HighDesert

The pontoon shoes reference was a joke, but then I thought the snow shoe story was too. Actually, when I was a kid, I was pretty sure I could strap some foam slabs to my feet and walk on water...pontoon shoes. I have a lot more experience snowshoeing than I do boat launching. Like everything else, technology has changed snowshoes a lot over the years. Modern snowshoes are much smaller, lighter and easier to use. The older ones were built way too big and designed for much lighter and deeper snow than most people ever encountered. Maybe I'll take a pair to my muddy beach spot after all.

It's a thin line between passion and obsession.

Snowshoes in the mud? I'm pretty gullible, but I'd need to see that one. If you had said Graham used pontoon shoes, then I'd believe you. Conceptually, snowshoes and my chain link fence fabric launch ramp are pretty close cousins, though. The bank dries out all the way down to within a few feet of the water, so the tricky part is getting the boat in and out of the water and me in and out of the boat. I don't see snowshoes making things any easier and would almost certainly cost me any dignity I have left. This muddy beach story makes the place seem awful. Actually, it's beautiful, full of trout and infrequently visited; probably on account of it's defensive perimeter.

Oops, i must have hit the Send button accidentally. Downhill seems like a good thing, but that's not how canals work, is it? After realizing that my canal would need to be seven or eight thousand feet deep at my shop to get water from the Sea of Cortez, I gave it up and decided to go back to being a trailer sailor. Not only that, building an inland waterway from Mexico to the center of the USA might create more problems than I'm prepared to handle

Jan, Your boat is looking amazing. You've pretty much caught up with me in as many months as I have spent years. I underestimated you from the beginning...thinking you'd be slogging along like me. Wishful thinking for a compadre, I guess. Not the first time I gross!y underestimated someone, though. Keep up the good work and don't stop posting. Sometimes when we post something and no one responds, we think no one is reading, but we are. Carter PS. Hey, I have given your "canal through the desert to the ocean" idea some thought. It's less than a thousand miles from my shop to the Sea of Cortez shop...and it's downhill all the way!

"I have carried a piece of scrap carpet to lay on the beach." Cool idea for the gravely beaches, Chick. I'm going to use it. One of my favorite rowing/fishing/sailing spots has the opposite problem...mud beaches. The kind of mud that sucks your shoes off and needs to be coaxed off the bottom of your boat (and everything else) when you get home. And, as summer wears on and the agricultural use of the water continues, the shoreline recedes and the mud follows it. I've thought of deploying a bit of chainlink fencing (or carpet) to create a launch pad, but haven't tried it yet. Any thoughts on making boat launch from a mud beach more pleasant?

Smccormick, Thanks for the fillet tip and your thoughts on the Kilz primer. I was obviously hoping for an inexpensive, easy to sand, high build primer. I'm glad I asked about it and really glad you responded with some wise advice before I slathered all 200st of my hull with the wrong stuff. I'll probably play it safe and go with Jamestown Distributors Total Boat high build epoxy primer and two part finish paint. There are probably cheaper and easier ways to get it done, but this seems safe. I've loosely followed your build along with all the others, but just recently started yours (and one of Chick's) from the beginning. It's great bedtime reading...kind of like a memoir written by someone you sorta know. Keep up the good work, Carter

I haven't posted for a long time and decided that I should, just to make sure that no one accuses me of quitting on my project. I haven't. I haven't been moving it along very fast, but I'm still at it. Actually, I've spent lot's more time on it than one can tell by looking at it. My buddies, who at one time would ask, "Dude, how is that boat coming along?" now just go to my wife and say, "Is he okay?". What do they know? Boatbuilding is a delicious pursuit and I just take more time to savor it than most. Some time back, after coating the entire hull with what I thought might be the last coat of clear epoxy, I discovered millions of little blemishes. I thought it might be outgassing, but Alan said it was probably fisheyes. Either way, the solution was to sand it down and start over, which I'm getting pretty good at (or at least accustomed to) and I figure a boatload of fisheyes is a good omen. I'm anxious to get this thing flipped over, but of course, need to get the bottom completely faired and painted first. The skeg is attached, the chines have been shaped and I'm getting close to primer, etc.. While fairing out the large fillets on the skeg, I discovered a great use for a small scraper that I've had for a long while, but never used much. It really does a nice job cleaning and shaping green epoxy. I plan to roll and tip an epoxy primer and a two-part polyurethane finish, and have a question about high build primers. I've done quite a bit of DIY remodeling/drywall work and have learned one thing for sure...it almost never looks as good as I think it should when the finish coat goes on. With this in mind, I'm planning on quite a bit more fine fairing. Smccormick joked on his thread about using Kilz primer and I've seen other people suggesting the same thing a little more seriously. I'm wondering if it would be okay to work with Kilz2 primer (it's latex, not the PVA wallboard primer) under the epoxy primer to save a few dollars. As smcormick said, most of it ends up on the floor anyway. Good idea, or bad?

San Diego for the winter, eh? Ken, i think you just became my newest best friend. A sympathetic boatbuilder buddy in San Diego is even better than Airbandb. Plus, I already know how to get to San Diego. The leg is good, thanks for asking. I confess to milking it for awhile, but it's 90+% healed now. Apparently, when we're all grown up and sustain injuries, we have to give up any fantasies of becoming professional athletes and have to settle for "pretty good". I've been doing some work on my OB project and will post something soon. Enjoy your vacation. I get the impression you're a very happy guy. I hope I get to meet you someday. Carter

Ken, I was enjoying these photos of your gorgeous boat and realized they're a couple of months old and you went travelling. I hope you came nowhere near Utah, without stopping in on me. My daughter lives in Seattle. Someday, I'm going to show up on your doorstep, if I can figure out how to get to Canada from there. Loving your work. Carter

Jan, This discussion is beyond my level of expertise, so I can't comment. But, I will say this, your project is amazing. The precision, quality and rate of progress of your work is very impressive and fun to watch. Keep up the good work and keep posting. Carter

Your boat is a beauty and should serve you well in your next Everglades Challenge. That's what it was designed and built for and clearly, you were too. I must confess that it's not even a fantasy for me. I wish you the best of luck and will be following closely. Not sure what you mean by, "What high desert is the first thing that comes to mind?", but my high desert is Utah. I have a build thread (Utah OB20) on this forum. Carter

Sir Bones, Wow, what an exciting build! Congratulations on your achievement and on your beautiful new boat. At first, I thought you were just a plebe like me, but after watching you blast through this build and reading your cruising stories, it's clear that's not the case at all. I'm looking forward to following your sailing adventure/challenges with your new Core Sound. Carter

Hi Jan, A canal to get me out of here...that's a ridiculous idea, but I've heard worse. Actually, I'm researching the shortest route to blue water right now, but hoping a trailer will do the trick. Jan, you'll find lots of great information on this forum. You can ask questions directly, learn from other folk's questions, or scroll through the several years of discussions. You'll always learn from these guys. There are a few professionals and lots of really knowledgeable armatures here...plus, a Young Master, an Old Master, a Magician and more than a couple Wizards. I'm watching you. Carter

Hi Jan, I too, am building an OB20. We're going to have beautiful boats, aren't we? I'm two years and about two inches (50.8mm?) ahead of you. My thread, which I don't post to as frequently as I should, is HighDesert. It appears that our experience is somewhat similar. I'm a semi-handy guy and I've built a couple of kit boats. It turns out I enjoy the building more than using them...so far. Heck, I grew up on the Great Plains and now I live in the desert...what's a boat good for anyway? I'm thinking (hoping) that might change with the launch of the OB20. Keep up the good work Jan, post often and I'll try to keep up. Carter

Got it. Thanks, guys. I mentioned earlier that I have completed a couple of simple, stitch and glue kit boats and have picked up a few skills, but am pretty much in awe of this OB20 project I have take on. It's going slow for all the usual reasons, but it's going good. The hull is glassed with no wrinkles, bubbles, starved fabric, runs or pooled epoxy. I'm very happy with it so far and looking forward to some serious fairing. Your comments and advice are truly appreciated. Carter

Hello gentlemen, I have a question regarding fiberglass fill coats. Up to now, I have been able to apply subsequent coats of epoxy twenty-four hours, or so, after the previous coats and achieve a chemical bond. On account of my broken leg hiatus, most of my project has had a few months to cure. I've read that a "light sanding" is required between coats, if the resin has cured, to get a good mechanical bond. So the question is...how much is enough? As you can see from the photos, I have knocked the tops off the resin at the bumpy parts of the fiberglass weave. It seems funny to me that it would be okay to give it tooth in some spots, but leave it shiny in others...but I'm hoping that's the technique. Any help would be appreciated. Carter

It's been about three months since I last posted after my fall from the loft in the garage/broken hip incident. I'm pretty much healed up now and back to my regular routine. I've been able to spend most of the last of a couple of weeks working on the OB20 and have gotten the hull glassed. A nice milestone. I noticed that during my recuperation, I was awarded "Advanced Member" status. It reminds me of the day in Vietnam that our Battalion Commander came out for a field visit and just before flying off promoted me from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant. I said, "Thank you, sir. What did I do to deserve that?". He said, "Nothing son, keep up the good work". As we all know, the trouble with amateur boatbuilding is life keeps getting in the way. This time for me, it's wildfire. I believe it may have been on the national news (Dollar Ridge Fire in Wasatch and Duchesne Counties, Utah). but it's certainly big news here and very close to our cabin, shop and my OB20. Not to mention a bunch of other people's properties. Last count was about 100 homes lost, several hundred firefighters on the job, lots of aircraft, only 4% containment, 50,000 acres burned so far, high temperatures, no humidity, high and shifting winds, etc.. Pretty scary. We evacuated yesterday (the fourth day of the fire) to our home near Salt Lake City to get out of the way of the professionals. All part of the risks we assume when we live in, or near, the wildlands, I guess. The photo below makes it look much worse than it actually is, but it's still super scary. Another, no so frightening, obstacle to boatbuilding has been a small camper trailer I have been working on. It's a teardrop trailer kit from Chesapeake Light Craft. I characteristically thought I could toss it together while I built the OB20. So far, it's been about two years for both of them and...well, you know. It's a great kit that any boatbuilder can appreciate and we're anxious to go camping in it some day. It goes together via stitch and glue in a female mold. Fun and interesting. There are some brilliant people working in this business and John C. Harris is one of them.

Thanks guys. I feel your love. I jammed the ball into the hip socket pretty hard, but the break at the femur is "non-displaced", so the only treatment is stay off it. Not easy, as you might suspect, but I'm a month and a half into it and hoping for just one more month. The doctor and my wife are both pretty strong willed females, so I don't expect to be cutting any corners. In my case, falling is not necessarily bad balance...it's purely bad judgment and lack of attention. Historically, I have been able to get away with dusting my self off, giving my wife a grin and telling her something like, "Heck, I was a paratrooper. We were trained to do that". If at one time she thought that was cute, or amusing, I think it's wearing pretty thin now.

By my standards, I thought I was making reasonable progress on my project during the colder months this winter. Slower than most, I'll be even slower now. Several weeks ago, I took a fall from our garage loft and broke my hip...top part of the femur at the ball joint. Besides a little pain and serious activity restrictions (no standing, walking, prolonged sitting, running, jumping, skipping or pretend boatbuilding), I'm in the doghouse. I broke Rule (promise) Number One: 1. Old men should stay off ladders a. Especially when no one is around I might have broken the fall by landing on the boat (Drop Zone shown below), but I missed it. The good news is it was my hip and not my ankles, wrists or head...plus, I now have a nifty camouflage holster for my cell phone.

Cracked_Ribs, very nice thread. It's been interesting and entertaining watching your adventure. Obviously. not your first.

Thanks Steve, This is a subject almost everyone can appreciate. And having all the comments consolidated on one thread is a great idea. For the the couple of small boats I have built, finding an appropriate trailer has been a challenge. I have several miles of gravel road (yup, warshboard) just to get to the highway, so any trip is rough from the get-go. The comments about rollers, bunks, etc. and their placement are helpful. I haven’t removed leaves from any springs to make a softer ride yet; but that’s something worth trying. I’m not all that close to putting my OB20 on a trailer (it’s still upside down), but it’s fun to think about it. I’ve always thought i’d buy a used trailer and modify it to fit the boat, rather than having a new one built for it. Comments on that plan please. Carter

Very nice, Ken...amazing, actually. You're gonna love her for a long time.

I envy and appreciate the knowledge stored up by you and PAR and all the others. I may have started late and progressing slowly, but I have no deadline and there's nothing else (most of the time) I would rather be doing. And who knows, when this boat is complete, Utah might be a sea again.

Wow, you've been building boats for fifty years? Believe me Chick, it shows. Fifty years ago, I was in Viet Nam. Boat building was not part of my universe then...or for forty nine of the fifty years since. But I'm hooked now; and you're my guru. Late at night, when everyone is asleep, I sneak into a dark room, turn on the computer and drool over the photos of your OB20 #1 on the B and B website. My goal in life is to complete a boat that is somewhat recognizable as the same kind of boat. Carter