clear I could find was a full 3/4" thick meaning that I had a 1/2" to remove for the floorboard thickness, and just a little less to 3/8 for the hull. The oak for making new laminated frames ended up about 1/8". The result was a half a garbage bag full of shavings which will help get the fire going in fall. On return I even got a little bit of the first reconstruction epoxy gluing done.

Friday, June 15

More cutting and gluing on the skiff work but nothing worthy of pictures yet.

The hot dry weather seems to have set in. Someone lost some gas into the water which set off my paranoid bells so I took a short day on the skiff yesterday and did the dreaded (for me once a year) bilge clean. One thing about the "big old boat" in todays world. If there is ever a slick you are the first suspect leaving no margin for error. Absolutely nothing like this job. Defiance has what I call a closed bilge stretching the better part of 16' of bilge from engine room to aft cabin. Nothing from under the engine or transmission, and 671 love to develop leaks can be discharged overboard, as it is pumped (if triggered) directly into containers. This feature also makes it infinity easier to clean as you can rinse. The down side is when you clean the area everything has to be carried ashore for disposal in large plastic containers by hand. The task is not so bad except it requires a lot of rolling around to fit back along the engine and relying on my shoulders torn rotator cuffs making it painful job.

Picture is Defiance's engine room starboard side looking aft. Left the red boxes are the main battery bank, the lower left is the 5000 watt/ 100 AMP 24V charger inverter, next the 12v sub distribution panel for the heating radiators, 12V inverter. THe white hose is the 24/7 running ventilation. You can just see the connections the 40 AMP 12V charger ahead of the generator. You cannot see the starting batteries and the aft wall looks much busier than it is if you have to go down and do service on the fresh water system.