Alum Teal Launched - USN interest
This weekend, I tried to focus on sanity with the family. I'd much
prefer talk about boats with my 5 year old daughter, than field
questions about the WTC. (How old will she be before we tell her one
of our courtship stories - Mommy used to work on the twenty-
somethingth floor of the south tower, and I would pick her up in the
evening, joking about beeping the horn to let her know I was waiting
outside.)
A lifetime ago, in August, I had cut a stretched Teal out of 1/8"
aluminum, and dry-fit it. Flattened it out again, put it on top of
the truck, and took it to our house, at the mouth of the Kennebec
River, in Maine.
When I asked around for a welder, I was referred to Merle, who has
been building pretty nice dock ramps in his garage. His work looked
OK to me, but what do I know? He had never built a boat, but was
real interested in trying. He had also never worked with material so
light. Just the guy for me. I loaned him my copy of Pollard's
<Boatbuilding in Aluminum>.
A couple weeks later, he was ready to start; I re-assembled it over
the plywood frames, and he tacked it together. Unfortunately, I then
removed all the frames so he could weld the seams (once he picked up
some light enough wire). Then silence. How many hours was he
spending on this little boat?
He called last week; it was pretty much done, 12 hours work, he had
lots of other work, all in a rush. Saturday I picked it up. The
shape was a bit off, and the welds distorted the plate quite a bit -
just about what I expected! This rough, shiny boat got double-takes
from almost everybody we passed.
Sunday morning installed oarlocks (plastic, $5/pair, riveted),
aluminum leeboard (pivots on 3/8 stainless bolt), rudder (kick-up,
kind of like Windsprint's, of riveted aluminum scraps),pintles &
gudgeons (about $30) drilled some holes to fasten lines, and put in a
thwart. Unfortunately, the nice flair in the ends (forced by the
flotation chamber bulkheads) somehow became plumb sides midships. So
I forced the beam out about 5" with the thwart; this made funny bends
in the bottom. Why didn't I leave that center frame in while it was
welded?
I stuck an old windsurfer rig in, and my daughter cast off. We were
sailing, in very gentle air.
Then we heard the helicopter. First pass was low, on the other side
of the island. We couldn't see it, it was below the trees. But we
could still hear it. Then, as we started to get the hang of sailing
(need to install a mast step) it came back, making a beeline for us.
It hovered about 50' above us, a big red Navy helicopter, door open,
checking us out carefully. Luckily my daughter is very good at
waving, in a big, friendly, nautical fashion. They didn't wave
back. I wonder what Teal looked like on their electronics.
There were no other boats on the river, and we (I) decided it would
be prudent to beat up our little bay, back to the dock. Had a nice
time explaining tacking, moving your weight around in response to the
gusts, etc. My daughter was at the tiller for the last tack, when
the copter came back for another close look, even longer than the
first.
Just then, my wife came shouting "There's a ship coming down the
river". This is always a cause for excitement; we run down to the
ledges to watch them go by. The Aegis frigates (?) built at Bath are
huge, silent, majestic warships. But yesterday I had very mixed
emotions, watching one headed to sea.
prefer talk about boats with my 5 year old daughter, than field
questions about the WTC. (How old will she be before we tell her one
of our courtship stories - Mommy used to work on the twenty-
somethingth floor of the south tower, and I would pick her up in the
evening, joking about beeping the horn to let her know I was waiting
outside.)
A lifetime ago, in August, I had cut a stretched Teal out of 1/8"
aluminum, and dry-fit it. Flattened it out again, put it on top of
the truck, and took it to our house, at the mouth of the Kennebec
River, in Maine.
When I asked around for a welder, I was referred to Merle, who has
been building pretty nice dock ramps in his garage. His work looked
OK to me, but what do I know? He had never built a boat, but was
real interested in trying. He had also never worked with material so
light. Just the guy for me. I loaned him my copy of Pollard's
<Boatbuilding in Aluminum>.
A couple weeks later, he was ready to start; I re-assembled it over
the plywood frames, and he tacked it together. Unfortunately, I then
removed all the frames so he could weld the seams (once he picked up
some light enough wire). Then silence. How many hours was he
spending on this little boat?
He called last week; it was pretty much done, 12 hours work, he had
lots of other work, all in a rush. Saturday I picked it up. The
shape was a bit off, and the welds distorted the plate quite a bit -
just about what I expected! This rough, shiny boat got double-takes
from almost everybody we passed.
Sunday morning installed oarlocks (plastic, $5/pair, riveted),
aluminum leeboard (pivots on 3/8 stainless bolt), rudder (kick-up,
kind of like Windsprint's, of riveted aluminum scraps),pintles &
gudgeons (about $30) drilled some holes to fasten lines, and put in a
thwart. Unfortunately, the nice flair in the ends (forced by the
flotation chamber bulkheads) somehow became plumb sides midships. So
I forced the beam out about 5" with the thwart; this made funny bends
in the bottom. Why didn't I leave that center frame in while it was
welded?
I stuck an old windsurfer rig in, and my daughter cast off. We were
sailing, in very gentle air.
Then we heard the helicopter. First pass was low, on the other side
of the island. We couldn't see it, it was below the trees. But we
could still hear it. Then, as we started to get the hang of sailing
(need to install a mast step) it came back, making a beeline for us.
It hovered about 50' above us, a big red Navy helicopter, door open,
checking us out carefully. Luckily my daughter is very good at
waving, in a big, friendly, nautical fashion. They didn't wave
back. I wonder what Teal looked like on their electronics.
There were no other boats on the river, and we (I) decided it would
be prudent to beat up our little bay, back to the dock. Had a nice
time explaining tacking, moving your weight around in response to the
gusts, etc. My daughter was at the tiller for the last tack, when
the copter came back for another close look, even longer than the
first.
Just then, my wife came shouting "There's a ship coming down the
river". This is always a cause for excitement; we run down to the
ledges to watch them go by. The Aegis frigates (?) built at Bath are
huge, silent, majestic warships. But yesterday I had very mixed
emotions, watching one headed to sea.