Tortuga
Well, last weekend was a long holiday weekend down here and I decided
to tackle my latest boatbuilding project, a Bolger Tortoise. I say my
project, but the idea is to have a cartoppable little boat to mess
around with at the beach with my three-year-old son, who has already
started asking, "Can I see my boat? All done?"
Building a boat on an apartment balcony has its limitations, so "small"
and "quick to build" were the key criteria, hence Tortoise. The
general theme so far has been "make do." A quick trip to the local
equivalent of Home Depot became a 3-hour-plus safari, and I ended up
with 4 sheets of 3' x 7' 3/16" luan ply, 2 14' clear pine 1" x 8" cut
in half, plain galvanized 1/2" brads, cascomite (?) powdered glue, 1 1/
2" schedule 41 PVC pipe for oar stocks, and a gallon each the cheapest
white latex paint and primer that I could find. I did spring for a
quart of custom-mixed bright yellow for trim. The bill was about
RD$1,300 or about US$75.
The materials led to some modifications due to the size of the ply
sheets, so my Tortoise has been slimmed by 2" in beam but gained 6" in
length by repeating the deepest of the stations of the bottom curve. I
also expect to use thole pins, since I don't want to have to order
anything from the States. I will probably also make the removeable
straddle seat permanent to brace that thin bottom.
The sheets are all cut out (except the oar blades), but I didn't get
any farther due to family/friends/beach/rain/work and one technical
glitch. My lovely 220v AEG pendular jigsaw stopped working, and I
couldn't figure out why until I noticed that my 220v-110v transformer
was rated at 100W, while the saw drew 450W. No wonder it was so hot!
After it cooled down, it went back to a normal life feeding a little
stereo. Needless to say, I went out and bought the cheapest 110v
jigsaw I could find (US$75 with a set of blades and an extension cord,
ouch) but I had lost the daylight.
I'll keep the group informed of my progress, and I hope to get some
pics and notes up on my site soon.
Bye for now,
Matthew Long
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
http://www.geocities.com/owlnmole
PS--Coincidentally, my wife just got a couple of tiny pet turtles for
our son, which they named Franklin and Lulu. Hmmm, I feel a boat name
coming on....
to tackle my latest boatbuilding project, a Bolger Tortoise. I say my
project, but the idea is to have a cartoppable little boat to mess
around with at the beach with my three-year-old son, who has already
started asking, "Can I see my boat? All done?"
Building a boat on an apartment balcony has its limitations, so "small"
and "quick to build" were the key criteria, hence Tortoise. The
general theme so far has been "make do." A quick trip to the local
equivalent of Home Depot became a 3-hour-plus safari, and I ended up
with 4 sheets of 3' x 7' 3/16" luan ply, 2 14' clear pine 1" x 8" cut
in half, plain galvanized 1/2" brads, cascomite (?) powdered glue, 1 1/
2" schedule 41 PVC pipe for oar stocks, and a gallon each the cheapest
white latex paint and primer that I could find. I did spring for a
quart of custom-mixed bright yellow for trim. The bill was about
RD$1,300 or about US$75.
The materials led to some modifications due to the size of the ply
sheets, so my Tortoise has been slimmed by 2" in beam but gained 6" in
length by repeating the deepest of the stations of the bottom curve. I
also expect to use thole pins, since I don't want to have to order
anything from the States. I will probably also make the removeable
straddle seat permanent to brace that thin bottom.
The sheets are all cut out (except the oar blades), but I didn't get
any farther due to family/friends/beach/rain/work and one technical
glitch. My lovely 220v AEG pendular jigsaw stopped working, and I
couldn't figure out why until I noticed that my 220v-110v transformer
was rated at 100W, while the saw drew 450W. No wonder it was so hot!
After it cooled down, it went back to a normal life feeding a little
stereo. Needless to say, I went out and bought the cheapest 110v
jigsaw I could find (US$75 with a set of blades and an extension cord,
ouch) but I had lost the daylight.
I'll keep the group informed of my progress, and I hope to get some
pics and notes up on my site soon.
Bye for now,
Matthew Long
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
http://www.geocities.com/owlnmole
PS--Coincidentally, my wife just got a couple of tiny pet turtles for
our son, which they named Franklin and Lulu. Hmmm, I feel a boat name
coming on....